ski trip list on the internets

I figure, why not use the hive mind to make sure I don't forget anything when i go to Mammoth this weekend?

First item on ski trip packing list here: Bible. OK, that's not on my list. I was amused. Almost as amused when AR said she was taking banana bread skiing and it sounded like they were going to schuss down the sloops alongside her. The last person who went skiing with her ruptured his spleen trying to keep up. Lesson: I better not let my ego get caught up in my skiing.

Overheard at the dog park

someone calling their dog "buckbeak"

Dog crack

apparently, this is the formula: one Hol-ee roller ball, partially destroyed. Insert a tennis ball. Give to curious young dog, too smart for his own good. Crack, I tell you.

Meet Bonden

He's my new dog. I got him Sunday from the Westside German Shepherd Rescue group. He's around 2 years old. It's shocking to have a dog in the house other than Mac. It's a good thing Bonden appealing enough to make the shock worth it. He's lovely and outgoing and curious and energetic and friendly and affectionate. He plays fetch (pictured!).

In case you are curious, Bonden was named for a character in a book. You can find a description of the character here (you have to scroll down or search for "Bonden"). The character's full name is Barrett Bonden.

amazing food experience

just back from melisse. i had a creamy onion soup with a small bready cylinder in the middle with a little bit of crab cake on it. the soup was impossibly smooth and yummy. for a main course i had lamb. there were a few lamb medallions, again cylindrical, with some kind of yummy coating, made partially out of cream cheese. wow. the seasoning on those was transcendent. the rest of the food on the plate was fine, but the taste of the lamb dwarfed it. a choco-chocolate dessert that was fantastic. i also had some foie-gras (insanely good), some mushrooms (not bad, but didn't change my world, which was the standard i was quickly developing). the service was personnel-intensive, generally good although disconcertingly in my space. the description of the menu ("it is all special") was overwhelming, and could have been shorter. one of my side dishes was too salty. there was a bit of fatty gristley something in one of my pieces of lamb (but i'm especially squeamish about this kind of thing). i've really had to dredge to come up with any negatives at all, so keep in mind that this place is amazing, probably my best food experience ever.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

I just finished The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I am reminded of what a genius she was. She has a special, troubled place in my heart because her writing reminds me of my mom. In "A Book of Common Prayer," the main character shares my mom's own weird combination of flinty competence and thorough denial of reality and ability to be completely dominated. Several of Didion’s other books contained similar characters, and I find some of her discussions about her relationship with Dunne in The Year of Magical Thinking to be troubling.

It’s amazing to me (and not inherently troubling) that for something like 39 of the forty years they were married, they both worked from home, sometimes on the same project. I love what Didion reports her aunt as saying: “For better or worse, but never for lunch.” Of course now its a self-help book because people can't be trusted to expand truisms on their own ( http://www.amazon.com/Better-Worse-But-Not-Lunch-Retirement/dp/0809297205 ).

Some of my other favorite quotes from the book:

"In fact I had no idea how to be a wife...[she finds a note John wrote that says] 'as we walked down the aisle, we promised each other that we could get out of this next week and not wait until death did us part.'"

She dismisses the psychological explanation of a dream about how anger creates guilt which creates anger, saying "I did not disbelieve this answer but it remains less suggestive to me than the unexamined image, the mystery of being left alone on the tarmac at Santa Monica Airport watching the planes take off one by one."

I agree. By analogy, as much as I love talking about art and meanings, I think the sensations elicited by art are generally diminished by explanation.

When crafts go bad

here

Roomba intelligence

If you are watching your roomba go about its vacuuming business, and you notice a piece of fluff on the floor, it will skip around the fluff as nimbly as a champion agility dog.

sonic weapon immobilized by dog-snoot

From here. Be prepared to turn down the volume.

Science podcast

Radiolab is a kind of "This American Life" about science. The topics are approached as a story. The narrators have a conversational tone and allow their curiosity to move the story along. The guests they get are tremendous (Oliver Sachs, Robert Sapolsky). The format is a little annoying: they do this arty-effects thing where they, for example, talk over each other or repeat phrases many times. Still, in total, I like this show a lot.

Quilts that I actually like

This, on the other hand (see previous post), is quite beautiful.

Tirade

Sure, I'm in a bad mood. Who would be surprised about that? Here's what I had to say to the USPS store:

This is the worst interface I remember dealing with in an online store. Of course I don't remember the password I used once a year and a half ago. Most sites will send the password (or reset it and then send it) to your registered email account. I had a miserable experience with your website. If amazon sold stamps, I'd never be back here.

I figure I might as well rant while I've got the energy for it. I didn't even add, "and your logo's ugly too."

I'm going to the gym as much as possible. It's a strategy. Insufficient, but it's something.

The End of the Road

I put Mac down on Thursday, December 7th. He had abdominal bleeding from an unknown source, most likely a tumor from a different kind of cancer than he was already being treated for. It was sudden - probably developed over 12 hours. The night before, he was well, soaking up attention from AS. He was my wonderful dog, and I was lucky to have him as long as I did. 

the aesthetic of ineffable rightness

this phrase was used by Martin Kemp in the 11/30/06 edition of Nature. He's talking about the sectioned rocket engine in this picture (taken by Kemp). i love the phrase both because of the funny way that it makes wonderful sense and because it is a perfect description of a particular aesthetic that i love.

Pie!

This is the first pumpkin pie I've made. I used Cook's Illustrated No-Bake Pumpkin Pie recipie. I'm quite happy with the filling, although it could have been slightly more gelled. The flavor is fantastic. I've never made a crumb crust before, and I made this one too thick at the bottom of the edges. 

Caltech then

There is an interesting article about and interview with Jenijoy La Belle, "the first female hired on the tenure track" at Caltech (1969). She taught literature. The board of trustees had voted to admit women to undergrad programs only the year before, mostly for the benefit of the men, who had many complaints about the absence of women on campus. When the time came, Dr. La Belle was denied tenure. Subsequently the institute being charged with sex discrimination by the EEOC. Dr. La Belle eventually was reinstated and received tenure.

The facts have changed since then, but we still live with many unchanged attitudes from that time.

Miscegenation

I did a double take today when I was passed by a Miata, top down, with a tandem cruiser bicycle mounted to the trunk, extending far off the back of the car. It could have been some fabulous tail.

(image originally from flickr user loosenball, CC license)

Below 70!

For the first time that I can remember this fall, the high temperature is expected to be below 70 degrees. Lately, I've been thankful for temperatures in the 70s rather than 80s, so this is a huge joy.

Even though I drink only intermittently...

Be Drunk

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the
only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks
your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually
drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be
drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of
a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again,
drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave,
the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything
that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is
singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and
wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you:"It is time to be
drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be
continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."

Charles Baudelaire

Chemo - Day one

Today the little beast got chemosensitization for tomorrow's radiation treatments that are supposed to shrink his tumor. They also took a needle aspirate from the bone marrow and dosed him with pamidronate for pain and bone strengthening. The tech told me that the oncologist said the sample from the needle aspirate strongly suggests that the tumor is osteosarcoma, as expected, but they want to send it out for culture anyway. Fine by me.

I had more frustrating interactions with the practice. I met the other vet, and I'm not a huge fan. She doesn't have much of a bedside manner, and it appears that she's the junior vet. Anyway, I expressed my concerns about the administration of Mac's care. She told me why she thought it had happened. We made a clear list in the chart of the treatments I authorized. I'm slightly mollified.

He was full of vim when he came out after the anesthesia (for the needle aspirate), but now he's pretty tired. I had to hand feed him treats to coat his stomach enough so he could take his anti-inflammatory.

I'm happy to have taken some action.