20 April 04
Out There
I’ve been seething again. This time it’s because our local rag is angry about the Spanish pullout from Iraq, “leaving us in the lurch.” Lurch? What lurch? The lurch created exactly by WHOM? And how are the few departing Spanish troops—1% of the total foreign forces in Iraq—going to constitute leaving anyone in any lurch?
Anyway, part of what has been getting me all fired up is that I’ve just finished reading Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven.
Talk about the connection between religion and violence. I know, the Mormons are now almost mainstream America, almost lost in the welter of ordinary fundamentalism; they are pleasant, agreeable, and orderly, they officially ditched their less palatable doctrines a long time ago. And… they are spawning numerous ultra-fundamentalist offspring, many of whom are polygamists, all of whom regard the general state of affairs in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (let alone the United States) as rank evil, and most of whom are prepared to die for their faith if not kill for it. Instructed by their faith to listen to God, many of them have, and God seems to tell them all different things.
What EXACTLY is the Department of Homeland Security doing about homegrown terrorism? Is there anyone monitoring the likes of Timothy McVeigh? It’s so easy to blame everything on the outside. On the others. I wonder how history will judge this time: will we be seen to have been as blind as all this?
19 April 04
Clouds In April
It’s been an overcast day today with a bit of precipitation: not much however (0.02” today). The weather forecast indicates that it’s going to turn partly cloudy and then sunny later in the week, and we wonder if 90-degree days are soon to come.
Favorite critters these days on the way to work: Swainson’s hawks, perched or calling overhead. The rough-winged swallows that build nests in the circular openings under the freeway, and go foraging with low “peent” calls over the nearby field. The donkey in the glade next to the Arboretum. And the western kingbirds with their lemon-yellowy bellies perched up on fenceposts and wires.
18 April 04
Bulls and Briars
It’s been a rainy Sunday, which at this time of year might mean the last rain we’ll see till November. Numenius got soaked while out on a levee walk. I, meanwhile, was in Sacramento learning how to do acrylic transfers. I’m not sure what I’d ever use this technique for but doesn’t hurt to learn it.
Armed with this new knowledge and Numenius with a pair of dry trousers we headed out to hear a concert by the American Recorder Orchestra of the West. An eclectic collection of Medieval and early Renaissance pieces, it seemed perfect for the drizzle. My favorite piece was “Byrd one brere” (Bird in the Briar), written by an anonymous 13th century English monk who was obviously bored with the papal bull he was reading—he turned it over and wrote this instead.
Birds in the briars: I have still not seen a blue grosbeak or an ash-throated flycatcher here this season, but they’re the last in. Should be soon.
17 April 04
UC Davis Dog Day
Actually it was the 90th edition of Picnic Day today at UC Davis, but don’t tell Hooper that. My sister Judy, her boyfriend Brian, and Hooper their dog all came up for this event, reputedly the largest student-run event in the country, and from Hooper’s perspective, the largest gathering of canines he’s been with.
After watching the parade, the highlight of it being the passage of the visiting Budweiser Clydesdales — the most massive horses I recall seeing, and followed by three big eighteen-wheeler trucks to hold two Clydesdales each — we wandered west towards the dog events. Halfway there, a sheep ran across a parking lot and crossed the street, with four folks in pursuit — an escapee from the sheepdog trials down the way. Brian and Hooper decided to help, so they crossed the street and joined in the chase. The sheep was corralled after a bit, but not before it knocked down a woman in its way. Hooper followed his introduction to sheep-herding with observational studies of the experts, the border collies doing the trials.
We watched a bit of baseball — the UCD Aggies were playing the Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes — and did some sketching at the game, discovering that baseball is a great sport for practicing sketching since the players hold great poses repeatedly. We then saw some of the frisbee dogs chase and leap, and went to the field where the various dog adoption groups were set up. Pica was quite tempted by a soft and cuddly black lab puppy. Alas, no dogs allowed where we live.
And Hooper left with some new career possibilities. He still needs a bit of practice before he masters the border collie stoop-and-glare technique, but then fame is his.
16 April 04
Dabbling in Illustrator
I’ve never really taken the time to learn Adobe Illustrator properly. It’s a very powerful piece of software but I’ve always managed to get things done other ways.
Yesterday, however, I was asked to do a schematic diagram of an orca with markings showing where to measure in case one washed up on the beach. Doing this in Illustrator was surprisingly easy and very satisfying. I’ve attempted a rose in the same way this evening; I’m sure you have to do this for a while to realize what your “style” is but I’m certainly up for playing a bit more!
15 April 04
Delta Dreaming
An entry for the Ecotone Wiki topic on River and Estuary
It’s one of those places that though nearby — fifteen miles to the south-southeast will put you in the middle of a slough — we never get to. The Delta, formed by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, consists of thousands of miles of sloughs, levees, submerged islands, channels, and river reaches, a maze of waterways and islands. We’re not aquatic sorts however, and its possibilities for boating and fishing don’t lure us. Levees, toe drains, and creeks block entry for those who travel by road.
If I cycle south from here as far as I can go, the road making jogs to the east occasionally, I reach Liberty Island, and can’t cross the slough on my bike. It’s a land of marshes, pastures, and always a stiff breeze. Beating upwind is never much fun on bicycle, and since the wind usually heads either north or south here, I am not wont to head that far.
I think we have made the east-to-west drive through the Delta once, starting off on Interstate 5, driving past the fields where the sandhill cranes spend the winter, and into the Delta proper. It’s rich agricultural land (I’ve been working recently with the digital state soils map and the Delta shows up as the area with the highest organic matter content), much of it lower than sea level and hence dependent on levees to stay dry. A map of the Delta shows a watery hole in the land pattern at Franks Tract, where the levee failed in 1937 and again in 1938 to flood the area permanently. Our exit from that trek across the Delta was at Rio Vista in Solano County, practically due south from where we live but a circuitous route from our house.
There’s a quirky book about the Delta which I recommend entitled Sturgeon Tales: Stories of the Delta by Charlie Soderquist, a great benefactor of UC Davis who unfortunately died recently. A talking sturgeon by the name of Sally features prominently in the stories, as well as a fleet of ghost ships. The book is beautifully illustrated with a set of watercolors that well capture the lazy verdure of the region.
14 April 04
An American Institution: The Shower
Not the one where you get wet: the one where you go to someone’s house and give presents to a bride- or mother-to-be and everyone’s a bit awkward. I’ve never come across this phenomenon in any other culture, and frankly it freaks me out a bit. People seem not to know what to say, and so silly games are the obvious solution.
Nevertheless, I’m going to a shower tomorrow night, the first social event with my new colleagues. One of the vets is having a baby soon. I figured I’d put aside my distaste for one evening, and Numenius is hiding in Spanish class. I know nothing about babies or what to buy them so I volunteered to make a card which has an otter mother/baby theme. (The mother has done a lot of epidemiological work on sea otters.)
I’ll be taking a Spanish omlette-tortilla espaola-to the potluck.
Tortilla Espaola
3-4 large potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
4-6 eggs
cooking oil to deep fry and good olive oil for second frying
salt
Fry the potatoes and onion in a lot of oil for about 20 minutes until the potatoes soften but don’t brown. Remove from cooking oil, strain.
Beat the eggs with a fork until frothy. Add the strained potato-onion mixture and stir, salt to taste. (This can be set aside for a while if needed.)
In a smallish rounded frying pan (straight sides are best, 8” wide or so) heat about 2 tsp good olive oil until hot but not smoking. Test by placing a drip of egg in the oil; it should sizzle immediately. Pour in the egg/potato mixture and agitate the pan slowly in a circular way. Cook on high, agitating, until the sides are cooked. Place a plate upside down on the pan and turn the whole thing over; slide the cooked omlette back into the pan. (I always do this over the sink first time round. It should be browned on the bottom in spots but not overcooked.) Repeat this process as many times as you like depending on how cooked you want the eggs.
Can be cubed for appetizers or sliced like a pie. It goes very well in French bread, sandwich-style. Great hot, even better lukewarm.
13 April 04
Baseball In Verse
Thanks to an article on Slate today about the plethora of baseball blogs, I’ve discovered Humbug, written by Score Bard, that features many verses about current events in baseball. For instance from his prognostications for the NL West this season, we have:
Padres
It came to me once in a dream:
The Padres will have a good team.
I will trust this strange vision;
They will win the division
Or I’ll pinch myself, sit up and scream.
Giants
Maybe Alfonzo will hit,
While possibly Durham and Schmidt
Along with Robb Nen
Will be healthy and then
They won’t just be Bonds and that’s it....
Meanwhile Bonds hit No. 661 this evening, to move into third place on the all-time home run list. Two home runs in two days, both splash hits into San Francisco Bay.
12 April 04
The Twenty-three Questions
Jenny has referred me to an interesting survey along the lines of my car inventory via Tvindy, so here are the results, which I wrote down this morning as I read through the quiz:
1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
“1. Define the goals of your site.” It’s Carrie Bickner’s Web Design on a Shoestring.
2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
The telephone wire.
3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?
A soccer match, one of the U.S. leagues, that was playing in a restaurant where I had lunch on Monday. (We don’ t have a TV. I wasn’t really “watching” this, either.)
4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is:
6:30 AM.
5: Now look at the clock; what is the actual time?
6:40 AM.
6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
A freight train, our noisy fridge, the ticking of the clock, and yellow-billed magpies quarrelling. (I can’t hear the computer; it’s basically silent.)
7: When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
6:05 this morning, when I dumped the contents of the teapot onto a spider plant that’s lived in that same spot ever since we moved in here in February 1999. It seems a bit forlorn. So I give it yesterday’s tea.
8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
9: What are you wearing?
A light blue brushed cotton nightie.
10: Did you dream last night?
Probably. No clue about what, though.
11: When did you last laugh?
About 40 minutes ago when I saw the photograph of Little Max that Numenius posted last night after I’d gone to bed.
12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A faux Arts-and-Crafts mirror, a couple of pastel paintings by my great-great-Aunt Nenna, an oil painting of persimmons by my cousin Gainor, and far too many cobwebs.
13: Seen anything weird lately?
Yes, me holding a plastic see-through keychain with a transparent teddy bear at the end of it so Numenius could photograph it in front of the sign of the California Raptor Center. (It’s a geocaching travel bug.)
14: What do you think of this quiz?
Fun, a good segue to what’s in my car piece.
15: What is the last film you saw?
Lawrence of Arabia.
16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
The services of an accountant.
17: Tell me something about you that I don’t know.
I’m a new, very reluctant, convert to flossing twice a day.
18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Have it be a requirement that anyone who’s thinking about starting a war get stuck in a room talking to like-minded nitwits for all eternity.
19: Do you like to dance?
Yes. It has cost me dearly in the past but I still do it.
20: George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
He’s an arrogant moronic puppet. Which makes him far more dangerous than anything that’s come this way in a long time.
21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Not sure. When I was eight I thought it would be Laura, because that’s what I wish I’d been called. I don’t want, and have never wanted, children, however.
22: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
No idea. Not Sue, though.
23: Would you ever consider living abroad?
I have extensively and might again if this upcoming election goes the wrong way…
11 April 04
Birthday With Foal And Puppy
Today was my birthday, and we spent the day with family in Berkeley. My uncle has been visiting my dad, and we took the occasion to reminisce and go over family history. But there’s a new member of the family, pictured at left. Little Max (as he’s called now, which will probably be short for Maxwell), is a Bichon Fris puppy somewhere around 12 weeks old that came home to stay with my dad and stepmom a week ago. His older half-brother Mischa is a little miffed that’s he’s no longer the center of attention but the two are playing together well, if a bit fiercely.
Yesterday we met a one-week-old foal named Chloe. Foals and puppies make for a good birthday weekend.