That's not good

The sign on the bathroom 5 feet from my desk speaks the sad truth:

twilight

These days the moon is setting an hour after the sun, in the same position:

Nooooooooo!

Only in Arcata.

Memories

We were all so young once...

Catblogging

Taken four seconds before she knocked the glass over, getting herself all wet.

Only in Humboldt

Headline of the day:

After

Before

the forest and the trees

Lest you think Arcata is all Kitchenaid mixers and sunsets by the bay, it’s also trees! Redwood trees, specifically. While the true titans are a bit outside of town, Arcata has its own community forest, just a few minutes from our house (as the ocean and the bay are), you find yourself enveloped in the forest. More than anything, the forest demonstrates nature’s resilience and regenerative power. New trees are growing inside those that had fallen, with moss and ferns and other plants flourishing underneath. While it’s a difficult place to actually get lost, it’s ideal for losing yourself for a time.

Bread

It's the weekend, the time for more baking. Today: buttermilk whole wheat bread. Tasty, though next time I'm using honey.

Rising

Though still not enamored with the morning, it is easier to leave the house when this greets me outside our front door. It's even more impressive before I take a shower but camera operation proves challenging so soon after waking.

Bread

As mentioned, the non-cinnamon roll half of the brioche dough was to become bread. And indeed it did.

About that brioche

Half awaits its fate tomorrow, while the other has been shaped. Tomorrow morning the house will again fill with the fattening smell of butter and spice and irresistibility.

C is for ...

Gingerbread people. 50 of 'em.

Low fat

The mixer was back in action today, a double batch of brioche imperative to replace the quickly eaten cinnamon rolls. The amount of butter in a double batch is staggering, a full three sticks seems an impossible amount to incorporate into such a small amount of dough. Eventually it comes together. Details to follow.

Pound by pound

Mixer funtimes continue. Today: Buttermilk Pound Cake.

Put to use

Less than 24 hours in and the new mixer has already made pizza dough and brioche for cinnamon rolls.

An addition

The price was too good and I have listed for too long, so today, this joined my kitchen.

new toy

Blogging from my new android tablet is a different experience than with either my phone or computer. Winter break starts in two days so maybe pictures. This can't do that, though...

Bread = home

With the arrival of a new baking vessel to replace one destroyed in the move, I can now bake bread, filling my new home with a scent that, more than any other makes a place a home.

Phone blog test

123

We're back!

Two plus years and two times zones later, we're back! Stay tuned for potentially more interesting content.

a laziness hiatus

Six months with no blogging? Poor.

I'm deployed in West Virginia, expect a blog overhaul when I return home in May. Until then, don't hold your breath....

pathetic

Let me get this straight: National media is punked by a 6-year-old, breaking away from coverage of President Obama’s first visit to New Orleans to show a balloon floating away. Upon discovering that they have been punked, they decide to give the story even more play, putting it on the front page of USA Today, and running regular updates on CNN.
I can only assume tomorrow we’ll get a tell-all book from the kid, and by next week he’ll have a podcast and blog.
Fighting two wars, debating heath care and climate change, with the economy still in an employment crisis and this is what they give us. No wonder journalism is dying.

nothing lasts forever

After a six month vacation, tomorrow I return to work, if only for a couple days. Will my burdens ever cease?

how did I walk away from this?

harrowing

Unquestionably, a seat belt saved my life tonight

finally

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

missed it by that much

Pictured above: Flight 453, supposedly having “gone.”

Despite flawless weather, the gods of travel have again conspired against me, delaying my flight from Austin to Dallas just enough to make it likely that I would miss my connection to Portland. But arriving in Dallas, I learned my flight to Portland was also delayed. As we taxied to the gate, I held out hope that with a dash and a prayer that I might still catch the flight.

Then our plane made a U-turn. Out gate was filled by another plane. After 15, minutes sitting on the tarmac, my hopes flagged. But with nothing better to do, I hurried onto the SkyLink to my gate. I arrived just as they closed the door, the flight full. So I think of the myriad minutes lost, waiting to depart from Austin, those agonizing moments sitting on the plane on the ground yet not yet there, or stuck on the escalator behind morons who never learned the basic principle of ‘stand right, walk left.’ Any of these instances abated and I’d be airborne. Had the gate agent in Dallas actually called the gate to my departing flight rather than curtly saying “no, it’s gone,” I’d be on my way to Portland. Instead I sit at the airport, thinking of ways to pass the time.

While delayed and missed flights are nothing new, the constant hope that I could still make the flight frustrates. Better to miss my connection by hours than seconds, for then there’s no torment and anger and frustration, just a resignation that sometimes air travel sucks.

seeing the speech

While many are focused on the President Obama’s rhetoric last night, his plan to pull our nation out of its economic morass, a few moments before and during the speech struck me:

• As the Supreme Court was walking down the House aisle, Justice Thomas, entering behind Justice Ginsberg realized she was receiving lots of well wishes, and with the look on his face saying “I’m not waiting for cancer lady, where’s my seat?” he moved past her and the well-wishing members.
  
• Vice President Biden consistently showed exaggerated facial expressions reacting to things Obama said. He’d likely be a horrible poker player.
  
• When President Obama spoke of the need for everyone to work together to come up with solutions I was waiting for him to add “except for Michelle Bachman, that bitch crazy.”

More thoughts on the meat later if packing for Portland proves productive as planned.

Typically my mornings start at the Sheraton Club lounge to grab a cup of coffee. I arrive in time for the Today Show’s coverage of the idiocy of the day, whether it’s a woman who had too many children (but doesn’t live in a shoe), Michael Phelps’ bong (how many crummy bands have adopted names based on that story in the past few weeks?) or a missing white girl. But today the news was far more serious, far more important:

Why did a chimpanzee go on a rampage and attack a woman? This is the kind of news I can really use to start my day, and perhaps a sign that the media has finally turned its attention to what is important.

They are now running an unrelated story on the benefits the stimulus bill will provide. They are missing a chance for a great headline along the lines of "How will Barack Obama stimuluate you today?"

falsehoods on a plane

Untrue things heard on an airplane today:

• St. Cloud is nice.
  
• The Mall of America is a lot of fun.
  
• My seat is 25F.
  
• For your enjoyment we will be showing a film on today's flight: Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
  
• There is a plane at our gate, they'll be backing away shortly, we should be in there in less than five minutes.

missing white girls

Hours after the Caylee Anthony memorial service consumed Headline News, they found a new missing white girl, again with a fucked up name, to bloviate over. Now some girl named Hayleigh has "gone missing" in Florida. Odds are low she has escaped the state, but every national news network feels it is a story of great import. This while the economy collapses, we fight two wars and watch a new President begin to lead. Trivial those in the face of another family tragedy exploited for rating and distraction.

more on the stimulus

A quick hit on the stimulus bill. Here the U.S. Conference on Mayors provides a city by city list of "ready to go" projects they will request when the stimulus bill passed. Certainly worth checking what your city might want. I did think it odd that Minneapolis has but one project for $1.7 million, while Edina (an affluent Minneapolis suburb with 1/8th the population) has six projects at a total cost of $17.3 million.

Especially given the cut in state aid in the Senate bill (with state aid helping Minneapolis residents [who are poorer] more than suburbanites), I can only hope these lists are preliminary and not reflective of the actual distribution of dollars (or jobs).

stimulate me!

With the country bleeding jobs, credit markets still in turmoil, millions of homeowners behind or underwater on their mortgages, but Senate Republicans continue to insist that tax cuts are the solution. And not just any tax cuts, apparently (though it’s difficult to find the legislative text, particularly after the various amendments they’ve been voting on) there’s a tax break for people buying new cars. That’ll certainly help the 600,000 Americans who lost their jobs last month. I’m sure they were wondering how they were going to afford that new SUV.

Why Democrats aren’t just yelling “if you don’t have a job, a tax cut doesn’t help,” every time a Republican says “tax cut,” I don’t understand. But then Democratic strategy has for so long to bend over but to ask for lube first. They don’t get it, but hey, at least they asked.

strange bedfellows

Two different conventions are staying at my hotel at the moment, the Texas State Teachers Association and the Texas Youth Hunting Program. Seems like something could go horribly wrong, particularly if 'Youth Hunting' means what I do not think it means. Shame NAMBLA couldn't be there too, surely hilarity would ensue.

the long haul in Austin

The hot, hyper-caffeinated Clover coffee burns my tongue, but on my day off I don’t mind. The chance to ease into a morning (or afternoon) is welcome after a week of jarring awakenings.

Back in Austin for a week now, the beginnings of routine are forming. Having jumped from Austin to Philadelphia to Minneapolis and back to Austin in the past two weeks, settling on one location, even one not home, is a relief. I should be here for at least another six weeks, hopefully long enough to attend South by Southwest in mid-March.

Challenges remain in Texas, but the situation here has improved dramatically since my last long stint, ending in late November. There are no longer families to be rescued, the emergency has ended, remaining are the nuanced challenges of recovery, those requiring expertise and forethought rather than logistics with haste. Explaining this difference, and the myriad rules that are guiding recovery remains problematic, but with ample time to work with reporters, progress is incremental but steady.

music of 2008

Still reflecting on 2008, here are my top albums released last year. As record reviews are incomprehensible and difficult to write, I've chosen two words to describe each album:

1. The Dodos – Visiter: insistent and compelling
   
2. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes: melodic and shimmering
   
3. The Microphones - The Glow pt. 2 (reissue): discordant and haunting
   
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend: eager and fun
   
5. The National - The Virginia EP: rich and lyrical
   
6. The Accidental - There Were Wolves: soothing and hopeful
   
7. Sigur Rós - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust: twinkling and incomprehensible

Well put

Nate Silver describes Norm Coleman about as well I've seen:

In his career running for statewide office, Coleman has lost to a professional wrestler, beaten a dead guy, and then tied a comedian.

in a new year

Trading four for forty, I’ve returned to Austin, and to work after more than five weeks off. Despite the free time, the blog has languished, perhaps in the new year I will be more prolific. Does this count as a start?