Sponge-o-Rama!

Today, I took my parents on a Gulf-Coast Adventure. We drove 2+ hours to Tarpon Springs, a touristy community north of Tampa, known for its Greek-immigrant population, drawn originally for its sponge industry. The spongebeds are mostly depleted, but the old-Florida tacky-fabulous "museums" and sponge shops remain amidst Greek restaurants and bakeries.

We arrived late in the morning, and scored free parking (under a wire popular with local fowl, who proceeded to foul my car). We went first to get tickets for a boat tour of the Anclote River and out to the Gulf, stopping at a barrier island (Anclote Key) for seashelling.

From there, we went to lunch at Mykonos, where we had potato patties (patatekeftedes or something similar), flavored with lemon, parsley, and feta, followed by souvlaki, Greek salad, and pan-fried shrimp. Too stuffed for dessert, we wandered the main strip, in and out of shops, wishing I had any desire for a natural sponge. They just look gross. It's a textural thing, but they just look icky. I'll take my hot pink synthetic bath poof over a natural sponge any day, sorry Tarpon Springs.

Anyhow, we puttered around until boarding time. Off we went! It was a slow tour out of the river in the no-wake zone, but we got to see several large birds and some dolphin frolicking (and later, fishing).

We motored on out to the key, were we went ashore and collected seashells. I don't know why, exactly, I collected so many, but I will find something to do with them. There were so many, everywhere! Way more than the east coast beaches. We were warned against taking any with live critters in them, partly because we should leave living creatures go about their business, and partly because of the dreadful funk they would create. I noticed a bit of funk coming from my trunk (the whole island emanated that scent). Later, at home, when rinsing, I discovered that I brought a couple of the wee beasties home. :-/

Anyhow, following our return to the dock, we drove out to Sunset Beach, but sunset was obscured by some high clouds, so we took some pictures, watched an engagement-photo session, and were entertained by a trio of high-schoolers who lost a football in a palm tree and subsequently lost about eight large rocks in futile attempts to knock it loose. Watch your heads under palm trees in the middle of Sunset Beach, Tarpon Springs, everyone. Anyhow, we took off towards downtown Tampa, where I knew of a Taco Bell with Chili Cheese Burritos. We navigated there, only to find the Taco Bell... well, no Taco Bell. It is now some pizza place. The up side was the car wash next door, where for 5 bucks, I got my car cleaned (including bird-poop-pressure-wash and hand dry.

Not a bad way to spend a day.

Kitsch Tally:

Pressed Penny Count: 2 (well, okay, 3 because the first one didn't turn out well)

Wacky Wavy Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man Count: 4

O-Rama Count: 1

Once Upon a Time...

...I had a blog.

It's Thanksgiving Break. And with this prolonged sabbath, I intend to rest. And read. And write. Though I need to read lab reports and write grades on papers, a friend has convinced me to feel little guilt about taking a deserved time of rest.

Tomorrow's Destination: Tarpon Springs.

Peace of Wild Things

The Peace of Wild Things

Wendell Berry

When despair grows in me

and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water,

and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

No Audience

...the world requires no audience, no witnesses...

(Conor Oberst, I Must Belong Somewhere)

At sundown, I often think it strange that the waves continue crashing, the mountains keep on standing, even after they dissolve into inky black. All the beauty on earth is routinely hidden.

The mere fact that I can't see it doesn't keep it from happening. Which immediately feels extraordinarily self-absorbed; I know that these things don't exist exclusively for my pleasure. (Sure, they do, to some extent.^{1 ,2})

Hearing the ocean - but not seeing it - always reminds me of my size in the universe. And the beauty in the promise of a sunrise.

Science Scouts

I'll admit I really only wanted to be in Girl Scouts for the badges.  Okay, and maybe the cookies.  Because you could get a badge for selling cookies!

So, much delight to come across this!

Here's my sash!

Commencement

Graduation is today.  I adore graduations, as I do most ceremony.  (Okay, partly because there is costuming involved!)  The symbolism of academic regalia.  The families and the accomplishment and the transition.  The pomp.  The circumstance.  

The tears I shed are from an overflow of feelings, not exclusively sadness.  I never fail to find myself swept up in a tempest of emotion.  Sure, there is sadness for the loss of the everyday presence of some very special individuals.  But it's tempered.  By excitement for students concluding this chapter and outlining the next.  Pride in some students' extraordinary stories and the joy of participation in them.  Love.  

In the words of Dr. Seuss, which will inevitably be used in commencement addresses worldwide: do not cry because it's over - smile because it happened.

Congratulations, Class of 2009.  Go, and take flight.  Travel lightly, but keep some souvenirs of these four years tucked in your suitcase hearts.

Birthday Month!

It's already nine days into my birthday month, and I'm finally now alerting everyone.

It's nice to have a birthday at the very end of the month - once the calendar page changes, I get several weeks of anticipation.

Here's my list of what I want for my birthday, for which I know you've all been waiting.

Remove Before Flight keychain

Hinge Wallet - because Jess says I need a new wallet

Stila Twinset in Demi Claret (two, please!)

OPI Polish in Underwater Fantasy

Gap dress - black; size TBD

Extension tubes so I can fake some macro shots

Wide-angle lens (hey, it's a wishlist)

Phineas; Six Stories by John Knowles

Levenger ink - Empyrean

10-lb Adjustable Ankle Weights

Bike Helmet - Size M/L, not picky on color, probably black.

A jacaranda tree

A Meyer lemon tree

Music:

Brandon Heath (both albums)

The new U2

The new Jars of Clay

Missed Marks

What I ordered for my mom for Mother's Day:

What was delivered:

The hell?! 

Okay, okay, to be entirely fair, the florist did tell me that they were out of the dahlias, and I told them to substitute a chrysanthemum or lily or something else big.

But come on.

First, with the colors of those roses in there, I'd have probably gone with a dark pink or red gerbera, not orange.  Or yellow spray roses instead of ivory.  I dig the pittosporum, but greenery alone cannot redeem this.

Second, that vase is all wrong. The arrangement's shape is all wrong. I ordered it for the subtle asymmetry in a modern vase, but I got off-kilter bud-vase arranging in a ginger-gar vase.

Third, I know flowers open as they age, but it just looks scrawny.

I guess that's what I get for trying a new florist... >:(

Holy Week

It's been an interesting and busy week, but, outside of my Monday-night small group's discussion of Passover, I haven't paid much attention to the upcoming Easter celebration, much beyond buying Peeps1 for my chemistry classes' gas-laws demonstrations.   I have foregone many of the typical Eastertime traditions - nothing given up for Lent, the extent of my fasting was for a blood test one afternoon, reading things other than scripture.

In what can only be characterized as a half-assed attempt at remembrance, I started collecting some songs in a Holy Week playlist, of sorts.  I've been listening to it in the car most of the week.  A mix of praise, darkness, reinvented hymns, redemption, and, ultimately, love.

Jesus Paid It All, Mosaic Worship

...o praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead...

The Eleventh Hour, Jars of Clay

...I'll find you when I think I'm out of time...

The Wonderful Cross, Chris Tomlin (and maybe Matt Redman?)

...bids me come and die and find that I may truly live...

What Wondrous Love, Jars of Clay

...while millions join the theme...

Beautiful, Scandalous Night, Smalltown Poets

...at the wonderful, tragic, mysterious tree/ on that beautiful scandalous night you and me/ were atoned by His blood and forever washed white...

 

O Come and Mourn With Me Awhile, Jars of Clay

...and victory remains with love...

Martyrs and Thieves, Jennifer Knapp

...where there is peace and love in the light...

Everything, Lifehouse

not particularly Eastery, but it's just one of my favorites

Love Song, Third Day

This song provokes a physical response in me like none other. 

...and I know that you don't understand the fullness of my love/how I died upon the cross for your sins/and I know that you don't realize how much that I give you/ and I promise you I would do it all again...

Marvelous Light, Charlie Hall

Another one I included just because I like it.

...see the light that I have found...

Bread and Wine, Campus House

I don't even know what the real name of this song is or how to attribute it - it's ripped from a 11-year-old CD from a campus ministry - but it's lovely.  I can't quite make out all the lyrics, but here are some of them:

Eat my bread 

Drink my wine

Bitterness yields to the sweet

[? ?]

I watch you lie upon your bed 

of reminiscent regret

and I would simply like to say 

that I will not let go

Drink my wine

Eat my bread

Raise your glass of tears and laugh instead

It's funny you should pray, I must say

I was just thinking about you

thinking about the day 

when you said you will not let go

One death [debt?]

One breath [bread?]

One blood

One Father's little baby boy

One truth

One man

And [?] passion

One night

Flesh is bread

Blood is wine

Give and take if you are 

so inclined

Lose yourself in me 

and I will be the whole of you

Take your brother's hand and say 

that you will not let go

1 Side note on Easter candy: When I was growing up, my grandmother (who lived with us), always bought me a hollow chocolate bunny.  They're always dreadfully cheap and waxy chocolate, but I always looked forward to receiving that bunny!  I'd eat the ears first, and leave the sugar eyes for last.  It's been a dozen years since she passed away, and even more since she last bought me a hollow bunny, but every year since, I have bought myself one.  This year, though, I went upmarket with Lindt.  Only because Target didn't have much of the bunny species for which I was looking by the end of the week - only solid chocolate, or else abominations like Butterfinger-Bunnies.

Pasta Party

We hosted our supper club this month, which meant it was our job to decide the theme.  We'd done the same stuff, so I decided that this month's supper club was brought to you by the letter S.  Everything had to have an ingredient that began with S.  We had a spinach salad with strawberries and sunflower seeds.  San Pellegrino.  Sunflower and flax seed bread.  Blackberry cobbler (it had sugar in it. ;) )  And I made chicken and fresh pasta with fresh sage leaves harvested from my windowsill.

Semolina and all-purpose.

Kneaded dough.

Sage harvest!

Rolling it out.

Placing the sage.

Sage leaves enveloped and stretched.

Fresh Sage Pasta Squares

(from Williams-Sonoma Pasta With Sauces)

7 oz (220 g) semolina flour

4 oz (125 g) all-purpose flour

1/4 t. salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 T. water

On a clean surface, combine semolina, all-purpose flour, and salt in a mound.  Make a well in the center and break in the eggs.  Add water.  Using a fork, blend the ingredients in the well, gradually drawing in flour, until all ingredients are combined into a dough.  Dust surface with flour and knead, pushing and turning repeatedly, until the dough feels smooth - about 7-10 minutes.  Cut dough into four pieces, and use a machine to roll out pasta [on my machine, I stepped down to a "4" out of 7].  Lay pasta on work surface, very lightly moisten the top of the sheet, and place clean dry sage leaves on half.  Fold over the rest of the strip onto the sage and re-roll to desired thickness.  Sage leaves will stretch and be seen through the translucent pasta.  Cut into squares and lay on wax paper to dry briefly before cooking.  When ready to cook, boil in salted water for 2 minutes before draining.  Toss with Sage-and-Shallot Butter.

Sage-and-Shallot Butter

(can make a day in advance)

4 oz. (1/2 c.) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 T. minced shallots

1 T. minced fresh sage

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. ground pepper

In the work bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients.  Pulse several times until mixture is smooth and well-blended.  Transfer to a piece of plastic wrap, cover, and roll into a cylinder.  Refrigerate until solid.