Kristin’s Playground

Huzzah! A pic a day - and I’m caught up. Think I can keep it up for a week?

21 July 2008:

I was jealously glancing at the Brie section of Trader Joe’s when this caught my eye. Light brie? Couldn’t be! So, I had to try it. While it’s tasty, it’s not the delectable creamy goodness I have come to associate with the word “brie” in my head. Ah well. Thought it had to be too good to be true.

22 July 2008:

There are a bunch of these plants near the physics building, and they contain masses of spider webs. These webs are often dewy, even in mid-afternoon!

23 July 2008 (ie, today!):

The sunflower is opening! Hooray! The color! The happiness!

Last night, I decided that it was time to harvest a pepper! It’s still probably a bit early since the peppers are still small, but peppers can be eaten at almost any stage, and I don’t want to risk ruining them by waiting too long. Besides, I think harvesting early helps increase yields, so maybe this will lead to a new pepper on the plant. I’ll try to be patient with the next one, however, to see if it grows much more or starts to turn colors; I still don’t know what color these peppers are supposed to end up. Anyway, this is the story of the first pepper from my garden: straight from a plant to a tasty omelette!

To reduce damage to the plant, it’s best to cut the pepper off instead of just pulling it. So, here is my freed pepper!

Of course, you should wash your peppers well before eating them. I’m pretty sure the Food Play guy would find a face here to work with. Droopy cheeks and a long nose - it has possibilities.

I chopped it up pretty well and snuck a taste. What do you know? It tasted like a green pepper! I’m so proud!

Ah, the final product: a turkey sausage, pepper, and cheese omelette. It was delicious, and it made my night knowing that I hadn’t killed all of my plants, and actually got to make something tasty with things that grew in my garden! (To be fair, it isn’t the first thing we used from our garden this year. I used some fresh parsley in my roasted potatoes last week, but an herb is much different than a vegetable!)

P.S. Now item #43 on my 101 things list is one step closer to be being crossed off.

Definitely getting closer…

16 July 2008:

Whenever the weather gets a little iffy, you can find Anya-bear in the bathroom, hiding. She’s fond of the mat in front of the tub, and I think the lack of windows comforts her.

17 July 2008:

Look! I cooked something! Roasted potatoes with spicy carmelized onions. Logan had a couple of friends over for dinner, and I was in charge of the potato dish. It turned out quite tastily, I think… Here’s the recipe if you have a subscription to cooksillustrated.com.

18 July 2008:

Camping! Complete with a campfire for marshmallows. My camera was having a hard time with the automatic white balance; there are some amusing purple fires that it took, but this white balance is a little more realistic.

19 July 2008:

The camping gear in the kitchen. This needs to get aired/dryed out.

20 July 2008:

Eee! There’s yellow hiding in there! That means it’ll fully open soon, right? I’m quite excited about my sunflower.

La la la - getting caught up! Unfortunately, I missed a day in this section, so no July 11th picture for you. That morning I sliced my thumb and my pinky open while washing a sharp knife, and we also were driving to Wisconsin, so it was a somewhat hectic day. Ah well.

12 July 2008:

To celebrate Logan and his brothers birthdays, we had homemade pizza. The boys made dough, and we could top our own however we wanted it. This was mine, complete with pineapple, green pepper, red onion, and some breakfast sausage. It was really tasty.

13 July 2008:

This is my sliced hand, all band-aided up. Thankfully the knife was sharp so the cuts were clean and I didn’t need any stitches. The slices are still noticeable today, but they’re slowly healing.

14 July 2008:

The sunflower grows! I think we’ll have an open flower soon!

15 July 2008:

Delta responded to my letter. Note to whom it’s addressed: “Mr. Kristin ___”

6 July 2008:

Logan makes a tasty appletini.

7 July 2008:

I got new shoes! Needed some every-day type sandals.

8 July 2008:

We replaced our non-stick skillets. After 5 years, the coating had gotten some scratches and was wearing down a little bit. This is one of the replacements!

9 July 2008:

Dominick’s, a local bar/restaurant, has this amusing little sign up inside claiming to be the first condemned building in North America. Apparently, there’s one just like it in Plymouth, MA.

10 July 2008:

The tomatoes are still growing.

Still working on the catching up. July!

1 July 2008:

The initial pair of “jalapeños” have grown into bell peppers. Still not ready to eat yet, but they’re getting bigger!

2 July 2008:

I have this expanding ball toy that my niece was very amused by when she visited.

3 July 2008:

The tomatoes are growing too. There are a lot of them now, none of them are turning colors yet though.

4 July 2008:

I slept through the parade, but one of the floats supporting the local skate park ended up in the neighborhood. Happy 4th of July!

5 July 2008:

I biked to Saline on the 5th, and stopped at the Saline Depot Museum. They had some currency from a time capsule from 1872. It was fascinating to see 25 cent and 50 cent bills, bills from the Bank of Saline and the confederacy.

26 June 2008:

I fell in love with Fanta when I went to Spain in 2001. A soda with real orange juice? It was wonderful. (Of course, any semblance of juice had to be removed when it was marketed for the US later…) Since then, I’ve obtained quite the collection of Fanta from the world over. I brought back this can from my recent trip to Italy.

27 June 2008:

Anya sheds. A lot. Can you spin dog hair into something useful? I could’ve had a sweater by now, although it would itch.

28 June 2008:

I like my kitchen table - particularly when it’s clean. And that’s my photo from the Festifools exhibition.

29 June 2008:

The creamer didn’t mix so well with my coffee at first.

30 June 2008:

Logan’s aunt has a pond with a waterfall. It’s quite nice.

Woohoo! The next update will be at least be the right month. Slowly but surely catching up.

21 June 2008:

The flower girl and ring bearer walk down the aisle at Nese’s wedding.

22 June 2008:

This weed popped up in my herb garden and my jalapeño plant. Anyone know what it is? Pennsylvania smartweed? That appears to be my best guess. ::shrug::

23 June 2008:

More flower identification. These guys seem to survive an awfully long time in a vase. Anyone know what they are? Dahlias have been suggested, but I know nothing about flowers.

24 June 2008:

A friend of mine (from Romania) had her birthday, so the cake was the colors of the flag. It was tasty.

25 June 2008:

Another flower. These grow on campus near my bus stop. Surprise, I don’t know what these are either. Pretty though.

The next 5 photos of the day. This time, I’m in the states.

16 June 2008:

This is the view from our hotel window near JFK. Courtesy of Delta.

17 June 2008:

This is the colorful walkway between concourses at Detroit’s airport. Usually some soothing type music is being played, and the lights along the walls change color. Quite nice. If you’re paying attention, you’ll have noticed that this is the third picture of the day from an airport or nearby. That story will come.

18 June 2008:

Driving towards Ohio, we pass Milan. Wait, I thought I was just there?

19 June 2008:

Ah, my Northwest ticket. A useful bookmark, and it represents the flight that finally got me to Detroit. How nice!

20 June 2008:

Ah, my plants grew while I was gone! See the pot on the left? That has the sunflowers that were the subject of a guessing game before I left.

Woohoo! I’m getting caught up on photos of the day (almost a full month behind)! As I recall, I last left you with a giant flying piece of corn, so this post brings you photos of the day from Italy itself. I’m sure there will be more Italy pictures when I get around to it, but this should give a brief glimpse into the trip.

9 June 2008:

I <3 Going! We saw this sign on the bus from the airport to Stresa, and it amused me. I like going. Do you like going? Turns out it's an ad for a travel agency. Makes sense.

10 June 2008:

Italian vending machine. This vending machine was right by a pharmacist’s door in the public square. It’s surprising to see things like that out in the open when they’re relegated to sketchy restrooms back here in the states. Different attitudes, that’s all.

11 June 2008:

The Regina Palace. One of the swankiest hotels in town. The conference had its gala dinner there on Wednesday night. Fancy!

12 June 2008:

Poster time! Time to present our work, so I grab a shot of Jeff posing by one of our posters.

13 June 2008:

Our last day in Stresa, I wanted to take a picture from our hotel room’s balcony. It was a pleasant balcony, with two little chairs and a table. Nice place to sit and read.

14 June 2008:

When we were in Milan, I spotted a Smart car pulling its infamous trick: the “I can perpendicular park in your parallel parking spot” trick.

15 June 2008:

We found the Lego Harry Potter at Milan’s airport.

That’s all for now - I’ll post another set of photos of the day soon. I’m all caught up in uploading them to Flickr, just not yet to the blog. I’ll get there.