Martindale Visit: Day 1 - La Brea Tarpits and Santa Monica

The pictures posted in the previous post "Picture Preview" correspond to this entry. In the evening on Friday, April 10, Bill and Branwen arrived in Los Angeles. The next day we visited the Page Museum at La Brea Tarpits. It is very interesting because it's right in the middle of Los Angeles, about 2 city blocks in size. They have many pristine skeletons from the Ice Age because the tarpits would slow down or trap animals. After the tarpits, we went to Santa Monica to explore the pedestrian shopping area. There are many buskers performing there and lots to see, so it's always a bit of an adventure.

Picture Preview

My Birthday, 2009

Hurray, yesterday was my birthday! It was wonderful. Thanks especially to Rowan for her baking and presents, and to everyone else that send me birthday messages. Nothing particularly exciting to report, had tasty meals all day long, ending with an amazing Turtle cheese cake made by Rowan (photos included below). So delicious. Rowan gave me an awesome knitted toque and a shirt (photos below). Additionally, she gave me two knitting books, one for socks and the other is a knitting book full of patterns for guys. I really love the guy's knitting book, has some awesome patterns that I'm already planning to make. Anyways, that's it for now, keeping it short, but I'm already brewing up another post.

Just Cats

Quickly on the tail of my last post, I figured it was time for a few more kitty photos, just in case the thumb cuts were too gruesome for some. First off, is just a photo of Scimitar being cute and relaxing on the futon. Next, is Ong-Bak (or Whitie as we mostly call him now, though perhaps Orangie would be more appropriate, since his back is mostly orange now), sleeping in the bathroom sink. I'm not sure what gave him the idea to do this. It doesn't matter if the sink is damp, he'll still jump up, then curl up in it. Finally, I can't remember if I ever posted photos of both of them when they were really young, so just for reference, here's a shot of them the first day we had them home.

Oops!

So a few days ago I was cutting up some garlic. All was going well, but something distracted me briefly and I ended up slicing into the tip of my thumb. Thankfully (I think) the knife was very sharp, so the cut was clean and smooth, though it ended up also going through my nail as well (which is why I'm not sure it was good the knife was that sharp, as otherwise maybe the nail would have stopped it). Anyways, I took a few pictures of it the day after, and have posted some choice ones. It's looking good now, the bit of nail I cut through has fallen off and there is only a tiny little scab left. Enjoy!

Cooking for Rowan's Birthday

It's been far too long since I've posted, but the last few weeks have been crazy with Rowan studying for quals for a month, then taking two weeks of exams, and now the aftermath (ie, doing nothing). In the middle of all this craziness, Rowan's birthday came up. Being unemployed as I am, it didn't feel right to me to buy any expensive gifts, but I am fairly handy with baking, and am slowly becoming a better cook, so I decided to put together a culinary delight as a birthday present. It started out with cinnamon rolls. A fairly simple thing to bake and I always enjoy kneading the dough. They turned out wonderfully, and though you can't taste them, I hope the pictures help to convey just how delicious they were. For the main course, Rowan asked for scallops and bacon in a white sauce over pasta. This one was a little more tricky, but the local grocer had some nice frozen scallops and I found a recipe for a white wine sauce to go with scallops, and then just added some bacon. Again, pictures are included below, and as you can see, Ong-Bak was really really into the scallops. The dessert was a thick, moist chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I made the cake completely from scratch (no packages of cake mix for me). By all accounts, it was an excellent cake, it took the two of us almost a week to get through it, but it was superb. Finally, Rowan's family had some flowers delivered for Rowan's birthday. Strangely, by the end of the day these flower had still not arrived. Serena (Rowan's mum, for those that don't know), called up the company and it was discovered that the flowers were left in some flower bed outside of the manager's office. I didn't even know we had a manager's office! The next day the flower company called me and explained where they delivered the flowers. It was out front of the apartment outside a set of stairs that lead to the basement of the apartment. They were sheltered by some plants, and were still in good condition, so all was well. Anyways, should be more updates soon!

Lookie! I knit some socks for myself :)

Hi everyone, look what I made. Today I finished this pair of socks. I also dyed the yarn myself this past summer when I was at the Martindale's. Let me know what you think. Yes the colours are crazy, but I love them.