This is what I plan to do with my life.

Some material borrowed from Sara at Sara's Organized Chaos and Nicole at More is Better. I like them and they have good ideas and I have high aspirations. 

1) Go sailboating
2) Go sea kayaking - DONE
3) Visit every Central American country (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)
4) Write one book of short stories and one novel
5) Get over a fear of caves. Which means....go caving
6) Have two children, one sans epidural, one with
7) Adopt a third child from a poverty-stricken country
8) Make a quilt
9) Get naked on a nude beach
10) Drive the entire North American Pacific coast (Oregon)
11) Get a short play accepted to Shelterskelter and performed that season
12) Go on a summertime Alaskan cruise in and snuggle under the northern lights
13) Spend time on every continent
14) Get close to bison at Yellowstone National Park
15) Go snowshoeing
16) Spend the night in a real haunted house
17) Attend a religious service for at least four major religions (1. Catholic, 2. Unitarian- is that major?)
18) Own and live on a property in Central America near farms and beaches simultaneously
19) Hike though the rainforest to Macchu Picchu
20) Put at least my hand in ten of the world’s natural oceans or large bodies of water (1. Pacific Ocean, 2. Atlantic Ocean, 3. Gulf of Mexico, 4. South China Sea)
21) Learn to make pupusas from scratch
22) Enter a cooking contest
23) Bungee jump
24) Walk on a glacier
25) Buy something extravagant for our parents
26) Take a picture in the towns in which all four of my grandparents were born
27) Take a picture with a celebrity I genuinely care about. Lisa Loeb?!
28) Own and run a successful business
29) Take a train through beautiful countryside
30) Go to the Winter Olympics
31) See at least one World Cup game
32) Snorkel through the Great Barrier Reef
33) Teach a class or seminar
34) See SNL in person


More items may be added as I see fit. :)

What do mandarins and fish fries have in common?

Absolutely nothing.

Aside from being a touch time-consuming to peel all those little oranges, canning clementines was a neat little project. Inspired by Marisa's recipe over here at Food in Jars, I bought a five-pound box of clems at HyVee and set to work with Tracy Bonham and Laura Veirs to accompany me. I adjusted the simple syrup to one cup of sugar to six cups of water and that was plenty sweet-- next time I'll try paring it down even further to 3/4 cup, like Marisa did. All things considered, I was quite pleased with the result.

Five beautiful jars crammed full of mandarins! I gave one to my mother-in-law for her birthday and she must have liked them, because I got the jar back only a few weeks later. I gave another to Jason and Rebecca and they promptly invented a slew of cocktails in which to drop the little slices.

Verdict? SUCCESS. Whatever shall I make for March?

On Friday, I FINALLY got to attend one of my most favorite series of events of the year, the Holy Name Fish Fry. (That is a Facebook page and may not show.) This amazingness puts you through the ringer with a long-ass line and this year's trademark cold-ass weather matched only by the coldness of the beer, but the end result of a happy, heady buzz and crisp-hot, juicy fish are soooo worth it.

We go again this Friday!

I have more blog material but little time and have to hit the books....or book....and later tonight it will be a Sookie Stackhouse book. BUT FIRST THE OTHER BOOK. QUIT TEMPTING ME, SOOKIE!

UNO's voice of George Crumb

He sounds remarkably like my sister....





That's me taking pictures up front. I always get the best seats. :)

Snob Dog on a Toilet

Click here to visit one of my favorite blogs, Martinis or Diaper Genies? There, you will find a contest of America's favorite stuff on toilets, including our very own Inga Binga Newton Magnuson. I sent a link to Eric at work today and he replied "That is both hilarious and incredibly random. LMAO!" Which, coincidentally, is exactly how I'd describe MODG as well.

NOW GO FORTH AND VOTE FOR MY DOG. Please. :)

PS - our floors aren't dirty, seriously, that's my cheapo camera....since I lost the awesome one in the airport on the way to Belize.

An evening with George Crumb

Well, only part of an evening. And, an evening that was actually about a flautist earning her Master's degree. Whom I had never met.

Melisser and Daddo drove the 13-hours from Columbus so that she could make a guest appearance tonight at a friend's graduate recital, lending her signature avant garde George Crumb awesomeness to accompany said friend's (frankly) spectacular flute-playing. I'm so proud of my preetty seester and her beautiful, crystalline voice!

 

Honestly, I never thought flute would be so entertaining! Not only did Sara play lightning-fast, she also trilled her tongue while playing in some parts of the music, or buzzed the flute like a kazoo WHILE pulling a melody out of it. Insane. I actually started giggling with mirth and amazement at the kazoo part because I am eternally inappropriate and love it when people think I am being disrespectful. Speaking of disrespectful, there was SOME girl in the southwest corner of the room who kept making odd "mmm! hmm!" sounds only during the performance....I was so confused and annoyed at her interruption of the flute-nirvana that in trying to figure out what the hell it was, I actually convinced myself it must just be a woman breastfeeding and the baby was making satisfied grunting noises. Yes, THAT is how I made this strange noise acceptable to myself.

 

Very impressive. I talked to Sara afterward about how much I'd liked her recital, and she said she and Melissa have tentative plans to put together another performance sometime in the future. Yay!

 

Scene change. On Friday night, Meliseester and I went to see Marriage of Figaro at the Orpheum. It was gorgeous! I love the opera. I wish I could remember how many I've seen. This one in particular I kind of had to strain to see, because a dude with the widest head in existence sat in front of me. You never would guess from his narrow face either. Maybe it was just the hair at the back of his head. So I got to invade some personal space on either side of my seat, at least until I figured out I could sit on my coat. There was also a group of students that came in late, traipsed in front of a whole row of people, and then half of then decided they had to go to the bathroom or something....twice. To end the night, here is a conversation I had with Melisser:

Me: "Where's the 'Fiiiigaro, Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-ro!' ?"

Melissa: "Actually, that's Barber of Seville."

Captain Obvious: "...but this opera has 'Figaro" in the title."

More Knowledgeable Opera Buff: "Indeed, but the part you're talking about is in Barber of Seville."

Argumentative: "Are you sure? I don't remember any Figaro in that one."

Singer with Operatic Range: "Did you see Barber of Seville?"

Me: "...no."

She: *raises brows*

But despite all this silliness, I had a wonderful time with my beautiful seester!