I'm going to Maui!!! Tickets are purchased! Sept. 24 - the wee hours of the morn of 10/1. Whee!!!!

I wanna see sea tutles, and dolphins, and brightly colored weird fish, and turquoise water, and white sand, and gorgeous sunsets, and a volcano, and amazing waterfalls, and palm trees, and hula dancers, and fire spinners, and a pig cooked in a pit, and leis, and tropical drinks with umbrellas, and geckos, and surfers, and, and and...

"In the event of war, riot, civil unrest, insurrection, Act of God or other force majeure that significantly disrupts the operations of U-Haul, it shall not be obligated to pay customers the $50 payment even if the reservation had been guaranteed."

I am home safe and sound from Mississippi. I had an amazing week. The teens in my group are all awesome, mazing, impressive people. The family that we helped out were soooo appreciative, and so nice, and just awesome. More details later.

I spent the 4th with friends, and the weekend on a mountain. Cheers to rebels and revolutions.

Am I the only one who doesn't think the Celtics "rolling rally" is a good excuse to scream and chant and jostle people on a crowded train? Didn't your parents teach you about "indoor voices"? Can't you recognize that the train is still an "indoor" space, and some of us just wanted to get to work?

I stayed late at work.. and now there's Celtics rioting on Boylston. I think it's probably best at this point if I don't leave until it's over. Also, I really hope my car is ok on Newbury St. Crap crap crap!

So I finally started reading Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, last weekend. It's basically the original environmentalist book. It was written in 1962, and it's all about the government pesticide spraying programs, and the rise in pesticide use, radiation, and the creation of non-natural chemicals. It may touch on other things later, I'm only halfway through, but I think the focus remains mostly on pesticides, just examining them from different perspectives in each chapter (affect on birds, affect on the soil, affect on groundwater, etc.).

I consider myself pretty well-educated as laymen environmentalists go, and certainly this data is now out-dated, but it's really eye-opening to have some of this info laid out in front of me with dates and stats and such, and to realize that, basically, we were pretty ok until the 20th century, and then we really, irrevocably screwed over the human race (and all species, really).¹ We began to mess with the environment too much in the 1800s, with the industrial revolution and large-scale coal mining and such, but until warfare (and medicine, too, I guess) escalated to the level of developing radioactive, nuclear, chemical, and plastic materials that were then adopted large-scale for every-day applications, we weren't that bad off.

Parts of Silent Spring cite various studies on how long certain chemicals remain in your system and how they can be passed on to a fetus. It also touches upon the idea that one pesticide spraying in one corner of the country can (and likely will) affect people all across the country or further, due to runoff, groundwater, rain, migratory animals, trade of goods, etc. In addition to this, it talks about scale (ie: raising one crop in a large area; blanket pesticide spraying rather than spot-treatment) and how that completely alters biodiversity, killing off necessary predators or food supplies, *creating* pest problems where there never were any previously, and thus ruining the way an ecosystem is meant to keep itself in check. Reading all of this combined, along with when individual events occurred (such as when DDT was created, when large scale spraying started, etc.), it dawned on me that my parents' generation were most likely all born with at least trace amounts of man-made, non-natural, toxic chemicals in their systems. More importantly (to me at least) they were the *first* generation where this would be the case. Think about that - until a little over 50 or so years ago, we were born as all-natural, clean biological slates. And we likely never will be again, due to the fact that the nature of a carnivorous food chain necessarily amplifies toxins further up the chain.²

This kind of reading brings up all kinds of rambling and cyclical streams of thought for me. Like the irony in buying gear made of man-made, unnatural, toxic (in some part of the process or another) materials for going out and enjoying nature. Nalgenes, primaloft, polarfleece, coolmax, ripstop nylon, vibram soles, gore-tex, lycra... none of these exactly grow on trees. How many unnatural, toxic materials are in your home right now? Could we ever change that? It's all so day-to-day, but it wasn't until the last century. To what extent do we need to revert for our long-term survival? How do we come to grips psychologically with being born into a world that our race has trashed, not being ok with that, and feeling helpless to fix it? (or am I the only one who is kept up at night by that kind of thing?)

¹I intend to follow this up with The World Without Us and some Gaia hypothesis readings in an attempt to further develop my opinion on whether or not our damage to the environment is irrevocable, but given half-lives of radioactive elements, and given what I know of our current methods for dealing with Superfund sites (my understanding being that most hazardous waste cleanup consists of containment and burial, with exceptions of relatively few cases where aeration, introduction of targeted bacteria, application of a neutralizing chemical, etc. can have an affect), I view it as pretty irrevocable. I should also read up more on current research on hazardous waste cleanup, since I haven't really researched that much since high school and hopefully there's been some progress in a decade.

²This is most definitely true when you look at it like this: one leaf has nPPM (parts per million) of chemical x on it; 1 bug eats 200 leaves; 1 fish eats 200 bugs; by the time a person eats that fish, the PPM is much, much higher. This is an over-simplification of it, as there are also various chemical reactions that take place within the body (sometimes neutralizing a toxin, but often converting it to something more toxic), not all people eat fish, larger creatures may have a higher tolerance for a given chemical (or some creatures of the same type or size may be immune to what will kill another), etc. But that's the basic gist of how toxins are amplified in the food chain.
The part that I get fuzzy on though, is whether or not there's a breaking point. Do we flush the chemicals after a certain concentration, or after a certain amount of time? Will we adapt to convert the chemicals to something less toxic in our systems? Does the exponential increase in population actually dilute the average amount of toxins in any given person if we cease to pump new toxins into our environment? I mean, if the amount of toxins on the planet is fixed (which is a totally hypothetical situation), surely eventually they'll be diluted in every creature as creature populations grow. But, unless they decompose over time, the fixed total quantity of toxins on the planet can never drop, right?

There is a cool (but warm enough for a tank top) pre-storm breeze blowing through my house. Ah :)

Katie (at computer): God dammit!
Chris (to Katie, from the other room where he's using the Wii): What?
Katrina (using Wii): Where's the star? I don't have all my starry bits!
Katie (replying to Chris): It's the wrong color portal!
Katrina: How do I open it?
Chris: Shoot it?

I recall there being some expletives, "what?!?" and more "god dammit"s thrown in there.

does anyone read this anymore? no? I wouldn't either, I don't post anything interesting, witty, or insightful. To continue that trend:

Endgame wasn't very much fun, mostly because it was cold and wet the entire time, plus, due to poor timing and other factors, I never got dinner on Saturday. Playing with guns was fun though, and their site's pretty cool, and the game system is way easier than nero, and I like the world concept, and that you don't need to know hundreds of years of made-up history, 15 or so of which current players were around for and will argue about. I liked everyone there well enough, but didn't really click with anyone. I think I would have enjoyed it if I went with a friend (Steph doesn't count, as I hardly saw her, and she was generally snapping at me when I did), and if the weather had been reasonable.

I totally thought the Gaelic Storm MA shows were further out. Nope, they're this week. And all three (2 at the Iron Horse and 1 in Natick) are all sold out. Grrr!

 There are hurricane force winds out there. And even still, it's not really cold. Yay spring!

The only real redeeming quality about this pizza is the crispy pepperoni on top.

And I screwed up butterscotch brownies. I screwed up butterscotch brownies.

I've had this recipe memorized since I was 5, quite literally. I left out an egg, a cup of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of baking powder first time around. I thought it didn't look or feel right, looked up the recipe (in shame!), added the missing ingredients (at the end is *not* the correct order), and it still looks and feels wrong. I'm sure they'll come out tasty, but not like my butterscotch brownies.

We started with tomato slices, mozzarella, olive oil, salt, and pepper on slices of bread, toasted. This was followed by some leftover nachos, which were reheated.

Then there was Maple-Rum glazed chicken tenders with cranberries served over baby spinach:


Followed by corn fritters with maple syrup:


Dessert consisted of nectarine-almond tarts (make mini pie crusts, bake. Slice a nectarine, add some amaretto, cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, and a little flour to thicken; fill pre-baked crusts. Broil. Once soft, top with slivered almonds, broil to toast):


There were also chocolate hazelnut tarts (make mini pie crusts; bake then chill. Blend together nutella, Godiva chocolate liqueur, and cream. Pour into crusts. Top w/ pecan halves (I had no hazelnuts), and dollops of melted chocolate):

Saute 1 small onion, chopped, in 2 tablespoons butter in a large stock pot

Add to the pot and simmer together:
1 medium butternut squash (peeled, de-seeded)
1 medium macintosh apple (peeled, cored)
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cube vegetable bullion
about 4 cups water? maybe more

Simmer until squash and apple chunks get mushy. Add some spices. I added salt, and very very small amounts of coriander, dill, savory, bay leaves, and mint. Simmer some more, skim the spices out (optional), add a cup of light cream, and puree. Serve with a swirl of plain yogurt.

...life is strange.

That is all.

Tonight I made this for dinner:




(yes, that's Original Sin cider in a Newcastle glass... which I got free with purchase of a 6 pack of Dogfishhead)

I just had dinner with my folks for my birthday. They got me new gym sneakers and airtight containers for dry goods. Yay!

They also sent me home with the remaining chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing. Does anyone want to come help out with that?