elko, nevada

some info on my (and mark's) future hometown...


like laramie, elko started as a railroad stop... quickly evolving into a mining town... still is a mining town...



today it looks a lot like most other nevada towns: western, with a bright, neon coating...


there are also apparently a lot of Basques in the area... the community college teaches Basque, there are at least three Basque restaurants, and there is a yearly Basque festival... with dancing Basques...
there are several pretty mountain things to do in the area around elko... you can take nevada route 225 north to Wild Horse Reservoir, Mountain City, and Owyhee - or to visit mark at the mine site...
now all i need to do is find a good coffee shop, yoga class, and check out the local library and it will be home... oh, and an appartment - and bank - and grocery store - and ... well anyway there is a lot to do before it's home...

music

i have always loved music from an audience and occasional choral perspective... my summer has been full of music... flock hall has exploded with musicians - linus, mark, ben are all guitar fanatics now and dan (of the f***ing amazing variety) plays a gazillion instruments so the jamming at our house has become an experience... i occasionally add vocals - but that is difficult when i don't know the song or they jam after my bed time or they are just being too weird... i am also taking a jazz history class... a type of music that i have always loved has become much more accessible and intimate to me... it enhances my other musical experiences... i am a better listener now, it is not just background noise... though i have to admit when linus practices fingering at 2am i do kinda tune it out... so enjoy what you are listening too... unless you are listening to five-year-old beginner violins... then maybe just try to appreciate what they are trying to do

Happy Solstice!

Welcome to the longest day of the year... have a picnic... go outside... bask in the glory of the sun at its height...give thanks for its warmth, its light... watch the sunset... reconnect with the earth... stay up late and catch faires... be blessed

Blessed Be...

signage

i was gonna do another food post, but then i found this and now i am not hungry any more... you have been warned.

so we don't have a perkins here in laramie, but if we did this could be what the sign would say...

i am not sure clowns are any less scary when they are cooked... but at least they are free... can't sleep- clowns'll eat me, can't sleep- clowns'll eat me, can't sleep- clowns'll eat me...

food, food, food

i have been on a food kick the past couple of days... my every thought has been about food it seems, or something to do with the kitchen - i organized my cookbooks and started sorting through loose recipes. last week i cooked indian food, yesterday i made chili (hot, hot, hot) and a jug of sweet tea (very cool) ... for lunch i made spaghetti with eggs, a recipe from a book i read - mark was not into it, but i really liked it ... tonite i made super tasty fish cakes and corn on the cob (too early for really good corn) and salad with bleu cheese... i have been reading the cooking magazines and a book called Cooking for Mr. Latte, which i loved... i am starting My Kitchen Wars, another food memoir, right after Dr. Who tonite, if i am still up... i think that i am going to make doughnuts in the morning... and i am having a mental debate on what to make for dinner tomorrow... i have returned to the kitchen with a vengeance - the only thing keeping me from going completely crazy in the kitchen is the fact that we are broke till next week, so i can't go out and buy all the wonderful ingredients right this second - a very good thing all around, as i am forced to use stuff we have at home and need to use anyway ... i did not realize how much food was actually in the house... it is rather comforting actually... yay for food

a change of heart

so i lied - actually i have caved under peer preassure - either way i will not give up on the blog - but continue to sporadically update - by sporadically i mean that as i am working in the labs for the summer, at least until august there should be a post once or twice a week - more if you are really lucky - so, some food for thought...

If the World was a Village of 100 People...
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.
There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South America
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth;all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death
1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

when you look at it this way you are lucky i post at all - really you are lucky you can complain about me not posting... =)