Jogging, Canning, and Art Oh My!

Jogging has been going.... pretty well I might add. I am only through day two of week two, but I am feeling pretty good about myself. Jogging outside by the waterfront is turning out to be way more motivating than the workouts I used to try to do in the weight room of the old apartment. There is so much to look at that it takes my mind off of the running itself. I look at the city and the fog, the sailboats with their bright or stark white sails, and the container ships when they are in port. I have to say that I am liking the running skirt. While the shorts underneath are still a bit creepish, the skirt keeps all that covered up, so I am less self conscious about it all. It is also really comfortable to run in for the most part and looks rather nice. I feel way more stylish than just running around in some ill fitting shorts. The only disappointing thing was that the zipper broke on the key pocket the first day I used them. I am looking to repair that today if I can get the key back onto the teeth. My first attempts were thus far unsuccessful.

I am also gearing up for the fist major canning operation of the season. This Saturday I am going to go cherry picking. I have found a place with sour cherries, and I am so excited to finally be able to make a sour cherry pie! I miss those so much. I have already purchased my clear jel and cannot wait to try out my first canned pie filling. I am also going to work on a couple varieties of cherry jam. I am hoping to do small batches of bing or dark sweet cherry jam of some sort, Rainer cherry jam for my Dan, and perhaps some white cherry jam. I also introduced Dan to the concept of spirited cherries. I think they would be a unique addition to his Manhattans, so I may also be canning some of them. I am going to go to the kitchen supply store this afternoon to buy a cherry pitter in order to prepare for this onslaught of cherry goodness. I usually do my pitting by hand, but I think with these huge plans I will need the faster mechanized method to get through them all in the weekend before heading home for a quick family visit.

I am also pumped to go to the DeYoung museum tomorrow night! We are going to go and see the Paris exhibit of the Impressionists. I cannot wait to see this awesome display of some of my favorite painters. It will be nice to get to see some pictures in person without the expense of flying to Paris. I also want to go and see the Amish quit exposition before it closes to give me the inspiration to finally start cutting my first quilt. I have always admired the bold colors and unique use of shapes that the Amish quilts embody. Our current quilt on the bed is a handmade Amish quilt I bought at an auction back in Illinois when we lived near the Illinois Amish country. While my first quilt will not be the typical solid color combination of the Amish quilts, I hope it is crafted as well as the one I bought... with modern conveniences of course. I am going to cut by hand, piece by machine, and quilt by hand. I figure it is a good mix for my first quilt. This is also going to be a challenge since I cannot strip piece my quilt. I am making it out of scraps, so all the diamonds are going to have to be cut individually by hand and then pieced and sew together. It seems daunting, but I am sure I can do it.

Well I am off to finish up some gifts for people and perhaps pick up my black skirt before giving in to this new quilt project. There are also some costumes to be made before the end of July when I leave for Chaos Wars. So much crafting and homemaking, so little time!

Jogging for Dessert

I know that I have said it before, and I am going to say it again. I love desserts... apparently too much lately. I gained weight after leaving the working world before we left for California and briefly lost some, then gained it all back. I blame my love of all things dessert. When we went to Vegas I ate more desserts at the buffets than anything else. A whole plate of them I am sad to admit, and so it comes with great regret that I am back to the couch to 5K jogging program. I just cannot give up that slice of cake or pie or pudding or cookie after dinner. Something has to give, and for now that is my rear being attached on the couch. I know that I have chronicled my exercise program start last year when we were at the old apartment that had a weight room. I have also been tossing around the idea of buying an elliptical, but when I really got down to thinking about it, we live in California. It never gets so cold that I would have to exercise inside like I would in Illinois. So, with out the weight room to hide me, I have started trying to redo my progress on the couch to 5K by jogging outside. It was terrifying at first. People will probably laugh at how out of shape I am even though I don't look it, but really I decided their opinions did not matter. I wanted to be in shape. I want to be able to run and catch that train and make it without getting on board and panting like I ran a marathon in the 500 feet I ran. I have decided this is the best course of action, and I have to stick with it. Day one was Monday, and it went well. I am going to leave for day two as soon as this posting is done before the predicted afternoon rain showers show up. I always learned in my exercise and behavior classes that one of the best ways was to publicly state your goals. So, here it is. I want to do the couch to 5K running plan on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week. I also want to make sure that traveling is not a hindrance to this, so no vacations from the program aside from Chaos Wars, which is physically very demanding.

The first picture in this entry (before the exercise commitments) is my first attempt at making flan. It turned out really well and was a perfect compliment to my cake baking obsession of late. Most of the cakes I make need just egg whites, and I hate to throw out the yolks. Custards take up the slack of the yolks perfectly. I guess that means when I make cake one week look for a custard the next! I made these to go with our taco night on Monday. The peas in the other picture came from the patio garden. I am thinking about ditching the beans next year in favor of a round of peas only. This may be amended if the beans suddenly start to do something good. Perhaps I will sneak in a late fall round of peas out there. I used them in a beef stew that I made last night for us to combat the nasty rainstorm we were having. Lately it has been more like California winter than spring or summer here. I made some lean bread to go with it from the freezer. Have I mentioned how wonderful those new bread baking books are?

Well it looks like it may be sunny enough for the jog and hopefully some product pictures. Now... off to jog away that flan!

New Walking Route

My new walking route is, in fact, five miles long. This makes me a happy woman. I now know that if I take that way I do not have to rely on the pedometer and can leave it at home. Sometimes in my want to get fit, I find myself obsessed with those step numbers rather than enjoying the act of walking. My new walk takes me around Lake Merritt in Oakland. It is a nice and picturesque route. There are plenty of people about as well, so that makes me feel more comfortable in taking it as well. There are all sorts of things to look at, so it makes the walk go just that much more faster and is more relaxing. I saw all manner of birds on the water like pelicans and egrets. There were ducks of several varieties and also tons of Canadian geese. The lake renovations have also brought about some new gardens with plants to look at, and some very tall trees were spared as well. They arch high over head and provide a nice dose of shade here and there.

One of the nicest things about the walk yesterday was seeing all the new baby geese. Seeing all those goslings bobbing around made me flash back to my childhood walks with my Grandmother around Lord's park in Elgin. We would take corn and bread with us to feed all the ducks and geese and the deer, elk, and buffalo that were at the park as well. Those were some of the most fun times of the summer. This is of course if there was no rain. It was a continual joke around the house that if we were in need of rain, I should be sent to Grandma and Grandpa's. It seemed like every time I would go there over the summer for a sleep over, it would rain, and we would be stuck inside rather than being able to go to the park. This trend seems to be continuing with this latest walking route. After my walk yesterday, there were unpredicted pop up showers. Today, I am preparing to go on this walk again, and, you guessed it, there are rain showers in the area. I am not going to let this deter me, but I will not be bringing the library books for fear of them getting wet.

Then it is time to really finish up those pants and also work on the belt. I finally decided on the final motif for the embroidery of the bottom parts. Today I will get those done... I hope. Here is to getting out earlier than I thought to get started on the day!

Walks and Library Visits

I am a sucker for desserts, and lately, I have noticed that I am not keeping up with my eating. So, after a disastrous first bout back into exercise by trying to run the stairs in the building, I decided this week to start more slowly. I have started walking with a 10,000 step goal for each day. On Monday I met it, and yesterday I was just a few hundred steps short. I tried a route on Monday that was pretty long but not quite long enough for the full 10,000 steps, but it was supplemented by more walking to meet with Dan to go to a Long Now talk for the full amount.

Yesterday I walked a new route, to the library. I decided to try and visit the Asian branch of the Oakland public library. It was a wonderful find. There were so many books dedicated to Asian forms of crafting, from Asian forms of quilting and Sashiko techniques to paper lamp crafting and bamboo work. There were also many books on traditional textiles of different regions of Asia. I also picked up a book that was full of neat sewing projects for different types of quilted handbags and pouches. It was inspiring and a place that I am sure I will be visiting often. There is nothing like piles of free books that I can borrow to make me a happy woman. Plus, using the library saved me a $40 mistake, purchasing an out of print book that really did not have the information that I needed. It feels good to come out ahead of the game once in a while.

In looking at all of these books, it got me motivated again to work on the elephant and peacock belt. I have some more tassels to make for it as well as some more hand embroidery. Once those things are done, I should be able to sew all the pieces together. I am not sure why I am so hesitant to finish off this belt, but I think some of it may be due to the extreme care and amount of time I have spent on it. I am going to make a good go of getting close to finishing it by the end of the week. I would love to photograph and list it next week. I will post rough pictures of the finished belt here as soon as it is finished. For now I need to look for a longer walking path for today's walk before I sit down for some embroidery work on that belt!

Garden Update

Last weekend I finished up planing the balcony garden, and this weekend I am already saw dividends paid out. These are some small radishes that have pushed their way up through the dirt just yesterday. They are looking really healthy, and I hope to have some good, full radishes this year. Last year's were very small and also not all that round. I always love the crimson color of radishes, and their early clover like foliage is also a favorite of mine. None of the other seeds I planted a week ago have appeared. I still am awaiting action from cilantro, parsley, scallions, beets, and lettuce. Hopefully I will see some new shoots pushing through the dirt in those containers. I know that in gardening you must have patience, and that patience is a virtue, but I would love to see some results now.

The peas seem to be rather happy, and while they are not as tall as I thought they were going to get, they have already flowered. I will have to settle for peas from the farmer's market for now as these are just in the pretty stage and not in the food stage. The beans have just stalled, and I have no idea why or what to do. My speculation is that thing have been so chilly, especially over night, and also so wet with all the late season rain, that the beans are just not happy. Two weeks ago, I took out some of the rather sad plants that were never going to make it and replaced them with new seeds and inoculate. I have not seen any action from those seeds either, but they are also no where near their usual incubation time. I am just hoping that the rain that is going to come this week is not too soaking, so the soil can finally dry out.

I have to say that one of the things I am most proud of this year is my from seed tomato plants. I usually bought my tomatoes in ready to plant seedling form. I just never really wanted to try my hand at starting from seed until this year. My father, mother, and grandmother are phenomenal gardeners. My dad's tomato starts are so good, he had to have extra every year to give to the people he worked with. They were in high demand. I was so excited to see my tomatoes grow up to be this big. I did baby them quite a bit at the beginning, especially due to the windy conditions on the balcony. It was hard to let them go. I finally cut them loose, though, and have quit taking them indoors whenever I thought the wind was too much. They are now on their own.The other plants that I have recently cut loose are my peppers. Last year the pepper plant I bought never got very big, and these are almost as big as the plant I bought last year, only these were more from seed plants. I should have been a bit more vigilant with them as they lost a few leaves in some of the wind storms we have had lately. I hope that they recover the loss. After looking at them this weekend, they seem to be growing and not too bothered by the leaf loss.

The zucchini and cucumbers that I started from scratch are doing okay. One of the zucchini plants has many blooms, but they seem to be missing the interior structures of the flowers for the making of the vegetables. Also, all of the flowers that have opened have appeared to be female flowers only, so even if the plant structures were in place, there would be no way for me to fertilize them. I also am thinking that the cucumber plant is not going to make it. Recently it has been turning brown, and it also tried to bloom with a very small flower that fell off quite early on. The other cucumber seeds I tried to start did not make it, so I direct seeded another plant into the pot. It has also not shown through the dirt yet either. Another place where time will tell and the patience that I need to have is wearing thin. I want to see something soon.

The lemon tree is still kicking around. I am worried about it as the leaves are still dropping off of the tree at a somewhat alarming rate for me. I tried some fertilizer this past weekend, so I will have to see if that helps. I also keep spraying for the two types of pests that it may have. I really hope that the spider mites and potential scale are eradicated soon. I really enjoy the lemon tree and hope that the food does the trick. I know that it does not get nearly enough sun during the winter and late fall months. I am thinking about wintering it indoors in Dan's office this winter, so it can get more sun than it would on the balcony alone. Hopefully Dan and I can learn to tolerate the moths that come out of the soil. We were unable to do that last winter, but knowing the potential harm to the lemon tree, perhaps we can get over it this time. That, however is a long way off.

Today I am hoping to kick back into gear with getting into shape again. Since the move from the old apartment building, there has been little exercise for me. The current place we live does not have a place to exercise, so I am going to try running the stair cases. At least, I am going to try walking them today. I am also hoping to finish the deep cleaning of the kitchen. I need to get all the dust off of the top of the cabinets and wipe down the rest of the cabinet facings that I did not get to last week. There are also some belts that I am working on getting to the finished stage. Soon... I know I keep saying that, but soon!

Weekend at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Yesterday I said that I had taken a bunch of pictures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, It was a great time there, and the drive down was beautiful. I think that it was good for Dan to get away. The building that the aquarium is housed in is partially recycled from the Hovden Sardine factory. They had to demolish the building, but they kept the boilers that were used to power the plant.



They had a wonderful short video of the factory at work in the 1940's as well as displays talking about the old cannery row that used to be on the shore. I thought it was great that they tried to maintain the architectural feel of the old site while embracing the new functions of the space. To me they totally succeeded in this pursuit.

There were all sorts of animals and marine life there. We went to the outside parts of the museum first in case the fog rolled in early and made it too cold to want to poke around outside. They had a great little display of a native California trout stream. There was even my favorite, a turtle, out sunning itself on a fallen log.



There was a tidal pool simulator as well as other interesting displays of what marine life there was in the more shallow areas of the beaches. Next we went inside and ended up in the kid friendly confines of the touch pools. Dan was not up for it, but I touched some star fish and other marine life. The stingrays, however, were having none of it. They were safely tucked away in the farthest corner from us and refused to swim toward all the people wanting to pet them. We next went into the aviary. That was very neat. The birds were so calm and so used to people that the pictures I took make them look like stuffed birds and not the real thing. They were very calm and preening themselves with no regard for the loudness around them.





After that we walked around some of the deep water tanks. There were tuna and schools of sardines. It was neat to see all the prehistoric looking fish swimming around. Sharks slowly pursued smaller fish, and then one of the huge fish would swim toward the sharks and they would disperse. I could have sat and watched the tanks for hours. One of my favorite fish was the sunfish. Having been raised in a family that took a fishing vacation every summer of my life, I thought I understood what a sunfish was. I had no idea that there was a sunfish that existed in the depths of salt water. When I first saw it, the only thing I spotted was the bottom of its fin. I though perhaps there was some sort of sea turtle in the display somehow, but upon further exploration, this is what I saw:



We took a lunch break and then went into the smaller tank areas after visiting the otters. In one of the small tank rooms, they had this awesome display showing the flat fish that hide in the sand. This tank was my favorite because all of the sea creatures reminded me of Dr. Seuss books and characters.



If you look really close in that picture, you can see some of the fish that hide in the sand and have skin that looks like that sandy bottom. It was easier in the tank because you could spot all these eyes looking around and at you. They also had a tank that contained embryonic skates. They are left by the mother in a birthing sack of sorts. We could see it just hanging out in the membrane of the sack.



From there we found the jellyfish. Jellyfish are my all time favorite, well them and seahorses. I took many pictures of the jellyfish tanks, but these are my favorite pictures. Here is Dan contemplating the big tank at the back of the room:



I really liked how that picture turned out. I think it really captured how everyone looks when they turn the corner and catch that tank. The jellyfish in there reminded me of the Chilluly exhibit that I blogged about. Here is the tank with just the jellies up close.



They really looked like his glass sculptures. From the colors to their delicate tails, I was awed by the intricate action in the water and the beauty of movement. They also had moon jellyfish. I like them as well because of their pearl essence in color.



We then wandered into one of the kid friendly areas. The kelp forest. We did not last long due to the numerous strollers and screaming kids. It was approximately nap time, so I blame the lack of naps for the noise. We quickly moved on from there and ended up somehow at the penguin tank just in time for the afternoon feeding.



After that, we were almost fish watched out. We went into the room where the octopus were kept. They were hard to photograph. There was one that looked like a ghost it was so pale and white. The other one was an orange one. It was the classic looking octopus, and boy was it active. It was crawling all over the side of the glass. I tried to take my best picture in the ultra dark room, and this is what I cam up with:



We ended the day by going to Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing. Dan and I agreed to not feel guilty about eating fish after the day of watching them all swim around. The aquarium is big on conservation, obviously, so they had many education stations about over fishing and what fish you should try to not eat because they are endangered or the fishing methods are harmful to the ocean. Therefore we also agreed to start making our "smart fish choices" on Monday.

Yesterday was good. I went to the studio for the first class of the new session. We have been on studio break since December, so it felt great to get back to dancing. I do have to say that I miss doing my yoga before class already. I am going to try to somehow start making time for yoga and working out more at home since Ariellah is no longer able to offer the yoga class. I guess I am just addicted to it. I am also realizing how excited I am about visiting my sister and the family. So I think my life seeming to be back in order has made me also realize how much I miss some people. Normalcy does that I guess.

On the plate for today, I want to desperately finish my tutorial. I would really like to have that up and in place for people to experiment with when I am gone in Delaware. I also want to get down to the gym today, but it is already starting to get kind of late. I guess that means I should really get going on the day.