/home/todd

A few days ago I was snowed in; now I’m fogged in.  Midwest weather is bizarre.  I don’t think I ever saw this much snow in December during the 25 years I lived in Michigan, and now it’s all about to melt because the temperature has spiked to 60 degrees.  Flooding in December?  What a strange year.

This past week has completely flown by.  I put together a draft of our next research experiment, finished off my holiday shopping, and spent an evening building a collection of family photos to fill a cute little frame my sister found for my grandma.  I’ve met up with Leslie and her sisters and gone out with Colleen and Jon a couple of times, but mostly I’ve stayed home and visited with family.  Christmas was a day-long extravaganza that started with just the immediate family, then migrated to my Aunt’s house to see my dad’s side of the family, and ended with 30+ of my mom’s relatives coming over for dessert and drinks.  I think the photos speak for themselves:

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I can’t remember the last time we had the whole family together like that… with so many cousins, it seems there’s always at least someone missing (and aside from being home for a couple of weeks each December, for the last couple of years that person has been me).

So now I’m realizing that I leave in less than 48 hours, and sort of wishing that I was staying longer.  There’s no special someone I want to rush back for this year, and visiting with family has been pretty relaxing.  I’m still having plenty of teary moments when something around here reminds of when Twinkle was staying with us, but they’re finally starting to ebb.  Thankfully I didn’t take her to the nearest coffee shop, so I’ve had the ability to retreat there when being around the house has me a little too depressingly nostalgic.  Yesterday I hid out there for a few hours and tore through a book on audio engineering–at least when I get back, I’ll have some fun new recording projects to try in my home studio.

I was kind of hoping to have a chance to try snowboarding with my little brother Kyle while I was home, but I had research to work on when I first got back, and now the weather has turned all warm.  At the very least, I got to take some cool photos of him on a couple of homemade jumps in our backyard.

Kyle pulling a 180

Last year I moved 2,500 miles away from everyone and everything I’d ever known.  It’s been a wild ride of making new friends, trying to find my place in grad school, gaining and losing a girlfriend, and anxiety about what comes next.  Both this year and last, the ramp up to Thanksgiving has been the hardest time to be away from home.  I can fly home a couple of weeks in December, but I can’t justify a second plane ticket just for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Last year Twinkle saved me from a lonely shut-in weekend and invited me to her family’s dinner, and kept inviting me back daily, the entire time her family was in town.  Simply spending evenings watching old movies with her dad and step-mom made me feel more welcome and loved than I can adequately describe; I’d made friends, but didn’t realize how hard it would hit me when they all left for the holiday and I stayed behind.  Having a place to go and people to visit during that time was the best balm for homesickness I could have asked for.

Even without Twink around this year, her brother repeated the invitation, and I’m really looking forward to it.  Her family is wonderful, and it’ll be great to spend the holiday with them.  He even asked me to drop by early with my guitar so that could jam a little bit–slightly intimidating, since I’ve heard him play and he’s amazing, but it should be good fun.  I have to admit, however, that this feels a little bittersweet; depending on where things go with our relationship (which even I can’t truthfully describe right now), I have the sense that this may be the last time I really feel like a part of her family.  I hope that’s not the case; I don’t want to have found such a loving family only to lose them so swiftly.

Anyway, in contrast to last year, Will and Katie hosted a friend-Thanksgiving this year.  They held it tonight, before people began to leave town, so we were all able to get together for a pot-luck (in the best sense of pot-luck, no mysterious goo here) dinner, drinks, games, and gossip.  A wonderful idea, and they pulled it off perfectly.  It feels great to know that in just a year, I’ve met such an amazing group of people.  I suspect for most of them, it’s mostly another chance to socialize and enjoy a Saturday night, but for the transplants in our group, it really helps to make the west coast feel a bit more like home.

Twinkle introduced me to the wonders of leeks last year, and I keep finding new ways to incorporate them into my cooking.  First (since this was all new to me), a leek is a vegetable related to the onion, but tends to be more prominent in a dish’s flavor than if the chef had used onions instead.  I also find the texture to be more satisfying, but that’s just personal preference.  You can easily chop them up into strips and saute them with some garlic in butter, but I’ve lately found that I like to just get them sizzling for a minute or two, then add some salt and pepper, drop the heat to a simmer, and sweat them until they’re slightly translucent.

Yesterday I added some leeks prepared as above to a bottled pasta sauce with fabulous results.  They add a nice texture to the pasta dish (penne, in this case), and provide some extra variety to the flavor of the sauce.  For a quick side dish, you can saute the leeks until they just begin to brown, then splash in a bit of white wine and stir in some other vegetables (peas or zucchini work well), boil off the wine, and serve!

This morning I wandered down to the second-to-last Corvallis farmer’s market of the year.  My dad had discovered this wonderful market last August, but I didn’t see it for myself until Twinkle took me last spring.  In warmer weather it’s a wonderful, bustling area of fresh produce, live music, and all sorts of other interestingness.  Today you could tell that most of the vendors have packed up shop for the year, the crowd was sparse and the only musicians were a harpsichordist and a sad old man playing his violin.  I found some good-looking leeks, potatoes, and apples, but not much else.

Over the summer, Twinkle and I would get fresh lemonade, soysage, and eggs, and sit and people-watch while eating breakfast on a park bench, but those vendors are gone for the winter.  I tried to get coffee, but the Espresso machine broke.  The honey-stick lady we frequented was gone, as was the wonderful cheese vendor.  Next weekend the market officially closes.  At least when it re-opens in April, Twinkle will be back to enjoy it with.

I just made an inquiry with STA Travel, asking if there’s any affordable way to get from PDX or a nearby airport to Melbourne, Australia anytime in January. Hopefully they’ll have good news for me.

After much nudging from Twinkle, I finally applied for a passport last week.  The post office said to expect it in 6 weeks, but it arrived today.  The photo’s pretty horrid, but not as bad as one of my friend’s–his passport makes him look like Mr. Potato head.  So hurray!  I’m trying to plan a trip to Melbourne to visit Twinkle sometime in January.  Airfare isn’t nearly as bad after the holidays are over, though I’d dearly like to see her for New Years.  In the meantime, I’m putting the finishing touches on a care package of essentials she can’t seem to find there, including good coffee and Q-tips.  Go figure.

Last night I tried my hand at cooking Masoor Dal.  I couldn’t find any fresh Coriander so I used the dried spice instead, and my knowledge regarding mangoes seems woefully inadequate–maybe I just got the wrong variety, but the flavor didn’t work in the dish at all.  It was still edible, but nothing special.  I’ll have to try it again after hitting the Indian grocer on 9th.  This was my first try cooking with ghee, however, and that was amazing… Twinkle’s a big fan of buttery richness in her food, and I think she’ll really like replacing the butter with ghee for added richness in some dishes.  Speaking of, I snagged a lovely Indian cookbook at the bookstore for $3, Rice, Spice, and All Things Nice.  I think it’s time to go look through it for dinner ideas!