Silk fusion paper (and stuff)

I have been getting interested in silk fusion paper –it sounds like it would be really cool for origami, although I don’t know if it folds well. It’s basically layers of silk fiber held together with an adhesive, but I bet it’s really gorgeous. I’ve recently bought some handpainted silk from The Silkworker (who, by the way, has the most beautiful handpainted silks I’ve ever seen), and I think it would be beautiful in fusion paper.

Alas, it (like virtually everything else) is going to have to wait until after the AIDS Ride. Things have reached the point where I have very, very little free time, and most of that is being spent with Mike—so the house is a mess, I’m queued up on my craft projects, and I haven’t had any time for handspinning or my other fiber arts pursuits, let alone time to wax philosophical about things (there are at least three or four essays I want to write) or work on the book, which I’m starting to doubt will ever be completed. I look forward to the days when I’ll have free time again. But the Ride is worth it all. (I hope!)

I’m also contemplating getting into electronics…Mike knows a fair amount about it, I’ve always wanted to learn about it, and I think it’d be fun for us to play with electronics kits together. Might learn something useful in the process.

Today is Mike and my three-month anniversary. While we can’t get together today (I’m training tonight and tomorrow morning), we’re planning on celebrating suitably on Saturday. My, how time flies.

Making brown stock tonight...

Mike has woken up my palate again, so I am making soup stock. Brown stock, to be exact, roasted bones and vegetables-and-such. I'm using three pounds of beef bones, 2 pounds of oxtail (they were short on beef bones), three carrots, three stalks of celery, and two onions. I'm roasting the vegetables and the beef bones as I type, and will simmer it all night while I sleep.

I have no idea what I'll use it for yet, but a good soup stock is endlessly versatile. I chill it in 1-quart containers, then slice it into pieces, wrap it in freezer wrap, and stick it in the fridge. It stays there until I need some for soup, sauce, etc.

I continue to do very little besides eat, sleep, train, and see Mike. Five weeks to go...

I have scored duck eggs!

Went to the Alemany Farmer's Market on Saturday, and found me a source of duck eggs! $5 for a flat of duck eggs. I'm psyched--I very much prefer duck eggs for my egg art. (Duck eggs are slightly translucent, producing deep jewel tones, and have smoother surfaces, allowing finer lines to be drawn than on chicken eggs.) I also discovered my favorite bread vendor there, my favorite orchid vendor, and a whole host of interesting stalls. AND they open at what is (to me) a decent hour of the morning--I got there at 7am and found lots of interesting stuff and plentiful parking.

I'll still go to the Ferry Plaza Market, because my favorite peach vendor is there, but I may have to make it a double-header with the Alemany farmer's market. I LOVE farmer's markets!

Other than that, not much news to report--Mike and I continue to cook together (buffalo ribeye steak was the most recent--incomparably yummy), we continue to spend a bunch of time together, and I continue to spend virtually every other waking moment on a bike or in the gym. It is now five training weeks left to AIDS Lifecycle (the last week is always a rest week), and I'm training thirteen and fourteen hours a week. Which translates to more like sixteen to eighteen hours if you include prep time, stretching, rest breaks, and so on. It's like having a second, half-time job!

My schedule this week:

Today: off
Tomorrow: 45 minute weightlifting, 45 minutes on exercise bike
Wed: 1 hour of sprint training
Thursday: off
Friday: 2 hour ride
Saturday: 6 hour ride (76 miles)
Sunday: 2.5 hour ride

I try to see Mike on days when I have the mornings off...then we can sleep in together. All the rest of the time, I'm up and out to the gym or on the exercise bike as soon as I get up.

I'll be glad when it's all over. I'm getting into great shape, though.

See what you think...

...I'm starting to shuffle my treasures around the walls. Here's a photo of two tapestries and the futon cover. I'm not sure if I like the way they're hanging right now--something just doesn't seem quite right. I might swap the red and the black tapestries, or I might hang just the red one--although the red one isn't quite big enough to command the entire space by itself, so I'd have to find something else to hang with it.

Blather, blather, blather. Home decorating is utterly fascinating, but only to the person whose home it is.

Finished the futon cover...

...and it is every bit as beautiful as I had hoped! Deep burgundy, luminously glowing with that shimmer only silk can have--gorgeous. Goes really well with the dark cherry frame and dark cherry floor, too.

Now I'm turning my attention to hanging my treasures from Southeast Asia, starting with the 2'x4' silk rug. I think I'm going to sew it to some blanket binding, then run a rod through the binding and hang it using the rod. How exactly this works I'm not sure yet, but no doubt inspiration will come. Next weekend I plan to pick up some other rods (perhaps bell pull hangers) and use them to hang my tapestries. Tomorrow they're supposed to paint the front hallway (it didn't get repainted with the rest of the apartment) so I can finally look into getting some of my thangka framed and hung there. So much to do!

I have received the book on designing origami and it is everything I'd hoped for. The author is a physicist at JPL, whom I met once, briefly, when I was at Caltech. (I had been trying to fold his origami blue crab for three weeks, without success, and finally called him up to ask. He invited me to come see him after his lecture, and was kind enough to show me how to fold it. Turned out there was an incorrect diagram in the book! no wonder it had been stumping me for weeks.) In this book, which is rich in diagrams illustrating his exact point, he lays out the design principles of origami. I'm only one chapter into it but I'm very happy with it. I plan to curl up with it and really read through it, as soon as I get the chance.

Mike and I are definitely getting into cooking together. Last night we did pan-fried steak with shallot and white wine sauce; a dozen Drake's Bay oysters on the half shell; and bagna cauda, a mix of olive oil, anchovies, and garlic that is utterly delicious (and the recipe of Babylon 5 fame). The Drake's Bay oysters were my discovery (I bought them at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market, from the Hog Island Oyster Co.)--creamy and delicious. The rest of it was Mike's inspiration--hey, the man can cook! (Hands off, I saw him first! :-) )

Just sent out my fundraising letters and am waiting to see the results...meanwhile, I am training, training, training for the ride. This week has been a (much-needed) rest week, then next week I spend 11 hours and 15 minutes training. Doesn't sound like much, but the body's limit is something like 14-15 hours (at least, that's my body's limit), so I'm starting to push it.

....unpacked?!?

I am unpacked!!! I am unpacked!!! I am unpacked!!!

I have now gone through, gutted, and thoroughly reorganized all my belongings. Everything is neatly sorted and stacked, except for four or five boxes of garbage which are still lying around and which will eventually find their way into the trash bin. For the first time in quite a few years, I know exactly what I have and where it all is.

I am unpacked.

The apartment, however, still doesn't feel like home. I haven't settled into any of the new routines yet; it has a raw, un-lived-in feel to it, rattling around like footsteps on a hardwood floor. About the only thing I've done for the past month has been unpack--I still don't know what happens in each of the rooms, which parts of my life go where. I know where my belongings are, but not yet how to live here.

The rest of my life feels unsettled--everything was on hold pending the move, and then of course I've been unpacking, and now the question hangs: what now? I'm not sure which of my craftsy bits I'll pick back up, whether I'll get back to work on the book, and what parts Mike and I are going to carve out for ourselves. It's all unsettled.

Fortunately, it doesn't have to be all settled tonight. Tonight, all that really is settled is that I'm going to be eating raisin bread in about half an hour. I couldn't take the lack of decent bread anymore, and whomped up a batch of honey-whole-wheat raisin bread in my handy Kenwood stand mixer. Yum.

Maybe that'll be part of my new routine. :-)

Went to see my cycling coach today...

...and was pleasantly surprised to notice that I've gotten stronger! I'm now outputting 150 watts at an easy spin, rather than the 100-115 I was formerly doing. It hasn't translated into speed yet because the endurance isn't there, but I do have power--that's nice to know.

We're now doing two kinds of work: endurance work, to get me ready for the long rides, and interval work, which is meant to amp up my power and speed, to get me up hills quicker. I'm looking forward to it; interval work is much more interesting than just sitting there on a bike pedaling.

My futon cover silk is a CHANGELING...!

I'm cranky.

The dupioni silk I ordered for my futon cover has arrived, but it’s not the silk I ordered. They changed manufacturers, so the fabric I got is only a close relative of the swatch I ordered from—it’s woven with a burgundy weft AND warp, whereas the other one had a black warp, which darkened the fabric slightly and produced exciting variations in color. So I’m miffed. The new color is probably livable-with, but it’s not nearly as nice. (They have offered to take it back, since it’s not what I ordered…not sure if I will take them up on it, though.)

Other than that it’s been a good day and a half or so…Mike and I cooked dinner last night (inaugurating my new kitchen)—salmon en papillote with caramelized onions, sautéed wild mushrooms, and carrots; cream of butternut squash soup with a dollop of sour cream; and my secret honey cream cornbread recipe. Everything came out beautifully, except that the carrots were a bit crunchy—the salmon in particular was delectable and perfectly creamy tender. Things cooked en papillote are essentially steamed, so it stayed nice and moist, too.

It is SO nice to have a working kitchen (with functional oven!) again. It’s small, but it will do.

Photo from the Cinderella Century

Yes, I rode 66 miles in this.

I have just discovered the existence of an amazing book!

Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art (Paperback)

I’ve been an origami enthusiast for some time, ever since I was laid up in the hospital for three weeks once with nothing else to do, and have memorized quite a few interesting designs. Robert Lang’s created most of my favorites—I actually met him once, at Caltech, when I was stuck on his origami blue crab—and now he’s published a book on designing origami!! I must have it. Ordered it off Amazon.

Between that and the book on social network analysis, it’s going to be quite a stellar month for new readings.

The unpacking blues

I unpack. I unpack. I unpack. I sort things into neat boxes. I shuffle boxes around and turn them into shelves full of magical books, craft tools, and objets d'art. I unpack some more.

I keep thinking sometime this has got to end. Moreover, sometime I have got to reach a point where the apartment actually looks nice enough to live in, and I can put up all the stuff I really want to see on my walls.

But I'm not there yet, and I won't be tonight, either.

I'm astonished by how much unpacking, organization, etc. is involved in getting the place set up properly. Even when I thought I was properly organized, I come across more pockets of chaos and have to re-sort and re-box things so they're genuinely unpacked, and not just thrown into a corner. Today I have been sorting through the garage, moving stacks of craft-stuff around and organizing them neatly onto shelves. It's been three hours and I've now got a nice shelf full of neatly organized craft things--but there are still three or four boxes to go, and the living/dining room is still a mess. It never ends!!

I think maybe another week of unpacking, and I'll be done. Of course, I said that last week, too.

Well, at least the futon-cover-material is on its way, and by the time it actually arrives I should be set up to handle it! I have the sewing machine out and on a shelf, and I actually know where my thread, notions, etc. are. So that's one bright spot.

The other bright spot is Mike, the guy I've been dating-- here's a link to his blog, if you're curious. We're getting along quite well--taking it slow, but it seems to be progressing, at least enough to introduce him to the rest of the world. Which makes me happy.

Meanwhile, it's back to unpacking. Next on the agenda is digging The Traveling Tiger out of the box he got unceremoniously dumped in during tonight's re-re-re-packing, and putting him back in his place of honor on my desk.

(The Traveling Tiger is a tiny little stuffed tiger who went with me through all of Southeast Asia, in my backpack. I have photos of him in all sorts of odd places. I almost lost him in Laos--he fell out of my pack into a fisherman's boat--and I went running down to the launch site to see if I could find him. When the fisherman produced him, I tipped the guy $5 (a week's salary in Laos) on the spot. They were all laughing at the silly farang, but what the hell--I was and am very fond of the little guy.)

Ordered silk for my new futon cover

Color is going to be dark burgundy, from Hyena Productions. Ordered 9 yards of it, which is going to hurt (nearly $200!). But it will be gorgeous.

All olive oils are not created equal...

...I don't know why I thought they were. But you know, the stuff's green, it comes in a bottle, you buy the darkest green stuff because that's what extra-virgin means, and so on.

Not so. I went off and tasted some of the olive oils on offer at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market, and it's amazing the difference between them. One was sweet and buttery, one was buttery with a hint of an acid bite, one was very acidic and "grassy", one was...well, you get the idea. Five or six different olive oils, all completely distinctive. I will never look at olive oil the same way again.

I bought one bottle of the buttery-with-an-acid-bite and one bottle of delicious roasted-garlic infused olive oil, and plan to use it in cooking.

That's right, cooking. Yes!! The kitchen is usable again, and I have unpacked all my cookbooks (donated 3/4 of them to charity, but I still have two shelves of cookbooks left). Mike, the guy I've been seeing, and I both have an interest in cooking, and are both somewhat out of practice at it, so we're going to try cooking something later this week. I need to look up some interesting recipes in my miscellaneous cookbooks, but at the moment I'm leaning towards something with salmon and wild mushrooms--mostly because I've got salmon and I've got some interesting mushrooms as well. I stopped by the Ferry Plaza farmer's market and picked up some pioppini mushrooms, some cinnamon cap mushrooms, and some fiddleheads (fern sprouts). I have three cookbooks on mushrooms, so I'm sure there will be some recipe good for mushrooms to go with salmon. Or maybe we'll try something else. I don't know...but I do know that it's really nice to be around someone else who likes to cook as well. I'm sure we'll keep each other busy. :-)