Safe Travels

Eric left for The Ice yesterday via commercial aviation (ugh) and is still en route somewhere. The last fully loaded C-130 leaves from base today, and the Antarctic season is in full swing.

There are more NSF personnel down there this year than ever before and Antarctica is not a forgiving place for accidents or miscalculations. If you get a minute, please say a prayer for safe travel and a safe season for all involved.

Thank you!

Words to Chew On

I don't usually get involved in the gay marriage debate, since my passion really lies in the realm of food and the social ramifications related thereto. Recently, however, I ran across an article reposted on LAF (Ladies Against Feminism) - a fantastic site well worth exploring if you're not familiar with it - from The American Conservative about divorce and how it has shaped the gay marriage debate, often to the detriment of traditional marriage supporters.

Although I don't agree with everything it says, the article brings up some ideas and connections I hadn't thought about before with widespread ramifications. It's one of those articles that sticks with you, to be chewed on and digested slowly. If this is a subject you're passionate about, or you're interested in broadening your horizons a bit, you can find it here.

Thinking Ahead

Just a quick note, as much to remind myself as everyone else - I came upon a fun little book called How to Sew a Button by Erin Bried.

It's a really fun, cute book with mini lessons on basic household/ independent living skills that huge swaths of modern women never learned growing up. Sewing a button back on, stain removal, baking bread, writing a budget, etc. It was very well done, and I kept thinking it would be a great gift for a new high school or college grad headed out on their own.

So if you have anyone in your life that fits that description (or will this coming May/June), consider picking up a copy while you're out Christmas shopping anyway in the next couple weeks. Slap a sticky note with their name on it, tuck it in your closet or wherever you hide gifts and pat yourself on the back for being ahead of the game!

PS - If you're prone to losing things because you "put them somewhere safe", you might want to write yourself a reminder on your calendar or in your planner so when May rolls around you can find it again...

While everyone is out doing their Christmas shopping in the upcoming weeks, I thought I'd toss an idea out there -

Practice Quilt

Check this out! I took a Finishing Class at the local quilt shop recently where they came up with a great idea: to make the class accessible to everyone, they donate the fabric and batting for a small practice quilt to all class participants. In class, you cover all the necessary skills for binding and finishing a quilt. When you finish the practice sampler you return it to the shop and they donate it to the local animal shelter! Isn't that sweet?

They gave us a beautiful butterfly fabric that my pictures can't really do justice. I took it with me when Eric and I traveled for Thanksgiving, and he was generous enough to drive so that I could stitch - and I finished it! It turned out really well, and now I can back and bind the quilt top that I made in my first quilting class over the summer. This isn't a great picture, so you can't see all the stitching, but that's probably just as well... it was my first practice piece, after all! :0)

Clutter Up Your House, 101

Though Thanksgiving is not yet quite upon us, the holiday season seems to have started in full swing. Daily influxes of Christmas catalogs fill our mailbox and I confess I find them highly entertaining, though certainly not in the enticed-to-shop way they are intended.

Have you seen the SodaStream Genesis Soda Maker? Laughably promoted as a healthier (no HFCS or aspartame) and greener alternative to buying 2 liter bottles of soda at the store, it allows people to make their own soda at home. Seriously?

For the record, the sucralose/sugar combo and artificial coloring are not better for you than regular soda. Nor are the little bottles of syrup and CO2 canisters you need to buy better for the environment.

Similarly crazy ideas include the mini cupcake maker and mini donut maker. Really cute but totally beyond reason unless you're starting your own novelty bakery.

Both are, however, more palatable ideas than the Vinturi Deluxe Red Wine Aerator. That is an unequivocal flirtation with the end of civilized society as we know it. Either take your wine seriously, buying the good stuff and taking time to properly appreciate it, or avoid it altogether. Anything else is just an insult. *ahem* Stepping off my soapbox now...

The one cool thing I have seen so far is a Portable Scanner Wand. I would have LOVED for these to exist when I was in college! With Keuka's library being so tiny and trips to other libraries so expensive, it would have been a huge benefit to be able to scan the relevant pages of books (including cover pages for copyright info) and then take them back to one's room to read electronically or print rather than taking copious and time consuming notes by hand. Everyone once in a while, things like this make the science fiction I read in high school seem much less like fiction than a quickly approaching phase of reality... though hopefully without the ravenously militant aliens!

Anyway, what comes to mind most often when reading Christmas catalogs is that pretty soon we're all going to need apartments like the one Bruce Willis has in The Fifth Element. Everything from the shower to the fridge stacked on top of something else, sliding up, down or into a wall as needed so the same tiny main living space serves every function. How else are we going to accommodate the flood of gadgets and mini-appliances we're being sold without finding ourselves totally buried?

I recommend skipping the appliance deluge and heading to the library instead. Pick up Pioneer Woman's cookbook and taste decadence on a plate. Start with the cinnamon rolls and chicken fried steak (but not at the same meal). Absolutely divine.

Oh, and just for fun, if you start to stress out about how your house looks heading into the hectic holiday season, hop over to Hulu and watch an episode of Hoarders (the A&E series). Realizing that people all over the country have houses literally labeled with giant red tags declaring them unfit for human habitation or piled so high with detritus that they actually don't know when a homeless person is living in a nest they made in their basement is guaranteed to make you feel better about whatever small messes hit your home over the holidays. (Note: if you are a compulsive cleaner like myself and a few of my friends who also watch this show, please limit yourself to one episode per week. Failure to do so will lead to nightmares. I'm not kidding.)

One more thing and I'll quit spilling the contents of my ball-of-wire-brain: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

The Edge of Cataclysm

S.510 (discussed in previous posts) has passed the House and is due to be voted on in the Senate today. If it succeeds, it will be only a matter of time before the two versions are reconciled and it becomes law. If that happens, we're screwed.

Watch and pray. Hard.

Update: The Senate voted to continue pursuing the bill and will finalize voting post Thanksgiving. An amendment has been introduced to exempt small farms but it's terribly frustrating to see the bill move forward.

Wheat

Some things are too good to keep to yourself, so I am compelled to share the name of an amazing company Eric & I have been blessed to discover and do business with: Champlain Valley Milling Co.

Most people who know us by now have heard that we grind our own wheat. Well the CVMC is where we get that wheat. We mostly stick to hard reds or hard whites because they're the best for bread making, but the company does offer a variety of other options as well.

If you're into food storage, you can do what we do and buy the wheat whole and grind it yourself. If not, you can buy flour; please note that flour loses its nutritional value quickly and needs to be frozen if you're not grinding as needed. Either way, its worth it to check this company out - seriously, we just ordered another 100 lbs of wheat for $50. Considering that a 5 lb bag of whole wheat flour is $6 at the store (and has already lost both its nutritional value and best cooking baking properties long before purchase), its easy to see how drastically this cuts our grocery bills!

If you don't have a grinder, you can check them out here (they come in manual and electric versions). I strongly encourage anyone who bakes regularly or who is trying to improve their diet to check out this company. Their customer service is as excellent as their product!