Blogging from a plane..for real this time

Unlike my other posts where I write stuff on the plane and then post once I am on the ground, this time I am actually posting my blog in flight. It should come as no surprise that this is because the wireless access is free. It doesn't make up for the flight delays, though.
Anyway, happy New Year's everyone and best wishes for a wonderful year in 2011! And please drink a few drinks for me as I am probably going to be stuck in transit!

Blogging from a train and a plane

I’m on a train, returning from Sacramento. Since I haven’t gotten into my book yet, and there is no internet access here, it seems like a good time to get caught up on my blog.It’s been a while, so I’ll cover a mishmash of topics. Perhaps I will split it up once I actually post it.
The train is passing just south of where I usually drive. I did not recognize it at first. In the car, it is easy to forget that much of the area is actually delta wetlands. On the train, after a month of rain, it is easier to see.
I’ve been in Ithaca for more than six months. It was almost midsummer when I arrived, which meant that it still hadn’t warmed up and the forest hadn’t completely filled out. Now midwinter has passed, bringing with it subfreezing temperatures for most of the month, but surprisingly little snow. On the evening of the solstice, I passed flocks of crows roosting in the trees. They looked like large black leaves in the winterbare trees.
Although I do like to talk about the weather, the adjustment hasn’t been too difficult. I’ve had to buy some more clothes but other than that it isn’t too bad. It helps that I have good cold tolerance, and that I’m fatter now than I was a few years ago. There is a damp chill in California in the winter, and poorly insulated houses, and it’s good preparation for colder climes.
Ithaca is cloudy much of the time, due to the influence of Cayuga Lake. The hilly terrain and the large number of trees add to the overall effect. It is rare to be in full sunlight, and it is noticeable when it does occur. Nonetheless, the light is amazing.
I have not been blogging very much lately. The combination of a very busy month at work and my budding relationship with cowdude have apparently sapped my motivation to blog. Hopefully it will come back before I get sucked into the next research proposal.
I saw T when I was in CA. It was odd to see him now that I am seeing cowdude. It felt like there was more distance between us, and at times I wondered what I saw in him or why I stayed with him so long. He kept insisting that we get together if I had time left after I got back from Missy’s. There won’t be enough time to do anything, but I wouldn’t have called him. Something about it sounded empty, like he was just saying that to fulfill some sort of imaginary obligation. (Missy – this is the other reason I wasn’t in a rush to get back.) It is time to sever that tie. I debated whether I should defriend him on Facebook, but I should’ve done it when he broke up with me. For me to do it now it would be too little, too late, and might send a message of something other than indifference.

Perfect timing

Yes, it's true, the new version of Bejeweled is being launched on my birthday. 

Scene from my bed, many mornings

Rugrat and Luna have it down to an art form.  If they are especially hungry and/or I am sleeping in too long, they both climb on my bed, and Rugrat proceeds to annoy Luna, who growls and starts to have an asthma attack.  If that doesn't get me up, Rugrat will move in closer and Luna will bitch slap her.  Eventually I get up and feed them.  The instant I start heading to the kitchen they forget their act and are friendly to each other again.
Anyway, that's not really blogworthy but when I saw this cartoon I just thought it was perfect and wanted to share it.

It's that time of the year again

I am such an old biddy that even though I know my birthday is coming up, I was totally unprepared for Missy to start calling me "Old Biddy". Perhaps it's because I've been so busy with work, or perhaps it's because I'm an old biddy year round.
It's been a crazy three weeks. All I want for my birthday is 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and a clean house.

Bacon Cake

You know you want it. Yes, it's time for me to make a bacon cake. I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner at one of the grad students place. We've had many discussions about bacon, so it seemed just fitting.
I found a recipe online which sounded good and I had all the ingredients. Here it is.
Bacon-Brown Sugar Coffee Cake

6-8 slices bacon (regular or sugar or maple-cured, but NOT peppered or jalapeño or garlic or anything you wouldn't want in cake)
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
2 cups AP flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup uncooked rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour the bundt pan.

Fry the bacon slices until crisp. Set aside to cool and drain.

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in to creamed mixture and blend.

Crumble or chop bacon slices into little pieces. Add dark brown sugar and oats, and mush together with your fingers to get the bacon and sugar blended and clumped with the oats. It will be a loose mixture, but you want the three elements to be well-acquainted with each other.

Put half the cake batter into the bundt pan (you'll have to put globs of it in--it's a thick batter), then top with half the bacon mix. Put on the rest of the batter, and top with the remmaining bacon mixture.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until done (test with a toothpick or your finger). Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before eating. If you let it cool for a few hours, the cake itself seems to taste a little sweeter.


The preparation of the cake went pretty much as described. I cooked up a bit more bacon than called for, since I knew the cats were going to come and beg. (They did) The bacon/sugar/oat mixture didn't stick together like it said, but instead made a sort of loose bacon streusel mix.
There was a bit of collateral damage when I tried to remove the cake from the pan. The bacon struesel had stuck to the sides and the cake didn't pull out cleanly. I covered it with some frosting so it didn't look quite as bad.
The cake was pretty rich, and tasted sort of like a cake doughnut that had sat on a plate with some maple syrup and bacon. It was tasty, and the grad students liked it. As for me, I don't have the metabolism that I did when I was a grad student so I'd better just stay away from bacon cake as a matter of principal.

A Brief Snippet in Time

A Friday morning walk/jog around my neighborhood. The air was cold, the sun was just coming up, I was listening to my favorite new song, and one of the neighborhood dogs came over to greet me with doggy kisses. As I looked up I saw the first few snowflakes start to fall, and saw the golden sunrise on the horizon, and realized that I had passed through one of those moments when my little section of the universe is in perfect balance.