food, glorious food!

There's this great little outlet grocery that is, no lie, called discount grocery.  It's kind of a mix between a dollar store and the clearance isle at any given grocery store.  A few years ago I lived only a block away from this lovely place and would make frequent trips returning home with all sorts of great finds.  Once they had Naked Juice for a dollar a piece! Sure they expired in two days, but these usually go for up to $4 a pop at Safeway! So.... I bought them all.  I believe there were close to 20 of them.  I threw them in my freezer and had the most delicious smoothies for the next few weeks. Point in case- this place is awesome. I am not above consuming nearly expired food. I don't frequent it nearly as often as I once did, but recently found a steal of a deal on cereal. family size box of special k berries for 1.50! YES!   Being a lover of smores, I couldn't pass up a box of this for a dollar.

I was thrilled to try what I understood to be a new sugar cereal (for only 100 pennies!!!) and try what all the kids must be eating these days... only to have my hopes partially crushed by my neighbor who informed me this was nothing new and had been around for years.  I was disappointed to learn that I had been missing out on such an awesome cereal for so long. (but only until I tried it... it's not bad, just definitely better dry.)  Something bothered me about this cereal box though.  I remember kids cereals having games and what not on the back of the box.  

Nutrition at a glance?! where is my word puzzle?! at least a crazy cartoon mascot who loves smorz cereal?... childhood obesity is ruining all the fun of sugar cereals.

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Living in a place with such an abundance of great eateries I splurge all too often on food.  like the bbq zucchini sandwich at someday lounge i had a few days ago (a.maz.ing. once i figure out how to recreate this to-die-for sammy i'll be sure to share the recipe because EVERYONE should try it. it's just that good). when i first moved to oregon, my old roomie, kat, and i would have fancy ramen nights where we would see how creative we could get with a .25 ramen package. we came up with some pretty impressive dishes. it's a great way to make up for food overspending here and there and hilarious to try and make a  meal for as cheap as possible. my latest accomplishment could have easily fed four all for under .99, is made up of a combination of the 3 cheapest college foods, creating something entirely new.

may i present,

Maca-romi-n-weenie-cheese!

make your macaroni &cheese as per usual. for last two minutes of boiling noodles add a brick of ramen noodles and a couple chopped up turkey dogs (try adding peas or broccoli!).  when adding that great cheese powder, throw in the ramen spices. walla! a tasty pasta cheesey mess that tastes nothing like macaroni OR ramen and tastes only partially like the artificial food it actually is. (really- it was pretty good!) if the magazine Gourmet wasn't going out of business i bet i could definitely get them to feature this gem of a meal!

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i love breakfast foods, especially when i get to eat them for different meals. mr b alexander made me some incredibly tasty potato pancakes for lunch this afternoon.  I had never had a potato pancake, but was very impressed and hope it was the first of many!

(b doing his best impression of his nephew's pose-for-the-camera smile)

I wouldn't have thought to put applesauce on a savory cake like this, but the onion and applesauce went really well together.  frying an egg on the top of a cake was super tasty, too.

which brings me to another food item...

i grew up eating cowboy eggs which is an egg fried in a hole in piece of bread.  recently i have heard a variety of other names for this beloved breakfast.  eggs in a basket, cyclops sandwich (i think this is my favorite) and runny bread are a few.  i'm incredibly curious to find other awesome names for my breakfast favorites i've been missing out on.  perhaps i'll write a coffee table book of foods with multiple names. i'd totally buy that book.

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thus concludes my school work procrastination entry-o-food.  

Spiders from Mars... I mean Malaysia!

Whoa whoa whoa whoa.... what a second. Something great has happened, and I want to be sure as many people as possible are aware of it. 

Peter Jäger has named a spider after David Bowie . 

This is pretty much the greatest news ever.

May I present to you, Heteropoda Davidbowie.

(cute little fella, eh?)

but that's not all... I'm pretty sure after 11 months of brainstorming for a halloween costume, I have found my inspiration.  I don't want to give too much away, but I have come up with this rough equation for, what I hope, will be my costume success.

 ((Heteropoda Davidbowie + Ziggy Stardust) + Paper-mâché )  =  me + total costume domination

I have high hopes...  this could be a pretty spectacular costume, perhaps even defeating my two previous favorites, the robot and Dr. Who.

(if anyone has any suggestions of how to meld a jumpsuit and paper-mâché, please let me know.)

Thanks, Peter. For giving Mr Bowie the ultimate (...?...) tribute.

also exciting news:  I just discovered itunes new feature, itunesU, which provides heaps of lectures and lessons and other various ways of gettin' smart... for FREE!

Check out: Library of Congress - music & the brain webcast

science is super

my latest time sucking site that i can't seem to get enough of is ted.com.  i was reading about WiTricity today and am again overwhelmed with how awesome science is. to think that all electrical cords could one day be a thing of the past, along with the vcr and cell phones bigger than your face, is pretty exciting. 

also exciting:

i'm thinking about trying to hire her just to play theme music for me as i go through my mundane activities.  it would make even cleaning the bathroom seem slightly thrilling.

you can't fix stupid.... except with maybe a little education.

ah... health care. as much enjoyment as i get out of political discussions, i think i am very near being exhausted on the topic.  even if i don't agree with the protesters, i'm glad that people are getting off their couches and doing something for what they believe. however, i do wish instead of just a "no" (& a better leader than glen beck, but that's an entirely different can of worms) that perhaps they could come up with a better idea. i cannot deny seeing there needs to be a change. i would be alright without socialized health care if we could put in place some sort of system that could offer checks & balances that could eliminate the problems within a for-profit health care system. this picture of the tea party protest made me cringe.  i highly doubt (all the while understanding i could be completely wrong, i'm only going on what i know of those typically involved with conservative agenda) that the woman holding a sign of "hands off my body" is pro-choice. I would be willing to wager she would never in a million years vote to legalize abortion.  if one is fighting for freedom and is against government control, i fail to understand how that same person would try and take away the freedom to choose. (or see a need for public education. or libraries. or firefighters. or maintained roads.) lady, i agree with you. no one should be in charge of your body but you.  isn't that what health care reform is aiming for though? the right to allow american citizens to be able to take care of their bodies?  the current system, and only option, for health care is corrupt and failing us.  i hope we as a nation are able to find some sort of solution.

but if we don't....

it doesn't really matter, because according to dan gilbert*, a psychology professor at harvard, synthetic happiness is just as good as natural happiness.  so when the time comes for my uninsured body to completely fall apart, all i've got to do is synthesize some happiness and i'll be set to go.

*this is a fairly long video, but well worth the time of watching it. the study he speaks about @ 10 minutes is especially interesting to me, and further proof of how fascinating our brains really are.

musicophilia

i've always loved music, and as my mother can attest to, this love has at times been borderline obsessive. during my adolescent years i would rarely give my eardrums a break, wearing headphones or blasting music from my stereo nonstop for days at a time. unrelenting music & too many concerts without earplugs have left me with tinnitus, but hasn't slowed my affection towards music. lacking basic skills required to create my own music (mainly the attention span & determination to stick with and stay focused on practicing something long enough....) my musical outlet is mostly in the form of being a music appreciator. i am often overwhelmed by the infinite onslaught of good music (and equal, if not more, amounts of bad) that is being created. i have this constant hunger for new music that i can never seem to satisfy. the more i learn about the psychology behind music the more i love it even more. (if you haven't read oliver sack's musicophilia i highly recommend it... or anything sacks does for that matter. he's a guy i'd like to have for a neighbor that occasionally invites me over for tea in his garden as he blows my mind with casual conversation.)  with the recent findings that 14 different species of parrots  have the ability to dance, it only makes sense that someone would now be on the quest to create music for animals. cellist david teie has set out to find why music affects us on such a primal level, and what better place to start than making monkey music. in the article, teie says "The paradox is that I distinctly remember thinking once that when they figure out why Puccini makes me cry, I hope I die the day before the news gets out. But the great news about this exploration into music is it's actually more magical and wonderful once you realize how it works."  i, for one, hope he is successful on his musical crusade.

kid stuff

despite what b.alexander's face may seem to be telling you in this photo, he is quite good with youngsters. especially when it comes to his adorable nephews and niece. His brother & his wife were in town for a wedding this week, so we had the chance to spend some time with them.

jamie & evan are doing something, probably many things, right as they have the most intelligent children i have ever met. jarom (5 as of this week) kicked my butt at monopoly-- he knew the rules better than i did and was a very accurate banker. he and 3 year old pacen know their times tables up to 12, and can do all sorts of complicated (by my standards) math problems-- even when you try & trick them up with order of operations. little miss tatum is probably the cutest little girl to ever be & it took all i had to not eat her up. tuesday we ventured off to the oregon zoo, my first visit, and had entirely too much fun taking pictures of the kids.

my favorite part of the zoo was not the animals, but the fantastic people watching. so i'll leave you with this young gent with his back to school fashion tips. (please note: homemade pokemon puff paint pants. hot.stuff.)

the robots are coming

the age of machines ruling the world is upon us! meet cybraphon, a robot band that plays its own music. this on its own is amazing, but there's more. cybraphon has moods, and it is these moods that stimulate the creation of its music. cybraphon is hooked up to a laptop that pays attention to how many friends it has on various social networking sites, and the comments it may receive. the more positive feedback it receives, the more upbeat the music is, and vice versa. pretty much amazing in every way.

and although this video is not so much robot involved, it's in the same category of cool.