Pasadena

Following up on my last post, I'm here to tell you a little about Pasadena.  It's not only home to that little old lady, but also the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where my brother's been pursuing his PhD for the last several years.

[via Google Maps]

As you can see, it's a tad northwest of L.A. itself, right at the foot of the mountains.

It seemed like a great place to live!  Clean, well kept, a nice downtown area with great shops and restaurants.  Of course, the warm and sunny weather didn't hurt the first impression.

A shot of city hall:

Hanging out downtown:

Mike and my brother, the whole reason for the trip!

This was taken at Lucky Baldwins, a fabulous Pasadena pub where they know good beer.  Excellent beer in fact, so much so that I felt like I was back in Belgium (they had a Belgian beer festival on the go).  Mike and Tim were beside themselves when they found out there was a very special launch of a Californian triple IPA happening on Sunday afternoon.  West Coast IPA is their favorite type of beer, so this was going to be triple the fun.  We had to jump through several hoops to qualify for the tasting, but it was worth it!

Here we are with our coveted glasses of Pliny the Younger, Russian River Brewing Company's IIIPA:

(I've been known to like a West Coast IPA myself).

Later that day...

We found ourselves poolside at the Westin Pasadena, soaking up some California rays!  The heated pool and great view didn't hurt either.

On Monday, Evan took us to school for a tour.

This is his building - home to some great minds.  The building itself was impressive.  The architecture was interesting with few right angles to be found.  It was filled with creative thinking spaces, for instance, rooms with entire chalkboard walls and colourful, comfortable seats.  When you are a theoretical astrophysicist, a place to think is the main tool you need (oh, and a ridiculously large computer).

The campus is home to many olive trees.  At one point, the dean had a bet with some students that they couldn't produce a bottle of olive oil from these olives.  Well, they did, and you can now purchase Caltech olive oil!

The "Gene Pool" - check out the double-helix tiling at the bottom.

Loads of turtles in the turtle pond!

We did see more of Pasadena - mainly restaurants, which I'll try to cover in a "California - the food" post soon.  It was great to finally see Evan's home here.  As I said, it seemed like a beautiful place to live.  Particularly since there was no snow and it was 25-30 degrees in March!

California!

Just a week ago I returned from a vacation in glorious, sunny, southern California.  The trip was a long time coming.  My brother has been in grad school there for the past four and a half years and we were long overdue for a visit on his turf.  Also, friends of ours have been raving about southern California as a vacation destination for years!  They twisted our rubber arms a few months ago and before we knew it, the four of us had the trip booked.

First afternoon: all of us at poolside in Pasadena.  Thirty degrees - not bad for March!

 Just a taste of the fabulous food we had:

I fell in love with palm trees...

... and generally felt right at home in California.

More posts to come!

Leap!

Tomorrow marks the first Leap Day of runty mouse's existence.  A few links and tidbits to mark the occasion:

It's my Aunt Barb's birthday!  How old are you now, Barb?  Fifteen?

Despite the anti-aging benefit, apparently being born on Leap Day isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Thus, the Leap Day babies have banded together in an online support group!

Most amazing 30 Rock episode yet: Leap Day.  In which these geniuses create a complete, detailed, believable, fictional holiday with all the trimmings.  A little clip here (poor quality but you get the gist) .

[Leap Day Kenneth William] 

(found here)

Google's plan to honour the day.  Check out Google tomorrow to confirm!

Wikipedia sums up all that is known about Leap Day.

My words of wisdom for tomorrow:  don't be afraid to take a leap!

Souvenir of Newfoundland

When preparing to leave Newfoundland several months ago, I thought about what I'd like to have for a souvenir.  I had a few good ones:

My mummer ornament.

My extensive photo collection.

1. Lighthouse, 2. Urchin, 3. Near Port Aux Basques, 4. Cape Bonavista Lighthouse, 5. Dungeons Provincial Park, 6. Kilmory Resort, 7. St. John's fence 3, 8. Ferryland lighthouse, 9. Cliffs, 10. Rasta-sheep, 11. Megan and Laura at the Sea Stack, 12. Blue at the Spout, 13. Untitled, 14. ECTA sign, 15. Rocky seas, 16. Durrell

And of course, my degree.

 

I felt that I needed something else, something that, like the mummer, represented the traditions of Newfoundland.  And then it came to me.  There was a little yarn shop two blocks away.  The owner designed her own patterns.  Among them, there was a pattern for a traditional fisherman's sweater (but toddler-size and therefore do-able).

It's been a slow process, but the project is coming along.  The pattern is one you have to focus on - not exactly mindless knitting.  But it's a fun one!  Check out this nubbliness:

And the cables (love a cable):

A close up of the back panel:

Progress so far:

By the way, in case you were wondering, there is no current intended recipient of this baby sweater.  It's something I'll keep on hand, just in case I need it down the road...

Want to see more knitting projects?  Check out this blanket and this blanket, this hat, this scarf, these mittens, oh, and these mittens too.

For the love of cranberry

Cranberry sauce with turkey is the holiday equivalent of pineapple on pizza.  You like it or you don't.  One of the great dichotomies of life.  Since I'm dedicating a whole post to cranberries, I think you can guess which side I favour.

[found here]

For years I thought canned cranberry sauce was a-mazing.  Sweet, tangy, easy, there.  That was before I was doing any of the cooking.  A few years back I took to making the sauce from scratch - which is dead easy.  Boil a cup of sugar and a cup of water, add a bag of cranberries and cook til the skins split.

Last year, I came across a more involved cranberry sauce recipe in Sweet Paul Magazine.  I knew I had to try it!

"Sauce" is an understatement.  This stuff is called Spiced Cranberry Apple Relish and is just as fancy as it sounds.  But fun to make!

First, dice up the cranberries - I threw them in the food-processing attachment of my immersion blender and a few minutes later:

Citrus really makes this recipe zingy (zest and juice of oranges and lemons).

Grated fresh ginger adds the eponymous spice.

Bit of sugar tames things down a bit:

And the final product.  Cranberry lovers rejoice!

Best enjoyed with turkey and all the trimmings.  Happy holiday eating to all of you, cranberry lovers or not!