this one's for Luke

I know he loves the gaudy presentation, so I had to post this. What is it? I think it's a flash flood watch for Wednesday.

weird dream

I was on the UNT campus, showing my family around. There were these large structures that looked so awesome, it was like entire parks and botanical gardens up in the sky. I was telling people that I had never been up in them for some reason, but that we should go up there and hike around in the mountains. Yes, there were mountains contained within the building. There was even one that looked like a recreation of a cliff dweller village.

We were walking around and then went back to someone's house. It was huge and the yard extended almost to the edge of UNT's campus. We went inside and were sitting at the table when a tornado came through the dining room. I saw it coming and almost got out of the way, but thought "it's only 6 inches wide, how bad could it be?" and I let it go right over me. It was like standing under a giant power hand dryer - awesome! I couldn't look up into the middle of it because I had to close my eyes, unfortunately. I looked around at the people at the table afterwards, some people from my family, some strangers, and my family knew how excited I was that I had finally seen a tornado that wasn't in a dream. I had to explain this to the strangers.

I went back outside and was explaining to Jenna that the owners of this house had thrown an awesome party the other week. I wasn't there, but I heard about it. I was looking at a helicopter leaving from a giant hospital building that was next to the park building and cliff dweller building. Suddenly, it fell out of the sky and crashed. There was a big commotion on the street somewhere. Then maybe twenty minutes later, another helicopter began to leave from the hospital. I watched it take off, hang in the air for a second, and then fall about five stories straight down to the ground, this time at the other end of the yard in which I was standing. I could hear the pilot yell, "Shit!" and start to struggle out of his seat belt. I ran back to the house and yelled for Aunt Diane to come because there was another helicopter crash (and she is a nurse). I wondered if it was the same patient from the first crash that they were still trying to fly somewhere, and thought that patient's chances of survival were probably pretty dim after two helicopter crashes.

Huevos Rancheros

I am breaking my blog's vow of silence to post a favorite recipe of mine that I have been making a lot lately. It is so fast, and sooo good for breakfast or brunch, or even lunch, or even dinner! But maybe not for dessert.

I wish I had a million pictures to post like Pioneer Woman, but here goes:

Huevos Rancheros (serves 4)

8 corn tortillas
8 eggs
1 can refried beans
shredded cheese (Monterey Jack is great)
cilantro
your favorite red salsa
avocado (optional)
salt
pepper

Get your cilantro, avocado, and cheese ready ahead of time, because once this gets going, it only takes a few minutes to cook.

Then start your tortillas - you can either warm them in foil in the oven, or on in a skillet. I forget where I learned this, but I like to put a little oil in a pan, heat a tortilla on medium-high for a minute or two, then lift up and add another underneath. Repeat. Add oil as needed. This way, each tortilla gets a little bit fried but the ones on top stay warm and soon you have a nice little stack.

While doing this, get your beans cooking on the stove and start the eggs. The eggs should be cooked over-easy so that the yolks are a bit runny. You may have to do them in 2 batches so they have room to spread out. Salt and pepper the eggs to taste.

To assemble: put two tortillas on each plate, and spread a layer of refried beans on top. Add cheese, and quickly top each tortilla with an egg fresh off the pan, so the cheese melts. Garnish with cilantro and avocado, and top with plenty of salsa.

That's it! It is so fast and yummy. You can serve these with bacon on the side to make a hearty brunch. Add an extra egg and tortilla per person if you are really hungry. They can be picked up and eaten like tacos, or you can cut them into pieces with a knife and fork. Mmmmm.

Chameleon Chamber Group in SPACE

Oh goodness. I guess I better show you this. It's a video we shot in Hal Samples' SPACE for the Dallas Observer DC9 blog, they're doing a series of these with local bands. Enjoy!

HOT

Yes, it's hot. I know Luke likes the gaudy presentation so I would like to point out the flames coming up from Thursday and Friday. Notice that the weather people have started Twittering. I think it's kind of cool, because Pete Delkus on WFAA started Twittering and he's already great at severe weather updates. When there is bad weather he stays up all night explaining where the rotation is on the radar and checking in with the chopper and all that. But, you know, Pete's in his 50's so when I read this post from last week I thought for sure his account had been hijacked:

"what a night!! from porno to a sloppy drunk...one i won't forget anytime soon!"

I was like, whoa Pete! Get a hold of yourself! Then I read the previous post:

"the drunk guy is still outside...he is so smashed he is falling all over the place!"

and the one before that...
"we have some guy outside the studio at victory park right now that is stumbling drunk!! he just urinated on the building!!!!"

and the one before that...
"i'm getting twitter porn!!!! who's doing this?????"

So then I kind of figured out the meaning of the first post. It's just so weird hearing the weather guy be so chatty and informal, I guess because I always felt like weatherpeople had a formal persona on the news. They're like public school teachers; there's an unwritten rule that they shouldn't be getting wasted at the summer festival downtown, or going grocery shopping in goth getup. They're public figures and they're supposed to be model citizens, even when they're off the clock. There's a certain level of polite impersonal behavior that everyone agrees on.

Now with Facebook and Twitter, there is a collision of traditions. Because weatherpeople on TV are brisk, cheery, authoritative, and a bit detached. But people on Twitter are highly personal, subjective, and basically trying to find the most unique thing they can say to sort of define their personality and interpret their current situation. So weatherpeople on Twitter are... talking about Twitter porn and drunks outside urinating in public. That's OK. I just need to get used to it. It's probably really boring reporting the weather during summer in North Texas anyways: Sunny and hot.

summer update

I know I haven't really posted anything for a long time, so I thought I would post an update about everything that has been going on in my life! In no particular order, here are some things I have been thinking about, doing, looking forward to, etc:

Jenna and Joe are moving here in two months! I am beyond excited to have family here in Denton, and it's been 10 years since I lived in the same town as my sister. We have always been close, and I am looking forward to sharing lots of meals, sister time, CSA produce, bike rides, and who knows what else? I think they will really like it here in Denton, and while we may not be living here much longer than a year or two, if we get jobs elsewhere, it is going to be really fun while it lasts.

I'm going to Virginia tomorrow to visit my dad's family! I haven't been out there for three years or so, and although I have seen various relatives at weddings and such, I have been really wanting to get back out there to Virginia. I haven't even seen where my grandparents live since they moved into a retirement community, and one of my biggest regrets is that I have not gotten to know them and my aunts, uncles, and cousins better. My grandparents are getting older, and while we never know how much time we have on this earth, I know that they are probably reaching the end of theirs soon. I hope that while I only have two days there, I can make the most of it by renewing these relationships and spending some quality time with everyone.

My semester and really, my entire year was insanely busy, as I believe I mentioned in my post entitled "busy." But you don't want to hear about that. Now, I am having lots of fun crossing things off to-do lists. As an enthusiastic list-maker, I have worked out a system. I have a master to-do list that has been very neglected, and each week I have been pulling a few things off that along with other tasks for the week, and very neurotically assigning them days on which I will do the tasks. These range from "call Amy," which I have been attempting to do for weeks, to "file sheet music," which has been collecting in a pile since January, to "update vita," (those of you who know what a vita is know why I have been putting this off), to "health ins receipts," which is short for "get those receipts from prescriptions you bought for the past year and figure out if the health insurance will pay for them and then send them off to wherever they need to go." I also have a list of clarinet/career related goals for the summer which involve submitting a program to the clarinet festival in Austin next summer, creating a personal website with sound clips and all, and doing preliminary research for my dissertation. So as you can see, I have more than enough to do this summer and I'm glad to finally have some time to attempt it all. And my lists help give me direction, and it is oh so satisfying to cross things off!

My less-ambitious activities include beating Paper Mario (check) and Zelda: Windwaker (just started), cooking, catching up with friends, drinking, dinner parties, reading whatever I feel like reading, and hopefully going up to lake Ray Roberts a couple times with friends.

In a couple weeks we're also going to Utah for Greg's grandpa's 90th birthday celebration!

My mom and Kate came for a visit last week and it was awesome! We spent a whole day in Fort Worth, a whole day in Dallas, and time in Denton too. We even went to see Bonnie 'Prince' Billy in Dallas where the picture below was taken by the Dallas Observer and put online!



I've been playing in a band in which I wear a ridiculous wig and play amplified bass clarinet. We play classical greatest hits with a twist, and new stuff, and we're nominated for a Dallas Observer music award!



So that's pretty much it. Oh, and it's hot here. Really hot. Just how I like it.

Swine Flu FAIL

from here.

Incidentally, there is a school closed in Dallas County due to a confirmed case of the virus. Should I be scared yet?

According to this CNN article, we are in danger of being TOO scared because Twitter is causing mass hysteria. Apparently 2% of all "notes posted on the site" (tweets, no doikus) referenced the swine flu on Monday. More:

Slattery, the PC World contributor, also criticized television news stations like CNN and Fox News for hyping the story and adding to public fear.

He said he generally was excited about Twitter until recently. Now, it's changing, and he finds the site to be "an incredibly unreliable source of information."

Again, no doikus. I actually find Twitter to be a very entertaining and reliable source of mental diarrhea. Which seems to be contagious.