Jamie's Blog

Lisa and I made a Mexican dinner for Lori and Dawei who came over to visit the new house. Our menu consisted of:

• Tortilla chips and Pico de Gallo 
• Mexican cheese and zucchini soup
• Carne Asada with spanish rice and refried beans
• Tres leches

Our visitors brought a bottle of margarita, which neatly completed the meal.

The chips were good, but pretty bland. I plan to add some oil and/or lime next time to help with the flavor. The pico was good, but Lisa suggested adding some lime next time. Lisa’s soup was great, although there was too much left over. I thought the carne asada was over-flavored, but the others said it was just fine. The Spanish rice was a bit mushy. I covered the pan for too long, trapping too much moisture in. The tres leches was very good–I’d never had it, and I like that it was different than the desserts I’ve had lately.

This weekend we went to the beautiful Napa Valley, home to many of America’s best wineries.

We went to Lake Placid this weekend for some R&R.

Lisa and I had Grace and Yanan over for a home-cooked dinner. Lisa cut her thumb badly, but still managed to finish her pierogies.

Our menu:

• Garden Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Pierogies with sour cream
• Tomato Bisque
• Chuck-eye Steak with Roasted Vegetables
• Tiramisu

I've just spent a couple hours with lawn care. We bought a riding mower, and I have been zipping back and forth trying to beat the sunset. Hung said the other day that he enjoys cutting lawns–what is he smoking?

What is the American fascination with that green parcel of land called the lawn, that settles in front of suburban homesteads? It's just a useless adornment that we cling to, as a last vestige of that earthy life humankind once lived, straight off the fruit of the land. I was reading an article the other day that claimed that tales of the Garden of Eden, a common cross-cultural motif, was a story to remind us of our transition from gatherers to hunters. Our ejection from Eden was the story of how the children of Adam multiplied and the land could no longer sustain them. Grazeable food became scarce, and we had to become nomads and hunt and disperse throughout the lands. The lawn is our own little piece of Eden, a last connection with a mythic past.

- Jamie

We’ve been working on fixing up our new house. Little things here and there, and bigger things in between. Windows, doors, and furniture are just some of the things we need to take care of. This is taking a lot of time, but this semester is light with school work, and I am just finishing up a large project at work, so the time is right to get going and finish our home.

We are getting new windows tomorrow. They are state of the art, double-hung, argon-filled, low-E, environmentally friendly windows–with lasers on their heads. Although the price is somewhat high, our old windows are in incredible disrepair. I avoid opening them at all costs, as there is no guarantee I can get them to go back down. The energy efficiency tax credit available this year just sweetens the deal further. I can't wait to open our new windows, letting the humid suburban air stifle us slowly.

- Jamie

We awoke today to find our lowest level partially flooded. It sidetracked plans for the day, as we scrambled to dry everything and determine the problem. In the crawl space, I found two mouse carcasses which have now been neatly disposed of. In the garage, somehow a frog had entered and startled me! Later, Lisa and I were bunching branches for yard waste pickup and another, littler, frog, settled within the brush made us abandon our efforts. A trip to Lowes facilitated work on gutters later, but there is yet more to do, if only Mother nature will place nicely!

- Jamie

Lisa and I took these pictures on our recent visit to the Grand Canyon. It was a beautiful place, and we hope to go back again someday.

Even though I scored in the 29th percentile in my age group, I am really happy with my results!  I finished 10 miles in 2:33:17. Hopefully I can improve upon that the next time I race!

2009 Broad Street Run results.

Here’s the link to the results page: http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=56187356&rsID=77533