Photos

 With my husband

 Not all that far up Mount Lemmon

San Xavier Mission

Tucson Trip

Last week, the airport managed to open in time for my flight out. I couldn't have been more excited. I was visiting my sister in Arizona. I had never been to a desert before. And we were going to an observatory (see previous posts about my nerd-dom).

I got in late Wednesday night. Thursday morning, we were up early and went for a trail run. I spent most of the time being terrified I'd see a snake and being thirsty. The thing I learned about the desert is that even if you're not remotely dehydrated, you're thirsty, because the air is making your mouth dry. In the afternoon, we went to the Desert Museum. It was kind of like a garden and a zoo. The afternoon is not a good time to go to a zoo in Arizona. Just about every animal was asleep, or at least hiding from us. Then we went to dinner and drinks and I bought a used copy of the Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? board game. Clearly, we played that.

Friday was a gorgeous, hilly bike ride. I used a road bike for the first time in a long time, and it had the clip pedals, which I had never used before. No falls, and I managed to get out of the clips to save myself from a fall as I got used to shifting with longer hills than I'm used to. I did get really winded a few times, but I'm chalking that up to the altitude, not my fitness. We were supposed to leave for the observatory at 3, so we went home and got lunch, then met up with some of Elaine's friends and found out that it was going to be too humid to use the telescope, so they canceled the event. Boooo. So we went out for Mexican food and hung out for a while.

Saturday, we went to Biosphere 2. I learned that Biosphere 1 was the earth. It was really interesting to see what they intended to do and what they currently use it for. Then we were going to go to a bar to watch the beginning of the Notre Dame game. We got quite a bit side tracked at the garage sale at REI (I got a GPS watch for 1/2 off because of a scratch on the screen that you can barely see) and wound up getting to the bar at halftime. I average watching .25 football games a year. This was an entire half with three overtimes. You're welcome, Notre Dame fans. I'm pretty sure the universe was trying to get me to watch football more regularly, so the game was really interesting AND ND won. Then more food and drinks with more friends.

Sunday, we got up and went for a hike on Mt. Lemon. It was really cool to go from cactus-y desert to a forest that would be at home in the northeast just by going up. I did take pictures so you can see the progression from cactus to trees, but I haven't uploaded any yet. We then went to the San Xavier del Bac Mission. Pretty much exactly what I expected. Since they Dia de los Muertos celebration was going on, we went to check that out in town. It was really interesting, but also really creepy.

Monday, I flew home. I gave up my seat on my flight for a $400 airfare voucher and a $7 food voucher (for the terminal). Then, I checked my bag for free at the gate. I wound up making money on this trip. I was kind of hoping to be able to give up my seat on the next flight to get even more money. Maybe next time.

October Mail

I'm starting to think that 12 months will be too long of a time to run a blog. I seem to be losing interest.

Anyway, dropped a card in the mail today. November tomorrow! Hope you all survived the hurricane!

October Volunteering

On Saturday, I went to the Philadelphia Zoo to help out with Boo at the Zoo. We (One Brick) were assigned a section with crafts and games. For the first hour and a half, I manned the "bowling" game. They had soda bottles with pebbles in the bottom and a small playground ball that looked like a jack-o-lantern. It sounded like fun, and was in the beginning. But, after each roll, I had to go get the ball and reset the "pins". I pretty much always had a line. Another volunteer came up to rescue me. I was so grateful. I then handled the eyeball and spoon run. Instead of eggs on a spoon, they had little balls that looked like eyeballs and I coached the kids in running with them. It was pretty funny to watch the really little kids. They were very concerned with not dropping it and walked so slow.

I was kind of disappointed that there were so many store-bought costumes, but I shouldn't really judge, as I was wearing a t-shirt I purchased at Target the day before.

September Wrap-up

Volunteering:
I feel like I'm cheating a bit with this, but it's all I have presently. I watched my niece. Not that I don't love baby-sitting her, nor do I usually count it, but I need something this month, and I didn't get anything else in this month. I'm currently teaching her to say "cookie" like Cookie Monster; Head Shoulders Knees and Toes in German; and This Little Light of Mine. Please note, she cannot actually do any of those, as she's basically in the phase where she copies tones, but really just says "eeeee". She tries to do the dance to Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, but doesn't really have the balance to touch her toes, so she almost falls over every time.

Mail:
Sent a baby gift to a very pregnant friend. (Totally actually counts).

Bike ride:
Did the loop to the Art Museum last weekend.

Pictures (to be posted later):
A few from my cousin's wedding, including one with my husband.

Podcast Challenge 12

Woohoo! Cross Podcast Challenge off the list! For my last book, I picked Man vs. Markets by Paddy Hirsch, who is the Senior Producer of Marketplace for American Public Media. For those of you who are not nerds, it's a segment on NPR.

I'd say the book is a finance primer, with a bit of economics thrown in. It starts off very basic with what it means to hold a stock, and continues on to more complicated things like credit default swaps and quantitative easing. It looks at Wall Street, the Fed, and the Treasury and their roles in the economy. The last chapter basically explains what happened to lead up to everything with Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, and the whole mid-September 2008 debacle. It was really easy to understand and is clearly meant for people who know nothing about finance and economics, however, if you know a little but want to know more, this is the book for you. I found the last chapter to be much easier to understand than  Too Big to Fail (which I also recommend because it offers a more in depth description of EVERYTHING that happened, but you will need to devote at least a week or two, if not more, to that one, and constantly look up financial terms if you really want to understand).

Podcast Challenge 11

How does one consider a cookbook read? I decided once I skimmed most of it, made a couple of recipes, and it was due back at the library qualified as "read".

I had seen Sandor Katz speak a few months ago about fermentation (promoting his book, The Art of Fermentation) and immediately wanted to give it a try. He made everything seem so simple. I had canned a few things before, but this went beyond vegetables, to cheeses, drinks, and meats. I currently have sauerkraut and mead fermenting in my apartment. The mead is almost done, and the sauerkraut can be eaten whenever. I cannot wait to try the mead. I'm definitely buying the book later.