Tube Strike

I am not looking forward to this mornings commute. There is a 48 hour Tibe strike on. I wonder if the train in will be deserted from people either avoiding the city or able to work from home. I have a long walk through the city, which I’m sure will be chaotic, to get into work. I’ll keep you posted.

16 Weeks

It’s been nine days since I last vomited! I think I can pretty confidently (knock on wood) say I might be over the being violently sick bit. I’ve had a good week, only feeling a little nauseous when I let myself get a little too hungry, like before lunch. But have solved that by just going to lunch a little earlier.

This morning’s weigh in is almost unbelievable. Even moving the scale around, even with Mark as a witness, I’m down to 122.4 lbs! I stepped on the Wii Fit and it recorded me at 121.5 lbs! I even had a dessert with ice cream for dinner last night (and I’ve had a hard time eating anything dessert-y for the past few months).

Right, scones with cream and raspberry jam for breakfast today.

France: Opio en Provence

I’m back from a short trip to France. We were there for a conference for Mark’s work and a number of people from the US were there, including some friends of ours. It was held at a resort where much relaxing was to be had in the form of absorbing some much needed sunshine and warmth, lounging by the “Zen pool” i.e. no kids and quiet, reading, rambling and even dominating and winning an archery competition. This wasn’t a sight seeing sort of holiday, I honestly may have only taken a handful of photos, and those largely involve the Geobear having adventures. That’s okay, after the weeks I’ve had lately, I needed a very low key relaxing holiday.

Our holiday will continue through the weekend where our friends will be joining us in the UK. it’s been seven months since we’ve had anyone visit us over here, so this will be fun to have some familiar faces around.

Introducing: Epsilon

Well, the news is well out of the bag now. World, meet ε , ε meet the world. ε is expected to make his/her world premier on November 20th.

We told my family on Sunday as a present for Mother’s Day. Steve and Stephanie hosted a brunch and we set up a video call and once everyone settled down we told them we had something to show them and held up the ultrasound scan for them to see. My mom was so surprised, it turned out to be a really nice Mother’s day gift. Mark’s mom thought we were joking, that we were just going to be getting a kitten.

It’ll be interesting to experience the NHS in it’s full glory. For antenatal care and labor and delivery, it’s entirely based on a system of midwives; unless you have some complications, most women never even see an ob/gyn. The first appointment, the community midwife came to our home and had an hour long visit with us. We were joking that we hoped the midwife didn’t have a really recognizable car, we didn’t need our neighbors being the first to know what was going on.

I have been having a difficult time with the morning/all day sickness. Nothing is appetizing to me, nothing tastes right, nothing smells right… my good days, where I actually start to enjoy my food are the really worrisome ones as those are the days that involve the actual vomiting. I’ve lost seven pounds! My ass is getting smaller and my boobs are huge and I’ve lost weight, it’s a perverse little diet I’m on. I’m hoping this phase passes quickly or soon… I love to cook and love to eat and this has taken the joy out of food. I can’t even be in the kitchen when the oven is on, it emits an odor that makes me sick. I sit here and fantasize about products I can’t get a hold of in the UK (easily or cheaply), bland is what I can stomach, I would kill for some Cream of Wheat or Kraft Mac and cheese (but am not willing to spend £6-7 on them).

So there it is, if you catch us smiling like idiots and/or looking completely terrified, it’s for good reason.

1/10th of a stone gone

It’s been a while since I last had my hair cut. But as what frequently happens I waiver between loving long hair to just wanting it all gone. I have a *lot* of hair and it had been getting a bit out of control, so I decided it was time. The remarkable thing though, is I made sure to step on the scale before and after this cut. I lost 1.4 lbs of hair. My head feels like it’s going to float away!

Wildlife

I’ve been a terrible blogger as of late, I know. I have the attention span of a gnat at times and the appeal of the “micro-blogging” in status updates on Facebook or with Tweets on Twitter, has been more than enough to convey what I’ve been up to. Sometimes, 140 characters is all you need. Today though, I present you with some wildlife.

There are the tiny Muntjac Deer, that are dog sized, that have become a very common sight around our house. There’s a pair that seem to be making a home in the brushy area at the end of our driveway. They are an introduced species, a native of China, having escaped and established feral populations from parks in the early twentieth century. They are also referred to as “barking deer” for characteristic loud barking, which we hear in the night seemingly just outside our windows.

Pheasants are another extremely common visitor to our yard. This female has become a sort of “guard bird” of our back yard, patrolling the perimeter, carefully making her way along the greenery and settling down for a snooze on the ivy. The males are all around us too. We hear their loud barks constantly, it is like having a very funny shaped dog loitering on our roof tops and garages on our Close.

Spring has fully sprung here, song birds are going berserk, the bluebells are starting up again, so I anticipate another sojourn through some bluebell woods again soon.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Every year I feel compelled to retell the tale of our three wedding anniversaries, but there are only so many ways to talk about it from my perspective. This year, I give you Mark’s perspective, which he wrote and posted elsewhere.

“I’ve told this story a number of times, but I imagine there are a few people here who haven’t heard it… So, gather round the intertubes while I tell the tale…

It was a time long, long, ago… way back when the S&P 500 was below 800 (uh, the first time), the Matrix was still awesome, and there was a new love of my life… a brand new search engine called Google.

Read the rest of this entry »

Signage

In the “only in England” category in the Health and Safety fueled frenzy of signage. I present a bottle of shower gel, specifically it’s a “shower smoothie” of the cucumber, mint, lemongrass variety (I’ve also picked up the yogurt and honey version). At the bottom of the product description, in capital letters even: PLEASE DO NOT DRINK. As tasty as they may sound, who would be tempted while soaping up in the shower have a sip?

Verrall Supper

Tonight I stayed in London late to attend the Verrall Supper and the lecture that preceded. The supper is a tradition started in 1826 as a social dinner club and Entomological Association. There is surprisingly little information on the interwebs about the history of the Verrall Association, although there is a book out there. You can only attend if you’ve been invited by someone who has attended before. I was half expecting there to be a secret handshake or something. Women entomologists were only invited to join starting in the 1960’s it was traditionally such a club for men. At the start of dinner a number of people were introduced. International visitors were recognized from traveling in from all over (including Quentin Wheeler with whom I had the chance to talk quite a lot with), former members who passed on were given a moments of silence. I was told in previous years it was also tradition to announce the newest members and they would have to stand up and say what you’re working on. This year was apparently a bumper crop of new members for The Verrall so that bit was passed over. After a toast to the Queen and grace that consisted of, “Thanks for friends, food and bugs!” we tucked in to a nice dinner, wine and lots of socializing (and networking for those new to the crowd). I’m glad I went and was a part of the tradition.

Spain: Barcelona

We’re back from a brief trip to Barcelona. It was so nice to have several days of sunshine and warm(er) temperatures. More to come once the non-camera photos are processed. Mark had the camera at the conference he was at for one of the days.

Happy 200th Birthday Darwin!

Today is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and there are all sorts of Darwin-centric events happening at the museum today, this week, really all this year as it is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On the Origin of Species.” The “nature live” lecture today was on Darwin’s life and achievements and there was promise of birthday cake. There were so many people there, they were turning people away at the door. Which included me. No cake for me. They should have known the promise of cake would have drawn out a larger crowd.

I’m a biologist, a naturalist, an entomologist, a taxonomist, it should be no mystery to anyone how Darwin inspires me. I’m fortunate to work at a place that houses his collections, that celebrates all these fields, that supports people whose livelihoods and passions are fueled by Darwin’s unifying law of biology. Yes, I said it is a law of science, it is one of those ideas that are so unifying, so observable, so proven that it is a fact of reality, and evolution by means of natural selection is one of them and it drives research and advances in many fields in biology.

So here’s to you and your brilliance (and to be fair, Wallace’s brilliance as well)! I enjoy seeing your statue watching over the halls of the Natural History Museum.

Wild Boar Pie and Roasted Parsnips

Well, I couldn’t find wild boar shoulder, so I used diced pork shoulder instead. This was featured on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, the Saturday morning talk/cooking show that is frequently what we watch over our breakfast. Once we saw all the ingredients going into the pot: pork, lardons, carrots, shallots, mushrooms, topped with puff pastry; we couldn’t resist. Everything for this dish took center stage on my grocery list.

It was a bit time intensive, but the pie filling came together relatively quickly and once it was simmering on the stove, it took care of itself. I added whole garlic cloves, as I’m wont to do. This would also be amazing with beef. It came out the oven looking so gorgeous. I think I really out did myself it was so good!

For the pie filling
1 lb. diced wild boar (pork) shoulder
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup lardons of pancetta
4-5 shallots, peeled and halved
6-7 whole garlic cloves
3 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cups small whole mushrooms
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 cup red wine
2 cups beef stock

For the pastry
plain flour, for dusting
500g/1lb 2oz ready-made all-butter puff pastry
1 free-range egg, beaten

For the parsnips
4-5 large parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

Season pork with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Brown the pieces in a large pan in batches in a little bit of oil. Once browned set aside in a bowl.

Add pancetta lardons to the pan and cook until some of the fat is released. And carrots, shallots, mushrooms and garlic and fry together for a few minutes. Add the pork back to the pan.

Stir in the flour until everything in the pan is well coated. Add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom, bring this to a boil and let it reduce by about a quarter. Add the beef stock and simmer gently for 1.5 hours. Let cool 30 minutes before placing into pie dish.

Roll out pastry to a 1/4″ thickness. Place filling in pie dish. Brush edges of the dish with beaten egg and crimp the pastry over the top. Brush pastry with egg wash and pierce in the center to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 190°C for 35-40 minutes until pastry is golden and risen.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the parsnips into batons. Toss in a couple Tbs. olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bake 20-25 in the oven with the pie, turning them occasionally until golden brown and crispy.

I happened to use some of the extra puff pastry for similarly topped tart mixed berry pies made in small 4 oz. ramekins for dessert as well.

String of Ponies

We needed to get out of the house today to enjoy what turned into a really sunny day, so we opted for short walk along the public footpaths that run right near our house. In a field not to far from our place was a string of Shetland ponies. They were incredibly friendly and came over to great us. It also helped we were offering some of the nice long grasses from the neighboring field, as they had mowed down the grasses in their own field down to nubs. They really just wanted to go, “nom nom nom,” on our scarves or the Japanese cartoon charm on my cell phone (which explains the quality of the photo since we didn’t bring our camera along).

Filming at the Museum

“Making It Part of the Collection”

Several months ago I agreed to be a part of an exhibit demonstrating beetle pinning. One of the many “fish bowl” windows looking in on staff in the new building will be into a preparation room/lab where insect pinning and plant pressing is slated to occur. When no one is in the room, say on weekends or something, there will be videos, photos and displays as a public offer.

A couple months ago I met up with the film crew to talk about what a scientific preparator does. This involved me demonstrating pinning and pointing of beetles, labeling, talking about sorting accessions, a little bit about collecting and how a person ends up with such an odd job anyway. I talked and demoed for about forty minutes.

Last week I received “the script” or basically highlights of what I do distilled down to a dozen or so sentences that when read out loud would last about one minute thirty seconds. This wasn’t the verbatim script to be used, but included language and terms to make sure I said for clarity and to match up with what will presumably be on other related exhibit materials. For insect pest management purposes I also sent three drawers of specimens (aka more props) to be frozen for a week before being allowed in the new building.

A few days ago I received the call sheet which outlined a dress code for the people being filmed. No bright colors as they might flash hot on film, no stripes or patterns, no black, but to wear something you would ordinarily wear to work.

Yesterday morning porters arrived in my bay and packed up my kit, or basically most of my bay, to take to DC2 (Darwin Center phase 2), the new building that will be housing the botany and most of the entomology collections and staff soon. I was to be filmed there to make it look like I was working in the lab. So, not only did my microscope, tools, points and glue go, but also books and even desk lamps (as the labs don’t yet have lamps in them) to populate the desk as props.

This morning, I arrived early, I didn’t want to chance being late with public transport falling apart this week due to all the snow. Which was fine, this gave me over an hour to take care of a few things before the start. I would be the first to be filmed today, all three of us with activities that fit into the “Making it Part of the Collection” theme. Me, preparing insects, another woman preparing genitalia slides, and some one from botany showing how plant specimens are pressed and prepared.

There was the hair and make up girl who, after plastering on a good deal of foundation, actually came up to me between shots to touch up, blot and powder my nose. First, they filmed me walking in and working through everything quietly without me talking to get an “over all” shot. After that they broke down each tiny motion into a shot filmed from multiple angles. A lot of, “so, can you place those specimens back in the vial and pour them out into the tray again?” or, “can you do that with your left hand so it fits in the screen better?” There was also the, “we’ll film your hands while you are doing things, then we’ll film your face while you’re talking explaining what you’re doing while you pretend to do these things.” The woman filming was very excitable. You would think she captured the money shot for a porno once the macro lens was on and an inch away from and focused on the tiny weevil I was pointing.

Almost five hours of filming for what will be a video under two minutes.

I really enjoyed myself. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product and how all these strange scenes will be cut together to tell a cohesive story. I will be seeing a preview and blooper reel to comment on before anything gets put in the exhibit. I hope I don’t sound like an idiot.

(I took a few photos from this day, stay tuned!)

More Snow Today

I’m glad I stayed home from work today too. The local train isn’t running and the trains on the main line are not running on any regular schedule. My commute would have been horrific this morning. As I type this, more snow is falling.

I’m loving it actually. On Sunday afternoon, I was laying on the couch looking out the window at the grey clouds wishing for snow, they looked like the right kind of clouds that would give us snow. I saw about five snow flakes before the clouds cleared and it turned into a sunny day. I think we’re getting just the right amount of snow too. Enough to remind me of home but I know it will be short lived (as in, we won’t be buried under it for months). They say to be careful what you wish for. In this case, it worked out perfectly.

Snow Day!

London is shut down today due to snow! Even though I had already taken today off so I could stay up for the Superbowl, I wake up to emails from work saying don’t try to come in. Tomorrow may be more of the same as southern England is forecasted to get even more snow later today and tonight. This is more snow than England has seen in a long time.

We need to get outside to get some photos today. This shot is from last night when it was starting to fall in the middle of the night and after the Steelers won the Superbowl. I’m sure our neighbors appreciated our yelling and screaming at four in the morning.

Here We Go Steelers!

I can’t help but feel we are missing out by not being home for the Superbowl. Nothing brings a city together like their team making it that far. And there’s nothing quite like a Steelers fan. I’m sure there are hours and hours of Steelers-centric rally television and radio going on local stations, further whipping the excitement up into a frenzy.

Mark and I went for a drive today, it was sunny even though it’s quite cold and we’re expecting the Great Snow of Ought Nine (they’re expecting 6 inches), we were in the Lotus with the top down. We took our Terrible Towels out for some rabble rousing (as much rabble as can be roused in a rather quiet British way) and photo shoots.

The Superbowl actually airs live on BBC1. The commentary is quite different as well. We won’t see the commercials, those slots so highly prize by advertisers. Instead, during those breaks when the US is being entertained by those historically epic or hilarious commercials (the main reason some people even tune in to watch is just for the ads), we’ll be watching people talk about football and the game field is not off camera. It’s not idle chatter either, they talk about the game and rules of play for an audience who don’t necessarily know what’s going on. But, it is refreshing compared to the inanity that comes out of some commentators mouths these days.

Pittsburgh football on the tellie and a snow storm barreling down on us. It’s like a touch of home. Tonight, even though we are in England, we’re in Steelers country.

Go Steelers!

I may be living and working nearly 4,000 miles away from home, but today, my heart is fully in Pittsburgh. I’ve been wearing my Steelers paraphernalia since waking, knowing full well the entire city back home is also clad in black and gold. The city must be a manic place to be right now given that this AFC championship game is a home game at Heinz Field. The game doesn’t start until 11:30 pm UK time, so in true Steeler fan fanaticism I am taking tomorrow off work so I can stay up to watch what is promising to be an exciting game i.e. an ass-kicking as the Steelers crushed the Ravens twice this season. For the benefit of my UK readers, this game is significant because if the Steelers win this game, they go on to the Superbowl. There’s a Terrible Towel waving in this fan’s heart from across the pond!

WOOT! STEELERS WON! 23-14! I’m joining in on the chorus of the goofy song, “here we go, Pittsburgh’s going to the Superbowl!”

Weather Score Card

Today’s stats–

Bourne End, England: 52°F (10°C)
Pittsburgh, US: -8°F (-22°C) - sounds like the city shut down yesterday with the -25°F (-31.6°C) wind chill factors!

For this balmy winter England weather, I am grateful.

Sunday Morning Breaky

Here I am being sweet and cute making heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, sprinkled with wonderfully tart raspberries. It’s just something small, but it’s one of those small things that demonstrates and says “I love you” to my favorite person on the planet. We’ve been together for eleven years and our days are liberally sprinkled with those small things. I just thought they looked so photogenic on the plate. But it’s just an iPhone shot, I was too hungry to bother with the big camera this morning.

Ice Sculpting at NHM

What a sight today, two sights really. The first, seeing the museum being evacuated for some as yet unknown emergency, mobs and mobs of people spilling out the doors. It is unknown by me, as this evacuation occurred about ten minutes before I usually leave for the night, so I took my bag and just never went back in (I wouldn’t have made my train had I waited outside to be left back in). Anyway, I did wander around the outside of the museum to see the second neat sight of the day, where the First Ever Ice Sculpting Festival was going on. I watched for a few minutes as the chainsaws whirred and sent clouds of ice crystals into the air. The weather was certainly well suited for it today, Brrrr! It would have been cool to get in on the the ice sculpting classes offered over the weekend.

Snow! Briefly…

My wishes for snow were granted. Although, it was only a dusting and it was short lived. And actually, just around the next corner onto the main road, the snow was already melted. It would have been nice to have this over the weekend, where we were holed up inside for the majority of, to watch out the window while snuggled up in front of the fire. Instead, this was my walk to the train station. Mark joked that it looked like I took this photo at three in the morning… it’s around 7am, right around the corner from our place.

Bacon Martini

Our dinner this evening was another work of art. This involved pork tenderloin marinated in pineapple juice, garlic and chili pepper. Apricots roasted with honey and orange juice. This was served over chestnut mash consisting of a mix of half potatoes, half roasted chestnuts mashed with butter and a dollop of sour cream. I think this is my new favorite way to prepare potatoes. The chestnuts add a sweet and nutty flavor and keeping them coarsely chopped also add nice texture. The dish was then garnished with a bit of bacon candied with dark brown sugar.

After which, we capped our night off with some mighty attractive and tasty apple and candied bacon martinis that Mark made:

Twist on a Tradition

Growing up we would always have pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. Generally this involved kielbasa and pork chops, mashed potatoes and the kraut. This year, I put a twist on that tradition of pork and cabbage. I made bramley apple pork sausages sauteed with caramelized onions and butter, all served over colcannon, which is mashed potatoes with cabbage in it. Although, while caramelizing the onions in the butter, the fantastic aroma filling the kitchen, all it made me really want to have is pierogies. I think I know what we’re having this weekend!

Happy New Years! (Eve)

It’s the last day of the year already?  Well, here we are, 25 months into this adventure and it’s the end of 2008.

I know I’ve already reflected a bit on this already, but the year has flown by and has been as normal as it can be living abroad.  It’s been a year of settling into a routine for both of us working and living in England.   Mark commented recently, that it’s not camping anymore, we really live here.  This was after one of those moments where I look at him, and sounding genuinely surprised and in disbelief exclaim, “You know.  We live in England!” like it’s this brand new realization of someone who just walked off a plane.

There have been losses and gains this past year.  We lost our sweet Greenbean, which was difficult.  I miss my Bean and think of her everyday.  Her photos are everywhere, on my desktop background, in a locket around my neck and by my bedside.  She was our family.  She had a fantastic life, was well loved, and was so awesome she has turned two people into cat people.  In April, I gained a sister-in-law as my younger brother married a delightful woman.  Two of my cousins had babies this year and one also is newly married.  Our extended family is growing in leaps and bounds.

This has been a year of increased visitors, a pattern I imagine will ramp up in the coming third year of our residence here.  My parents and another brother visited in March, the first time trips abroad for all of them.  Friends visited us in May, September and October.  We made a second trip to Turkey for a holiday, which, I’m really digging the whole vacationing with friends idea.

So what will 2009 bring?  We’ll be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.  Living abroad for a third year.  Where will we travel?  Who will visit us?  What will our jobs bring? How much more will our family and circle of friends grow?  2008 was a good year, 2009 is shaping up to be spectuclar already and we’re still a few hours away from it beginning!