after!

Look, it's my new office! It's not totally finished - it's probably going to get kind of a wall-like thing on the left side (maybe going up as high as the big shelf that is there) with some more shelves on it. Also, I'm getting a laptop, so the computer situation will change. Also, I will put stuff on the shelves. Oh, and the desk making the "L" is just my old desk - it's going to be a new one that matches the other new one and may also be on wheels, so I can get it out of the way when people come over. Anyway, isn't my dad awesome?

home office

Last Friday I had my dad captive in a car for an hour or so and got him thinking about how to rearrange my desk area. My desk is in a goofy little corner of my apartment, and it's really not big enough to work on. I mean, like, WORK work. I also need a way to get my bills, various coupons, Christmas Show stuff, and other non-work things out of my way when I'm working. Fortunately, my dad is really good at arranging furniture and shelves and things, so by the time we got out of the car he pretty much had it figured out. Today we went to IKEA to look at drawers and I think this whole desk thing is going to come together. Wahoo! Then I will no longer have an excuse for avoiding work. (Hahahhaha. No, don't worry, I'll think of something.)

bed

This is a hospital bed:


You want to know the best thing about this hospital bed? Nobody's in it. My dad is home now and he's fine. Yayyyy.

scrabble

Monday night I was particularly unhappy and went to my parents' house so they could feed me and tell me I'm a good person. (They're good at these things.) As my mom and I sat down to play Scrabble, she said a little prayer: "Please let me win. Please let Obama win, too." I was a little concerned. I wasn't sure I wanted the future of our country to hang on the outcome of a Scrabble match. You see, I usually win.

I never took the lead once. She beat me by like 50 points.

knitting fiend

I made a hat for my dad. I was kinda saving it for Christmas, but I couldn't wait, and he did just have a birthday. Here he is modeling it in my apartment tonight:


Note that it has a tassel. He wears hats inside the house so I figured I could make something pretty ridiculous and he wouldn't mind. Then when I finished I decided it was so great I wanted one for myself. Mine's pink and stripey and only about 2.5 inches long so far.

This knitting thing...it's fun. I love making stuff, and it's fun making stuff that is actually useful and doesn't just take up space. I really like how I can sit in one place and wiggle some sticks around for a while and end up with a *thing* that is both nifty-looking (if far from perfect - I'm not selling these) and functional.

wall-e!

Another present my parents brought back from Russia: a picture of my new favorite Pixar character:

This is in GUM, which people who were paying attention to the news during the communist era know as the big state-run department store in Moscow. Now it's full of fancy boutiques. And Wall-E.

salt n pepa

My parents just got back from two weeks in Russia and a week in Prague. They brought me a lot of cool presents, but I find this one the most amusing:

It's a salt and pepper grinder. Coming soon on a bowl of popcorn near you! (Does anyone here read Russian?)

yay, popcorn!

My parents are the best!

that's not a hummingbird

My parents are in Colorado right now - in summer they like to rent a house out there for a couple of weeks so they can hang out, look at the mountains, and go for hikes. My dad always puts out a hummingbird feeder and a birdseed feeder so he'll have pretty little flying things to look at. Only check out what came to the hummingbird feeder one evening last week:


That railing is attached to a deck on the second floor. Behold the pink tongue:

After this the bear successfully grabbed the feeder, crunched it up, and enjoyed some sugary treats. Then it came back to snuffle at the birdseed on the edge of the deck. My dad encouraged it to leave with the help of a pot, a big spoon, and some yelling, and also decided that he should maybe take the bird feeders in for a while.

How annoying is it that I have to work instead of going off and having adventures like that? Darn retirees with their fun.

mother's day

My dad's a star. Other than that, mother's day was pretty excellent (particularly if you did not end it, like J.Chu, in the Radiohead disaster - 8 hours in a car, no concert) - my parents and aunt and uncle came over for breakfast, then my aunt and uncle took off for Cape May and my parents hung around (naps, farmer's market, scrabble, taxes, lounging) until 4:30. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day.

car update

I'm sure you were dying to know what happened to my leaky car. On the third try, my mechanic found and plugged the leak. But by then my parents had left for three months in Colorado and there was no way I was going to get the various linings, pads, and other doodads back in the car on my own. Well, my dad got back on Wednesday, and tonight we put everything back together. My car has a backseat again! And now people can ride in it without getting their rear ends wet!

I have a lot of opinions about tea

On Saturday we went on a tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory. They're based in Boulder. The factory was cool (although it would be a lot cooler on a weekday with all the machines running), but here's the thing: Celestial Seasonings? They are the number one specialty tea company, but they don't make very good tea. I tried the five flavors of hot tea and two iced that they had out at the tasting bar, and I would be able to swallow one of them again, if it was offered to me.

You can also get a cup of any tea that they make, so I tried something from their new fancy line, Saphara. A bunch of smaller tea companies have started making whole-leaf teas in recent years - they have big teabags made of fancy materials, with space for the leaves to expand. They use whole leaves instead of the cut-up stuff in regular teabags, which means you end up with something that tastes like it was made from loose tea.

So Celestial Seasonings has now gotten on the bandwagon with Saphara. The genmaicha is tasty, although I have yet to meet a genmaicha I didn't love. (The blackberry something-or-other Saphara tea I tried was...less tasty.)

The coolest thing on the tour was the peppermint room. Most of the herbs and spices are in a big room, but the tea leaves (most of their "teas" are herbal and don't have any tea in them) have their own room because they're like sponges and will soak up any smells nearby, and the peppermint has its own room because, uh, I walked into the peppermint room and walked out again in five seconds with my eyes burning. That stuff is FIERCE. It's not even processed there - it's processed somewhere in Washington State, where it's grown.

To summarize: The Celestial Seasonings tour is cool, if you're ever in Boulder, but you should still buy Republic of Tea. Or Mighty Leaf. Or Stash. Or something else non-bad.

flatirons

This is the view from the front porch of the little cottage my parents are renting in Boulder. I expected a hovel from what they said, but it's really quite cute. And a lot warmer than their real house.

colorado

This weekend I visited my parents in Colorado. My dad retired at the end of the year so they're spending three months in Boulder. He's skiing every day and my mom's going to lots of meetings.

On Friday they picked me up at the airport, took me into Denver, and we went out for breakfast. Actually, for me, it was a hobbit-like third breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal at home, some greasy potatoes and sausages at the Baltimore airport, then some waffley goodness in Denver. Next stop: Denver Art Museum. The Denver Art Museum has a bunch of art, but it also has lots of things for kids to do. Or easily-entertained adults.


They project bubbles on the floor and if you jump on them, they pop. This is my mom trying it out. (My mom is now a blog reader. Say hi, everybody.)

power tools

I used the drill!! My dad retired last week (!) and my parents are spending the next three months in Colorado (!) so my dad can improve his Telemark skiing skills (!) which means I now have to hang my own stuff on the walls.


I'm not particularly concerned about all the extra holes I drilled while figuring out where to put the left bracket. However, I think the project would be more of an aesthetic success if the screws in the right bracket didn't each stick out about half an inch.

merry merry christmas

My parents came over today - for about 12 hours - for many activities, like opening presents (theme: let's give Towwas kitchen stuff), eating, napping, and hanging things:

Here, my dad prepares to use one of the presents he got me - a drill. Power tools! Woo!! I gave him Persepolis, then read the whole thing myself before they left. My mom gave me some Maryland maple syrup, which we compared to the stuff I had from Trader Joe's, and she was right - the Maryland stuff is better. Of course, it also costs twice as much, but it's much tastier.

What was your awesomest present? I guess mine was the drill (with laser guides!), although I am also looking forward to using all the kitchen stuff.

my dad

When I was about to come back to this area for my first summer internship as a wannabe science writer in 2002, my dad wrote an e-mail explaining why he thought it was important for me to learn to drive, and specifically learn to drive a stick shift, while I was home for the summer. It was funny, so I went and dug it up to paste here.

[Towwas]:

I am not thinking of buying a land rover. You see, when [location of internship] and [coincidentally, my current employer] offer to send you on your first science writing assignment to compare the alpine meadows of deserted Colorado mining camps with the deserts of Mexico, the first question is, of course, whether you can drive the old jeep that the "old timer" has available at the outpost at the end of the graded road. You say "yes" and land the assignment. And, it is a good thing that you can, because when you arrive you find that the best science writign material is all beyond the end of the road where all of the automatic transmission cars have broken down (surrounded by camel skeletons) and it is only you who can persevere to reach the flora and fauna that make you rich and famous. Furthermore, the stick shift, saves a bunch of starving, lost boy scouts with infected mosquito bites whose lives you are able to save by wisking them back to civilization in the vehicle with a stick shift. Incidentally, along the way you find the perfect, deserted cabin which, with only a minor bit of fixing, provides an ideal spot for small family reunions.

So, it is all a matter of being practical, as I said.

Dad

fungus

So, I'm allergic to mold. And all evening as I dug around in my parents' basement, packing up my stuff (it's been a slow move), I was sneezing and sneezing. Check out what I found in a box on a top shelf:


That was once my favorite watch. The band used to be dark brown. No, your eyes do not deceive you: that watch band is covered in fuzzy green fungus. This would definitely NOT be something to mention to my mother, if you were, say, going to see her at a baby shower this weekend. It went right in the trash. (Right after I documented it, that is.)

I think they need to get the dehumidifier back from the shop very, very soon.

the thing with the yellow squash and the onions

Several people have asked if I miss my parents (or vice versa) since I moved out. The short answer is no. But also, let me list the communications yesterday evening:
1. My mom called to ask me about dinner tonight with Molly B's mom. (Molly B.)
2. I called my mom to suggest restaurants.
3. I called my mom to ask how to make that thing with the yellow squash and the onions.
4. My dad called to ask... I don’t even remember. Something about the car.

Here’s how to make the thing with the yellow squash and the onions:
1. Slice the onion into big rounds. Not that much onion, like, maybe half a small onion. I used about four slices of a giant onion.
2. Saute the onion in a bit of olive oil.
3. Slice the yellow squash into 1/2-inch rounds
4. Add the yellow squash to the onion with some salt and pepper; cover and let it sit on low heat for about 10-15 minutes.
5. Take the top off, stir every now and then while the squash turns limp, the onions caramelize, and some of the liquid evaporates. Maybe another 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy. Tasty, isn't it?

international travel

When I got back from Brazil last year, I felt kind of jumpy, because I had no further international travel lined up. This year when I got back from Norway, I didn't really have that feeling. I think I figured that, given the precedent of the last several years, I'd come up with something, and hey, if not, I can always go back to Norway.

Today I heard from old family friends (the friends my dad and I visited in Mali in 2005) that they're moving this summer to Namibia. People, they have *lions* there. And giraffes and zebras and flamingos. As I have said before, if you live in an exotic location, you cannot go around blithely issuing invitations to members of the towwas family, because we *will* show up on your doorstep.

Watch this space for photographs featuring specks that I swear are big game.