tra la la

nick, barbara and i went to cambridge on saturday night for indian food and, afterward, some serious shimmying at Zuzu's soul-le-lu-jah.  i much enjoyed the company of the lovely miss sophie, who reminds me i haven't seen her in 18 months,  and nick survived something called the Raspberry Dimple, a pernicious substance that has been the ruin of lesser men.  

in other news, it was 60 degrees in durham today (wednesday)!  but did i go outside to enjoy the weather...?  i implore you to venture a wild guess at that one.    

girl scout cookies and booty-shakin' will be my downfall

more on this subject later...

live video from Gulf of Mexico cruise

here's a special treat for those of you who are tuning in today and tomorrow: live video feed from the current URI Institute for Archeological Oceanography cruise!  CCOM is one of a half-dozen or so intitutions with a telepresence console that allows us to receive 24/7 live satellite feed from the ship.  in the past two days the cruise has discovered oozing mud volcanoes (above) and deep brine currents, which has made for some truly spectacular video footage.  but better tune in quick - the whole shebang (a ship, a towed underwater camera, and a U.S. Navy nuclear research sub) heads back to port on Thursday.
 

return from the deep

as will happen now and then, i had to take a two-week hiatus from blogging.  this allowed me to finish up a few things, namely a geological oceanography term paper and the first poster presentation of my thesis:

 i'm particularly excited to put my poster on display because next week coincides with the Northeastern Section meeting of GSA (for all you non-geologist folks, that's the Geological Society of America), which is being held here at UNH this year.  as i'm still developing my methods, it's all about feedback, feedback, feedback.  right now I have some scintilatting ideas about using kinematic GPS (see 'methods to improve accuracy') for repeat surveys of a bedform field in Portsmouth Harbor... which may or may not be feasible.

xc

after another hot saturday night wrestling with my preliminary thesis proposal until 3 am, i passed on the snooze button to meet up with shachak, lynn, nick and pepe for breakfast at young's in durham.  not quite the big bean, but the strawberry pancakes were somewhat tasty.

against my better judgement i got dragged to Gunstock for a day of cross-country skiing, which i've been craving pretty much all winter.  the weather was gorgeous, the pines were pretty, and i only fell a dozen times or so.  

the highlight, of course, was stopping at Johnson's Dairy Bar for frappes and ice cream on the way back from Lake Winnepesaukee, where we stopped and gawked at the seasonal airport constructed on the frozen lake (which looked more semi-frozen to us).

the living room candidate

the American Museum of the Moving Image has a great online exhibition featuring presidential campaign commercials from 1952-2004.  NPR's Fresh Air featured an interview with curator David Schwartz this week, with some particularly interesting commentary on the 1952 Eisenhower campaign ads.  

my, my... who needs mudslinging when you can have marching elephants and charming ditties?

cooking with gas

 i tried a recipe posted by The Minimalist in last week's New York Times Dining and Wine section.  magnefique!  and so easy.  i didn't have any sherry on hand, so I used the 2002 Coteaux du Languedoc sitting in my fridge, which turned out just fine.  

for my next kitchen crusade i'm gearing up for light, fluffy and rich pancakes (with raspberries and real maple syrup!) from the pancake primer for the uninitiated.

Recipe: Chicken Thighs Stuffed with Chard

1 1/2 - 2 pounds Swiss Chard                                               5 tbsp olive oil                                                                  1 tbsp chopped garlic (I used more)                                       1/2 cup pine nuts                                                               1/2 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for ~10 mins, drained      salt and pepper to taste                                                      8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs                                       1/2 cup dry (fino) sherry or a flavorful white wine                   chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

cut chard stems into 1- to 2- inch lengths, and coarsely chop leaves.  gently boil stems until almost tender.  add chopped leaves.  cook until soft, another couple of minutes.  drain well, pressing out water.

put 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium-low heat and add garlic; cook until garlic begins to color, a couple of minutes.  add pine nuts and cook another minute, stirring , then add chard, raisins and salt and pepper; cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.  stuffing can be refrigerated for two days.

put each thigh between plastic wrap and pound thin, without tearing.  sprinkle with salt.  put spoonful of stuffing on one end and roll.  skewer closed with a toothpick or two.

put remaining oil in large, deep skillet over medium-high heat.  add thighs, browning on one side for about 5 minutes and adjusting heat if needed, then turn.  cook a minute or two, then turn heat to medium-low and add sherry.  let bubble for about 30 seconds, cover, and cook about 5 minutes, or until chicken thighs are quite firm and cooked through.

remove to a platter.  reduce liquid in pan over high heat, if needed, and spoon over chicken.  garnish with parsley and serve.  yields 4 to 8 servings. 

a map!

from the mysterious abyss of the UNH library archives, here's a map from F. Marshall, 1906, Geology of the Dunedin District of New Zealand, Quarterly Transactions of the Geological Society of London, vol. 62:

 i'm not quite sure where 285 Great King Street is..? i could try bringing the map into Google Earth or ArcMap, but without a map graduation it'd be sort of difficult.

hallo

over my morning coffee the inspiration struck me (thanks michelle!) to start blogging my life up here in The Frozen North. 

grad school is wonderful, and a great excuse for being a really enthusiastic introvert.  which means i'm usually rambling around the library stacks with unbridled glee, or pondering the workings of interferometric sonar.

sometimes i remember that i have friends and family outside of The Frozen North, though usually i'm not very good at calling them back.  i do miss y'all and hope you'll stick around.

for those of you who are just tuning in, I'm now a grad student at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, University of New Hampshire, studying for my M.S. degree.  the hours are long and the coursework is tough (you'd do best not to get me started on anything related to geodesy and positioning), but by golly if it means i'll get to spend the rest of my life on, or near, a ship, it'll all be worth it.