Food, HandyMen, and New Projects...

After a long break, we are finally starting to feel settled in again and gearing up for the semester ahead. We went to one of our favorite bars to watch the Big Game. Despite years of irrational hatred of the sport, I would be lying if I claimed I didn't totally get into it. Football is a completely different animal down here, and you best be prepared. Roll Tide Roll!

After the excitement from the game, Dan and I went on a cooking-and-freezing-so-we-will-have-food-later-in-the-semester-when-we-have-no-time-to-cook spree. We made two different kinds of pasta sauce, one plain ole wonderful Tomato sauce and Turkey Meatball and Chipotle Adobo sauce. We also made up some of Dan's step-mom's wonderful Chili.

Here are the two sauces. Turkey Meatball is on the left. Traditional Tomato is on the right.

Meatballs! (Notice fabulous Food Processor in the back. Smaller on is in the mail ;p )
The freezer. (From left to right: Two large tubs of delicious chili, two varieties of pasta sauce, two loaves bread, Lentil Soup and Butternut Squash &Pear soup, and frozen chicken.)
Still so much room!

A small setback...

So the temps down here have been abnormally low. There were about two weeks of below freezing temps for the high. So whats the big deal? I'm from the mountains! Rough and rugged, skiing in below freezing temps all day, walking the three miles home from work in the cold like it ain't no thing... The principle difference between my down home ruggedness and this southern freeze is that at least in the mountains people believe in insulation. That word does not exist down here. Our house was averaging around 45 degrees for the high and believe me, that is hard to strip down to take a shower for. Sufficed to say, we came out pretty good despite some minor whining on my part ;) However, our poor washing machine didn't come out as lucky.

After about a week and a half at home the laundry was beginning to creep into bed with us. I took it upon myself to brave the freezing cold of our back porch and do the laundry. After discovering the hoses were completely frozen, I got the bright idea to just put a space heater in front of them and once they were all nice and melted my problem would be fixed. Half a day later, my back porch was flooding, I couldn't figure out where the water was leaking and I needed to go to class! So I scooped out the soaking wet clothes (as the machine wasn't draining either) wrung them out and in the dryer they went. Dan My Man saved the day. He stopped the leak, discovered which part was broke, defrosted the drainage pipe and ordered the part we needed. I still had to use our neighbor's washer for a day but yesterday he fixed my washer and now I can do all the laundry I want!!

And, as if that wasn't HandyMan enough for one day, he built us a bookshelf!!
Now, its a bit wobbly and needs some minor propping in various places :) But we finally have a place for our ever expanding library.

So between the washer getting fixed and getting a new bookshelf I went a little crazy and cleaned the whole house, just in time for MLK day to contemplate our civil rights and mentally prepare for the upcoming semester.

I have a whole set of goals I want to accomplish and I figure if I tell y'all all about them, then I can't back out of them.

1-No Procrastination - I have so much work to do this semester, if I slack off I'm dead.
2 - Stick to the work out! - Dan and I are embarking on new scary territory of marathon training. We don't have one in mind and if we do eventually do one it will most likely be the half marathon. But we are going to train for one which will keep us active when we don't want to, don't have time to, or are simply making excuses. This way we can get into a habit of it and it won't be an issue of feeling guilty for not working out.
3- Flossing three times a week - The dentist was mean to me when I saw him last :(
4- Keep something for me -No matter how busy i get this semester, I will make time for me to do something for myself. Read a book, a book I WANT to read for at least fifteen minutes everyday.
5- Stay positive - something I always struggle with.

School Scoop:

4 Classes

• History of the Book: Print Culture and Society
• Bookbinding II Hard Case Structures
  
• Printing II Typographic Printing
• Papermaking

12 Major Projects including : Hard bound books in quarter, half and full book cloth, flat back, rounded and backed case binding and clam shell boxes to fit, various kinds of hand made paper with ingredients such as denim, linen, banana stalk, kozo, flax, and abaca, and a twenty page letterpress printed book.

Sound busy enough?

Roll Tide Roll

After a crazy busy semester and an equally crazy busy break at home with family, we are back in the land of the sever over reactionary. The football team managed to make its way into the national championships just in time for the school to over react and cancel the first week of school. Were there any likelihood that the majority of the student body and faculty able to attend the game, I would gladly admit canceling school to be a wise choice. However, as the game is in California and a mere 5% of all students and faculty will be in attendance, I feel this was on over reaction. Whatev, I didn't want to go to school today anyway.

This morning I dragged myself out of my nice warm bed into the brisk 50 degree temperature of my house and set off for work on this lovely chilly day. As I walked out the door I met the familiar site of snow flakes (an extremely rare occurrence in Tuscaloosa). I waited for forty five minutes locked out of work before I walked home only to find an e-mail from the University informing me that yet another over reaction has been passed down. The University closed down all none essential operations due to a snow warning. As of 4pm, not a flake had stuck. Whatev, I didn't want to go to work today anyway.

Mid-Semester Hump

Time, its such a funny thing. It feels like only a few weeks ago I packed up my Inter-Mountain life and found myself in this swampy little burg. Yet somehow, against all odds, the semester is halfway over and before I know it it will be time to pack up my Subi for winter break. Time moves quickly when you have none of it.

After two papers, three handmade books, and five no-sleep-until-1-am days, I'm taking a moment to relax and update this lonely soul I've cast out into the world with little attention. So rather than bore with mundane details I'll be brief and show off some of my wares from my bookbinding class.

Binding I



The Pamphlet:
Pretty straight forward, simple structure. Be wary though, not as simple as you might think.

Double Pamphlet:
Grade for both: A

Link Stitch:

These bad boys were covered in paste paper I made. My favorite...

This one!

Paste paper is tricky though. It can be a bit unruly after its painted and I had trouble getting my papers flat enough, and folded square.

Grade: A-

Long Stitch:
One of my favorite structures, but not without some drama.
The cover for these books is paste papered bristol paper. Because of the weight of the cover paper, our professor prefers tabs like this beautiful one. One afternoon, Tabs became the drama of my life.
Half an hour before class was to start and I was to turn in two of these books, I still had yet to cut a single tab. You learn very quickly nothing is more terrifying than folding and cutting in the bookmaking realm. Rushed and stressed, I was working on the green book in the stack above. The green book was to be my greatest work but quickly had turned to my greatest pain the night before when I had to remove the sewing THREE times in order to get it right. I should have known then it was never meant to be. As I rushed to get my tabs cut before class began I ended up cutting off my tab! No big right, you can just have the hole be closer to the fore edge, right? Except I had made the foolish mistake of cutting the hole before the tab. So I have a great big hole in the cover of this beautiful book with no tab. About to cry, one of my classmates offered a few words of comfort. "Oh, you know those aren't even due this week..." FML. Despite this ordeal, I have (mostly) conquered my fear of the tab and have persevered into loving the long stitch. I took the time and made two more to be turned in the following week.

Favorite Paste Paper!

Grade: A

Long and Link Stitch:



Again, the one I thought would be my shining achievment turned out to be an utter nightmare. Due to a slight obsession with sewing tension, I managed to turn Pinky here into my own little version of Hell. Because of the stiff spine and the complex sewing pattern of this structure it is nearly impossible to go back and tighten the sewing. Word to the wise, if it looks and feels ok, just leave it.

Grade: Just turned in, will know in about two weeks.

And the piece de resistance...

The Ethiopian Stitch:

This is the first structure where I had to cover boards and attach the text block. The boards are covered with fine artists decorated paper with a quarter of book cloth.


This is the last sewing structure for this semester, which is fitting as it is my absolute favorite.

Now that I've exposed all this beauty, I'll sign off with yet another classic Gorgas Elevator story:

Me: (very cold, wearing a scarf over my head to keep my ears warm)
New Bama Girl: Hey, why you wearin' a Burka?


Cheers!!

The Elevator: A History... And a little Print too

Setting: UA Amelia Gorgas Library.
The main library at the University of Alabama consists of seven floors. Seven. Due to the ridiculous numbering structure imposed upon this building, many believe there to only be five. My departments both live on the "fifth" floor which is actually the seventh. Why the confusion? There exist two "mezzanine" floors which happen to be numbered the same number as the previous level with a delightful M pulling up the rear. The levels are labeled as follows: 1, 2, 2M, 3, 4, 4M, 5. Confusing? Indeed, particularly when the expectations of the average freshman student exclude their ability to form an argument. The building consists of two public elevators and one staff elevator which will henceforth be the only elevator I occupy. What follows is the story of my day...

I arrive at school at 8:43am. Tired from the previous day where I had spent eight hours working the press for my first print from my Suicide Linoleum block, I lock up Lady and realize I have forgotten the plastic grocery bag I usually bring to cover her seat in the daily event of rain. Slightly perturbed but determined to be optimistic about my day, I walk into the library to find the elevators swamped with librarians with galleys and galleys of books to be shelved in different areas throughout the library. No Worries, I thought. I'll just take the stairs, a little more exercise won't hurt. After 103 stairs (I counted), I arrive in the Type Lab ready for my second print.

A little shop talk and off to the press. Luckily I jump at the chance and get to use class time to print. I can't find the color in the swatch I wanted to use yesterday, so I find another I don't like as much and get to mixing my ink. After a few minutes and some bating from my professor, I change the color mixture towards what I had originally wanted (he found the swatch in 3 seconds). After a moment later I realize I made a much better color than either and am not too discouraged about my day. Finding, mixing, blotting and warming up the ink has taken half an hour to forty-five minutes.

Next I clean the five rollers on the press to make sure there is no residual ink from who ever used the press last. The day before I skipped this step and had to clean off all the ink I had put on because my blue was coming out green. Always clean the rollers first! Wait fifteen minutes to let the rollers dry. Then I get the ink on my pallet knife, bead the ink onto the idle roller of the press, flip on the motor, knock the press into "Trip" position, and lower the idle roller and the oscillating roller onto the two rubber inking rollers and watch how the ink slowly covers the rollers. A couple more beadings of ink and I'm ready for my proofing. But before I can move on, I have to arrange my linoleum block.

The print I run must match perfectly with the print I ran the day before which can be tricky. Thankfully, I made a map of my furniture and quickly I can arrange the press bed just as I did the previous day. Soon I have all my furniture set up, the appropriate amount of packing under my block to get it type high, and have tightened the quoins so my block won't move. Another twenty minutes.

I "Trip" my block twice to get plenty of ink on there, place my newsprint paper in the paper guides, knock the press into "print," and roll out my first proof. I am ecstatic. The ink is beautiful. But I have a lot of work left before I can print. There is a lot of chatter in my proof. Chatter is the lines left on the block that are relief enough so they will print. Some of my cutting was not deep enough from the previous night. I take out my block, get my cutting tools and work out what chatter I want to keep and what I want to cut out. This takes another half an hour to forty-five minutes. I run another proof and decide I want to take out the very thinnest piece of packing. Another five minutes getting that out. Now I am ready. I print.

4 hours, 2 press cleanings, 50 prints drying. Not too shabby. I stick around, helping others carry their prints to drying racks, carve my block for the print I must do again in a few days and by 2:45pm I'm beat, sick of the Type Lab, and ready to go home to my Kiddo.

I go to the public elevators. Remember, I am on the fifth (seventh) floor. I get in and press 1 and silently hope that by some miracle it will not stop on any other floor. What is about to happen is not exceptional which is exactly why it is irritating. The elevator stops on floor 4M (the floor immediately below mine, also known as the true sixth floor). A girl gets in, goes to press 1, sees I have done so and stands in her respective opposite side of the elevator. The elevator stops on 3 (fourth). Bama girl walks in wearing Bama girl uniform (Nike Dri-Fit Tempo shorts, oversized T-Shirt almost as long as shorts) and confidently presses 2M (third). Immediatly, Bama girl realizes she doesn't know what the hell she's doing...

BG: Shit! Oh God! Shit y'all, what floor do I want?
Me: What do you want?
BG: Blank Stare
4M: What are you looking for?
BG: Blank Stare
4M: A book?
BG: Blank Stare
Me: Circulation?
BG: The desk. I need the desk.
Me: The CIRCULATION desk?
BG: The big desk, you know, outside the elevator?
Me: The circulation desk. Its on 2.
BG: Laughs as she hits 2

The elevator doors close, we travel one floor down to 2M (third), the doors open, no one is there but a girl sitting at a table and we all avoid awkward glances. The doors close again. Down to 2 (actually the second floor now), BG gets out, the doors close again. 4M girl turns to me, "You just saw every floor, huh?" "Pretty much." "That probably happens to you every time, huh?" "Pretty much." We arrive at 1, the doors open and floods of people invade the elevator before 4M and I even have a chance to get out. 4M shoots me a glance which says That sucks, I'm sorry, and walks away.

I go out to Lady only to discover it has rained. Her seat is wet. I wipe it off as best I can. Get on and ride home with a wet bum, and find this waiting for me...
Caption: Here's a treat for my Bebe.

Moral of the story: Chocolate and boyfriends make everything better :)

So What Have I Been Up To...

Two weeks of school down and what do I have to show for myself?

Here are some stats:

Days of the week I have class: 4
Additional hours required per week for studio work: 10
Number of rooms I occupy at the Library for class, studio and homework: 3
Number of pages read thus far: 401
Number of people in my largest class: 29
Number of people in my smallest class: 9
Number of stairs to the fifth floor of the Library: 106
Pieces of letter press sorted: 900+
Sandragraphs I've printed: 40
Paper Sections for books I've cut: 20
Single pamphlets I've made: 2
Double pamphlets I've made: 2
Money spent on tools and supplies: $98.49
Hilarious Drooling incidents in class: 1

Using these tools, I made...

These!!



I know it may not seem like much now, but just you wait. Bookbinding I will be making a new book every week. This doesn't mean I'm only making one book either. Several copies need to be made in order to turn in for my assignments. Practice makes perfect, right?

This is a print I made in my Printing class. Thick glue, scraps of fabric, thread and muslin glued onto a block of plywood and set to dry. Once dry, set it up in the bed of the press, ink it up and away you go! This picture is only a proof so the actual print has more detail and is not quite finished. Tomorrow I print them all again, but with text! Once I have the final product I'll put up a better picture.

My lecture classes, while not as physically fun, are equally interesting and stimulating. We talk of censorship and restoration, what makes a book a book, learn how to identify the format of a book, if it is made with handmade paper, and if a section or gathering of leaves is comprised of one piece of paper folded and cut. And we read read read.

So this is what I have been doing so far. I haven't even gotten dirty yet. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be in the thick of it. So until I have more lovely hand-made goodness to show you I'll leave you with the deep thoughts of the trio sitting behind us at Jason's Deli...

*Imagine a soft, somber, reverent voice*

"I mean, I just don't think anyone really understands...understands what Alabama Football means to my life."

Food is a big part of every one's life. If they claim that it isn't they are either lying, or not enjoying life to its fullest. One of the quickest and easiest ways to bring a little more joy into your life, is enriching it with food.

I love to cook. Dan loves to cook. Perfect match, right? There is the occasional spat over one or the other of us taking over the kitchen, so we have devised the perfect system to compromise our equal love for the preparing of the meals: one chops and get all the ingredients together while the other does all the actual sweatin' (and believe me, in our kitchen, you are sweatin') by the stove. This plan is impeccable for the dual chef household.

So just what exactly have we made over the last couple weeks here in Alabama? Well, I won't go into detail regarding every single dish, but I will discuss a this weeks highlights:

Sunday:
With a some help from Paula Deen (who, according to REAL southern women, is not one) we made some delicious Buttery Tilapia with Lemon and Green Onions, served over rice with a side of asparagus. One think I like about fish it I don't get that weird "Ugh, I'm touching raw meat and I'm grossed out by it" thing. Sure it smells a little sour, but I much prefer sour to bloody...

Meatless Monday Excursions:
In order to be a little more Eco-friendly, and at the behest of dear Best Friend Mandy, Dan and I have agreed to participate in the Meatless Monday Movement. Rather than trying to explain and justify it myself, you can check it out ans decide for yourself: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/
Last Thursday we went to the ubertiny Farmer's Market they have on campus and got ourselves some fresh tomatoes and eggplant. Can you guess what we made on Monday?
That's right, Baked Eggplant Parmigiana with homemade, from scratch pasta sauce. I have never peeled tomatoes without boiling them ahead of time first. In the boiling method, the skin bursts and splits so its really easy to just peel away. Fresh, uncooked tomatoes don't peel quite so easily. I just used a potato peeler and with a little patience and a steady hand it worked out fine. I have no idea if there is a better way to do it, but it seemed to work out. I egged up the eggplant (ha!) coated it in the cheese and flour, fried it for a minute or two then tossed it in the baking dish, smothered away and tada! A most amazing dish. I've never cooked with eggplant before and was wary as to how this was going to work out but it was amazing. The eggplant was just the perfect flavor and texture with the sauce and mozzarella. And as a garnish on the side, drumroll please, we had super sweet Fatty Arbuckle, my first celebrity tomato! I was so proud of him!
And for desert Dan made a wonderful little dish called Banana Halva. Its an Indian desert where you mash up some bananas, fry them up until the mush turns into an almost toffee like consistency then you stir in chopped walnuts and pistachios. We didn't have the pistachios so we used almonds instead and it was still amazing! Get just a little plain yogurt on the side and the sweet and sour go together so perfectly.

Tuesday I was in orientation and was given *blah* pizza. But...

Wednesday:
We went to our neighbor and fellow Creative Writing MFA Megan's for dinner. Anyone who doesn't like seafood should either stop reading so you don't feel left out or keep reading so you will learn to appreciate some of the most amazing food in the world. Megan made Crab Cole Slaw, Crab Linguine and Mussel Linguine! I have no idea what else she used to season them, but all three dishes were so delectable I went back for seconds on all three. The Mussel pasta even had the shells right in there and some of them you have to pick out the little guys inside. Such good food. Then, right when I thought I couldn't stuff myself anymore, she brought out a Semi-Sweet Chocolate Meringue with Whipped Cream, Raspberries and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. Heaven! Had it been sweet chocolate it would have been too much, but the semi-sweet was just enough to melt you away.

And for tonight... We're having left overs. Can only cram so much good food in a week... But we have grand plans, I assure you. I will try and get pictures for those of who who love to look at yummy food like I do.

Shadows, Saints and Pirl

Dear friend and fellow book nerd, Noelle, lent me this book before I left Good Ole SLC. What with all the packing, driving, unpacking and domestic bliss that has monopolized a good portion of the last month of my life, I was unable to start the book before I left. Intrigued though I was about the book, other distractions kept getting in the way and I found myself here in Bama a week already and still had not embarked upon the book.

I started the book rather voraciously and then tapered off a bit, slowly, reading bit here and there when I had a moment. The first chapter is perhaps the most interesting, thought provoking, exciting chapter in the whole book. The book is introduced by the revelation that in the city of Barcelona, there is a place, a basilica where the forgotten books of this world are kept, waiting to be discovered again. For any passionate reader this is perhaps the most exciting concept ever conceived. This palatial cemetery, winds and twists into your imagination, filled with endless possibilities of stories to be discovered. From this place, you are lead into the story of a boy and what he found there.

After the excitement aroused in the first chapter, it took me a little while to get invested in the story of the boy only because he was a boy and a slave to his passions, which is rather different from even a teenager being a slave to his passions. The story veers off from that which he discovered in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and into an obsessive childhood crush which, while altogether relevant for the remainder of the story, just isn't as interesting as what is to come. After the boy became more of a man and he focuses again on his discovery the story really picks up. I certainly do not wish to divulge any secrets or spoil any endings so my descriptions will end there. But I will say that the last week I have been consumed by this book and unable to put it down. The imagery is haunting and beautiful, the story twisting and compelling. It is very dark at times and I find myself wishing to learn more about the Spanish Civil War. Beautiful. Loved it. Recommend it to anyone looking for a good, exciting read. Disclaimer: There will be blood... (Ha!)

Meet W.C. Fields: American Comedian, Notorious Drinker, and Patron Saint of our Kitchen. Last year at some festival Dan came across this statue of the comedian and brought it home to live with him. He used to oversee Dan's desk, where he would bless the writer with his wit whilst Dan would wile away the hours working on homework and his various writing projects. Now he lives in our kitchen, overseeing the food prep and keeping watchful eye on our liquor. Dinner is always a little bit funnier now...




I promised I would keep everyone updated on the puppy. First of all, I must report that I have foolishly spelled the poor little girls name wrong. Her name is officially Steamboat Pirl (part Pig, part Squirrel). She is eating like a real puppy now and while still tiny, she is huge compared to how puny she was just a few days ago. Her spine, hip bones, and rib cage are no longer visible and her little belly is nice and swollen from eating. She has the energy of a real puppy now. Even tugging on a little pink rope...


That's all for now kids. Orientation tomorrow then school on Wednesday. I should have some interesting things to say then. In the mean time, a word of advice: Corn Whiskey Moonshine out of a Mason Jar should NOT be passed around like lemonade...