Playing Catch Up

Piggles and her new cat toy. It's one of those hamsters that have a draw string that, when pulled, makes the hamster vibrate and move. Originally for the kitten, but as always, Piggles L-O-V-E-S it and steals it constantly.

Fred hanging out in the bathroom (my roommate's male kitty). He's pretty content considering he has a stalker . . .

Fred's stalker Tora (my kitty). Wedged between the toilet and the trash can, she's falling asleep while trying to make friends with Fred.

Foxy, my roommate's female kitty. She's awesomely sweet, notice the one gold eye and one blue eye.

On the kitchen table, where she spends most of her days.

The pendant I recently made with a stone I got from Columbus. The pink stone is a natural cobaltite-calcite, and the little beads around it are labradorite and blue topaz.

The feature I am most proud of . . . a totally clean back! No stray wires, just nice clean prongs.

At 5 months . . .

This is my so called kitten at 5 months, raccoon tail and all. At the rate she's growing, I'm starting to think she's half coyote .

For Dinner Tonight . . .

I have to admit, I'm getting pretty awesome at this pizza making business.Garlic and herb pizza dough, garlic oil sauce, mozzarella, goat cheese rolled in herbs, tomatoes, and of course, avocado. Every dish should have avocados.

To celebrate my pizza skills, I included Prosseco with orange juice as my drink of choice.

Hiking in Yellow Springs

We did some exploring during our time in Yellow Springs and found Glen Helen, a preserve used and managed by the local college for Ecology studies. We decided to hike a trail while we were there that started (and ended) with the worlds most beautiful, but dangerous to the uncoordinated, stairs made of sheet rock. Half way down the trail was the Raptor Center where we got to see some of the local birds . . .

The stairs, in all their dangerous glory.

Monte spotted this tiny little toad! He was only about an inch long.

This is one of the barn owls at the Raptor Center. They have a collection of owls, hawks, eagles and vultures that cannot be released into the wild because their injuries didn't heal correctly.

This was part of the trail, and I was super proud that I made it across without incident. It looks like nothing, but for me crossing this was quite the accomplishment.

Super proud. Some moments just need to be documented.

Grinnell Mill in Yellow Springs

On Wednesday we drove over to a town called Yellow Springs. It's home to the famous Antioch College and has a fun, artsy, community atmosphere. Monte found this awesome Bed and Breakfast that was right off the beaten path. It's only been a B and B for a couple of years, but it had a crazy history before that. Grinnell Mill was built in 1812 and after a few rough decades (including a fire) before it was restored in 2006.

The view of the Mill from the road.

The basement of the Mill.

Our room. Notice the huge burned beams. Those beams are original and so are the burns, courtesy of the local volunteer fire department (they wanted to "practice" putting out fires so they intentionally set this fire and it got out of control . . . from what we were told).

The attic . . .


The awesome dogs that lived there.

The really stunning kitchen. A lot of the wood tables and shelves we custom made.

After having dinner at The Winds, Monte and I went next door to their wine store and got a bottle of Prosecco. We drank it that evening on the porch while I worked on jewelry and he read a giant hardback book about mills.

Food!

I know that Auntie Jan reads this, and after our talk before I left I gathered that she might just be a foodie like me. We have had some FANTASTIC food out here in Ohio. I try to document what I can, but I also try to avoid being that person that always has to photograph her meals. Not that I really care if people think I'm weird out here, I just tell them that I'm from southern California and that seems to clear it right up.

This is my absolute favorite veggie burger EVER. It's found in a place called Northstar in Short North (north of downtown Columbus in the hip area). As soon as I bought my plane tickets I started to crave this burger. It's basically just a blend of rice, beans, beets (hence the color) and spices. Instead of lettuce they give you spring greens!

For our anniversary we went to a little town called Yellow Springs (about an hour and a half away from Monte's mom's house) and the B and B we stayed at recommended a restaurant called The Winds Cafe. I had the three course meal deal . . . starting with black bean chili with white cheddar, Spanish tomatoes and sour cream, then ratatouille filled crepes (shown) with olive and goat cheese garnish sitting in a pool of olive oil and tomato sauce, and finally, brace yourself for this one, goat cheese ice cream with brazed cherries from the local famous ice cream company "Jeni's". They almost had to roll me out the door.

This was from tonight (Thursday). That goat cheese ice cream was so good that we decided to try the actual Jenis (yes, just like Jenny's) ice cream eateries. Apparently it's wildly famous here . . . every time we walked by the line was insane. I tried three different scoops with interesting names . . . going clockwise and starting from the top left we have Thai Chili, Salted Carmel and Stout. They were all really good. Monte got a rootbeer flout with Belgium Milk Chocolate and I have to say that it might have been my favorite. Except for the goat cheese ice cream with the brazed cherries, that was exceptional.

Other exceptional foods that I've had, but didn't photograph include all the food that Monte's mom made for the picnic, an extra fancy dinner of swordfish, crab cakes and the best tropical drink I've ever tasted, and others that I just can't remember.

Franklin Park Conservatory

On Monday (I think, I haven't made a post in quite a while) Monte and I went to the Franklin Park Conservatory to see the Dale Chihuly art glass exhibit. We watched a phenomenal PBS special on this guy when Monte was still in San Diego, and we were both mesmerized by his work. To check it out further click here. Each glass sculpture was featured in a different section of the conservatory's climate themed gardens. These are a few of my favorite pieces (and it was so hard to choose!) This one was in the tropical rain forest area, complete with lots of butterflies and 200% humidity.

This one was on one of the enclosed rooftop gardens. The glass balls are pretty large, I estimate that the large ball in the back had a diameter of 3 feet!

This one was also in the tropical rain forest area. You can't really tell here but it's surrounded by giant Koi.

This was the ceiling in a cave in the Himalayan section. They are all carefully piled on top of a thick glass pane . . . I actually laid down on the ground in front of the cave waterfall to get this shot :). The lengths I go for a pretty picture.

The Ohio State Fair

Unlike the zoo, San Diego's summer fair is not world famous. Or state famous. Or generally famous. The Ohio State Fair, on the other hand, is pretty famous and gigantic. I was told that at one point this state fair claimed to be the largest in the world, and after today it's not hard for me to believe that. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures from today, so I'll include some pictures from the zoo . . .

(From left to right) Monte, Eoin, and Dave, right before we went to the horse show.Clydesdale and Shire horse judging. Right before this group was the draft pony group, and things got a little crazy when the two lead horses of one carriage group panicked and reared. Perhaps they didn't like large screaming crowds and being dressed in metal for sport . . . ? Just saying.

The best picture of me at the zoo . . .

. . . and the best picture of Monte while at the zoo. It always happens that way.

Columbus Zoo

On Thursday we went to the Columbus zoo . . . and being a little bit of a zoo snob (San Diego has a World Famous zoo :) I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Actually more than pleasantly surprised, this zoo was awesome! Here are the highlights . . .

A giant bull moose! Last time I came to this zoo I really, really wanted to see the moose, but there wasn't even one to be seen. This time we saw this guy and his 3 female friends. As a little side note the Columbus Zoo has a fantastic North America area with, of course, North American animals.

The Flying Foxes are waking up. The wing span is unbelievable!



An Emerald Starling just hanging out. The aviaries are pretty neat here, they're smaller but have a great selection of sparkly, colorful birds.

A bored gorilla.

Anza Borrego 1-1-09 055

Anza Borrego 1-1-09 055
Originally uploaded by paranoiabound

just trying this out to see if it works . . . . Monte!

Pictures to go with the stories . . .

Pizza finally done right. Whole wheat dough with mozzarella, avocado and heirloom tomatoes.

My chocolate chip banana bread I made a couple days ago. . . almost all gone now.

The nameless cat cracks me up. She sees the dark spot in the middle of my collapsable laundry basket (just a rivet) and can't quite figure out how she can get to it.
I don't remember if I told you that I recently made this double strand, high end diamond necklace for a customer. Even though they're relatively tiny, you're looking at about 40 carats of light high end industrial canary diamonds. I had to give them a test drive before giving them back :).

So that's about it for pictures now . . . I'll try to keep up in the future :).

Look what I Got!

Cake Adventure

Today has been exhausting. Work was slow, I had to go to two grocery stores before I could relax at home, and instead of actually relaxing, I decided to make a cake that I had been meaning to tackle. This is a Blackout cake without the frosting (since I'm the only one here to eat this I have to have some sort of constraint). It's sort of like a chocolate cake with coffee in the cake batter and pudding as the filler. I cheated and instead of making my own pudding I bought some super decadent Belgian chocolate pudding. It's also supposed to be FOUR layers, but I opted for just two right now. Thank god I have people coming over tomorrow to eat some of this.

Del Mar Fair continued . . .

So it looks like I can only post a certain number of pictures per entry. This is part two of the previous post, read the first one first if you haven't done so already!!!This was, by far, the most incredible entry we saw in the Gem and Mineral jewelry portion. The picture can't quite caption the staggering color change this opal has, but it was so gorgeous I swear that I saw it from across the room!

Now for the strange entries . . . and there were quite a few of them. Most don't need explanation, maybe except this one. This collection was titled "Trench Art" and was made up of items made from "war trash". This is a letter opener with bullet for a handle.A years worth of collie fur picked up by a brush and collected by the owner.

A collection of teeth necklaces from Borneo. From the top, porpoise, pig and dog. I think the sign says it all. Is there an award for the creepiest entry? Because if there was, it would be a tight race between cat whiskers and this entry . . .This is a chain mail (like armour) bikini. What makes this super creepy is that I know the guy who makes these. He used to come into the store and only show the youngest girls photos of his weird metal bikinis. To seal the deal, he had a super crazy eye. So, there you go. A full day at the fair, complete with fried food, awesome gardens, cat whiskers and metal bikinis.

Del Mar Fair!

Ryan and I went to the Del Mar Fair on Wednesday and had a blast! Here are the highlights . . . Against my better judgment, I ate fried fair food. Why does it always sound so awesome, and yet it never ends up a good idea? At least I used some good judgment, my fried food of choice consisted of garlic battered mushrooms drenched in ranch :) (shown). Yeah, they were pretty good, but after eating super healthy for 8 months, and having nearly zero fast food (grilled cheese from In and Out doesn't count!), my body decided that I would pay for my indulgence. And with that, I said bring it on. At one time this was a funnel cake with raspberry topping and whipped cream. Ryan and I ate the majority of it before I even realized that I wanted to take a picture of it. Every year Ryan and I go to the fair, and every year I document our food. This one is the first to slip (almost) by. More highlights . . . A flying pig on a giant mobile.The abominable snow chicken. My second favorite garden exhibit. Just big enough to be a tropical get away for Piggles. Complete with Piggle sized bridge. My very favorite garden exhibit! We talked to the owner and his wife for about 30 minutes . . . they were both beaming with pride because this venture (they had sunken every dime to their name in it) won EVERY top award in the fair. They explained that it is, in it's most basic form, a garden that consists of a close circuit self watering and fertilizing system. It starts at a fish tank that contains Tilapia, a type of large fish. Water from the tank (and fish waste) essentially go through the circuit of pipes and water and fertilize the plants. Since the planters are filled with gravel there is very little water evaporation and therefore little water loss. Not only can you eat the plants, but the inventor informed us that after 8 months you can eat the fish. It was by far the coolest thing we saw :).