Brian Cunningham's Blog

Mt. Willey (4255')

2011-10-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

Overview
Amy, Leela, Mary, and I climbed Mount Willey via the Ethan Pond Trail and Willey Range Trail. NOTE: The trailhead for the Ethan Pond Trail is off of the Willey House Station Rd. which is also the road with the sign for Ripley Falls off of 302.

TIME: 6 hours (including breaks)
DISTANCE: 5.4 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,850
DATE: 10/23/2011

Note that I no longer create Google Maps for my hikes. If you need trailmaps, get the AMC Guide to the White Mountains, which is what we use now (or another similar resource), or see if you can locate the trails on the old (possibly outdated) maps on the topographical views at msrmaps.com.

Trail Conditions
Lots of autumn leaves on the ground now, causing occasional slips on unseen damp rocks. Worth it for the beauty. Overall both trails were wet from recent rain and the Garfield Ridge Trail section we used was occasionally very eroded, but never too difficult. The ladders/stairs were in fine condition, though slick from the wet conditions. It's a steep hike, but nothing too out of the ordinary awaits. There was one big tree with big branches laying on the Ethan Pond Trail, but it was easily maneuvered. Should've brought a saw!

Comments and Photos
I found this hike to be more strenuous than I expected. Short 4k hikes can do that sometimes. I loved the ladders, though Leela (dog) was a bit freaked out by them and needed to be lead with a short leash to prevent her from trying to find an alternate, more dangerous and difficult route. It was a bit cold, but the sun was out for us at the summit, and overall it was a rewarding, somewhat quick hike. I'd say if you're looking for an easier route to Willey, combine it with Field (and Tom if you're up for it), though I haven't done this so I cannot reliably attest to the difficulty or lack thereof of that route.

Leeeeeeeaves on the generally easy though occasionally steep Ethan Pond Trail

View from East outlook on Willey. The path to the outlook is marked by a strange sign.

Chocorua from Willey. Carrigain to the left?

At the "summit" of Willey (still East outlook)

On top of Willey!

The true summit of Mount Willey was marked by this cairn

Here's a photo from the Willey Range Trail. Steep!

Another photo from the Willey Range Trail. Very eroded sometimes

Willey Range Trail also has a long stretch of "ladders", which for the most part resembled narrow stairs.

Ladders/stairs on the Willey Range Trail

View of Mount Willey from the parking area at the Ethan Pond Trail trailhead at the end of Willey House Station Road

Final Thoughts
I originally wanted to do the Willey Range 4ks (Willey, Tom, & Field) in one hike, but I like that we have to revisit for Field & Tom. Crawford Notch is a beautiful spot adjacent to the Presidentials. Plus, we're not in a rush to finish all the 4000 footers. It's nice to be more casual about it and savor each hike a bit.

4,267 Hours

2011-09-22T08:31:00.000-04:00

I knew

the trap would fail.

Leg pinned,
probably broken,

for hours

before i shuddered,

found you;

barely breathing, you'd dragged the trap.

Not dead.

I killed another mouse when I was seven with

a rock.

Now, twenty years later,

again.

Assuming an average worldwide human life expectancy of 67.2 years (source) and an average mouse life expectancy of about 2 years (source), one human hour could be considered about 33.6 mouse hours.

september

2011-09-14T07:55:00.000-04:00

a hummingbird makes rounds
checking the deep colored late summer blooms;
and so do i, fishing in my oats for blackberries.

Mount Whiteface (4020') and Mount Passaconaway (4043')

2011-09-13T19:28:00.000-04:00

Overview:

Amy, Leela, and I climbed Mount Whiteface and Mount Passaconaway via the Blueberry Ledge Trail, Rollins Trail, and Dicey's Mill Trail.

TIME: 7 hours, 40 minutes (including breaks)
DISTANCE: 11.9 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,800 feet
DATE: 9/11/2011

I've decided to skip the effort of creating a map from now on for these hikes. It became a minor obsession, and the fact that they just aren't guaranteed to be accurate in any way makes it basically pointless. If you need trailmaps, get the AMC Guide to the White Mountains, which is what we use now, or see if you can locate the trails on the old (possibly outdated) maps on the topographical views at msrmaps.com

Trail Conditions

Blueberry Ledge Trail: Varied terrain, mostly dry. Lots of blowdowns from storms, but most were cleared. There were some wet spots along the way with all the rain we've been getting, but never in spots that caused any safety concern. There were several spots that were just plain difficult, earning it the description in the AMC guide as one of the more challenging trails in the Whites. The most difficult spot for me was where there were once steps, but now only holes remain in the very steep rock face. We used these as holds for our fingers and scrambled up. There are also some sturdy branches and roots to aid here. Our dog never needed assistance, though this came as a surprise. I'm guessing more normal dogs would need at least a boost in a few spots.

Rollins Trail: Surprisingly steep descent from the summit of Whiteface, but generally a regular old mountain trail. Some spots were wet and muddy, but never an obstacle.

Dicey's Mill Trail: A few spots to scramble on the rocks, but again, nothing surprising. Got wetter near the bottom, but as with the other trails, never a cause of concern.

Comments and Photos

The approach to the summit of Whiteface was the best part of this hike for me. Not to say the rest of the hike was awful, but the difficult climbing on the open rock and fantastic wide views to the south, east, and north along the way made it a mountain worth revisiting. Passaconaway served us well in giving us decent views to the west, rounding out the views for the hike. I think we could've seen the presidentials from Whiteface, but they were lost in the clouds.

View of Whiteface (peak further in distance, lit by sun) from the road from the Ferncroft Rd parking area

Early on the Blueberry Ledge Trail

Amy in the first of many stretches of open rock

About 1/3 of the way up, a false summit of sorts

This part of the trail could be awful in wet conditions. To the left is a big dropoff.

Did not capture the toughest part of the trail (for me) very well. But you can see it's very steep here!

Another somewhat difficult spot. Leela hopped right up.

Late blueberries on the Blueberry Ledge Trail as we neared the summit.

View from the summit of Whiteface was great! But it was also cold up there.

At the summit of Whiteface, Lake Winnepesauke in the distance.

Marker for what is probably the true summit of Whiteface, along the Rollins Trail.

View to the west from the viewpoint near the summit of Passaconaway. Both true summits on this hike were viewless, but the viewpoints were decent.

Enjoying some apples at the summit of Passaconaway.

Final Thoughts

Whiteface and Passaconaway is a rugged hike at times, but I will remember this hike as 8 hours well spent. Great to do with a friend to get some quality time in or to do alone for some excellent mountain meditation. I appreciated the time to catch up with Amy on some deeper conversation than we usually get in at home. I will say that if you want to try alternatives, take the steepness of the Blueberry Ledge Trail into consideration if you consider going DOWN it. I'm sure it's possible, but I would never choose to do it.

tree rings

2011-09-09T21:07:00.001-04:00

Sometimes
I oil our rings.
A day off the hand,
rain in the forest.

We watch:
the scuffs being sealed,
the color turning deep.

Poison Ivy Walk

2011-09-06T08:18:00.000-04:00

Walked the dog further today,
watching for patches of those
perfect green leaves
nodding their invitations in the morning showers.
Without experience, lettuce
would be more menacing,
while these leaves could easily shine as a houseplant, stepping
from the windowsill above the sink
vying for the delight of a simple forgettable brush
with the back of your hand.

Married with Children International Remakes

2011-07-23T18:44:00.002-04:00

Did you see how William Shatner RTed something I posted on Twitter?

WilliamShatner: “@bmc2o3: are you watching @WilliamShatner LIVE FROM #COMICCON LIKE ME CUZ YOU'RE A NERD?! http://t.co/UGZTxc1” Nerds unite! MBB

He even added a comment! Yeah, I communicated with a legendary space captain from my handheld communication device. And as a result, he demanded we unite. (By the way, for those of you not in the know, "MBB" stands for "My Best, Bill".)

To further demonstrate how futuristic I can be, I put my now famous tech skills to work and found some video clips from around the world of remakes of Married with Children. If you thought seeing the DVD special features with Homer speaking German were funny, or the international variations on Doc from Fraggle Rock were awesome to glimpse (one of them was a lighthouse keeper!), you will probably enjoy these clips.

First, let's refresh on the American original (just the opening credits, there are plenty of other clips on YouTube):

Married with Children
USA, premiered 1987

http://youtu.be/Ze1sx9YR2Ec

And now have a look at my two favorite MWC remakes--one from Croatia (The Waters of Marriage) and one from Hungary (A Terribly Neat Family in Budapest):

Bracne Vode (The Waters of Marriage)
Croatia, premiered in 2008
Bundy = Bandić

http://youtu.be/aJ-ETybNvR0

Egy rém rendes család Budapesten (A Terribly Neat Family in Budapest)
Hungary, premiered 2006
Bundy = Bándi

http://youtu.be/OTuDknjgh6U

While those two are great, there are still so many more...

Married for Life
UK, 1996
Bundy = Butler

http://youtu.be/QpsXJeV9E08

A Guerra dos Pintos (The War of the Pintos)
Brazil, premiered 1999
Bundy = Pinto

http://youtu.be/WjLE5m3Vlpg

Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt (Help, My Family is Nuts)
Germany, premiered 1993
Bundy = Strunk

Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt Intro - MyVideo

Casados con Hijos (Married with Children)
Argentina, premiered in 2006
Bundy = Argento

http://youtu.be/tAUktA0BIR8

Casado con Hijos (Married with Children)
Chile, premiered in 2005
Bundy = Larraín

http://youtu.be/nZtAFkonn28

Բնակարան N2 (Bnakaran N2) (Apartment #2)
Armenia, premiered 2009
The only thing I can find is a wacky music video featuring footage from the show:

Счастливы вместе (Sсhastlivy Vmeste) (Happy Together)
Russia, premiered 2006
Bundy = Bukin

http://youtu.be/5KnaMtYSz3Y

Matrimonio con hijos (Married with Children)
Spain, premiered 2006
Bundy = Cuatro

http://youtu.be/1cgDWoLxqSY

Casado Con Hijos (Married With Children)
Columbia, premiered 2004
Bundy = Rocha

I would watch all of these series if I could find the video with English subtitles! If anyone has better clips or knows of other remakes let me know, I love these.

I used Wikipedia and Bundyology for the info to find these clips.

Mount Garfield (4500')

2011-07-11T18:33:00.010-04:00

Overview:

Amy, Tim, Leela, and I climbed Mount Garfield (4500') starting from Gale River Road via the Garfield Trail (with the final 0.2 mile leg to the summit on the Garfield Ridge Trail), retracing our steps to get back:

TIME: 5 hours 55 minutes (with breaks)
DISTANCE: 10 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,000 feet
DATE: 7/10/2011

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails we used. Routes and distances are approximate (I did them freehand while looking at a topo map). Note that I did not bother to show the Garfield Ridge Trail intersection. You go right when you get to it on the way up. The map is fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).

View Mount Garfield in a larger map

Trail Conditions:
This trail is excellent. Not too difficult, long but easy to move fast. There were a few small blowdowns in some spots, but nothing that caused a nuisance. We did pass people with a dog that had been in an altercation with a porcupine (quills in face!), so be aware of that if you have a dog. Leela didn't find any, but you never know. Near the summit it gets tougher, with a lot of quick gain in elevation on larger rocks. The difficulty increases a lot on the Garfield Ridge trail, which finally got me breathing heavy. But it was a short stretch and not really that hard at all, looking back on it. All in all, fantastic conditions.

Comments and Photos:
I think my trail conditions basically covers how I feel about the trip up (and down) the mountain; I enjoyed it. I'll point out that there are basically no views until you get to the summit. Tim said without hesitation that Garfield had the best summit of all of the 4ks we've done so far, and I think I agree with him. Unlike Carrigain, there are not a lot of trees in the way at the top, thus no tower is required. There is a lot of space to spread out if it were crowded, too, making for a nice lunch. We actually spent nearly an hour at the top, easily doubling any summit breaks we've had thus far. And we had a new perspective on many of the 4ks in the area, having never hiked around there before, and Garfield is in relatively close proximity to some great mountains. Lafayette towered over us to the west, and as you turn your gaze south you can see three more 4ks in a row: Lincoln, Liberty, and Flume. Owl's Head, the notorious 16-18 mile hike, was dead south of Garfield, and you could easily see it's full prominence. Washington's summit was just visible, as well as most of the northern presidentials. OK enough listing, here are the photos.

The first entrance to Gale River Road was closed, so we had to go further up Route 3 to get to the other end of the loop. Don't worry if you feel lost, just turn right at the hiker sign and continue for a while past the Gale River Trail TH, and then you'll find the Garfield Trail TH, shown here.

Amy & Leela at one of the brook crossings. All crossings were easy.

Beautiful day in the woods.

A sweeping panorama along the Garfield Trail (click it to see it larger)

Here's the intersection with the Garfield Ridge Trail. Go right to go to the summit of Garfield.

I took this picture because the Garfield Ridge Trail was in such contrast to the Garfield trail, in that it was steep and very rocky.

4ks, right to left: Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty, Flume, and closer to us was Owl's head all the way to the left. More are visible in the distance.

Amy looking east at the Twins and the Presidentials (in the distance), and Galehead, lower and closer to us.

This hike brought all 3 of our NH 4k counts to 12, meaning we are 1/4 of the way through them!

Tim at the summit structure.

Leela loved this summit, but ended up hurting her paws a little bit on the rocks.

Owl's Head, with the Osceolas in the background, among others

We could even see the top of Cannon

Flume (left) and Liberty (right)

Kind of guessing, but I think that's Passaconaway on the left and the Tripyramids to the middle/right

Looking up at the summit.

Leela looking down to Amy with the view to the north in the background.

Back on the way down, in a birch forest. My new camera has a sweeping panorama feature, and this is the first time I decided to use it up to down. Not great for traditional monitors.

Birch forest

Leela getting her last all natural drink of the hike.

Final Thoughts
I think Garfield was a great hike, and we made the best time so far, averaging over 2mph. I'm not sure how tough it would be for those not accustomed to hiking, but my guess is it would not be too strenuous, considering the distance. In the words of my brother, this hike is a treat.

Mount Jackson (4052')

2011-07-05T08:35:00.002-04:00

Overview:

Amy, Tim, and I (no Leela!) climbed Mount Jackson (4052') starting from Route 302 via the Webster-Jackson Trail (retracing our steps to get back):

TIME: 4 hours, 40 minutes (with breaks)
DISTANCE: 5.2 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,150 feet
DATE: 7/3/2011

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails we used. Routes and distances are approximate (I did them freehand while looking at a topo map). Note that I did not bother to show intersections; the trail was easy to follow. The map is fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).

View Mount Jackson in a larger map

Trail Conditions:
The trail was fairly wet and often muddy, even before it rained. Though this hike was short, it was made somewhat difficult with the fairly steep sections and lots of rocks/boulders to deal with along the way. The last segment to reach the summit on this trail was a bit tricky, forcing us to pause and calculate good ways to navigate up the rocks. It started raining on our way up, so coming back down required some more attention, but I suppose we were being overly careful. The brook crossings were some of the easiest we've encountered.

Comments and Photos:
Unlike our last hike up Isolation, this hike was very short (our shortest 4k so far). We were originally planning to loop over to Webster to make it more substantial and provide new, different views, but the rain made us reconsider and we headed back into the woods for cover. And even though it was a short hike in comparison with all other 4ks we've done, it was still a good, tough day out.

Trail was immediately steep, and climbed continually almost the whole time.

The only significant crossing, and it was easy.

Junction to go up Jackson or Webster (and continue on to other points).

Thought we were almost done, but we had about 45 minutes to go I think.

The final push was even steeper than it looks here.

It was raining! But the views weren't really that bad.

Looking East from the summit of Mount Jackson

For a little while, we could see Mount Washington easily.

Someone left this on the summit cairn.

Headed back down in the rain.

Amy was trucking ahead of us the whole way down like a pro.

Elephant Head is right off of 302 off of the Webster-Jackson Trail. A 0.2 mile hike that we should do someday.

Final Thoughts
This is a relatively short hike that I feel like the general population can enjoy, and get some fairly difficult climbing under their belt without being stuck in the woods all day. It confirmed that all of the Presidentials have great views for me, and I'm excited to do more! Plus, being on the trails that would be used for the end of a Presidential traverse planted that idea in my head again. The rain was kind of a bummer, and our bags are still drying out in this humid weather, but hey, it's just water.

Mount Isolation

2011-06-06T18:17:00.002-04:00

Overview:

Amy, Leela, and I climbed Mount Isolation (4004') starting from Route 16 via the Rocky Branch Trail, Isolation Trail, and Davis Path (retracing our steps to get back):

TIME: 10 hours, 50 minutes (with breaks)
DISTANCE: 14.6 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,400 feet
DATE: 6/5/2011

Here are the elevation profiles:

Rocky Branch Trail from 16 to Isolation Trail intersection

Isolation Trail and Davis path to Mt Isolation Summit (from Rocky Branch Trail)

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails we used. Routes and distances are approximate (I did them freehand while looking at a topo map). Note that all 3 trails used continue after the intersections; I just didn't bother to show this. The map is fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).

View Mt Isolation in a larger map

Trail Conditions:
The trail was very wet, especially near the end of the Rocky Branch segement, and the several brook/river crossings seemed difficult at times. Black flies were horrendous almost the entire time, especially at the summit. There were a lot of downed trees in a few spots on the Isolation Trail, many of which were cleared, but on a few occasions we had to make our way over limbs 3 feet off the ground. A lot of moose droppings and tracks in a few spots along the way, but not sightings for us unfortunately.

Writeup:
This hike is long. That is the main thing I will always remember about Mt. Isolation. The hiking itself was never too difficult, but the distance took a major toll on our bodies (even Leela's; she was laying down repeatedly in our last hour, trying to get some rest). I had knee pain for the first time on a hike, and Amy made good use of the poles to relieve some of her knee pain.

After a good push in the beginning, the trail is basically a slow gentle ascent with occasional descents. At times the trail was a little bit confusing, but not so bad that we got lost. The only time we had trouble finding our way was the location of the steep trail up to the summit off of the Davis path, which is not really marked and to my weary eyes seemed like a dry falls for a brook. I continued down the Davis Path for about 10 minutes before deciding to try climbing up. There is a sign right next to this trail, I later realized, which does not mention Mt. Isolation.

OK on with the show.

Trailhead at 7:15am

This is one of the first major crossings. You can see this one wasn't too difficult.

Not really that close to being done like it might seem from the trees and rockiness.

Trail was very wet at times!

Scrambling through the downed trees.

View from the top was great, but TOO MANY BLACK FLIES! We abandoned our summit lunch plans and hiked back down where the bugs weren't as bad. Washington is the peak in the middle.

Another view, I think to the East.

Better view of Washington. Not much snow left at all in the range.

Still had about 7 miles to go!

Leela was not that tired yet at this point.

In case it's of any use to anyone, this is the sign along the Davis Path that is opposite the climb to the summit of Isolation.

Here's what the trail to Isolation's summit looked like. Woof.

Final Thoughts
All in all, I hope I never have to do this hike in one day again. I learned a valuable lesson about always bringing a map (and possibly the AMC White Mountain Guide as well, for the trail descriptions) and about planning to camp on the longer hikes. I am about as sore as one can get today (the day after the hike), and don't think we'll be headed up a 4k for at least two weeks to give us time to recover. Leela doesn't even want to go for long walks; instead she walks... very... slowly. I almost want to pick her up.

My life predictions from 5 years ago

2011-04-19T18:11:00.000-04:00

The following is from a journal I kept in college (for Mekeel McBride's class at UNH, The Gift):

4-17-2006
in 5 years (27 years old):
I want to have painted a picture of God. I want to have slipped on a banana peel by accident. For money, I want to be telling jokes to a disconnected television with a leaky ceiling... or creating and getting by. I want to have a kid that drives me up a wall.

I will have been to another part of the country, or to another country altogether. I will be living somewhere cheap, with Amy.

Some thoughts on this:

Seems like all of the first section did not come true--actually, there have been two leaky ceilings, and I am "getting by" (though my job isn't always that "creative"). I've definitely been to different countries! And I'd say our current living situation is cheap (inexpensive is a better word). A more important observation about that comment is that I knew I wanted to be with Amy after going out with her for less than 6 months.

About that "kid" comment... Actually, let's not talk about it!

Also, I've been out of college for almost 5 full years?! There are more predictions for later milestones, too. I'd like to be able to change these, but what's the fun in that?

in 10 years (32 years old)
I will have published a collection of art I created with Amy, which will not be famous but will be a great find for anyone who sees it. I will be in the newspaper for something minor but unique. I will be living in a better place with more kids and probably pets.

in 20 years (42 years old)
I will be writing just as much as I am now, only the work will be shared with more than just Amy. I will be teaching kids about life, and make sure they know about music and poetry. I will plant a carrot in the middle of my house and when people ask about the hole of dirt, I'll tell them, "it's my carrot that has been growing for 20 years," even though it will probably end up being a seed mixup and a strange green plant will grow. In the spring, flowers will appear, and the room will become both human-made and naturally beautiful. My life will have been a bit of a struggle.

I'm happy to report that I'm not upset or discouraged by the change of course my life has apparently taken (namely the shift away from trying to write professionally). It's not like I don't like art anymore! Plus, I discovered cooking and baking. Creativity is still happening.

In recognition of this discovery, I'm dropping the now silly blog entry signoff of "BRIAN OUT" as of now.

SAYONARA, SUCKERS!

Stuffed Pig's Head (WARNING: MAY BE DISTURBING)

2011-03-25T16:43:00.005-04:00

NOTE: I'm going to provide a lot of text and this warning to allow you the chance to turn back before scrolling down and seeing photos, which I promise will probably freak most people out. I hereby warn you! Don't be upset with me if you continue on.

I'm posting this because I like to document significant things in my life. I also did all of the prep work while Amy was out of the house, so I didn't get to really share this crazy experience with anyone. I feel like I have to share!

So! Remember last year when I cooked pig's feet? That was crazy huh?

Well, that was nothing. This year's pig share (from Kelly Brook Farm in Greenland, NH) came with a LOT more. More meat, more parts--among those, a head. Actually, since it's a half pig share, half of a head. It has been haunting/mocking me from our freezer for a few months now.

Quickly, have a look at the final product, which is not freaky at all:

Stuffed Pig's Head with Collard Greens

I'm sure a lot of you reading this started off wondering why anyone would ever do this, especially someone who is not starving and has easy access to innumerable alternative foods. I'm sure I won't be able to give a good enough reason to satisfy everyone, but here are the main reasons I can think of:

Why cook and eat a pig head?

To honor the animal by wasting as little of it as possible
To try new cooking techniques
To overcome a challenge
To not waste money (we were charged for half of the pig's hanging weight, not for the weight of the final cuts we received)
To have a unique experience

OK, let's get on with it. I'm not going to bother including a recipe, let's just do a few photos with captions. If you want to really see the recipe and process, I basically followed this post at French Laundry at Home, which followed the Stuffed Pig Head recipe in the French Laundry Cookbook. I will say that I surprised myself in that I did not feel disturbed or grossed out at any time in the whole process, save for the very beginning.

Unwrapping was definitely the worst part. I was afraid the jaw would fall open or random pieces would just fall off. Nothing like that happened. Although I will not post photos of the cut side, since I'm sure they will definitely disturb most people.

Diced up the ear.

I deboned the head, keeping almost all of it in one piece... I originally was going to post a photo of this, but have decided not to risk freaking people out too much.

After getting rid of the skin and most of the fat, I did a terrible job pounding the meat flat (only have a regular hammer), and arranged the braised tongue, extra meat, and diced ear on the meat.

Rolled it all up and bundled in cheese cloth. Braised in the oven for 6 hours.

Maybe this photo is disturbing, but I'm guessing most of you have seen an animal skull before. Click to enlarge. I boiled the heck out of the remains so it would just be a skull. I mean, come on! It's an animal skull! I've never had one before. I couldn't miss the opportunity and just throw it out. It's on our back deck now, getting a final cleaning by bugs hopefully.

After the 6 hour braise, I wrapped in fresh cheese cloth, suspended, and let dry out in the fridge for about 30 hours.

Here it is, all held together by magic.

Brushed with mustard, breaded, and fried. Served with hard boiled egg and collard greens and a delicious sauce which I forgot to capture in any photos. It is actually underneath.

Tasted pretty good. The texture was somewhere between pulled pork and... butter, I guess. Certainly worth the effort for the experience and very interesting meal, but I don't think I'll bother to do it again--maybe if we were doing a dinner party with some adventurous guests, but otherwise, it's a lot of time and work for a meal--time that could be better spent on bread.

The final part of this pig head story is something smart that I realized in the midst of everything. In keeping with minimizing waste, while I was just waiting around for the tongue to finish braising, I rendered the fat I trimmed from the head into lard! And since I had the time, I rendered all the back fat we got with the share too, so now I have about 2 cups of wonderful lard. Time for some quiche? Biscuits? Deep fried... things!!

BRIAN OUT.

What I ate in Barcelona THIS TIME

2011-02-20T15:24:00.002-05:00

OK gotta do a lot from memory here. Didn't really take any photos of food this time around, though. See my Facebook album for the rest of my photos from the trip!

Tapas at Sagardi:

Had like 8 of them, all unique and delicious. Cheese, crab, ham, asparagus, anchovies, etc., etc.
Let's say Estrella Damm? Can't remember

Breakfasts at NH La Maquinsta (my hotel):

Fruit fruit and more fruit
Mini ham sandwich
Chocolate croissant
Cafe con leche
Fresh squeezed orange juice
Yogurt

Dinner at Senyor Parellada:

Cava
Olives (on all the tables)
Bread with tomatoes (don't remember the name, but basically a Spanish twist on bruschetta)
Mussels
Some of my coworker's cod fritters
Stewed oxtail with mushrooms (freaking amazing!)
Churros with chocolate (xurros amb xocolat in Catalan)
Oh, and the sparkling water we had at every restaurant was Vichy Catalan, very nice!

Dinner at Sagardi:

Cava
Don't know the name, but it was peppers and anchovies with some kind of amazing olive oil and i think vinegar
Grilled chorizo (the best I've had so far)
Tempranillo
T-bone steak cooked very rare (per the chefs recommendation; this was shared amongst 4 people)
Grilled monkfish with extremely tasty seasoning
Chocolate, vanilla, and local apple gelato selection

Lunch at Paella to Go within the tradeshow venue:

Vegetarian paella (they ran out of seafood & meat!)

Tapas somewhere in Plaça Catalunya:

Chorizo tapa
Fried ham and egg tapa
Beer, don't know what kind

Dinner at Mussol (I'm told by my Spanish coworker that it was very traditional Catalan food):

Grilled green onion kinda things (bigger but not as big as a leek) with great sauces
Grilled artichokes with the same sauces
Red wine (don't know what kind)
Catalan sausage with some locally grown white beans
Rice pudding

I also grabbed a baguette sandwich with ham, and it had a fresh tomato puree spread on it. Nice.

BRIAN BARCELONOUT.

What you can do with a half pig share

2010-11-01T08:25:00.002-04:00

Last week we used up the final bit of the pig share we got last year and now I can post the entry I've been wanting to do for a while now. Below you will find photos of many meals we produced with the meat from the half pig we got. The share came from a nearby farm, New Roots Farm in Newmarket, NH. Unfortunately for us, they are no longer doing shares so that they can have more meat to go around at farmer's markets, so we're looking into other options right now so we can try to do something like this again!

These won't be in any particular order, and I know I didn't get photos of every single thing we did. Recipes, when used, can probably be found online.

Here goes!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. Crust made with home rendered lard!

I'm calling this Ham Corn Soup. Used ham from our share, and probably some stock from bones.

Pork Liver Pâté en Brioche. Fry up some ground pork, some ground up pork liver, let it set, and bake it in brioche dough. I think there was over a pound of added fat in this recipe--one of Julia Child's of course. The taste was superb, though I made sure to only enjoy one tiny piece per day, since this is by far the most fattening thing we've made.

BBQ Ham Sandwich. Actually just a bit of ham steak with spicy BBQ sauce I made on sourdough.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches. One of several batches of pulled pork we made from the roasts.

Wacky Leftover Ham Burrito.

Chili con PIG MEAT. I suspect this is where I lost the tenderloin, ridiculous as it sounds.

Pork chops, straight up.

Bacon. Definitely the best I've ever had! We tried not to fly through our supply of it...

Ham Steaks. I don't know what happens with other hams, but this was a totally different and better experience than any ham I've come across previously.

Pork Potstickers. Our favorite way to use the ground pork.

Potsickers again. I think we probably made them 3 or 4 different times with our wonderful ground pork.

"Italian Style" Pork Chops. Basically breaded and seasoned, fried, then baked.

BBQ RIBS! Slowly cooked in the dutch oven with apples and BBQ sauce.

Pieds de Cochon. OK, fine, pig's feet. They're that fried pile of stuff at the top right. Great experience, and actually tasted great. Click here to see more photos of the process (warning, may freak you out).

BBQ Ribs again. This time I must have run out of sauce. Also got some squash I think on there, with quinoa and broccoli.

Pulled Pork on Sourdough again! My favorite meal (that I make, that is) is this plus green mac and cheese.

Corn Chowder. With ham, of course.

Pork Rib Gumbo

Pumpkin Pie. Crust made with lard. And, while I'm gloating, I used an actual pumpkin that I cooked and strained and a recipe that did not require canned milk in any form. You CAN make a great pumkin pie without evaporated (or condensed) milk! Recipe came from a Yankee New England cook book that I love for local recipes.

Country Ham! Simmered it in Dr. Pepper per a suggestion from Alton Brown's show/book/don't remember. Kinda came out dry, actually. But the ham is so tasty I can't really complain.

Potstickers again! This time in homemade ravioli.

Pork Ham Soup. That's what I'm calling it. Basically just threw together soup after making a stock from the soup bones we got in our share, which also yielded about 2 cups of great pork. Threw in some cheap despicable ham, corn, potatoes.... who knows what else. Thanks to the super stock made from the bones, this soup tasted way better than you might think from its appearance.

I guess that's it! Thank you, pig. We used as much of you as we possibly could to honor your gift.

BRIAN PIGGED OUT.

Mount Mansfield (Smuggler's Notch, Vermont)

2010-10-26T19:09:00.001-04:00

During our honeymoon, Amy and I climbed our first Vermont 4000 footer, Mount Mansfield (climb date: 10/13/2010). Mansfield is a mountain of interest for several reasons:

It looks like a man's face (see photo below)
It is #3 on the New England's Fifty Finest list (finest = prominence)
It is the highest point in Vermont
Like the other Vermont 4000 footers, it is reached by a segment of the Long Trail, which is similar to the Appalachian Trail, but stays in Vermont (and it came before the AT!)
This applies only to Amy and I, but we got married on 10/10/10, and Mansfield is our 10th 4000 footer!! A coincidence, actually, but it was great to realize while we climbed.

It was a nice climb, and the views were great, with the Whites in NH visible in the distance to the East and the Adirondacks of NY visible in the distance to the west. Because of the prominence, and the spacious nature of Smuggler's notch, the view was not as interrupted by mountains as I've grown accustomed to in NH, which was a nice change. As we ascended The Chin (highest point) it was very steep, perhaps the longest stretch of difficult climbing I've done, with a short chimney followed by a lot of rock hopping with three points of contact.

Overview:
Amy and I climbed Mount Mansfield (4393') via the Long Trail (south):

TIME: 5 hours, 7 minutes (9:23am start, 12pm summit, 12-12:30pm lunch, 2:30pm finish)
DISTANCE: about 4 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,800 feet

Here are the elevation profiles and map I made (probably my laziest attempt yet, but it's good enough I'd say):

Long Trail to The Chin

Long Trail from The Chin to the Profanity Trail back to the Long Trail (does not go all the way back down)

View Mount Mansfield in a larger map

Trail Conditions:
A bit wet, but generally no difficulties with conditions. Near the top of The Chin there was snow in the trees and a bit of ice on the rocks, but we did not have to deal with it very much. Cold and windy as we ascended The Chin, but at the summit it was not too bad. The Profanity Trail was steep and occasionally eroded, but it was never a problem.

Photos and Further Details on the Climb

View of Mount Mansfield at an angle from which it REALLY resembles a face. Chin is not shown, unfortunately.

Trailhead sign was ridiculous. We drove by it 3 times. That's an 8.5 x 11 in piece of paper!

Trail was occasionally wet, but overall very beautiful!

Amy heading up the chimney, which was the beginning of a stretch of the steepest climbing I've done so far.

I tried to really capture the steepness of the trail

Steep and spots of ice/snow!

Look at the snow in the trees! It was even snowier further back around the dark side of the mountain.

A panoramic from the summit of Mount Mansfield (The Chin). Looking northwest, I believe

Amy showing off that we had cell service on the mountain. This is just after we got onto the Profanity Trail, which was steep like this almost the whole time.

Full view of Mansfield's face, though the angle isn't as good. Forehead, eyebrows, nose, lips, chin, adam's apple.

Final thoughts:
I loved this mountain. Steep and somewhat scary near the end of the climb, but great views and a quick tough climb marked the start of our honeymoon in a great way.

Not sure whether we will be climbing much more in 2010. Icy conditions and a lack of cramp-ons, snowshoes, and cold weather hiking pants are to blame. We'll see!

BRIAN OUT.

Got married!

2010-10-25T12:54:00.003-04:00

I feel obligated to post about marrying Amy here. We got married on 10/10/10 at the World Fellowship Center in Albany, NH, and had a great time of it. The weather and foliage could not have cooperated any better! I'm so happy to have Amy, and could not be happier to share my life with her.

I'm going to type out the vows we made to each other from memory right now, which we recited during the ceremony:

I take thee to by my beloved, promising to be a loving and faithful partner. I ask you to be none other than yourself. I promise to cherish and delight in your spirit and individuality, to face life's challenges with patience, to respect our differences, and nurture our growth.

Here are some photos I like that were taken over the weekend:

Went to the Fryeburg Fair on the Friday night before the wedding with Amy, our friend Myra, Amy's sister Christine, Christine's boyfriend Patrick. Highlight: fried Oreos.


Climbed Mount Chocorua with a group of friends and family on Saturday. Here's Amy with Leela at the summit!

Amy's cousin Brian surprised everyone by showing up from JAPAN, after making sure we all thought he couldn't make it! Took this photo at a great party at Amy's mom's house the night before the wedding.

The day of the wedding, Tim, Tyler and I went looking for moose and caught a great sunrise. Tyler's presence at the wedding was a complete surprise, and it was great to have him there.

Me waiting for Amy before the ceremony. (Taken by Tim Cunningham)

Here she comes! (Taken by John Mitchell)

Amy arrives up front. (Taken by Tim Cunningham)

Here we go! (Taken by Myra Khan)

You may now kiss each other. (Taken by Tim Cunningham)

After we were officially married we went to be alone in the woods, and then had some private photos taken. (Taken by John Mitchell)

My cousin Robby enjoying the potluck meal.

Picnic tables for seating on the beautiful fall day. (Taken by Myra Khan)

There's the surprise guest! Great to see my old pal Tyler again, who was there for Amy and I since the beginning back at UNH.

Chocolatey cake my mom made!

Everyone gathered for our toast and Amy's birthday song for her cousin Liz. (Taken by Myra Khan)

Cutting the cake (and wooden dowels, woops!) (Taken by Myra Khan)

Soapy recycling mobile.

Great day, thanks everyone! (taken by Myra Khan)

There are many, many more great photos out there, and sifting through those that I have is so tough! If you have any photos from the wedding, please let me know, I'd love to get copies of them (in their original high resolution, of course!).

BRIAN OUT.

The Hancocks (Mount Hancock and South Hancock)

2010-09-06T13:12:00.001-04:00

We knew it was going to be rainy for our hike this past weekend, so I struggled to find a good hike for this situation; you don't want to climb something with a wide open rocky peak in the rain, since it will be A) slippery and dangerous, and B) a waste of good views, since clouds would limit visibility. Tim suggested a longer hike to peaks with views that were not reportedly amazing, and we went with his first choice, the Hancocks. Luckily, it wasn't as rainy or cloudy as we expected, since hurricane Earl had much less of an impact on NH than we had expected.

Overview:
Tim, Amy, Leela, and I climbed Mount Hancock (4420') and South Hancock (4319') via the Hancock Notch Trail, Cedar Brook Trail, and the Hancock Loop Trail:

TIME: 7 hours, 25 minutes (with breaks)
DISTANCE: 9.8 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,650 feet

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails you can use for these two peaks. We took the path in blue; the red options were shown on a topo map I used in my research, but I can't vouch for them in any regard. The map is fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).

View The Hancocks from The Kancamagus Highway via Hancock Notch, Cedar Brook and Hancock Loop Trails in a larger map.

I'm not going to do elevation profiles this time, since I was naive and did the above Google map in several legs, which would be too tedious for me to do elevation profiles for, since they can only be done for each leg, and I really don't want to redo any of the trails. But here's something new that I haven't been doing for these writeups:

Trail Conditions:

It was wet and occasionally showered. Trail was often VERY wet, with many mud puddles requiring patience and consideration to pass. On the way from Hancock to South Hancock, there were so many puddles that were so large that bushwhacking was the preferred option, a lesson I learned when I stubbornly tried to make it along the trail and slipped into mud, soaking my sneakered feet thoroughly. Which reminds me, backpacking boot suggestions, anyone? Aside from the wet conditions, the trail was also very eroded once it started gaining altitude; for long stretches we were walking on small stones and gravel, which was not very fun to go down later on.

Writeup

The route is long, but not boring. Even though it was a long trek, my only real complaint about the hike is that I had wet feet for the second half of it, but that's mostly my fault. I enjoyed the level of difficulty and variety in the terrain.

Nice sign at the Hancock Notch Trail head (at the hairpin on the Kanc) about peak bagging and 4000 footers! See text from sign below

Text from the sign for those curious:

Peakbagging
Some hikers, called "peak baggers," keep a tally of the mountains over 4,000 feet high that they have scaled. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Maine, a perfect score is 48. The Appalachian Mountain Club's Four Thousand Footer Club recognizes those who have climbed all 48 peaks.

"This week of tramping has been such a pleasure and benefit to me that I feel like telling others, and especially women, what they miss. After a good stiff climb, we spend an hour and a half on the summit, but it was all too short, and we found it very hard to turn and go back to the world below us." - Unidentified lady trekker, after climbing Mount Lafayette in 1888.

Hikers have a history of service

More than 20 different mountaineering and outdoor clubs, college and university outing clubs, and local organizations assist the Forest Service in trail construction and maintenance. They also conduct clean-up campaigns, low impact wilderness education, hiking demonstrations, and advocacy.

Some hikers adopt their favorite trail and become responsible for its ongoing maintenance. To find out more about the Adopt-A-Trail Program and how you can help, inquire at Forest Service offices.

Peak bagging is for the young - at heart
To add a little leverage to their peak bagging, Miriam Underhill and her husband Robert became the first to scale all 48 of the 4,000 footers of New Hampshire during winter. When they completed their feet in 1961 Miriam was 63 and Robert was 70 years old.

"Mountain tramping has become quite a fad among ladies and they are encouraged in it by their brothers, their cousins, and their uncles." - The White Mountain Echo, 1889

Had to cross the Kancamagus Highway at the hairpin, which was easy early in the morning, but required expert look-both-ways skills when we got back

Trail was often very wet, with lots of puddles and brook crossings.

After over 3 miles of hiking, the Hancock Loop Trail starts really gaining altitude on the way up to the north peak.

I lost my camera at one point on the way up the trail, but luckily Tim and Amy let me go back to look for it and it was only a short distance to where it slipped out of my bag. Probably lost 15 minutes to this, but at least there was no damage and I don't have to buy a new camera!

Sign at the summit of Mount Hancock

Amy, Tim, and I at the lookout of Mount Hancock

View of Osceolas was not bad, even with the overcast day. Though at times the view disappeared completely when a cloud passed through.

Leela was soaked all day, but she had a great time

The hike over to South Hancock wasn't too bad, except that I, as mentioned above, stepped into a large, nearly impassable mud puddle and soaked my feet. The lookout at South Hancock isn't nearly as nice as the one at Hancock's north peak, but it was good enough for lunch.

View from South Hancock

Mount Hancock's north peak finally gets some sun as we descend from South Hancock

As you can see, not too many pictures from this hike, since I was being overprotective of my camera after the scare of almost losing it.

Final thoughts
The Hancocks make for a varied climb, but it did not feel that difficult. Perhaps we're just getting better at these big hikes! The only things to really watch out for are the loose rocks on the eroded paths and the puddles. And now to spend the rest of the day deciding on whether or not I'm going to purchase those Asolos I've been eyeing.

BRIAN OUT.

Mount Eisenhower and Mount Pierce

2010-08-30T18:10:00.001-04:00

Since we went two weekends in a row without a hike, picking the next 4k(s) to do was quite difficult. I've been anxious to take care of the Willey Range (with the three 4ks Willey, Tom, and Field), but not for any particular reason. Since we didn't really want to risk doing 3 peaks on our first day back in action (one of them twice, possibly) we decided to head over to the Presidential Range for the first time (for Tim and I, anyway) and hop up to the peaks of Eisenhower (4780 ft) and Pierce (4310 ft).

As an added bonus, Amy's mother Mary came along, making it team.... BLAMT? TAMBL? T-LAMB? And since this meant we'd have another car at the trailhead, we decided to make it a traverse, going up Crawford Path to the peaks, and then down Edmands Path from Eisenhower.

Overview
Climbing Mount Pierce and Mount Eisenhower as a traverse up Crawford Path and down Edmands Path:

TIME: 6 hours, 50 minutes (with breaks)
DISTANCE: 8.1 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,100 feet

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails you can use for these two mountains. It's pretty fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).

View Mount Eiesenhower and Mount Pierce Hike, via Edmands Path or Crawford Path in a larger map

Elevation profiles for the different legs/trails (click images to enlarge):

Crawford Path to Pierce

Pierce to Eisenhower

Edmands Path to Eisenhower

I'll just give some quick notes on the three legs, and dump some photos to keep this post simple.

Crawford Path to Pierce: Great trail, easy to follow, never too difficult or steep. Took about 2 hours at our group pace.

The rocks on the way up to Pierce were often damp, so we had to watch our footing, but otherwise very nice

Summit of Mount Pierce: Had to go onto another trail to go up to the summit, which had some gray jays checking in on whether we dropped any food. Good views of the Presidential Range ahead of us, with Eisenhower seeming within easy distance.


Panoramic from a viewpoint near the summit of Pierce, with more of the Presidential Range ahead, to the right in the shot. Click image to see larger version.

Tim, Amy, and Mary coming up to the summit of Mount Pierce

Pierce to Eisenhower (Crawford Path): Fun terrain, with lots of views and wind. Occasionally muddy, but otherwise a fun hike. As you approach the summit of Eisenhower, it gets steep, but the trail is not difficult and clearly marked with large cairns.

Amy, Mary, and Tim, somewhere between Pierce and Eisenhower

We could see the steep/fun climbing from a distance

Tim coming up to the summit of Mount Eisenhower

Summit of Mount Eisenhower: Extremely windy! Several hikers huddled by the large cairn marking the summit since it was blocking the wind. We stopped for just a few minutes and then moved on to find a spot to eat lunch with some protection from the wind.

Amy and I at the summit of Mount Eisenhower, with Mount Washington, etc., in the background

Panoramic at the summit of Mount Eisenhower, looking towards Mount Washington. Hi Leela! Click the image to see full size.

Another panoramic from the summit of Mount Eisenhower, looking East. Click the image to view full size.

Edmands Path: Another very nice trail! Nothing too difficult to speak of, and it was a pleasure to be out of the wind finally. Leela started finding sticks to play with, showing no signs of wear.

This is the AWESOME sign you'd see if you were on your way up the Edmands path

Tim heading down the Edmands path

Leela cooling down near the end of the hike

Final thoughts
Total hike time was a gentle 7 hours. I feel like this was the most normal/easiest 4000 footer hike we've done so far. I can't wait to get back onto the Presidential Range!

BRIAN OUT.

Mount Osceola and East Osceola

2010-08-09T08:41:00.004-04:00

We chose to do the Osceolas for our next hike, basically because it didn't look like too rough of a hike, taking into consideration that we would get two 4000 footers out of the deal. Not too far away, either, so we didn't have to worry about changing our time of departure. And Leela was in good shape to come with us (no paw issues!), so we had Team BALT back in action.

Overview:
Climbing Mount Osceola and East Osceola from the Kancamagus Highway via Greeley Ponds Trail & Mt Osceola Trail (out and back):

TIME: 6 hours, 40 minutes (round trip with breaks)
DISTANCE: 7.6 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,100 feet

Elevation profile (click image to enlarge):

View Mount Osceola and East Osceola via Greeley Ponds Trail in a larger map

This trail is the shortest we've done for the 4000 footers, both in terms of time and distance. It is also the most dynamic, with steep sections like Carrigain, several nice break points, and then sections where you do some small scale rock climbing. We thought it would be easy compared to our last two 4000 footer hikes, and I suppose it was in many ways, but I only recognize this in hindsight. While we were hiking, this trail felt very tough, and having to summit East Osceola, and then do some rigorous climbing to get to the summit of Osceola, and then having to go back and summit East Osceola again was not too fun to have in the back of my head the whole time.

There they are, East Osceola to the left, and Mount Osceola to the right (don't know the peak all the way to the right). Taken from a pulloff on the Kanc

I have taken many pictures like the one above from the same pulloff over the years. The great view gave the Osceolas a special place in my mind, and to realize they were on the list of 4000 footers was really nice. I have wondered many times what it would be like to be up there, and if people actually climbed these beauties.

We were the first people to park at the Greeley Ponds trailhead, and we did not see anyone on the trail until after the summit of East Osceola. Seems that many people were coming from Tripoli Road on the other side of the mountains, and when we crossed them on our way to Osceola, they were on their way to the East peak.


Any water crossings were very easy. They also served as a quick bath for Leela on our way back, after she sunk into some mud up to her shoulders

You can almost always turn and see other mountains through the trees on your way up the trail. The view opens up a few times before you get to the actual summit of East Osceola, easily better than any views on the Tripyramids.

Very steep in many spots, but not the worst of it yet

First really open view came at a spot with a jagged rock face. Here are the Tripyramids to the right.

Amy on the rock face

The rest of the view (Autostitch wouldn't blend with the Tripyramids shot for some reason!). Carrigain is out there to the left.

One of the Greeley Ponds. Tim and I actually snowshoed the ponds over the winter, which was really great.

OK so moving on up, we're approaching what we thought was the summit of East Osceola, but it was actually just a great spot to get some more great views. Very steep. Watch for loose rocks! I wiped out on our way back down this section.

Summit of East Osceola! Marked by a pile o' rocks

The summit of East Osceola was fairly cool, despite the fact that there were trees all around. Flat and open. Would not mind spending a night up there, actually.

Now came the most fun/scary part of the whole trip, the chimney between the Osceolas. We read about it and did not know what to expect. There were a few times where we thought some steep sections could have been the chimney, but when you get to it, you know for certain that it's what everyone was talking about. I'd estimate it's about 20 feet high, and it's actually not to difficult if you make sure to get a good handle on the rocks above. Our dog did it without any help, believe it or not.

Here's a shot of the chimney on the way down from East Osceola. The path we took is the squiggly clearing to the right, I think.

Tim took this one. Leela slipped back a few times, but with Tim ahead of her as incentive, she was able to do it!

Tim loved the chimney and actually went right back down it on our way back

There is an alternative path to get around the chimney, but that doesn't mean it's easy. We did it on the way down and took our time.

After the chimney, it didn't take long to get to the wonderful summit of Mount Osceola. Two groups were already there from Tripoli Road, and after we arrived more and more people came pouring in. We had a relaxed lunch and then headed back to East Osceola.

You could see many 4000 footers from up there, but I'm not going to label any this time. I recall seeing from the Presidential Range to Tecumseh. East Osceola, by the way, is the green bulge to the left, between the groups of people.

I'm not sure he's even seen Zoolander

While enjoying our sandwiches and Gatorade, we overheard some peakbagger gossip: "...a friend of mine did all 48 in one winter." That made everyone at the summit look like a chump! Congrats to that guy, amazing.

On the way back, it wasn't too bad. Having to resummit East Osceola was kind of annoying, but if you think of it as doing a 3rd 4000 footer in one hike, the accomplishment makes it seem a little more worth the effort. At one point, as mentioned in a caption above, I slipped on some loose rocks and almost took Tim out at a steep section, but everyone was OK, myself included. Some advice for any hikers: don't wear shoes that are a size too big. Also, avoid being a clumsy oaf.

BRIAN OUT.

Mount Carrigain via Signal Ridge Trail (Another NH 4000 Footer)

2010-08-03T18:55:00.005-04:00

For our 3rd New England 4000 footer, Tim suggested we keep going with somewhat strenuous hikes, and directed my attention to Mount Carrigain, a 4,700 foot mountain with what is said to be one of the best views in all of the White Mountains. It has a lookout tower on the top to get you above any trees for some long distance, 360 degree views. After doing some quick research and watching this YouTube video, it was decided; Carrigain was next for team BALT. But since Leela had some roughed up paws from playing in the Portsmouth dog park on Saturday, we decided to avoid further damage and let her have the day off (not that she wanted it), making it team BAT for Carrigain.

Let me just say right now: this is a tough hike with a great reward. The views were fantastic, and I was able to find 35 of the 48 NH 4000 footers in my photos. Some panoramic shots follow, with labels.

Climbing Mount Carrigain via Signal Ridge Trail:

TIME: 6 hours, 53 minutes (round trip with breaks)
DISTANCE: 10 miles (round trip)
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,250 feet

Elevation profile (click image to enlarge):

Signal Ridge Trail to Mt Carrigain

View Climbing Mount Carrigain via Signal Ridge Trail in a larger map

I don't know how I wrote the last post the way I did. So detailed but devoid of what happened. Amy doesn't like me telling her what to expect on the trail, she wants to experience it first hand. I think I'll just get my photos up and drop whatever description seems good for this hike. See how that goes.

We started hiking at 7:28 and found the trail to be interesting enough, not dragging on and on like Sabbaday Brook Trail did after we hit the Tripyramids. Water was our companion for a good stretch, with a few easy crossings.

A beaver pond along the trail. You actually cross at the dam

Once the trail starts to gain elevation, it felt relentless. The trail is barely wide enough to let other hikers pass for long stretches, and there are so many rocks that my "cross training" sneakers failed to provide sufficient support for many sections, giving my arches a rough time.

Sort of a rock slide going on for a while

There is only ONE spot that opens up before you reach Signal Ridge. It was a good excuse for a break, but you can't see a whole lot yet.

This trail was not boring, don't get me wrong. Just long and hard. That's what she said.

Starting about 1 hour before we reached Signal Ridge, I kept thinking we were closer than we were. I must have guessed (out loud) that we were on our final push 4 or 5 times. The trees change dramatically from deciduous to evergreen, then to dead-like, greenless evergreens, then back to evergreen. Each of these changes got me thinking we were about to break out of it, and it drove Amy and Tim nuts. But finally, we made it to the ridge, and it was excellent. The best spot on any hike I've done so far.

Panoramic view from Signal Ridge

Took the time to label what 4000 footers I could from the photo. You can see a LOT of them if you know where to look. I used Google Earth to do it, which was actually a lot of fun.

Nice view of the Tripyramids from Signal Ridge, really living up to the name from this POV


Amy and Tim on Signal Ridge, with the summit and tower of Mount Carrigain ahead

Ahhhh so awesome! Tim decided, probably right when I took this photo, that we were coming back here for lunch.

Amy and the great view

After some invigorating views at the ridge we were ready to push for the summit, which was under 20 minutes further from ridge.

Amy is checking out the summit marker, which is dead center under the tower

Panoramic from the tower, looking west to north, with the western peaks of the presidential range all the way to to the right in this shot

Check out all the 4000 footers!

Another panoramic, south to west, taken from the tower

Wish I had done better with getting the 360 view, but hey, more 4000 footers!

At the tower (which is much shorter than I anticipated, by the way), there were two guys who had passed us on the way up who were having a great break. We talked briefly while I snapped photos and it turns out that Carrigain was the last of the NH 4000 footers for one of the guys! Great choice to finish with! When I told him about our trek on the Tripyramids his friend started in on a story about how they ditched a blind man, which seemed funny, but the story petered out before I learned more. Although they were kind of annoying by sort of camping out up there and not letting us have the views to ourselves for a moment, I'm glad they were there. Inspired me to make sure my last 4000 footer is a good one!

The only pic with all three of us in it...

Lunch on the ridge was excellent. There were a few spots off the trail that allowed us to perch on the north side and really regain some energy for the trip back down.

Tim made Amy laugh so much for no reason

Tim took this great shot which shows the ridge and Amy and I (we're pretty small in the shot, off to the right)

Mount Lowell fascinated us quite a bit with the designs its side created in our imaginations


This range is one of my favorite views along the Kancamagus Highway. Osceola is to the left

The hike down was a great improvement upon the experience of last week with Sabbaday Brook Trail. Though it did seem to drag for a bit at the end of the decline, it was really not that bad. Plus, having done the trail already, we had a better idea of what to expect. This lack of mystery was welcome after a hard day of hiking. We got back to the car at 2:21, making the trip about 6 hours, 50 minutes.

Final thoughts on Mount Carrigain
Are you kidding? This mountain was awesome. I think I'll have to do it again sometime with Leela so she can be part of the 4000 footers too.

This mountain was clearly more popular than the Tripyramids, as we saw several hikers. We even passed a family on their way up for an afternoon climb. So it is clear that the great views from the top are no secret. Starting early ensured we were alone for most of the climb, and those that did cross our path were nice and friendly.

BRIAN OUT.

How to write about Coffee

2010-07-30T08:35:00.000-04:00

I've been reading John Thorne's collection, Serious Pig, off and on since... February, at least. I believe my brother Joe gave it to me for my birthday in November. It is a monster of a book, especially considering it is a food book—not a cookbook, though there are recipes—at just under 500 pages. It is this size that has kept me from blasting through it like I did with other food books (Thorne's Outlaw Cook included). And I think this is really the better way to read a food book; pace yourself and allow certain bits to soak in. With writing this good, you don't want to let any wash away in the rush of flipped pages.

I could go on about the different sections and why Thorne's writing has been such a great comfort and educator for me over the past year or so, but instead I'll just let him do the talking:

From his essay "A Cup of Coffee":

To acquire a taste for coffee doesn't mean you have to learn to love its flavor—though, obviously, you can. What you do have to love, though, is the ritual.

And I mean all of it, from the way you take your coffee—straight black and scalding hot or modulated with cream and sugar—to the way you blow into it and wrap your hands around the cup, to the way you lift it to your mouth. This is our culture's way of allowing us to orchestrate a moment's worth of personal space. Whether you sigh and sink into a stupor at the counter with your cup untouched before you or drink its contents down in a flurry of agitated motions—for that instant everything has stopped. If someone happens to walk in as you pour yourself a cup, they know to hold their fire. "Stand back and let me have this," these gestures say. "I need it."

When I read John Thorne, two words come up over and over for me: "Aha!" and "Exactly!"

BRIAN OUT.

The Tripyramids

2010-07-26T16:44:00.019-04:00

This is the first of hopefully many posts dedicated to 4000+ footers in New England, a challenge I started yesterday with Amy, Tim, and Leela. I'm going to document it for myself and also try to provide some helpful information on the route we took in case anyone comes across this entry researching for the hike.

Our first two 4000 footers were North Tripyramid (4180 feet) and Middle Tripyramid (4140 feet), two peaks that meet the AMC criteria for 4000 footers. South Tripyramid is also over 4000 feet, but it lacks the required 200 feet of prominence.

Climbing the Tripyramids by looping from the Kancamagus Highway (Pine Bend Brook Trail to Sabbaday Brook Trail):

TIME: 7 hours, 40 minutes
DISTANCE: 10.5 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 3,450 feet

Elevations Profiles (click thumbnails for larger version):

Pine Bend Brook Trail

Mount Tripyramid Trail

Sabbaday Brook Trail

View Mt Tripyramid Loop via Pine Bend Brook Trail and Sabbaday Brook Trail in a larger map

Here is a view of the North Tripyramid from a spot on the Kanc:

North Tripyramid is in the center; it's the peak that is almost directly above Tim's right sleeve

Since we were starting from Conway in the morning, we decided it made the most sense to do the hike from the Kancamagus Highway, rather than the other, better documented end, accessible off of Livermore Road/Tripoli Road from Rt 93. We wanted to do a loop too, so went with Pine Bend Brook Trail to get to the top and Sabbaday Brook Trail to get back down. We parked at the Sabbaday Falls parking lot and walked the mile over to the Pine Bend Brook Trail to begin.

Amy at the start of Pine Bend Brook Trail

Pine Bend Brook Trail is supposed to be the quickest way to the top with an estimated round trip time of 6.5 hours (as described on a few sites we researched). It took a while to get to the first real incline, around 1 hour I believe. A lot of signs of moose activity on the trail before it starts getting steep.

Shortly after passing the sign identifying the Sandwich Range, the hike is nice and tough, with long stretches of steep climbing that required a few breaks for me, but occasionally leveling out. There were not many great views on the way up, though at points it was worth taking a moment.

Looking back from Pine Bend Brook Trail, about 15 minutes from the summit of North Tripyramid, 2.5 hours from the trailhead

The summit of North Tripyramid is not much to enjoy, aside from the accomplishment of reaching the highest point on Mount Tripyramid of 4,180 feet. We arrived at around 10am, making it about 2 hours and 50 minutes of hiking from the start of Pine Bend Brook Trail. There is a spot to get some nice views from if you climb over a rock to get to a tiny trail, which is right at the slightly cleared area at the top. If you are coming up the Pine Bend Brook Trail like we were, it will be on your left. Here is a panoramic I took:

Panoramic at top of North Tripyramid

After pausing and chatting with two other hikers who had camped on the Saddle (the area between the North and Middle Tripyramid) the night before, we carried on to the Middle Tripyramid to complete our 2nd 4000+ foot summit. The hike over is fun, with some big rocks to go down without much constant steepness to wear you down.

Amy and Tim on our way down from the North Tripyramid heading over to the Middle Tripyramid

Before you start climbing back up you will reach a few signs, which caused some debate amongst our group. Here is what we figured out: If you want to complete the loop between Sabbaday and Pine Bend, this sign is where you stop to go up the Middle Tripyramid, via the Mount Tripyramid Trail (also goes to the Kate Sleeper Trail and Livermore Trail). Then you turn around and come back to the sign to either go down Sabbaday or go over to the North Tripyramid. There was a trail continuing from the Middle Tripyramid summit, which likely takes you to the South Tripyramid along the Mount Tripyramid Trail. The signs:

The summit of the Middle Tripyramid offered the nicest views of the hike for us. There are two spots that open into views. It was pretty cloudy (and occasionally rainy), but we were satisfied with what we could see. Here are a few photos from that summit.

View from Middle Tripyramid facing Southwest


Tim at the Middle Tripyramid summit, with a 10+ foot drop surrounding him

View to the Northwest

Tim took this nice photo of Amy, Leela, and I at the summit of Middle Tripyramid

Decent views of Chocorua as you head down from Middle Tripyramid on the Sabbaday Brook Trail

Heading down Sabbaday Brook Trail started off pretty nicely, with some easy and fun rock hopping turning into very difficult drops on rock slabs, which were a little damp. We each had different approaches to the problem of getting down these: Amy went down on all fours, right down the middle, Tim stayed upright using his poles and went down the middle and occasionally along the side, and I stayed on the sides, grabbing onto trees and branches when necessary to aid my footing (though I got lots of sap on my hands and many pine needles down my shirt). Oh, and Leela just ran right down, no problem.

Much steeper than it looks here

We made it down without incident!

About 1 hour 45 minutes after beginning our descent, things got relatively flat, with occasional declines which were nothing to worry about. This is where the hike got pretty obnoxious, with seemingly endless brook crossings and straight, boring trails. We had done so much already that day, and then we found ourselves stuck with about 2 hours of monotony. Leela kept herself happy with a stick she found and had us throw for her.

Waiting for me to throw her stick at one of the brook crossings

The end of the hike was bittersweet, with the roaring falls not only a nice sight, but also an indication that we had just a short walk to the car, which held a full bottle of Gatorade and a change of clothes; but as it was a summer afternoon on a Sunday, there were hoards of tourists, with yelling families and several people smoking and stinking up the nice area. I was very tired by this point and did not have the patience for these happy, energetic (well, some of them anyways) people, so I didn't bother to look at the falls for long. Total round trip from the car and back, including breaks was about 7.5 hours using Pine Bend Brook Trail up and Sabbaday Brook Trail down.

Final Thoughts on the Tripyramids:

All in all, I'm glad we did the hike. First off, it was the biggest hike I've done, so on top of checking off two 4000 footers, I also managed to make it through 7.5 hours of hiking without enduring too much damage (sore muscles and blisters are only a slight nuisance as I write this the next day). The views when you hike from the Kanc side do not seem to be even close to those possible if you take the Livermore trail over the rock slides from the other side. But there were still views to be had, and the hike was tough enough for it to be a physical accomplishment. We only ran into two groups of hikers, one pair of guys at the top who had camped, and a trio of gentlemen on their way up who we passed just after we finished with the slabs. Otherwise, it was a long peaceful hike with my fiancee, brother, and dog, completely alone in the wildnerness.

Other information:

Step by step:

Park at Sabbaday Falls on Kancamagus Highway.
Walk west on the Kanc (go left from the parking lot) for approximately 1 mile until you get to the Pine Bend Brook Trail, which is on the left and marked with a sign.
Take Pine Bend Brook Trail to North Tripyramid (not marked)
Continue on Mount Tripyramid Trail (may not be marked, but it is the obvious trail to take from the north summit)
At intersection of Mount Tripyramid Trail and Sabbaday Brook Trail (to left) you will see a sign. Continue with Mount Tripyramid Trail in direction of Middle Tripyramid (also towards Livermore Trail and Kate Sleeper Trail, as shown on sign). Basically, continue going straight.
At the top of Middle Tripyramid, turn back the way you came and go back to the sign for Sabbaday Brook Trail
Take Sabbaday Brook Trail down to Sabbaday Falls and the parking lot.

Distances and Timings for each segment:
(these include any breaks we took)

Pine Bend Brook Trail to North Tripyramid: 3.5 miles, 3 hours
North Tripyramid summit to Middle Tripyramid summit: 0.7 miles, 40 minutes.
Middle Tripyramid to the Sabbaday Falls parking lot: 4 miles, 3.5 hours.
Total round trip time, including breaks and walking on the Kanc for 1 mile to start the loop: 10.5 miles, 7 hours, 40 minutes (6:50am to 2:30pm)

Click here for my 4000 footers progress.

BRIAN

Ayo!

2010-07-18T14:03:00.000-04:00

Took a long walk with Leela around town, showered the sweat away from my face, and now I'm reading about cornbread with Rebirth Brass Band playing, a cool glass of water, and a new fan keeping me cool. I'm embarrassed to have turned my computer on!

BRIAN OUT.

dozing dog

2010-07-16T12:45:00.000-04:00

perfectly centered;
you occupy the minimum space,
end to end.

watching the outside
but never free to leave,
you allow your lids to meet.

BRIAN OUT.

...just as on all those nights

2010-07-15T14:06:00.003-04:00

Now, it's all right now
even to fall asleep
just as on all those nights.
--Suddenly the bus driver
stops with a jolt,
turns off his lights.

The above is from what is said to be a perfect poem, The Moose, by Elizabeth Bishop. I love it. Read the whole thing here. I read it aloud earlier and it was a good experience.

That's a moose up in Pittsburg, NH, that Tim and I saw while camping up there with Amy over the 4th of July weekend.

Also, I am a terrible blogger these days. Too much goes through Twitter and Facebook for me to feel like this is necessary. But I think I'll try to get back on task. Maybe write some poems or something.

BRIAN OUT.

Oh right I'm in AFRICA

2010-04-11T19:21:00.006-04:00

I keep realizing that I'm the furthest from home EVER. Doesn't feel so weird though. Most people in the town I'm in in South Africa speak English, which helps.

I'm here to do a trade show with my company, but luckily I planned it out so I got here early enough to check out a nearby wildlife attraction, the Lion Park.

Don't want to write too much because I should really be sleeping, but I uploaded a bunch of pictures to Facebook and wanted to make sure to post on my blog.

BRIAN OUT.

Avatar

2010-03-22T21:24:00.001-04:00

One life ends, another begins
Looks at this, meals on wheels
You are not in Kansas anymore
She wrote the book--I mean LITERALLY wrote the book
They’re just pissing on us without the courtesy of calling it rain
Grace, you know, I enjoy our little talks
unobtainium
I got this...
just relax and let your mind go blank. Shouldn’t be hard for you
I got this...
You got some heart, kid, showin up in this neighborhood
...a few years before you. Well, maybe more than a few.
Just keep your mouth shut and let Norm do the talking.
Alright, I’m going in.
Relax, you’re making me nervous.
So what do I do, dance with it?
Run! Definitely run!
No one can teach you to see.
Learn well.
Please, don’t get up.
There’s one thing shareholder’s hate more than bad press, and that’s a bad quarterly statement.
You’d know this if you had any training whatsoever.
Nah, you’d miss me.
The legendary floating mountains of Pandora... heard of THEM?
Oh. My. God.
Thank you for flying Air Pandora.
...she’s playing nice.
How will I know if he chooses me? [he will try to kill you] Oustanding.
That moron’s going to die.
Yeah baby I got this.
I was a stone cold aerial hunter--death from above--only problem was, you’re not the only one.
Haven’t got lost in the woods, have you?
It’s a done deal. We’re gonna have you on the shuttle tonight.
Freeze it right there. Enhance.
Shut your pie hole!
What, Ranger Rick, are you gonna shoot me?
Yeah can we just take this down a couple of notches, please?
What the hell have you people been smoking out there?
I’m getting allll emotional. Might just give you a big wet kiss.
Alright, let’s pull the trigger.
You don’t want that kind of blood on your hands. Believe me.
A great evil is upon us.
Everything changed. I fell in love.
Bingo. Good shooting ace.
And that’s how you scatter the roaches.
Yeh heeaaah baby get some!
That’s good work people. First round’s on me tonight. Let’s boogie.
Sooner or later, though, you always have to wake up.
I need someone on the inside I can trust.
I’m a scientist, remember? I don’t believe in fairy tales.
I needed their help, and they needed mine.
Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move.
There’s something we gotta do. You’re not gonna like it.
We will fight terror with terror.
They bring the fight to us, but we have the home field advantage.
You think you’re one of them? Time to wake up.
I don’t wanna be late for my own party. It is my birthday afterall.

I'm sure the formatting here won't copy over to Facebook, so if you are reading this on Facebook and not at my actual blog, you should know that this entire entry is in Papyrus.

BRIAN OUT.

Pig's Feet / Trotters / Pied de Cochon / Yikes

2010-02-24T10:10:00.007-05:00

Finally cooked and ate the pig's feet last night. It was very interesting. Probably the most interesting cooking experience of my life.

Just to remind you, Amy and I got a half pig share from a local farm (New Roots Farm in Newmarket, NH). We got just about every piece of the pig, too, except for the tail and the head. So yes, the feet have been mocking me from our freezer for months. Complete with toenails/claws/whatever pigs have on their toes.

OK, for those out there who are thinking, hmm this is disturbing, I don't want any part in this; please leave this page! I'm going to show pictures of it ALL, and it was even kinda freaky for me. So you've been warned.

OK, only the tough stomached readers remain? Good.

So, I wanted to make the best of this uncommon cut of meat, and researched a bit. I found two recipes that seemed decent; one from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for Chinese Style Pig's Trotters, which involves eating the feet whole as part of a noodley dish, and one from a blog called In Praise of Sardines, which was adapted from a French cookbook. It looked fancy and not at all like a pig's foot when the time came to serve it, so I went with the French style (sorry Hugh!).

So, here we go. Final warning: here come the pictures.

Seriously, the next picture shows the feet.

Ready?

Basically, you cook the feet three times. The first time is just to get things a little cleaner and get rid of some of that foam that forms (like when you make a stock). So you boil for five minutes and then replace the water. Here we are after this step:

Then you simmer for 3 hours in a nice aromatic bath. Onions, carrots, rosemary (thanks Mom), thyme, garlic, salt, pepper. I think that's it.

After 3 hours, everything has fallen apart nicely and you can work on getting some "meat" out of the feet. Everything was VERY sticky, making it extra disturbing for such an offal n00b like myself.

As I was warned by the blog with this recipe, there is little meat to be had, and you have to actually use some skin and other mystery substances within the feet to make this into a meal. I really don't know what specifically is in this bowl, except that none of it is bone:

Then I chopped things up nicely so I could mold them:

I used some cookie cutters and tried to make two stars, a gingerbread-type man, and a heart. These shapes didn't make it through cooking too well though. Refrigerated the packed "meat" overnight, though I don't now the reason.

Then breaded them on each side and fried in a little oil on each side.

Then I threw the pan in a preheated oven, for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile I put together a fruity barbecue-ish sauce, with ketchup, mustard, applesauce, apple cider vinegar, and other good stuff.

To serve, I topped with some diced apples (these were actually some dried out apples we had laying around, which I chopped up the night before and let sit in some water to reconstitute), and had some delicious and sweet chard and onions, and roasted beets and potatoes. The feet were actually REALLY GOOD! I was worried about two things ever since I started this process: texture and taste. And the texture was fine, mostly mushy with nice crunchy chewiness from the pan. The taste was astounding, really, which no doubt is partly due to the frying and accompanying sauce, but I tasted some of the foot bits on their own and it was a very full good taste with decent mouth feel.

BRIAN, HOW ABOUT THE SNOUT.

What I ate in Barcelona

2010-02-20T08:18:00.009-05:00

Since I didn't take pictures of most of my meals while in Spain, I'm going to try and remember them all and write them out here. I ate so well!

I'll also give scores, just for fun, from 1-5 a la Netflix.

Friday/Saturday (flying):

British Airways lasagna. Score: 2. Salty, ate fast, but airline food is airline food.
British Airways mystery sandwich (can't rememeber). Score: 2. Wolfed down, hungry to stay awake, but it was a white mash of something mysterious, and the ratio of filling to bread was poor.
British Airways cinnamon bun. Score: 3. A cheap small bun, but tasted correct.

Saturday:

Catalonian Chickpea Soup. Score: 5! Very warm and probably nutritious. Ate in the old part of town at a small place with a special menu of seasonal foods.
Hake (fish) with Sauteed Peppers. Score: 3... peppers were slimy and too soft, fish was breaded and boring. This was the only "nice" Spanish food restaurant I ate at, and there was a great atmostphere with all kinds of fish on display and cured meat hanging along the walls. Should've gotten meat! This picture shows an example of the meat, but it wasn't the same restaurant.

Sunday:

Cinnamon raisin walnut bread (that I baked and brought), starbucks coffee. Score: 3. The bread was pretty dried out, and the coffee was OK (actually espresso mixed with water, so it tasted fine but was not punchy enough).

8 piece sushi sampler and miso soup. Score 4. Good, but not anything astounding about it. The miso seemed pretty authentic compared to others I've had though.

Monday:

Hotel breakfast buffet; cafe con leche, scrambled eggs, sausage, baguettina slice, plum. Score: 4. Eggs were cooked in butter and salted nicely, making me kind of crazy about the simple ingredient.
Turkish Kabob. Score: 5! I it was like a taco of meat and gooey goodness from the gods, spiced in a way I've never encountered before. Loved it!
Baguette and water. Score: 4.5. This baguette was great, very interesting sweet taste and perfectly crusty.

Tuesday:

Hotel breakfast buffet; cafe con leche, cantaloupe, some kind of whitebread, muffin, tomato juice (thought it was strawberry). Score 3.5. Nothing worth talking about.
Paella! Score: 5! Incredibly good and worth seeking out. It was at an outdoor tent, set up for fast turnover for the customers, and it was just delicious. The rice was spiced in a new way for me, and the combination of sausage and mussels and shrimp was just awesome. And look at that great bread!

Nepalese chicken tikka (I think) and something else kind of like korma that my boss got (we shared). Score: 5! Nepalese food is a lot like Indian food, so I went with what seemed to be more traditional for Nepal, based on the description: "Chicken cooked with special spices in a traditional Nepalese clay oven." It was very, very good. Spice and tange are the two main things I noticed most. The korma-esque dish was pretty much just like what I like to get in Indian places.

Wednesday:

Hotel breakfast buffet: Tortilla espanola (spanish omelet), plum, creme filled croissant, cafe con leche, mango juice. Score: 4. A spanish omelet is like a solid mass of cooked egg and potato and vegetable, and it is good. The croissant was good and had the same filling as a Boston creme cake or doughnut.
Baguettina sandwich, with a very sweet, red, cured meat, and a soft cheese. Score: 3.5. Actually pretty good, but didn't expect the sweetness. The baguette was too soft.

Baguette with chocolates (brought the chocolates with me). Score: 3.5. I actually ate most of this after seeing Gaudi's Sagrada Familia and then walking to the Mediterranean coast. By the time it was night I was worn out and not hungry.

Thursday:

Hotel breakfast buffet: Tortilla espanola, mango juice, chocolate croissant, an apple topped pastry, scrambled buttery eggs. Score: 4. All delicious.
Espresso from the Skype booth. Score: 3. First straight espresso experience, and it was intense.

Duck confit with bok choy and daikon. Score: 5! This was at a restaurant in the city called "Me" and it was very modern and hip. We got there at 8:30pm and they weren't even open yet. There was a wall of lamps with lampshades, and each one was wearing a tie. Say what? The host dude was very friendly and cool, sat down with us at our table to take our orders, and referred to us as "Boston" for the rest of the evening. The restaurant advertised itself as a fusion between: Saigon + New Orleans + Barcelona. Thus the French confit style joining up with the Asian vegetables... in... Barcelona, anyways. The duck was much less slimy than when I got a confit in Montreal, so that was actually quite a pleasant surprise.

Friday:

Cinnamon raisin walnut bread in my hotel room at 4am with water. Score: 2. Too dry, not hungry!
Organic cafe con leche and a Kinder Bueno bar at the Barcelona airport. Score 3.5. Good, but pathetic.

British Airways salmon sandwich. Score: 2. Yeah, SURE there was salmon in there.
British Airways chicken tikka, etc. Score 4. I was very hungry at this point and ate it all so fast. I was in the 2nd level of seating, so I had some leg room and there was no one next to me, so for once eating airline food was more personal and I was less dainty. Pretty good, really, despite how lame it looked.

British Airways chicken salad sandwich. Score: 3. I haven't yet had a chicken salad sandwich worth talking about.

Friday in Kittery with Amy!

Moxie and Bourbon BBQ steak tips, with mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables. Blueberry bread pudding for dessert. Score: 5! Maine food done very right. Amy had a paella that was very tasty, albeit much different than what I had in Spain.

BRIAN OUT.

Cunning Ham

2009-12-23T08:19:00.000-05:00

Cooked the ham in Dr. Pepper... It was a little dry, but very tasty. The rest of the dinner was great too (especially the pumpkin risotto Amy made!).

Alton Brown told me to use my saw so I did.

See? Dr. Pepper. About half the bottle to cover half the ham.

Two nicely sprung garlic sourdoughs for hors d'oeuvres with the potstickers

The ham shrunk, A LOT

Here's everything: oven roasted broccoli, steamed carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, pumpkin risotto, and, of course, the ham.

BRIAN OUT.

Potstickers

2009-12-19T09:23:00.005-05:00

o Amy's mother and sister are coming over for a Christmas-y dinner tomorrow (Sunday), and we had to figure out everything we're going to cook. Never had to do that for guests before--pretty exciting. Since we have a wonderful ham from our half pig share (from New Roots Farm in Newmarket, to save you from asking), we figured, what better time is there to use it than Christmas? We have the main protein for the meal figured out. Stay tuned and I'll most likely post pictures of it.

But dinner isn't just one delicious hunk of meat. We had to figure out vegetables, a starch, and I had to remember to feed my starter soon enough in advance to have fresh bread in time.

Something that I didn't think of until yesterday morning (3 days before the meal), however, was an appetizer. We have these cool dips I got off of Woot about two months ago, so we'll do those with some garlic sourdough (whoa gotta take the firm starter out of the fridge! OK all set), but that didn't seem fun enough, so we're also going to do pot stickers, too! Never made anything like them before, but we have PLENTY of ground pork, and I've read they're easy.

Not wanting to try something new on THE DAY of the dinner, I decided it would be best to have a trial run and just eat the results for dinner with Amy. The recipe we used is Alton Brown's, but I think it has too much of a ketchup/mustard thing going on and will modify it, so good thing we did a trial run! Not that these weren't freaking awesome, because they were, and I ate too many of them.

Did not make the won ton wrappers from scratch, sorry.

We were kind of shaping them according to rules, but in the end it really doesn't matter that much, trust me.

Let them cook 2 minutes untouched over medium heat. They sure do stick to the "pot".

This is cool; add some chick broth (we used stock, maybe not even from a chicken?) and cook for 2 minutes, covered, on low. It ends up giving them that wonderful slimy stickiness, plus it kind of vacuums out all of the air remaining inside.

Amy came up with a pretty great dipping sauce

After you finish a batch, you let them stay warm in the oven. How rustic is this picture?

This is supposed to be the sexy closeup, showing the inside just after I dipped it. So glad we're going to be making more of these tomorrow!

BRIAN OUT.

Let's Play Christmas Songs!

2009-12-12T09:11:00.003-05:00

OK I'm ready now, here is the first Christmas recording for this year:

Jingle Bells (2009 recording):

"Wow what was the deal with that?" you are probably asking yourself. Well, truth is, I need to be creative right now, and busting out weird recordings of Christmas songs is really fun and releases a lot of creative energy that is pent up. And really, for me right now, the weirder, the better. If you hate it, good. If you love it, great.

Hungry for more? Here are my xmas recordings from the past in case you forgot:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen:

Jingle Bells (2008):

Frosty The Snowman:

Little Drummer Boy:

Silent Night:

O Holy Night:

Jingle Bells (2006)

This isn't actually featuring anything by me, but I made a Christmas video in 2006. It is half awesome and half embarrassing. But I have no regrets for anything I've created, so here it is:

BRIAN OUT.

Fresh Pork Chops

2009-12-01T08:31:00.007-05:00

So we got a half of a pig from New Roots Farm in Newmarket, NH. Here is the freezer WITHOUT the ham and bacon (which we are picking up soon now that it is done smoking):

Last night for my birthday we decided to start in on our super local and hopefully super delicious meat. Two pork chops, coming right up!

The darker meat was excellent, as was any meat around the bones. I think I may have overcooked the chops as a whole, though.

I am going to start planning out meals for all of the other cuts we have, including the trotters (that's right, the feet). Keep an eye out in this album for updates on the wonderful things we cook up. I'll probably also post them all here tagged under local pork.

BRIAN OUT.

Thanksgiving Project: Upside Down Apple Pie

2009-11-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

Amy found a recipe for upside down apple pie and I couldn't resist, it looks so great. Recipe is here.

It came out really great! The gooey butter-sugar-pecan topping that cooked underneath the pie was everything I'd hoped it would be. And it was REALLY easy, so it is highly recommended for people who are frustrated by traditional pie.

Below is my Thanksgiving plate of food. It was, as usual, excellent.

For not that many more pictures I took of food from Thanksgiving at my mom's house click here. There may also be pictures of humans.

BRIAN OUT.

San Diego

2009-11-22T22:25:00.000-05:00

I went to San Diego on business. I was there for just over 24 hours. I was pretty busy the whole time, but did take a couple of hours early one morning to explore San Diego Bay. Here is a panoramic:

Click here to see more photos. I got some interesting shots from the flight over, with views of the entire NH coastline, as well as the Rockies and other stuff along the way.

BRIAN OUT.

Playlist for the Business Trip

2009-11-20T07:14:00.004-05:00

Part 1

As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take it With You
Eddie Vedder - Setting Forth
John Denver - Leaving on a Jet Plane
Led Zeppelin - Going to California
Jeff Buckley - The Sky is a Landfill
John Denver - Country Roads
Regina Spektor - Blue Lips
R.E.M. - How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us
Walter Wanderley - Summer Samba
Joni Mitchell - California

Part 2

Bob Dylan - The Man in Me
Ray LaMontagne - Three More Days
Little Richard - Money Honey
Ani DiFranco - Evolve
Thrice - The Weight
Pearl Jam - Love Reign O'er Me
N.E.R.D. - Thrasher
Kiko Loureiro - La Force De L'ame
Muse - City of Delusion
Daft Punk - Human After All

Part 3

Queen - It's Late
Paul Gilbert - The Jetset Elite (Are Coming Home For Christmas)
Joni Mitchell - This Flight Tonight
Sirens of Titan - Virginia
Van Halen - Jump
Steve Stevens - Water on Ares
The Who - I Can See For Miles
Thrice - Silver Wings
Eddie Vedder - Rise
The Beatles - Oh! Darling

I either actually listened to these songs while flying or in hotel rooms, not really thinking much about the relevance, or found them while sitting here in my current hotel in Irvine, scrolling around on my iPod for about the past hour. And I gotta say, I'm kind of impressed with the diversity I squeezed into the above lists. Songs that everyone knows, songs that only a few people on the planet know, and all very applicable to my feelings throughout the trip.

BRIAN WILL BE HOME IN ABOUT 16 HOURS OUT.

and a fire

2009-11-08T09:53:00.007-05:00

heard a story on this american life about a woman who was living out her dream to live where laura ingalls wilder grew up (here)

seemed about right. what book has or will change my life? walden? leaves of grass?

i don't know that yet. i do know that this box of tea is pretty significant to me, though:

and last night amy said next year at this time we should be surrounded by trees and not be living in these condos. she is right.

BRIAN OUT.

It's been a very fall-y fall

2009-10-19T21:26:00.006-04:00

200 PICTURES, HERE!

Ten of them:

BRIAN OUT.

Foxes Deserve a Poem

2009-10-05T08:39:00.004-04:00

Foxes Deserve a Poem

Jarring my bones
with a desperate grin,
the fox steps into sight.
It's bigger than I thought foxes could be
and has visible ribs.
It is beyond trust.

Wrote this while talking to Tyler about how awesome the cover art is for Brand New's latest album, Daisy:

BRIAN OUT.

Updated Brain Age Data

2009-10-03T08:40:00.006-04:00

I am a huge nerd, and yet my average brain age after nearly 250 tests is about 1 year older than my brain's actual age. I'm dumber than I should be, still. See my past results from April here.

So here's the rundown.
My current actual age is approximately 25.84.
My average brain age after 242 tests is 26.5.
My median brain age after 242 tests is 23.
My mode brain age after 242 tests is 20 (the lowest possible score).

This perfect brain age of 20 business is pretty annoying, because that means the game assumes that a brain is in its best condition at 20. There is nowhere better to go below 20, and although this may make sense if you think about the average person's brain and it's abilities over the years, it doesn't mean that taking a test and doing the best possible is different from just doing really well (both of which can result in a score of 20). I've gotten scores of 20 enough times to know that sometimes I do better than other times. Perfection and doing really well are not the same, and this leaves a fault in the game, and I protest this data to some degree.

But on the plus side, I've improved my average brain age by 6 months since April!

Here is a graph for the past 9 months or so (242 tests) of data:

BRIAN OUT.

the next step

2009-09-17T07:58:00.003-04:00

i am waiting for the next step, like the dough is rising and it's only a matter of time
it is inevitably going to be bread; warm, perfectly cooked through, with a crunchy and delicious crust
the bread metaphor is the title of this piece.
i'm trying not to rush it
well, i'm glad i don't have to , i guess
it's going to happen when it happens, right?
blah;
start again.
i dreamed a male moose who'd lost his antlers was slowly coming at me
and i backed, trembling, through a vagrant's tent in the meadow
i didn't step on him, but the moose might have
i wondered if i'd have to dart behind trees to keep a barrier between the beast and i
as i was about to enter the woods, i was aware of the dream
and consciously stopped it, despite an inner need to complete the scene
i had to fight to pull away, to enter the bed reality.
i'm glad i did. i was scared out of my mind.
although, even in the dream, i pulled out my camera and started recording a video.

sometimes i want to move away from this country, just forget about all the conflicts and idiocy. really, why do i stay? is it really the comfort? is it really the false sense of security? will i miss my things, my family? or is there actually something i like about this place?
is there?
also i don't really speak other languages confidently. i'm sure i could get by and eventually thrive, but taking the next step is often difficult for me.

BRIAN OUT.

Like a Coral Reef

2009-08-25T07:00:00.004-04:00

Cool night, so we drove.
The music was loud and occasionally our soundtrack.
To check out the stars, I lay my head on the shoulder of her seat, eyes directly under the center of the moon roof.
The light pollution seemed low, and the stars were per usual stunning, but I was really struck by the trees, scrolling by at a new angle, lit up by the high beams.
They were like a coral reef, as I imagine one would look through a glass bottomed boat.
The shadows were dramatic and shifting rapidly, and there was no chance of observing a single branch.
Then I stopped and we drove around and got burgers.

BRIAN OUT.

Most of August, as seen through Twitter

2009-08-21T21:06:00.007-04:00

I've been better at updating on Twitter lately. Here are all of my tweets since my last post (sorry, but they will remain in reverse order):

its official, my dog is not afraid of lightning
about 1 hour ago from web

wooo excused from jury duty because my mailing address is in a different county from my permanent address!
about 7 hours ago from web

what's that you say? i've got beans in my ears
1:15 PM Aug 20th from web

new @astallaslions album is insane. it's the music they play on the elevators in heaven. heaven's elevator music is breathtakingly good, btw
5:01 AM Aug 19th from web

i'm getting an ultrasound today for some mysterious abdomen pains. i don't want to know the gender!
6:15 AM Aug 18th from web

what danger is there if you don't think of any?
4:29 AM Aug 16th from web

happy 50th birthday kancamagus highway
1:20 PM Aug 14th from web

les paul died! he did so much more for music than create a sweet gibson. multitrack recording! http://bit.ly/lRFQ4
10:49 AM Aug 13th from web

i sketched my soul
1:13 PM Aug 12th from web

cancel cable: check!
12:50 PM Aug 12th from web

aaaaaaaaaagh jury duty why
6:51 AM Aug 12th from web

you crawl under people's houses, you hear things...
3:04 PM Aug 11th from web

Not much is missing. I've been drinking lots of water to ease my abdomen pains, which seems to work well. I'm on my 4th liter today. Water overdose, say what?

Select pictures to fill in the rest of the blanks:

chicken with 40 cloves!

amy and i went to a drive-in and saw funny people and the hangover

CINNABLOB!

definitely the most attractive sourdough boule to date. amy assembled the dough, that must be why

Leela found the coolest spot in the apartment.

BRIAN OUT.

Moonshadow

2009-08-06T08:10:00.000-04:00

Pictures from my night:

Thank you, full moon, new tripod, and 15 second shutter!

BRIAN OUT.

Search Engine Traffic

2009-08-04T08:18:00.003-04:00

So I setup Google Analytics to track traffic to this blog, just to see what random strangers may be coming across all of this stuff, and you can see what keywords visitors from search engines used to find the site. I've only had Analytics running for this site for like 3 days, but already things are getting interesting:

Keywords (or keyword phrases) that brought people to this blog:

brian cunningham computer systems - comment: I bet this was a search some other Brian Cunningham did when he was checking his Google standings for his website and decided to see who this other Brian Cunningham was with the briancunningham.me domain that somehow has a better Google page rank than him. Now let me take a moment and imagine being the Brian Cunningham with a computer systems operation. "I'm going to start my own business. I know about computers. I put together my sister's computer! And that PC for my girlfriend's mother! They think I should do it for a living, because they don't understand anything about computers. I do. Buying hard drives in bulk, helping dumb people and making a good chunk of change on the side, this will be a piece of cake. I could do this for a living, I can compete with Dell and Apple!" Two months later: "Hmm no one seems to know I exist. I should start working at Best Buy and get the word out." Another month later: "I should start a rock band!"
dog training brian cunningham - comment: Interesting, could be the same situation as above, with a person testing out the ranking of their site. Probably is. I search for "brian cunningham blog" all the time, knowing that that's my best chance of finding myself in the first page of Google's results. It makes me feel good. OK, imagination time! "I have a semi-successful dog training operation. It started out great, 15 people and their dogs, but the last session only had 3. And no one has signed up for my next scheduled session. Better use the Internets to get the word out. First step, start a website! How do I do that?" 3 hours later: "OK, free site builders rock! I have sweet GIFs of dogs barking and running in circles. My site's wallpaper is a pattern of dog bones, so on topic and cute. Posted an ad on Craigslist to promote the new site." Next day: "Uh oh, I have 300 emails from my ad! Oh well, I guess I can't complain about turning customers away, that means the business is a success! That'll show grandpa! He never believed in me. Let's see what we've got here. Do I want to work from home and make $10,000 a week? Oh. My. God. An offer? But what about the dog training? I'm gifted with getting them to heel, I really am. But $10k a week, I don't know. Let me go through some more. Jesus. $15,000 a week? I can't believe how great my ad is working out for me!"
dog poison recipe - comment: Uh, what the hell? Does this mean that someone was searching for a recipe to kill dogs? Uh, what the hell? They're going to find my website with the dog poison cookie recipe I made up and possibly use them to kill dogs? Guilt. I feelz it. But wait, I found sites listing the ingredients that are toxic to dogs, and and, so, it's OK because those will probably come up first in a search like this? And it's not like I want people to poison dogs. I said so in my first dog poison cookie entry. It's not recipes that kill dogs, it's people, right? Right? I'm not going to imagine being the person who did this search.

and, finally:

brian cunningham murderer - comment: This is a great one, because it could go two ways; the searcher is either looking for Brian Cunningham the murderer, or they are looking for the person who murdered a Brian Cunningham. Either way, it's kind of unsettling, thinking of either murdering someone or being murdered. Heavy stuff. But the searcher probably didn't know the Brian Cunningham that was murdered too well, or else they'd already know the story. Maybe they went to high school with Brian Cunningham. Whoa, maybe someone I went to high school with heard a rumor that I was murdered, and they are casually investigating! I wonder how the rumor got started. "Hmm, where's that Brian Cunningham guy? He didn't come to the 5 year reunion, and we did? What is he, some kind of jerk?" Another person leans in, someone who secretly hates me, spilling a little of his drink. "I heard he was murdered, actually." "Oh my god really? What happened?" "Well, you remember how he was always with that girlfriend of his?" "Sure, what a slutty bitch she turned out to be." "Seriously, a step above crackwhore. Anyways, her father found out that she was a slutty, slutty whore, having sex with like, 5 guys a week, so he decided that it was Brian's fault, being the first person she dated and all, so he took his bow and arrow-" "-wtf a bow and arrow? What kind of guy is this?" "Oh, big time conservative gun maniac. I heard he tried to suicide bomb a pro-choice rally." At this point a small group has begun gathering, including the slutty, dirty, skanky whore they're talking about. But she doesn't realize they're talking about her dad, oblivious to the fact that he is an insane Christian armed to his teeth. She'd been too busy making out with the guy who works at the bar cleaning the toilets. "So he pretty much hunted Brian down, like his prey. He had camoflauge on, and painted his face dark green, the whole thing. He found out where Brian lived and hid in their trash barrel, which was also where they threw out their dog's crap. He waited overnight, and then next morning when Brian got back from walking his dog, he said 'This is for my slutty daughter' and shot him with an arrow from like a foot away. He was immediately arrested, since there were several witnesses, it being a condo complex with lots of people on their way to work." The slutty girl, suddenly remembering her first victim, quickly went home and opened up Google and typed 'brian cunningham murderer,' desperate to know who could've done such a heartless thing. Then she found my blog and saw a picture of a moose, which also happened to be the name of her pimp (Moose), and remembered that she was supposed to be walking the streets an hour ago. Moose was gonna be pissed!

BRIAN OUT.

Dew

2009-08-01T15:32:00.005-04:00

Pictures from my morning:

BRIAN OUT.

Dog Poison Cookies #5 and Garlic Sourdough

2009-07-28T18:07:00.007-04:00

Today has been the most uncomfortably warm day of the year for me. How did I embrace the situation? Why, I baked cookies and bread in a hot hot oven, of course.

With a family party fast approaching this weekend, I really need to make sure my Dog Poison Cookies are ready to go for a large audience. I'm not expecting to bring people to their knees with joy or anything, but I want them to at least be as good as the other cookies that'll be there. So I went back to my recipe for V2 and made some adjustments I had thought about in my last cookie post.

Basically, more sweetness was added in the form of light corn syrup, an idea taken from those chewy version three cookies. I secretly also hoped this would reduce the dryness encountered in both V2 and V4. I also lowered the amount of raisins and increased the amount of chocolate.

OK, so this recipe actually turned out so good that I kind of wonder if I should hesitate to post it online. I mean, what if I end up running a successful bakery operation and people are crazy for these cookies? Do I really want them to be so accessible, thus cheapening the value of my special product? The answer, of course, is yes. Sharing is the best thing we can do, whether it be in the arts, food, or just every day physical things. So please, feel free to pirate these cookies. But give me credit for inventing them; I don't want anyone taking credit for these and making millions.

Dry:

4 oz Whole Wheat Flour
1.5 oz Flax meal
4 oz. AP Flour
4 oz. oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Creamed:

6.75 oz. (1 cup-remeasured) brown sugar
2.5oz (around 3/8 cup) corn syrup
1 stick butter (room temperature would be best)
1/4 cup (1.6 oz.) canola oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

Extras:

3.5 oz. raisins
3.5 oz. chocolate chips
3 oz. chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat to 375F.
Sift/mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl (not your mixer bowl).
Cream the butter, sugar, and corn syrup in mixer or by hand if you're superman.
Add egg, mix well.
Add vanilla, mix well.
Add dry, mix well.
Add extras, mix well (but not so long you smash the raisins or break up the nuts too much).
Drop and bake as desired. I did fairly large droppings, probably around 3-4 Tablespoons each, and bake time was around 15 minutes total. Rotate the pan(s) after about 7 minutes and check after another 5.

I think I'm done playing with the formula for these for a while. A little crispy/crunchy, a little chewy, a lot delicious. That sounded lame, but really, they're good.

I'm still baking lots of sourdough too, in case you haven't been religiously following The Windowpane Test, my other blog. Today, in addition to the really good cookies, I made what may have been my best bread EVER. Going on a memory of excellent roasted garlic boules at Beach Pea Baking Co. in Kittery, ME, I decided to have a go at it with a 20% whole wheat sourdough. Instead of roasting the garlic, I just smashed about 10 cloves and pan fried in a generous amount of good extra virgin olive oil. Other than a major deflation that shocked my core during the scoring just before baking, this bread came out freaking awesome.

I actually have another boule from the same dough in the fridge, retarding overnight. So tomorrow I'm going to bake another bread, hopefully this time without the deflation. I am pumped. This bread is lingering in my mouth with a sour garlicky goodness that is so nice it could be all I eat for the rest of my life. Humble, I know.

BRIAN OUT.

Dog Poison Cookies IV

2009-07-27T18:51:00.003-04:00

Roman numerals look cool huh? Here's the latest revision on the recipe. They came out pretty good, but... well, actually, they were in my opinion the worst yet. They need more sweetness, which I think was a major thing missing from V2, and I realize now that at some point I reduced the amount of sugar in the chocolate chip cookie recipe I'd been working on this year, but did not account for effect the switch to whole wheat would have in doing so. I think I have figured out what I want in the next recipe: more oats, more chocolate, more sweet. Everything else should stay the same, I think. I'm planning on bringing these to a party this weekend, so I may have to do a few experimental batches this week to get the formula just right.

Here's the recipe, anyway. I'm mostly posting so I can reference it in the future if I need to. Posting recipes on my blog has proven very helpful lately, by the way. Instead of constantly crossing out notes on my original recipe, I can just refer to the latest edition via laptop and adjust as I see fit. I type out the new recipe as I mix it, and it will be ready for next time. But this morning I had a major problem caused by a typo I made in my sourdough pancake recipe, in which I put a T instead of a t for the amount of salt (causing me to use 300% of the salt I'm supposed to!). I edited the post so it's correct though, so no more poisonous pancakes for me.

Dry:

4 oz Whole Wheat Flour
1.5 oz Flax meal
3 oz. AP Flour
2 oz. oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 t baking soda

Creamed:

6.5 oz. (1 cup) dark brown sugar
5.5 Tablespoons (2.7 oz.) butter
1/4 cup (2 oz.) canola oil
1 egg
1.5 teaspoons (0.3 oz.) vanilla

Extras:

3 oz. raisins
3 oz. chocolate chips
3 oz. chopped macadamia nuts

Mix and bake as in V2.

(EDIT 7/31/2009: See new and improved version of my Dog Poison Cookies here)

BRIAN OUT.

Our Lovely (wasteful jerk) Neighbors

2009-07-27T12:39:00.004-04:00

Our next door neighbors are terrible. I mean, of course you're going to get annoyed when living right next to someone, especially when regular old neighbor things happen, such as screaming arguments about how the man drives drunk, or getting barked at by their untrained German Shepherd every time you leave the condo, only to hear the owners bark right back at the dog "NO!" in a lame attempt to cease the unsettling and always startling noise. Of course these things happen, and you get used to them and over time can effortlessly ignore them.

Their humongous pickup truck, fit to tow a humpback whale, starting up at 6am every morning blends in with the birds. And you know he needs that huge truck, by the way, so he can drive his their weekly 3 garbage bags the 20 yards to the edge of the curb (no need for a recycling bin, they don't bother sorting). Which is all you ever see them do with that truck, other than storm away with it in the middle of accusations of drunkenness. The SUV is much easier to get used to, it leaves at 8am, right after its driver scolds their dog for peeing in the backyard, even though she just stands on her back porch waiting, retractable leash allowing the pooch explore the vast universe it knows, a 5 by 10 foot patch of dirt and struggling seedlings of grass. It's kind of fun that they're my neighbors in this respect, because later in the afternoon when the man gets home, he tends to his shitty grass, wondering why it isn't coming in better.

The first really annoying thing we noticed about them was that they leave their outside light on at all times. The switch is right next to the front door; I know this because our condo is a mirror image of theirs. We keep ours off, it's pretty easy. For illustration purposes, I took these two pictures, one right after the other, to show just how ridiculous leaving the light on is.

"hmm can't find muh keys, muh keys, hmm, good ting da lights is on"

"oh wait i'm a moron, it's a beautifully sunny day, muh keys were in muh mouf da whole time"

Maybe their switch is broken... no wait, on Halloween they pretended they weren't home and put paper up in their windows so no light could come through. The outside light was amazingly off that night. Spooky!

With the recent heat and humidity, I can understand many people wanting to use air conditioners. I don't personally like them that much, for several reasons:

Huge waste of electricity
Air seems sort of stale, unpleasant
Heavy lifting
Locks you into the decision to use AC, even on nice days where not even a fan is necessary

But, of course, these light-leaver-oner neighbors of mine use an air conditioner, even though the windows in these condos are vertical and therefore you cannot easily get a good airtight seal as required for proper AC use. But, okay, whatever, a few other people in these buildings use AC, I've accepted it.

here is my neighbor's wonderful box of luxury

During the day, from 8am to 3 or 4pm, (7-8 hours), my neighbors are not home. I know they aren't home because they each have their own gas guzzling vehicles, and they each are gone. They park in the two spots right next to Amy's car, which are empty in this photo:

So, they're clearly off living their weekday lives. Wonderful for them. But as I sit in my office, every few minutes, my wall vibrates and I hear this horrible sound, a metallic whirring mixed with a high pitched whine. Can't imagine it from my description? Here you go:

It's like my neighbors are saying, "Just in case you weren't enjoying the humidity enough, listen to our cold, empty apartment. Isn't the sound excruciating? Too bad it's so darn hot and you can't close your window to quiet things down, huh? We'll be home in 6 more hours."

To conclude, I'll share a piece of conversation I once overheard. The guy had pulled out his cell phone to call a friend.

"Dude, turn on Fox News. They're talking about some great stuff. Fox News... Fox News, I don't know what channel."

Vote democrat.

BRIAN OUT.

Bugs

2009-07-21T08:54:00.000-04:00

My camera (Samsung S85 snagged for very cheap off of a Woot) may not look like much, but I've been able to do some pretty cool stuff with it over the past... 11 months? Has it been less than a year?

With the thriving vegetation all around, I've been able to find some pretty cool creepy crawlies lately and thanks to the super macro feature on my camera, I've been able to get very close and get clear shots. Well, sometimes they're clear, at least. Here are a few, as well as some other recent pictures:

stupid fast bees

this was like an evil inch worm or something

niiice and slow

slimy

moth outside of my apartment. it had a 3-4 inch wing span. i thought it was a bird at first

lamb chops amy grilled. delicious

quinoa salad amy threw together. also delicious.

camo grasshopper in the wrong environment

some flowers on the side of amy's mom's house

BRIAN OUT.

I saw a flock of moosen!

2009-07-16T08:04:00.002-04:00

In case you're wondering how my morning went (sorry about the bad images, didn't have a tripod):

Buck. It was territorial. See video below.

This buck was mad at me. If you listen closely you can hear him kind of huff at 0:28 and 0:34, right around the same time he's flitting his tail angrily. I retreated, but then just before exiting the clearing checked over my shoulder and saw two moose, so I stayed.

Saw this just after the buck scared me away.

Two Moosies in the Moose Spot off the Kancamagus Highway

Not worth looking at unless you zoom in. This is the same moose spot as always. There's a moose in the opening just to the right of that dead tree on the left. It's that thing that looks like a blackish blob.

Frog at Amy's Mom's house.

Potential campsite off Kanc?

BRIAN OUT.

A List

2009-07-13T09:04:00.002-04:00

It started with Into The Wild (the movie with Emile Hirsch) and my brother Tim. The urge to be in nature. To find wild animals that we've never seen before but have lived so close by. The movie was great, but I think Eddie Vedder's excellent soundtrack is really what got me to hold onto the idea. Tim puts it on as we approach the White Mountain National Forest, and it has been a prominent soundtrack for my activities for the past year. There is really no better music for driving, or, I imagine, for hiking, biking, or sitting still. The air should be moving, or you within it, though.

The Friday before last I went home and Tim and I watched a movie about Dick Proenneke (watch some of it here), a man who left civilization for the wilderness of Alaska, where he built a cabin by hand and lived in it for over thirty years. By no coincidence, I have also been listening to a free audiobook version of Walden by Henry David Thoreau (get it through the awesome Librivox project). Living off of your own efforts, directly. It has been a long time since I have found an idea that speaks to me so loudly. Perhaps not since I was courting Amy (if "courting" is even the right word), a time when I knew I had found something new and full of potential.

Just after Christmas, Amy and I stayed in a Yurt at Frost Mountain Yurts, and other than firewood and propane, we were left to our own devices for fueling our activities. I brought my guitar. Amy brought some knitting. Leela ran in the woods. Reading, knitting, hiking, singing. Even though it was just two nights, it was by far one of the best vacations of my life.

All of these things have been collecting and swelling in my mind, and they lead to important questions. What good is a subscription to cable TV? Why are there five guitars in the room with me? Why do we enter into legal borrowing situations like student loans and renting an apartment? I feel as though I am going to undergo some changes soon, and today I want to put together a list of luxuries I would like to take with me through it all. My hope is that within a year or so, I own very little more than what is on this list.

a guitar
good books that I feel a need to own (Walt Whitman, Kurt Vonnegut, etc)
adequate TV, with DVD player
notebooks or other paper to write and draw on
a good chair
a good table
mp3 player
sturdy laptop computer
bed
kitchen supplies (this is a list unto itself, and I will pare it down another time)
digital camera
digital media that is organized and compact (ie, DVDs stored in large wallets and not displayed in the commercial cases)

I am not done. But I want to spend some of my work day at the library, so I will work more on this list later. Sorry.

Panoramic Photos

2009-07-11T15:56:00.008-04:00

Autostitch is effing great. Here is a collection of panoramic images it allowed me to create. Click to view full size.

Wagon Hill (Durham, NH)

Kancamagus Highway (facing southwest)

Moosing Spot (off Kancamagus Highway in Livermore, NH)

Scenic Overlook at sunrise (off Kancamagus Highway in Livermore, NH)

Frankenstein Cliff (off 302 in Bartlett, NH--I think?)

Near Sabadday Falls (off Kancamagus Highway in Waterville Valley, NH)

Bear Notch Road Scenic Overlook (Passaconaway--or maybe Bartlett, NH)

BRIAN OUT.

Dog Poison Cookies Versions 2 & 3

2009-07-11T14:34:00.004-04:00

The best thing about experimental baking is that even if the results aren't what you had in mind, or if they just plain don't come out right, as long as everything is thoroughly cooked and not burned, it'll usually taste good. Unless you're going to get really experimental, that is...

Since I really want to perfect these Dog Poison Cookies of mine, I have been trying out a few different things.

Version 2: Oats

I felt like they were pretty great on the first try, but I wanted to make it a bit heavier and healthier, so I added some oats and made other small adjustments to the first recipe.

Dry:

4 oz Whole Wheat Flour
1.5 oz Flax meal
4 oz. AP Flour
4 oz. oats
1 teaspoon salt
2 t baking soda (probably should have kept at 1)

Creamed:

1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1.5 teaspoons vanilla

Extras:

4 oz. raisins
3 oz. chocolate chips
3 oz. chopped macadamia nuts

Instructions:

Preheat to 375 degrees F.
Mix/sift the dry stuff in regular old bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar in large/mixer bowl. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add dry, mix well.
Add extras, mix briefly.
Bake 10-15 minutes, checking and rotating after about 7 min. Mine took about 15 minutes with two sheet pans in the oven at once.

These came out really great. Almost exactly what I wanted. I'm worried that the extra baking soda caused a strange sharp taste, but otherwise these had nice full mouth flavor. I'll admit that they were a little dry, no doubt due to the vast increase in dry ingredients, but that should be easy enough to remedy. Also, the chocolate was a little lost in these I think, and perhaps they could have been a touch sweeter.

(EDIT 7/31/2009: See new and improved version of my Dog Poison Cookies here)

Version 3: 100% Whole Wheat
(modification to chewy chocolate chip recipe in King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking)

This recipe is a complete tangent from my evolving recipe above. I wanted to follow specific instructions for using all whole wheat flour, which increases my chances of getting things healthier, so I went with this recipe. Note: It requires overnight refrigeration of the dough.

Ingredients:

Creamed:

1.5 sticks butter
7.5 oz. brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon table salt, probably)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3.6 oz. corn syrup
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 eggs

Dry:

9 oz. whole wheat flour

Extras:

5 oz. chopped macadamia nuts
6 oz. chocolate chips
7 oz. raisins

Instructions:

Melt butter.
Mix butter with sugar, heat a little to dissolve sugar well, let cool.
Add everything but eggs, flour, and extras.
Add eggs, mix well.
Add flour, mix well.
Add extras, mix until evenly distributed.
Put in fridge OVERNIGHT.
Preheat to 375 degrees F.
Drop dough onto cookie sheets in desired size.
Bake smaller cookies (about 1 Tablespoon each) for 12-13 minutes, checking and rotating halfway. For larger cookies (about 3 Tablespoons each), bake time was about 16 minutes in my oven.

These "chewy" cookies were indeed chewy, and had a new tang that I wasn't sure was great or just good. May have been caused by increase in raisin ratio, but more likely it was the vinegar. They were also fairly sticky, a big turnoff to the fingers. I love their taste, with such great dynamics between the chocolate, nuts, and raisins, but they aren't really what I want in these cookies. The texture just isn't right. I think the next version will be a convergence of versions 2 and 3 in this post.

(EDIT 7/31/2009: See new and improved version of my Dog Poison Cookies here)

BRIAN OUT.