Cha cha cha Chia

This is so funny. I saw the comercial for the first time today. Just had to put it up here.


The Newest Thing from Chia Pets...



Thats right... Obama the chia. Gee I wonder why they haven't done this to a president before? Dont you think the Chia Bush would have sold?

So there are lots of opinions on this. One is that they never thought to make another presidential Chia. Its harmless fun and a marketing ploy. Another is that this is a racist attack on the woolly nature of black hair growth. Some stores like walgreens are already pulling this product from shelves.

What do you think. Harmless or racist?

Pictures from my phone.

This summer, I ended up getting a new phone. So I had to email all of my pictures to myself. Now I thought i would share all the best ones with you.

Getting a kitten sortof coicided with getting my first ever camera phone, so I took a lot of kitten photos. Here are a few favorites.


He was so tiny. We were still bottle feeding him when we brought him home. Man its a lot of work to bottle feed a kitten every three hours.





Just a few...

And then we got our adorable puppy. We hadn't settled on a name for the kitten yet when we drove an hour inland to pick up Jessica's new puppy.


So as we drove away, "Hey there delila" came on the radio.


Rem was leaving for (it think it was) boot camp just two days after we got Laila, so the song held a certain significance for Jess. We decided on Sampson and Delila for the pet's names.



They were best buddies, although Sam always had a mean streak. They used to cuddle like that. Then they would fight and fall asleep.


This is one of my favorite pictures because these two were fighting for the "sunny spot" in the room. And just fell asleep while fighting. But they look so peaceful and buddy-buddy in the photo.

Things are different now. They basicly hate each other and it has been at least a year since they have voluntarily cuddled. Mostly after Sam's accident, everything changed.


Poor Sam got run over by a car in the early hours of the morning. It awoke in him a sort of defense mechanism, "even though I am hurt, I am still top dog." Where Laila would have some gnarly battle scars and Sam just kept on lunging for her. It's cooled down a little, but Laila always has at least one scratch on her belly.

Anyhow...

It was only last summer that we drove south to pick up Helo.




That was his first night, when Russell was still being strict with the "no dogs on the bed" rule. Pfft... That lasted about a week.




He was our little bear cub, so we call him helobear

or helocopter

or helomonster...



He loved the car!



He would whimper like a baby til we hit 45mph.



But he's not a baby anymore. But as I look at those pictures side by side, he still has that same "look".


So that is what I take pictures of on my phone. Does it surprise you? Oh, there were no people pictures? Yes, I think someone was in one of those photos... No? Oh, ummmm here's one...


What, there's a cat blocking his face?

Hrmmm... I didn't want to post this one but you leave me no choice...



There. The only picture on my phone with no pet in it. It was just too good not to keep :)

Good Food

I mad this recipe last night and it was heaven. Probably a little calorific, but it was gooood. So I thought I would share it. I found it here But I didnt think to take a picture last night. We made pasta on the side and poured the alfredo sauce the chicken was baked in right on top.

Alfredo Crumbed Chicken


Serving: 6
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 70 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
6 Chicken breasts
2 egg wash
1 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
olive oil
vegetable spray
6 slices ozzarella cheese
large can mushrooms, drained
jar Five Brothers Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup white wine
garlic powder, to taste
parsley

DIRECTIONS:
1. Dip chicken breast in egg wash and then in Italian bread crumbs coating completely. Lightly brown on both sides in olive oil over med high heat. Remove from skillet and place in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish that has been coated with vegetable spray.

2. Top each breast with a slice of mozzarella cheese, you can use shredded, and a large can of mushrooms which has been drained.

3. To a jar of Five Brothers Alfredo sauce, add 1/2 cup white wine and a teaspoon or less of garlic powder to taste and some parsley. Stir to blend well.

4. Pour over chicken breasts and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is light golden.

Our "Day Off"

The Fourth (maybe fifth?) day was our "day off" so to speak. I think we got more done on our day off than any other day we were there (mostly due to rain). We saw a bunch of road cuts, hiked through the Bishop Tuff, stopped by Mammoth ski resort, hiked two craters and toured Mono Lake.


The Bishop Tuff was deposited when a volcano erupted creating Long Valley Caldera. It covers 2,200 square kilometers of area, which is a big bada boom.


We hiked down this really long road (yes paved road, leading to water treatment plant I think)



The tuff is really cool because it is very colorful (making it easy to identify) and we found this columnar jointing. This happens at a certain specific temperature and pressure thresh hold creating hexagonal columns in the tuff. The most famous example being the Devil's Postpile.

Mammoth was a bummer. We were supposed to take a gondola ride to see everything, but the resort was closed. So this is the only picture we got.


A two hour drive for a statue of a mammoth. Excellent.

Then we went to Two Craters on the way down from Mammoth, all discouraged, but happy we didnt have to pay $30 to take the ride (I know more than a few classmates were planning to skip it).



The lovely Nicole with one of the two craters behind her.



It wouldn't be worth seeing if we didnt have to hike to get there.



Or crutch to get there.



Here is everybody looking out at the lake at the bottom. It was a very peculiar shade of green. After a while, we started throwing rocks at it to see whose could splash the most. Geologists will be geologists after all...

I will save Mono Lake for its own post because it is just that cool. And come to think of it, maybe we didn't do all that in one day. That would just have been crazy for a day off :)

A trip I took a while ago.

That is my advanced field class our second day.

It dawned on me today that I never shared pictures of my advanced field trip with you. The trip was spectacular, by the way, even without showers or running water. Well there are soooo many pictures I can only share a few. In segments.



We went to the Poleta folds behind the White Mountains to map. We didn't get too many pictures though because it rained so much (also we were too tired to care). But here are a few from the first days when it didn't pour.


A big panorama of the field site.


This is called rattlesnake ravine. between everyone we saw two rattlesnakes and ten possible rattlesnakes. I ran too fast from the sound I heard to even check, lol.


This spot was called Hell Hole. Mostly because it is hard to map, I still don't think I was able to figure everything out.


Oh, and this guy is Chris also known as crutchy. He did the whole week on crutches! They lost their rubber soles and he tied socks around the arm gaurds by the end of he week. What a trooper!


And our other capable TA Jon, looking at his bunny friend. They were tremendous help with everyone so spread out across the mapping area.


Lunch on the first day, with everyone eating together.


Lunch on the third day, my little group of three found DK (Dr. Kimbrough)to eat lunch with and check our map stuff, but other than that we would have no clue where anyone was. If not for our walkies that is. Oh, and to illustrate my point, that red circle is Jon way out in the distance.

I may have to many pictures for this post already, but here is one last picture of the White Mts.