Last but not least...

Last week Ben and I lost the last of our ferrets, Tiny Weasel (a.k.a. Madame Weaselle, Little Miss Weasel). She started out as a mean little ferret, jumping out from behind furniture to nip our ankles. I blame the kennel where she spent the early part of her life. As she grew older, she mellowed and become a wonderful little weasel. Eventually, she became the sweetest of them all, and in her dotage spend many happy hours on my lap getting her ears scratched. She also briefly became my office weasel, and would come in about once a day to beg for a raisin.

Tiny had numerous bizarre yet appealing habits. She loved stealing the recycling from the bin and spent much of her ferret childhood trying to cram one-gallon milk jugs into three-inch diameter ferret tubing without much success. For reasons unknown, she predominately moved backwards, and would sometimes scurry backwards across the entire kitchen floor when you only so much as glanced at her. She also had several "stations" throughout her life: places, typically next to a refrigerator or recycling bin, from where she would stare out in a vapid yet endearing fashion. In North Branford, we stuck a Post-it note titled "Tiny's Station" on the base of the fridge next to the spot where she liked to stand and watch the kitchen proceedings.

Despite being the smallest, most fragile-appearing ferret, Tiny was remarkably stoic, a fact that allowed her to enjoy camping trips. She loved digging for moles under picnic tables and taking naps in our sleeping bag. She will be much missed.

I'll leave you with a classic Tiny Weasel pose:

May, 2007

May, 2012

It's National Novel Writing Month...

And wow, am I behind... Gotta fix this.

Goodbye, Ichabod

Ben and I lost another ferret earlier this week: Ichabod, a.k.a. The Great White Weasel:

He was our "special" ferret, by which I mean he wasn't in the gifted and talented weasel group, but we loved him all the same. It's been barely a month since we lost Rocky, so the apartment is getting mighty empty with just Tiny Weasel hanging on.

Ichabod had a legion of stuffed animal buddies who he would bring food, take on walks around the apartment, and also use as pillows. His favorite pursuits included scratching at the bedroom door, followed closely by getting into the bedroom, where he would run around like a maniac at being in the "forbidden room."

His most famous moment was emptying the entire contents of a litter box over our bathroom floor in North Branford, and then planting his stuffed monkey in the wreckage. This was immortalized in a photo called "The Monkey Did It":

We'll never forgot Ichabod's enthusiasm for life. There's nothing he loved more than the most boring of foods, Marshall's dry ferret food. Whenever anything is particularly awesome, Ben and I still refer to it as being "totally Marshall's" in honor of Ichabod.

Here are a few classic Ichabod shots:

Connecticut Adventures

Apparently Connecticut becomes much more beautiful if you leave it for a year. I didn't think I missed it until I visited--good times with friends, camping at Hammonasset (despite torrential downpours), and seeing my family (including some visitors from abroad and out-of-state) all made it a wonderful time.

Below are my cousin Peter and his wife Michelle who came as surprise visitors from England, Ben's parents Cam and Greg, my brother with his wife Rose and baby Arthur, and my mom and dad.

It was a short visit, but I was lucky to be able to see most of my friends. Jess came down from Hudson to camp at Hammonasset with me, Evan drove down from Northampton for a day, and Justin and Beth made a point to see me at every chance they got. Jess and I even caught up with Andy Erickson, a friend from high school who we hadn't seen in over a decade! Below are Justin, Andy, Beth, and Jess on the beach at Hammonasset.

Notable events: a Hammo evening spent with Jess, Eric, Joe, Becca, and Andrea; a throw-back Guilford Diner breakfast with Jess, Eric, Andrea, Ashley and her boyfriend Billy; spending a night on the beach talking with Justin and Beth (until we were kicked off the beach); eating delicious Taste of China with my co-workers from Shore Pub; breakfast with my mom at Edd's in Westbrook; tasty Thai with Kate, Justin, and Beth in Middletown; a tag sale at my parents' home with my brother, Rose, and Arthur; Bella Lisa's buffalo chicken pizza and a day spent talking with Evan and hiking the Branford Supply Ponds; visiting Eric's new digs in Derby with more friends than I can count! Sometimes I wish I had the ability to teleport all my friends and family to Oregon... I miss you guys.

Freedom of the Internet

Ben and I have gone on a few hikes recently; I did a short backpacking trip to Rosary Lakes, we went camping on the coast, and we hiked up Iron Mountain. However, instead of posting photos of sand dunes and trees, I've instead decided to post a whole bunch of photos of Rocky Weasel because I miss him and because it's the Internet and we're allowed to post whatever we wish:

Goodbye, Rocky

Ben and I lost a big piece of ourselves last week--Rocky Weasel. Born in September, 2005 and originally from a pet store in Hudson, New York, Rocky (along with myself) had the misfortune to live with my ex-boyfriend Geoff for the early portion of his life. When I came back from a caretaker gig in the Vermont wilderness, I liberated Rocky W., along with his cohorts Little Miss (aka Tiny Weasel) and Ichabod from the kennel where he'd left them. They came to live with me and Ben in New Haven, Connecticut in December, an event that shall forever be remembered as the infamous Weasel Christmas of 2006.
Mistrustful from being abandoned, Rocky had quite the fierce bite when we first acquired him. Eventually, he learned to trust us--becoming the sweetest, smartest pet I've ever known. Rocky picked up tricks easily, became a rock star on YouTube, and accompanied us on many adventures, including our cross-country move to Oregon. He has partied like a rock star at a New Orleans hotel during Mardi Gras, taken in sweeping views of the Grand Canyon, and pooped in the corners of countless La Quinta hotels across the continental United States. Despite the YouTube fame of his "Up" trick, far more impressive was his ability to roll on command, known locally in our household as "Rocky, Roll." A holdover from our aquarist days in Connecticut, he had a sweet tooth for algae wafers and would perform his trick the second he smelled the treat.
More important, Rocky was a real little person. He had the ability to look you in the eye, fret when Ben or I was gone, and, I think, to love us, too. We'll miss you, Rocky Weasel.

Rocky Weasel (Sept., 2005 - July, 2012)

Ben's Birthday at Fall Mountain Lookout

For Ben's birthday, we rented a Forest Service fire tower on top of a mountain in eastern Oregon for two nights. It was amazing! The tower was outfitted with a stove, a futon, a fridge--all the comforts of home packed into a room about the size of my office, with windows all around looking out over the mountains:

Here's the fire tower from the outside:

Bringing the ferret cage up the narrow stairs was pretty exciting... as was the drive up many miles of steep gravel Forest Service roads. We sectioned off part of the room for our ferrets and then baked a shepherd's pie our first night out. The next day, we drove out to the Painted Hills, which pretty much beat all my expectations for it. Here are a few photos to give you an idea:

It was probably the most alien-looking landscape I've ever seen; it looked computer-generated. We spent most of the day hiking around the hills, then drove back to the cabin to check on the ferrets (who seemed to enjoy the vacation). Later, Ben and I went out for a meal at the Snaffle Bit restaurant in John Day. The place looked like a dive from the outside, but when they realized that we didn't have a reservation, the waitress placed us in a separate room with seating for six and a chandelier--absurdly fancy, but appropriate for Ben's birthday! Dinner was perfect, then back to the cabin for a spectacular sunset.

It was a great vacation! I am definitely looking forward to booking more Forest Service cabins in the future--they have a whole series of fire towers in Oregon and Washington that you can rent out in the mountains for about $40 a night. Plus, ours came complete with a great set of binoculars, through which Ben spotted our first mountain blue bird. We'll be back, Fall Mountain Lookout!

Raccoon Men, continued

Here are some photos of the five baby raccoons that lived in my office last week:

Raccoon Men

On Monday, an army of five baby raccoons moved into my home office, on loan from Chintimini Wildlife Center. I can now definitively answer the question: do raccoons make good pets? No, no, they do not.

But they are damn cute.

They need formula three times a day, and they muck up their cage pretty badly, so it needs cleaning about twice a day. That's OK, it's not like I was going to get any work done in my office this week anyway, right?

Each one is marked with nail polish on the ear so we can tell them apart; at first it was pretty tricky making sure they each get the proper amount at feeding time, but it's getting easier. Ben rigged up an awesome hammock, and we sacrificed one of our mushroom growing logs for Raccoonlandia.

Today they munched on apples and blueberries, along with their dog chow. Tomorrow, I'm going to cut up the watermelon I bought them and share it out, and pick up some pine cones and other toys. There's one female, but the rest are male, so I just call them the RaccoonMen. More photos to come!

Baby Mouse!

One day I'm going to look back at this photo and think: This is how it all started! That day will probably occur sometime next week. Stay tuned.

Marys Peak

Ben and I finally made it up Marys Peak! It's a mountain not too far from Corvallis, but last year the road was closed each time we tried to go up. At 4,097 feet it's sort of a West Coast parallel of Camel's Hump (4,083), so I was expecting a similar peak. Sadly, the top is nothing like Camel's Hump; it's quite developed, with a huge fence and cell towers and right now the top essentially looks like a grassy field, complete with picnic table. The hike was nice, but the peak cannot compare. I'm hoping that the "real" mountains out in the Cascades will look a bit more dramatic!

The hike itself was lovely. The trillium are blooming, the morels are out but hiding, and I found a pair of gigantic sunglasses on the trail:

Afterwards, we headed to the Woodsman, a Thai restaurant/American bar with logging decor (think lots of saws). They have the most generous plates of fried tofu I've ever seen. An excellent day, but Ben can keep the sunglasses. Maybe elsewhere I will find some morels...

Dancin' Strawberry Man

It's not every day that you find a dancing strawberry man in your strawberries:

I went looking for morels today with Ben, but we didn't find any. Still, beautiful weather and a nice walk at Luckiamute. I didn't take any photos of that, but I do have a picture of me and Tiny Weasel taking a nap:

That's all for now.

Good Day for Birds!

Today Ben and I hiked up Dan's Trail in Corvallis. We didn't see many other hikers, but we did see a grey jay and a northern flicker. The grey jay looked a bit like an overgrown chickadee; at first I thought it was a shrike. It didn't look much like the grey jays out East!

I'm still only about 80% certain this is a grey jay.

Hmm.

Happy Spring!

It's starting to get nice out again, so that means it's time to start updating my blog with good-weather things. Today I picked up some strawberries from the farmers' market, a sign that warm weather is here to stay. Ben and I also explored Opal Creek Wilderness a couple weekends ago with Katie and her friend Susan.
Here I am with Ben, riding through the woods on a mining cart. Good times.

A Quiet Day in the Wetlands

I didn't bring my camera, but today Ben and I hiked the Jackson-Frazier Wetland in Corvallis and it was amazing. We've had tons of rain and flooding lately, so we weren't sure we'd be able to get in. However, after the flooded entrance, the boardwalk itself was clear of water. The water level almost reached the top of the boards, and slopped up onto them under the weight of our feet. Red-winged blackbirds staked out the highest trees and called to each other across the wetlands, which were unnaturally quiet due to the floods. A lovely hike!

Off the Bagel

Sometimes looking at restaurant menus is a good source of inspiration for cooking at home. Tonight, I was thinking about Eugene, which made me dig up the menu for Off the Waffle, an amazing waffle restaurant. Somehow, I ended up making a bagel topped with a fried egg, spinach, avocado, paprika, and pepper:

It wasn't bad, but it was no Liège waffle. Luckily, I might soon be writing for a Eugene daily paper, which would enable waffle-related field trips.

In other news, here's a photo of Tiny Weasel eating food:

It kind of makes me think of the Alien movies for some reason. That's all for now.

No Photos, Only Words

It's December, and I'm re-emerging from a month of novel writing. As you may or may not know, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, a world-wide event in which determined individuals of all ages strive to write 50,000 words in 30 days. This year, I wrote a zombie novel and it was a blast. For the past five years, I've written 50,000 words each November. That's two sci-fi novels, one sci-fi/detective novel, a fantasy novel, and a zombie novel. Outside of NaNoWriMo, I've only written one novel and a bunch of short stories.

People quibble over whether or not it's productive to write such a huge amount in one month, which amazes me. There's no doubt in my mind that it's useful to write vast quantities if you want to become a writer! The most effective way to learn how to do something is to do it, and the whole point of NaNoWriMo is to stop talking about how you're going to write a novel someday, and simply write one. This year I wrote more dialogue than I've ever written before in my life, and I learned a ton. I came out at the end of it realizing how to make characters sound real and unique, which has always for me been one of the hardest parts of writing.

If you want to be a novelist, try NaNoWriMo one year. At the end of it, you'll probably know whether or not you really want to be a novelist. And you'll have gained firm proof that you can produce a rough draft, because you'll have one in your hands. It might not be pure gold, but it's a step in the right direction.

Lobsters Galore

Although yesterday's goal was chanterelles, I think we found a total of three. None of them looked like the yellow chanterelle, so I was a little wary of them until I realized we had the Pacific golden chanterelle. Equally delicious, it's also Oregon's state mushroom! I meant to take a picture, but forgot until after they were sautéed in butter and eaten. They were growing in an area deprived of light, so their color was more pink than golden or yellow.
The true star of the show turned out to be piles upon piles of lobster mushrooms. We hiked barely a mile on a trail a little south of Cape Perpetua and just kept finding them -- one was even growing on the trail.
Here's a photo of us with our haul:

Tonight, I'm going to try making spaghetti alla carbonara con lobster mushroom, maybe with a bit of bacon added and a different type of pasta. If it turns out well, I'll post my modified recipe.

ADDENDUM: Although the taste of the lobster mushrooms was a little buried under the other ingredients, it turned out well. Here the recipe:


Spaghetti alla Carbonara con Lobster Mushroom

1 lb. pasta (we used whole wheat penne)
1/2 lb. lobster mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 T butter
bacon, 3 slices
1 cup pecorino romano, grated
black pepper
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup green peas, thawed and drained
3 cloves garlic, minced

Cook the pasta al dente in a large pot of salted water. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Sauté the lobster mushrooms in the butter over medium heat for about six minutes. Add garlic and black pepper and cook for 30 seconds. Cook the bacon separately and keep the grease. Combine the pasta, green peas, bacon, bacon grease, mushrooms, and reserved liquid. Cook one minute, shaking the pan to combine the ingredients. Add the pecorino romano and more black pepper to taste, stirring to coat the pasta. Remove the pan from heat. Add the beaten eggs, whisking vigorously until thickened but not scrambled. Serve immediately.

Creatures of California

On Friday, I drove down to Redwood National Park in northern California for hiking/backpacking adventures with my friend Ken-ichi. It turned out to be a creature extravaganza! We found frogs, salamanders, and -- for some inexplicable reason -- piles upon piles of millipedes. The giant salamander that Ken-ichi found under a log at a botanical area was the highlight:

Other figures of note were tailed frogs, a foothill yellow-legged frog, and a black salamander (or was it a del norte salamander? Either way, it was black). A harbor seal frolicked in the breakers in front of us at Tolowa Dunes State Park, and when I stuck my head outside the tent on our first morning I found a herd of Roosevelt elk staring back at me.
Even after all of that -- plus finding piles of chanterelles and even porcini mushrooms -- finding a foot-long salamander tops the list! Here's a photo of Ken-ichi with his new friend:

Although Ken-ichi carefully removed all the pine needles from salamanders before taking their photos, this salamander neglected to mention that Ken-ichi had a pine needle stuck to his head. I find this somewhat ironic.

I will definitely find my way back to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, especially the Gold Bluffs Beach Campground, which is one of the finest places I've ever pitched my tent:

It's also halfway between Corvallis and San Francisco, which makes it a perfect place for a break when I drive down. I will be back!