Day of Listening

So my fellow NPR junkies may remeber that at Thanksgiving there was a big push for the National Day of Listening. Well, since we celebrated Thanksgiving a couple weeks early, I didn't get to participate even though I was inspired to do so. So now that I am visiting in Atlanta for Christmas I am going to interview my Dad tomorrow (God and Dad willing, of course!).
I've been thinking about questions (suggestions welcome) and logistics.
I don't have tape recorder, but my camera has a video camera option (evidenced in previous posts) so I am just going to use that and I think the video will be a bonus. I hope to learn some new things about my Dad and record favorite stories too. Will possibly post the recordings here afterwards, but will definitely look forward to sharing them with my sister and her kids.
Anyway, I am really excited about this idea and want to encourage other people to do this too! I only wish I had more videos/recordings of my mom. The few we have are such a treasure now...
Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and that you all enjoy the new year!!!!

Josh's Visit

Northwestern tribal art

Josh flew out from Atlanta to hang out for the week so we've been doing lots of fun things in the FoCo area...

First we picked up Josh at the airport in the middle of a blizzard- made it home after ~3 hours of driving 30mph on the interstate.
Temps were low the next couple days so we decided to stay indoors and checked out the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Then we took the tour of the New Belgium Brewery, home of Fat Tire and many other wonderful beers and performed some quality control testing.
That was followed by a short walk to the Odell Brewery and sampled the wares there....
Beware the Buffalo Bourbon Stout- aged in used bourbon barrels and more like taking a shot than drinking a beer!

Today we headed up to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and went snowshoeing to Mills Lake. Beautiful, but cold! Wanted to have a bite to eat once we reached the lake, but piercing winds triggered the onset of frostbite, so we snarfed the food down and then thankfully got moving again. In just the hour and a half it took to get there the water in my backpack was already half ice.

Quote

I love quotes!!!! Here's a beautiful one I just came across reading a review for a book called Bowerman and the Men of Oregon.

For there is always a sanctuary more, a door that can never be forced, whatever the force, a last inviolable stronghold that can never be taken, whatever the attack; your vote can be taken, your name, your innards, even your life, but that last stronghold can only be surrendered.

Thanksgiving

Hi everybody! So its painfully apparent that even with internet access (thanks to our neighbors router!) and free time, I still am lame about posting to my blog.... so a few weeks late here are some photos from our Thanksgiving!
First we celebrated an early Thanksgiving in Kansas with Aunt Daisy and Uncle George which Dad and Julie and her whole family made it out to (pictures from that may make a later appearance pending Christmas). Then on Wednesday before the big day Craig and I rented a yurt for two nights in Colorado's State Forest State Park. It was amazing! On our drive in we saw 3 moose in a wet meadow surrounded by snow and we got to see flocks of snow geese migrating south, calling to each other as they went.
But best of all was the yurt itself! To reach it you park at a trailhead and hike about a mile in - we hiked in our Thanksgiving dinner- green chile elk stew with hominy and cornbread (thanks to Darrell's recipe!). The yurt has a woodburning stove for warmth (we took turns getting up at night to stoke the fire- it was cold!) in addition to a propane 2-burner campstove. We hiked and explored, drank hot chocolate, tracked coyotes, rabbits, mice, elk, deer and moose through the snow, and tried to teach ourselves to cross-country ski... we had the trails completely to ourselves til our cross-country ski back out to the car Friday afternoon... All in all I couldn't imagine a nicer way to spend a holiday, unless it was with all our friends and family there too!

Oh, be sure to check out the video at the end of the post for a tour of the interior of the yurt (and me looking like a person who hasn't bathed in a couple days!). You can check out some pictures from Craig's blog too.

Deutschland II

Didn't get a chance to post the rest of these photos earlier, but once Dad headed back to the States, Deanne and Jonathan came to visit for 3 days in Ellerstadt before heading on to Stuttgart and then France. It was so fun to have them there and to get to introduce people to so many things I enjoy, including big breakfasts at Omi's with brotchen and soft-boiled eggs! We did a lot of sight seeing crammed into a short amount of
time and D & J were amazingly resilient considering the tours begain on day 1 with no time for adjustment from the time change! Annette took us to the Limburg, the ruins of an old cloister in Bad Durkheim and had a snack of something similar to onion quiche and new wine- yum! Then on to a very cute, very Pfaelz-ish restaurant where we all had a wonderful meal and sampled some wines. The next day was dedicated to Speyer. Annette took us to the town and then we walked around a bit and saw the cathedral there- the Speyer Dom. We ate a little something in the Hofbrauhaus and walked down to the Rhein River. The final day Sabine took us to Heidelberg where we explored the town and walked through the old castle. Its such a beautiful town with so many buildings that are works of art. It makes me look at the big box stores with a refreshed disdain. Why don't we care about beauty in our buildings?
Once Deanne and Jonathan continued on their way (a sad goodbye for me since we never know when we will see each other again) then I had a few more days before my own departure. Sabine and I went to downtown Schwetzingen and I finally got to meet her friend Biggi. We had a lovely afternoon of sitting in the sunshine outside their local pub and having white wine schoelers (spell?). I was so happy also to see Tante Ilsa and Tante Mariele again. Annette cooked a huge feast for us all, the whole family was there, even Omi made it from her house. We had my favorite Markloesensuppe, which is soup with little dumplings that are made of bone marrow and is very tasty, as a starter and it only got better from there!
It was such a nice trip and I'm looking forward to going again soon- with any luck for Wolfgang's 60th which is coming up next October...

Corn, sweet corn

In honor of one of my profile interests, I'd like to post a couple of links about the corn industry's propaganda which I recently had the misfortune of seeing on tv. I think my blood pressure has lowered a little, but if I have to see them again I'll be going to a doctor promptly.


First here's a link from the Cleaner Plate Club, a blog I just stumbled across, but find to be informative and well-written. The comments from others are wonderful and mind-opening. This link also has videos of the original ads.
Here's another blog called Modern Dragons that contains footnotes with references to peer-reviewed scientific journal articles which demonstrate the deleterious health effects of HFCS.
And here's one from The Nutrition Reporter.
And one from the Mayo Clinic.

And as a side-note on hypocrisy- no, my own pantry is not completely devoid of products containing HFCS. But being aware of all the things its in and what that means for your body and for your environment is important. We all make choices about what we are comfortable with and I may be a little sensitive to additives and chemicals and nutrition b/c of the role they play in cancer and auto-immune diseases and mysterious incurable migraines, all of which we have experienced in our family and none of which modern medicine has much in the way of cures for. Either way, it never hurts to have a discussion about it.

Most of all I'd like to agree with most people, it's common sense- of course too much sugar of any kind is bad. Even if you view high fructose corn syrup as just more sugar, than surely we can agree on that. Then the problem becomes- HFCS is in so many products! As stated by other bloggers, how can we consume HFCS in moderation when it appears on the labels of almost every food in a normal grocery store?!
If you view it as less of a sugar and more of a food additive, then we should address how these ads by the corn industry can seek to label HFCS as "natural". They can get away with this claim because the FDA has little to no standard for "natural", and labeling it that does not make it so. High fructose corn syrup cannot be made without the aid of many industrialized chemical reactions. Please read the following for a definition of what the Corn Refiners Association considers natural :

"HFCS is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose, and then processing the glucose to produce a high percentage of fructose. Three different enzymes are needed to break down cornstarch, which is composed of chains of glucose molecules of almost infinite length, into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.
First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers.
Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat.
The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity.
There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose-what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup. The purpose for this blend is that HFCS has the same "sweetness" as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar. HFCS is cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport which translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.


Four companies control 85 percent of the $2.6 billion business-Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley Manufacturing Co. and CPC International."

As a food additive HFCS allows over-processed foods to sit on the shelves for months, in some cases years. Do we really want to be eating those foods? I make no apologies for not trusting these four corporations and their propaganda. This ubiquitous product contributes to our society's health problems. Personal choices and responsibility play a huge role, but propaganda does not help us to make informed decisions.

Let's address the root of the problem- ditch the over-processed food altogether.

Deutschland II

So to pick up where I left off....
Dad was in Germany the first week I was there and the morning that he flew out Deanne and Jonathan flew in (on what turned out to be the same plane!) . Deanne and Jonathan stayed with Omi and I in Ellerstadt for 3 days, which thanks to our events coordinators and tourguides - Annette and Sabine, were action packed! After the brutal 11+ hours in the plane Deanne and Jonathan arrived in time for a traditional Ellerstadter breakfast of brotchen, soft-boiled eggs and Omi's coffee (even Ross would think it was strong)

Trip to Deutschland

Hello everybody! It's been a while but I finally managed to post again, hope some of you are still checking this occasionally...
After finishing up my field work in Nevada, I have returned home to Fort Collins, where I am working remotely, doing data entry for GBBO. This is a great set-up for me, since I can be here and still earn a little money on the side while I pursue leads for grad school.
Since returning home, Craig and I flew out to Monterey, California to celebrate the wedding of friends Kelly and Mike. Craig has some wonderful photos on his blog from the event, if you guys want to take a peek. It was great to see them and Amy and Sanjay too. We missed you guys that couldn't make it!
Right after the wedding we flew back home and I had a day to pack my things before heading out for a 2 week trip to Ellerstadt, Germany. It was a little rushed, but surely with my organizational skills it shouldn't have been any trouble, right?
Upon arriving at the airport via a 2 hour shuttle bus ride I discovered I had forgotten one essential item... that's right, the single item I could not travel without (and as some of you will remember, this makes it twice in one year). Thanks again to Craig for making an emergency passport run from Wyoming to the Denver airport.
So I arrived a day later than expected thanks to this bout of early-onset dementia, but had a fantastic time nonetheless!
It was so wonderful to get to see my Omi and all my relatives and the weather was wonderful. Dad and I went to the Wurstmarkt together (Dad sacrificing himself for my benefit, as there is only one small beer stand hidden amongst all of the Wurstmarkt wine tents) with Annette and Wolfgang and Sabine. Its billed as the largest wine fest in the world and after being there it's not hard to believe. Then Dad took me on a driving tour of the places he had lived and worked while in Germany. It was especially neat to see his and Mom's first apartment together- a room in a house belonging to a doctor at the local hospital with a wonderful view of the town of Gruenstadt. We went out to Kirchheimbolanden, where Dad was a basketball superstar and I got re-acquainted with his basketball buddies, most of whom I hadn't seen since I was a small child.
Here are some photos:



The Ellerstadt crest on the local government
building. The town recently celebrated their 1225th
anniversary.


Omi's street - Ratstrasse


Ratstrasse


Durkheimer Wurstmarkt- world's largest wine fest!


Sabine and I brave the rides after sampling
several wines.


My second cousin Leonie and aunt Annette-
Can you guess which one is scared of heights?


Sabine and Wolfgang's favorite ride.


The friendly bartenders at Annette and Wolfgang's
sports club wine tent (Dad, Annette, & Wolfgang
worked a couple days before I arrived).


Leonie and I at the Reisenfass (the
world's largest wine barrel, it can
hold 1.7 million liters!).


Dad's rental Fiat.


Near Grunstadt.


Old town wall near Grunstadt.


Dad's basketball friends in Kirchheimbolanden:
Dad, Traute, Saule, Adi, Traudle


Kibo town wall.


Adi's apple orchard.


Schwann Apotheke in Kibo.


Weinstrasse


Dad and Omi

I'll be posting part two of my trip shortly!