The New Seven Wonders of the World

Check it out. If you have time online and would rather not read about Paris Hilton or Iraq, vote for the new seven wonders of the world: http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php.

Happy Twenty-Ninth Birthday!

I had a birthday last weekend. I turned twenty-nine. For my birthday, Monte took me out to Boulder, Colorado to go gliding. The experience was ........ hmmmmm...... let me try to be eloquent about this.......... so cool.

Me, and my pilot, Gary, strapping me in so I'm SAFE for the flight!

Our tiny little glider! Now, that is a landing you can feel! My butt is practically on the ground!

Us, being pulled by the tow-plane heading for those mountains over...... THERE!

Some mountains.

A postcard I bought. Just kidding! I took that picture!

lunch. very important.

In other news: North Korea has reportedly tested a missile, as US officials say it now has access to funds frozen for years; Claude Monet's painting Waterloo Bridge, Temps Couvert doubles its estimated selling price at auction (18 million pounds); Lindsay Lohan has cancelled her 21st birthday party; and the US military says 10,000 US and Iraqi troops are moving against al-Qaeda networks north of Baghdad.

Raw Foods Meal

I mentioned a couple of blogs ago that I attended a raw foods cooking class with my friend Sara in Vail. Well, the class was definitely worth it because last night I made my first raw foods meal!

Zucchini Pesto Pasta:

2 cups basil leaves (stems removed), tightly packed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp sea salt 6 zucchini, peeled
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 tomato, seeded and diced
¼ cup raw pine nuts ½ cup Pine Nut Parmesan (optional)

To make the pesto, place the basil, olive oil, garlic, and salt in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process until the basil is chopped. Add the pine nuts and process until smooth. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Pesto will keep for five days.

To make the pasta, use a vegetable peeler to peel the zucchini down to the core of seeds on all sides, forming long strips. Do not continue peeling once you reach the core of seeds. Cut the zucchini strips into 1-inch pieces. Toss the zucchini with enough pesto to coat. Place a small pile of zucchini on serving plate. Top with the diced tomato and Pine Nut Parmesan, if desired.


Well. I don’t have a food processor, so here is what my pasta looked like:




Plus, I don’t have a dehydrator, nor did I have the energy or time to make pine nut parmesan, so I used REAL parmesan. Sue me.

And the pesto goes quite nicely with a martini:




And a side of grilled meatloaf:




Hehehe. GO RAW FOODS!

In other news: The prestigious UN Heritage List is voting this month on 5 globally important natural and cultural wonders of the world; Aids say that Bill and Hillary Clinton have sold their blind trust stocks to avoid any problems for Mrs Clinton's presidency bid; Nicole Richie is pregnant; and Switzerland opens the world's longest rail tunnel on land - the 34km Loetschberg tunnel under the Alps.

Snobbery by Joseph Epstein

On a recent non-fiction kick, and finding myself bookless in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I perused the shelves for something to read. Appropriately, for the setting, I chose the book Snobbery by Joseph Epstein.

A very cute read, Epstein talks about the curiosity he finds in that though democracy, by its very nature touts itself as anti-snobbery, seems at the same time, by its very nature to breed it. By taking away the social solidarity of class, getting rid of any true aristocracy, and even by eliminating the society columns, Americans are left with the need to find some way of distinguishing themselves from their fellow countrymen.

We do this by becoming snobs. Job-snobbery, school snobbery, intellectual snobbery, political snobbery, celebrity snobbery, food & wine snobbery, overall "good-taste" snobbery…… and the list goes on. We all fit into some of these and know people who fit into some of these. I myself have a wee bit of job-snobbery (but of the more modern I-don’t-make-any-money-but-I’m-doing-something-important kind), intellectual snobbery (I thought myself over that, but I was merely taking a break and am a snob again in full force), and food and wine snobbery (though, in reading this book and making the distinctions, I find that I am less of a snob and more of an elitist).

The book was very entertaining. I especially enjoyed the chapter on good taste:

"…good taste really is good sense, which means that in friendship, it is
represented by tact, generosity, and above all kindness; in possessions, by
comfort, elegance, utility, and solidity; in art, by beauty, harmony, and
originality…"

as well as the chapters on WASP society (my only experience with that being from Gilmore Girls [holla!]), and the chapter on the snobbery of being un-American. Though the book was enjoyable, I found it a little too fleshed out and thought it might do better as a series of essays.

In other news: gas prices are up; though the station's three crew and seven visiting shuttle astronauts are not at any immediate risk, Russian computers controlling the International Space Station's orientation, as well as its supply of oxygen and water have failed; Jessica Alba is an "American hero;" and during daylight hours, a million dollar painting by the 17th Century Dutch artist Frans van Mieris has been stolen from the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney!

Doesn't matter a rambling damn.

Quote of the day: "Doubt is a virtue, JFK told students 45 years ago. Without it we have the tragic bluster and empty optimism of political culture today." - Peter Birkenhead

In other news: I attended a raw-foods cooking class this past weekend in Vail, Colorado. I was so excited to finally eat that I forgot to take pictures. You'll get them when I actually make the food myself! Hehehehe. If that happens.

And Curry has grown up. She is no longer a puppy; she is a dog of the world. Here are some pictures from her recent trip to Vedauwoo with some of her friends:

Mangy looking dog, wouldn't you say?

And...... there is no other news. Enough of a break, I'm back to work.

Turning Our Attention Elsewhere....

It's all happening at the zoo.....

My day off. Monte's day off too. Here are some pictures:

American Alligators. They are a new exhibit. The zoo has had them for approximately three weeks and they are not eating. Later on we got to see handlers trying to get them to eat.

Budgies, Cockatiels and Parrots. I want one!

I have a picture with this guy from before! He's great.

Hippos are so cool. These alternate between being SO COOL and DISGUSTING.

In other news: American alligators can live up to two years without eating (so don't worry too much about the ones pictured above); I got pooped on by a budgie (on my chin - imagine if I had had my mouth open!); my internet is up for the moment; Paris Hilton has been released from prison to house arrest; and Germany's chancellor says the leaders of the G8 nations have agreed a compromise deal on climate change.

The sky today.

Recent Images

I have a cold and seem to remember a whole bunch of blogging intentions I experienced over the past week or so. However, I think my brain is congested. So, if you've seen me recently, take a vitamin C, and for your viewing pleasure:

We got weird looking when you had your backs turned.

Monte's mom came to visit us for almost an entire week. It was GREAT.

Me from an unflattering perspective with a beautiful sky above.

Curry. Is it me? Or has she gotten even CUTER?

In other news: The "surge" isn't working in Iraq, "Waitress" is a good movie, Dutch researchers are trying to grow pork in petri dishes, and Japan has three times as much solar power being used as the U.S. even though it has far less land and gets half as much sun as California.