May 8th, 2009

So, Adam and I got married May 8th, 2009.

It was a big to do, and all our family came to celebrate and support our new commitment to each other.



The night before our wedding we had a family picnic at a park by the beach in Laguna Beach. Everyone ordered take-out from La Sirena, a mexican restaurant across the street. It was wonderful to see family and friends that came in from different states.













Our wedding celebration started with a family breakfast hosted by Adam's parents, Ka and Stan Barlow. They shared memories of Adam growing up and gave advice and well-wishes to us as a new couple. Stan even wrote a poem to us! We loved it!





Our wedding ceremony was at the Newport Beach, CA LDS Temple. This was the best and most important part of the day. It was so calm, we will always remember how we felt :)

This is me and Adam in the car right after we were married!



Our wedding celebration ended in a big party with lots of lights, plants, tasty treats, a mushroom cake, friends, and a fantastic live fiddle band!













Since we were intent on going to Mexico for our honeymoon, our family decorated our car accordingly: "Swine Flu or Bust!"

I got married!

Hello all!

Adam and I got married May 8th, 2009!

We are slowly getting back into the real world after all the glorious festivities.

I will post photos soon!

moved out!

I moved out of my city cabin last weekend and now I am a city bum!
Sort of.
A pretty sweet city bum with lots of nice friends to stay with.
Thanks everyone!

Here is Adam and lemon lime getting ready to help me move:

Adam was happy I moved out:

fermentation

Hello all!
Here is a great how-to video from Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation.

In his book and on his website you can learn about the ancient and modern craft of fermentation.

Delicious examples:
Sauerkraut
Miso
Tempeh
Sourdough
Pickling
Wine, Mead, Beer, etc.

Here's the video, have fun!!

Darwin

Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin!
Your ideas and life have contributed to mine.

mini truck

If I had $9000 I would buy this for my sister!!!!

Christmas tree

I just have to post this. I saw it on Arthur's blog, and I love it!

Pilobolus

(my Pilobolus growing on horse dung in a petri dish)

Pilobolus is a very very cool fungus that grows on animal dung. It accumulates water in a large vesicle at the top of the stalk and uses turgur pressure to shoot off a packet of spores (a sporangium). These can travel up to 5 feet, and are shot in the direction of highest light concentration.


Here is a tray of horse dung we used to grow Pilobolus.
You can see the sporangia that have been shot off and stuck to the plastic covering.




"Beneath the black sporangium is a lens-like vesicle, with a light-sensitive `retina.' It controls the growth of the stalk very precisely, aiming it accurately toward any light source (movement in response to light is called phototropic). Osmotically active compounds cause pressure to build to more than 100 pounds per square inch in the stalk and vesicle. This eventually causes the vesicle to explode, hurling the black sporangium up to 2 metres, directly toward the light. The mucilaginous contents of the vesicle go with the sporangium, and glue it on to whatever it lands."

stacked

a
Today I saw these multiple ceilings in the sky.
It was strange to see just the lights from each floor, and to think of all the space created by layering and stacking. A tribute to technology: useful, but strange.
It's probably not as great to see the picture as it was to stumble upon it while walking around.

Tuberia furfuracea

A few weeks ago Luke Bayler, a Phd student in the lab, said he had been seeing a lot of Tuberia furfuracea on campus. I said, "Oh, hmmm, I don't know that one..."

Then, Brandon Methini, A former Phd student from our lab was visiting and said "Oh, that Tuberia furfuracea poster, i remember that!"

Then I found a mushroom in the UW permaculture garden and brough it to Joe Ammirati and he said "Oh, you've got Tuberia furfuracea."

Finally!

That is how I know I will not forget this mushroom.



It is small and orange-brown, turning pink-creme as it dries out (hygrophanous). These dried out about 30 minutes after I picked them.-see below-

The cap is translucent striate, meaning you can see the gills through the cap.-see below-

A very small, thin veil leaves remnant scales and flakes on the cap margin (edge).-see below-

Not all gills are attached to the stipe; there are two short and one medium length gill for every full length one. -see below-

Tuberia furfuracea is actually a species group, I found the cold weather species which comes out all winter as the snow melts.