I saw a flock of moosen!

In case you're wondering how my morning went (sorry about the bad images, didn't have a tripod):

Buck. It was territorial. See video below.

This buck was mad at me. If you listen closely you can hear him kind of huff at 0:28 and 0:34, right around the same time he's flitting his tail angrily. I retreated, but then just before exiting the clearing checked over my shoulder and saw two moose, so I stayed.

Saw this just after the buck scared me away.

Two Moosies in the Moose Spot off the Kancamagus Highway

Not worth looking at unless you zoom in. This is the same moose spot as always. There's a moose in the opening just to the right of that dead tree on the left. It's that thing that looks like a blackish blob.

Frog at Amy's Mom's house.

Potential campsite off Kanc?

BRIAN OUT.

A List

It started with Into The Wild (the movie with Emile Hirsch) and my brother Tim. The urge to be in nature. To find wild animals that we've never seen before but have lived so close by. The movie was great, but I think Eddie Vedder's excellent soundtrack is really what got me to hold onto the idea. Tim puts it on as we approach the White Mountain National Forest, and it has been a prominent soundtrack for my activities for the past year. There is really no better music for driving, or, I imagine, for hiking, biking, or sitting still. The air should be moving, or you within it, though.

The Friday before last I went home and Tim and I watched a movie about Dick Proenneke (watch some of it here), a man who left civilization for the wilderness of Alaska, where he built a cabin by hand and lived in it for over thirty years. By no coincidence, I have also been listening to a free audiobook version of Walden by Henry David Thoreau (get it through the awesome Librivox project). Living off of your own efforts, directly. It has been a long time since I have found an idea that speaks to me so loudly. Perhaps not since I was courting Amy (if "courting" is even the right word), a time when I knew I had found something new and full of potential.

Just after Christmas, Amy and I stayed in a Yurt at Frost Mountain Yurts, and other than firewood and propane, we were left to our own devices for fueling our activities. I brought my guitar. Amy brought some knitting. Leela ran in the woods. Reading, knitting, hiking, singing. Even though it was just two nights, it was by far one of the best vacations of my life.

All of these things have been collecting and swelling in my mind, and they lead to important questions. What good is a subscription to cable TV? Why are there five guitars in the room with me? Why do we enter into legal borrowing situations like student loans and renting an apartment? I feel as though I am going to undergo some changes soon, and today I want to put together a list of luxuries I would like to take with me through it all. My hope is that within a year or so, I own very little more than what is on this list.

• a guitar
• good books that I feel a need to own (Walt Whitman, Kurt Vonnegut, etc)
  
• adequate TV, with DVD player
• notebooks or other paper to write and draw on
• a good chair
• a good table
  
• mp3 player
  
• sturdy laptop computer
  
• bed
  
• kitchen supplies (this is a list unto itself, and I will pare it down another time)
• digital camera
• digital media that is organized and compact (ie, DVDs stored in large wallets and not displayed in the commercial cases)
  

I am not done. But I want to spend some of my work day at the library, so I will work more on this list later. Sorry.

Panoramic Photos

Autostitch is effing great. Here is a collection of panoramic images it allowed me to create. Click to view full size.

Wagon Hill (Durham, NH)

Wagon Hill (Durham, NH)

Kancamagus Highway (facing southwest)

Moosing Spot (off Kancamagus Highway in Livermore, NH)

Scenic Overlook at sunrise (off Kancamagus Highway in Livermore, NH)

Frankenstein Cliff (off 302 in Bartlett, NH--I think?)

Frankenstein Cliff

Near Sabadday Falls (off Kancamagus Highway in Waterville Valley, NH)

Bear Notch Road Scenic Overlook (Passaconaway--or maybe Bartlett, NH)

BRIAN OUT.

Dog Poison Cookies Versions 2 & 3

The best thing about experimental baking is that even if the results aren't what you had in mind, or if they just plain don't come out right, as long as everything is thoroughly cooked and not burned, it'll usually taste good. Unless you're going to get really experimental, that is...

Since I really want to perfect these Dog Poison Cookies of mine, I have been trying out a few different things.

Version 2: Oats

I felt like they were pretty great on the first try, but I wanted to make it a bit heavier and healthier, so I added some oats and made other small adjustments to the first recipe.

Dry:

• 4 oz Whole Wheat Flour
• 1.5 oz Flax meal
• 4 oz. AP Flour
• 4 oz. oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 t baking soda (probably should have kept at 1)

Creamed:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla

Extras:

• 4 oz. raisins
• 3 oz. chocolate chips
• 3 oz. chopped macadamia nuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix/sift the dry stuff in regular old bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in large/mixer bowl. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add dry, mix well.
5. Add extras, mix briefly.
6. Bake 10-15 minutes, checking and rotating after about 7 min. Mine took about 15 minutes with two sheet pans in the oven at once.

These came out really great. Almost exactly what I wanted. I'm worried that the extra baking soda caused a strange sharp taste, but otherwise these had nice full mouth flavor. I'll admit that they were a little dry, no doubt due to the vast increase in dry ingredients, but that should be easy enough to remedy. Also, the chocolate was a little lost in these I think, and perhaps they could have been a touch sweeter.


Version 3: 100% Whole Wheat
(modification to chewy chocolate chip recipe in King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking)

This recipe is a complete tangent from my evolving recipe above. I wanted to follow specific instructions for using all whole wheat flour, which increases my chances of getting things healthier, so I went with this recipe. Note: It requires overnight refrigeration of the dough.

Ingredients:

Creamed:

• 1.5 sticks butter
• 7.5 oz. brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon table salt, probably)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3.6 oz. corn syrup
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 eggs

Dry:

• 9 oz. whole wheat flour

Extras:

• 5 oz. chopped macadamia nuts
• 6 oz. chocolate chips
• 7 oz. raisins

Instructions:

1. Melt butter.
2. Mix butter with sugar, heat a little to dissolve sugar well, let cool.
3. Add everything but eggs, flour, and extras.
4. Add eggs, mix well.
   
5. Add flour, mix well.
   
6. Add extras, mix until evenly distributed.
7. Put in fridge OVERNIGHT.
8. Preheat to 375 degrees F.
9. Drop dough onto cookie sheets in desired size.
10. Bake smaller cookies (about 1 Tablespoon each) for 12-13 minutes, checking and rotating halfway. For larger cookies (about 3 Tablespoons each), bake time was about 16 minutes in my oven.

These "chewy" cookies were indeed chewy, and had a new tang that I wasn't sure was great or just good. May have been caused by increase in raisin ratio, but more likely it was the vinegar. They were also fairly sticky, a big turnoff to the fingers. I love their taste, with such great dynamics between the chocolate, nuts, and raisins, but they aren't really what I want in these cookies. The texture just isn't right. I think the next version will be a convergence of versions 2 and 3 in this post.

BRIAN OUT.

I am ALF

Gordon Shumway in "We're So Sorry, Uncle Albert"

Thanks to Hulu, I've been watching lots of ALF lately. Remember ALF? He's back. In streaming video form.

In case you don't get my reference above:
"It's ALF. He's back. In pog form." - Milhouse

ALF was on when I was between the ages of 3 and 7 (1986-1990). This was that weird period in life where I have no real reference points to recall concrete memories. As the series was ending, I was just starting school, and with specific grades and different classmates and teachers, it is easier to remember certain things. I remember playing with blocks and kissing a girl named Jessica in kindergarten, I remember bringing 100 grapes to show and tell in 1st grade, and I have plenty of other memories that I can recall easily from every year of my early schooling if I just think about where I was and who I was with. But before kindergarten (which was the school year beginning in 1989) I was just hanging around at home with my family, and I have trouble remembering any specifics without looking at pictures or finding old toys. In watching ALF, I'm finding that there is another reference point from my past.

Because Hulu goes to commercial right after this, it was hard to get a good screenshot, sorry

I'm not going to exaggerate and suggest that I actually remember any of the episodes specifically, but I do remember all of the characters quite well, how the house was laid out, and most of ALF's characteristics (the "HA!" with the hand slapping the table especially). I remembered before watching any of it that Mrs. Ochmonek was played by the woman who later played Jerry's mom on Seinfeld. I remember loving the show, however, and I think my older brother Joe had a sweet ALF lunch box.

He thinks he killed Uncle Albert

For so long I was always annoyed when people got nostalgic about being an 80's child, because most of the stuff they talked about were shows I didn't watch and music I didn't listen to. Up until I found ALF on Hulu (actually, my younger brother, Tim, who was only 2 years old when the show went off the air, told me about Hulu hosting it), I just kind of felt like I had no recollection of the eighties, and everyone else just had a better memory than I do. But now I feel like I've unlocked another huge chunk of my life, just as I did when I found that Tidy Cat.

You can't see all of them, but he's watching 3 TVs at once. And wearing a shirt.

Since Amy has been working at a yoga studio 3 nights a week, I find myself needing to kill time while alone and not working. Typically, I fill this time with cooking/baking, watching DVRed TV, and random time sucks on the Internet. Now I've found ALF, and it is really, REALLY difficult to stop watching. Once an episode ends, I just click right on to the next one. And after watching a lot of episodes, I realized that since I don't really have any reason or means to leave the apartment very often, I'm not much different than a hairy comedy monster hiding out from the Alien Task Force.

Sentenced to 30 days without TV, ALF puts on his own Dance Fever in "Can I Get A Witness?"

Aside from walking Leela around the neighborhood, I really am here all day, every day, just like ALF is in the Tanner house all the time. I just mill around this apartment, fighting off temptations to eat the neighbor's cats and trying to entertain myself with various media. It is therefore at least a little bit ironic that I've been filling so much time watching a show about someone else who is trapped in a house and constantly succumbing to the pressures of boredom.

"HA!"

I have absolutely no shame about watching so much of this somewhat short-lived show. It's so funny and nostalgic, and I couldn't ask for much more from twenty minutes of television. So, if you watched ALF as a kid, or even if you were older, I really recommend this opportunity to relive some quality situational comedy. It's really a great show, which some truly excellent puppetry by the voice of ALF and one of the show's creators Paul Fusco. And Max Wright, the guy playing the patriarch, Willy Tanner, is hilarious. He elevates the conflicts between human and alien to a perfect level of humor.

Willy and ALF arguing over who should run the neighborhood watch in "Someone To Watch Over Me Pt. 1"

Watch ALF on Hulu, NOW.

BRIAN OUT.

Dog Poison Cookies

"What are those?" you ask? Why, they are my first cookie invention, a variation on chocolate chip cookies with macadamia nuts and raisins added. I thought of them after discovering that grapes (and thus, raisins) are bad for dogs. I then did some research to see what other foods could harm dogs, and the confirmed list also includes cocoa (chocolate, as we all know), onions, and macadamia nuts. Aside from the onions, the list of food that is harmful to dogs sounded like they could make up quite a nice symphony. Thus, Dog Poison Cookies were born.


I do realize that the name is pretty rough, perhaps causing people to think I hate dogs, or, if in the wrong hands, would inspire people to harm a dog, but seriously, I love dogs and these cookies are not intended for them even as a joke.

I'm going to change things around a bit the next time I bake them, but just so I can keep track of things easily, here is the recipe I put together:

Dog Poison Cookies (more PC name: "Not For Dogs Cookies")

Dry:

• 4 oz whole wheat flour
  
• 5 oz AP flour
• 2 oz flax meal
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t baking soda

Creamed:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 stick butter (softened)
• 1/4 c canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 T (1 1/2 t) vanilla

Extras:

• 3 oz raisins
• 3 oz chocolate chips
• 3 oz macadamia nuts (chopped coarsely)

1. Preheat to 375F
2. Mix the dry stuff.
3. Cream the creamed stuff.
4. Mix both together, then add the extras.
5. Drop hunks of dough onto greased/parchment lined baking sheets
6. Bake 12-15 minutes or until they look good.

Oh, and, I should mention that they're incredibly tasty. I feel very, very guilty.

BRIAN OUT.

Song from the Tail of the Tidy Cat

On a visit home this past weekend, I found a childhood friend of mine.

A shabby little black cat that just happens to look very similar to my first and only pet cat Jokey (no pictures available... yet). It came in the mail one day, and I don't know why. I'm guessing my mom ordered it with proofs of purchase for Tidy Cat kitty litter. I know it was part of the promotion of Tidy Cat 3, information I was able to confirm by two eBay listings for the same cat. The ones on eBay are in much better condition:


But mine is still better. Now, you may be thinking, stuffed cat? So what? Everyone has favorite stupid stuffed animals from their childhood and they don't bother talking about it. Well, this cat's true significance comes from its tail, in the form of a song. You can hear it if you squeeze this little box device thing at the end of the tail.

When I was about 7, I would squeeze the tail and press it against my ear and listen over and over, getting some sort of comfort from the fluffy tail against my ear and the swinging tune. It is really one of the defining things in my life. Even if I haven't heard the song in years, I can always find the tune in my head if I want to. I know it better than Jingle Bells, or any other song, for that matter.

The crazy thing is, as far as I can recall, the battery in the little tail device wore out at least 10 years ago. Probably more like 15. But when I pulled it out of a box I found in the attic and pressed it, the song played without issue. I got two more plays out of it before it seemingly died. I got back to my apartment and set up my microphone to record it, but couldn't get it to play, but after waiting a few days, I was able to get it to play the song all the way through if I held the button down the whole time.

For your entertainment:

Now I have it preserved forever, and I am going to listen to it on repeat for the rest of the night. I really might do that.

BRIAN OUT.