use real butter

My photos tanked from the Geminids evening. It was the f-stop. Doh! So stupid of me. I was too tired last night to try it again, but we did walk outside to see some really nice meteors. With the heavy light pollution from Los Angeles, we could only see the fairly bright ones. At that rate, it must have been slightly better than what we were getting at our dark sky site the night before. Very exciting, even when walking the dog to the dark hill in the neighborhood. Note: colored Christmas lights are generally very tacky and rarely pulled off well without corporate sponsorship.

To make up for the photo fiasco, I decided to create a birthday dessert for Kaweah tonight as she turned seven years old today. Here’s the dessert (it looked delicious until I added the dog biscuits):

I met some Chinese people last night who don’t know how to order good food in a Chinese restaurant. I know that sounds odd, but EVERYONE in my family knows how to order GOOD Chinese food in REAL Chinese restaurants. I always assumed that came with being Chinese. Last night put that assumption to rest.

Our trip to New Zealand was great! It’s good to be home, but for the first time, I sort of wish I could have stayed longer (or indefinitely). I am happy to see the pup again. We did get quite a bit of rain (and snow), but we also had a lot of fun tramping for miles on end in the mud (and rain), kayaking, eating fish and chips, and visiting Puzzling World in Wanaka (sounds like Chanukah). Back at work nothing has really changed. Makes me wonder if I should have just stayed on the South Island to open up a pumpkin pie and rice crispy treats shack. We met up with Laura at Mt. Cook NP (in the rain, no less)! We had a great time hiking (in the rain!) and then having a 4+ hour dinner at the Old Mountaineers Cafe because it was warm, dry and we wanted to dry out our clothes before going back to the tents in the freezing cold. Yes folks, it is nearly summer there, but it was colder than it is now in Los Angeles. Go figure – ha ha! Her hair is bright purple and I love it. We shared stories about crazy women and their weddings, talked about food (it’s a love of ours), and discussed general feelings about school and work and what to do with our lives.

I think I ate a lot of fish and chips. It was an obsession. Considering how much calorie debt we were in on our hiking days, I think it was okay to eat the seriously fried deliciousness. We didn’t stay at the Glenorchy Hotel, but we ate there twice (fish and chips, and some soup and a kiwi burger) and played chess during our meals. Jeremy’s pretty good, but I love catching him off guard and taking the rook, or the queen – I guess I should have tried doing that with the king… I don’t really know all of the rules, but he says I’m an unpredictable player which makes things interesting. He won all of the games, but some of them were REALLY close… Back to the food, our US dollar didn’t go as far as last time. We did purchase a lot of juice because I love the stuff (passionfruit, mandarin, apple, something juicy blend…) and chit chats, cheds (cheddar crackers), and starburst fruit gummies. **Jump for more butter**