Aguacate

"The world below the brine" by Walt Whitman

2011-11-17T11:46:00.001-08:00

Enough time has passed now from when I finished my thesis that I can once again look at tide pools and remember why I love the ocean.

The world below the brine,

Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,

Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick

tangle openings, and pink turf,

Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the

play of light through the water,

Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, rushes,

and the aliment of the swimmers,

Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling

close to the bottom,

The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting

with his flukes,

The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy

sea-leopard, and the sting-ray,

Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths,

breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do,

The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed

by beings like us who walk this sphere,

The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.

Photo by me. My favorite one I've ever taken underwater.

Time Flies

2011-10-31T17:12:00.001-07:00

As the end of the year approaches, I am struck once again by how quickly time passes. Thank goodness for photographs.

Lab Buddy

2011-09-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

When I take Rio places with me, it's always because I think he will enjoy it—like the beach, the park, on walks along the boulevard. And enjoy it he does. However, I often wonder if this has left Rio with the impression that every time I leave the house that I am off to one of these wonderful places. I have long suspected he thinks so. Today I brought him with me to work. I needed a buddy (times have been stressful) and he was happy to oblige me. I thought to myself that it would be interesting for Rio to know what a typical day for me is like, although I doubt he thinks in those terms. All day we went from one thing to the other: I worked, he didn't sleep, I worked some more, he continued to miss naps. The day culminated in taking him to my basketball game where my friends also brought their dogs. I could see that Rio was very tired. He insisted on sitting on people's laps to watch the game. He was rather clingy and he didn't run around very much. After the game, it was back to the lab to continue working on all of my many projects. In the lab, I gave Rio my sweatshirt; he looked a bit cold. And he's been sound asleep ever since. I suspect that tomorrow he may want to stay home with his cats.

Under the Bridge

2011-09-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

Evaristo under the bridge on First Street. 8:30pm.

Waiting for Evaristo at School

2011-08-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

The Four

2011-08-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Each unique and each much loved.

Lanterns

2011-04-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

I took this picture on the terrace of a local coffee shop while waiting for some friends to show. I was feeling pretty low when the lanterns came on and reminded me that things usually get better and that light always finds a way to break through.

Mendeley

2011-04-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Perhaps this post is long overdue, much like my thesis, but it's been a while since I have posted anything. My thesis has consumed me; however, this post is thesis-related and so I don't feel that guilty posting it.

For those of you who have to manage references or any type of literature for that matter, I'm sure that you may have heard of programs that are designed help you manage your bibliography, like EndNote, for example. I tried EndNote and I never really got the hang of it, also it's ugly. And you have to purchase it. So, for us starving students, it may or may not be an option, depending on whether or not you want to pay your bills.

Evaristo recommended Mendeley to me ages ago and I never really got around to using it until I was up to my eyeballs in references and the sheer number surpassed my ability to remember pertinent information from each one. So, I gave Mendeley a shot and it rocked my world. Is that just sad or what?

Without Mendeley, writing my thesis would (note the use of the past tense) have been so much more difficult. I won't give you a rundown on all the features, all the great things that Mendeley allows you to do, but I will say that if you are thinking about trying out a reference manager, I really wouldn't waste my time with anything other than Mendeley. It's free, and it's awesome and it will keep your head from exploding. You will need to invest a good chunk of time importing, organizing and tagging (tagging is crucial!) your references, but once you do, it's ridiculous how powerful a tool Mendeley can be when you are writing research papers, theses or anything academic for that matter.

If you're interested, here's a video for Mendeley. It's rather boring, but it's the best video out there for Mendeley and it does give you a good idea of what Mendeley can do for you.

Rio and his girls

2011-02-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

Chick magnet.

There's Mischief Afoot

2011-02-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

After organizing and effectively carrying out an elaborate plan to ambush Evaristo in the kitchen while Evaristo was carrying a carton of milk, with the purpose of rendering Evaristo immobile on the floor by re-injuring his knee and thereby relying on the incredible amount of pain Evaristo would have surely felt to detain him on the floor screaming in agony for enough time to allow herself to lap up the milk, which would have inevitably spilled all over the floor when Evaristo fell, Kuma laid claim to her victory by biting the ~~hand~~ foot that fed her.

Saturday Walkies

2011-01-22T20:22:00.000-08:00

Nothing like an early morning roll-in-the-kelp to start the day off right.

Purple Scarf

2011-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Albina knitted me the most beautiful scarf I have ever seen. It's so soft and so warm and the color is amazing. It's my new favorite thing.

Salsa!

2011-01-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to keep the New Year's resolutions very simple this year in the hopes of actually fulfilling them. Number one on the list was to create a home-made salsa that would become our house specialty. This is version #3. Evaristo and I call it the "Güera-Habanera". So far, it's the best one we've come up with. It's damn good and easy to make. Just throw all the ingredients in a blender and blend to the consistency that you prefer.

Ingredients

5 Güero chiles, fire-roasted and destemmed

1 Habanero chile, fire-roasted and destemmed

5 fire-roasted roma tomatoes

5 garlic cloves, lightly sautéed

1/2 a white onion, lightly sautéed

1/2 cup of chicken stock

1 cup cilantro leaves, no stems

1 tablespoon of salt

This salsa goes really well with just about everything. It's not too spicy and it's rather addictive.

A Perfect Day

2010-08-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

On the first of this month, Evaristo and I celebrated our third anniversary. Three years ago, on Aug. 1, 2007, we arrived at our little blue house in Ensenada after driving down from Winnipeg. Evaristo and I have always said that we should try to get away for our anniversaries, if only to go camping at a nearby beach. It hasn't always worked out like that. Last year, we weren't able to go anywhere. This year, instead of trying to go somewhere to make the weekend really special, Evaristo and I decided to spend the day together doing whatever we felt like. It was lovely. We woke up early and went out to eat breakfast at Baja Frut and then we picked up a roll of film for Evaristo's camera that he found at los globos. We had been wanting to go to the beach to take pictures for ages and our anniversary seemed like the perfect excuse to do so. We bought tickets for a movie in the afternoon and spent the late morning wandering about on the beach with the camera. At night, we headed out to first street to walk around the port area and ate some tacos on the way back home. We had the best time. It was a perfect day.

You and Me

2010-08-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary, Love.

Best BlackList Lite

2010-05-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but it's pretty.

When I contracted my cell phone from Telcel, I was given a recycled number, standard practice and something which they neglected to inform me of when I purchased it. In any case, I have been getting calls from Banamex telling me that I have outstanding credit card debt with them because they believe that I am someone else named Mario Rosio Eight More Names. I don't have an account with Banamex, nor have I ever, nor will I ever after this whole kerkuffle. In any case, after months and months of trying to nicely resolve the issue with Banamex, which proved to be impossible due to their disorganization and incompetency, I got completely fed up and Evaristo suggested that I block their phone numbers on my cell phone. Now, Telcel doesn't allow you to register numbers and block them from what I have gathered (Boo!), so Evaristo searched the interwebs and came up with a small, free application called Best BlackList Lite.

Best BlackList Lite is the free version of Best Blacklist, an applications which allows your phone to instantly detect incoming numbers in real-time and then depending on how you have configured the program, it will either send the caller a busy signal and/or an SMS notifier. You can set up a schedule for your blacklisted numbers if for example you don't want to receive work numbers after 8pm. It's also very easy to add numbers to Best BlackList directly from your contacts; in fact, you can even insert groups of your contacts into the blocked-caller list. This last feature is important when using the free Lite version.

I recently got a new phone, a Nokia 5530, and Best BlackList Lite was compatible, easy to install and easy to set up. And the best part is that it works! The Lite version is free and has limited capabilities, the most noteworthy being that you can only add 5 numbers to the blocked-caller list; however, this version counts groups, such as "All contacts", "Work Numbers" or "Family", as only one contact and so you can easily get around this 5 number restriction with a bit of creativity. For my purposes, I was most interested in adding a number template to the blocked-caller list that would block any phone number from Mexico City (HA! TAKE THAT BANAMEX, YOU RIDICULOUSLY ANNOYING AND BUREAUCRATIC BANK!).

To set up a number template in the blocked-caller list, you must review the Best BlackList User Maunal for examples of number template options, but it's really easy to do. The only draw back to this application that I have found is that it isn't able to block SMS messages. However, I feel this is a small price to pay for an otherwise great, free application that really works. Right, Banamex?

Ensenada de Todos and Sea Lions

2010-05-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Once a year, the city of Ensenada hosts the "Ensenada de Todos" event where families, clubs and groups representing the different cultures and interests of Ensenada come together in front of our ginormous flag to offer samples of their unique foods, drinks and activities. Evaristo and I went this past Sunday to drink some mojitos from the Cuban stand and to eat some food from the Oaxacan post. We sat down in front of the bandstand to enjoy our Tlayudas and watch the recitals of local elementary school kids.

Afterward, we walked along the boardwalk and stopped to watch a new assemblage of sea lions that have taken up residence on one of the piers. It certainly isn't uncommon to see one or two sea lions swimming around the fishing boats every day, hoping to catch some scraps, but to see this many all sunning themselves on the pier was so cool and very out of the ordinary.

I have no idea how long the sea lions have been using the pier, but their arrival has been recent. Not everyone has had the opportunity to see sea lions up close and personal and if you haven't, now is a great time to go and check them out. As I sat there watching the sea lions interact, it was neat to hear what everyone else thought of them. Some little kid behind me spent a good while trying to convince his mom that sea lions are cold-blooded and that that's why they need to sun themselves. Some guys next to me were giving play-by-plays of the small fights and skirmishes that broke out from time to time between the bigger sea lions over space on the pier. I enjoyed watching the little sea lions climb over the big ones in hopes of finding more comfortable spots, only to annoy all the other sea lions in the process. I hope the sea lions stay for the summer.

New Earrings

2010-05-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

A very talented friend of mine from CICESE makes and sells jewelry of her own design. I asked her to make me a pair of earrings with purple stones and she came up with this beautiful design. The earrings are dangly but not at all heavy to wear and go perfectly with either dressy or casual outfits. I love the metalwork on them; it's so pretty. The earrings have quickly become my favorite pair.

Swimming Season Opens

2010-05-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine from CICESE and I have been braving the frigid waters of Playitas since the beginning of April to go swimming. Granted, in April we went weather permitting and without regularity and nearly froze to death each and every time. Starting in May, once the weather was much friendlier, we devised a fixed swimming schedule, which we refuse to waiver from, that includes trips to Playitas three times a week for an hour of swimming. Currently, we are swimming two kilometers in approximately 50 minutes and we hope to increase that distance to three kilometers in the month to come. My friend loves the water just as much as I do and swimming gives her the same happiness and satisfaction that it gives me. It's been a pleasure to have her as a swimming buddy. In fact, last year, she and I and Evaristo participated in a swim event from Playitas to El Mosquito and have been wanting to establish a swimming schedule together ever since then.

In the summer there are lots of swimmers that go regularly to Playitas to train, Evaristo and myself included. One of the most common swimming routes to take is "The Triangle", which as you may have guessed, is a triangle formed by the points delineating Playitas. The Triangle starts at the entry, beginning with the first 250 meters along the breakwater and ends back at the entry (see: diagram below).

There are some who think that swimming triangles is the way to go and hard core or whatever, but I prefer to swim up and back along the breakwater because I have a ridiculous, unfounded and irrational fear of sharks that seems to rear its ugly head around the second leg of the triangle. Plus, along the breakwater you can see a whole community of rocky-reef organisms while you swim, from different species of seaweeds, sponges and encrusting algae to colorful fish, like the Garibaldi, as well as bat starfish, ochre starfish and sea hares, which are kinda fun to pick up and play with once you get over the slime factor. In any case, there are lots of things to look at along the breakwater and it makes swimming just that much more enjoyable.

Part of the benefit of having a fixed swimming schedule is that you can open it up to other people who can plan their other activities around the swimming hour. According to his crazy math, Evaristo declared that as of the 15th of this month the Playitas swimming season was officially open and that he was now free to join the group. Another friend from CICESE has swum with us without fail for the past week and so now we are a group of four. Little by little, more people are showing interest in swimming with us and our small, stalwart group is growing, making the whole experience that much more enjoyable. It's going to be a great summer.

La Comecables

2010-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Suki has a penchant for cables. She's not picky—any cable will do. To date she has chewed, mangled and destroyed a total of 10 cables, some of which cannot be replaced. Among the fallen are included: two laptop cables, three cell phone chargers, the power cord for our fan, the digital picture frame cord (that one really upset me), two speaker cables and one ethernet cable. If she wasn't so damn sweet and cute, I think she would've been sent to live in an olive tree a long time ago; but alas, those eyes just kill me.

Dear Anonymous

2010-05-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Anonymous and Wonderful Ensenadense (You'll know who you are),

I came home yesterday to an empty yard. Rio was nowhere to be seen. He didn't come to greet me; his cry-barking welcome was noticeably absent as I opened the door to the house and once inside, I looked around and noticed that something just wasn't right. I looked back outside and realized that Rio was gone. I frantically checked the yard thinking that he was hurt and was lying somewhere amongst the weeds and wild shurbs, hidden from view. I called his name only to be answered by the meowing of the cats, wanting to be let inside to have dinner and to snuggle up in their favorite spots to snooze in the afternoon sun.

I checked the perimeter of the yard looking for holes that would confirm my worst fears—that Rio was not in the safety of our yard and was God knows where with God knows who and in God knows what condition. The yard was secure. Someone had opened our gate while I was gone and in doing so, Rio had wandered away. The sinking feeling in my stomach threatened to become an all-encompassing pit, ready to consume my ability to think, to reason, to come up with a plan. I checked the corners of our street hoping that I would see Rio sniffing in familiar spots and found nothing.

I knew I could cover more ground in the car and so I speed away hoping to see some sign, some indication of what had happened to Rio or of where he might be. In the back of my mind, I was prepparing myself to accept that the chances of finding Rio were slim to none. He was gone and the best that I could hope for was the someone had decided to keep him and look after him, but the thought of someone else doing so made me sick to my stomach and the all-emcompassing pit threatened to get out of control.

I focused my thoughts on tracing the the familiar routes that we walk. Maybe Rio had headed to the local market; he knew how to get there, but the parking lot was empty when I drove by. I drove in circles, backtracking and expanding my grid, doubling back, hoping that I had missed him walking on the streets. I eventually made my way to my Dad's house thinking that it was highly unlikely that Rio could get there on his own but wanting to check all the same. I hoped that my Dad had come home from work and that he could offer some comfort, some reassurance that Rio would be found.

I pulled into the driveway and as I stepped up to the gate, I heard the familiar tinkling of Rio's dog tags. His curly gray face came trotting up the drive to greet me and I almost didn't believe my eyes. I opened the gate and scooped him up and held him close. Relief and stress slowly eased out of me and I was able to breathe once again. Rio was alive and unhurt and back in my arms. I cried like I haven't cried in a long time as Rio squirmed to lick my face.

The gate to my Dad's place had been closed and no one was home. Someone, some wonderful and kind Ensenadense, you know who you are, had found Rio and taken him to the address on his collar. I am so thankful that you were kind enough to take time out of your day to help a lost dog find his way home. Rio is much loved and I am forever in your debt. Thank you for what you have done for me and for my dog. I can only hope to follow your lead and to do the same for someone else someday.

Thank you again,

Andrea

After a long day, Rio is safely back at home where he belongs.

calendaRio for April 2010

2010-04-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I hadn't yet created a new CalendaRio for April. I've been in the lab up to my eyeballs in copepods (freaking sea bugs) for I don't even know how long and to keep sane, I need some creative outlets. Hence, the CalendaRio for April 2010 is a collage of all past CalendaRios, organized in no particular order. I am pleased with the finished product and can now get back to hunting through a haze of copepods for bugs of a more interesting nature (e.g., urchins, crabs and barnacles :p).

Download Wallpaper

Our Cats are Useless or Why Rio Rocks

2010-04-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

Momo, one of our cats, would happily watch episodes of House for the rest of his life. He especially seems to respond to 13's voice. Now, don't get me wrong, I like watching House too, but I'm starting to think that Momo's television watching is a symptom of our cats' general outlook on life.

Case in point, last night around 4am, I was awakened by growling and scratching and obnoxiously loud rambunctious sounds coming from the living room. Rio has woken us up a lot in the last two weeks wanting to go play outside in the middle of the night when his new friends call him, two neighborhood dogs that think Rio is the Danny Zuko of the neighborhood and want him outside all the time to PLAY and BARK and CHASE and BE VERY LOUD all the time. So this morning when I angrily threw off the covers to kick Rio out, I was horrified to find Rio growling and snapping at a terrified rat that he had cornered against a wall. Logically, the only course of action was to yell for Evaristo to wake up because THERE'S A FREAKING RAT IN THE HOUSE AND LOVECOMENOWQUICKANDDEALWITHTHIS!

My first thought was to grab one of the cats and throw it near the rat, but then I remembered that our cats are useless ornaments that only purr and demand food and attention and serve no actual purpose and that that action would have resulted in something so anticlimactic that I won't even waste space describing it. Not one of the cats thought this situation required their presence and looked at Evaristo and I and Rio with mild amusement through groggy half-open eyes as they yawned and readjusted themselves on their bed. Freaking cats.

Rio on the other hand, had the situation under control and as soon as he worked up the courage, growling and scratching the floor like a bull, he dispatched the rat with a quickness that was frankly a bit frightening. All I could think was that I wanted the rat gone. Good job Rio, yay and all that, but I want that rodent gone. Rio had other ideas and Evaristo supported them, leaving me to freak out by myself. Rio wanted to keep the rat for himself and became insanely possessive of his kill. No one could take it away, he wasn't having it. He would mouth it over and over, and stuff it all in his mouth to protect it when we tried to take it away. So gross.

We finally coaxed him outside where he still refused to relinquish the very dead rat that was now totally wet with dog slobber and Evaristo, defending Rio's interests as he likes to put it, thought that we should let Rio keep his prize as a reward for his valiant deed. I was not cool with this idea and I started freaking out a bit more about THERATGONENOWSOGROSS and Evaristo started laughing trying to take the rat away and Rio kept slobbering and mouthing it refusing to give it up and then it started raining and the three of us were all scandalous and creating a scene in our pajamas for all our neighbors to see. But I didn't care because the rat needed to disappear like now.

At this point the cats decided to see what all the fuss was about and came outside and continued to be of no help whatsoever. I was nearing my breaking point about the rat and so I ran inside and grabbed some slices of ham from the fridge to try to temp Rio away from the rat. Rio was dubious at first and he knew what I was trying to do; but in my experience, no dog can resist cold cuts and eventually he gave in to the smell of delicious ham and Evaristo was finally able to trash bag the rat and the cats just sat there until it was all over and then began to DEMAND HAM. The nerve.

Spaghetti and Wine

2010-03-31T17:39:00.000-07:00

Living with someone is complicated, obviously. It's all about compromise and tolerance and patience. But more than those things, it should be fun and about laughing and enjoying one another for who they are. Evaristo and I generally don't fight, but those rare times that we do leave us both feeling pretty awful. This morning was one of those times and tonight we've decided to have a glass of wine and some spaghetti and to enjoy a fairly typical night together in our little blue house, arguments forgotten and content.

The Best Saturday Mornings

2010-03-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

The best Saturday mornings are the ones when it's cloudy and raining outside and I wake up to this. Does it get much better?