The Robots Take Richmond

Troy and his colleagues were invited to Richmond this past weekend to exhibit the music robots at the FIRST Robotics Competition--an annual event that challenges high school students, working with professional mentors, to design and build robots.

It turned out to be a great venue for Troy and Steve to showcase PAM and MADI--and it was apparently refreshingly different from their academic presentations. They gave countless demonstrations, handed out loads of business cards, and even made some people dance!

I'm hoping Troy will add his perspective to this post and maybe some pictures too but don't hold your breath. As usual, it's a busy time for him.

Happy (Early) Birthday Troy!

On Saturday after the competition was over, Aurie and I joined Steve and Troy for an early celebration of Troy's birthday. Steve and Aurie paid for a nice hotel room for us all that was within walking distance to the Capital Ale House, which boasts the one of the largest selections of beer in Virginia--great idea Steve! There were something like 40 beers on tap. Troy was in heaven! And as you can see from this picture, I was pretty excited too (part of my enthusiasm was likely fueled by the Belgian beer that Troy ordered me--it was 10% alcohol).


We went on to sample a good quantity of beers and stumbled back to the hotel. In keeping with the pie tradition, I surprised Troy with birthday pie. This time it was key lime.

He liked it.

So did Steve and Aurie.

It was fun to spend a night hanging out with our good friends in Richmond! Even though it's only an hour or so away we haven't ventured there much.

We went out for brunch in a cute area called Careytown on Sunday. Troy ordered the "trailer park pancakes"--basically French toast sandwiches smothered with peanut butter and bananas. I guess it was a good, solid hangover cure for him. Thankfully, he didn't realize that there were $2 bloody Mary's until we were ready to get back on the road!

We happened upon a Penzey's Spices store after breakfast, which was really cool because I have mail ordered from them for years. I spent more money than I ever have on spices at one time but I'm pretty excited to use them!

Beach Bums

Growing up in Minnesota, Troy and I both spent a lot of time around lakes but we both have a special appreciation for the ocean. This year for Troy's spring break and for an early birthday present for him, I decided we both needed a little treat so I booked us cheap flights to Fort Myers and we started to plan a beach camping trip.

I had discovered Cayo Costa on the Florida State Park site a year or more ago and kept it in mind because from all the descriptions it sounded perfect. It took us two flights, an hour cab ride, an hour ferry ride and a tram to get to our campsite--and we had to pack in all our food for the several day trip. But it was well worth it.

On the tram. Happy as a clam on the way to the campsite.

We rented kayaks and bikes to tool around the island. We saw osprey, wild pigs, manatee and more.

A dolphin!

Even though I was looking closely (and ready to run), we didn't see any alligators.

Just below the surface here is a manatee. We kayaked in a little cove with maybe 4-5 of them!


The day prior we had kayaked to Cabbage Key--supposedly this place was an old hangout of Jimmy Buffet's and inspired the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise." A nice place to paddle to after roughing it a bit.



Stone crab claws. A seasonal delicacy that we had to try. Once caught, the crabbers cut one claw off and throw the crabs back so that it will grow back again. Quite labor intensive to catch and eat but oooohhhh soooo yummy!



Working on the crab claws and getting ready for the first beef burger I've ordered out in maybe 9 years (since I read Beyond Beef)!


Back in the day, if the fishermen had a good day, they would come in here for lunch and drinks. They would write their name on a dollar bill and tack it to the wall so that when they had a bad day fishing they could still eat and drink.

This caught on with tourists and supposedly there is now over $70,000 on the walls of this place. They periodically take it down and give it to charities.

All in all it was a great trip and we're already scheming about how to get back there. It's great to travel around and find little pockets of paradise!

I'll close with some random pics. You can see more on my Shutterfly site.

When the Bot Squad is Away...

...the girls will play.

Last weekend Troy, Steve and Scott went to a musical instrument competition at Georgia Tech with the robots. As coincidence would have it, our friend Ayako called last week to ask if we were going to be around for the weekend because her boyfriend (who she now lives with in Baltimore) was driving down to Atlanta for the same competition! Small world. I was already using Troy being gone as an excuse to plan a girls' night so it was great that Ayako could join us.

In 2006 I planned a night with the girls where the theme was "Comfort Food" and it was a big success. We had a huge amount of warm, nourishing foods and lots of desserts too. This time I went for "Comfort Food II." We had a smaller group of women but still a huge amount of incredible food. Caesar salad from Bekah, spinach-artichoke dip, cheese and pepper jelly from Jaimee, a cranberry jello mold from Liz, and spring rolls from Ayako. I made a cranberry salsa, a Boboli pizza appetizer and a wild rice, blue cheese souffle. Funny thing was, none of us thought of making dessert. So 1/2 way through the night Liz and Carey ran downstairs and whipped up a wacky cake. Everything was delicious! I wish I had taken a picture but I was so very hungry by the time we started that I forgot.

On Saturday I went to see Courtney. We had a really relaxing time, went out for dinner again at the Tavern and to brunch the next day at the Grille. We watched movies and vegged, which was just what I needed. I headed back Sunday before the snow starting falling. I haven't taken too many pictures lately but I had to stop on the way home. It's such a pretty drive and so I tried to capture the view.


The boys didn't win the Georgia Tech competition but they got to meet many interesting people (some came from as far away as Belgium) and see a lot of different kinds of instruments.

Being away from their women--and around our party-animal friend Juraj--the boys played too. Sounds like they played a lot harder than the girls, no big surprise. Troy tells me that he and Scott made up an interesting exercise regimen involving beer, bourbon and an elliptical machine in the hotel gym in the wee hours of the morning. Miraculously, they didn't get kicked out!

Well, Troy and I are now off to an island in Florida tomorrow morning for a mini-vacation of beach camping at Cayo Costa State Park. We've been looking forward to this for a while. There should be some interesting blog posts coming up so stay tuned!

Pie Update

With the leftover crust from the mango pie we made two little mini-pies that were fabulous and easy. Here's the recipe for the filling. I used a bag of frozen cherries and a few frozen blueberries. I had to share this because I couldn't believe how easy and good it was. Of course, it may have something to do with Troy's homemade crust!

Miles and Pie in 2009

Troy and I have both been trying to be healthier by exercising more. Neither of us likes going to the gym and we always prefer getting out into nature for hikes, but that's not usually an option during the week. I found a Nordic Track on craigslist for $25 a while back and it has been working wonderfully for quick workouts during the week.

The NT fits into Troy's larger plan of going 2009 miles this year. Partially for health and partially for the environment, he's resolved to travel by bike and foot more (especially for things like short trips to the grocery store). This averages to about 6 miles a day, so in especially busy times he's decided that the NT can count too.

I've been really impressed and proud of how he's stuck to this plan. He's keeping track of it all in a spreadsheet and has pretty much kept up even in times of extreme busyness.

Another interesting, and I would argue counteractive, resolution Troy has for the year is to make a pie a week. He hasn't kept up with this as well as the exercise plan (which is probably for the better) but we've had a number of incredibly delicious pies: blueberry, raspberry chiffon (twice), and French silk.

Last night for a potluck he made a mango pie with a crunchy, crystallized ginger topping and an unbelievable, flaky crust. He was very pleased to find the perfect pie crust recipe after a number of attempts. It's from Cook's Illustrated and has a surprise ingredient--vodka. I wish I had taken a picture because it was quite beautiful, with a lattice top.

If you've got great pie recipes, please share them. We'd love to try something new.

Decadent Valentine Treats

Some women get flowers for Valentine's Day. Here's what I got.


A homemade French silk pie dressed up with some raspberries that I bought at C-Ville Market yesterday. They have to be the largest, most delicious raspberries that I've ever eaten in the winter. I dipped a couple of them in chocolate just to be even more decadent.

The pie was outstanding. And it went very well with the bottle of King Estate Pinot Noir that I bought especially for the occasion. Ahhhh...Oregon Pinot.

Yummy Cashew Curry

Troy and I made a delicious cashew curry on Sunday night with a some of the leftover veggies from the musgrad colloquium. I got the recipe from 101 Cookbooks, a cooking blog that I regularly visit. It's supposedly Sri Lankan style. It calls for cauliflower and green beans but I added sweet potatoes and sweet peppers too.

We made the curry powder from scratch with a gorgeous array of spices.


This recipe is quite labor intensive, don't try it unless you break it up by making the curry powder the day before or have a couple of extra hours to spare. I was going to use the coffee grinder after I toasted all the spices but Troy loves an excuse to use the mortar and pestle!

He wants me to assure you that he ground it up much finer than this picture shows.

We have both been afflicted with a terrible sore throat/cold/coughing thing so it was comforting to have a warm spicy plate of this when all the work was done.

We served it over brown basmati rice and with a garnish of cilantro. Yum!