Another Merry Birthday

I don't have a house update. Maybe I don't have any readers anymore. Only a life update. Heave and ho, ho, ho. Either way, I'll write.

Christmas eve we went to the San Juan Pueblo Dances. I only recorded the sound, because I thought the camera would be inappropriate. It wasn't, I guess, because lots of people were taping it. Here is a picture from the blog Speaking Loud and Saying Nothing.

Here is a sample of my field recordings: Christmas Eve Dances Sound file, click here.

It was out of control amazing. A beautiful culmination of a bastardized Spanish Catholicism and magical ancient pueblo rituals. I will assume that the dance would have been even more spectacular if the Catholic Zuccetto and Mitre headgear didn't make an appearance, not to mention their religion. Regardless, it was an incredible event that I didn't know was so open to the public. The Puebloans made my holiday and were a yet another heavy reminder of how lucky I am to be able to be here.

Christmas festivities and gift giving don't seize to exist out here, off the grid. Even the yard was decorated by Dain and his old hair dye water. And I can't figure out if Dain gave me the Julia Child Mastering the Art of French Cooking first and second volumes, or if he gave them to himself. As I will be cooking from them, for him. But they are beautiful, and I love them already. The first dish I cooked from them was a whooper. Crepe de Gateau aux Florentine: A 24 layered Crepe dish with alternating layers of filling: Spinach and cream, and mushroom and cheese. I didn't have spinach, so I used tilapia and brussel sprouts and cream. You also top this ridiculousness with a white butter and cheese sauce. It was a little out control and only fit for a king. Recommended only as a suicidal heart attack inducing delicacy. It barely fit in our small oven. The cat liked it. Dain did too. I made Dain a really insane clock. The elephants at the bottom spin around. And for my birthday, we went to some beautiful hot springs a few hours drive away. And had a hotel party. This was in Las Vegas, New Mexico. I can't recommend them more. Also, if you want to go to the weirdest little place, this might be it! It was great. We even saw a yard full of dinosaurs! I don't know what could have rapped up this explosion of fun better than this:

Rolling out of the bedroom and into the kitchen.

We moved out of our old room, and into our new room! Here is the latest video: (Full quality, pretty big file) (Low quality, loads faster, looks worse) Old room vacated until we get the roof on top of it! Here is it: Out with the old, in with the new. The new room is incredible. It's almost as big as our tiny Chicago coach house! Hooray. And in a few months we'll be able to live in both, and also, we'll be able to start some finishing work! But first, we need to put the rest of the roof up. Eventually, this will be THE KITCHEN. ONLY. THE. KITCHEN. Not for some time though. We're also going to start to working less, now that we're at this phase. WORK LESS. LIVE MORE: 2012.