A Queer Mobile

John's part of the Artist Studios Walk

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Studio Tour was yesterday. Museum patrons went through seven artist studios - including John's. The Museum sold around 125 tickets. I'd say we had roughly eighty people through here yesterday.

John spent the week cleaning up - with all the sawdust he generates simply vacuuming is a major chore. He also assembled parts to build a framework for one of his sculptural pieces. As he talked to folks he worked on the framework and answered questions about how he worked, what his background was like, and what materials he used.

I hung out in the other side of the shop where he'd placed several completed pieces so folks could see the finished product. After people listened to John for a while they'd come by and I'd show them around.

I also led several garden tours. To get to the shop you walk past the new garden, so there were several people who had seen the garden and who wanted to walk around a bit when they'd finished in the studio.

Salmon Salad with Chimichurri

I'm still drowning in tomatoes so I think dinner salads these days. This video shows you how I make grilled salmon salad with an Argentinian sauce called Chimichurri - it has peppers, parsley, mint, garlic, and lime - and it's delicious over fish or grilled meat.

Download salmon_with_chimichurri.mov

Monarchs in the Garden

I poked my head out two days ago and found a Monarch butterfly caterpillar in the lavender. Right around the corner several adult Monarch butterflies were flitting around one of our large butterfly bushes. My still digital camera is still in for repair so I shot some video footage. Check it out...

Download monarch_butterfly.mov

Grant Wood Art Show Here in CR

John and I just got back from a late afternoon trip to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. They mounted a marvelous show called Grant Wood at 5 Turner Alley.

Wood did most of his work here in a small studio/apartment. The CR Museum of Art recently acquired his studio and they've restored it. The Museum also assembled most of Wood's great work from that time, including American Gothic (it's one of the few times that that painting's been viewed outside its home at the Art Institute of Chicago.)

We had a marvelous time. I was particularly interested to see a particular point - around 1929 - when Wood's style suddenly shifted into his signature style. A large number of studies appear right next to the finished product so one can see how he approached the refining of ideas.

If you have the time the show runs through early December 2005. And while you're at it, come by and see us!

River Walk

We headed early to the river this morning before the cool damp air vanished in the almost autumn heat. John hoped to see an eagle or hawk sail overhead. They flew by on his last run by the river. But not this morning: only the ducks were at play.

I get so easily stuck with one thing I like. We started walking over by Indian Creek where the trees grow a bit wild and the trail twists between the slow moving creek and the stretches of wild flowers. Rudbeckias are in full bloom now, along with my nemesis, goldenrod. So when John wanted to start walking by the river I missed my trees and wildflowers. But I've discovered the river trail has its own pleasures. The geese and ducks are wonderful noise-makers. So are the trains that run underneath our feet as we walk along an overpass.

Afterward we headed to our nursery for mums and asters. They sold us three mums as large as a gallon pail for $25. I never realized that asters came in so many colors - blue, purple, and crimson. John handled the planting while I filtered grape juice for jelly-making.

Perking back up

John and I had a marvelous Labor Day weekend - and then I had an asthma flare on Monday night. It was my own fault. I'm sulfite-sensitive, which means I can't drink wine without premedicating or I'll tighten right up. We had guests over for dinner and I completely forgot to use my inhalers before we ate. Half-way through the meal I started to tighten up, and by that point using meds didn't help that much. I was hacking around for about four hours into early Tuesday morning. The real problem was that I was scheduled to fly to California the next day.

My new doc was able to work me into his schedule right away and I walked out of there with a script for a prednisone pulse and some oral antibiotics. I've had much better medical care since I moved to Iowa. It wasn't until I started seeing my first doc in Cedar Rapids - an allergist and immunologist in addition to an internist - that I found out that asthmatics recover much better from respiratory tract stuff with a short pulse of prednisone. A week's worth of prednisone will get me back together in forty-eight hours or less. I've been pretty stable asthma-wise; this is only the second time I've needed a pulse in the last two years.

Anyway I stayed on the ground in Cedar Rapids for two more days - very beneficial for me, indeed. I flew on Friday morning. United Airlines clearly lost money on that flight: it was only half full, quiet, and entirely enjoyable. I'm feeling good enough now to walk the hills behind Stanford campus, and I'm looking forward to being back with John next Thursday. I thought of him this morning out on the trail back home.

Making rose hips jelly

Here's my first vlog entry. My Nikon D70's been on the fritz so I decided to play around with my long-neglected video camera. Here's a cooking demonstration of how to make jelly with rose hips and crab apples. This is the first year I've worked with rose hips and I'm very pleased indeed with the result.

I'm also tickled with how easily the video went together. I edited this on my iMac G5 with iMovie HD.