Pictures and pickles...

One of the great things about Jen coming into town is that we get dressed up and go places. And that means that we can update our pictures.

Together and separately.

And in the course of our adventures, I get to see people in town that I rarely see. Among them is Jen's (and my) friend Eric. Despite the fact that Eric and I both live in Tucson and live almost in the same neighborhood, we mainly see eachother when Jen is in town. Eric has decided that if we are to see each other more often, Jen needs to visit more often... He says she's keeping us apart! :) I like his logic.

In addition to being logical - and witty and handsome - Eric also plans the most unsual spur of the moment parties. Last weekend he threw a "Pickling Party." As he explained it, people should show up with pickling supplies, we could pickle things and then take them home. Jen and I were a bit dubious ("so by pickling supplies you mean... what exactly?") but we had a selection of hors d'oeuvres- cheese, wine, crackers, fruit - at my house so we decided that would be our "pickling party" contribution.

So we went to Eric's house and pickled... eggs, actually. His grandmother is from the old country and used to serve pickled eggs at family gatherings so he got the recipe from her. He said the first time he tried it he made a couple dozen and tried to give some away but people didn't seem to want them. He said he found this surprising (isn't he the cutest??). So he was hoping to make some converts amongst his friends, namely us.

There were several people in attendance, causing Jen to comment "not only is Eric the only person I know who thinks pickled eggs make a good party theme, he's also the only person I know whose friends would show up to such a party!" It was fun too. We had several discussions about the type of music appropriate to accompany pickling and started with music that had food themes (Guns and Roses Appetite for Destruction, anyone?), then decided that pickling music had to have some pep to it so we settled on 80's music (Eurthymics) and then dance/trance/club music for some inexplicable reason. Well, everything's sort of inexplicable when you try to score a pickling party.

So what's involved in pickling eggs, you ask (or maybe you don't but I'm going to tell you anyway). Well, hardboiled eggs and then anything else you want to throw into a jar with them, all covered with vinegar. Below, an assortment of pickling acoutrements, if you will:

Layer everything above in a pleasing manner with the eggs to create (presumably) edible art. I haven't tried them yet...

And then you line the photogenic jars in front of a light source and take pleasing pictures that seem to imply some kind of alien spacecraft just out of frame.


Including some egg and hairy lamp still lifes - sort of Cezanne by way of Oppenheim.

The happy picklers!

P.S. The dress I'm wearing above is A. much cuter in real life and B. causing me to look pregnant, which I'm not. I'm just saying...

One hundred years of pigeons

So last night was a blue moon in Tucson.

Which, as all of you smart readers know, means that it's the second full moon in a month. And according to the experts there won't be another one in Tucson for 18 years. I actually watched this one rise because of my kind neighbors.

See, I came home to smoke pouring out from behind my house with an attendant fire truck. After I determined that my house wasn't on fire - thank God - and it was just the empty lot, I looked around and saw all my neighbors sitting out on their porches and walls watching the show.

My neighbors across the street - Sue and Michael - live in this beautiful old church that they've renovated.


Sue is an artist and she uses the nave area - to the right of the bell tower in the picture above - as her studio and she and Michael live in the parsonage. It's the most beautiful studio space with vaulted ceilings and those gorgeous arched windows. So feel free to hate her :) I would but she's really nice, plus she invited me up into their bell tower last night to watch the sun set.

Apparently when they moved in, this bell tower was a pigeon roost with dozens of pigeons living in it. Also, pigeons apparently live on top of their dead and the church was built in 1914 so as the pigeons died their carcasses just drifted down under the bell and piled up. Almost one hundred years of pigeon detritus was layered in that bell tower. Sue has a long funny story about how to clean out a bell tower. There are people who do that. They catch the pigeons one by one in a big butterfly net and have a huge "pigeon vacuum" to clean out the skeletons, poop and feathers. And once it was done she decided she wanted to be able to get up in the turret.

So, now you can climb up into the bell tower via a ladder - with an attendant framed poster of Led Zepplin "Stairway to Heaven" :) - and then another ladder in the bell tower and a trap door and suddenly you are standing in the turret looking out over all of Tucson.

So my neighbors and I stood in the bell tower and watched the firemen put out the fire as the sun set and this beautiful harvest blue moon rose while drinking wine.


And in a stroke of unintentional genius, my neighbor Tom was drinking Blue Moon beer with us. He says he just happened to have it in his refrigerator :)

Have a good weekend everyone. They say a blue moon is a good omen. I hope it is for you.