Cabo!!

We went to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon. Most accounts of Cabo sound like a UGA sophmore's account of his weekend: I was so wasted... Em and I have thankfully outgrown that phase of our lives and were able to get a clearer picture of a beautiful corner of the world.


When we got out of the airplane and looked around, it looked exactly like Tucson, angry brown desert. It looked like home to us, but I can't imagine if we'd come here (to a tropical paradise) from greener parts of the world (GA or MO) and seen this. Only when you get close to the ocean (resorts) does the color green emerge. Our hiking tour guide told us that the resorts have massive desalination plants that they us for landscaping purposes. They did an incredible job too. We brought some cute outfits just in case we went out, but people here got dressed to the nines every night. So we decided to fit in. The food and service were outstanding.

Cute Couple!!!!


This is the best trip I've ever been on. The entire time was the perfect blend of R&R and activity. We typically like to be more active than lounging poolside for five hours, but this was our honeymoon, not a regular vacation. After months of unending wedding to-do lists, it was a relief to leave the little notepad and pen at home and just be.

This is our balcony. Looking out over the western edge of the Sea of Cortez at Land's End and Lover's Beach. You can see the pools down there.


We had fun haggling for this sarong. There were giant Hibiscus flowers everywhere.


The beach was not nearly as popular as the pool. I think because it doesn't have a swim-up bar. I love the ocean and had fun swimming around in it. The waves here crashed directly on the beach with no chance to body surf; they were some big waves too. A few beaches over there was a surfing beach that we're saving for next time.


Playa de los Amantes. We took the water taxi across the bay to check out this natural wonder. We are on the Sea of Cortez side with the Pacific side behind us. This side is calm and called lover's beach; the Pacific side is fierce and dangerous and called divorce beach.


This is looking west along the beach from our place to the marina.


I like taking yoga pictures wherever I go. Up on a rock on Lover's beach.


The water taxis are on the verge of scary and invigorating. This guy was posing for tips.


This is the famous Arch. It's famous for a reason. This is looking through the arch out to the pacific. From the water taxi.


From the snorkeling boat.


These are some waves on the Pacific side.


After a few days of lounging we were itching for activity. We went snorkeling one day. The next day we hiked in the Canyon de la Sora. Fox Canyon is a natural spring in the middle of the desert with waterfalls, pools, and cliff jumping. It was beautiful.

That is the stream down a few hundred feet below us with a 30something foot waterfall. If you haven't been to Tucson yet, that's pretty much what it looks like (minus the water). This tour is not very popular: Our guide took this picture of the entire group daring enough to brave the harsh landscape.


Em is swimming in one of the majestic pools. The water was cool and clear, and there were no fish. From the pools, you can look up the steep and lush (by Tucson standards) canyon walls, awesome feeling.


Em in Mountain Hardwear's summer hiking line next to a strangler ficus tree. These are cool trees that don't grow in Tucson.


This is the waterfall from the first picture. Pardon me for not sucking in. The guide told me the best way do this is to relax... I went totally zen on the way down. It can be dangerous to tell a yoga person to relax. This was a rush and an incredible picture taken by an incredible woman.


Now we are back in Tucson smothering Willow with our love and getting back into the swing of things.

"There ain't no law in Mexico. It's just a pack of rogues." C. McCarthy

Work

Yesterday was the hardest day that I have had at work so far. Here was my schedule:

7:45-8:30am - Stretching and meditation class
8:45-11:45 - Rock climbing
12-1 - Lunch
1-2:15 - Challenge Course with adolescents
2:30-4:30 - Kickboxing

I had a long day... After kickboxing, I went to the adolescent unit to pick up my bag from the challenge course and things fell apart. A patient threw a HUGE tantrum and cursed and screamed at the staff from her bathroom. I was concerned for her and what she might do but I was also concerned for the impact this had on the other girls. It was REALLY tough. The other patients began to cry... and then so did I. I really had trouble holding it together!! I sat with the other patients to talk about the incident and what they were feeling. After 2 hours of this, I was EXHAUSTED! My water works would NOT turn off! I just could not stop crying... and it was embarrassing for the other patients to see my like that. They showed concern for me, but I was trying to redirect them back to how it affected them. I finally got home at 8pm... what a day... I have got to find a way to think different thoughts or something to keep from crying, because I know there will be more incidents like this in the future...

What a day...

Life on Mars

VIEW!
I took this picture when we first set up the office, where I'm sitting now, but never posted it. The building in the foreground is the other building in our complex (ours is two stories). The northern part of the city secretly unfolds for about 10 or 15 miles behind the sparse trees until the dramatic rise of the Catalina mountains. With little exception, the city is flat and surrounded by mountains that dominate the skyline. From any mountain around the city you gain enough elevation to see all the way across the city to the mountains on the other side, and the dust that rises throughout the city blurs the bottom of the mountains into the city, making the mountains look like they are just floating in space. It's too surreal for me to appreciate.



HONORED GUESTS!
Mary and Michael were our first visitors. We had a great time with them. We did tons of cool things with them like mountain biking, hiking, concert, brewery, and in typical Mattimoe fashion we had to cook and eat (and take pictures of the process).


They are scared to be outside of Tech's library for too long, but they were brave and did great.



Ceremonial chickens grilling themselves on Em and my $25 craigslist charbroiler (the same one my parents had when I was a boy). I put diamonds on all my food. My Mom got me that veggie grilling pan a few years ago, and I recommend it. The leftover peppers and onions make the best pasta sauce I've ever had.



Dinner is served! I love the way food looks on our peacock fiestaware plates, and they're durable. We are getting to where we have a respectable house - a far cry from all my other wartorn apartments. If you didn't know us better, you'd swear we were grownups.

FOOD
Roast chicken is my new favorite meal. It's healthy, cheap, delicious, beautiful, and cetera. Between the two of us, we eat like royalty and have leftovers for under $10. My favorite part is saving the carcasses and making Chicken Stock; my chicken stock is so good, I drink it by the glass.


Emily hd to hold the chicken still while I took this pic. I follow Jacques Pepin's recipe from La Technique, the best cookbook and the final word on preparations of classics.



I season the bird with lavender, grains of paradise, ground bay leaf, and some other stuff for heavenly citrusy floral overtones along with the solid base of classics like S, P, garlic, celery salt, and cumin. I would freak out if there weren't parsnips in that pan too; they give the dish a wonderfully clean earthiness (I think the earthiness the have is more like what mountains would taste like rather than the forresty taste of good fungi).



This is the worst range in the world. I hate induction tops because they get a film of grease on them and look gross, they heat in a nonlinear fashion, and we can't use our tin-lined copper on them.



This is what's for dinner. I've been experimenting with using yogurt instead of butter or cream sauces. After working in a French kitchen and gaining twenty pounds in a matter of months, I don't care what traditionalists say. I make a concentrated flavor sauce base, blix it into the warm yogurt, and then sieve it. They are getting delicious. The main consideration is the acid in the yogurt; I deglazed this sauce with white wine before adding chicken demi and if I'd used butter or cream to thicken it would have been balanced, but it had too much edge with the yogurt. Still a delicious.


Pretty bird.


Not bad for $10.

Em and I are currently busy with work and wedding planning. We are running like dinner with our heads cut off. That's life, and it's made palatable with good cooking and delicious with good company.

"There are some people who lived a lifetime without finding the one who relieved the heart's overflow." -E. Welty

Speaking of...

Tommy and I bought art! I feel so grown up... It's from a local artist who we met at a street fair. She paints beautiful Arizona skies!

Speaking of being grown up... I haven't stayed up past 11pm in a VERY long time! I usually am in bed before 10pm... It's pretty sad, but I need my sleep! :)

Speaking of sleep, I'm catching up on sleep from when Mary and Michael came to visit! It was SSOOO much fun! We got to tour the city with them and do things we had intended to do but hadn't yet. It was a fun and jam-packed week and nice to have company! :) Plus, they we VERY flexible with the car, which was perfect... considering we only had 1 car and 4 of us :) Willow enjoyed their visit a lot too because Michael gave her TONS of attention :)

Speaking of attention... I've been paying close attention to the NCAA Basketball Tournament because I filled out my first bracket this year. Which is another reason why I feel grown up, because it was a work bracket that me and my co-workers always talk about over lunch :) I'm not doing very well though... but it's still fun! Tommy has Mizzou going all the way! Our fingers are crossed!!

Speaking of Mizzou... How about that AMAZING shot that Mizzou made at the half-time buzzer from beyond half-court!! It was incredible!!!

And speaking of incredible... Tommy and I just ate an incredible dinner, and now I must go to sleep :)

Good night.

Willow the Menace

I just wanted to share with everyone our new addition to the house. Tommy made Willow a fantastic scratching post in hopes of deterring her away from wrecking the couch... it hasn't worked, yet :) But it looks great and she uses it! This just brings us to the fact that Willow is very spoiled. She has taken to having conversations with us more. Whenever we come home she greets us at the door and tells us how her day and how lonely she has been. She then goes on to blaming us for her sorrows and then running up to her room. Willow has also managed to train us to give her ice cubes anytime the freezer is opened. If she hears the freezer, she will constantly whine until she has at least 3 ice cubes strategically placed in her water bowl. She then commences to watching the ice cubes melt for the next 2 hours. It is rather entertaining for us! In order to further understand Willow, we have been dissecting her past with us and we think we have found the problem. The following pictures are evidence:The poor thing... :-P Her life has been so hard!

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
~Unknown

"Like sledding on jagged rocks"

Here are some pics from my last ride. Don't worry, my bike wasn't harmed and is still running smooth. I was skeptical about getting this Giant xtc frame, but I've done this to it many times without the same issues that plagued the "crackandfail" cannondale.

This is an awesome trail system in Tucson Mountain park. It has plenty of this super technical rock sledding, fast windy singletrack, some tough hills, nasty staircases, and too much wash riding. A wash is an empty creek that's filled with rocks of all sizes and has no bottom. The primary purpose of a wash is to make bikers wonder why they got off the sofa, which has the same ability to swallow entire humans.

This is the second time I've fallen hard on this section. Both times I was glad I didn't fall into the ravine (wash) on the right of the trail nor on the cacti bordering the left. The rocky trail is the least worst choice to land upon. The first time I fell, my bike went in the ravine, and I was terrified something had happened to it. It was perfect. Good bike.


I have to carry more speed to clear the rocks, but that makes it scary. I can either ride this at a speed that I'm comfortable falling at and fall, or I can go a too fast to really consider falling a viable option, be terrified for a second, and then get the rush that keeps you coming back out. It's all about attitude.

In either case, falling is not comfortable.

Other obstacles I haven't encountered include but are not limited the following:
smuggling, illegal immigration, and vertical horizons.


"take care of yourselves and each other," j. springer.

Netflix!

Netflix has changed our lives! It is amazing! I'm not an advertiser, but I'm telling you... Netflix is incredible and I highly suggest it :)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my two cents :)