Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

This is a partial listing of my work that I painted over the summer while living in Seattle. These paintings are now in the process of being reworked, so all these pieces are being shown unfinished/in-the-process of being completed. As I work on them, I will post pictures of what they look like now.

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Here are the first two attempts at "perfecting" my work from the summer.

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Back to school. The first week of school is always the slowest. Maybe it's because all the teachers are waiting for students to figure out their schedules. Maybe it's because we haven't figured out how to fill our time yet with school projects so all our time feels so empty. Maybe it's because most of our free time is spent doing errands, but this week was slow, despite how much we got done.

Monday was the first day of classes. And like the first day of classes, all our classes got out early and we spent a great deal of time staring at the walls wondering what to do. We tried reading ahead, but since most of our assignments were too confusing to figure out, it was a mostly wasted day. I need to find a new job. We learned that.

I went into my previous employment to ask for my old job back. I really wanted to work there again because of the people I worked with and the creative things I was paid to do; I didn't want to work there again because of my employer. Who wants to work in an office where your boss threatens to fire the whole team every month and never follows through on his threats? When I spoke with the front secretary, she told me that I couldn't have my job back. Since I need money to help support our family, it was time to go on a job hunt. So we started searching the ads, hoping and praying to find something decent.

Tuesday was a bit of a stressful day for Rebecca, mostly because of me. My sculpture class went well, if not really slow because the professor has to talk the whole three hours on the first day of class. But I have a couple other friends in that class, so any art class with people I know in it goes well. Our first project is stone carving and my teacher told us that if we wanted to drive to a rock quarry down near the city of Nephi, we could get some free honey onyx stone. It's a beautiful white marble stone with rich honey colored stripes in it. I got a map and was planning on going. More on that later.

My evening psych class was cut short. Very short. It turns out that only 8 people showed up for a class that requires 12 in order to continue that section. Our professor told us that they'd probably have to close the section. Rebecca and I didn't want to have to reorder my schedule because I really needed this class to graduate in August. Lucky for us, we got an email that evening from the professor informing us that he's going to continue the section regardless of the rules. [yay for not having to change the schedule!!]

Since that class went so short, we decided to go get food and then drive down to Nephi that night to find the stones. I learned that following a geological map isn't an easy thing to do, especially up in the mountains where trails that aren't on the map look the same in person as the roads that are on the map. Without much more explanation, we got lost. After wandering around on foot [a lot of the "roads" we saw weren't drivable unless you happen to own a 4-wheel drive, which we don't. Hence wandering on foot in the mountains -beck], looking for a quarry, for about an hour, we decided to give up. The trickiest part was that neither Rebecca nor I knew what a quarry looked like. Right as we were about to leave, I glanced further south down the road and saw a big white area in the mountain a short distance off and I said, "You know, that looks just like what a quarry should probably look like." We had driven down a false road [silly false road that looked just like the real one...]. After taking the correct road, we found the quarry and got 6 nice sized rocks of beautiful honey onyx. The whole time Rebecca kept saying that an axe murderer was going to kill us because we were out in the middle of nowhere [it was SCARY I tell you!! and Wayne didn't even believe me about the axe murderer threat. I can't imagine why not. -beck].

I spent an hour on Wednesday talking to one of my professors about the paintings I did over the summer. You can read about that here.
As a result, it took me until Friday before I felt confident enough to go back into the studio and get started on redoing everything. Thursday was much the same as the rest of the week, except that I learned that the honey onyx we picked up was some really hard stone and I spent 2 hours trying to cut one piece of it on a diamond saw. Ouch!

The rest of the week was pretty slow. I had a job interview at the MTC on Friday. They need a design specialist for their computer aided language learning exercises for the missionaries. I'd be perfect for the job, but that doesn't mean that they will hire me. Rebecca has started her T.A. hours, and is still trying to settle a few additional R.A. hours. Saturday we went to see Star Wars with Karl and Angela. Yay for the dollar theatre! We've seen more movies here in Utah in the past two weeks than we did the entire four months in Seattle and we've only spent 1/12 the amount of money.

Karl wants us to hike up Mt. Timpanogas with them tomorrow, but since we're such slow hikers, I don't know how far up the mountain we'll get. I like to stop and do artwork along the way and look at things, so I'm very slow at going on hikes. [besides, it's more fun to go off the beaten path, isn't it? -beck] But after this holiday, we should have plenty of school work to do.
Love,
Wayne and Rebecca

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1-2 eggs (depending on where you live)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6-8 oz chocolate chips

Mix everything but the chocolate chips together until well blended. Traditionally this is done by hand, because I only recently got a good mixer, but I have been known to use a mixer. We sometimes use 1 egg, and sometimes 2 eggs, depending on how fluffy we want them. If you live in a moist climate, you might need to reduce the butter/shortening quantity a bit and increase the flour a bit so the cookies don't fall flat in the oven. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, and roll small balls of dough to put on a baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Eat. Enjoy. Served best with milk.

2 Celery stalks
2 Carrots
3-4 Potatoes
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
palm full of basil
palm full of dill
3 cans of clams, with juice
1 quart half and half
1 cup milk
4 TBS. butter
4 TBS. flour
optional bacon and corn

This recipe is ideal for the chef who is willing to try what works best. Most of these amounts are simple suggestions. Try what works for you.

Cut up the vegetables and put the celery, carrots, potatoes, garlic, salt and pepper, onions, dill and basil with the three cans of clams with juice into a pot. Make sure the clams you get are the good pink kind, preferrably from the western coast. Add a cup or so of water; not quite enough to cover the vegetables, but enough that it won’t all evaporate before the veggies are tender. Put a lid on it and steam it. Keep an eye on it and if the water and clam juice gets too low, add a bit more.

When the veggies are tender add a quart of half and half.

Over medium heat, melt 4 TBS butter in a saucepan. Add about 4 heaping tblsp flour. Stir until smooth and bubbly. Add one cup milk and stir until blended. Add the mix to the chowder and stir in gently. If you want, now is the time to throw in some chopped bacon and corn. Yummy!

Makes enough for 6 people with plenty of left-overs.

1 quantity white sauce, prepared (see below)
1 quantity tomato sauce, prepared (see below)
1 lb (500g) uncooked lasagna noodles
1/2 lb (250g) sliced mozzarella
1/2 lb (250 g) sliced ham
2 oz (60g) grated parmesan
Oregano to sprinkle.

Cook noodles as instructed on the package until tender, but firm. Use a large fork or slotted spoon to remove cooked noodles directly to the baking pan (either 1 9x13 pan, or 2 8x8 pans). Spoon tomato sauce on baking pan and put the first layer of noodles. Make four layers of noodles as you go. In between each layer, put meat sauce, mozzarella and ham. In one of the layers, put only white sauce with ham. Cover the lasagna with white sauce, grated parmesan and sprinkle oregano.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celcius).
Bake lasagna until heated through or about 20 minutes.
Cover lasagna with aluminum foil during baking to avoid cheese over burn.

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White Sauce
2 tbs (30 g) butter
3 tbs (30g) all purpose flour
1 cup (250ml) milk
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 tsp (5g) salt
1 pinch ground pepper

Place a sauce pan in medium heat. Melt the butter with the flour stirring well. Add the nutmeg, salt and ground pepper. Add the milk slowly while stirring the mixture with a wood spoon. Bring the sauce to boil and cook for about 10 minutes or until creamy.
Do not overcook as it can break the starch and thinner your sauce.
Set the white sauce aside to assemble the lasagna.

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Tomato Sauce
2 tbs (30ml) vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 lb (250 g) ground beef
1 lb ripe tomatoes

Peel tomatoes, remove seeds and chop.
Brown ground beef in a large sauce pan over high heat with the vegetable oil, onion, garlic. Add the prepared tomatoes and water just enough to cook a thick meat sauce.
Set meat sauce aside to assemble lasagna.

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Note: We usually leave the beef out of the tomato sauce, and sometimes substitute veggies like broccoli for the ham.

Dough
1/4 cup warm water
1 TBS dry yeast
1 tsp honey
2 TBS melted butter
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cupgrated Muenster cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup grated feta
2 eggs
3 garlic cloves
3/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped basil
black pepper

1 egg
chives

Combine warm water, yeast and honey in bowl until yeast dissolves. Add flour, melted butter and salt. Knead. Put doughball into oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour. Mash cream cheese with fork and mix in the rest of the filling ingredients. When dough has risen to double in size, divide into eight pieces. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes. Roll out ball into circle about 7 inches in diameter. Fill each with 1/3 cup of cheese filling, wrapping dough around and sealing edges with a fork. Beat the final egg with a tablespoon of water and brush it on the pastries. Sprinkle with chives. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes.

Makes enough for 4-6 people.

Crespelle:
4 eggs
2 TBSP vegetable oil
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups white flour
2 2/3 cups milk and water (half each usually)
1-2 TBSP vegetable oil or melted butter for cooking the crepes

Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cups chopped onions
3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped (1/2 tsp dried)
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano (1 tsp dried)
2 28-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Filling:
3 TBSP olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
3 large garlic cloves, minced
10 ounces spinach (4 cups) – frozen package defrosted, or fresh stemmed and chopped
2 cups coarsely grated mozzarella cheese (1/2 pound)
1/2 cup grated sharp Parmesan or Pecorino cheese
3 pounds ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese! )
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

To make crespelle, beat eggs, add oil, salt, flour, and milk. (You can freeze crepes and defrost in fridge a day ahead.) Set aside for 1/2 hour. To make sauce, sauteé onions, celery and garlic in oil until onions are translucent. Add herbs and tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes and add salt and pepper to taste. For the filling, sauteé onions and garlic in oil adding spinach until spinach wilts. Combine all cheeses and stir in onion/spinach mixture with seasonings. Put half sauce in a baking dish. Fill crespelle with cheese filling. Put remaining sauce on top. Cook in a baking dish for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes enough for 4-6 people

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate and gradually whisk in the cocoa, stirring constantly, until smooth. Whisk in a little milk at a time and keep heating until blended. Let cool completely (in a fridge or something).

Whisk the eggs in a separate mixing bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar and blend well. Add the cream and vanilla and whisk to blend. Air is very important to make this mixture light and fluffy.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and blend. Refridgerate until very cold, approximately 1-3 hours. We like to leave ours in the fridge overnight. Then stick in a quart ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

6 swordfish steaks, each about 6 oz. [You can instead use beef as well]
1 onion, grated
3 TBS fresh lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBS ground coriander
pinch of cayenne
1 tsp. paprika (preferrably turkish)
1/4 cup olive oil (extra virgin)
6 bay leaves
salt and pepper

Place the swordfish in a shallow nonreactive container. In a bowl, whisk together the onion, lemon juice, garlic, coriander, cayenne, paprika and 1/4 cup oil. Pour over fish and cover with the bay leaves. Cover and marinate for at least a day. Immediately before cooking, sprinkle one side with salt and pepper. Grill over heat, brushing each side with any leftover sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Why did we do it? Everytime we wanted to stop, the other would keep telling us that we could make it further. Now we're in pain from having hiked up that mountain!

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We're number one! We're number one!

Okay. Maybe not number uno, but if you go to google and type in: "Wayne and Rebecca Madsen" into their search engine, without quotes, you get our website as the top ranked site. How cool!

Also, if you go type in just "Wayne Madsen", sans quotes, our website is like sixth on the list. We're moving up in the world!

1 box devil's food cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 TBS water
1 can cream cheese frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix egg, oil, water and cake mix in a bowl. This should create a cookie dough like substance. Add the water last, slowly, to make sure your dough doesn't get too gooey. Roll the dough into very small balls, no larger than 1/2 inch in diameter. Cook on a cookie sheet in the oven for 6 - 8 minutes, or until they take shape and aren't stiff. You need to decide if you want hard cookies or soft ones. I like them soft. Let the cookies cool. Then match the different sizes of cookies in pairs, filling the center with the frosting. Any frosting will work, but I think that a store bought cream cheese frosting works the best.

For the meatballs:
1/2 lb ground beef or lamb
1/4 cup grated onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
3 TBS grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
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For the soup:
6 cups meat broth/stock
2 cups chopped cabbage
1 cup tiny pasta (we liked chopped linguini)
4 TBS chopped fresh parsley
2 egg yolks
2 TBS lemon juice

To make the meatballs, combine the meat, onion, bread crumbs, egg, cheese and salt and pepper in a bowl and mix. Form meatballs into small 1/2 inch diameter balls. Set aside

In a large saucepan, combine broth, cabbage and pasta. Boil for 10 minutes, or until pasta isn't quite cooked. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks and lemon juice and whisk well. Whisk in some of the hot broth slowly in order to prevent the eggs from cooking, then add mixture to saucepan and reduce heat to low, stirring gently. Add meatballs and simmer until meatballs are cooked, about 20 minutes. Add parsley.

For an alternative taste, you might want to cook the meatballs before adding them to the saucepan, in order to give them a firmer texture. Enjoy!

Makes enough for 6 people.

Well, Wayne jumped the gun and already posted some things about last week. Oh well, makes my job easier, right?  The big news of the week is that Wayne got the job at the MTC that he wanted so much. Yay! You can read about it here. He started on Thursday, and since it is close to campus, it will be much easier for him to get in a few hours here and there throughout the week. You would think his class schedule would be pretty regular, but it’s not. It’s nice to have a semi-flexible work schedule as well. It’s also nice to have a job doing something you like doing.

We also somehow hiked up a good chunk of a mountain on Monday. Silly us. And thus we were sore until Thursday. I took the elevator on occasion because I felt sorry for myself.  You can read about our hiking adventures here.
I think we found some people in our new ward who like games. Yay. Our landlords went out and bought Fluxx after playing with us. We converted yet another family to one of our favorite games. Muhahaha. And we had another couple over on Wednesday for some games. We got to play Carcassonne with them! Games are fun. It was funny though, because I had a mad scramble to finish homework for all three of my classes Wednesday before people came over. I didn’t plan too well I guess.

Most of the rest of the week was classes and homework. There was a graduate student social in there somewhere…we went but weren’t very social. We just wanted the free meal. And to listen to them call out winning raffle ticket numbers again. We didn’t win. [oh, man were their hotdogs nasty. -wayne]

Oh I almost forgot! I got a new bike. We couldn’t quite figure out how to bring the free bike I got in Seattle with, so I watched for posts on the freecycle website for a bike, and the girl who posted one picked me! I think it’s because I told her that purple is my favorite color, and that’s the color of her old bike.  We went for a good bike ride yesterday, but not a long one because I got a flat and the seat is like a rock. But hey, it was free right? And now we can both ride at the same time…fun fun fun.

[I went to a MTC employee fireside this afternoon hosted by Elder Scott and Elder Ballard. It was a very personal meeting with them where they discussed missionary work and our personal connection to missionaries and training missionaries. (This is definitely a perk of this new job.) One of the most interesting comments of the evening was during Elder Ballard's talk. He started by saying that we should know how much they love us, but that it was his job to make sure we never forget the importance of our job. Something he said which really impacted me, and I could feel that most of the room felt the same way, was the insight he gave us into the work ethic of the apostles. He talked about the work that President Hinckley does and how he never stops even though he's 95. Then Elder Ballard talked about himself as a 77 year old, as a worn down old man he sometimes wonders how he is going to do all the work he has in front of him. And everything begins to weigh him down, knowing that he's more mortal than the rest of us. Then, he thinks of the atonement. It is then that he feels the strength beyond his own flow through himself. He focuses on the amazing physical struggle of the Lord and that gets him excited to do more, to be more. Thought I'd share. -wayne]

Karl and Angela will be here soon to play, so I should say good-bye…
Have a good week!

Becca and Wayne

On her way to her TA hours on Monday, a flyer posted on the wall of the Talmage building caught Rebecca's eye. It said "Want to play with robots?" Before even noticing that it payed $10 dollars for one hour's worth of play, she immediately knew that I would love to play with robots. We found the research group and signed up to play with the robot, and it was a blast. Their research group was putting together a paper on human-robot interaction for a conference (one of Rebecca's professors this semester is on the chair for the conference). Rebecca also submitted a paper for the same research conference call. But the robot we played with was a large, wheeled, remote-controlled vehicle that we had to maneuver through an obstacle ridden course (through the hallways of the Talmage building with boxes scattered around). The research team was evaluating which interfaces allowed for the easiest and fastest time trials, whether through 2D or 3D means. They had some cool laser and sonar detection devices on the robot to dynamically produce maps on the computer we were using to drive the robot. It reminded me how much I envied kids with remote controlled cars. Robots are fun.

Rebecca was busy for most of the week putting together her part of the paper that her professor and her were submitting for this same conference. But we decided to go against our impulse to stay home Wednesday night to work on homework/papers, and we went to the Hansen Family Reunion. The Hansen family includes the Madsen's on my father's side, so a good number of them were there. Wednesday evening we all went to one of the final dress rehearsals for the Hale Center Theatre company putting on Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Usually, I've had bad experiences with small companies putting on major productions, however this performance was wonderful. Anyone in the area should definitely get tickets for it to see the performance. Had we known how much fun the performance would be, we would have gladly paid full price. The whole performance, Rebecca had a great big grin on her face and I did my best to resist all urges to sing along with all the tunes. It really was a wonderful performance.

But since we stayed out late Wednesday night, Rebecca had to rush to put the last parts into her paper and she wasn't even able to do her homework. We had more friends over Thursday evening from our ward to play games and we played the bean game (one of Jon and Faith's favorites). After having difficulty making friends in our first two wards, we learned in our Seattle ward what some of the tricks are to making friends when you move into a new ward. One of the most difficult tricks is to balance homework and spontaneous play time. But we really enjoy having people over to our house, so being stressed out about school work is something we've learned to live with.

Friday was Angela's birthday and Karl had invited us and some of their "Provo" friends to meet them at P.F. Chang's for dinner. I was highly skeptical of eating there since I'm more of a fan of tiny chinese restaurants than of big chain restaurants. I'm always afraid I'm getting a watered down version of the authentic food; large Brazilian restaurants aren't a good representation of real Brazilian cuisine. However, the food was really good and we all had a good time celebrating with Angela and Karl, so I highly recommend the restaurant. Hopefully Karl and Angela will post some things about their evening on their website soon. We thought to bring a camera, but then I expected Karl to bring his, so I didn't. But it turned out that neither of us brought cameras, so there aren't any pictures of our evening.

After dinner, we decided that we had nothing better to do than to wander around the mall. We never really wander around shops because we don't have any reason to buy things, so it isn't a usual occurrence. One of the places we stopped at was our friendly Cingular Wireless phone provider. We talked to them about our phone contract and were amazed at how expensive cellular phone contracts are now. To get a family plan for two people, like what we have, costs over $80, which is way out of our monthly budget. That is the smallest plan with only 700 montly minutes to use up. To get two separate phone lines would only cost 10 dollars more. Prices for family plans used to be dramatically less than getting separate cellular phone plans. Lucky for us, our phone plan has passed into a "contract expired" timeframe where we are on a month to month contract. Why would we ever switch out of that? It's hard to say.

Saturday morning we tried to build a wooden case for a computer that I could use in my video project and submit it to the New Zealand show I'm in. We have to put up the show at BYU's main gallery Monday morning. I wanted a nice wooden case to put the computer parts in, instead of using my beat up old computer case. However, Rebecca and I failed miserably at our attempts at woodworking. Instead we just got frustrated and gave up. I guess I'll just submit things in my old, nasty computer case. I've been trying to get the TV card that Dad Rees gave us to work with a media program so we can record TV and organize all our media and interface it with our TV, but that's not working yet either. The TV card isn't supported by Meedio and I'm just not finding any way to get it to work for that purpose.

To give ourselves another break, we had a bunch of Rebecca's CS friends come over last night and play "The Great Museum Caper," a variation of the old Clue board game. Most of them had spent the summer in Seattle, but in different places than we did (East and North as opposed to Central and U-District Seattle, where we were). It was very strange to listen to them talk about their experiences and places they went because I felt like we were talking about two totally different places. I guess there was so much more for us to see that we never saw because we spent so much time downtown and with friends. Ah, if only we could go back and live there...
We miss the west coast.

Lots of love and have a great week,
Wayne and Rebecca

I figured it was time to make use of the Links section of this website to post some of the links that I visit daily or find important enough to mention.

From left to right on my browser quick link bar:

Homestarrunner.com - the funniest and best running flash animation cartoon online. These guys are brilliant and if you haven't become a weekly watcher of Homestar Runner and his friends, then where have you been for the past three years?

Fastmail - it's my best email server. Sure, gmail is great. I've got that on my daily links as well (i don't visit it unless I'm not using outlook and getting my email through that program), but I've actually never experienced a faster email server than Fastmail. How do they get it so fast?

Engadget.com - I'm a technology junkie. I like to know what's going on. Engadget lets me know. Top of the line reporting there, guys. Keep it up!

Movies.com - I use movies.com for all my movie needs, be it web trailers, movie times or just plain movie news. Very comprehensive. First thing I check out is the Buzz bin, to get my daily fix of movies news.

That's about it for my daily needs. Check back soon and I'll post all my art links.

1 loaf unseeded and unsliced Jewish Rye bread
2 pounds corned beef or deli turkey, sliced
12 ounces Russian dressing, recipe follows
12 ounces sauerkraut or cabbage
12 slices Swiss cheese
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sprinkle the corned beef with a little water, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and steam it in the oven.

Meanwhile, put the whole loaf of rye bread (unwrapped) into the oven. Bake the bread until the crust is very crunchy, about 15 minutes. Set the bread on the counter and let it cool for about 5 minutes.

When the rye bread is cool enough to handle place it on a cutting board. Hold the bread knife at a 45-degree angle and cut 12 slices.

Take the corned beef out of the oven and unwrap it. Spread each slice of bread with Russian dressing. Layer half of the slices with corned beef, sauerkraut and slices of Swiss cheese, then top the sandwiches with the remaining slices of bread (dressing-side down).

Heat 2 large heavy skillets over medium heat. Brush the bread with butter. Put the sandwiches in the pans and weight them with a lid or heat proof bowl topped with something heavy. Cook until the first sides are crisp and golden about 7 minutes then flip the sandwiches. Cook until the second sides are also well toasted and the cheese is melted. Lift the sandwiches onto a cutting board. Cut each in half diagonally and serve. Makes 6 sandwiches (very full of meat).

Cook's Note: Buy high quality corned beef for this recipe. Avoid corned beef that is very lean.

Russian Dressing:
3/4 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup plus 2 to 3 tablespoons chili sauce
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons chopped curly parsley leaves
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced Spanish onion
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced dill pickle
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated horseradish
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Combine the mayonnaise, chili sauce, sour cream, parsley, onion, pickle, lemon juice, horseradish and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and mix well.

Yield: 2 cups

My current digital installation is up in Gallery 303 at BYU.

We took a break from homework on a Saturday to go to the opening night for the Maori/BYU show. I had a video installation in this show. These pictures are specifically from opening night.

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Before we moved out to Seattle, we decided to pick up some books for our trip. On long trips, we like to read each other stories out loud and we're always up for a good youth fiction or two. However, the bookstore was having a sale on all books so we suckered ourselves into buying a pile of books we would bring with us to Seattle. Never leave us alone in a bookstore, we'll end up getting SOMETHING.

Rebecca some months earlier had read Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley on the advice of my sister. She had liked the author's treatment of a classic fairy tale so we decided to pick up, rather blindly, three new books by Robin McKinley: her "trilogy" of sorts on magic. There really isn't much tying these three books together; it's more like a pair of books that are connected geographically and then a third that makes a one line mention of one of the other two. However, Hero and the Crown was a Newbery Medal winner and The Blue Sword was a Newbery Honor book, and we haven't ever been steered wrong by Newbery Awards.

So, the first book we read was The Blue Sword and a good thing too, because I felt it was the strongest of all three (but Rebecca's going to write about the other two books, so you can read her reviews later). The basic story is that Harry Crewe (a normal girl) lives in a world divided by the colonists and the mystical hillfolk. As a colonist girl, she's interested in what the mystical hillfolk are like, but until she actually meets one, doesn't realize the important part she's going to play in their struggle for survival. She gets kidnapped, she has lots of adventures and falls in love.

Sounds simple, yet with an infusion of "interesting" magic, this book was really absorbing for me. I have a problem with a lot of so-called magic books in that the author uses magic as a literary device to get themselves out of an authoring "corner". I don't want the characters to be able to use magic in their worst predicaments and magic solves everything. In the Blue Sword, I see a very realistic magic which the characters don't know how to control.

This book was fun to read and we both really cared for the characters. Even after we arrived in Seattle, we spent every night reading in this book until we got to the end. Without being cliche, read this book: it's very good.

I haven't written a book review since middle school. But here we go. Robin McKinley likes to retell fairy tales in her own way. This one was about Sleeping Beauty, based loosely on the fairy tale. It's interesting, because you kind of know where the story is going and how it will end, but a few surprises catch you that much more off guard.

We thought it was interesting that "Sleeping Beauty" aka Rosie was not the sweet innocent girly-girl that Disney's version makes her out to be. All the "gifts" her fairy godparents gave her back-fired; she hated her curly gold hair and chopped it off; she couldn't stand to sew; etc, etc. We really enjoyed this take on the characters, and thought it was funny.

We did not like how the author kept doing flashbacks. It was so confusing to keep the story-line straight and figure out what time was when and who was where. There were flashbacks inside of flashbacks inside of flashbacks! The ending was a little unbelievable too...where suddenly they solve things based not on the characters own power or ideas but that they pulled things literally out of thin air. And these were the non-magical characters! A little strange.

But still, I did enjoy reading it. It was an interesting take on the story and really added to the fairy tale. And Rosie was funny; I like non-girlie main characters. :)

This week was the New Zealand show from start to finish. The students from Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, an all Maori University in New Zealand, arrived late Sunday night. Monday they made the poor jet-lagged students and faculty wake up bright and early to help put up the show. They were so sleepy. And they kept commenting on how hot it was. Monday evening was a barbeque dinner, which I got to go to as well. It was funny to hear the Maori students keep talking about how everything in America is so big (from the mountains to the hamburgers). They also thought our food was very sweet, and that a fruit salad should have been on a dessert table instead of the salad table.

Tuesday Wayne went back to help finish setting up, only to discover that someone had moved his computer and monitor and broken the monitor in the process! Since that's our only monitor, we weren't sure what to do about that; we don't exactly have spare money lying around to buy new monitors all the time. :) Luckily the gallery found a replacement monitor for use in the art show by Thursday, so Wayne's installation piece was ready for the opening show on Saturday. We still don't know if they'll replace our broken monitor in the end, or if this is just for the show. But the opening reception on Saturday was lots of fun!

The rest of the week was busy too, in between all the hubbub for the art show. Wednesday we went to Salt Lake City to visit my dad and grandma before they left to drive back to Odessa. It was fun to visit and chat with them and with Aunt Sharla. Hopefully they'll drive safely to Odessa! They said they were going to leave for Texas on Friday, but I was guessing they wouldn't leave until Saturday or even Sunday (it *is* the Rees family we're talking about...). But sure enough, they left town on Friday! A few hours later than planned, but Friday nonetheless!

Thursday was a big homework day, and then in the evening we got free pizza and ice cream at the CS opening social. Unfortunately, Wayne thought it was all tasteless. I thought it was just a fluke, but when he got sick on Friday afternoon (and is still sick) we realized he must have already started getting sick and that's why he couldn't taste anything. That's too bad. But he did win a BYU Computer Science cap in a drawing. Which neither of us will ever wear. But hey, we can't say we've never won a raffle drawing now. :)

Friday was another reception, this one for one of Wayne's cousins who got married. We got lost on our way there. They renumbered all the exits in Utah over the summer some time, so it still throws us off now and again because Mapquest and Maps.Google are all wrong when it comes to the exit numbers. And we were too busy reading some of Kandinsky's writings to notice when we missed our exit. But when we finally arrived, we spent most of our time there sitting and chatting with Grandpa Madsen. Grandpa sure likes telling us stories. :)

On Saturday we worked hard to gets errands done and homework done. We did get the errands done. But the homework is still waiting for us to pay attention to it tomorrow. Wayne has a good excuse...he got sick and couldn't think straight. And I...felt like I was just banging my head against a wall for a few hours. Hopefully I'll figure out why the smoothing technique I tried to apply to the data made things worse instead of better. And hopefully before Wednesday when it's due. It's tricky because I'm supposed to be the TA for the class I'm taking, so I can't just go talk to the TA, unless I want to talk to myself...but I haven't been much help so far ;).

So this week we have lots of homework ahead of us, and we'll have to think of things to do for a good break so we don't go crazy! Hope you all have fun.

Loves,
Becca and Wayne

DOORS: Do not allow closed doors in any room. To get a door opened, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and halfway out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain or snow storms, or mosquito season. Swinging doors are to be avoided at all costs.

CHAIRS AND RUGS: If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good. When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so that it is as long as the human's bare foot.

BATHROOMS: Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything -- just sit and stare.

HAMPERING: If one of your humans is engaged in some close activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping," otherwise known as "hampering". Following are the rules for "hampering:"

a) When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted.

b) For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself.

c) For knitting projects or paperwork, lie in the manner that will best obscure as much of the work as possible or at least the most important part. Pretend to doze, but every so often reach out and slap the pencil or knitting needles. The worker may try to distract you; ignore it. Remember, the aim is to hamper work.

Embroidery and needlepoint projects make great hammocks in spite of what the humans may tell you.

d) For people paying bills (monthly activity) or working on income taxes or Christmas cards (annual activity), keep in mind the aim: to hamper! First, sit on the paper being worked on. When dislodged, watch sadly from the side of the table. When activity resumes, roll around on the papers, scattering them to the best of your ability. After being removed for the second time, push pens, pencils, and erasers off the table, one at a time.

e) When a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to leap suddenly at the back of the paper. Humans love to jump.

WALKING: As often as possible, dart quickly and as close as possible in front of the human, especially on stairs, when they have something in their arms, in the dark, and when they first get up in the morning. This will help their coordination skills.

BEDTIME: Always sleep on the human at night so s/he cannot move around.

PLAY: This is an important part of your life. Get enough sleep in the daytime so you are fresh for your nocturnal games. Below are listed several favorite cat games that you can play. It is important though to maintain one's Dignity at all times. If you should have an accident during play, such as falling off a chair, immediately wash a part of your body as if to say "I MEANT to do that!" It fools those humans every time.

Catch Mouse: The humans would have you believe that those lumps under the covers are their feet and hands. They are lying. They are actually Bed Mice, rumored to be the most delicious of all the mice in the world, though no cat has ever been able to catch one. Rumor also has it that only the most ferocious attack can stun them long enough for you to dive under the covers to get them. Maybe YOU can be the first to taste a Bed Mouse!

King of the Hill: This game must be played with at least one other cat. The more, the merrier! One or both of the sleeping humans is Hill 303 which must be defended at all costs from the other cat(s). Anything goes. This game allows for the development of unusual tactics as one must take the unstable playing theater into account. If one happens to be on top of a human when the human awakens and tries to expel the players, this cat wins the round of King of the Hill. To resume play, quickly snuggle up to your human(s) and purr loudly. This may keep you from being expelled from the bedroom and will give your human(s) time to settle down and fall asleep again.

Search and Seizure: The very early hours of the morning are an excellent time to search for and seize toys, particularly those on bedroom dressers and nightstands. Using this time of the morning for search and seizure has two advantages: (1) humans are slow to awaken, therefore you can expect several minutes (sometimes several hours) of uninterrupted seizing before your human notices your activity; (2) even though most humans set alarms to wake themselves, they rarely get up when their alarms sound--Search and Seizure complements and enhances the human alarm system and encourages humans' immediate arousal. Even though you may be expelled from the bedroom, you will have helped your human awaken and start his/her day. It is best to start this game just before dawn.

TOYS: Any small item is a potential toy. If a human tries to confiscate it, this means that it is a Good Toy. Run with it under the bed. Look suitably outraged when the human grabs you and takes it away. Always watch where it is put so you can steal it later. Two reliable sources of toys are dresser tops and wastebaskets. There are several types of cat toys:

Bright shiny things like keys, brooches, or coins should be hidden so that the other cat(s) or humans can't play with them. They are generally good for playing hockey with on uncarpeted floors.

Dangly and/or string-like things such as shoelaces, cords, gold chains, and dental floss also make excellent toys. They are favorites of humans who like to drag them across the floor for us to pounce on. When a string is dragged under a newspaper or throw rug, it magically becomes the Paper/Rug Mouse and should be killed at all costs. Take care, though. Humans are sneaky and will try to make you lose your Dignity.

PAPER BAGS: Within paper bags dwell the Bag Mice. They are small and camouflaged to be the same color as the bag, so they are hard to see. But you can easily hear the crinkling noises they make as they scurry around the bag. Anything, up to and including shredding the bag, can be done to kill them. Note: any other cat you may find in a bag hunting for Bag Mice is fair game for a Sneak Attack, which will usually result in a great Tag match.

FOOD: To get the energy to sleep, play, and hamper, a cat must eat. Eating, however, is only half the fun. The other half is getting the food. Cats have two ways to obtain food: convincing a human you are starving to death and must be fed NOW; and hunting for it oneself. Here are the guidelines for getting fed:

a) When the humans are eating, make sure you dip the tip of your tail in their dishes when they are not looking.

b) Never eat food from your own bowl if you can steal some from the table.

c) Never drink from your own water bowl if a human's glass is full enough to drink from.

d) Should you catch something of your own outside, it is only polite to attempt to get to know it and to introduce it to your human. Be insistent--your food will usually not be so polite and will try to leave.

e) Table scraps are delicacies with which the humans are unfortunately unwilling to readily part. It is beneath the Dignity of a cat to beg outright for food as lower forms of life (such as dogs) will, but several techniques exist for ensuring that the humans don't forget you exist. These include, but are not limited to: jumping onto the lap of the "softest" human and purring loudly; lying down in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen; the Direct Stare; and twining around people's legs as they sit and eat while meowing plaintively.

f) Food that is left unattended (even for an instant) on a counter or table, before or after any meal, is always fair game. Eat as much as you can before the attendant returns.

SNACKING: Humans love to snack and most of their snacks are very tasty. To make sure your human shares with you, follow him/her closely wherever s/he goes with the snack; look frantic and whine with great urgency. If seated, leap hastily on you human's lap, focus on the his/her mouth, with your paw gently tug at the hand that holds the snack; look frantic and whine with great urgency. When given the snack, eat it quickly and resume your sharing behavior. Stop the behavior only when the snack is gone or you throw up (see CHAIRS AND RUGS above).

SLEEPING: To have enough energy for playing, a cat must get plenty of sleep. It is generally not difficult to find a comfortable place to curl up. Any place a human likes to sit is good, especially if it contrasts with your fur color. If it's in a sunbeam or near a heating duct or radiator, so much the better. Of course, good places also exist outdoors, but have the disadvantages of being seasonal and dependent on current and previous weather conditions such as rain. Open windows are a good compromise.

SCRATCHING POSTS: It is advised that cats use any scratching post the humans may provide. Humans are very protective of what they think is their property and will object strongly if they catch you sharpening your claws on it. Being sneaky and doing it when they aren't around isn't much fun and won't help anyway because humans are very observant. However, gently scratching a sacred human object, while staring directly at its owner, is often an excellent way to start a game of tag. (You may need to hide for several hours afterwards, so make sure your hiding spot is clear of other obstructions before you begin scratching.) When outdoors, trees make excellent scratching posts. Sharpening your claws on a human is fun but a definite no-no!

HUMANS: Humans have three primary functions: to feed us, to play with us and give us attention, and to clean the litter box. It is important to maintain one's Dignity when around humans so that they will not forget who is the master of the house. Humans need to know the basic rules. They CAN be taught if you start early and are consistent. Only then will you have a smooth-running household.