My view Wednesday

Easter centerpiece, still out on my dining room table.

Drives me up a wall

In 2008, furniture designer Lila Lang sofa presented this sofa at the Parcours Saint-Germaine exhibition in Paris. It became a sensation, showing up in many home decor magazines and circling around even more (every?!) home decor blogs. I read an article about it again last week (apparently, it's one of the most monumental furniture designs in the past decade) and all I could ask was... WHY?  I just don't get it.

Photo from Decor Fair

Robots

A few people have recently asked me to explain exactly what Jeff does. I asked him to explain his work and here's what he said. "As part of an engineering team, I design industrial video inspection robots for diverse applications. Some of these include municipal pipe inspection vehicles, search & rescue vehicles, others for inspecting natural gas mains, inspecting in dangerous industrial areas, under the ocean, and even bomb disposal and investigating smuggling tunnels.'

That's a lot of robots. Here's what some of them look like:

Photographer Sean Fenzl recently photographed a new robot (the Versatrax 450TTC Crawler) and has great commentary about his visit to the company and some stellar photos you can see here.  

You'll see Jeff (and his arm) in this video with his new vertical crawler (a robot that can drive up or down a completely vertical pipe). 

Jeff has robots working all over the world. They are in the US Swim Team's training pool and NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations training pool, they are cleaning nuclear tanks, helping maintain healthy public water systems, monitoring smuggling tunnels, inspecting the underwater structure of off-shore drilling platforms and doing routine work in Venezuela, Turkey, Japan, Iraq and Afghanistan (among many other countries). Jeff has also seen robots be part of major search and rescue efforts:

Inuktun robot in use after Hurricane Katrina

Inuktun robot in use at Ground Zero

Inuktun robot used for search and rescue after the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse (Jeff was on site for this project- he's on the far left in the final group photo at the end of the video).

There are also countless robots he can't talk about or simply, doesn't know about their true location or application. His robots go just about anywhere a human can't go. Except the moon. The one thing Jeff CAN say is that he has no robots in space. Yet.

Now, in case this all sounds exciting and glamorous, Jeff wants everyone to know that engineering usually encompasses long hours of drudge work. That being said, I can affirm that Jeff  leaves for work most mornings with a spring in his step, and clearly loves what he does. As a former career counsellor, I know just how unusual that is. I think a lot of little boys dream about building robots, and Jeff is one of the few adult "kids" who actually lives this dream each day. Pretty cool, huh?!

Sing a new song

There are many wonderful community choirs across the US and Canada. One of the most highly regarded is the Salt Lake Choral Artists. Under the direction of Dr. Brady Allred (who used to conduct the University of Utah Singers, another one of my favourite choirs), this large choir launched a smaller professional chamber choir, the Salt Lake Vocal Artists, last year. In their first year, the Vocal Artists taken the international choral scene by storm. I think they are absolutely fantastic.

The phrase Cantate Domino basically translates "Sing to the Lord." This text, from Psalm 96:1-4,  it is often used as an Introit for one of the five Sundays after Easter. This song of rejoicing fits well both following Easter, and as a song of spring. After several weeks of overcast, grey days, we had several days of glorious sunshine this week. While that sunshine creates an explosion of blooming bulbs in my garden, it also creates a lighter heart. I think this version of Cantate Domino by Josu Elberdin, sung in English, Basque and Latin, beautifully captures the joy of this text.

If you are so inclined, you can follow part of the the score here. 

Fascinating

Photo by Camera Press / Renton

The royal wedding last year created a fascinator craze around the world. All of a sudden, everyone had heard of fascinators and knew what they were. This was somewhat disappointing for me, as I had been a lone lover of fascinators for the previous decade, and received a fair amount of weird stares and whispers behind my back whenever I showed up at a wedding or Easter Sunday wearing coloured feathers on my head. I do admit that fascinators are a bit ridiculous but I love them just the same. 

When I got married, there was no question- I was going to wear a fascinator. Finding one in North America in 2007 was next to impossible, and I had to enlist the help of my soon-to-be sister-in-law, who thankfully was living in England at the time. I bought a fascinator online, shipped it to her (I couldn't find a fascinator seller who would ship to Canada), and my soon-to-be mother-in-law brought it back to Canada when she returned from a visit. Jeff picked it up from his Mom and brought it to me in Ontario during one of his visits so that I could finally see it in person. From there, my mother transported it back to BC with her after her visit (there were lots of visits the Fall of 2007) so that I wouldn't have to worry about damaging or misplacing it in my cross-country move a month later (just two weeks before we got married). Yes- all that went down just so that I could wear feathers on my head down the aisle. I suppose that was my Bridezilla moment.

Nowadays, fascinators have become almost mainstream. I was at the Bay department store recently and saw a whole rack of feathered beauties for sale in every colour under the rainbow. In North America, you can now find fascinators:

handmade on Etsy

 from hip clothing retailers like Forever 21

from my very favourite Canadian hat shop, Beau Chapeau in Niagara-on-the-Lake

from Canadian millinery designer Oh Dina

at Fascinators NYC

Unfortunately, life on Vancouver Island does not present many social occasions that require, or even warrant wearing a fascinator. I wore hats twice last year- once for Easter Sunday and once, to a friend's wedding. This year, I have yet to break open any of my hat boxes... and that makes me a little sad. I think I'll have to host a tea party for the Queen's Jubilee. 

my wedding fascinator, as it appeared on Ebay...

... and on the big day.

Salmon #8: Pan Seared Salmon with Capers

While focused on finishing grad school for the past five months, I have regretfully not kept up with my 2011-12 Salmon Challenge... at least not in this public forum. Offline, Jeff and I have continued trying new salmon recipes. With many weeks to catch up in time for our October deadline, this will now become a weekly feature. Thanks to the three readers who reminded me to get back on top of this challenge!

During the craziness of thesis writing, quick meals with minimal preparation became necessary in our household. We tried this recipe, thinking it would be a little boring, but were very pleasantly surprised. I usually keep capers (small berries that grow in the Mediterranean and are pickled so that they become like mini-olives) in my pantry for a few recipes, and they really are important in this one. If you've never bought capers before, they come in small narrow glass jars and are usually found close to the olives in the grocery store.

 Just a note- while there are several versions of salmon with capers, we've tried a few (some with wine or other herbs) and the simplest, in this case, really does seem to be best. For a dish with very few ingredients, this is delicious. I suspect, however, it's a dish where salmon quality is important so find the best fish you can.

Pan Seared Salmon with Capers
adapted from the Food Network and All Recipes

photo used with permission from All Recipes.com

4 (6 ounce) fillets salmon
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons capers (drained)
~1/4 teaspoon salt
~1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 slices lemon

Preheat a large heavy skillet over medium heat until medium-hot. Remove salmon skin and coat one side of each fillet lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle this side with salt and pepper, place in skillet (seasoned side down), and increase heat to high. Cook for ~3 minutes. Brush second side with olive oil, then sprinkle with capers, and salt and pepper. Turn salmon over, and cook for ~4 minutes, or until browned. Salmon is done when it is just cooked through and flakes easily with a fork. Transfer salmon to individual plates, and garnish with lemon slices if you're feeling fancy. We usually skip this step (!) and dig in. Either way, enjoy!

My view

This is a repeat on the view from last week... this time with an open blossom. The magnolias bloom for only a few weeks, I just had to share.

The Sound of Hope

If you look at the heart of the Easter story, it's message is one of salvation, and of hope.

On Easter Sunday, Jeff and I came home and decided to put up our feet after what had been a very enjoyable, but very busy weekend. We don't watch much TV but for some reason, we turned it on and happened upon the final segment in this week's episode of 60 Minutes. I don't know why we tuned into this particular show (one we don't usually watch) or why we turned on the TV in perfect time to catch this particular segment. What I do know, however, is that it was one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen. If you like music, I can not encourage you enough to take 13 minutes to watch it (click here). 

I really believe that this is what hope sounds like.

Photos all from Le Figaro by Vincent Boisot