Feeding the Bears

Bears in Yosemite can be dangerous, not just because they are wild animals, but also because they have been fed by humans and see humans as a food source. Normal bears avoid human contact, making a confrontation unlikely. Yosemite bears not only do not avoid human contact, but some actively seek it. They are begging for food, and if we had never fed them, they would have mostly left us alone. This is similar to my friend R. If I had never fed him, he would have wondered away by now. Just like the early Yosemite tourists, I fed the bears, and now I can't get rid of him.

Today we made shortbread cookies. They're very simple. I used a recipe from Miriam Peskowizt's book The Daring Book for Girls (an excellent book btw). There are three ingredients: butter, flour, and sugar. Our dough turned out a little crumbly, probably because we lack any kind of electronic mixing device so creaming the butter and sugar is difficult, but it did eventually get rolled out into a sheet ready to be cut with cookie cutters. I got out a glass to cut circles with. Shortbread cookies are supposed to be round. I cut one out, sptula'd it onto the cookie sheet and glanced up at my engineer. He was using a dinasaur cookie cutter. "Look!" he ecxlaimed proadly, "Shortbread dinosaurs!" I tried to explain why this was a bad idea. The thin points at tail and neck would cook faster than the rest, posibly turning a dark burnt brown before the centers were done, but all that resulted in was him reaching for the tin foil to protect some parts from overbaking. I was not about to let him start in building something, so I told him it would be fine and popped them in the oven. When they came out, the dinosaurs were indeed a dark unapetizing brown, but he happily munched away, eating heads first, and mumbling about the dinosaur shape effecting his perception of the cookie which makes it taste better. I let him have all the non-round cookies since no one else wanted them. There I go again, feeding the bears.

I Live with Engineers

Perhaps it's because my parents were engineers, or perhaps because I grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley, but I seem to attract nerdy friends .  They aren't the classic nerds with Scotch-taped glasses and no social skills; they are perfectly capable of holding an interesting intelligent conversation with one person, but would rather jump off a cliff than go to a loud crowded party.  They are engineers.  They build things, design things, solve math problems, find solutions, and are generally useful, as long as you don't expect the fraternity lifestyle.  Everyone I know is an engineer.  My life is full of them.  In many ways I prefer it that way.  I never have to fix the internet myself, or worry that I won't be able to solve a mechanical problem.  Because of their addiction to learning new things and researching interests they have new things to talk about almost daily and can find out anything you want as long as they have access to the internet (or a library).  The disadvantages of being surrounded by engineers also exist, and mostly manifest themselves when I try to cook.

Making food for my friends is a common occurrence.  It's one of the ways I show affection and appreciation.  Something about cooking for someone makes me feel like we have a real friendship.  However, cooking with some of my friends has pushed our relationships to their very limit.  Try asking an engineer to dice a tomato into 1/4 inch cubes.  Normal people chop the tomato into reasonably sized chunks that are mostly the same size.  An engineer is very likely to pull out a ruler and make each piece identically shaped and sized.  These kinds of skills are important if you are building a bridge or designing a microchip, but not exactly essential to making tomato sauce.  Try explaining that to an engineer.  Go ahead, I dare you.

I am not an engineer.  I have a degree in music and am about to begin a masters program in education so I can teach kindergarten.  I do not have many of the obsessions and quircks that my friends do, but it seems I cannot escape them.  My life will never be free from XKCD quotes and extraordinarily exact measurments.  But do I really want my life to be different? Only when I'm in the kitchen.