Brooke and Jeff's Photos

Tegedegena ka di! Peanut butter Sauce is Good!

" Tege" means peanut and "tegedege" means peanut butter and "na" means sauce, SO peanut butter sauce! It was one of our Malian favorites. We decided to have Malian night at our house one day with our neighbors. When Jeff would make it in Mali, it was so good that everyone called it "tegedaoudana" instead. Jeff's Malian name was Daouda so it was like "Jeff's peanut sauce."

The rule is that Jeff cooks the sauce and I cook the rice. It's dangerous to cook in our house b/c the pups will lay right behind you and try to make you fall down and trip. I'm very accident prone SO this is probably going to happen one day.

These are our neighbors, Beth and Brennan, who humored our Malian outfits while eating Jeff's famous peanut butter sauce on rice, or tegedegena [say it like tiga-diga-na]. Jeff and Brennan had the super dressy outfits. Beth and I went more casual.

An ka voisins, Beth ni Brennan, don. U na na an ka so ka tegedegena dun an fe. An ye feti fitini ke an ka sokono walasa ka Mali feti kalan.

Dog Drama

So a couple of weeks ago, Karma and Zen got in a fight and Zen won. Karma was limping around and sad for days and I had to take her to the vet b/c she had a puncture wound in her armpit (see circled area). So I took a picture of the actual wound below. I know it looks small, but it was a real BIG FAT HOLE in Karma's leg.

Look at this proof of Zen being a ninja assassin. A silent killer if you will.

Here is Giles and Karma fighting over the prized flamingo rope toy. It was so funny to see them fight over it b/c every once in a while one would drag the other one by the toy across the floor.

Catch-Up from June

Ah-the parents! N ka bangebaw don.

This is Uncle Paul/A ye ton ton Paul ye.

The Family on the Boat/An ka somogow be batowkan.

Just wanted to post some pictures from when the family was visiting last month through this past weekend. These are from when they were here in June and we rented a boat to go out on the intercoastal canal. It was pretty fun and we were all very happy that it wasn't super sunny and hot (these non-Floridians can't handle the heat!) EXCEPT when we got caught in a tsunami storm on the way back and got drenched.

By the way, every once in a while I'm going to do some posts with text in Bambara for my Malian friends to see, so no one get freaked out ok? It looks funny spelled out.

A Peek into Work

So...these are my nerdy new pictures I just got showing the C-44 Test Cells! This is a pilot project that I am involved in at work--we built mini-versions of two reservoirs (big pools of water) and two STAs (small pools of water with plants that you can see in the top photo--no! not the one with me in rubber boots! the other one!). STA is a fancy schmancy word for treatment wetland. Next summer, we begin building the big version of a reservoir and STA on 12,000 acres. This pilot project is on 475 acres. We are looking at constructability issues out at the test cell site and doing lots of monitoring of water quality, seepage, algae (yes--I get to use a row boat in the big pool of water), and plant growth. So anyway, it's just a peek into my nerdy life and proof that every once in a while I DO get to go outside and miss my computer screen. The link on the title above takes you to the project webpage if you're interested.

More Tyndells in Florida Fun

Some more pics from AT from last weekend. My fam was in Orlando before they came down to Delray and went on an airboat tour--hence, the fun ear protectors on Judy's head!

PT and DT in FL

Here is Uncle Paul and my Dad hanging out in South Florida over the weekend. They have tickets for a possible goodie bag of Bacardi gifts at a bar!

Hurricane Season is Here

Well, June 1st was an exciting day in Florida as we welcomed hurricane season. Today we spotted the first tropical depression and the first cloudy day all day in a while. Check out the link on the title for updates during the season.

Kiwano Fear

Has anyone ever heard of a Kiwano? It's a spiney melon from New Zealand. Jeff and I were at Publix the other day and thought, "hmm...it's orange, spiney, and from New Zealand, so it must be delightful and yummy." Orange you glad you got a Kiwano? SIKE! I cut this thing open today only to find it full of green, gooey seeds like ectoplasm. I was very displeased to say the least. And it tasted like what I imagine the green catepillers mushed up must have tasted like in the new Willy Wonka movie. So disappointing. Fear the Kiwano. Fear it. Do not be decieved by the beautiful colors and spines as we were.

A Veggie Garden Update

So...proof it's going strong! The tomatoes are kicking, I've got a second round of the beautiful, yet bitter purple peppers, and the basil has gone into overload. Pesto on fried green tomatoes is looking good these days. We gave up on the lettuce since it was getting hot and the cucumbers because...it's getting hot...and put in a tabasco pepper (yes, it was Jeff "I love hot sauce" Ahrens' idea) and an orange pepper.

Ode to Toby from the Garden

Jeff took this sweet shot of our hibiscus bush. We have two and they play tag blooming so that we always have something pretty on the side yard. This is one plant that hasn't gotten burnt by the Florida sunshine.

More Cecily's Wedding Pics

Dr. Giles vs. Mr. Giles

These are two pictures of my parents' dog, Giles, portraying both personalities. You typically see Dr. Giles a little more often than Mr. Giles....it's like the Jekyll vs. Hyde complex.

And this is how the Tyndell boys relax

Thanks for the fun pic AT! Wish I could be there to hang out too.
Nice pool by the way.

Dear Cecily and Seth's Wedding

The weekend before last Jeff and I went to SC to Cecily and Seth's wedding in good ole Seneca! It was so wonderful seeing old friends and hanging out with my parents. So I wanted to post some good shots from the weekend. Cecily was too gorgeous for words. It took me a while to get update on this topic b/c Ashlee had my camera and I had hers....long story, but I got it back today! I hadn't seen Ashlee since my wedding and hadn't seen Cecily in over a year, so it was full of great memories and me not doing a good job holding back joyous tears. I'm such a wimp when it comes to old friends these days. Congratulations The Hudsons!

Memories and Scary Moments

Yeah...I haven't been updating lately, so I figured we will be gone this weekend, so I should probably do that. Last weekend the The German and his fiance, Polina, were in town, so we rented a boat on Saturday...it was super fun. Of course we had to go out on Boca Lake again and do some chillin'. The other great thing was that our other good friend from grad school, Danny, and his girlfriend Diane, was also in town so we met up at the beach on Sunday (group shot above). Patrick and Danny probably hadn't seen each other since Danny left Houghton for Peace Corps Panama so the weekend was full of good memories! Notice how Jeff is also representing the Tigers well with his hat!

So...the craziest thing ever happened on Monday when I came home. I went to look out one of the family room windows and turned my head to look at our dead bonsai tree, and there was a snake sitting there in the pot! How does a SNAKE GET IN A POT ON TOP OF A PLANT STAND INSIDE THE HOUSE!!! I was so freaked out. Jeff morphed into the Crocodile Hunter, got a pair of kitchen tongs and a pillow case, and captured the intruder for release in the yard. So of course we got pictures! Florida is getting a little too weird even for me!

And We Hoist Our Zen for Fun

A cute pic of Zen and her Daddy-O. She so rarely looks right at the camera. Notice Jeff's HDR pride.

I also want to give a shoutout to our friend, Kerri, who defended her Master's thesis today! Hooray!

A New Side Garden and a Plug Update

We did some yardwork this past weekend (it's the most exciting thing we've been doing lately), so I thought I would update everyone on the recent gardening...we're especially excited about the new banana tree and the grass plugs almost completely grown in! Also notice the HUGE bare spot in the grass by the new side garden...yeah, that's the ugly spot where there used to be a HUGE pile of rocks, soon to be covered by sod. I am hoping that these flowers on the side like lots of sun (does anyone know? roses, salvida, and hibiscus?) since that's what they get. We have recently learned that cucumbers don't do so good here--too dry, so that plant got replaced with two new pepper plants. Ah, it's a work in progress.