Another Blog Challenge question

Stationery. When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?

Ummm....stationery? What's that? Doesn't everybody just use email these days?

Blog Challenge

I just read about and joined a Blog Challenge where bloggers like me answer a different question for each day of December. Today's is:

Shop. Online or offline, where did you spend most of your mad money this year?

EASY. Amazon.com. It's just so easy to buy things on Amazon. We all know have to navigate the site. Everything is clear. There are no nasty crowds. I find shopping in our little town very unpleasant, for various reasons, most of which if I explained them, you would think I was uncaring and elitist.

So, I'll leave it at that.

Further Tales of Family Christmas Decorating Moments

Sweetie and I have absolutely NO lights on the outside of our house. We are clearly the Grinches on the block. Our next door neighbor said he and his wife only had two fights while decorating the mailbox.

Speaking of outside decorations, my dad used to do an amazing job with the lights on the outside of the house. It was the best decorated house on the block!! So one fine spring day when it was time to take down the lights, Dad was taking the lights off by the living room windows when Mom came home and drove in the garage and heard a "crunch, crunch, crackle, crackle" sound. Not realizing what it was, she put the car in reverse and heard some more "crunch, crunch, crackle, crackle" sound but not as much. She then looked over to the sidewalk by the front door and saw Dad with his jaw dropped down to his chest and realized by his expression that she had just run over most of his Christmas lights. She wisely decided she had not finished running her errands, said same to him and got the "heck out of Dodge." She really could not help laughing - without him seeing - as she thought "Well, whatever I did not run over the first time, I think I certainly got when I put it in reverse."

It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without....

It wouldn't be Christmas without a tree.

So, yesterday, Sweetie and I went down to the local golf course where the YMCA was selling live trees as a fundraiser.  

I've never had a live tree before due to my allergies (they have better drugs now).  Sweetie and I were slightly limited in the sense that whatever tree we got, it had to fit in the Fit.  So, we went for one about 5 feet tall.  And we fit it into the car with no trouble.

Then we got home and retrieved Sweetie's German tree holder.  And we proceded to put the tree into the holder, except that the trunk was too wide for the holder.  Lovely.  

Sweetie luckilly noticed that if we just sawed off one of the knobby things sticking out of the trunk, we could probably slide it into the holder. So, he ventured next door and got a hand saw from the neighbor.  And he sawed off two knobby things.  And then it fit.  Hooray.

I boiled some sugar water, as that is what the lady at the golf course told us.  And we filled the basin.  Ta da.

It wouldn't be Christmas without lights on the tree

I dragged out my various dregs of Christmas lights and at some point yesterday evening gave up finding a set that actually worked properly.  

This morning, I resumed the tree light production.  And Sweetie commented that I was "all happy putting up the tree lights."  I stopped in my tracks and said, "If you knew my family and had known my dad, you would know that putting up tree lights is NEVER a happy occasion."  

Indeed, as we were growing up, there were the various stages of the tree light production.  Stage One probably ran until we were about 7.  That's when Mom and Dad cooperated in the tree lighting/decorating venture.  Then Stage Two ran from about age 8 until age 16.  That's when Mom left the house during the tree lighting/decorating venture.   Thereafter, I think everyone except for Dad left the house for the tree lighting/decorating venture.  Dad, may he rest in peace, had VERY specific ideas about how the tree lighting/tinsel placing production had to be implemented.  And unfortunately, the rest of us did not always follow his vision (it wasn't insubordination -- just a lack of attention to detail on our part).

So, I was not exactly "happily" lighting the tree.

It also wouldn't be Christmas without....

This evening, after I painstakingly arranged our new bow on top of the tree and painstakingly placed assorted new bulb ornaments on the tree, Sweetie admired my work.  Then he made some comment that the tree "seems to be leaning."  And "we better keep an eye on it."

With Sweetie at the table grading papers, and me at the computer doing some Christmas browsing, suddenly there was a mighty "WHOOSH!" sound from the corner of the living room.  "No way!" I thought, as I turned.  And sure enough, the tree was no longer standing.  

So, we both raced over as Sweetie sat at the base of the tree declaring, "I knew it!!!" and "&*%$^%&!"  I meanwhile got behind it and pulled it up with my brute strength.  Of course, at that point I'm pretty sure the gallons of water in the holder had already been deposited onto the carpet.  It was also at that point that I realized maybe it would be wise to unplug the lights, given that I was sitting in a pool of water.

(Of course, as I am writing this, I keep glancing back to make sure it's still standing).

Anyway, the tree is back up, this time sitting on a marble cutting board and surrounded by forest green towels....

More of Sunny, Summery England

It's getting down into the 30s here now, so I'm going to carry on with my summer England travelogue.

Salisbury

Sweetie and I paid a visit to the town of Salisbury, which was really cool as I read "Pillars of the Earth" last year (fantastic read!!!) and I could just imagine it in medieval times. The Cathedral is stunningly large and very impressive inside.

We grabbed some soup and a sandwich for lunch at a small cafe in the town before heading off to our next stop.

Kingston Lacy

Since Sweetie has a National Trust membership, getting him into NT properties for free, we stopped at every NT property we could as we traversed the countryside.  Kingston Lacy was a grand specimen -- an enormous estate house with expansive gardens showcasing everything from hostas to Japanese maples.  They even had a "Japanese garden," which, while not quite my vision of a Japanese garden, was very nice to look at.

From there, we headed to the town of Swanage, along the coast, where we spent several nights in a neat little boutique B&B:   "Swanage Haven."  The owner showed us up to our room and pointed out the various amenities.  Sweetie and I took a brief nap and then showered and got ready to head out for dinner.  Except I couldn't find the hairdryer.  Which was really odd, because I absolutely positively remembered seeing it when the owner showed us the room.  I remembered him opening the top drawer of the dresser and there it was.  But it wasn't there now.  

Sweetie and I actually BOTH remembered seeing the hairdryer, which made it all the more perplexing . We eventually gave up and went downstairs in search of one of the owners.  We found David and we enlightened us about the "secret drawer" which was hidden INSIDE the top drawer.  DUH.  Anyway, crisis resolved.

Swanage was a great launching point for some amazing sites.  The town itself was impressive mostly in the sense that it had an INDIAN restaurant which we definitely took advantage of (somewhat unfortunate that we were so stuffed from good-eating on our trip that we could not quite finish our meals), and lovely seaside scenery.

Just a short drive or train ride away was the village of Corfe and the ruins of the mighty Corfe Castle, which could not have been more spectacular.  Despite some pretty ferocious winds at the ruins, Sweetie and I explored them at length and got some amazing photos.

The site was actually pretty mobbed with people, but you can't really tell that from the photo.  The village itself was absolutely adorable, and the ancient stone houses were so old that the doorways were noticeably shorter than average.

After exploring the ruins, we indulged in some delicious Purbeck ice cream, named for this region of England. 

Forcing my way out of the doldrums

We've endured entirely too much unseasonably cold, cloudy, and sometimes downright nasty weather this fall.  I actually feel like summer never came.  I kept waiting for it to get steamy and sweaty, like a Japanese summer, but it never happened.

And now I feel like winter is upon our doorstep.  I missed my best chance for fall photography last weekend when I was attending a conference.  A reminder of why I left graduate school after my M.A.  Who wants to be cooped in a dull classroom discussing the finer points of say, pornographic Japanese fiction, when you could be outside frolicking in piles of golden leaves?

So, I'm taking us on a virtual tour back to summer, and my warm and wonderful trip to England.

I already wrote about the world's greatest country boutique hotel ever.  

The New Forest

The hotel was in the New Forest, which is basically a big national park area, with towns and villages within it, that hosts thousands of wild ponies.  They are everywhere.  In parking lots, in the street, and in fields everywhere.  

Besides our stay in the Whitley Ridge, we also attended a family wedding in the New Forest.  Sadly, rain paid a visit, but Sweetie and I had fun with the children in the hotel garden.  We had run out to the car to get something, and the children were slinking around the garden and running from everyone they saw.  When they saw us, they'd run in the other direction.  This was amusing for about 5 minutes, and then the kids saw us, pointed, and shouted "Murderer!" and at that point, we decided we were very much done playing their game!

Motisfont Abbey

We visited the most glorious garden at Motisfont Abbey.  I could have stayed there for hours snapping photos of the bright flowers and bumble bees flitting from bloom to bloom.  The sun made an appearance and really warmed things up.  

Porchester Castle

Sweetie took me to the impressive Porchester Castle, in his home town (castles and gardens were tops on my list of things to do on our trip).  Located on the sea, it was an impressive fortress, still in very good condition.  We climbed up to the top, with its panoramic views of Portsmouth.  

Boo~~!

Have you been "Boo"-ed yet?  Or ever?  Do  you know what I'm talking about?

Last night, the doorbell rang wildly.  It was pitch black outside and we didn't have any outside lights on.  I was scared.  I didn't know who it was.  I gingerly approached the front door.  I then went around to the kitchen and peeked through the blinds.  I didn't see anyone.  

Across the road, I saw that our neighbor was outside his house, so I figured that if I opened the door and someone tried to attack me, he would notice.  So, I opened the door.

And there I saw a small, elegantly-wrapped bag with "Boo" written on a piece of white paper sticking out of the top.

After a moment of deliberation, I decided that a bomber would probably NOT wrap an incendiary device so elegantly.  So, I grabbed the bag and opened it up inside.

There was a poem with the "Boo" sign that explained that I was to do the same thing for two other neighbors within the next 24 hours.  The bag was full of all sorts of cool goodies like a really nice Halloween candle, some apples with caramel dip, Georgia pecans, assorted candy, and a Halloween towel.  It was really sweet!!

At that point, I figured that many neighbors had not yet been "boo"-ed and that I would have my pick the next night.  But alas, by the time I returned from a post-work shopping run, all of the friendly people we know on the street had already been "boo"-ed.  I found it interesting that the none of the folks we don't really care for had been boo-ed!  Apparently others share our taste in neighbors.

So, I ventured down to another cul-de-sac, where the two other people who work at the college live.  They didn't have Boo signs visible.  It wasn't quite dark yet, but I didn't really fancy walking around on a dark, cold, rainy, windy night, so I went out just before dark.  I think I might have been spotted after my first drop.  And by the time I made the second drop, I was very hesitant when I pressed the doorbell.  I'm not even sure it rang.  Oh well!  Hopefully they use their front door occasionally:-)

Try starting a Boo tradition in your neighborhood!  Now is about the time to get started -- two weeks before Halloween.

What ARE you doing?

This is what Sweetie said to me the other day.  I knew he was going to ask.  It's not everyday that you see someone boiling strawberries and rasberries and then setting them out to dry on the counter.   

I read about this method of keeping berries fresh and mold-free for longer in the New York Times.  I read that parboiling them could not only stunt or prevent mold growth, but actually REMOVE moldy bits.  And I needed a miracle, as roughly half the box of rasberries I had bought the day before was moldy.  

Definitely the boiling seemed to freshen up some of the berries.  But the clumped masses encrusted in mold, sadly remained....clumped masses encrusted in mold.  But, the boiling definitely seemed to improve the flavor, remarkably! 

Try it sometime!

Scrabble Injury

Sweetie and I have pretty serious Scrabble games. They tend to involve words such as "thrashed." And the other day, I think I broke a rib. Or bruised it. I might even have a collapsed lung. It was intense.

How it happened was....I was carrying Sweetie super gigantic Cambridge English Dictionary to check a word, and I wasn't watching where I was going. I managed to walk full-force into a wall. Which thrust the dictionary into my ribs. Yeah, super-coordinated. Way cool.

IT Hero

Sweetie and I finally caved and bought a wireless router for our house and a laptop for Sweetie (well, Sweetie bought the laptop for Sweetie but I picked it out). I was a little apprehensive about the whole router thing, particularly as the reviews for the router, while sterling, said to all sorts of mysterious things like: "I had a little trouble getting it to work.  It turned out that there was an IP conflict. To fix it I did the following: In ''DHCP Settings'', I changed the ''Start IP Address: 192.168.0.100'' to 192.168.0.1. I also cloned the mac address with the one I had on my last router. Finally, I changed the ''Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1'' to 192.168.0.1. After that, everything was working fine."

O-KAY.  

Yeah.  And, I did also recall that I paid approximately $100 extra to have my router in Israel installed by a professional and I do recall that it took Techo Geek roughly 3 hours to install it.  So, quite how I expected that I would be able to install this darn thing, I don't know.

Well, I followed the instructions and booted up Sweetie's new computer and NOTHING.  Then, I plugged it directly in my computer, ignoring the whole wireless aspect and... NOTHING.  Then, I plugged my computer directly back into our modem and....NOTHING.  Crap.  So, now, not only did the router not work, but NOTHING worked.  We had NO INTERNET WHATSOEVER.  Lovely.  

So, a small (okay, large) marital meltdown ensued as Sweetie was nastily (he will agree, it was nasty) accusing me of screwing everything up and declaring that he wanted me to repackage the whole lot of equipment and send it all back.  Meanwhile, I was crying and screaming in indignation: "I was just trying to improve our lives!!!!"  

Apparently, this is all very normal human behavior surrounding a non-professional attempt at self-installing a wireless router.

What I didn't know is that sometimes it takes up to 12 hours for the router to kick into gear.  

So, the next morning, Sweetie turned on his laptop and had an internet connection.

And all was well in the world again.

I told Sweetie he could call me "Hero" for one month.  He said he would go for "IT Hero," which I actually prefer.

The Last Straw

You may remember my tirade about our crazy neighbor "Rodeo."  Well, he just returned from one of his jaunts on his ear-blastingly loud motorcycle and is now "dusting" his motorcycle with a leafblower.  Not joking.  Wish I were.  I am about to lose my mind entirely.  The sound carries through the entire neighborhood when he has that thing blowing.  As if the nightly 11PM blasts from his motorcycle going past our house were not enough.

Is it, or is it not?

So....it started with a sore throat. And some nasal issues. So, I took some daytime cold medicine and went to work. Then, in the evening I took some night-formula cold medicine. I slept really well, only waking Sweetie up once in a coughing fit. But, then the alarm went off and I could barely lift my arm 2 inches to turn it off. I tried to sit up in bed and it was clear that I wasn't going to be making it to the living room anytime soon, let alone the office. I dashed off an email to my colleagues, stumbled back into bed, and slept for another full 4 hours and 45 minutes. Extraordinary.

I didn't have a fever, but then again, I was already taking antibiotics for an unrelated medical issue, and my body temperature is naturally a degree or two below normal, so what defines a fever for me is not entirely clear.

Yesterday I felt somewhat recovered -- at least enough to take a shower and comb my hair, so I went to the office and managed to eek out about 4 hours of work.

Sweetie has since displayed similar symptoms.

And then there was the email from the college where we work saying that a student has probable swine flu.

Hmmmm.....

So, at this point, we're thinking, maybe what we had/have WAS the swine flu?? Can I now run around campus touching door handles and drinking fountains with abandon, flaunting my new immunity?

Or, was it just a head cold?

Catching up

I'm a bad blogger. I just realized that I'm averaging one post a month. That's bad. Well, patient readers, this is what the RSS is for. Click the magic orange button on the side of your screen and you be alerted via email on those increasingly rare occasions that I post something:-)

Shock and School

As some of you know, I work at a college. And I just recently settled into a nice, quiet, work-on-projects-I-never-have-time-to-work-on summer mode, and all of a sudden, there are STUDENTS around. Making noise. Talking in the halls (horror of all horrors!). Using the bathrooms. Shouting. Interrupting my productivity-inducing tranquility. It's quite a shock to my system.

And presumably bringing swine flu back with them from all reaches of the country and world.  Should be a fun fall!

Taking a break
As some of you might also know, Sweetie and I have been house-hunting for some time now. It finally reached a point where we were so disgusted with the process that we needed to stop. So, we're taking a break for a month or two. We're not meeting our realtor, not making offers on any houses, and not visiting any open houses. Hooray for sanity.

England

I still haven't written about our trip to England. Well, it got off to a great start when I breezed through immigration and customs (my suitcase was one of the first off the carousel) so quickly that Sweetie had to do a double-take when he saw me emerge through the glass doors.  

This time, we had wisely reserved a room at an airport hotel (I arrived at night), so we took a shuttle there and were able to crash for the evening before heading out to the countryside the next day.

Brockenhurst and the Whitley Ridge Hotel

After a brief stop in the quaint, pony-populated village of Burley, we proceded toward Brockenhurst, a town which we drove around in circles approximately twice looking for our B&B for the night.  We finally asked a woman walking down the street (a non-English speaker it turned out -- isn't it always the case that the foreigner gets asked for directions?).  She was able to point us straight in the correct direction.

We entered a private, wooded driveway and at the end of it was the most elegant ivy-covered building.  An assortment of young French men greeted us and got us settled in our room.  We had some time to explore the grounds before our dinner reservation at the Michelin-starred LePoussin restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel.

They had an enchanting walled garden bursting with vegetables.  And beyond that a wild garden with a waterfall and a serene lilly pond.  

Dinner was so good, it was practically life-changing.  I shudder thinking about the pasta with canned beans and sauce that I made for dinner tonight.  You cannot call that food in comparison to what we ate at Le Poussin.  Sweetie actually declared upon eating a white truffle (of the dessert variety, not the mushroom -- those kinds of truffles were in my first course risotto) that he would never eat in a non-Michelin-starred restaurant again.  (Needless to say, that lasted all of 24 hours).  To put this comment into perspective, Sweetie is not the type to get excited about food.  He usually barely notices food.  In fact, once I came home from work looking forward to eating my leftover cheese-free vegetable pizza, only to find that Sweetie had consumed it without even noticing that it was my pizza and not his own meat and cheese encrusted pizza.

So, to make a long story slightly less long, if you go to England, you really must spend the night at the Whitley Ridge and reserve a dinner in advance at Le Poussin!  Well worth it!!!  (Easy for me to say, since it was Sweetie's treat.  Thanks Sweetie!  I love you!)

Gardens and Castles and Great Food

Sweetie and I recently escaped to England. In short, it was wonderful. I'll write more later, but here's a picture to get things started -- it's a place called Mottisfont Abbey and has the most wonderful and extensive walled garden.

Note the appropriately cloudy sky.  Miraculously, we dodged the rain for most of the trip!

Secret Gardens

Today we saw the neighbors' gardens, or yards as most Americans call them. Little did we know what wonders were hidden behind the non-descript homes on our street.

It turns out that this year's local garden tour featured homes exclusively on our street. Luckilly, we learned about this two-day fest from someone where I work. Our neighbor across the street (Rodeo) was not so lucky and was out in all his shirtless, drunken glory from 8AM until about 2PM providing the masses with some unexpected entertainment (ever watch a completely toasted man hack away at a small tree with an 6 foot electric trimmer from an 8 foot ladder? Well, lots of unsuspecting folks witnessed the spectacle today).

It was really eye-opening for us to see what secret worlds our neighbors were hiding beside and behind their homes.   There were colonies of hostas, trickling waterfalls and fountains,  fragrant gardens of basil and verbena, lush hydrangeas, benches nestled in shaded hillside nooks, large swaths of wooded areas providing privacy, built-in professional-grade out-door grills, and all sorts of gorgeous flowering beauties that I cannot name.  

One home was actually showing off its kitchen (we were a bit baffled until we went inside).  It turns out the owner is a builder and built the house and now has added a cabinet business.  We had complete and total home envy.  The home was like a luxury lodge inside, with refined yet hearty woods (the hardwood floors were the most gorgeous I have ever seen), stucco walls, a pretty amazing kitchen, and all sorts of built-in wooden cabinets.   We had no idea walking by that house on our evening walks.....It was pretty amazing.

So, we walked home to our "power sub-station"-looking house slightly dejected.  :-)  We look forward to the day when we have some at least semi-permanent, a place that we feel like investing in.  Somewhere I can plant herbs and flowers and we can build our own private paradise.  

Dear Neighbor

I need a Zen moment like this chipmunk.  Why? Because our neighbors are driving us crazy.... 

Dear Neighbor (aka Rodeo),

I know that life is tough when you have Adult ADHD and other assorted conditions that cause you to use your leafblower approximately 18 hours a day for no purpose whatsoever than to blow non-existent dust off your driveway and into your yard, at which point you crank up your lawn vacuum (a new and very exciting toy for Rodeo) and suck up all the dirt and leaves in your yard.  And I know that you really LOVE hacking your trees and bushes apart with your various electric cutters, so that you can then repeat the leaf blower+lawn vacuum process.  And yes, I am sure there are many pieces of wood that then really must be sawed apart in your garage at 10PM.  

But, for the love of every human being within earshort (roughly 5 miles) of your machines and toys, can you just.....stuff it!!!!  

Dear Neighbor #2 (aka Crazy Guy)

Listen, I know some people are really dedicated to their Lawn Boy mowers.  It's a bit like a cult, I believe.  But when the day comes that you have to run the mower over each patch of grass roughly 15 times, I think the mower needs to be laid to rest.  When it takes you one hour and approximately 10 gallons of sweat to mow a patch of grass the size of my dining room table, I think that's a problem.

Dear Neighbor #3 (aka Guy We Like) 

Although it was slightly irritating for about a week when you had heavy equipment moving between a two-story-tall cement pile on the street  and your back yard multiple times a day, we now praise you for your very considerate gesture of paving over your entire backyard and creating some sort of entertainment masterpiece of tiered patios and assorted amenities such as a hot tub.  Pure genius!!

Wild Kingdom

Lately our backyard has become quite the wild kingdom.  Some robins hatched on a ledge just underneath our deck.  Whenever mommy bird isn't there, the dad stands watch in the yard and squaks incessantly at me if I dare to walk anywhere in the backyard.  He's also been known to buzz through the narrow area under the deck in some sort of intimidation move.

 Perhaps this is why I've seen less the past few days of our family of chipmunks, who have a rather substantial hole in the backyard.  

They tend to poke their heads  out one by one at around 8AM each morning, surveying the surroundings until they determine it safe to leave their hole.  

They then head over to the fish pond and frolic around on the rocks surrounding the pond. They like to stand up on a large rock and I've even seen one leap onto Sweetie's Japanese lantern and sit up on top of it like a king.

And occasionally we'll catch sight of one of the goldfish we bought recently for the pond, although they tend to stay on the bottom.  I hope they will start to surface more once they grow a bit and are less intimidated by all the other creatures in the yard.

Unplanned Travel

I can't believe it has been so long since I've written.  Sweetie and I have had a lot of travel lately, much of it unplanned.  My wonderful grandma had a heart attack a few weeks ago, so we rushed home one weekend to visit her.  She looked suprisingly well and it was wonderful to see her.  

Everytime I have gone overseas since 1992, I have worried that it might be the last time I would see my grandparents.  It proved true with my grandpa during my last overseas stint, but that means that he had many great healthy years with us, for which I am very grateful.  I do miss his handmade Christmas chocolates and peanut brittle, and the hugs he gave me, particularly after my father died 6 years ago unexpectedly.  For some reason, Grandpa's consolation was the only thing that helped me at that time.  I felt like he really understood how I was feeling.

Then we were off to Virginia for my college reunion (I cannot believe it has been that long...and how long that is, I will not say!).  How interesting it was to meet up with the same girls who I shared a hall with all those years ago (and it really does not feel like that long ago AT ALL).  We've stayed in touch fairly well, and I'd seen them all within the past 3 years, so there were no big shockers.  I think the only shocker is how little we have all changed in the grand scheme.  Even though we've all grown and matured, the lush is still the lush, the study bug is still the party pooper, the perky one is still the perky one...and you know how it goes.  It's such a fun group and we all balance eachother so well!

Gorgeous vistas

Last weekend, on a rare sunny day, Sweetie and I ventured to a nearby "environmental center" that Sweetie had scoped out last fall shortly after we moved here.  I LOVED it.  Unlike the nearly arboretum, which has wooded trails that look largely the same, this place had obviously been planned out and offered different ecosystems and vistas, largely for educational purposes.  

Despite the bone-chilling wind that whipped up as we emerged from the forested area, I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and can't wait to go back -- maybe next time with tripod in hand.  I recently bought an amazing tripod and even more amazing head (both Manfrotto and ridiculously easy to adjust).

Tea time

Today I had three students over for a chanoyu (tea ceremony) experience.  I felt oddly satisfied for getting up early on Saturday morning and preparing the dogu (utensils).  I do miss my regularly weekly lessons that required early wakeups each Saturday.  I admired the students for getting up early themselves!  And being ready ON TIME for Sweetie to pick them up.  There are few young (or old!) people these days with the discipline necessary to commit to a "Way" (such as tea or the martial arts).  I know a few at the college where I teach and I admire them immensely.

The pic is not of my current tea room, but of my teacher's in Okinawa.  I miss her and my fellow students there so much, but I carry their spirit and enthusiasm with me.

Make up your mind

This is a stylized photo that I took while in California last month.  We haven't had great weather for picture taking here lately.  In fact, we've been having typical Midwest weather lately.   Sweetie thought spring had solidly arrived, but I knew better.  I remember May blizzards in Ohio.  So, it did not surprise me that we have snow forecast for tomorrow.

What did surprise me was the siren that I faintly heard while cooking this afternoon at home.  Sweetie and I both noticed it, I turned off the stovetop fan, and confirmed that it was an emergency siren, and said to Sweetie, "We must go downstairs.  Now.  Right now."  

I knew that it had to be a tornado siren, and once we hunkered down and turned on a radio, we found out that indeed it was.  

So, we spent part of our evening debating the relative merits of a particular corner of the "tea room" vs. the "office" closet.  We requisitioned my exercise mat for cover.  And I managed to clean up my mess from a tea presentation yesterday at the college.  So, all in all, a rather productive and instructive 30 minutes of so.  

And thankfully, we did not have to assume the position!  

Making Your Own Trail

Recently, Sweetie and I spent a week in the desert of California with my mother and her friend who I will affectionately call VW (more on that later).

We visited them in a tiny desert town (not even one stop light) two hours from San Diego. Our only goal for the week was to do some hiking in the desert, but those plans were flatly denied on Day One by the 2 inches of rain that fell (please note: the town only gets 6 inches of rain in a good YEAR.)

After a day feeling like caged animals, we made our way to Pam Canyon on Day Two.

I was nervously watching the threatening clouds, as we plunged further into the desert CANYON (not the place you want to be in a rainstorm). VW, with his many years of experience living in desert, finally declared that it would not rain, so we forged ahead. At one point, I do recall asking mom if there was a river in the canyon, because I could hear the sound of water flowing. I think she attributed the sound to the wind.

But, as we neared the oasis of palm trees the beckoned us from the deep in the canyon, we reached a point where we had to cross a raging stream. After watching a young boy mis-step on a rock in the stream and get wet up to his knee, I declared that I would just have to see the oasis next year.  Btw, this is one of mom's pics, as is the one below.  Sometimes I wish I used a plain old point-shoot camera and didn't feel compelled to take my pics in RAW, which requires complex converting later (but allowed me to Photoshop the sunrise photo -- sunrise over the "badlands" had me wishing I had some filters...those will be my next camera purchase!) 

Anyway, on the return, members of our party were determined to take a different trail back and this necessitated crossing the Raging River. The menfolk took to building a bridge by throwing assorted rocks into the stream. My desire to cross the stream further deteriorated when VW threw a rather large rock into the stream and it was swiftly and without hesitation swept downstream. Meanwhile, Mom (who is proud of her farm upbringing) felt like moving the process along, and took off her shoes and waded across the brisk waters slightly further downstream. In the end, we all followed suit, except for VW, who forged onward, ultimately finding a spot where he could cross and remain completely dry. Those of us who got wet were able to use Mom's white shirt, which was the first "flesh wound" casualty of the day. We used it to clean our feet and our wet feet cleaned the blood of her shirt -- a fair trade.

We had other hikes in store for us -- but many involved my least-favorite line of the trip: "You just sorta make your own trail."  This was really NOT a popular line when Mom and I emerged from the "Slot Canyon" only to be faced with a rather sheer rock face leading up to the parking area.  Mom took a very flexible approach to the ascent trail.  I wanted her to identify the official, approved trail up this sheer rock face.   Ie: the trail least likely to result in loss of life or limb for me.  She said, "Oh, well, you can go up there.  Or you can go up down here.  Or, well, you just sorta make your own trail."

Umhum.  Thank you for that great wisdom, Mom.

I nearly slid right back down the sheer rock face.  Hiking boots only provide so much traction, you know.  And I had visions of various friends and relatives who have visited my mom (and dad, back in the day) in California, and found myself asking, "Did so-and-so go up here??  I can't imagine that Aunt Such-and-Such would have been too fond of this!"  I will quiz (or warn) them all at the next family picnic. 

This pic was taken from the guest bedroom window.  Quite striking!

Oh yes, and the VW nickname -- I have decided that all VW drivers are maniacs. Yes, VW-driving friends, I do mean you.  VW is the only person I know who can do about 50 mph on a steep mountain road hairpin turn AND spot a big-horn sheep off in the distance AT THE SAME TIME.  Thanks VW -- that sheep-sighting made our trip complete!

We really had an enjoyable visit.  Despite all the random trailblazing, we had a great time and will plan this as a regular winter escape!

Going crazy

Just a quick post to say that I'm still here, just a bit overwhelmed with administrative tasks at home these days.  I hope there will be a light at the end of the tunnel soon, but in the meantime, we are plugging along.

We did get to spend the weekend in Chicago due to a meeting for my work.  We managed to get amazing seats at the last minute for a sold-out performance of "The Seafarer" at the Steppenwolf Theater.  We really enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone in Chicago.  

Also, I highly recommend the current photography exhibit at the Art Institute: Yousuf Karsh: Regarding Heroes.  An extraordinary collection of photographs of some of the 20th century's most extraordinary personalities!  From Castro to Mandela to the head of the Kita school of Noh drama.  Queen Elizabeth to Albert Einstein.  

Another wintry pic to illustrate the mood here. We've had exceptionally cold temperatures lately (how about a -7F during the daytime?), but the snow on the ground has shown us each morning just how many night visitors we get. One day, it was clear a raccoon had gone around our house (and many neighbors' homes) trying to get in at every door. He had even come up our back deck and down a 360 degree turn at the top of the staircase.

Today, Sweetie noticed deer tracks(!) leading to a bush right outside our kitchen window. We often drive to other, more isolated neighborhoods to see deer in the evening, so we had no idea that they are in our own backyard during the night.

Moving in

First of all, huge thanks to VegetableJ for reminding me about her amazing cornmeal pancake recipe that I can now dig out of my collection of recipies!!  Our "STUFF" finally arrived -- literally SIX months after we had it all packed up in Israel, and after shelling out an additional $900(!) to US Customs authorities so that they could X-Ray it and rifle through it at their leisure.  What a wonderful country!

So, needless to say, we've been knee deep (literally) in unpacking, though thanks to Sweetie's errr, encouragement, I managed to get my tea room set up for all intents and purposes, adorned now with an amazing scroll sent to me by one of my unbelievably kind and generous friends in Kyushu.  I will photograph it soon.

Winter has arrived with a vengeance here, and any illusions I had about this part of the US being considerably less-wintry than where I grew up have been handily shattered by the two ice storms we've had recently.

The fruits of our Christmas Day excursion to our favorite neighborhood are above.  Sweetie and I often take evening drives to a nearby neighborhood that tends to have deer out and about.  We did that Christmas Day.  No deer this time, but plenty of peace and quiet and gorgeous ice formations.