Cooking back to reality

My father's post from 4/28/06

2012-01-29T17:43:00.000-08:00

My father has been a CPA pretty much for all of his working life. At 83, he is the oldest, licensed, practicing accountant in the state of Florida. He has a thorough understanding of economics and the benefit of perspective of someone who has been around for a long time. I'm lucky to have a brilliant father.

He was cleaning out computer files and came across a piece he wrote in April, 2006. It's so on target, it's scary.

WHAT IF

For some years now I’ve thought of myself as living in an era in which a bumbling, incompetent administration was creating a mess that would take generations to undo. It was only a few days ago that a thought struck me. What if they’re smarter than I’m giving them credit for? What if it’s intentional? I’ve been worrying that idea, as a dog worries a bone, ever since. There’s a reasonable case to be made for the apparently random results of a number of inexplicable decisions actually being part of a larger, long term, plan.

“Third World” is a pejorative term that we apply to nations with certain characteristics. They lack a middle class. The poor are very poor. The rich are very rich. No matter what their theoretical form of government, and despite the laws on their books, the poor have no truly guaranteed rights. The rich have rights which extend well beyond what we would consider reasonable and often well beyond those which the local law allows.

Being rich in the United States is nice. Being rich in a third world nation is heavenly. I’ve been told of a family of five living with three maids, a cook, a butler and a chauffeur on $20,000 per year. The client who talked about this also mentioned how grateful the household employees were to have such wonderful employment. A friend, an Ecuadorian developer, told me that he had the legal right to have his employees whipped if they disobeyed an order. A Brazilian friend spoke of his ranch and gave me its size in hectares. It wasn’t until I returned home and looked up the size of a hectare that I realized that it was larger than the State of Rhode Island. Being really rich is only possible in the third world.

The members of the second Bush administration are all rich; well sort of rich. They’re not as rich as their Saudi friends even if they have the same amount of accumulated wealth. They are not as rich as their Latin American counterparts. It’s not that they wouldn’t like to be. It’s that the laws of the United States, at the time that George W. Bush was elected for the first time, got in the way. If we view the actions of this government as being the work of a group of greedy men trying to turn the United States into a third world nation for the benefit of themselves and their children, all of the blunders, all of the missteps, cease to be anything of the sort. They become part of a whole. They represent a group of rational steps leading to a goal. Once I reached that conclusion, I decided to enumerate the more egregious of them to see if my theory made sense.

I decided, as I always do, to look first at taxation. The graduated income tax has always been one of the impediments to accumulating wealth. The estate tax was the means of protecting society from the danger of creating a hereditary autocracy. I found that there was nothing to really think about. The income tax is much less graduated than it was at the beginning of the Bush administration. The difference between the tax rate on dividends and that on earned income is clearly an effort to disadvantage the working individual and to benefit the more sophisticated and wealthier investor. The estate tax has rapidly been reduced in scope. It is scheduled to end in 2010. It will theoretically resume in 2011 but one of the president’s stated goals is to make its demise permanent.

I next turned to the economy. Ronald Reagan cut taxes with the stated goal of starving programs that he considered to be improper as functions of government. At no time did he suggest that the government should print money or borrow it so that the programs could continue despite the lower taxes. Congress accepted only half of the program but Reagan’s intention was clear. He was a true fiscal conservative. This administration is committed to lowering taxes while continuing or expanding expensive programs. Since the people in the administration are intelligent and conservative I concluded they have not entered this course by accident. I began casting about for a rational reason for taking a government with a fiscal surplus and turning it into one with a huge deficit. The end result of such an action has to be hyper-inflation. That’s where I found my answer. One of the characteristics of third world nations is the absence of a middle class. Argentina provided the perfect model of the way to destroy your middle class. Just create a hyper-inflation and your middle class is gone. The poor live from hand to mouth. Hyper-inflation to them is just the nuisance of having a few more zeros added to the end of their paychecks and then rushing out to spend the money before another zero appears. The rich have land and factories and commodities and items that do not lose their intrinsic value. The middle class has savings that must be spent quickly before their value disappears and securities that must be sold in an effort to maintain their way of living. When those are gone, they have joined the ranks of the poor.

I next turned to international relations; specifically to the export of jobs and the importing of “guest” workers who are happy to work for substandard wages. If you hope to live with the joys of being rich in a third world nation then the poor have to be truly poor. Think of the joys of running a household with six servants, all of whom are grateful for the job, on $20,000 per year. There’s only one way to achieve that; render the American worker redundant. How do you do it? Ship his or her job overseas and then bring in impoverished foreigners to take the jobs that are left. There is no such thing as a job that Americans don’t want to do. There are lots of jobs that Americans don’t want to do at the price that employers are willing to pay. If you look at the administration’s policies in the aggressive search for NAFTA type agreements and in the creation and encouragement of guest worker programs you realize that they are aimed at the destruction of the blue collar middle class. These are the people who have turned the United States into a First World leader. Their absence will cause our decline into mediocrity and then poverty.

Eventually I was forced to confront the Iraq war. Why would anyone want to start a war on false pretences when the results were so easily foreseen? My earliest thought was that George W. was getting even for Saddam’s effort to have his father killed. I have now concluded that I was being simplistic. I now see two reasons for the war. The first comes from a Bush quote. “I am a wartime president.” If you seriously want to be above the law, the trick is to be a wartime president. No one really knows what limits exist for a president in such a position. Get caught releasing classified information to promote a policy. “So what? I secretly declassified it.” Try doing that when you’re not a wartime president. Go on a fishing expedition in violation of Americans’ Constitutional rights? “It’s OK. They were bad guys and I’m a wartime president.”

The second reason that I could find for an otherwise incomprehensible war goes back to the economic question. If you really want to create an insurmountable deficit you need a war. There’s no other way to spend so much money so fast and without too much Congressional surveillance.

We keep hearing about passing our excesses on to our grandchildren. That’s what we are doing, but not in the form of a national debt. We are destroying our nation by exporting our factories, by leaving our national financial future in the hands of those foreign nations that own our debt and by allowing a few greedy men to turn us from a healthy democracy to a hereditary autocracy.

Being the old lady

2012-01-27T17:31:00.000-08:00

When I was living in my first college apartment, my friend Ronny, also in his first apt, taught me to make potato soup. He said an old lady had showed him how. It was simple, basic. Perfect for my beginner cooking skills. I still use it as a base today for lots of variations, adding broccoli and dill or curry and corn. This is what we learned.

Cut up some potatoes and put them in a pot. Cover with water. Salt. Cook, covered, until soft. Take out the potatoes and cut really small. Put them back in the pot with the "potatoey water." (I don't think either of us knew the word "stock.") Add milk and butter and reheat. I usually put black pepper in it too.

I was making this soup (with sautéed onions and broccoli) and began wondering about the old lady who had taught him to make potato soup over Christmas vacation many years ago. How old was she? Younger than me? I'm 53. I bet I seem like an old lady to a nineteen year old.

Kurt was writing with a young musician from NC yesterday, probably somewhere in his 20s. We got to talking about food. He had been trying to make hummus, but couldn't get it creamy like the stuff you buy. I gave him a basic recipe, one he could use as a basis for different variations.

After he left, I pictured him, many years down the road, making roasted red pepper hummus or sundried tomato hummus, still based on a recipe I wrote on the back of a water bill in 2012.

I'd become the old lady.

Hummus

1 clove garlic

3 T tahini

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 T olive oil

salt to taste

2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked and cooked with salt and a little garlic

powder, or adjust it to the amount of chickpeas in a can)

Process in a food processor (or blend, or mash) until creamy.

At long last

2012-01-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't worked for anyone besides myself since June, when the Acorn Restaurant closed its doors. I found one job about a month later, with a catering company. It was a nice set-up, but something about it was a real turn off. I was not the first choice candidate, for one thing. I got called in for an interview several weeks after I applied, after the owner fired the person she did hire. She really talked badly about this person's work. I went in to work for her the next day and realized that she probably never told the previous baker what she wanted. Things had to be done exactly like she wanted even though some of the presentations were atypical. It was like everyone would know how things "should" be done. In fact, she talked badly about other business owners, other caterers, as though she made herself better by putting someone else down. And the food wasn't my style at all. I could make her recipes but I wasn't going to like them.

And she had a bunch of family working for her, which makes for weird dynamics. I called back the next morning and thanked her for offering me the position, but I didn't think the job and I were a good fit.

I continued searching but there was nothing out there. Any resumes I sent out didn't draw responses. I got serious about selling artwork and confections online. I learned about search engine optimization, shipping and presentation. Selling online is very different than going to shows, which I had done when I was younger.

I learned that I can do it. If need be, I can get by on my creativity. Not as well as I like, but I can. I went from being unemployed to being self-employed.

My next move was to put that on my resume. I wasn't unemployed. My current employment is Kickglass Enamels. It worked.

I went for an interview with a catering chef. I'd had lots of time to think about what I wanted in a job and what I didn't. I wanted to respect the menu. I wanted to like the people I spent the day with. I didn't want an arduous commute. In other words, I want to like my life, not just earn money to support the waking hours I have off each day.

I'm a lousy capitalist. Most kitchen people are. There are much easier ways to make a living, but they aren't things we want to live our lives doing.

I didn't hear from him and figured he must have found somebody with a real catering background. Mine is restaurant, which is quite different. This is new turf.

Then he called back, apologized for taking so long. He'd been doing lots of interviews. He wanted me to come back in, cook with him for a few hours. We scheduled it for the following afternoon.

I dressed the part. Black pants, clogs, chef coat, hair braided and hidden beneath a bandana. I brought my knife roll. I'd forgotten what it felt like to present myself as a professional. It reminded me that I am capable.

I met the business owner. I got the kitchen tour. I made some cheddar chive biscuits. I did florentines and rolled them into cones and cylinders. I made mistakes with their ovens, which are kind of wonky. I was able to analyze the mistakes, redo the cookies correctly. The chef worked on other things but was watching to see how I worked, how I asked questions. It seemed positive. I didn't feel pressured or nervous. After all, I had my artwork to fall back on.

He called with an offer this morning, which I accepted. I'm starting on Sunday, making things for a photo shoot in a magazine.

Working for a catering company is new to me. The hours are unpredictable. The customers are the 1%. And it's a tough job market out there. I need to do a good job.

It's been a nice run. I'm ready.

Family ring tones?

2012-01-12T15:44:00.000-08:00

I lost my phone in November.

At first, I thought I was getting it back. I had left a message with my husband's phone number, to call if it turned up. This was no easy feat. I lost it on Legislative Plaza during a statewide Occupy weekend. The place is huge, there were people from all over the state plus any number of people on the Plaza that had nothing to do with Occupy. It's a public place, popular on weekends with skateboarders.

In a leaderless movement, finding someone to leave a number with was no easy task, but I did. Shortly after I got home, a woman called, saying she had found my phone. We arranged to meet the next day.

I drove back into Nashville, waited around for about half an hour for her to arrive and hand me a phone that wasn't mine. Okay, not what we either of us expected. I don't know if she ever found the owner of that phone. I never found mine.

I activated an old phone, which gave me back my doorbell text alert. I'd always liked it. It wasn't an option on the phone I lost. But I missed having a keyboard for texting. Ivy had a phone like my lost one that she wasn't using, so I asked her to bring it with her when she came south for Christmas.

Kendra was visiting when I heard a doorbell. "I have a text," I said, wondering where my phone was. I thought I'd left it in the bedroom, but this sounded close.

"No, I do," she said, picking up her phone.

When we went to NC, I activated Ivy's old phone, which was the same model as my lost one but with all her settings. The first call I got was from her. Her old ringtone was same one I had set. And the text alert? Yup.

Do ring tones run in families?

The SNAP challenge and the great divide

2012-01-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the early to mid 70s, there was a spike in food prices. I didn't really notice at the time. We no longer lived in NYC, where mothers regularly sent children to the store to pick up a missing ingredient. I was a teenager, newly moved to the suburbs and not yet old enough to drive. I didn't shop.

One day, a classmate passed around information about a meat boycott. I told my mother, who said she had stopped buying red meat already, because the price was so high. She was a great cook. I hadn't missed it at all.

During that same period, there was an article in the paper telling readers how to get their grocery bills down to some amount per week, I don't remember what. My mom thought that sounded high so she kept track. She couldn't get our weekly bill UP to the amount that these people were trying to get down to. Our family of four included two teenagers, me and my brother.

We weren't poor. This is just how we eat. I should add that my mother did not grow up in the US.

Which brings us to SNAP, the current incarnation of food stamps. A few legislators have taken on the challenge of trying to live for a week on the equivalent of the average food stamp allotment, which is 31$ and change per person, about 1.50 per meal.

One of the legislators said he ate a lot of canned tuna and hard boiled eggs. He went to bed hungry every night. Another ate lots of peanutbutter and crackers before throwing in the towel.

Tuna? Peanutbutter? Those are rather expensive sources of protein. And while eggs are reasonable, boiled eggs are the least filling way to prepare them. Want to fill up? Fry them. Make an omelette. Saute it with vegetables and rice. Higher fat? Well yes, and that is a problem among people with limited incomes. But fatty foods fill you up.

Hopefully, they learned from their challenge. What I learned is that that people who are supposed to represent us are even more out of touch than I thought, people who apparently don't cook and eat lots of expensive foods. They are people who have never eaten rice and beans unless it was part of a fundraiser involving Latinos, people who don't cook and don't need to.

While I don't plan to do the challenge, I'm betting I have lots of meals in my repertoire that fit the bill, meals which are nutritious and taste good. I intend to post them after I do the pricing.

Like my mom, this isn't really a challenge at all.

Christmas and the forgotten child

2011-12-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

I called Kurt as soon as I realized. I was closing the last of the wonderful boxes of confections I'd made for everyone's gifts when I remembered.

It went to voicemail. "Kurt," I said after waiting for the inevitable "To leave a callback number, press five." Has anyone ever done that? If you go to your missed calls, there's the callback number.

But I digress.

"Kurt, I forgot Aidan exists," I told his voicemail. I'd been feeling so on top of things. I'd shipped out all the orders I'd gotten from my etsy sites, had made the last of the goodies with my daughter (she shaped the marzipans this year. I usually do fruits. These were way more fun, things like sushi, mushrooms, a pizza and a garlic bulb.) I was putting together gifts and then I remembered.

There's a new generation.

It's been years since I had to shop for gifts for Kurt's family. I always make a beautiful selection of sweets, nice enough that I put the assortments up for sale on etsy this year. The nieces and nephews got money in the bottom of their tins as well. In fact, only one of them still qualifies. The rest are adults.

Except there's a 16 month old now, my oldest nephew's son. I didn't get him a gift last year, when he was 4 months old. I had never met him. I made him a quilt for his birth. A four month old doesn't notice presents and I hate shopping.

But kids? Buying stuff for kids is fun. And expected. So there I was, me, the anti-shopper, at Wal-Mart on a rainy, Dec 22 afternoon. The parking lot was jammed. I thought the store would be a disaster.

It wasn't. I didn't even buy the first thing that would work. I looked around until I found something that I thought suited him, from what I've heard. Four animals that roll, that he could push along with his little hands and make the noises himself, as he's prone to do. Cute, looked well made.

Time to start a new cycle of finding age appropriate toys each year. Cool.

We got home and Kurt asked about the pies. Wasn't I going to make pies to take with us? I've always been responsible for the pies, ever since I first joined his family and showed up at Christmas with a blueberry apple pie.

How on earth did I forget that?

So I made a pear pie and a pear cranberry pie. All is set to go. Happy Hanukah and merry Christmas.

Iraq and us

2011-12-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

I mentioned this column to Blicktx.

There was a period of time where expressing doubt about the rightness of being in Iraq was almost patriotic blasphemy. Our country went through a few years of odd self-censorship, when the notion of war heroism stifled reason. It was a time when I couldn't say of the soldiers that I had no doubt that they would defend our right to vote or to speak freely, but that isn't why they were sent to Iraq.

Leonard Pitts wrote what I have felt for a long time about the Iraq War, but so much more eloquently than I could have.

http://www.freep.com/article/20111028/OPINION05/110280303/Leonard-Pitts-Jr-Mixed-emotions-U-S-exits-Iraq

Kudzu Mushroom Quiche

2011-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

First of all, you need kudzu from a clean source. Yes, that ubiquitous plant that takes over barns and road signs throughout the southeast. It was brought here from Japan to combat erosion and stabilize hillsides during highway construction. The problem is, is has no natural enemies here. The is a bug in Japan that eats the stuff. They tried importing the bug, but it soon got out of hand since, like the kudzu, it had no natural enemies here. They killed that experiment.

Kudzu's edible but you need a patch that's not next to a highway because of pollutants. Unfortunately, the stuff has spread all over the place and can be found in places far from highways. You want the new growth, which are the lighter, thinner leaves. Cut a bunch, as they will cook down.

Wash them, then cut out the stems and any thick spines running down the middle. Thinner veins are fine. With new growth, this isn't generally a problem. It's more important if your leaves are somewhat dark.

Boil for about 20 minutes. I usually salt the water a little.

Drain. Squeeze out excess water. Chop. You want to end up with about the amount you'd use for a spinach quiche, about a half box of frozen spinach, if that helps.

Finely chop some onion (a quarter of an onion, maybe less) and slice about four mushrooms. Sauté the onion with thyme, oregano and basil in ascending order. Add the mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Sauté until slightly cooked but still firm.

Spread onion-mushroom mixture in the pie shell that you already made or bought. This is for a 9" pie. Next, distribute the kudzu on top of that. Top with quiche filling and bake for 45 minutes at 375˚.

Quiche filling

4 eggs

3 T flour

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups grated cheese (I prefer swiss but I used cheddar in the picture. It's what I had)

Mix beginning with the eggs, the flour and salt next, then the milk and the cheese last. Pour over the vegetables. Redistribute the cheese if it all ends up in one place.

Enjoy.

2011-10-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ivy's in Princeton with no power. They're getting the snowstorm that's pounding the northeast. At least she has radiator heat.

An old friend who is an artist was commissioned to do a painting for another old friend's sister's husband's employer. I think. Not sure exactly who the painting is for. The sister's husband works for John Prine. They live in Nashville, Whites Creek, to be exact, which was a total surprise. They live about five minutes drive from us.

While I have seen Alan (the artist) now and then and we keep up on Facebook, I had not seen Margaret in years. They arrived last night and we went over to Margaret's sister's house to visit. Then they came over here this morning, along with Margaret's niece and nephew. Alan had brought CDs and videos from years ago, projects Kurt was involved in and some of the stuff we used to listen to way back when. We knew him from our college days and then I worked with him for a long time.

This is one of the things I like about Raleigh. I have a history with the people I know there. We don't just know each other now, as though we suddenly sprang into existence. A lot of people I knew from college moved there because there weren't jobs in Greenville, where we went to school. Others, I met in my 20s during my artist years. We knew each others spouses' before marriage, knew the now grown kids when they were small.

And then there was the Hyphen Coffeehouse. My staff was young. One marriage came out of there, another will take place next spring. I went to the first wedding and have been invited to the other. My crew was sort of like my friends and my kids at the same time.

I even ran into one of my ex-baristas at the Sadlack's gig, which was mostly people our age. She caught me up with what a few more of the crew was doing.

I've been getting involved with Occupy Nashville. The movement struck a chord with me. Even when the economy was flying high, I knew it was unsustainable, pointed it out to people. And when it crashed, the people at the top of the corporations that screwed up so badly got more money for getting fired than I'll earn in a lifetime.

I'm not camping, however. I'm not even planning to get arrested, although I won't rule it out. We're in conflict with the state at the moment, so that all our meetings are technically illegal. In fact, we did a march through the tourist areas where we broke into groups of 19. Nineteen or fewer people don't need a permit to march.

Occupy has changed the national conversation. Not sure where it will end, but it's a welcome start.

A whirlwind catch-up

2011-10-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

I know I've been gone a lot. Quick catch-up.

Went to Florida to see my folks a few weeks ago. They're doing well. Kendra met us there, which was wonderful.

Working on my two etsy sites

www.etsy.com/shop/kickglassenamels

www.etsy.com/shop/LadenTreeSweets

Went to NC to visit Kurt's Mom. I have a great MIL. He played gigs the first two nights. First was in the town we used to live in. Saw lots of old friends and former customers of our coffeehouse. Packed the taphouse. Got together with two former employees the next day who are now engaged. She has a two year old daughter from a short lived marriage. We went to a children's museum. Had a big time.

Gig that night was at Sadlack's, a bar and sandwich shop which was our hangout many years ago and still hosts a lot of the same people. It's the kind of place you can take your kids. In fact, I did, many years ago. Great gig. High energy.

Class reunion the next day. Gotta go. Back later.

The visit

2011-09-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

My old friend from back home and her new (to me) man finally made it here yesterday. We had a wonderful visit. Her manfriend seems like a unique, intelligent guy in touch with nature. And dogs.

Their camper couldn't make the sharp turn into our driveway from our narrow, winding road, so they parked it on the only even-sorta wide part of the road, which is within view of our house. Elizabeth walked up the driveway first. Sadie barked and circled her but she likes women, so I wasn't worried. I explained that my dog had been abused and was wary of strangers. He followed a few minutes later and grasped the situation immediately. He squatted down on the driveway and let Sadie check him out without looking at her until she was comfortable. After that, she was his good friend.

I had bagels in the oven when they arrived. We had a lunch of bagels with cream cheese and cucumbers and smoked turkey out on the patio since the weather was nice. Then we talked a while and went for a hike in our woods along the creek, which they thought was beautiful.

We went to dinner at the Tin Angel, a place where I had filled in for another pastry chef for a short stint because her mother was dying. Food, company and atmosphere was all really good. Then we went downtown to see a free show on the lawn in front of the courthouse. The band was boring, so we walked along the river then up Broadway, which is the tourist strip in Nashville. It's full of honky tonks and neon, a good place to take visitors. Then we went to Printers Alley, also a bar strip in the downtown area but not as much aimed at tourists. We went into a place that we knew would be having a writers night, where Kurt sometimes plays. The clubs on Broadway all have people playing cover tunes of country hits. They wanted to see what the people who live here do, which they liked better. We knew some of the songwriters and some of the folks there. We stayed until it got late, came home and talked some more before going to bed.

They left after a leisurely breakfast. We sent them on their way with pears and fresh eggs, something we do with everyone who comes here these days. The tree is dropping fruit like crazy and two people definitely don't need five laying hens. Fortunately, everyone loves fresh eggs.

I think one of the really nice things about old friends is that the stories and the connections to the people in them go way back and are intertwined. I have friends here but I have no past with them. Roots are a good thing.

I was too busy enjoying the rather short visit to remember to take pictures. I snagged this off her facebook page.

The garden and global warming

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

My canning jars aren't going to get much of a workout this year. I did put up one jar of okra pickles and froze a few bags of skinned roma tomatoes but for the most part, my garden couldn't handle the intense heat, even with daily watering. The heat also invited bugs we've never seen before which decimated my 18 squash plants. I should have ripening pumpkins, acorn and spaghetti squash right now. Instead, I have 2 small hills of zucchini plants that I planted after the squash monsters killed the plants and left. They are starting to bud. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get some zucchini before the first frost.

The things that didn't die are springing to life in the cooler aftermath. And it's raining pears. Most of what I'll be canning is pear related. But anyway, this is what I brought in from the garden, the first in quite a while.

Waving from the driveway, part 2

2011-08-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing I'm not an "I told you so" person. Even if I was, I didn't get the chance. Ivy already told me she should have waited another day before leaving for school.

Despite her messy room, she's compulsively organized about certain things. One of them is scheduling her time. Orientation starts Thursday and she is moving into a grad school apartment. Her roommate has been there most of the summer already, and also lives nearby. Ivy took one load of stuff there in a rented U-Haul when she was still in NYC, but for the most part, she wants to acquire furniture and groceries before orientation.

It's a two day drive from here to NJ. She left Sunday morning, while Irene was moving up the coast. I really wanted her wait another day and see what the damage was and where, but she was so focused on getting up there in time to get comfortably moved in that I settled for telling her to fill her gas tank when she was within a tank's driving range of Princeton, in case there was no power where she was going.

Not only is there no power, but Princeton, NJ is flooded.

She got to Harrisonburg, VA, the first stop, with no problem. It was west of any storm areas. The problem was that she couldn't continue on to Princeton from there and she was in a motel. We have a friend in Princeton who told us what was happening there. Ivy also talked to her roommate, who had gone home for the hurricane. She checked on the apartment later in the day. The apartment is okay but the road was underwater. She had to walk two miles to get to it.

Ivy's undergrad roommate lives in Baltimore which is on the way, so she is staying with her family until she can continue on to NJ. It's about a 6 hour drive from there. I suggested that she buy some non-perishable food before going into a post hurricane zone, as the stores may not be open. Even if they are, they will be sold out of bread.

And that's all I can do, other than be glad that she's staying with a nice family until Princeton drains. She's capable and I know it, but it's hard to let go. Just because the kids grew up doesn't mean I'll stop being Mom.

Posting this for Chris

2011-08-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

Ivy was here for a week. Now she's on a cruise with her college friends before they all take off for different lives. She'll be back this weekend to do laundry, pack her car and go north to start grad school.

Granted, this stuff isn't usually all here. Her winter clothes stayed in college for four years, but they are here this summer, along with loads of books. Still, this mess is pure Ivy. The dresser in the photo is an old one that we moved into her room a few weeks ago, replacing an armchair that was always piled with stuff. There is wardrobe off to the right of the photo. The closet is tiny since this is a 1940 farmhouse.

Just thought you all needed a laugh.

Waving from the driveway

2011-08-05T13:06:00.001-07:00

We used to drive off looking forward, excited to be on the road, carloads of college students heading back to school or young adults heading to apartments, friends and jobs in faraway places. There was always a treat or two tucked into the car somewhere, a gift from home to be appreciated later on. Sometimes, it was as simple as homemade chocolate chip cookies. One time, my father gave me a stalk of bananas from one of his trees to take back to school and share.

That’s about 80 finger bananas. Delicious, thin skinned, rarely sold commercially.

Another time, I took cuttings from our yard to grow into houseplants. Houseplants are just tropical plants anyway, and Miami is sub tropical. I also drove north with a giant cactus once, a cutting from the one in front of our house. I had to be real careful about stretching over the back of the seat while driving.

I thought about where I was going, what I would do when I got there. I never thought about the parents on the driveway waving goodbye, what it was like to still be there when your kids drive off. I didn’t have the experience to think about it.

My oldest daughter and her boyfriend are heading to Austin, TX, where she will be a grad student in creative writing this fall. They drove from NC, about an eight hour drive, and spent the night here. It’s really a wonderful coincidence that we are on the way and at a good stopping point. They are taking both their cars there, which means that they can’t drive all night because there is nobody to take turns with. And of course, it was great to visit with them.

They went swimming and then I made tofu fajitas. I did some last week as an experiment and they were so good, we knew we needed to make them for Kendra and Colin, both vegetarians. We talked, we took a walk. She chose some books to take with her. This morning, I showed Kendra my garden and Kurt showed off the chickens. She’s always been interested in gardening and a lot of the domestic pursuits I like. Actually, both girls like to cook.

I printed off directions from our house to their next stopping point. And then they needed to hit the road. We hugged, hugged again. I sent her forth to her new adventure with homegrown hard boiled eggs and a Brandywine tomato half the size of her head, gifts to be eaten and cherished sometime tonight, shared in a hotel room in Hope, Arkansas.

When I stood on the patio and waved, I thought about my mother waving from the driveway of our house in Miami. Then I turned and went inside, thinking my life was a little boring as perhaps she did, remembering the road trips of her youth.

The first

2011-07-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool, huh?

We moved their coop today. We do it every few weeks so they have new grass. Keeps it from being muddy and smelly.

My garden is producing lots of tomatoes. Corn should be ready for picking in a day or two. I only planted 2 short rows. I don't have a deep freezer so there's no point in growing more than we're going to eat. Okra's starting too. Got one beautiful bell pepper with no others in sight, and a few cucumbers so far. I'm letting the coriander and the dill go to seed. I like to use them in cooking.

Zucchini is in the bed that was here when we moved in. It's getting eaten alive. The soil is messed up. I suspect it's harboring chemical residues. I think we'll dig it out in the fall and fill it with mushroom compost. Start over organically. The winter squash, which is in a bed we've added, is doing okay.

I do think it would be cool to grow a salad, but I've never lived anywhere that lettuce grew at the same time as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Were they not eaten before refrigerated train cars?

Veggie food on the fly

2011-07-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

One night at dinner, back when the girls were in high school, Ivy announced that she was going to go vegetarian.

"I'm not," Kendra said.

"Okay, but I'm not cooking separate meals," I said.

Kendra's boyfriend, who was eating with us, stayed out of it.

I cook at least half vegetarian anyway so the difference wasn't huge. The problem was this. Ivy has always had rich, protein oriented tastes. She was born a pound bigger and an inch longer than Kendra. She began eating solid food the day she was old enough. Kendra had no interest in food as a baby, especially anything with meat. I nursed her for over a year. It was what she thrived on.

Ivy was buff and athletic. Kendra was petite. She liked fruits and vegetables Ivy liked hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. In fact, Kendra is currently a vegetarian and Ivy isn't. It's the natural order of things. These are their bodies.

Anyway, I insisted that Ivy had to add some vegetables to her repertoire so she added squash. Broccoli and carrots were already acceptable. I wasn't going to let her live on rice and beans while competing in sports.

Restaurants that don't cater to vegetarians get called on to offer vegetarian options for parties. These dishes are usually something that can be done with little preparation with the ingredients on hand. So when we went to a rehearsal dinner with a pre-planned menu, they had a separate dish for Ivy, not doubt thrown together. She loved it.

So it became part of our home menu. Super easy.

Heat spaghetti sauce (whatever you usually use) in a sauce pan. When steamy but not bubbling, whisk in some cream.

Saute chopped zucchini, thinly sliced carrots and broccoli in olive oil with thyme, oregano and basil. Ivy's not an onion/garlic fan and I recreated the dish for her, but I suspect it had onions the first time, I blanch the broccoli first, in the same pot I'm going to throw the spaghetti in.

Turn off the saute pan and add the sauce to the hot pan. Serve over spaghetti or linguine. Garnish with parmesan (optional).

Ivy wanted to watch me make this because she wants to do it at home. Good first apartment dish. I didn't quite remember, but it all came back as I was doing it. We also had an artichoke, one of her favorite foods. I melted butter with lemon juice and tarragon for dipping.

A brief catch up

2011-07-09T03:00:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted much lately. I've stayed so busy, I don't see how I ever managed having a full time job.

For one thing, we replaced the pool that was here when we moved in. The new one is smaller. We had built a fenced area for the dog, reachable by a dog door in the utility room. It was nice knowing that if we didn't get home for a while, Sadie could go out on her own. However, we fenced up to the pool. The smaller pool meant we had a three foot gap in the fence. She enjoyed 2 weeks of free roaming and it seemed harmless enough. Two dogs from across the road are always out and they had a good time.

Until they attacked a neighbor's dog. Pack behavior. Although Sadie has never liked this other dog, the two of them used to glare at each other and leave it at that. But all three of them jumped on this on this poor dog. It was on the holiday weekend. When we saw how badly her shoulder was torn, we told the owner to take her to a vet, that we would pay. The people who own the other 2 dogs were in the hospital, having their first baby.

We split the emergency vet bill when they got back. It was not cheap. And now I can't run my dog at all, even though I have a lot of land. Once they are settled in with the new baby, I'm going to ask them to pen their dogs up sometimes so Sadie can run without a pack, but they need a little time. I remember how overwhelming a first baby can be. Meanwhile, I'm taking my dog for long walks daily, but I used to let her run at least once a day. She misses it.

I'm reading manuscripts in a hurry. We got behind. I didn't get the most recent batch until last Tuesday and they have to be read in a week. That's 150 pages/day.

I joined some Meetup writing groups. I don't know if they have Meetup in the UK. It's an online site for finding interest groups of many kinds in most cities. I'm going to one today, a novelling group. Not sure how this is going to work out. It's huge. 29 people. The coordinator set the maximum at 7 pages. I'm bringing 4, since the next logical break in the piece is at 8 pages. I'm also bringing a zucchini bread. It's a potluck, at somebody's house. Not close to here, but oh well.

Trying to make prototypes for starting a confection website. I'm concentrating on glazed, dipped fruits and some truffles to begin with. Have to weigh, price, cost everything, etc. I know how to make lots of sweets, but not all are practical for shipping. Small confections don't weigh much and I think I can get away with ordering two sizes of boxes.

How does the Slightly Odd Confection Company sound to you folks. Intriguing? A turnoff? WHat would you expect from a name like that?

And trying to do some studio work. And writing. And scratch cooking and baking, which is both cheaper and better. Haven't bought bread in a while. It keeps getting pricier and airier. And gardening.

And walking the dog again. She's bored.

If I'da known you were such a pretty girl . . .

2011-06-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

Kurt and I began as housemates, living in a large house shared by five ECU students in Greenville, NC. He moved in Oct of '82. We began dating that winter. In March, his maternal grandmother died. It was a Wednesday night. His band had a steady gig on Wednesdays. He broke down for a short while, then got it together and played the show.

His family lived in Garner, NC, a suburb of Raleigh. It was about a two hour drive from Greenville. His mother's family was from Annapolis, Md. The plan was for him to go to Garner on Thursday, then ride to Md. with his family on Friday, maybe a six or seven hour drive.

We had been planning to go to Raleigh together that weekend. I had an interview for a summer internship with the state government in Raleigh, which is the capitol. I was unfamiliar with the city and this well predated google maps. We were going to stay with one of his friends for the weekend. This upended those plans, but he gave me directions and the phone number of one of his Raleigh friends, in case I got lost or needed anything.

He kept putting off leaving. I'm not sure why, but it was pushing six pm and he was still in Greenville, so I suggested we order a pizza so he wouldn't hit the road hungry. As he was finally leaving, the phone rang. As soon as I heard my mother say hello, I knew that my grandfather had died. I called for Kurt to stop as he was literally stepping out the back door.

My grandfather died in a nursing home in NY, where most of my extended family lives. My family lives in Miami, Fl, 1000 miles south of there. My grandmother was visiting my parents when he died. My mother understood that the nearest major airport to me was in Raleigh, 2 hours away, and told me it was okay if I didn't go to the funeral. Jews bury fast and don't bury on the sabbath, which is Saturday. His funeral was the next morning.

But she sounded so distraught having to get my grandmother back to NY that I booked an early morning flight, called her back and told her to have somebody meet me. Then Kurt called his parents and asked if I could spend the night so I could get to the airport.

We didn't get to Garner until midnight. The woman who would become my mother-in-law was very upset about her mother dying and had taken something so she could sleep. I never met her on that trip at all, since I left before 6am. My future father-in-law was waiting for us, smoking and reading at the kitchen table.

He looked up and said "If I'da known you were such a pretty girl, I'da put my teeth in." I think he was trying to embarrass Kurt. I've never forgotten that line.

We've come full circle, one generation older. He died Saturday night. We knew it was coming and he was ready to go. Still, death is hard in a lot of ways. And now, I'm the Mom on the phone getting my kids to make flight arrangements and picking up the tab. One daughter is in Oregon and will be flying here and making the drive across the rest of the country with us. She will fly back straight from NC to Idaho, her next location with Americorps. Her plane trip is very expensive but she felt the need to come. The other daughter will fly from NY to NC directly. I told her to look for a cheap flight. The funeral is Saturday.

If you're wondering how the first story turned out, I got to NY and a cousin met me at the airport. We visited for an hour at a coffee shop while waiting for my brother's flight. They had gotten a limo for the cousins so we could all visit with each other on the long ride from the funeral home to the cemetery. We went to one aunt's house for dinner. Her neighbor had fixed us a nice spread. Slept at another aunt's house and got up early, flew back to Raleigh with my portfolio and somehow impressed the interview panel enough to advance to the next stage of interviews. Don't ask how. I think I was running on adrenaline and caffeine at that point.

Drove back to Greenville and collapsed into bed.

Rest in peace, R.D.F.

Deck envy

2011-06-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

I was at a party Sunday night, thrown by a co-worker. It was a cookout and drinking party, a Goodbye Acorn affair. We all ended the evening sitting out on the deck beneath Christmas lights hung in the trees.

I like decks. Whenever I am on someone's deck, I always think "How nice. I could imagine eating breakfast out here among the trees." Of course, I am on other people's decks when they are cleaned up for company. I have no idea what they look like when I'm not there.

Our living room used to be a carport. The slab it is poured on extends out the door, giving us a patio. Not a wood deck, exactly, but with the changes in the roofline we did last year, it is partially covered, almost like a porch. We even have a table and chairs out there which we moved from our old house, which did have a large porch.

It stayed nice through the winter. They came the stuff. Once stuff starts, it grows like a fungus. You might not start a pile of stuff, but once one is there, nobody minds adding to it.

To my husband, once a project is done, the parts no longer exist. Empty nail boxes, scraps of wood, plant pots don't need to get put away or thrown away. The project is done. Time to move on.

Then came the hay bale near the front door. It must have been there for a month. Loose hay kept getting tracked into the house. And on and on. I'm not going to list what was on the patio. I'll just say that it took me the entire morning in the uber-hot sun to get everything put somewhere else. I still haven't found a place for the drop cords, but I moved them into the house.

So yeah, it's not a deck but it looks pretty good.

Garden update

2011-05-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

I shot this before we went to NY. Despite having more open space than I've ever had anywhere else I lived, I still plant in beds. We have two square ones and this long, narrow one. I tried having a country style garden a couple of years ago with lousy results. I know how to grow in beds, having done it for years, and it's easier to compost and maintain a smaller, tightly packed space, at least for me. I don't use chemicals, although we did spray the fruit trees with a fungicide. It's a compromise. Don't like it but the fungus was winning.

The early stuff is peaking and beyond. The broccoli is nearly done, I'm leaving the lettuce in the ground as long as possible, the spinach is done, the dill looks marvelous, cilantro is going to seed soon and the snowpeas are still okay. They don't get full sun except in the late afternoon, which has helped. Also, the weather has mellowed out.

At least until tomorrow.

Betting on grouper

2011-05-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

I was the pastry chef at the Acorn in spring 2009, when the position was eliminated. Upscale restaurants were hit hard by the recession and we counted on doing a lot of private parties. That winter, Christmas 2008, corporations made a public point of scaling back on elaborate company Christmas parties and it impacted us heavily.

I had worked in the daytime at a place that was only open at night. I knew the management and the chef and sous-chef, but rarely crossed paths with the rest of the staff. I knew nothing of the night shenanigans until I came back last fall in a line position. So when I used to see names and numbers written on the whiteboard, I didn't know that the kitchen makes bets on the parties. They don't usually involve money. When they do, the stakes are small. The biggest I've seen is $5, between the chef and one of the servers, betting on how many people will show up for a party.

Rehearsal dinners are the most predictable. The guests are in the wedding party or came from out of town for the event. They're all coming to dinner. At the other end of the spectrum is corporate events. They might have us set up for 60 and only have 35 people show up. Or 68.

Last night, the bet was on how many people in the rehearsal dinner were going to order grouper for dinner. My name was up there with a 24 next to it. I didn't win but it didn't matter. It's just goofiness among a good group of people. I'm going to miss them.

We're having a party at one of the servers' houses on Sunday evening, a cookout. I got assigned to bring cheese for the burgers. I also bought a watermelon because I don't remember hearing that anyone was bringing one. Several people were assigned beer or wine. I expect it will be a good time.

Meanwhile, our once-impressive wine list is shrinking, some of the artwork has been sold off at half price and the pool of servers is diminishing as people try to work around their new jobs. I suspect that the menu will begin to shrink too, as items like lamb, which we buy 100 lbs at a time, run out.

Six more shifts to go. I'm working all of them.

Tradition

2011-05-26T03:51:00.000-07:00

Ivy started the day with shoes. We all did. It's just that Columbia has a tradition of a monsoon for graduation week. The tradition continued this year.

It made everything far more casual. Dress clothes were covered with ponchos on class day, the day this was taken. Class day is for departmental graduations. It's when they call out the graduates' names and they cross the stage and receive a class pin. By the time the full university graduation rolled around the next day, I wore black jeans and sneakers and I was not the only one dressed down. Far from it. It was just cold and wet and the graduation is outdoors. There's no room inside for a ceremony that big.

It's a beautiful old university, one that began as Kings College in the pre-revolutionary days. The ceremony itself was upbeat and lighthearted. I think the dean of each school was trying to outdo each other with strings of adjectives describing how wonderful their graduates were. Once again, tradition, an amusing one.

It's a great place in an incredible city. I'm glad Ivy was a part of it.

The food in New York City is amazing. So is the energy. The travel wasn't. It was fraught with delays and every connection we made seemed to be at the far end of the airport. I won't even go into it here except to say that this was the first time we ditched a leg of the trip and caught a ride.

I'd like to go back sometime when we have no events to attend. Just kick around NYC, visit friends and family and go to museums. I did get to meet my youngest cousin's baby for the first time. She will be a year old in June. They live in the city.

Came back to a spring garden heavily impacted by heat. I pulled all the spinach and picked some of the broccoli and snowpeas. Made lots of salads, too. Much as I hate to do it, I may end up blanching and freezing the spinach. I prefer to use stuff fresh from the garden, but two people can't go through food that quickly, especially when one works at night and we were out of town. And since we can't preserve the lettuce, the spinach can get set aside until later.

The lettuce is a mesclun mix. Everything except the arugula is still in the ground (the arugula began to bolt before we left so I made it into a salad and took it to a potluck), but I don't know how much longer it will last.

I did make a nice stir fry yesterday for lunch. It was Kurt's birthday. I offered to take him out but after NY, I don't think either one of us feels like eating out. Too much of a good thing.

Anniversaries in a busy life

2011-05-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, in the days when going out required a babysitter or cooperative relative, Kurt and I were riding somewhere in the truck, and he commented on how busy the upcoming weekend was. At the end of the list of events, he said "and then on Tuesday, we have to go out for our anniversary."

"We don't have to," I said. And while marriage milestones offered a break from young family life and all its responsibilities, we didn't. A nice dinner out is a treat, not an obligation.

We went to Florida to see my parents. We arrived home on a Thursday. I worked that night. The next night, my older daughter and her boyfriend came here for their spring break from Americorps. We spent time with them, they spent time with each other (they aren't stationed in the same locations), we took a day trip to Mammoth Cave, taught Kendra to make Creme Brulee, the two of them made us gnocchi, went for a day hike, watched a movie or two and enjoyed each other's company. They left Thursday afternoon.

I'm rarely home for dinner. I work at night. The two nights we have together are often times to go out and do things. And twice a month, my night off is my writers group night. This week is one of those, and it coincides with our anniversary of 26 years, May 3.

Originally, Kurt wanted to rent a cabin for two nights and do some hiking and sightseeing. But we just got back, then had company. It would be nicer to do it when we've been home and want to go somewhere.

So we were going to go out for dinner on Sunday night, but instead, we went to REI and bought ourselves new boots. I know that isn't dinner, isn't romantic and doesn't start with a whiskey sour. But I felt like eating home, eating light. Kurt cooked a stir fry, which included broccoli from the garden, and we watched a movie.

My old boots were worn slam out. And we still may go out to lunch tomorrow. No obligation.

One year ago

2011-05-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

One year ago today, I was coming home from work when I found myself facing a torrent of water rushing across the road. I live on a narrow road which winds through a hollow. It is the only way into the neighborhood.

I could only see a few feet beyond a curve, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. They always tell you not to drive though water, and I'd had my car for only five days. Unsure, I stopped and waited.

A car pulled up behind me, then proceeded to drive through the water. When I didn't see anyone bailing out or a car floating downstream, I started forward.

I rounded the curve only to see more water. Knowing that stopping would only make things worse, I kept going round the next curve. Still no end in sight. I could smell the mud as I drove, my car leaving a wake behind me. After somewhere between 1/10 and 1/8 of a mile, I emerged on a stretch of visible road. My own driveway was inaccessible, so I parked at a house across the road and waded home. Then I called my neighbor to tell him whose car was in his yard. I had just bought it that week, so they weren't familiar with it.

Later that afternoon, I-24 flooded, forcing a bunch of people (including one of my current coworkers) to abandon their cars and trucks. The opposite side of the median hadn't flooded yet, and the drivers waded through waste deep water and climbed the barrier to walk to safety. This was the picture that made the news.

By morning, our road had rapids. It was not even possible to walk across the street. We had access to three other houses, and we visited in the front yard of one of them, wearing raincoats and watching the flood. That was the day before our 25th wedding anniversary, and we had a party and bonfire planned. Needless to say, it didn't happen.

By that evening, the Cumberland River inundated much of Nashville, including one of the two water treatment plants and huge swaths of downtown. My favorite mall, still closed, took on nine feet of water. I've never seen anything like it.

One year later, it it gray and rainy, but all is lush, green and a normal day.

A $26.11 timing error

2011-04-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

I started seedlings indoors, like I do every year. It got warm outside, but I knew we'd have another cold front because we always do. It warmed up again, I planted them, left town and we had a frost.

Not sure if the seedlings that survived will recover, but a bunch died. All my cool weather stuff was okay, but I lost tomatoes and peppers. I went to a nursery to buy replacements, and of course, saw all these other herbs and heirloom tomatoes that I had to have.

Twenty six dollars later, I have more plants than I lost. At least I was alone. If anyone had come with me, we'd have bought whatever they thought we absolutely had to have too.

How I did on my list

2011-04-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

1) I cleaned the heck out of the bathroom. Other than washing the floor mat, it's done and it looks great.

2) The laundry is put away.

3) I got some stuff started in the studio. When I don't get in there often, it's hard to plan projects. I didn't finish anything, but I have an idea of what I need to do next. First thing is to change out my acid solution. Not having running water over there complicates things.

4) Did not mow the yard.

5) The quiche came out good. Had that for dinner with a glass of Pinot Grigio. I used asparagus, mushrooms, onions, sundried tomatoes, garlic and pesto. I even shot pictures. I guess they aren't really sundried tomatoes. I did them in a low oven. I usually try to do that in the summer, when Roma tomatoes are plentiful.

6) I only did the base of the coconut bars. I had the food processor out on the counter to do the pie crust anyway. I can do the filling tomorrow.

7) I picked the turnips, but didn't do anything with them. They're in a bag in the refrigerator.

8) I began looking over the short story. I wrote it in 2009. Enough time has passed that I can read it fresh and see some of the problems. It's an oddball story, set up like a typical country song. It's one that I put on Zoetrope for comment. One person loved it. Nobody else got it. But it did win an "I hate you," which is the highest praise given in Quill and Dagger, our writer's group.

9) I'll call my parents in a bit.

10) And yes, I did get dressed.

Day off to-do list

2011-04-03T04:21:00.000-07:00

Kurt is working today. I find I get way more done when I am alone, but this may be too ambitious. I thought I'd write it down and take a look.

1) Retake bathroom

The bathroom in the old part of the house had become a chicken environment. Even though the tub was lined with a folded up plastic banner and newspaper, then covered with pine shavings, it's still kind of a mess. The chickens are finally living outdoors, but that bathroom needs a thorough cleaning, especially the tub. Also, there are pine shavings that got tracked into the hallway. It all needs to go.

2) Put away laundry.

We are both good about doing laundry, but then it sits there in the baskets on the bedroom floor.

3) Work in the studio.

This is a several hour project. I want to refresh my etsy store. I haven't added anything new in ages. I'm adding a line of cabinet knobs and some other household stuff. No emphasis on jewelry. Too much jewelry on etsy.

4) Mow the backyard.

We have the mowing broken into four sections. One is the fenced yard, which I did last weekend. The trailer yard, which I mow so it doesn't look abandoned, I did yesterday. We have a large back area that isn't fenced and also the front yard.

5) Make a pie crust and an asparagus quiche.

I need to use up the milk and the asparagus. And Kurt bought a block of Swiss cheese at Aldi, but we don't really eat it by itself.

6) Make chocolate chip coconut bars.

Ditto on the milk. And I have a sweet tooth. Plus, I want our chef to try them before we change the menu again. I think they have possibilities as a tart.

7) Garden

The turnips are bolting. I need to pull them up. I'll blanche and freeze the greens since I'm not using them right away.

8) Read over a short story I want to edit and enter in a Glimmertrain contest.

9) Call my folks.

I generally do this on Sunday.

10) Quit blogging and get dressed.

Because I'm not mowing the lawn in pajama pants.

Touch of silliness

2011-03-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

I was looking for a particular hat about two weeks ago. I didn't find it, but discovered that after years of working in restaurants, I have a crazy collection of hats and bandanas. I decided to wear a different one each day until I run out.

Thus begins week 3.

Two unimportant misconceptions

2011-03-21T03:55:00.000-07:00

I wore this necklace to the monthly music potluck. It got several comments, one of which led to a discussion about somebody's gold ring. It was a nice design and her grandmother had made it, in her words, 'by some lost method."

When I suggested that it was lost wax casting, my friend was delighted to find somebody who knew what she was talking about. I explained that the method wasn't lost. The wax was.

I've heard this misconception before, where the story teller even extrapolated the misunderstood info to explain that the artist was reviving some ancient, lost casting method.

In lost wax casting, a model of the piece is made in wax. It's attached to wax wires and a wax stand, then placed in a mold. The wax wires reach the surface of the mold. The mold is filled with a type of plaster. Then the wax is burned out in a kiln, leaving a hole in the shape of the art piece with little tunnels leading to it from the surface. The mold gets filled with molten metal. The plaster is washed off, the little passages leading from the top (sprues) are cut off, the piece is cleaned and polished and voila, you have a ring. Or whatever.

Misconception number 2 is "dressing on the side." I have often seen articles on eating well or surviving travel without gaining tons of weight. One of the typical suggestions is to order salad dressing one the side.

Bad advice.

I make all kinds of salads at my job. Although fine dining generally gives you a lot of room around the food, the plate is still not big enough to toss a salad without making a mess, and you only have a fork to do it. So what happens is that the dressing-on-the-side diners put some dressing on the top which can't get to the bottom. They eat it, then add more as they eat. There is no way to lightly dress a salad on a full plate, so they end up with more dressing than if they let me toss it in the first place.

The person in the kitchen uses a large bowl and tongs. If you'd like a salad dressed lightly, order it that way.

Spring is here. Yay!

Old Houses

2011-03-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

I started to write this in response to Chris's post, inspired by Dixie's post. It grew.

We had a house that we literally built ourselves and loved. We used salvage from both an old farmhouse that we took down and construction leftovers. We had lots of friends in construction at the time (we were in our 20s), and bought things like leftover paint at a huge discount. Our studs were the two by fours that are usually nailed together (you can get them apart) and placed under trusses when they are shipped. They're basically waste, except that they are 2x4s. Unlike studs, which are shorter than 8 ft so you get an 8 ft ceiling when you build the frame, ours really were 8 ft. It gave us nice, high ceilings.

We built it to not need air conditioning. We had a wood stove, along with back up heat in the bedrooms. We did add central heat and air the year before we put it on the market, but we never used the AC until July. We didn't need it. We had big windows, cross ventilation and lots of insulation. The house was all living space. We didn't have a bunch of wasted nooks and hallways. The washing machine and dryer were tucked under the stairs. It was like the opposite of the crap they built around us later: more bells and whistles than quality, giant houses on tiny lots. We had a unique, efficient house, 5 wooded acres of lowland and we loved it.

I raised my kids there and still miss it, but the once-rural neighborhood got overrun by McMansion subdivisions. Constant traffic, too much runoff, leaf blower and yard care junkies, no more peace and quiet. And the developer was the personification of evil. I loved my home, but was full of resentment.

The house we bought in TN was the opposite of the old one. Until we added one, there were NO windows in the living room, only a set of glass doors for light. The ceilings are low. The old part of the house, which was built for cross ventilation because it's from 1940, had all the windows painted shut. The addition they put on is a hack job. We've had plumbing problems. My once-low power bills are high. Instead of trees to protect the home and mellow the climate, the ground was mowed flat, right up to the house. Acres of it.

But the hills are gorgeous and the peace of mind is worth it. Three years later, bushes that we planted hug the house. We add a tree every year. In time, they will give us shade, and fruit from some of them. The open land where the previous owners had a garden was pushed so heavily with chemicals that it's practically dead. It is recovering, but meanwhile, I'm gardening city style, in raised beds that we compost. We're adding a chicken coop.

I do sometimes resent that we moved. I left a place where I had laid down roots. I had a solid professional reputation and lots of connections, whereas here, employment is lower wage and harder to come by. Even with the population explosion, I still knew people wherever I went.

But I still have my memories, and our empty nest years are not spent looking backward at a job well done, but moving forward into a new adventure.

New babies

2011-03-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

We got 5 chicks!

Kurt got the supplies to build a coop but it started raining. We don't need it yet, anyway. They're only a week old.

Work

2011-03-12T02:38:00.000-08:00

Did a trial shift for a baking job yesterday morning. I didn't like it. The restaurant is basic southern and they do a a lot of catering. It's all production work, conforming exactly to recipes they've used for years.

Weighing it out, it seemed to me like there were more pros than cons. It's a job where I'd be responsible for certain things, then would get to leave, which I like. It's not tied to hours of service. It pays better. It's a day job. It's baking, not line work. The place is busy, while the Acorn has been really slow lately.

But all I could think of while I was doing it was that my husband would like this job. When I saw him later that day and described the job, that was exactly what he said.

I went to my other job last night and realized that I'm comfortable with it and want to stay, even if it's not a baking job, doesn't pay well and has been ridiculously dead lately. I left at 7:30 last night. We just didn't all need to be there, and the other hourly kitchen person got his hours cut on Monday, so I left.

I think the difference is the people. There is a lot of banter behind the scenes in a restaurant. The Acorn happens to have both an intellectual and a wild crew. We come from a variety of backgrounds. The food and service are upscale and creative. Fine dining tends to get hit hard in a recession and I know this, but it's also a place where I can expand my culinary knowledge. Our chef is young, but really knowledgeable and loves what he does.

Most of all, I fit there.

Not that the other people weren't nice. They were fine, but the banter was kind of ghetto. The owner was out sick. I haven't talked to her yet. I wonder if it will be too weird to ask her if my husband can try out the job. He doesn't have the baking experience I have, but he used to assist me when we had the coffeehouse, and it's about the right level of experience needed.

That may be the problem. This is well below what I am capable of. If I were jobless, I'd jump on it. But I'm not, and now that I am accustomed to working at night, I like it. It has meant giving up evening activities. While I don't go to songwriter nights with Kurt, each day is a day off and I like that. It's better for gardening, writing and doing artwork. But I do have to opt of writer meet-ups, etc.

We have been switching work stations the last few nights. Tonight, we will be busy and I'm working on the hot line. I'm a bit nervous, but it was the only way one of the other guys could get his birthday off. The front of house manager is doing my job tonight. She's excited. She's into costumes. I'm not. I wear jeans and tee shirts to work, but I'm bringing her a chef coat. I think she'll get a kick out of it.

Mammoth Cave

2011-03-09T03:04:00.000-08:00

My quads are sore.

I'm off Tuesdays and Kurt wasn't working, so we decided to take a day trip to Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park. It's not a busy time of year so unlike Dixie's trip there, they weren't taking reservations for the tours. They just said they were running three different routes and to come on, so we did.

Not sure how to describe it, other than to say it's amazing. The area is limestone and the caves were carved out of millions of years of water flowing underground. The lower levels we went to were dry, rocky caverns while the levels closer to the surface are drippy and have some amazing formations.

We went on a tour that takes about two hours. Not a tour for the claustrophobic. It starts at an entry that was blasted in 1921, when the cave was a private cave-tour site. The initial drop winds down through some tight wet spaces. It's dimly lit so as not to grow algae and plants where they don't belong, but the handrails guide you. Some people, like my 6' 3" husband, had trouble with overhanging rocks, but I'm pretty short and didn't bang into anything.

There is a tour that goes through the original entry, from 1851. That one apparently takes you into giant caverns. Might try that one another time.

My camera battery was dead, but I found a nice photo on line.

The last paper

2011-03-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of a newspaper freak. I was a steady subscriber to the News and Observer from the time I got out of college. It's a good newspaper. When we moved, I immediately subscribed to the Tennessean. To me, it was the next step after turning on the utilities.

I found it disappointing that a city the size of Nashville had such a weak paper compared to Raleigh, NC. Both cities are about the same size, but the N & O is aimed at a better educated, more intellectual crowd. It has better local columnists, more sophisticated comics, science news, more in depth coverage of local issues. The national wire reports contain more of the story.

Still, we wanted the local paper, so we subscribed.

Then, like so many papers, the Tennessean made cuts. They laid off a good part of the staff. The Sunday viewpoint section disappeared. Business and Local became one section. The not-so-good paper became even less of one.

Then they raised the price. And now, it's going up again. Kurt called and cancelled. Enough.

It will be strange. I have had coffee and a newspaper every day since the early 80s, except where extreme weather kept it from being delivered. Snow, ice, a flood, a hurricane. That's how long I've been subscribing to newspapers.

I get the NY Times sent to my inbox. I have access to the Miami Herald online through my parents' subscription. I can pick up part of the Tennessean online, but it will be a change. Having a common news source is one of the things that keeps a community on the same page. Already, some people only watch Fox News, while others don't consider it a legitimate news station. Now, I have no reason to read the same paper as my neighbors or coworkers. It's just as easy to find a good paper online as it is to get the local one.

And thus, a news Luddite moves on to the digital world.

Waiting to See

2011-03-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

Literally. I went for an eye check-up. I have not done this since I was in my late 20s, when my mother got diagnosed with glaucoma. She told me to go get my pressure checked, so I did.

Having minimal insurance and not wearing glasses, I didn't keep up with it until today. I am not a veteran eye doctor patient. This is maybe the third visit of my life.

One eye was 20/20 and the other 20/25, at least when I walked in. Now, I can't see. It's not just that my eyes are dilated. That part's wearing off, but I can't focus.

Not cool at all. Life is a blur.

tornado sirens

2011-02-24T16:02:00.000-08:00

I'm home. Whew.

I opened the front door of the restaurant to leave, right about the time a squall blew up. The outer door nearly leapt out of my hand, and it's a heavy wood and glass affair. The tornado sirens were going off so I went back in, but Tom, the chef, convinced me I'd be fine as long as the tornado was somewhere else. Driving in heavy rain doesn't bother me the way ice does. And the sirens stopped.

I got to the car about the time it began to rain harder. It got really bad when I was about a block away, rain gusting sideways across the road, lanes barely visible. I kept on. I've learned that unless it's hailing, it pays to keep going and drive out of these things. The sirens started up again. I kept going and it did lighten up, but it was pretty wild for a while there.

My dog was very glad to see me. The lights threatened to go out while I was in the shower. Kurt is out playing music. I will feel more comfortable once he's back.

Meanwhile, my older daughter, who is in Americorps, got sidelined by a winter storm. Her crew of 11 is holed up in an inn in the Sierras. They were trying to go from Montana to Sacramento ahead of a winter storm, but it caught up with them. I'm glad she's safe.

There's no place like home.

Thursday three

2011-02-24T02:17:00.000-08:00

1. The monthly music potluck was last Sunday. Lately, it hasn't been anything to blog about, but I think it doesn't get as many people when it is all indoors. We had a nice reprieve from winter, good weather for sitting outside. Lots of good musicians.

I took a chocolate torte that was leftover from a party menu at work. We weren't going to serve it and it worked out well for the potluck.

2. Been writing a lot. I'm not satisfied with the way my novel opens. I'm trying a different approach. Not sure if it's working or if I'm just going to confuse people. Kurt thinks the old opening is better, but I think it takes too long to get going.

Does anyone feel like reading 30 pages?

3. Stormy today. It's alternately raining and violently pouring.

Good day to read. I've finished 3 books this year, all by John Morgan Wilson. I like his writing, even though I'm not usually a mystery fan. His protagonist is a gay male in West Hollywood, CA, so if you are offended by homosexuality, you won't like these books. I've lived and worked in Durham, NC, which has a strong lesbian community, but I've never been around anything the scope of West Hollywood. I found it to be an interesting backdrop.

Currently reading The Surest Poison, by Chester Campbell. He's in my writer's group. We are all in the "Thanks to" acknowledgement, which I think is pretty cool.

Friends, old, new and dying.

2011-02-16T03:10:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of friendly acquaintances here in Nashville. They are friends, but not people I've known for years. My circle is mostly people here for the music industry and we are all from somewhere else. So when someone disappears from view, I usually just assume they've gone back home for a while.

Thus, I was surprised when Kurt told me about the benefit for a friend named Wendy, who was apparently dying. I had no idea. I just figured I hadn't seen her in a month.

A couple of years ago, another friend started a monthly women's breakfast club, which lasted five or six months. It was a rotating potluck whose sole purpose was for women to connect as friends. We were the same people as the circle of musicians, but it was strictly social, a way to lay down roots in a town where we had none. That was where I became friends with Wendy.

She got laid off shortly before I did, and we both bounced through a series of temp jobs. Her last one lasted more than a year, but since she was a temp, it didn't include insurance. A lot of companies are doing this ruse now, and I blame it for the fact that she got diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer on Jan 24th. It never should have gotten that far undetected. She is terminal and living in a hospice.

Neither one of us is a musician. I came here as a spouse of one. She came alone. She once told me that it was her mission to encourage musicians. It seemed a little lame to me at the time, although I didn't say it. I feel like I have spent my life being the solid support person for my children to bloom, then moved on to my husband's dream, but personally, I want to shine on my own as an artist or writer. Even when I used to do art shows, I never got to truly be a self centered, flaky artist. My craftwork sold. It paid bills.

She hosted a weekly radio show featuring many independent songwriters, including Kurt. She attended shows and songwriter nights. She was there for other people's dreams, and that was good enough for her. And they got the chance to thank her.

Her radio co-host organized a benefit for her. It was the Sunshine Benefit, and took place at a bar/cafe last Sunday. It was a festive event with songwriter performances, a blues band, an auction and a bake sale. The theme was yellow smiley faces. Thus the cookies which I made. They sold well.

People said good things about her and thanked her for her musical support. We left notes in a guestbook for her. It was not a depressing event. It was a celebration of her life, the kind of thing we usually do after somebody dies, while she was still alive to appreciate and enjoy it.

Snow woman

2011-02-10T04:51:00.000-08:00

In the kitchen

2011-02-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

Making some cool stuff to send to my brother on his birthday. I'm not above experimenting on friends and family. The truffles on the right are dark chocolate-jalapeno, rolled in cocoa powder, sugar and cinnamon. They're subtle. The pepper is an after bite. that's all.

The other truffles are almond flavored, also dark chocolate. The orange slices are candied, then dipped.

I'll come up with a few other things to add. I'm going to get one of those $10 postal service boxes and fill it up.

Our local Kroger way overstocked on Ghiradelli baking chocolate before Christmas. They recently ran a managers special of 12 oz. bags of morsels or baking chips for a dollar each. I bought 11 bags. Mostly bittersweet, but a few semi sweet to go into cookies. Good, premium chocolate.

Snowing like mad. The chef and I switched days off because he needed Tuesday night off this week, so I'm not going anywhere. Kurt has to go in late tonight. I'm hoping it doesn't stick to the roads. It's borderline right now.

Writing a lot, reading a little. Never enough time, Better than being bored.

We're back, at least for now.

2011-02-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

My writing group is finally meeting again. It's been ages since we had a real meeting with everyone there. But tonight, I am not working, neither is anyone else, and all seven of us are coming. (The eighth member moved to NC). Not only that, four of us sent submissions.

I really like this group. Good people and good writers. The discussions, when they happen, yield valuable feedback. I've also improved my critiquing skills from doing this.

Meeting at a Panera in Madison. It's a good location for 3 of us, okay for one and out of the way for the other 3. Losing our meeting place at Opry Mills took a toll on our group. It's a giant mall which got seriously flooded, then caught in an insurance dispute, which is why it never reopened. Even when and if it does, we will have to see if it yields a good meeting place. Ours was in the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble, RIP.

But mostly, it was in the middle and easily accessible without fighting traffic.

Gotta go read and crit.

Thursday three

2011-01-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

The sun came out today. The only snow left is in the woods and in the north shadow of the house.

Had a snow day anyway. At least that's how the chef worded it when he called and told me not to come to work. More like an unpaid, one-day furlough. There were almost no reservations on the books, and the snow earlier in the week caused the private parties on Tuesday and Wednesday to shrink considerably. It didn't start snowing until late Tuesday night, well after we closed, but I think people were afraid it was going to.

I have finally reached the climactic scene in the novel I've been working on since last 2009 nano, and I can't seem to write it.

Friday five

2011-01-21T05:09:00.000-08:00

1. It is restaurant week here. This is when a group of independent restaurants run set priced menus. Ours is a 3 course meal. The idea is to get people to try out and support independent restaurants. Busy. No day off, in fact, except Sunday.

2. Snowed yesterday.

3. I drove home on snowy, icy roads. Big deal for me. I've had a number of heat impaired cars and small trucks which have put me in some scary situations in snow, so I'm a bit panicky about it. But the Versa did okay.

4. Started reading a new book and quit. The writer didn't seem to like the protagonist, so why should I care about her? Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen. Don't bother. Started a book my husband just finished reading. Simple Justice, It's the first in a mystery series by John Morgan Wilson. Good so far.

5. I used Kat's rowboat/climate analogy in a conversation yesterday.

Hush now

2011-01-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

A short while ago, somebody posted a link selling stickers for open hunting season on liberals. I was going to post the link, but they took it down a few minutes ago.

My husband was appalled, but I pointed out to him that we have northernsun.com, which has some of the best bumper stickers ever, and they are clearly left wing. I like the humor, but I'm sure there are people who wouldn't agree. The open season thing was tasteless, not funny, but dumb, vitriolic people would probably get a hoot out of it.

And that's the last time you're going to hear me call these people dumb. It's not that I won't think it. Anyone who likes jokes about shooting people they don't agree with is dumb in my book, but I will keep it to myself. This is what needs to happen all over America.

Remember back to the days before right wing talk radio. Rush Limbaugh came on the scene and said a lot of things in blunt and ugly ways. He didn't run down his opponents' opinions. He disparaged the people and he did it in childish ways that many people had wanted to voice, but had been too restrained, too adult to do.

He made ugliness not only acceptable, but cool. Disrespect became a hallmark of strength. In true Limbaugh fashion, he made fun of the old restraints by calling them 'political correctness.'

There are people who are old enough to vote that have never undergone an election without negative ads and absurd accusations. It's time to grow up.

The last election reached a new low in behavior on the part of the candidates and their advertisers. Congress is too busy representing parties and wings of parties to do their job, and they aren't embarrassed about it. I think this is a problem. They may have always been partisan, but it needs to go back to being a hidden undercurrent, not really acceptable. We need to bring back the restraint that comes with adulthood.

The young man who shot Gabrielle Giffords was mentally unhinged, but I am not the only one who wonders if he would have done that if political anger wasn't so acceptable.

I will still think people who have bumper stickers about shooting liberals are dumb. I will still assume they like slapstick sitcoms and haven't read a novel since high school. I will still write off as ignorant any editorial that uses the made-up word Obamacare or uses liberal or conservative to mean something it doesn't.

But I can stick to the issues and keep that part to myself. We need to take a giant step backward, take a good deep breath and relearn that politeness is respectable after all.

Tuesday 10

2010-12-21T04:50:00.000-08:00

Since I don't seem to be blogging, I think I'll try Chris's format. I hope you don't mind, Chris.

1) Youngest daughter arrived Saturday. The plane she was supposed to get on in Baltimore turned out to be broken. They tried to fix it, then unloaded everyone and had to find another plane. She got here safe and sound, three hours late.

2) This is not the longest delay she has encountered. One time, they had to give her a hotel room for a night.

3) She is a night owl. Anyone who has worked evenings knows that you can't come home and go straight to sleep. It was nice to have someone else to sit up with me. We talked, sipped cognac, and played Bananagrams.

4) I didn't stay up for the eclipse. Just as well. I heard it was cloudy. It is now.

5) Did either 18 or 19 tins. Will probably do a few more if I get more tins. There's always a few last minute gifts.

6) Writer's group Christmas dinner tonight. I'm giving everyone (surprise) a tin.

7) Gonna make tomato basil bread.

8) Not working again this week. Good and bad. I get paid hourly.

9)Older daughter arrived safely in NC. Staying at boyfriend's mom's house.

10) Went into a writing block after nano. I think I just burned out. I don't even know how my novel is going to conclude. But I did add a little to my other WIP, so maybe it's starting again.

Shopping Blues

2010-12-11T02:55:00.000-08:00

I hate shopping. For practically the entire spring and a good part of the summer, I worked in the daytime and my husband's work hours were short. He did ail the errands and all the grocery shopping. I didn't miss it a bit.

I didn't grow up Christmas shopping. While all the glitz and glitter looks marvelous to a kid on the perpetual outside, the whole notion of the entire nation going shopping at the same time struck me as crazy as soon as I was old enough to drive to the mall and look for a parking space.

So I opted out of the Secret Santa at work. I felt like a bit of a wimp for doing it. I work with a rowdy, excitable crew, and they were having fun drawing names, but the whole thought of adding anyone to my Christmas list scared me. A female would have been fine, but several of the people are guys in their 20s. And what would I get one of the Mexican dishwashers?

When I first got together with my husband, we, along with his siblings, were a bunch of young couples. It was the first time I had to Christmas shop, and it was fun for a year of two. Then it got dumb. One year, his older sister and I got each other pot holders and dish towels.

The very first year that everyone had at least one child, we moved to only giving gifts to the kids. That was great. Buying toys is fun.

I went to buy a few things for my kids yesterday, and had to really psych myself up for a simple trip to Wal-Mart and Lowe's. I hate Wal-Mart for what it has done to so many American small, once thriving downtowns, but I don't live near any full sized stores, and this was the closest one. And where else can you buy both ear buds and dogfood in one trip?

I think I might be a shopping phobe. I don't even like shopping online. I'm not thrilled with large snakes or driving in snow either, but I can handle small spaces, tall heights and don't alphabetize the food in my refrigerator, so I guess I'm doing okay.

Happy rambling.

Gano!

2010-11-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

Now I need to go clean up my house and cook a turkey. Pear pie (with a few cranberries) is in the oven. Then the turkey, then biscuits, which only take twelve minutes to cook. I imagine that the people who have two ovens actually use them on Thanksgiving, but I just have one, which is all I normally need.

(Gano is Spanish for "I win")

How many?

2010-11-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

We own eleven chairs that can be put around a table. My table has multiple leaves. One of my good friends has post polio syndrome and uses a wheelchair, so my Thanksgiving table is limited to twelve. I don't think I own more plates than that anyway.

The way I do Thanksgiving each year is this. I cook one of each part of the meal, that is one dessert (a pear pie), one turkey, one starch (mashed potatoes, which Kurt will do), one vegetable (succotash this time), one bread (cheese/black pepper biscuits this year). Everyone else will most likely bring something, but if they don't, we still have a complete meal.

I usually know by now how many people are coming. There were going to be seven of us this year, all people whose families are elsewhere, but I'm hearing rumors it's grown. And I'm not sure by how many.

But we will all fit in my narrow dining room and share a meal with transplanted family. It's not the same as going to my in-laws like we did for so many years, but it's the best we can do. Sometimes, the best we can do turns out to be pretty darn good.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wednesday What

2010-11-10T01:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't had time to blog lately, so I thought I'd try Chris's trick of making a list. Unfortunately, there isn't a number that alliterates with Wednesday.

1. Sent older child, who is doing Americorps in California, a care package, after a broad hint. "Mom, did you know you could send us care packages?"

2. Got a $10.70 box from the PO and filled it with Pear-Rosewater jam, dark chocolate dipped candied pears, dried pears, white chocolate dipped candied jalapenos, and chocolate chip cookies, enough of everything to share. I got my shipping moneysworth.

3. Been doing 2000 words/day for nano, but going to take today off.

4. Going hiking with hubby and dog this morning.

5. Working tonight. We are rolling out the new menu. Going to be mayhem in the kitchen.

6. Worked Sunday, doing a trail run of all the new foods so the chef could have a tasting with the front-of-house staff.

7. We had a Pancreatic Cancer night last week, where a percentage of the proceeds went to research. All the staff wore purple ribbons and bracelets. Kitchen staff has still been wearing the bracelets. We didn't discuss it, just all did it. Chef is making up other things it stands for. The last was Feline Aids Awareness.

8. Went to a write-in at the Parthenon on Saturday. It's a life sized replica of the real thing, in Nashville's flagship park, Centennial. Art museum inside. We wrote in a gallery of paintings from Greek mythology.

9. I think I'm going to run out of story before 50,000 words.

Date night

2010-10-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Kurt and I have been working weird schedules.

When I first read that a Chihuly glass installation was coming to Nashville, I wanted to go see it. My older daughter was visiting, but it hadn't opened yet. I was working at the Census and Kurt was barely working any hours at all. When I came home, I just wanted to be home, but I knew the job would end eventually because our office would close. We could see the show after that.

Then his work schedule went nuts. Crazy hours, lots of overtime. He was on the road sometimes, and I started a night job. We had no time together, and Chihuly was going to leave, so we reserved a day where we both not work no matter what. That day came yesterday, our date night.

I wore my shirt from Nordstrom. I've never been to a Nordstrom, don't even live in a place that has one, but I have a shirt from there. My mother bought it last year when she was trying to put together an outfit for my nephews' Bar Mitzvah. She bought another shirt too, intending to try both on with the skirts in her closet, then return one. Instead, she gave the alternate to me.

As it happened, the Acorn, which is where I work, had been involved in some sort of fundraiser show at the Cheekwood botanical gardens in the spring, the same site that was hosting the Chihuly show. They had been given a number of passes that were about to expire. When I told the manager about our planned date, she gave me a pair.

We wandered the gardens in the dark, looking at lighted glass sculptures mixed with the foliage and also set in reflecting pools and fountains. It was very creative. If any of his work comes to a park near you, I recommend going.

We went out to dinner at a place where my sister in law had bought us a gift card for our anniversary. We sat in the bar area, where there was a jazz pianist. I wasn't as impressed with the food as I wanted to be because I expect more from an upscale restaurant, but I think I am jaded because I work at one. But it was pleasant sitting next to me sweetie, listening to music. Mostly, it was nice to have an evening that was ours

Trying to come up with an opening scene for my nano. I don't want to open the computer the morning of Nov. 1 and stare at it.

The employment thing

2010-10-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd bring you up to speed. I haven't blogged because I'm having trouble adjusting to night hours. I did it easily before I left, then had to get up early to catch a plane and spent a few days on Eastern time. Now, I'm working late and getting up early. Feeling kinda dopey.

The person they hired to do the job I had been filling in for didn't work out. She had quit by the time I got back from Florida, so I started filling in again. The only reason they didn't give me the job was that it didn't pay enough. The manager respected me more than that, and was paying me better than the job paid.

It's the pantry, which is the entry level position in a kitchen. The person is often a culinary student or somebody in a first kitchen job. It also sometimes goes to people looking to move into the hot line, the newest hire. I've done the hot line before. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt, a few burns and many stories. So the person who assembles your salads, cold appetizers and desserts is not generally a former pastry chef.

The chef and the manager both wanted me on the team. The owner lives in DC, but he used to be down here, running the restaurant. In fact, he was here when I originally got hired, so I know him. He is all about money and numbers, but they convinced him to offer me more than the position pays and I took it. It's not what I used to make before and it's not as good a position, but it's a good compromise.

Not where I expected to be at this stage of life, but I'm not complaining. I like the people and I am employed. I could hold out for a pastry job a little while longer, but what I am seeing is that older people who fall out of employment have a hard time getting back into it. It may the same for younger people too. I don't know. Potential employers prefer an employed person or newly laid off to one who has been sitting home.

The biggest problem is that I work when my writing group meets. Night work was not a conflict when I was young, but now it is. We tried rearranging our meeting dates, resulting in a 31 email thread, but no day that we are all available. It may be that in the future, I can get off on some of those nights, but this week, we have a big party on Tuesday.

Only got totally in the weeds once last night. In time, it will run like clockwork. I know. Been there, done that and doing it again.

Fall has sprung

2010-10-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

We left on a Thursday morning. The weather was beginning to warm after a few frosty mornings. It was good timing. I didn't want to ask my dogsitter to cover and uncover the garden, and I didn't have to.

We came back Monday night to a riot of color. It was green when we left. I'm not sure how everything changed that fast, but it's gorgeous. I decided not to shoot anymore fall photos. I always get excited and shoot both fall colors and pictures of ice and snow. They look the same every year. Instead, I looked though my past photos, which are on a flash drive, for a picture of sumac. The colors on it are so intense, with both bright red and bright green at the same time. This is the view from both my bedroom and the little computer room, which used to be part of the bedroom.

Anyway, I found I had none, so I shot a picture to show you folks. But after this, I'm not shooting more photos of leaves. I have plenty.

For an unemployed person, I sure do work a lot. I'm not even sure when I've got a day off next. Probably Sunday. At some point, I need to get officially hired. I had made the transition to evening work, then got up really early to catch a flight to Florida (for my mom's 80th birthday) and threw the whole thing off. I worked last night and still woke up early. Gotta get this straight.

Lentil burgers

2010-10-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

Lentil Burgers

8 patties

1/2 lb lentils (1 1/4 c)

3 c water

1 onion, chopped

1 c chopped carrots (or grated)

1/2 t dried oregano

1 t salt

1/2 t garlic powder

1 egg

2 c whole wheat breadcrumbs (If I don’t have any, I grind up ww saltines)

1 c oats

Boil lentils in water for 15 minutes. Add the next group of ingredients and boil another 15 minutes or until lentils are very tender. Should be soft and wet. Cool slightly. Add beaten egg, breadcrumbs and oats. Make into patties. Fry in a skillet in a little vegetable oil. Serve like burgers.

Bonfire

2010-10-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Perhaps some of you recall that we had planned a bonfire and cookout for our 25th wedding anniversary back in May. It was the day Nashville flooded. We had rapids in the road. Five months later, we finally had the bonfire. We did it on shorter notice this time so that we had a weather report. It wasn't as big as the other one was going to be, maybe 20 people, but we all had a good time. Kurt cooked a pot of chicken gumbo, I did black beans and rice in case we had vegetarians show up, and people brought food too. The night was chilly and clear, perfect for a fire. The couple on the left in the picture lives next door. She lived in this house 30 years ago, and never really came over and saw the addition, even though it was her cousin that was living here and added on. I gave her a tour and she told me how it used to be laid out. She liked what we did with the house, especially my kitchen. Apparently, she painted her cabinets too.

The food was good, the company was good, and since it was Nashville, the songwriters took turns doing songs and playing guitars. Our neighbor, who works at a local stable and western show sort of place, brought Cowboy wood. It's copper pipe with a piece of garden hose stuffed inside. When you put it in the fire, it blazes green and blue. My guess is that burning hose is not very good for the environment, but I don't know these neighbors very well, so I didn't mention that. And it looked very pretty.

So we had a bonfire and didn't flood. Eastern North Carolina did. My apologies to my old friends out in the coastal plains.

Think for yourself

2010-09-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

But check the facts first.

http://factcheck.org/2010/09/factchecking-the-pledge/

Bronte super powers

2010-09-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might enjoy this. I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKXNThJ610

Yes I can

2010-09-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

I can still do it.

I wondered about this. I began working in restaurants young, at an age when most people can stand for the duration of a shift, then go out drinking and dancing afterwards, and then maybe walk home. As I aged, I never lost that ability to work standing, although I did want a break after about six hours. I was also aware that people my age would not be able to jump into this. I was able to sling giant mixer bowls full of dough or haul 35 lb. vegetable oil containers up the steps because I never stopped.

Then I had an office job. My unusually young body aged. At first. I didn't see how anyone could sit all day, and then I could do it too. I took walks on my breaks, but there were women much younger than me that barely managed that, people who traded sitting and noshing for health. My middle grew soft and my strong leg muscles grew thinner, all in 8 months. And I started to wonder, could I go back to doing what I did?

Thursday night, the general manager called from the Acorn, the restaurant where I used to be the pastry chef until my job dissolved at the height of the recession, throwing me into employment limbo and a series of temporary jobs where I have been wandering ever since.

The pantry person was a no-show, and was there any way it would be possible for me to work Friday night? Pantry is the entry level station in most kitchens. It's the cold station: salads, cold appetizers and desserts. She thought it would be easier for me than a complete stranger to do it, but I never used to work when we were open. It's an upscale place which only does dinner. I had no idea what the menu items even looked like.

So I did it. I worked the station on a busy Friday night with a wedding party upstairs after just being shown a sample of the salads (there are four, all completely different) and the one cold appetizer. No training. When I got dessert orders, I had to ask the servers what plates to use and how things were served, but it all went well.

Tonight I'm on the hot line. No telling how that will go. I actually filled in for that position for a party last fall, and trained a few days before that, but I don't remember the stuff. Saturday is not usually as busy as Friday night. The former pantry cook is coming in tonight and I like her. It'll he like old-home week.

Both of us got hired there by a chef (Dave) who left a few months later. The chef who replaced him got along fine with me, but I don't think he would have hired me. Dave liked to be able to completely turn things over to somebody capable, then coordinate with them. Andy liked more control, but he was very capable. Still, I was feeling pushed out. He also took a long time to hire a sous-chef, working crazy hours until he found the right one. He's gone now, moved to Florida two months ago, and his sous-chef is now the chef. Great guy with a new baby and his hands really full. I'd love to work for them again, but a pantry position doesn't pay enough.

It would be nice to see if I could fit back in, but they are running with a skeletal staff. But I am doing the dessert for a reception next week. My legs and butt are feeling it, confirming what I thought I knew. My job kept me in shape.

Fasting

2010-09-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

I grew up fasting for Yom Kippur. We were not particularly religious, but we followed the traditions. I like the idea of the New Year being a new start. You celebrate, then have ten days to really think about what to change about yourself and what things you should have done differently. Then you seal it with a fast. It says that you mean it, that we are all imperfect, all have something to change and something to be forgiven for.

When I was a child, I thought it would be much cooler to have things like Christmas trees, and I was aware that Christians didn't all do full-tilt fasts. I knew about no-meat Fridays, because the calendars given out by our neighborhood businesses had a fish printed on every Friday. I don't know if all free calendars were like that, or it was just that our neighborhood was Jewish/Catholic, a typical NYC combination. I think there was a time when the Protestants mostly didn't want to live with either one of us, so we ended up together.

Kids did a half day fast. The service seemed endless, but we could eat afterwards. The adults didn't. Usually, the full day fast (no food or water) began at age thirteen, but I was very tiny and thin, and went until mid-afternoon my 13th year. Nobody pushed it. I wasn't physically big enough. I did do it when I turned 14, and had trouble being able to eat afterwards. I still sort of do, but know I will get past it.

I was one of these people who didn't put on adult weight until my late 30s. Until then, I never understood how the rabbi, the cantor and all the other people doing blessings and readings could handle running a service on no food. I took the children to evening and then the morning service (which is when the kid service was, also), but didn't go back for the afternoon service. I didn't feel safe driving.

Then it clicked. Other people had extra weight. I'm still small, but now I can go all day without food. I get a headache, but I can also reach a meditative state that I couldn't at 95 lbs. (I'm 4'11", so that's not a drastic as it sounds.) I still don't like having extra body weight, but it's a cushion I didn't have.

Each year is different. No great revelations this time, but I reached an inner quiet I have been unable to find, even after my job ended. In fact, I tried to write and found that I had nothing to say.

This is not a bad thing. I think that the first step to understanding Something is understanding Nothing.

Dept of Labor update

2010-09-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

I may have finally gotten straight with the unemployment people. I won't know until next week. This has been very frustrating. What happened is that the person who put my initial claim through did it wrong, so it went through without my federal government wages. A benefit amount based on about half my wages was issued. I filed a wage protest, filed an appeal, called numerous times, each of which involved at least an hour on hold, and faxed my pay stubs, all to no avail. I finally spoke with somebody at the appeals office today, who told me that my benefit statement had been issued.

"Exactly," I said. "And it's wrong, but since it's been issued, I can't seem to get it changed." She transferred me to another number where I left my name and info on a machine.

Miracle of miracles, a person called me back about an hour later. She completely understood what was going on. Having "already been issued" seems to have stuck my claim in a netherworld. She said that the federal claims person was out of the office, but would call me tomorrow.

Actually, she called about a half hour later. She told me it was late in the afternoon, but tomorrow morning, my census wages would be added to my claim. I should receive a new notice of benefits and a check for the difference next week. I've only gotten two checks, so the difference won't be huge, but it's a good step forward.

I guess I'll have to wait and see, but I finally feel like it has gotten unstuck. Also, both people from that office were happy and bubbly, which was nice.

I did a small baking job today: three loaves of banana bread and five dozen cookies, half chocolate chip and half oatmeal raisin. My recipes make more cookies than that, so now I have extra cookies. Having done it for a living, I'm a fast baker, but it takes long to do things at home because I have one oven, and it has one shelf. I got some other things done while things were in the oven. It would be a good home business to have, if baked goods weren't so heavy. I could probably give most mail order bakers a run for their money, but the shipping is almost as high as the cost of the product. My husband delivered this one. He and the recipient both needed to be in the downtown area around 6, so they arranged to meet in the Comfort Inn parking lot.

The Dept of Labor wants me to go to some sort of rejobbing meeting on Tuesday. I think they can steer me to info on starting a home based business.

This was supposed to post on 9/11, but didn't

2010-09-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

All my life, I’d heard that Americans all know where they were when they heard President Kennedy got killed. I don’t. Kennedy was the first president I remember being aware of, and for all I knew, it was normal for them to get shot. I was four.

I grew up in the shadow of the baby boom. While technically a part of it, those of us born at the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties grew up against the backdrop of anti-war protests. We wore peace sign patches on our jeans while riding our bikes. Civil rights marches could be seen in black and white on the nightly news, but then we went downstairs (I lived in a New York City apt.) in time for the evening ice cream truck, playing tag and Spud while waiting. The Summer of Love was the Summer of Camp for us.

By the time I was old enough to participate, it was over. Disco and the cocaine-fueled culture it spawned (I lived in Miami as a teen) had replaced anything resembling a social conscience. The best one could do for the world was recycle, a radical concept in the late 70s. I did attend an anti-nuclear march on Washington. To me, marching on Washington is a quintessential part of the American experience. Or the state legislature, if you can’t get to Washington. By the time the “Let’s not go to war in Iraq,” marches took place, I was too busy to go, and nobody in power was listening anyway. My older daughter attended with a friend’s family.

So anyway, I never understood all the comments about “Everyone knows where they were when they heard Kennedy got assassinated,” until 9/11/01. I know exactly where I was on 9/11. My life was super busy then. Kurt and I had a coffeehouse with a cafe and bakery, and live music. We also had two school age children. He and I switched off working at the coffeehouse. Because I usually opened, I rarely had any time to myself. I got home in time for the kids to come home. I drove to gymnastics and Taekwondo. I also did taekwondo. If I was going to have to be there anyway, I wanted to participate. I fixed dinner. Basically, I worked and then I was Mom, except for Tuesday and Wednesday, the only days that Kurt opened and I closed. 9/11 one of those 2 mornings.

I had the house to myself. I was emailing photos from our Okracoke Island vacation to some of my cousins in NYC when Kurt called and asked if I had heard that a plane hit the World Trade Center. I waited for the punch line, but there wasn’t one. I turned on the TV, and then another plane flew into the second tower.

What I remember most is the peace and quiet and the shock, not just that morning, but in the month that followed. All the businesses in our old-timey downtown neighborhood hung red white and blue wreaths, us included. People were nice to each other, (unless you were middle eastern.) In fact, we saw a few customers I had never seen before, women dressed in Muslim garb. I think somebody must have told them they’d be welcome at the Hyphen in those uncertain days. I was flattered.

It never lasts. After a while, people were jerks again. They cut each other off in traffic. They took advantage of each other as though nothing happened, and that’s sad. I think the biggest honor we can do the people who died that day is to relive the golden moment when we were shocked into keeping our priorities straight, and remember that we are a community.

The weirdest job interview ever

2010-09-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

I had to show an invitation to the security guard stationed at the entrance to the church parking lot. He instructed me to park, then check in at the blue tent. I did, and I was issued a name tag, then directed to a bus.

The parking situation didn't surprise me. There is still a lot of construction going on, and the church was right across the highway from the Opryland Hotel, the world's largest convention facility, which has been closed since the flood in early May.

The bus took us to the Opryland entrance. There was a red carpet on the stairs to the hotel, and all these staff people lined up on either side, applauding as we entered the hotel. We went thru a lobby to a roped line, still being cheered and photographed, as though we were celebrities instead of people applying for work. We were encouraged to chat with the people near us in line, and of course we did, because we were being watched. They want a cheery staff.

The guy next to me had applied for 22 jobs. I had applied for a few, but when I got up to the check-in counter, I was asked to pick one. I picked guest services over special events. We all watched a video and got a pep talk. Apparently, this was the first event in the convention center since the flood. They are repeating these hiring fairs over the next few days.

My initial interview went well, and I was asked to move on to the next room. There, I waited until called, then interviewed with the head of the guest services department. He looked over my resume and said I had a very strong culinary background. The next thing I knew, I was interviewing with a chef, and then another. Since my background was mostly pastry, they called over a pastry chef, who said the only opening he had was in the bread production facility. I had heard of this before. Nashville is full of chefs that started out at Opryland, and all they did was make zillions of rolls. This was why I wasn't applying for a culinary position, but I found myself interviewing with four of their chefs at once. So the pastry chef offered me this bread job, which I said I would think about, and then the head chef came over and said the bread facility was the most physically demanding job there was, and people who hadn't done massive production didn't do well in it.

I asked if I could go back to the interview I had been having. The Guest Services manager came back, but he looked annoyed that I didn't end up in a culinary job. So that ended the whole thing. He said I would hear from them, but I knew that was it. I feel like the interview I was having got hijacked.

I don't think too many people got hired. Every now and then, a cheer went up, and they yelled out "We've got a star," which is what they call the employees. But I only heard it twice, and because of my convoluted interview, I was there for a while.

I was escorted to a long hallway where I was offered a bottle of cold water, then led outside where the bus awaited. I don't think I will ever forget getting off that bus to the cheering, smiling people lining the red carpet. Twilight Zone, anyone?

Esty thoughts

2010-09-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

I started redoing some of my etsy photos. Mine were clean, sharp, and said nothing about the product. I realized that I was shooting the way one shoots art pictures for entering juried shows. The judges want to see the artwork only. Etsy isn't a juried show, not by a long shot.

I like the idea of being able to sell through something like etsy, but it's not the equivalent of the shows I used to do. I never did well at shows that mixed real art with little kitchen crafts, like so many small town shows do. In that respect, juried shows are their own niche. People who want cute refrigerator magnets aren't shopping there. I also never did well at shows that featured "country" crafts, you know, painted wooden ducks, or wooden spoons made into dolls. Most serious art and artisan shows specifically said "no country." It's simply not a good mix. It's a different market.

Etsy has everything from vintage to high end art, but mostly crafty stuff. Lots and lots of jewelry on there. My reason for wanting to do it is that I like doing art, and selling without having to do the sales end of it sounds great. In a sense, it's the lifestyle I'm after.

I have a lot of enamels, probably thousands of dollars worth, bought a little at a time. All have long since paid for themselves thought previous artwork sold, with the exception of the 8 oz of white that I bought recently. I have the skill. It would be crazy not to use it, even if I'm not using it to its fullest artistic potential.

In the era in which I started selling artwork, the fact that the colors lasted through the years virtually unchanged, that they were easily cleaned, etc. was a selling point. It made the price worth it. You bought a switchplate once and you had a piece of artwork you could enjoy every time you turned on the light.

In today's world of disposables, permanence and quality is not so much of an issue. Kendra's right. I need a gimmick.

I thought of a few themes, like weather geeks or musical genres, that could work with what I already do. One of my friends suggested targeting hikers, because I have so many pieces based on nature. It's a thought, but in truth, they tend to buy camping gear, not jewelry, and there are a lot of companies out there selling it to them. Finding a gift for a hiking enthusiast is most likely not a problem. Still, I'm willing to consider.

I've also thought of incorporating my other strength, which is cooking. I'm thinking of themed sets for the cook in your life, stuff centering around oranges, say, or pears or chocolate. A purchase may include a spoon rest, a pendant, earrings and a recipe, all with oranges (and have it where they can buy each item separately too.) My thinking is that these are gift items, and I can make a number of items within each theme. The trick is to keep the ordering simple and the items attractive. I'm open to suggestions.

Thoughts?

foggy mind

2010-09-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a while to get my mind together enough to think. This happened last time I got laid off, too. I just needed to learn to slow down. Unfortunately, I've cleared my mind just in time for September.

I'm allergic to September. Literally. Growing up, I was the only person in our family with an air conditioner in my bedroom. It was tiny room, too, but in late summer, I was stuck there. I had my eyes nearly swell shut once, after playing in the park that time of year. The rest of the time, I'm quite healthy. I've never been asthmatic, have no major diseases, but September hits me hard.

I'm taking a Claritin clone, but it's frying my mind.

The day wasn't a total loss. I mowed the rest of the yard and made foccaccia.

Ivy went back to school yesterday. I'll miss her, but she gets bored here. She never lived here full time. We moved after she started college, so it's not like she comes back to see old friends. Mostly, she comes to visit us and unwind. This visit, she spent a lot of time in coffeehouses, studying, then took the GREs before going back. She did well. It was probably a good move, taking it here when she had little else going on.

I've been trying to rewrite my last year's nano. I don't think I'll finish before this one rolls around. I plan to do it this year, but only because it's fun. It makes no sense for me anymore. It was a good way to begin writing after having dropped it for about 25 years, but now, I find that nano generates massive amounts of stuff I can't use. I need to write more thoughtfully. I may try with an outline, a real one, not one that I write after the fact to fit my story.

Just rambling.

I need suggestions

2010-09-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

My daughter has a shop on etsy-

http://www.etsy.com/shop/englishmajorsoaps

She's done well with it. I have been on etsy for less than a month and have gotten good comments when I've gone on critique forums, but get very few hits. I haven't made any sales yet.

When Kendra started, a lot of her sales were to friends and relatives, but she has grown beyond that. When she did her first show, I dredged up my show memories to give her advice, and found I knew quite a lot. I posted them here.

Turnabout is fair play. She sent me an email yesterday that has really got me thinking about finding a niche market, and I could use some suggestions, if you have any. Her marketing allows her to make the same product that she would if she was just selling it as soap. Her niche has not squelched her creativity in any way.

Here's her email. Let me know it you have any ideas

A gimmick or a niche. Here's how I see it: the web is enormous. The web is huge. The web is everybody. You (probably) can't sell to everybody. But if you pitch to a niche (new moms! martial artists! dentists! people who commute by bike!), you tap into a community. These people are in dialogue with each other on and off the net. One dentist might see another dentist's tooth-shaped brooch and say, "Ohmigosh, where did you get that?" Then you get picked up on dental blogs. People tell their friends. People who need to buy gifts for the dentists in their lives search for "dentist present" and boom, there you are. It's all about tapping into a subculture.

Humor works, too. Librarians love the nerdiness inherent in being a librarian and will buy ridiculous funny/nerdy library stuff. People who identify as "dog people" or "chocolate people" will feel the same way (only the stuff they like will be cheesier and less ironic). And so on. I think the only way to fail in this respect is to try to tap a culture people aren't happy with or proud of (telemarketing? cashier at McDonalds?), or something already flooded with commercialism (Nascar, Christianity). But the happy proud silly nerdy things that people like about themselves are the things they're willing to spend money on to show they identify with.

You know?

I really, really really think it helps to gear yourself towards a niche when selling online. Your stuff is beautiful and long lasting and that works great at art shows--but at art shows, you're already selling to a niche: people who go to art shows.

Your audience is bigger now. That's the difference. You have to find your neighborhood. If I were just selling plain nice soap, or tried for an angle that the market was already saturated with (Kendra's All Natural/Homemade/Back to Nature/etc soaps), I would probably never get a single hit. Doesn't matter how nice my scents are, or how natural or whatever. It's the same as the 800 other soap sellers. Carve out a niche.

And that's my sermon. Hallelujah.
--
http://www.etsy.com/shop/kickglassenamels

The window

2010-09-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

Quick update on the unemployment claim. When I finally got through to them today, I was told that whoever I talked to yesterday didn't forward my claim to the feds either. This guy said he did it, and also told me there was a number I could fax my records to, but never gave it to me. Think I'll brave their stupid phone system on Friday, just to make sure. It will still be several weeks before they can straighten it out.

I know form time to time I have complained about the people who last had this house. How they painted all the window shut. How half the screens were missing when we moved in, and there were no windows in the living room at all, just 2 glass doors for light. How it was all mowed, an inefficient house in a blazing hot field.

When we stopped mowing, I expected pines. It's what shows up first in central or eastern NC. Stop mowing, and a year later, you have a field of pine seedlings. Not so here. I was wondering if the grasses would ever yield to the trees. Finally, three years later, the transformation is starting. A stray oaks, but mostly sumac trees are sprouting up at the edges. Hardwoods aren't going to sprout in an area with no shade, so without the pines, the change is gradual, but the open areas are shrinking. Next spring, we will decide what we want to keep clear and mow it once, to keep the trees out. The rest will become forest.

And we finally have a window we can open in the living room. Only one of the doors opened anyway, so we ditched the other and put in a double hung window. Actually, we switched the two doors too, since the one that did open was in bad shape. Eventually, the house will work right. Maybe.

Fun with the Employment Security Commission

2010-08-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while. I tend to clam up when things aren't going right. I think that once I get clear with Employment Security, I will feel more settled.

I made a claim a week ago, the day after Killer Nashville. Because I had worked for the federal government, the system did not accept my online application, so I had to call. Calling Employment Security is a major ordeal. First, the system won't let you in because it is too overwhelmed, so you have to call repeatedly just trying to get put on hold. Then you hold for at least an hour while listening to classical music alternating with messages about filing anywhere but the phone.

When I finally got through, I spoke with someone who didn't know how to handle a Census Bureau layoff, despite the fact that there have been zillions. Her computer has access only to jobs where the paycheck comes from within the state. I had to tell her how to verify over the phone that I had really been laid off, since I couldn't get an official layoff paper until after my payroll cleared. I used to be on the other end of that call. I know what to do.

So she put me on hold, then came back and told me she had verified it. Good, right? Well, a few days later, a got a notice saying I was entitled to $157/week. Why so low? She didn't include any of my census work. This affected two of the four quarters that they were counting, and cut my pay in half. I did some additional work during the two affected quarters so it didn't raise a red flag, but I told her I had worked full time for the census and she even typed that in. She just never checked that my application needed to go to the federal section for my wages.

I know this because I got my pay records from the census, then called and played the call-redial-repeat game again yesterday. After being on hold endlessly, I got somebody who took the figures I gave her, then looked up the record to see what went wrong. Then she put me on hold so she could find out from her supervisor what we were supposed to do next. I got cut off while on hold. I didn't catch her name. I usually write it down at the end of the conversation, and I couldn't make myself play the phone game again.

I tried again this morning, but couldn't get as far as being put on hold. It may be taken care of, but I don't know. I had better things to do.

Tomorrow, I guess I'll try again.

Dixie thought she was kidding . . .

2010-08-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

but here it is. The outline.

http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm This is a guide for cinematic pacing. It's the guideline for a vast amount of screenplays, including a bunch of Disney movies. I'm not writing a screenplay, but I needed something to tell me what to keep and what to change. I tried the Snowflake Method

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

but it didn't work for me. It might work for some of you. My writing is character driven, and I couldn't fit this story into that mold.

Back to the first outline. I added a line of my own at the end of each section, saying what event in my story fit the bill. These are nearly all based on existing parts of the story. I write in short sections, 2 or 3 scenes to a chapter. The next trick is to decide which sections I need, which I don't, and which new things should happen.

It's a start.

Making a list

2010-08-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

I realize that I need a plan. Right now, my mind is in recovery from the stupid pace and general disconnect I had from my life before. Last time I got laid off from a full time job, I cooked my way back to reality, using all my newfound free time to play in the kitchen. Now, I am simply disorganized.

I really need to outline the thriller that I am rewriting. Either that, or stop writing it. I like writing for the sake of doing it. I enjoy playing with words, but if I am going to complete anything, I'm going to have to learn how to plot in advance. I have abandoned too many perfectly good pieces that wandered so far off track that I couldn't get them back to where they needed to be. I have known that I need to do this for a while, but it requires a head space that doesn't fit with a full time job, garden, life, artwork, etc.

And I still don't seem to have time to do it. So beginning today, I am making lists, and outlining is on it. If I don't get to it today, it will be on top of tomorrow's list. Somehow, I will get organized.

Did I mention that my younger daughter is here? If not, well, she is.

A new beginning

2010-08-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

New generation, new quilt. My oldest nephew became a Dad a few weeks after my youngest cousin did. They live in NC. My older daughter went to the hospital for the birth. I haven't met the baby boy yet.

In other news, Killer Nashville was awesome. I'm not a mystery writer, but I still picked up a lot of writing info. It was also a lot of fun. I paid for Friday, but volunteered and attended all three days. Even with the days I didn't pay, I was able to attend several workshops. By volunteering, I not only saved a bit of money, but I talked to many, many people, all of them friendly. Very congenial atmosphere.

The amusing downside of that is that people expected me to know way more than I did. Just because I registered people and directed them where to go does not mean I know about the publishing industry, or even knew about all the presenters. I did try to answer questions the best I can, because this happens to me quite often. People in tourist towns ask me for directions, or where to find attractions, even though I'm a tourist too. Shoppers ask me where things are in stores. Apparently, I look like I belong.

This was the first time people asked me for business cards though. I'm far less advanced in the writing field than most of the people there. If I had business cards, I'm not sure what I'd put on them.

My job ended Thursday. There was a conference call in which my supervisor was instructed to cut three clerks. Since I had already asked for Friday off, I was one of them. The few left will only have another week or two. This gig lasted much longer than I expected when I took the job at the end of December. Meanwhile, the list of things I have been putting off has been growing exponentially.

So it's an ending, but office work isn't for me. My younger daughter is coming home tonight. Tomorrow, I begin whatever comes next..

Writing

2010-08-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Writer's group last night. There were only four of us. Meetings have been sporadic since the flood. We are meeting at a Panera in Madison for the time being, but the problem with meeting in any bedroom community at 6 pm is that you get stuck in commuter traffic. I will be glad when they get Opry Mills open again.

I sent the short story I wrote from Dixie's challenge #1, the one about the guys dressed as their dads in a bar. They liked it! They did want me to flesh it out, and one person wants me to bring it up a notch, maybe less casual. Not really sure how to do this. What I put out there was all I wrote. It's not like I invented any back story that I didn't use.

They did think that with a little work, I should submit this for publication, which makes me happy. I might put it up on Zoetrope after this weekend to see if I get helpful suggestions. I don't want to put it up until I have time to reciprocate critiques, and this weekend, I will be at Killer Nashville.

http://killer-nashville.com/

I paid for Friday, but am going to do a combination of volunteering and attending workshops all three days. I've never attended anything like this before. I'm not a mystery writer, but there are workshops for all writers, and some of the forensic presentations sound interesting. I plan to attend the one on psychopaths, but police work doesn't really interest me.

I haven't really figured out what my genre is yet. I bounce around, but I tend towards magic realism. My writers group has talked about my style, but I'm not sure what they mean. I can't see it in my own writing, but it's nice to know I have one.

Bigger isn't better

2010-08-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

The people who had this house before us were of the opposite mindset as we are. They did things large, but poorly. The bedroom was so ridiculously big that we broke it into two rooms. The master bathroom boasts a gigantic tub with jets, but no sprayer head, so it is nearly impossible to clean. The shower is a separate stall, and the pipe in the wall, which leaked recently, had been repaired with a car hose and hose clamps. There are twin sinks, of which we use one, but no windows, even though it has an outside wall. I don't think they ever opened any windows once the air conditioning was installed, so it didn't matter to them, but I like natural light and air when the weather is good.

Low quality, high maintenance.

But the biggest boondoggle of all was the pool. We had a 24' diameter pool at our old house for years, and enjoyed it every summer. It was partially shaded, which kept if from being too warm, and we bought something that kept it vacuumed, which is important if you have trees nearby. Wild grapes used to fall into that pool all the time.

The pool here is also above ground, and it is 33' in diameter. I have never seen another above ground pool that large, and there is a good reason for that. WIth one skimmer and no bottom drain, the water doesn't circulate in a pool that size. In addition, there are no trees around it, and it stays the perfect algae growing temperature. A pool that large requires a huge expenditure in chemicals, and the pool has been unusable at least half the summer because it keeps turning green no matter what we do.

This morning, I unplugged it. It was time to admit defeat. We are wasting time, electricity and expensive chemicals trying to maintain an unreasonable purchase by someone who didn't think things through. And while it seems a shame to throw out a good pool, we're going to buy a reasonable one next year, assuming we're in a position to do that.

Bigger is almost never better. Just higher maintenance.

Enameling again

2010-08-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to do some pieces to start up a shop on etsy. I used to sell enameled pieces at shows and small galleries as a side business, but dropped it when we opened our coffeehouse. It's different this time round, but I still like it.

Change # 1. Bigger work space but not set up. I'm working in a trailer, but none of my bench tools are mounted anywhere. Also, I can't necessarily find everything. My old studio was off the back porch. If I needed a tool that was stored there, I could use it and then return it. Here, things that migrate to the house don't necessarily get put back. I suspect that I will eventually buy doubles of some basic tools.

Change # 2. No working plumbing. My old studio did not have plumbing of its own, but it was about three feet from the back door of the kitchen. Here, if I get splashed with acid, I need to dunk my hand in one of the water baths.

Change # 3. I can't focus up close like I used to. My close focus was starting to go about the time I stopped. I can still read a newspaper without glasses, but for fine work, I need them. I work with a dust mask, and flip it to the top of my head when I'm not sifting glass powders. I'm not used to having glasses up there too. It's a little awkward.

Change # 4. Better music. I quit before the era of iPods and iPod docks.

Change # 5. They don't send copper screws with the copper switch plates anymore. I bought screws and am spray painting them, but it's not the same.

Change # 6. Selling online. This requires far more set up, initially, but less down the road, I hope. RIght now, I'm having to shoot a photo of each piece, and then doctor it so the colors look like they do on the piece. When I did shows, I shot slides to get into juried shows. I didn't need a picture of everything I sold, and I didn't deal with shipping and fees, other than booth fees. Simply took the money, wrapped and bagged the work and handed it to the buyer. I made changes on the spot, if possible. So if someone wanted a cross pendant on a chain instead of a strip of leather, I switched the piece on the spot. After a while I knew what to carry to handle the kinds of requests that came up.

I hope I can make a go of this. I am still employed, but it can't go on much longer. I'm keeping my eye out for a job I want, but I won't take just anything this time. I don't like what office work is doing to my body. I think it's unnatural to sit all day. I also won't work for peanuts. Wages are lousy in Nashville, but my skills are worth something. A lot of businessmen have taken advantage of the lousy economy by not paying people enough, but the cuts need to start at the top, not the bottom.

This is what I've been doing instead of blogging. I think I am happiest doing artwork.

It's only dark for now

2010-07-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

That skinny little low part of the house is my living room. It used to be a carport. The section on the left was added later, leaving the poor little living room as an interior room. The only natural light comes through the glass door, and there are no windows that open. Since I don't like air-conditioning except in extreme heat, this drives me crazy.

The roof leaked during the storm that brought the May floods, and the low roof got it the worst. Fortunately, it only actually leaked through in the utility room, which sits behind the living room, but I have water stains on the ceilings of 3 other rooms. An insurance adjuster looked at it and said it was built wrong, that even if we fixed it, the low roof would leak again in a few years. So we are changing the roofline. Insurance is only picking up about half of it, but it will be nicer when it's done.

The roof on the left is being extended over the low part to meet the roof on the right. The whole thing will be galvanized metal, which lasts about 60 years. This also means a good portion of the cement patio will be roofed. We intend to screen this in, allowing us to open the door on nice days for air. We looked into getting a screened door for that room, but it's an odd sized door, and they don't make them.

So for now, the glass doors have moved under a roof, making the room rather dark. When all is finished, there will be a skylight. The living room will still be the size of a parking space, but it will be a much more pleasant one.

Meanwhile, all the construction guys clomping around are driving my poor dog nuts. I hope she doesn't freak out and bite one of them.

I seem to have hit a writers block. I have no creative ideas at all, except in the kitchen. I am trying to use up cucumbers, which is a lot more challenging than using up zucchini. I did some pickles this morning, but I'm not doing massive amounts and giving them away because only Kendra and my parents ever give the jars back. I'm tired of buying jars every year. It's not like these other people are canning.

I also did a cucumber and tomato salad, because I have lots of tomatoes, and I bought yogurt to make cucumber soup. But the edgiest thing I did was candied cucumber slices. I like doing glaceed fruits, so why not? I threw a small cayenne pepper in the pot, looking for hot and sweet, but it didn't spice anything. Next time, I'll either cut the pod or use ground cayenne.

So I can come up with weird things to do with cucumbers, but no creativity in the writing dept. I hope it's like my living room: dark for now, but brighter in the end.

Chillin' with my folks

2010-07-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not doing anything exotic, although we are going to a French restaurant tonight. The nice this about visiting here is just visiting. My brother dropped by for dinner last night, and we will see his family sometime this weekend.

I know I've mentioned that I've never had an office job before, and I felt like I was getting out of shape. In fact, I weigh less than when I started there, because I lost muscle. Easy to do after 50. So I went running in the little neighborhood park, then went with my mother to the fitness room near the neighborhood pool. I found most of the machines to be needlessly complicated. I finally ended up using an elliptical trainer, but never could reset my weight on it. If it wants to think I'm 150 pounds, so be it. I weigh far less than that, because I'm a small person.

And I set it on Manual. Exercising shouldn't be incomprehensible.

We went swimming in the afternoon, because it is cloudy. My parents both avoid the sun.

Anyway, it's a low key visit. Good food, wine and family, and I'm sneaking in a bit of rewriting time without being rude.

Starting over

2010-07-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

I decided to start my nano over again. It's not easy throwing out a whole novel, but it's for the best. I've been needing to do it for a while, but I kept trying to fix it instead. The problem is that I originally started it in 2008, and then picked it up a year later. My writing changed, but I didn't want to throw out what I had written, so I worked around it. And the new writing itself is tight, which is making it harder to ditch.

But there are problems with the layout and the plot, which I can't resolve if I keep working around what is already there. So for the time being, I'm changing it to first person. I like close third person because it is easier to build up tension, but this will stop me from cutting and pasting too much. It needs a new start.

We'll see how it goes. I like the premise of the story. I'm not sure I have enough skill yet to pull it off, but I really need to quit ditching novels. It's getting to be a bad habit.

Old friends

2010-07-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

In the 80s, Raleigh had a strong punk scene, and Sadlacks was one of the big hangouts. It was a small sandwich shop that sold cheap beer and had a bunch of outdoor tables, along with a small counter inside. It's across the street from NC State, but I the crowd was mostly just people our age (20s) that lived in the area.

As we aged, the crowd grew older. Rather than outgrowing the scene, it changed. Still, most of us drifted off into other things, dropping in occasionally, while others stayed regulars.

Kurt played there last night, and a bunch of old friends showed up. Many of us went to college together, and others were people we have known for years. It's nice to be part of something like that. We talked about old times and new, and Kendra came with me. It think it was a chance for her to see, as an adult, who her parents were at her age.

Get-togethers like this make me wish we hadn't moved, until I remember that this came together because Kurt was playing, and we were visiting from out of town. Sad as it is, it seems like the old crowds mostly get together when someone dies. There are a few enduring traditions, such as a Thursday night poker game that has been going on for about 30 years, but mostly, we move on.

But for one evening, it was nice to be part of the old crowd, and good to belong.

Zucchini Madness

2010-06-26T19:27:00.001-07:00

Work has gotten ridiculously boring and slow, and yet, it still takes up all my time. I find this frustrating. It has gone from the frantic, crowded, round-the-clock pace of a month ago to a small operation, shrinking daily. Personally, I like my days to be busy. instead, I am there, on the clock, when there are so many things that need doing here at home.

Like tend to my garden, for instance.

I discovered yesterday that long grasses had smothered the thyme patch I started 2 years ago. We moved into a place that was stripped and mowed. There are two fruit trees, an apple and a pear, that have been here many years, long before the previous residents took over. I tend to start things that will increase each year, but these people left nothing. So after living in the same house for 20 years, I had to start from scratch. The first spring, I planted 2 sprigs of mint from a bed at work, which are a huge patch now. I started some oregano and rosemary growing, and I planted a small patch of thyme near the old well. It was doing well until I ran out of time to keep it weeded.

I have been visiting the garden every evening, and I kept checking the zucchini plants. After the largest plant, a volunteer, gave me one fruit, it never did anything again, or so I thought.

Actually, it draped itself over the backside of the raised bed, and continued growing in a small, weed choked space between the edge of the bed and a rabbit fence. It's too narrow a space to mow, and the weeds are as high as the bed. It was only when I spotted the top of something that looked like a zucchini from outer space that I got suspicious.

All those squash in the picture were growing, hidden by the weeds, from one volunteer plant. I saved the seeds. Then I hooked up a grater attachment to food processor and grated all but the smallest two. It gave me 2 1/2 gallons of grated zucchini.

So far, I've made two kinds of zucchini slaw (traditional cole slaw and oriental) and zucchini bread, but this is only the beginning. I tried zucchini bread from Joy of Cooking last year and didn't like it. Too sweet, too boring. So this is my take on zucchini bread. It's wonderful.

There is no logical reason for the space between the spices. It's a computer glitch.

Zucchini Bread
350˚, 1 hour, 2 standard loaves (or 24 muffins)
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
1 t almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/2 t allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

I don't save directions in most of my recipes. Beat the sugar into the oil, beat in eggs. Add extract. Mix dry goods and fold in gently. Fold in zucchini and nuts. Oil pans. Bake, etc.

Wall Flowers

2010-06-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Artists get ideas from each other all the time. It is natural to see something new at a booth at a craft show, then see elements of the idea spread to other artists work. It may seem like plagiarism, but it happens. I'm sure it's more rampant now that there is an internet.

We went to the Artisan show today. I hadn't been to a craft show in a while, and had never been to this particular one. The quality of the work was good, and there was a wide range of crafts, but I definitely saw the borrowing I was talking about, especially in the wood working. Techniques, good ones, not seen a few years ago, showed up in nearly all the woodwork.

There was a copper artist from Asheville with work which reminded me of my own. I went into her booth to admire (and check out her technique), and we ended up in a long conversation. Pleasant woman, the kind of person I would want for a friend if she was local. We got along well. Towards the end of the conversation, it came up that I used to do enameling, and Kurt pointed out how similar some of our work was. Amazingly so.

The last year I did enameling, I began doing something I called wallflowers. They were 3-D enameled wall pieces made from vines of copper wire with enameled leaves and morning glories. I didn't get the idea from anyone. I knew how to make vine wreaths and baskets, wild morning glories were coming up in the garden, and I translated it to copper.

I liked hers better than mine. It looked like an evolution from the original idea, which made me wonder if it was. I showed these at shows in NC, and I sold them. No doubt, other artists came in not just to admire, but to check out new ideas. It's natural. We draw inspiration from each other.

If so, I like what they became, even if it wasn't me doing it.

Quill and Dagger at the homestead

2010-06-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Until tonite, our writer's group had met only once since the flood.

Most of Nashville's commercial areas have reopened, but the area around Opryland was hit especially hard. We used to meet in the Opry Mills mall, at Barnes and Noble. Parts of the mall took on nine feet of water. Our group has been homeless ever since.

I missed the group, and offered my house. It's not centrally located, and one person didn't come because it would have been a 66 mile round trip, but everyone who came seemed comfortable, and liked the fact that it's so secluded and green out here. We have always met in public places, at least since I've been with the group. It was different, but we had a good time. I really like this group of people.

I do wish I had more time to write. I am working on my paranormal thriller from nano, there's another novel that I gutted and want to rewrite, a novella I want to pick up again and I'd like to write some children's adventure stories about my dog.

Someday.

the drowning man light

2010-06-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

My new used car has not given me the boost of confidence that I was looking for. The gearshift has jammed up a few times, but neither Car Max's repair shop nor Nissan's has been able to reproduce the problem or find anything wrong.

I also hit a piece if debris on the highway a couple of weeks ago and punched a hole in one of the tires. I think it was left from an accident that was not fully cleared. It was the same color as the road, and I didn't see it in time to stop. I couldn't change lanes, because somebody was next to me. I hit it with the right front tire. It flew out and came around and punched a hole in the sidewall of the right rear tire. In addition, the front one looked low, but it was still driveable.

Chivalry does exist. A man on his way to work to fix up Opryland (which suffered extensive flood damage), stopped and changed the back tire without me even asking. He just got out of his truck, said "It looks like you need help," and did it. I was near my workplace, so I drove it there on the donut tire and the low front tire.

Kurt took both tires to a tire store. One was irreparable. They said the other was fine. It looked low to me, but no lower than a lot of other cars in the parking lot.

But this car has left me a nervous driver, so when the light shown above lit up on my dash on the way to work two days ago, I pulled off.

Now I don't know what this looks like to you, but I think it looks like a drowning man. There are stylized waves at the bottom and two arms waving around above the head. I stared at the light and tried to imagine what it could be. I have sometimes felt I am drowning in my life, but I don't have that kind of connection with my car, at least not yet.

When all else fails, read the directions. It's a low tire pressure indicator. The tires looked okay to me, so I drove to work. Later, we added more air to the low tire, even though it's pressure reading was fine. Now it's higher, the light is off, and I hope everything is fine and that the drowning man light stays off in my life for a while.

Honeysuckle popsicles

2010-06-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

Honeysuckle Sorbet was made famous (and probably invented) by the late Bill Neal, of Crooks Corner restaurant in Chapel Hill. It takes a lot of honeysuckle flowers, but it is incredible. The only problem is that if you don't serve it all in the first two days, it solidifies and becomes hard to eat with a spoon. It's not ice cube hard, but more like a popsicle.

So last time I made it, I scooped the sorbet (with an ice cream scoop) onto a sheet pan lined with parchment and stuck sticks into the lumps of sorbet. The hardest part of that whole endeavor was finding room for a sheet pan in the freezer, but I did. By that night, we had honeysuckle popsicles.

Here is the Bill Neal's recipe. He said that it cannot be cut in half. SInce my ice cream maker only does a quart, I make the whole recipe, but freeze half for later use.

Honeysuckle Sorbet

2 quarts

4 cups (tightly packed but not smashed) honeysuckle flowers, leaves and stems discarded

5 1/3 cups cool water

1 1/3 cups water

2 cups sugar

Few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Speck of cinnamon

Place the flowers in a nonreactive container (glass or stainless steel) and cover with the cool water. Weight down with a plate. Let stand on the counter overnight.

In a small saucepan, make a syrup out of the sugar and the water by boiling it until all the sugar is dissolved and it begins to look lustrous and slightly thick, 3-5 minutes. Add a few drops of lemon juice to prevent the sugar from recrystallizing. Cool the syrup completely. Strain the honeysuckle infusion, gently pressing the blossoms so as not to waste any of your previous efforts. Combine the two liquids and add the merest dusting of cinnamon. You don't want to taste it, but you can tell if it's not there. I use the tip of a sharp boning knife to measure it. Churn in an ice-cream maker. This does not keep for more than a week or two.

Baby quilts

2010-06-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

It all started many years ago, when I was a new, young cook at the place I worked for many years, finally leaving as the pastry chef to move to TN. But I was new, young and single, and one of the servers was throwing a shower for a very pregnant server. I didn't really know any of these people, but she invited the whole staff, and it sounded like a nice thing to do.

The only problem was that the mother was natural-everything extremist. She wanted only wool and cotton for her baby.

Now you can buy totally natural baby clothes from expensive catalogs, but not on what restaurant people make. So none of us gave her clothes. i used to visit the fabric store regularly, and found a woven, cotton remnant big enough for a crib sized comforter. It was a soft yellow, with little pastel geometric shapes. It was only the beginning.

My sister-in-law got pregnant, and I visited the same fabric store. I found two pretty flannel fabrics and both them both. The only problem was, i was newly pregnant myself, and was having trouble thinking straight. I bought the same size piece as I had for the first comforter, quite forgetting that if the two sides are different, I only need half as much of each.

Kendra and her cousin got matching comforters. Form there, I got creative. I had lots of remnants, and began piecing them together. It was the baby making time for so many friends, and they all got little quilts.

Meanwhile, the first children became toddlers, and the quilts, which are double thick and the perfect dragging size, became favored blankies. One child even named a turtle after me.

This is surely the last of my generation's quilts. My youngest cousin came from a second marriage, and is 10 1/2 years younger than me. His wife is younger than him, and they are having their first child, a girl. It's almost like we aren't the same generation anymore. My older daughter will be the godmother.

I imagine that the next quilt I do will be for the babies of one of my nieces or nephews, or maybe my own children's children. Come to think of it, my oldest nephew's wife is expecting.

The quilts have come a long way, but are still as comfy as ever.

Motherly advice and a rainbow.

2010-06-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

This appeared after a storm just before sunset last night. Hard to tell in the picture, but it's a double. I'd been having kind of a crappy time. I needed to see this, and there it is.

It's both flattering and unnerving that in many ways, my older daughter is following in my footsteps. At fifty one, there are many things that I wish I had done differently, things that would have led to a more secure old age. But I don't think I would have been happy in the well paid, white collar world, and some of my traits, like being resourceful, would have been irrelevant.

Most of all, doing restaurant work allowed me to schedule my life around school hours. I made less money, but was home more than my friends that worked for large companies.

I had an art business on the side. I did enamel work, and did the local festival route. I didn't do well at the small town shows, which were mostly kitchen crafts at cheap prices, but did the bigger ones in nearby cities, and some studio open houses at Christmas time.

The kids came with me. I don't remember Kendra's first show, but Ivy came with me to Centerfest, in downtown Durham, at 11 weeks of age. I set up a playpen behind the booth so she could sleep. She was nursing. I couldn't leave her home all day. I don't think I would have done that with the first baby, but she was the second child, and I was more relaxed. I shared the booth with a good friend, who was happy to cover so I could take care of the baby.

Anyway. Kendra has her soap business on line, but she is trying a small, 3 hour show for the first time, and she asked my advice. She's not getting a tent yet, and is planning to borrow some folding tables, cover them with cloth, possibly black, and have the soaps in baskets, with an open bar of each for sniffing. She wants to use pastry case sign holders for the names of the soaps, and asked if she needs a banners or sign. She didn't remember me having any.

I haven't done a show since 1998. We had our coffeehouse/cafe then, and I couldn't balance the two. But being the good mom that I am, I fished some advice for her out of the memories.

A tent is good if you are going to do anything long term, like a weekend, or even if you plan to do this a lot. Summer storms are quick, and festivals are in the summer. Also, it's nice to get out of the sun.

Since you don't know that you are going to keep doing this, here are a few suggestions.

Set up so that people looking at one or two items don't block the whole space. WIth few tables, this won't be a problem, but when people create little corners and alcoves in their displays, it can become an issue.

Bring a sheet of plastic or a tarp, and something to hold it down with. It needs to be big enough to cover everything in case of a quick downpour. You can uncover when the rain stops, and not lose your merchandise or have soaked displays.

Why black? I used it for showing off enamels, but I'd go with something either festive or earthy for soap.

The other reason I painted everything in my display black was to distinguish it from everything else in the attic. When the time came to pack up for a show, I grabbed all the black stuff.

Ah, the secrets you never knew.

The baskets and the open samples sounds like a good idea. But you aren't stuck with only baskets. Have fun with it. You can mix and match things like baskets, bowls, even pots and pans.

Baskets are light and unbreakable, which is nice. Stacking the soap on books might be appropriate.

If you plan to do more shows, let people sign up for an email list, so you can tell them where you will be next.

Carry sun screen and water. I also used to take wash 'n dries, because there's no good way to clean up after using a port a john. Also, overalls in port a johns don't work well, but I've never seen you wear any beyond toddlerhood. It's hard to keep them off the floor.

Yes, you will need descriptions of your soaps, and I think you should have the fun, literary descriptions posted. It will make people linger, which may encourage them to buy.

I didn't have a sign, but I didn't have a company name. You do. If people remember your company name, it will distinguish your soap from anyone else's if they run into you at another show.

I did post my name on the tent, by writing it in script with electrical wire, and I hung my stuff up. It was visible from a distance. Also, nobody else did what I did. I gave out lots of business cards, but you have a web site and probably a Facebook page. Its a different world.

Streets and sidewalks are rarely level. Bring something that can prop table legs at varying heights, or your display may be slanted and wobbly. I always carried Duplo blocks in my show kit, but just find something handy that can be stacked at varying heights. I ended up with the Duplo blocks (toddler sized legos) when you and Ivy outgrew them. In extreme cases, I had seven or eight blocks under one end of the display, but usually, it just took one or two on the back sides to keep things level. Most streets are banked for runoff, so the curbside is lower than the middle.

Carry small bills. Bring a chair. That may sound obvious, but I have often seen young people doing their first show standing, because they didn't think about it.

Finally, don't get miffed if you get lots of compliments but don't sell a lot. It can happen. Don't take it personally.

Good luck.

Broccoli

2010-06-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

Things have been sort of up and down in my life. Youngest daughter has gone out west for the summer, and oldest was only here for a long weekend. My life is overbooked, and the biggest chunk of my day is spent at work. It won't go on much longer. The rumor on the evening shift is that it's over in two weeks, but I don't think they'll let everyone go at once. The paycheck is good, but I want some time. I've stopped trying to balance the home and work life, and am letting things go here, with the idea that I will have time later.

But I do need to clean the shower between now and then.

Meanwhile, I have grown broccoli for the first time, which I think is very cool. I don't know that this is the climate for it. The early spring is much colder than where we used to live, but then it gets very hot. I think broccoli needs cooler spring weather. I used to always plant snow peas in mid February in NC, but here, it's too cold for that, and then the spring is still too hot for them. I got a few last year, but none this year. Gardening in a different place requires a change of longstanding habits.

We've harvested some lettuce, and the Romas already have blossoms. They are volunteers that I moved. I hope the ones I grew last year weren't hybrids. If they are, these won't fruit. I grew those from free seeds, courtesy of Heinz ketchup, so I don't know what kind they were. I like the idea of saving seeds from year to year. I have some heirloom tomatoes growing from one of last year's tomatoes. Brandywines, I think. Or maybe zebras. I can't remember what it was I saved.

The fruit trees (1 each of apple, pear and peach) are full of small fruits. The bounty of the earth is amazing. But for a bit more time to enjoy it.

Reading entries

2010-05-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

I'm behind on reading contest entries. Not as good as last years, but I think that maybe I'm only remembering the good ones. There were some last year that needed a lot of work or redirection, but few stuck in my mind.

They say you should write what you know, but I wonder. Amateur writers seem to get bogged down talking about selling antiques, writing lesson plans, whatever. It's peripheral to the story, interesting in small doses, but after a while, I want to remind them that they are telling a story.

I think it would be an easy trap to fall into, especially in nano writing. If my story got stuck, I could talk endlessly about cooking or coffeehouse drama, not advancing the story at all. It wouldn't seem boring to me, and I wouldn't realize the reader would have long put the book down and gone to see what was on TV.

So perhaps it is good that I am dropping an accidental explosion in a chemistry lab into the piece I am rewriting. I know little about chemistry, and will not bore the reader with the properties of solid carbon dioxide.

Dry ice can explode. It's all we need to know.

A quick update

2010-05-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's the honeysuckle time of year, the best time of year to breathe.

Both girls were here this weekend. Younger one is still here for almost another week, so I am not online much.

I can't seem to find time to write. It's driving me crazy. I'm just too hyper a person to sit all day at work and then come home and sit. I suppose I should be glad to have a job, but I need to go back to working physically if my other pastimes involve sitting.

Got some good direction at our last writers meeting, which I hope I remember by the time I get to use it. I have notes, but it helps to remember the discussions while editing.

I am a contest reader again this year. It's fun, but the contest has gotten bigger. I've probably got about a thousand pages to read before I switch batches with another reader and do it again. Not that I'd trade it. It's really a neat thing to do. I just wish I had the time to enjoy it.

I'm trying to make a baby quilt. I did these all the time back when me and my peers were having babies. It's been many years. This is for my cousin's upcoming daughter.

Stuff is coming up in my garden. My broccoli looks ecstatic. Everything else just looks sort of pleased.

What do you think of Firin'TheWholeEnamels? RoadKiln was already taken.

Irrelevant queston

2010-05-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

There are many important questions in life. This isn't one of them.

You know that "Found a Peanut" song, the one sang to the tune of Clementine? I learned this song when I was three, and for 48 years, it never occurred to me that there was more than one way to sing it. So there we were, Kurt, Sadie and I, eating peanuts on the patio and singing, when our words diverged. I sang "found a peanut last night," while he sang "found a peanut yesterday." Sadie, being a dog, quietly waited for Kurt to shell peanuts for her.

Totally threw my world off kilter.

Okay, not really, but here is the question. Did you learn this song, and if so, which way? Also, what part of the country did you learn it in? We are wondering if the difference is regional.

A Gentle Rise

2010-05-05T20:07:00.001-07:00

The slope down the road from the office park to the convenience store where I buy snacks or gas up my car is barely noticeable. I mean, yeah, if someone asked if I was walking uphill or down on my way back to work, I’d certainly say it was up, but it’s not even enough to make your legs tired. Just a gentle rise.

The office reopened for real today. It had been marginally, chaotically open for a while yesterday, but only some people went in (I didn’t, it was my anniversary and I requested off well in advance). The phones didn’t work until today, and even then, they kept cutting off, as did our computer system, But today, all was sort of normal, other than having to drive up a side entrance near Bob Evans restaurant, and having Comcast vans parked all over the place. There is a Comcast call center near us, but it’s not the service facility, and there are never more than a few vans. I assume their service facility must be flooded.

Anyway, I took a break mid morning and walked down to the convenience store and the world changed. I found myself looking at the edge of the disaster zone. The Cumberland River came up past the parking lot of the store. At first, I had a hard time figuring out where the side road I was on ended and the main road started. Then I saw the brick pillars at the entry to the office park, well across the water, where the main road would be. A mostly submerged car was laid up against one of the brick pillars. I wasn’t sure of the driver lost control and crashed into it or if the car drifted and came to rest there. Another submerged car sat near one of the gas pumps. I know the river rose quickly. I think it caught people off guard.

A helicopter flew overhead, circling Gaylord Opryland Hotel, shooting the footage I saw later that night on NBC news. If he had panned a little further, to where the water stopped and dry land began, you would have seen me standing at the edge, watching.

I’m putting in a link because the Opryland hotel is incredible place. We had a write-in there last year in the Delta section, on a terrace overlooking a fountain, now full of Cumberland River.

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-opryland/360/gaylord-opryland-virtual-tour.html?intcmp=op-cid=360view-banner

I stood in the sunshine and a few folks joined me. There was a duck boat stashed nearby. One of the guys said he had paddled around in it earlier, around the Holiday Inn, whose parking lot was swamped but the hotel looked okay, and down to the Windham. He was one of the owners of that hotel, and it got hit hard. Someone asked if I was from FEMA, and I realized I was wearing an ID with a government seal, looking at a disaster zone.

I turned to go. The road back up looked like it always did. The grass in the office park was lush, maybe a bit long. Birds chirped in the trees and the scattered green spaces between the low, brick and glass fronted buildings.

Just a low rise, but it made all the difference.

a link and dinner

2010-05-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to go on and on about the flood, but I really liked this video. It's not entirely honest. There was some looting of flooded houses and businesses, but not on the scale of some other disasters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjaQoOdJvI

We had planned to eat at the Tin Angel for our 25th anniversary, which was Monday. Unfortunately, everything was closed. Instead, we ate food cooked on the grill and used paper plates. Places are open again, and are making do with the water conservation measures. We went out tonight. There are still touches of the flood, mostly in the crazy traffic (some roads are still closed off, so the others are really full), and vast areas are still under water. Also, one of the two water treatment plants got flooded, so there is an extreme water shortage. Restaurants are using paper. The entrees came on real plates, but the appetizers and bread did not, and cold drinks were served in disposable plastic, but my whiskey sour came in a glass.

The food was very good, and the atmosphere was busy and pleasant. The night manager was glad to see us, and I guess she remembered that I had a big anniversary coming up when I stopped working there, because the restaurant picked up the tab. I was not expecting that. It was a nice gift.

More rain

2010-05-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

We had rapids in the road this morning. We watched them from a neighbor's front yard. We could only reach three other houses, even on foot, and we spoke to the people in all of them. We're all dealing with roof leaks. I've got water spots on the ceiling in two rooms, and I think the utility room ceiling needs to be replaced. Also, we are going to have to put the driveway back together, but it does look driveable. I thought we lost the bridge over the ravine, but it looks like we can muddle through until we can get more gravel dumped. Otherwise, our cars would be trapped. One of our neighbors offered to let us drive through his yard to use his driveway, but I think only our truck would make it through the small ditch between our yards. The logs lining the bridge are somewhere down the road, and we have a railroad tie that must have come from someone else's bridge.

Considering that some areas were completely flooded and that people had to be evacuated by boat, I think we did fine.

The ground is really soft, the floors in the slab built part of the house (the newer part) are damp and the door isn't fitting right, but the frogs are happy and it has finally stopped raining.

They are calling it the flood of the century. Considering we're only 10 years into the century, that doesn't mean much. Or maybe it's the biggest since 1910? Do we lose that distinction if we have a larger flood before 2109? EIther way, I suspect this will be the event that middle Tennessee rainfall will be measured against for a long time.

I've gone through a hurricane (several, but only one really direct hit), and the aftermath is a mess. That time, we had no power or running water for nine days. This time, we have both, and lots of groceries, especially hot dogs, potato salad and cole slaw. We had a cookout and bonfire planned.

But no, that did not cause the storm. This is absolutely not my fault.

I make good cole slaw. This is big recipe. I recommend halving it. I cut the cabbage by hand. Take a quarter head, cut off the core and then slice thinly with a good chef knife. The cup of combined carrot, onion and bell pepper is something I pulse in the food processor, but it can be grated or finely chopped.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together. I usually make the dressing first in a bowl big enough to toss it all in. Saves washing an extra bowl.

Cole Slaw

6 c shredded cabbage

2c shredded carrot, onion, bell pepper (combined)

2/3 c mayo

2T vinegar

4 t sugar

1 t salt

1 t celery seed

Stir dressing until sugar dissolves. Toss with veggies.

This is not a river

2010-05-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

It's a driveway.

There is a ravine (pictured below), maybe 8-10 feet deep, which sits between my house and the road. It is generally dry, but carries water after a heavy rain. It rushes with a pleasant waterfall sound, but I've never seen it more than about 5-6 feet deep. That is, until today.

My husband called while I was driving home from work, and told me that the driveway and the road were both underwater, that the creek had jumped them both. unsure what else to do, I headed home anyway.

I pulled off the main road into our little hollow, came around a curve and stopped. A rushing, muddy river blocked my way. I couldn't see around the curve to gauge how big a river I'd have to drive through, nor how deep it was. I'd repeatedly heard that you should never drive into something like that, always accompanied by a picture of an abandoned car whose driver thought he was just driving through a puddle, then found the water was up past the windows.

It's a hard road to back out of, narrow and winding, and there was no place to park without blocking what was left of the road. I shut off the car to think.

Meanwhile, a car pulled up behind me, drove around and went through the water. I saw it disappear around the curve, then waited. When nobody bailed out and no car was pulled into the raging creek next to the road, I followed. Even with the windows closed, I could smell the mud as I drove through.

After that, driving through the water running out of my driveway onto the road was a piece of cake. Even so, my driveway was impassable, as shown above. (Yes, that's a driveway, not a waterway). I parked at a neighbors house across the road, the braved the water rushing down the street to go up a different neighbors driveway and cut across to our own yard.

The water has receded enough to use the driveway and the road, but my car is still across the street. They are predicting another round of storms tomorrow morning. If the driveway washes out, it would be nice to have one car on the other side of the ravine.

And to think we had a party planned. It was supposed to be a cookout/bonfire. We'll make the call on whether we are canceling tomorrow morning, but my guess is that a lot of people won't be going anywhere. The south part of town got hit harder than we did. Interstate highways are closed, and so are many local roads.

Work has gotten crazy. We are all authorized to do overtime, and it has become common to just go home at some random time after your shift has ended, sometimes hours later. I wasn't even scheduled to work today at all, and I spent the morning training someone, who also didn't belong there, to do payroll.

Onward to sorting laundry.

An ending of sorts

2010-04-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

I had hoped the Tin Angel job would last longer than the Census, only because I really wanted some time to concentrate on one job, and I like that one better. However, the baker I was covering for is coming back, as the family member she was caring for passed away quickly. Still, I met some good people and also, got my confidence back. Working as a chef of any sort is a trendy field, and it is hard for older worker to overcome the prejudice that we can't be innovative. Instead, I come away with a new dessert in my repertoire, new acquaintances and a nice place to go eat on our anniversary.

My last day there will be Monday, or possibly Wednesday if there is too much to do. The new dessert is a chocolate-cabernet tart, drizzled with a pear-cabernet reduction and topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a cabernet-poached pear quarter.

We hired loads of new people at the Census, which has made me one of the knowledgeable, go-to people there. We are trying to make the craziness fun. It's a good crew.

Anyway, there's the new car. Spring has sprung, and I planted part of my garden in advance of the stormy weather we had last night. I suspect it will be a dry summer. I hope not, but I think it will.

Have a nice Sunday.

Giving up Fido

2010-04-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not giving up a dog. Fido was my car. It was old enough to have a drivers license of its own and ran well. Nonetheless, we had to remove the idle control to keep it going. It wasn't going to pass the emissions test again.

Still, it was probably the best bargain I ever bought. It was already old when I got it four years ago it a moment of desperation. My husband's car had developed serious front end issues, and I hit a deer with the pick-up I used to drive. The truck wasn't too heavily damaged; it needed body work and a new radiator, but it got caught in insurance limbo. This took place between Christmas and New Years day. Because the truck was ten years old, it had to get an insurance adjuster's okay before being fixed. The adjuster for my area was out of town, and I couldn't get up with him. So I bought Fido, a 94 Mazda, from an exchange student going back to N. Africa. I fully expected it to be temporary, but it ended up being a great car.

I hope the new one is as good, but I don't think they make cars like they used to. I'll put up a picture of the yet-unnamed Versa next time.

Kroger and the Sunday music potluck

2010-04-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

I went to Kroger to buy coffee filters and strawberries. This is only worth a comment because I probably haven't been in a grocery store in two months, possibly more. Kurt is working more again, but for a while, his hours were few and far between. Meanwhile, I've been working two jobs, so the shopping and housework fell to him.

The housework is slipping, although I do bits here and there. I really haven't missed grocery shopping at all. It has not changed in the few month hiatus, but we were out of coffee filters, and we needed to bring something to the potluck. I used to bake for these things, but I wasn't inspired. Kurt made a fruit salad.

The weather was nice, the socializing was pleasant and the food was good, but somehow, the music wasn't doing much for either of us this time round. We left a little early, which is a good thing. I like being home.

Not sure how much longer I can keep up this schedule, but I am trying to work the census job until it ends, rather than quit. It will give me the option of collecting unemployment until I find something with more hours than the restaurant where I bake. But the census has gotten crazy. It's crunch time there, total mayhem. We are adding new workers at an alarming pace. We need them, but I feel like there is always someone shadowing me, learning what I do. It's how we teach each other, because the training classes are not really effective. Still, it's too many at once.

There are two new additions to the roster of unusual occupations of the denizens of the Halfway House for the Unemployed: A wood furniture maker and the road manager for Steppenwolf.

Got a new chapter ready for the writers group Tuesday. It needs help, but this group is good at giving it.

Soaps for literary geeks

2010-04-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

This is my older daughter's new company. Even if you aren't interested in soap, the descriptions are worth reading.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/englishmajorsoaps

But I can vouch for the soap. She created an orange spice soap with me in mind last Christmas, and it has made showering a pleasure. Her soaps are wonderful.

Bread, cheese and writing

2010-04-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

I really needed a day just for me.

Been stressed lately. I'm doing too much and not home enough. I miss it. I like to touch base with my own life now and then.

So today I stayed home. I did laundry and hung it out in the sun. I baked a double sized loaf of tomato basil bread. It rose nicely. I know this sounds stupid, but baked goods can tell when you are stressed. They just don't come out as good.

I tried mowing the lawn in front of the trailer. We don't live in the trailer, but I usually keep the yard nice so it doesn't look like an eyesore. It's mostly storage, although I'd like to use it as a studio some day.

Anyway, the grass was way too tall and the lawn mower got stuck. Not sure how to handle this. I left it sitting under the peach tree.

I made some homemade mozzarella with basil folded into it. It came out good too. It's because I was concentrating on it. You can't get sidetracked and make cheese. It's sort of boring to stand there and stir, but if you try to do something like a tai chi form while working on it, you end up wasting a bunch of ingredients.

I watched the news. I never do that anymore, because my work hours have gotten so weird. I paid the water bill. I did things that I normally cram into my life at a human, easy pace. I read the paper outside in the sunshine. I read the comic section in the hammock.

I finally got to pay attention to my writing. I've edited the first 11 chapters, but I'm not totally satisfied. I've never tried to write suspense before.

I suppose it would get boring if I did this all the time, but I think I could stay home for a week and never run out of things to do.

Burgess Falls

2010-04-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

This is where we went. I have not had much time off, and had planned to use Tuesday to catch up on some projects at home, but the weather was good and we had a rare full day off together. We went to a state park nearly two hours drive east of here, towards the mountains. This park has three major waterfalls. The first is about twenty feet, the second, about 80, and the last is 120 ft. There is a riverside trail that connects them. If you want to (which we did), you can climb the rocks down to the bottom of the giant one. It's beautiful.

We stopped on some rocks about halfway back up and had a picnic by the river, upstream of the main falls.

So the house still needs cleaning and the lawn still needs mowing, but it was a lovely trip.

Writer's group last night. One member absolutely hated my chapter. We had been in touch by email about it, and I was almost afraid to hear what everyone else had to say about it. I got some good, constructive suggestions and the rest of them like where it's going. It made me feel better. I really lack confidence about my writing and I shouldn't. It's not perfect, but it's not crap either. I think it's just that putting your writing out there for others to see is like putting a bit of yourself on the line. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not my writing.

A member that hadn't been there in a while showed up, and we all had a fun visit. Very diverse group, and we enjoy each others company.

Both jobs today. I will be working late, and am having trouble adjusting to the new schedule. I wake up at the crack of dawn no matter what. I'm just not a night owl anymore.

The awakening earth

2010-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

The census is kicking up, and the office is a train wreck. Still, I have not been too busy to notice that the redbud is budding and the grass in the office park is lush and green. I take all my breaks outdoors. Even so, I was not prepared for how quickly everything has changed in one week, especially the woods.

The yard already needs mowing. I'm not sure when to plant my garden here. I lived for years in the same house, near lowland woods, and I gauged planting times by what came up naturally. There are no jack-in-the-pulpits here, and although we aren't farther north, it frosts later here than in NC. We pretty much moved due west, but we are in the hills. Also, there are mountains between us and the gulfstream, which keeps the east coast more temperate. Peach trees in bloom are so pretty. Last year, it frosted the last day of April, and we got no peaches. My instincts tell me that it won't happen again this year, and that I can plant my garden, but I'm not sure I trust them. I'm feeling very burned out.

We went to the Art Crawl last night. Its the monthly event where all the downtown galleries have a show opening on the same night. I think most decent sized cities have something similar. Very festive. Came home to watch NCAA basketball and fell asleep during the game. Duke is my favorite team, and I couldn't keep my eyes open to watch them win.

I'll be working when the finals are played. I hesitate to post my new work hours on line, except to say that they're really crazy. I moved to doing payroll. It has more longevity than some of the other census jobs, but they're all temporary.

We've added a photographer and an actuary to our department, and have begun hiring 1600 people to work in the field. It's more work than you'd think, but it is pretty cool to offer people a job. You really make their day.

The heat's turning up at the Halfway House for the Unemployed.

Morning on the ridge

2010-04-01T03:46:00.000-07:00

The picture is from last summer. The trees are budding here.

It was Sadie's idea that I should read the paper on the ridge behind the house. I was perfectly comfortable drinking coffee on the couch. I'd worked both jobs yesterday, so it was nice to have the morning off today. I don't need to be at the census until 11:30.

Kurt has been taking her out on a leash and letting her run free in the woods. She comes back when she is ready, and lets him put her back on the leash. My neighbor-across-the-street"s dogs are her friends and she often wants to run free with them, but in a way, the restrictions seem to make her feel loved.

He wasn't home and the spring morning beckoned through the glass door. And really, who can enjoy a cup of coffee with an antsy dog in the room? So I did what any pushover-dog owner would do. I got dressed, put on hiking boots and climbed a ridge with my dog. One of my neighbor's dogs joined us. I found a good rock to sit on with my paper. I could see the 2 lane highway into the city from my perch, and watched and read, glad I was not one of the people heading to work yet. I had only one letter to the editor left to read when she showed back up and sat down, ready for the leash and the walk home.

Sometimes, dogs have the best ideas.