Conserving Energy

Woke up this morning to a 64 degree house. I have not yet turned on the furnace for the year. I play a game every October with myself to see if I can make it to Nov. 1 before heating the place up. As long as I keep on a jacket or sweatshirt, I seem to be fine in the coolness of the house so far.

Because of Hal's interest in sustainable energy, especially solar energy, he started looking at our electrical records for the past several years to see what our usage is. Perhaps we might consider solar panels for the house. Turns out, we already use much less electricity than the average American and Californian, although I'm not sure why. We have computers and a 37" tv plugged in (not always turned on) all day. After running the numbers, the payoff of solar panels would take about 20 years, and we use most of our electricity when the sun is down, so we'll just keep trying to conserve in the usual way.

Great California ShakeOut

Across the state of fault-riddled California, schools, hospitals and other places participated in the Great California ShakeOut - the third annual statewide earthquake drill. Fortunately for the music schedule at school, the kindergarteners were right on time for music class, walking right to the music room as students returned to their classes at the end of the drill.

This year the students and teachers had to stand in the steady, light mist that has been hanging around So. Cal. all week, and you can imagine all the grass that was stuck to wet tennis shoes.

A Surprise Photo in the Email

One of my childhood friends in Chicago who I saw last month just sent me this photo of her sister and our first grade teacher, Mrs. Dawson. They obviously just saw each other in the grocery store, and someone had a camera. I often carry my camera around just in case I need it.

What I remember about Mrs. Dawson is that she was on maternity leave for the first part of the school year, so we had two long-term subs (whose names totally escape me) before Mrs. Dawson came back.

Fall Planting

Yesterday we took advantage of the colleges' fall break to do a little yard work. Here are the things we planted:

Mexican Lime Tree (to complement our "produce aisle" along the driveway)

Red Leaf Lettuce and Spinach (good-bye tomatoes until next year...)

Heuchera (Coral Bells)

Wildflower Mix (in the place of the former vegetable garden)

Wives of Henry Oades

With the start of the elementary instrumental string program in the Claremont schools last week, my life has taken a turn for the busier. This year I am coordinating the program instead of our usual coordinator who is out of the country on sabbatical. Hence, no books to report on since October 1. I've definitely slowed from my pace of 3 books/month. So there is nothing like a book club meeting in the near future to put reading at the top of my priority list. Good thing that yesterday was a rainy Sunday afternoon, perfect for staying in and finishing The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran for this week's meeting. Thank goodness, also, that this was an easy read whose story picked up the pace, especially at the end.

Friday's New Recipe

So, I tried out two new recipes last week. Tuesday I posted about wanting to use cilantro and finding a recipe that way.

Friday I still had cilantro which led me to this recipe - Chipotle Black Bean and Yam Stew. I put yam in the search engine, along with cilantro, and this one sounded great to me. I want to put more yams into my recipes. I've had a hard time getting my family to like yams since they hate the traditional Thanksgiving-type brown sugar and marshmallow goo yams.

This recipe has that chipotle kick along with my favorite cilantro in the cabbage topping. I put it over quinoa, like the recipe said, and it was filling and delicious. I didn't use chipotle powder, but one chile with a little of the adobo sauce (one can of those chiles goes a long way), and found that it was not too hot at all.

Happy Birthday, Erika!

Here she is, my baby sister who was born on this day when I was 3 years old. I vaguely remember going to pick her and my mom up from the hospital, but I really don't remember life before she became a part of our family.

The song my mom sang to me was:

One, two, three. One, two, three.

How many people make one, two three?

One, two, three. One, two, three.

Mother and Father and I make three.

Just one more. Just one more.

How many people make just one more?

Just one more. Just one more.

That is the baby and she makes four!

Happy Birthday, Erika!

Powering the Planet Sustainably

Last night HMC hosted the first of the Nelson Speaker Series for the fall with the theme of Powering the Planet Sustainably. Nate Lewis of CalTech spoke about the need for energy to meet the world's growing needs and outlined the problems and pros of all the various sources that we know about.

Lewis has given this talk about 500 times, and is an excellent speaker who kept us awake with jokes and lots of information. You can go to his website at Caltech and see this talk (the one on the right called Caltech Watson Lecture Series).

Quinoa and Black Bean with Cilantro Salad

So. I had this leftover cilantro in the fridge from that wonderful enchilada/burrito recipe last Friday, so I dug around on the internet for recipes that use cilantro. I came up with a Quinoa (keen-wa) with black beans and cilantro salad.

My changes to this recipe - substituting turmeric for the cumin and goat cheese for the feta cheese. Really easy, really tasty!

Growing up in the midwest in 60s and 70s, I had no idea what cilantro was. Now I absolutely love it. It's hard to grow in that one would need to plant lots and lots of it, so I am happy to buy it at Sprouts.

I have also just recently learned about quinoa - a seed that is not only full of fiber, but also protein, so it's great for vegetarians.

Music Rug Update

Hooray! The music rug has arrived! Doesn't it make the room much more colorful? Our wonderful principal said that when we raised half of the funds, we could order it. Well, folks, we are a little over 1/2 of the $750. We are so glad that we didn't have to wait until 100% of the money was raised.

When Room 12 came in for music today, they loved the rug and then said that they would collect loose change and pledge to put $25 towards the rug. With their pledge, that means that I need 11 friends to donate $25 each to complete the purchase.

Perhaps we'll have Room 12 challenge other rooms to match their funds. Anyone out there in blogland willing to take on Room 12's challenge?