Sunset tonight

Comfort Book

Ahhhhh. What a pure pleasure and comfort to read the latest book in Alexander McCall Smith's Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I don't read these books for the plot so much as I read them for the characters and their common sensibilities. Charming and delightful.

Fall in the Garden

Hal's idea of fun is to get up really early on a vacation day and go umpire girls fastpitch softball all day long. Today my idea of fun was to walk through the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden and take pictures. Check out more pictures at my Picasa Site (these are for you, Rosemary!).

Peppernuts, Part 3!

Today was the time-consuming peppernut day. My mom and I started baking these spice cookies around 3:00 and were finished just after 6:00. I pulled the frozen snakes out of the freezer two at a time and cut them into small pieces, then Mom placed them on the cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and slide the next cookie sheet into the oven. Now they have to sit out overnight to dry, and then tomorrow they go in tins and sit for several weeks to season. You can't really taste all the spices (and especially the anise) until they are good and hard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A lovely Thanksgiving today. My mom and dad are here, and we were joined by Dick and Kathy Olson for a relaxing and fun time. This is our first Thanksgiving without either daughter at home, which is a little strange, but we managed!

Orchestra Happiness

My little orchestra at Vista has 6 players, the smallest group I've ever had. Last week I decided that my two beginning cellists at Vista were ready to join us, especially since the music has mostly open strings for them. They came to rehearsal today and did great, with smiles on their faces. I also bragged about them to the rest of the orchestra telling them that I chose Sarah and Grace since they were some of my beginners who actually practice!

We will be ready to play for the Winter Sing next month - yay!

Milestone

Yesterday was Hal's birthday! We had sandwiches from Saca's, Greek Salad and Cheery Pie. My folks arrived from Colorado in time to share with us.

p.s. yes, the cherry pie WAS cheery! (thanks, Rosemary... ; ) )

When the Weather is News

I was surprised to look at my blog just now and see that it reports a temperature of 38. It is not that cold! Weather.com says that it's 65, and I can believe that. But the exciting thing is that we may actually get rain tomorrow night!

Thanksgiving Sunday

Today is a busy, fun day. We had our annual Thanksgiving dinner at church after the service which was delicious, as usual.

This afternoon Hal and I put in some sweat equity into the yard. I was designated "wood nymph" (which meant that I raked leaves), and Hal was the "planter guy" who moved some of the manzanita plants from the parkway across to the front yard, and replaced them with tall grasses.  With the new gutters, we are all ready for the rain which may come this week.

We also had a lovely 90-minute skype with Claire. She loves London and is having a marvelous time. Today she went to one of the Tate Museums.

Now we are getting ready to go to book club to discuss Ann Patchett's Run. Since it is set in Boston, we are bringing clam chowder. Now that the weather is cooler, soup is good.

Peppernuts, Part 2

This afternoon I was ready for the second stage of peppernut production. I took the dough out of the frig (to make room for Thanksgiving....) and rolled spoonfuls on a floured countertop, placing the "snakes" onto waxed paper in layers. Now they are resting and freezing in the freezer, waiting for baking day.

Gutters

We are now ready for the rainy season (should it decide to come) with our snazzy new green gutters!

Genealogy Find

My friend, Kathy, is big into genealogy, and today she came over to show me some stuff on the internet. With her help, I was able to dig up the WW I draft registration card of my mother's grandfather. Here it is!

My childhood hero

Here I am with Peter Yarrow. That's right, from Peter, Paul and Mary. He was in Claremont singing and signing books. All I have to say is that he is as warm and wonderful in person as you might expect him to be. After this photo I got a big kiss on my cheek!

Fall Harvest

These are probably all the persimmons we'll get this year from our tree. There are a few more on the branches, but they're being used as bird food.

Good news

I received a package of information today about Claire's spring semester in Arezzo, Italy at the Accademia dell'Arte. Amidst all the forms (health, roommates, etc) are the dates of her spring break. The great news is that her break will coincide with the week we plan on visiting her in mid-March! That makes our plans to visit her about 100 times more exciting!

Also, you MUST see the video of my cousin's 6-year-old daughter on her blog.  Drama Queen!

Summer Weekend in November

Temps are in the upper 80s and low 90s this weekend, and the fires are burning all around, but it's pretty calm and clear here in Claremont. We are in desperate need of rain here.

I have been trying to imagine a tile backsplash in our kitchen, not quite sure what I wanted. Until yesterday. Hal and I went to see Bill and Sandy's new tile work in their kitchen, and I love their backsplash (seen here). I think this is what we want in ours!

Thai Night

Here are some of Hal's research students cooking up a storm of Thai food in our kitchen last night. They made Tom Kha Kai and Pad See Ewe.

Dinner and Movie

One of Harvey Mudd College's alums produces the James Bond films, and last night he provided the opportunity for some of the Mudd family to catch a sneak peak of the newest film, Quantum of Solace. A chartered bus took about 35 students, alumni, faculty, trustees and staff to the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City where we had dinner catered by Wolfgang Puck. We were joined by many more HMC people, as well as Bill Nye (the science guy).

Then we went onto the studio lot to a theater where we watched the film. Although I am no Bond afficianado, I did enjoy the exotic locale shots (starting off in Siena, Italy). Just to be part of this big event and to walk around on the studio lot was pretty darn fun. We even made it home before midnight!

A Birthday Luncheon

Today I was invited to a luncheon to celebrate Mary Fallis' birthday. Mary has worked at the Stone Center for Children's Books for many a year. I used to spend hours of my afternoons at the Stone Library. Here we are after consuming a delicious lunch, and I am standing between Judy (who hosted the event) and Mary, the honoree!

Book Review

I saw The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates listed alongside some of my very favorite novels in an ad and thought I ought to read it. It started out okay, but then seemed very fragmented, with little cohesion, and then I realized I didn't care about any of the characters. So I guess I would give it two stars out of five.

Also, Hal and I tried watching the first three episodes of the Emmy-winning Mad Men and took the rest of the disks off of our Netflix queue. Who likes a show where every character is unlikeable?  (Apparently, lots of people...)

In the News

NY Times: You can check flu trends via Google now.

MacWorld: Netflix will soon stream movies to Macs instead of just PCs.

Channel 4 News: Highs in the 90s for the next few days (but it's still chilly at night).

Tomorrow is the Great So Cal Shakeout - the largest-ever earthquake drill tomorrow at 10 a.m.

AND THIS JUST IN FROM THE INTERNET - - - Peter Yarrow will be in Claremont next week signing books (and I hope he'll sing....)!!!!!!!

A Day Off

Today was a delightful day to catch up on things. Ever vigilant, I took another trunkload of stuff to Goodwill, cleaned up and organized a room upstairs, went grocery shopping and even had time to play duets with Lynn and have coffee this afternoon with Hal.

However, the best part of the day was PEPPERNUTS, PART 1. Every year about this time, I start on these family Christmas cookies - a recipe from my Grandma Wiebe. Today was the day to make the dough. This takes about 45 minutes to an hour. First you warm up Dark Kayro Syrup and melt butter in it, then add sugar. When that's all creamed, you put it in a large bowl and add oodles of flour along with all kinds of spices. Today I used up the last of my cardamom... Anyway, after that you add a mixture of sour cream and eggs into which is put anise oil (which you must order from a pharmacist) and lemon extract and finish adding flour and stir until your arm falls off. Put your arm back on and put the dough into the refrigerator so the spices can intermingle.

PART 2 arrives when I have another spare hour or two. Maybe this weekend.

Royal and US Post

Claire ordered some stamps by mail in London and the Royal Mail shipped them here. Of course, Claire had confirmed with them the difference between her billing and shipping address. So I took the envelope to the Claremont PO and the nice guy said he would try to forward it to Claire (without charging me). He intimated that stuff like this had happened before.

Anyway, he spent about 5 minutes peeling off the address label (for what reason I have yet to determine) and telling me that as a child he used to open up all his Christmas presents early and then reseal them, so he was a real pro at this kind of activity. He even told me that one year he had gotten a car that you had to assemble, and by the time Christmas morning had rolled around, he had opened up that package enough times that he had actually already assembled the little car and it was ready to go when he officially opened his present! I got a good chuckle out of that.

Anticipating Thanksgiving

It's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving. Ahhh.

Last year I made Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes which we really enjoyed, especially my family who doesn't like the marshmallow yams. Here is the recipe:

Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds cubed peeled sweet potato
1/2 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
Preparation
Place potato in a saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes or until tender.

Drain and return potato to pan. Add half-and-half, butter, and juice; mash to desired consistency. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly.

Remove 2 chiles from can and chop; reserve remaining chiles and adobo sauce for another use. Stir chopped chiles, brown sugar, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon into potato mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.
Yield

8 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup)
Nutritional Information

CALORIES 264(22% from fat); FAT 6.4g (sat 3.8g,mono 1.8g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 3g; CHOLESTEROL 19mg; CALCIUM 65mg; SODIUM 328mg; FIBER 4.4g; IRON 1.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 49.4g

Please share with me any of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes!

Poetry

You can visit my friend's new website about her poetry at luciagalloway.com. Additionally, you can see her read her poetry at this youtube site.

SCAM Fest 08

The good kind of a SCAM - So Cal A Capella Music. While Hal is off at a trustee meeting in Palm Springs this weekend, I went to this a capella concert with Jennifer tonight. Big Bridges was filled to hear these 7-8 college groups from the area sing 2-3 songs each. Some groups were great, some less great, but it was well worth the $8 admission price.

Composing

Yesterday I met with the music professor at Harvey Mudd College, my friend, Bill Alves. He had told me that he would be interested in meeting with me to talk about my compositions. We talked for an hour and a half, and I came home with an assignment to work on melodies in the various pentatonic modes. I spent a good hour plugging away at the assignment this morning, and I look forward to writing more. When I get as far as I can with that in a week or two, we'll meet again.

Why I have Hope!

I am not usually political in my blog, but this is such an historic moment in time, and I have such strong feelings, that I will divert from my usual ramblings and just say this:

If President Obama runs the government the way he intelligently ran his campaign, by bringing people together, by listening to the corners of the country, by working hard, by exciting people who have been weary to go out and become pro-active in their communities, then I have hope that the future will be bright. I have hope for our young people. I have great hope for our future.

Historic Voting Day

Hal and I woke early this morning and made it through the drizzle to our polling place around the block by 6:45. We were the 25th and 26th people in line. It was like a block party with people we don't usually see in the morning.

I have never felt excited to vote before, but when I slid the little card into the machine and pressed my inkadot pen into the first slot, I got a little lump in my throat.

We were out the door by 7:20, not too bad. We walked to the Village for breakfast and started out at Starbucks. We'd heard that although Starbucks was giving a free tall brewed coffee for voters, it was illegal in California to give rewards to people for voting. So we ordered our decaf and because it wasn't quite ready, we were given two free cups anyway. To go with our priced-right coffee, we dropped some money at Some Crust Bakery for a chocolate croissant (Hal) and a pumpkin danish (Charlotte).

Tonight is dinner with friends (big pot 'o soup and we all bring appetizers) while we watch election returns.

The Widow's War

I read The Widow's War by Sally Gunning for our upcoming book club this month. In the 1760s, a whaling widow is left 1/3 of her dead husband's estate. He had known that their daughter and son-in-law would take her in, but she has a more independent streak and defies convention to find out what it is that she really wants. I would give this book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

How I spent my extra hour today

Besides raking leaves, doing laundry, reading the paper, etc., I spent my extra hour today talking to Claire on Skype. She is very happy in London, and has even been to the US Embassy to report her stolen California ID. She also had her Oyster card (public transportation) and ATM card stolen (from her back pocket while on the Tube), but took care of all that before she even told us. Other than that, things are going well for her, especially this week when she has a reading week (no classes) and her friend, Lucie, will come down from Glasgow for a visit. She is also thinking of visiting Edinburgh soon. I can't believe that her sememster in London will be over next month!

Orff Workshop

This is what I consider a fun Saturday morning - going to an Orff workshop and playing. People may not understand why this is fun, but it is for me! In this short video clip, we are all exploring various levels in space (high, medium and low), pretending to be trees with our leaves gently falling to the ground. Now I know what to do with that package of leaves I bought last month at the Target Dollar Spot!

Of course, we did all kinds of other stuff - lots of movement, integration of stories and music, playing instruments.