Slow News Day

Summer is really slowing down. Not much to report, but a few little things:

• The new sign is working well - had two civilized calls about the cottage today.
• My ob-gyn is on maternity leave and I found out that she had a baby girl. She named the baby the same as me...
• The cottage is nearly finished being painted.
• I see tomatoes on my vines, but they are still green. Not enough sun, I guess.

Training People

This weekend I put up the old House for Rent sign that H dug out of the garage rafters. I put up fliers that people can take with them with all kinds of pertinent info about the cottage. The old sign had our phone number in big print. Well, now that cell phones are so common (more common than 9 years ago when we last did this), people sit in their cars and just dial the phone to ask about the rental. I got tired of that, so I got a new sign today (looks better anyway) and all it says is "For Rent: Back House, Shown by appt. only." Now people will have to actually get out of their cars and read the info on the flier and then decide if they need to actually bother me.

Now if I could train people to show up when they say they will, or at least call to cancel or reschedule.....

Quick and Easy Samosas

Tonight at book club we'll be discussing Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I'm hoping there will be good Indian food. I am bringing Quick and Easy Samosas from Real Simple. Recipe here. I made them last year for our other Indian book by Lahiri - The Namesake - and found them pretty good (and pretty easy, too).

Squeakin' Wheels

I've heard about this Bluegrass group, but tonight was the first time I heard them play. Thanks to Lynn for alerting me to this and getting me out of the house tonight. It was great!

TV Coverage

Yes, I do remember JFK's assassination, even though I was only 3 1/2 years old. This is what I remember. Television had only three or four channels (did we have PBS then?) and every single channel ran coverage of this news story for what seemed like a month. I couldn't watch Bozo's Circus, Garfield Goose, or any cartoons. I had to entertain myself.

With the Michael Jackson coverage yesterday and today, I have to get my other news from other sources. Thank goodness for the internet!

Book From Blog

I saw an ad on Facebook that gave me an idea. There's a company called Blog 2 Print, and it will make a book from your blog with a nice cover and all for a nice price. I decided I could make my own book, so in the past two days I have made a .pdf file of my blog from sabbatical. I designed a cover, and now I'll take it to Staples and have a copy made - a momento of our year in Evanston.

A Classic Read

So. Oldest children are the experimental children. I am an oldest. When I was about 4 or 5, my dad decided to read Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea to me. Perhaps it was because he had had some success in getting me to enjoy some Blake and Wordsworth. (I had parts of "The Tyger" and all of "The Daffodils" memorized early on.) I know that he read this book to me. Did he read the whole thing? I can't recall. I know that I loved listening to his deep voice, so I probably sat still for periods of time.

Dad gave me this copy of the book, and I finally read it this week. Our book club read it in March this year, but we missed the meeting while we were visiting Claire in Italy. I'll have to have a mini-discussion with some at Sunday's book club meeting.

From the Land of Sky Blue Waters

Ahhhh. A good baseball game on tv tonight. Dodgers v. White Sox. While I am pulling for the Dodgers, the White Sox were my first baseball team. I would watch the Sox on black and white tv with my dad. I especially enjoyed the Hamms Bear in the Hamms Bear commericals - as seen here.

Long Summer Evening

Father's Day

A very low-key Father's Day included a trip to Costco, Lowe's (while Jiffy Lube changed the oil), a lovely chat with Liesl, and reading the NY Times. We took Hal out to dinner at Aladdin Jr. Restaurant. We tried to go to the new Korean tofu place, but it was closed. Then we tried Los Jarritos. Closed. However, we were not disappointed with falafel and lentil soup and pita bread.

Cinderella

While Claire was growing up, her second home was Village Dance Arts. She was in about 8 productions from kindergarten through high school graduation. This year she was asked if she wanted to play the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. She happily obliged. She played that part today. Hal and I very much enjoyed attending another recital since it has been several years. It brought back many happy memories of Claire being: a flower, a lobster, another flower, a snow fairy, the Queen of Hearts, a tavern wench, and others. If you click on this very blurry photo, you can see her on the right with a pink cap on her head and a purple dress. They are at the ball.

Here at the Vegan Restaurant

On the menu tonight at the VR (Vegan Restaurant) was tofu quiche (with onions and red pepper) and brussel sprout salad (with walnuts and dried cranberries). Delicious! Lots of stuff tastes good when you fry it in olive oil....

Medical Cartography

The book I finished last night is The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. Although it is about the cholera epidemic in the mid-1800s in London, it is actually more about the beginning of medical cartography, or the mapping of data in a way to help understand a problem. In 1854, John Snow depicted the cholera outbreak using points to represent the locations of some individual cases. His study led to the source of the disease, a contaminated water pump, whose handle was disconnected terminating the outbreak.

A fascinating read.

Cottage Progress

Time for a cottage update. Custom cabinets are in place, getting ready to be painted!

Summer Hours, Summer Movie

In order to let our local Laemmle Theater know that people here will see indie and art and foreign films, I decided to take myself to see Summer Hours, a French flick with Juliette Binoche. I wish I had enjoyed this highly rated film. I guess it was supposed to be about the fading relevance of objects as the generations continues, but it just felt as though some camera had followed a family through the mother/grandmother's death and the dispersing of her estate. For nearly 2 hours.

Rome

Our trip to Italy has inspired us to learn more Roman history (and Italy, in general), so Hal and I have been watching the HBO series, Rome. We are in the middle of the first season, and Hal took it along on his plane trip to Baltimore today. (He is there for a few days doing some work for the American Chemical Society.)

We enjoy the way that history is recounted through the eyes of two centurions.

Necessary Maintenance

Yesterday morning I took a very lukewarm shower. I guessed that the water heater was about to go. We put it in the day we moved into this house just over 15 years ago, so it was probably about time to replace it. Hal was out umpiring late, so we couldn't replace it yesterday. He was also umpiring today, so the fun began when he got home at 5:00.

My job was to do the online research all day. I did. The advice was to buy the expensive one - 12-year warranty.

We borrowed our friend, Beth's, Lexus whose back seat folds down. Only two trips to Home Depot, and I think we're in business, here at 8:30 p.m. It's no fun to spend lots of money to get what you already had. However, we do like hot showers....

Claire's Birthday

Today is the day that Claire turns 21! She has her new driver's license which shows that she is now legal. Her friend, Shawn, is visiting, and we went to see The Brothers Bloom at the Laemmle this afternoon. For dinner, we went to Bua Thai with Bert and Rocky's ice cream for dessert.

Now we are waiting for Hal to come home from umpiring to open presents.....

Gardens

The First Friday Women's Group at church met this morning (on the second Friday) to eat goodies, drink coffee, sit by the fire (!), and talk about flowers / nature. Made me think I haven't updated in this blog about my garden for a while.

Last fall we had about 8 persimmons on our tree. This year we have lots and lots of potential persimmons, but the tree seems to be self-thinning and I'm seeing little green balls on the ground. Still many left on the tree, though.

Hardly any peaches, no plums this year. We think maybe it's from a big pruning this winter. Maybe it's because we have had hardly any sun this month (and hence the fire in the fireplace this morning...)

I think that snap peas are done for now - they are more a winter veggie. The bell pepper plant that I thought was too far gone has one little pepper starting to grow. The string beans aren't growing taller, but I have little beans growing. The tomato plants are turning into bushes, but no tomatoes have set yet (I see some flowers, though). We need sun!

Next summer I will concentrate on several plants and lots of them. Also, if you want cilantro, you should plant lots and lots and lots, otherwise you eat it all up in one go-round.

Last Day of School

It was the last day of school, even though I was done teaching two weeks ago. Vista's RSP teacher, Jerry, is retiring and threw a lovely party in her backyard. Catering by Gourmet Gourmet, song by Vista staff to the tune of "This Land is Your Land."

June Book Club

Tomorrow my book club will discuss City of Thieves by David Benioff. Set in Leningrad during the siege of WWII, we follow the main character, a young Jew, as he gets caught up with a soldier and get sent on an errand to find a dozen eggs. The cloudy weather we've had for days and days now was the perfect backdrop for reading this page-turning adventure.

Garden MagPo

Liesl gave me magnetic poetry for my birthday - the gardening version. Today I put all the magnets on my filing cabinet and composed a little haiku. A poem a day all summer long.....

If you are jealous and want to play with magnetic words, you can go get your own, or do it online at the magnetic poetry website.

A Lovely Day

A lovely way to celebrate my birthday today:

• Working out at the gym with Hal (well, it was lovely when it was over!)
• Having Claire take me to breakfast at Starbucks and Some Crust
• Eating Claire's wonderful vegan quesadillas for lunch
• Shopping with Claire
• Seeing the new Pixar movie, Up, with Hal and Claire at the local Laemmle
• Eating dinner at the Delhi Palace Express
• Talking to Liesl on the phone

Sunday, Sunday

This morning I spent a leisurely few hours reading full articles in the Sunday NY Times. I read about the Tuscan Shore (I want to go!), how some doctors are trying to reform health care by spending more time with patients in prevention, spending habits at discount stores during the recession, a compare/contrast article on Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, speculation on the recent plane crash, arranged marriages (I told Hal that I arranged our marriage...), and people who give up on their blogs.

Realizing that tomorrow is my birthday, Hal speculated on what he might get me. I really don't want more stuff, and I can't imagine what I need/want right now. Then I hit upon an idea. I asked him to give me his time today to rearrange my study. I knew it would take his help, what with the spaghetti of cords behind my desk and heavy items to shove around. Not only did he do that, but then he took down the old metal valence above the window, spackled the holes, sanded and painted the trim and hung a different curtain rod (left over from our bedroom when we changed window treatments last summer). Thanks, Hal!

I spent several more hours clearing out the old, rearranging, dusting, and now I feel fresh and new!

Weekend Food

Friday night Claire whipped up a vegan feast for us and Hal's three summer research students. On the menu: black bean burgers, quinoa salad, mango/papaya salsa and peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies. It was absolutely delicious.

Tonight we had a group of friends over for an olive oil tasting. The original plan was to have it in our new yard, but with our cool, slightly drizzly weather, we moved the party indoors. We had about 8 different kinds of olive oil to try out with various kinds of bread, and plenty of spirits to imbibe.

Weather in Claremont

Life in Claremont means rarely talking about the weather. Rarely doesn't mean ever, but this week has been unusual weather for June. We had lightning and thunder a few days ago, and this morning we awoke to a downpour that lasted more than 5 minutes. This afternoon, these clouds were still hanging around during my walk. I miss midwestern summer thunderstorms.

Plant Sex

Having enjoyed Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, I read The Botany of Desire. Pollan explore's the historic relationship between humans and four different plants: the apple, the tulip, marijuana and potatoes. Although these plants have been domesticated, each one has had a part of just how they have been "exploited." I'll have to say, though, that I will probably never eat a french fry from McDonald's again after reading the potato chapter.

Summer Time Dessert

All you cobbler fans....ever had zucchini cobbler? Now I have. Claire made this last night from the zucchini she got at the Farmer's Market. I believe she got the recipe from this website.

So, when you are drowning in summer squash, dig out this recipe, and you won't be disappointed!

Oh, yeah, it's vegan, too!

You Know it's June in Claremont When...

• The days begin with June Gloom

• June bugs hit our windows at night

• The jacarandas are in full purple bloom

Amazing Grace

The newly formed CUCC Women's Chorus sang for the first time in church yesterday. You can see our debut on youtube here. This version was for the 8:15 a.m. service, and the red balloons are for Pentecost.