Halloween Pumpkins

Happy Halloween, courtesy of the pumpkins outside of Trader Joe's!

Happy Halloween, courtesy of my daughter's adorable banana/peanut butter and chocolate chip with buttercream frosting critters with googley eyes and fangs!

Cost of Cable

One of the question we had about getting cable last year was asking Time Warner Cable what our cost would be after our introductory price ended a year later. They said, "We don't know." That mystified me, but we had decided that we wanted to watch sports, and we already had internet and phone with TW, so we'd take it one year at a time.

An internet search could not answer the question either, but now I have some information direct from TW. We got this letter in the mail a few days ago:

"We hope you've been enjoying your special monthly promotional rate. Currently you pay a total of $108.97 per month, which includes your promotion and any additional services and equipment you've orders. As this promotion is set to end soon, your next bill would reflect the current standard rate of $175. 46 per month.

As a thank you for your continued business, we'd like to extend you another special offer on your services.

When your promotional rate comes to an end on November 13, 2013, you'll keep enjoying the services you love for a total of $125.47 per month - that's still a savings of $49.99 per month off of the standard rate. Your new monthly price includes a promotion that will expire on October 11, 2014."

There you have it, folks. If you were wondering the true cost, here it is. Of course, this does not include taxes, which means that our current bill is closer to $120/month, not $109.

For the Record

This year, we turned on the furnace on October 29, a few days before my arbitrary goal of November 1. It will warm up later this week, but since I have people coming over to play instruments today, I didn't want to chill them (and me) out.

Cloudy Monday in Claremont

For your viewing pleasure, pictures of our luscious cumulous clouds from throughout the day.

Old World Deli

Out shopping around noon today, we started thinking about lunch, and we walked by the Old World Delicatessen in the Kohl's/Trader Joe's/Michael's complex and thought we'd give it a try. For years we have seen it, but never been in. Besides a restaurant/take out, it really does look like a German deli with all kinds of meats and cheeses and more behind a counter case.

Of the six kinds of soup, we chose the sausage and pepper soup to accompany a Reuben style Corned Beef sandwich. While both tasted good, we may not make a special trip back here. But if you are feeling peckish while shopping in the neighborhood, it makes a fine stop.

FOCL Fall Book Sale

This year the used book sale at the Claremont Library, hosted by the Friends of the Claremont Library features free tote bags for members as well as a $2 coupon for books that they sell during the regularly scheduled hours. Not a member? No problem. Just join at the door!

Pacific University

Our daughter is teaching biology this year at Pacific University in Forest Grove, just west of Portland. It was great to wander the campus and enjoy brick buildings, fall colors and sunny days. Here are a few shots of the school.

The original building

Art in the library

More art in the library

The school mascot is a boxer - part dog, part dragon

The J-Term course my daughter will be teaching (two weeks in January)

Carcassonne

Among other fun things we did in Oregon this weekend was learn to play the board game, Carcassonne. Back in the summer of 2009, L and C taught us how to play Settlers of Catan, and knowing that we like that game, they knew we'd like this one, too. And we did. I had played this game in a video game version a few years ago, but this one is more fun, mostly because you play with other people sitting around the kitchen table.

Fall Break

Every once in awhile I get a hankering to get out of town, and although the CUSD does not have a fall break, the Claremont Colleges do. We took advantage of the weekend to take a very quick trip up to Oregon to visit our daughter and son-in-law. She has a one-year position teaching biology at Pacific University in Forest Grove, and we didn't know if we would have a chance to see them in their new surroundings. So we made the opportunity happen. 

This photo shows the blue, blue, blue of the Pacific near Tillamook, but the colors we mostly saw were the lovely fall leaves. We lucked out with fabulous weather - sunny and warm. We kid around that the weather is always perfect in Oregon since we always experience it that way. That's much easier to do when we can choose the time to visit.

Carleton Alums, Convo, and Schiller

I have blogged in the past about Carleton College and our strange history with a bust of the German poet philosopher Friedrich Schiller. This morning while I was streaming the Carleton Convocation (the speaker was our classmate, Bob Daily who I've also blogged about), but I learned something about Schiller today that I hadn't known.

The poet used to keep rotting apples in his desk drawer, and when he needed a little inspiration, he would sniff the putrid odor. Apparently, rotting apples give off methane gas which can give a powerful elevating effect, or, in other words, can give you a buzz. And this is the icon my alma mater has elevated to some kind of godlike status. Yup. It's a quirky school. (I've always known that.)

Bob's talk was about his road from Carleton to Hollywood and also about creativity. You can watch an archived stream of this talk (and others) at this site. It might take a day or two to be archived.

Vista Fall Garden

Last week I spied this bulletin board at the CUSD Office. I had heard that the pumpkins in the Vista garden were especially plentiful this year, and the PFA sold them recently, depleting their stock in less than 20 minutes.

Homemade Gifts

Happy Birthday to my sister!

This year for my birthday, my sister gave me a copy of the book she had written. I am getting to the point where I particularly enjoy gifts that have been made by the giver, so I decided to reciprocate (a little) for her birthday. I have not published a book, but I thought I would give her a little trip down memory lane. When we were young, I had a record that we listened to so that we might learn a little French. A number of years ago I found the record in some sale, purchased it, and then eventually made mp3s of the songs.

Our favorite song was called Excuze moi! which had a great line about spilling soup on big sister's dress. I wanted to make a CD of this album for the birthday present, but it turns out that the quality of the mp3s was not particularly high. With a little internet digging, I not only found this photo of the record, but a whole website that has turned childhood records from the 50s and 60s into free downloadable mp3s for all.

If you go to this site, you can see all kinds of records, some of which you might even know, or might want to know - from Danny Kaye, to Will Rogers, and even Bob Keeshan (you know, Captain Kangaroo!). What a treasure!

German Sausage

I finally pulled the German sausage out of my freezer this weekend, fried up some potatoes and make my stomach happy with this comfort food. I did not make any other Mennonite comfort food to go with it as I had originally planned, but the sausage and potatoes were enough for now. I put the sausage in a large frying pan and cooked it in beer before frying the potatoes in butter and onions, then adding the sausage.

The leftovers have been terrific!

Fighting Flu Season

Last flu season we got our flu shots a little later than most people did, but this year we are ahead of the game. I do not know if the vaccines were the reason that we didn't get sick last year, but in case they were, I put "get flu shot" on my to do list, and left it at that.

Yesterday while entering Costco, H noticed that flu shots were advertised for $14.99. That is significantly less than we paid last year (I think those were about $60 each), so we trotted right over to the pharmacy. You have to wait 20-25 minutes after you sign forms (perhaps to take the vaccines out of the refrigerator?), so that gave us plenty of time to shop.

Despite the wait, and the fact that I had planned on getting the vaccine anyway, I still think that this is an example of impulse buying. I was happy to cross that one off of my list!

OCRS

The Orange County Recorder Society had a tricky way of having me attend their monthly meeting last night. They played my Zip Code Boogie and wanted me to conduct it. I had heard about this chapter of the ARS (American Recorder Society) since a number of my friends go, but I had never been. 

A meeting consists of a small group playing a prelude, or introductory piece. Then the whole group of people play music that has been emailed to them. I sat in the soprano recorder section. About halfway through the two hours, we break for snacks, which is a little funny since it's probably not great to blow into your recorder after eating a cookie or some pretzels. I stuck with the cranberry juice drink.

Sarah Canary

Earlier this month I guess I really enjoyed Karen Joy Fowler's book enough to see what else she has written, and now that I am finished reading her first published book, Sarah Canary, I will continue to read her books.

Fowler's style is hard to pinpoint - realistic fiction, historical fiction, a little magical realism (not much, but some), mystery and more all blended together. When the world's ugliest woman wanders into a camp of Chinese railroad workers in the 1870s Washington Territories, the workers are not sure what to make of her (she doesn't speak any known language, just funny noises), but they can't just let her go.

I found this review particularly good, and I think I will choose it for a book club at some point since I think it would offer up a great discussion.

The Season's First Rain

There is nothing like being inside, listening to the rain (which we always need) after coming home from teaching. It is especially great since it didn't happen to be raining whenever I was outside with all my music stuff!

Soup for dinner tonight!

Fall

Football weather, pumpkin spice lattes, soup for dinner, sweaters, extra blanket at night. Yes, these are things I love about the changing of seasons from summer to fall. I had to get used to the type of Southern California fall from the Midwest version where I grew up, and with the temps in the 80s today, I might not have considered it fall years ago. But nights are in the low 50s and the mornings are cool, so it definitely feels different than it did just a month ago.

I tried a new soup recipe last night - Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup. After reading the comments below the recipe, I decided to use half vegetable stock instead of water and also put curry on the cauliflower. It was very good, and perhaps tonight I will make some quinoa to put the soup over to add more protein.

Slow Dancing

I think it's too late now for you to go see the art show Slow Dancing projected on Bridges Auditorium in the evening, but I managed to hear about it in time to go see it last night. Three large screens at the front of Bridges each showed a hyper-slow-motion video of a dancer. I got there just before sunset, and the projections were barely visible. By the time I left about 40 minutes later, the dark skies helped  show the colors of the video. 

View of projectors

 Front of projectors

Students walking by hardly looked up at the large screens. Maybe they had already seen it.

Getting darker

Look closely at this photo and see what looks like ghosts walking in front of Bridges. I was playing with settings on the camera, and this is what happened. I thought it was cool.

Full color coming out

Of Rummage and Pinterest

I had pinned this website to my "miscellaneous" pinterest board because I like the various ideas for hanging photos in interesting groupings. However, I am unlikely to be hanging new photos on my wall in the near and even far future, so I took some photos from this morning's Riches and Rummage Sale at CUCC and made this collage, inspired by the layouts.

The sale continues tomorrow from 8-2 where more Riches and Rummage are still to be found.

Santa Ana Winds

The Santa Ana Winds do not come from  Santa Ana, but they ARE very windy. 

Here's a little example of the blustery out at Victoria Gardens earlier today.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

If you decide to read this book (and I recommend it), I suggest you not read any book reviews or press about it, at least until you are just over 1/4 of the way in so as not to hear the main spoiler. I chose the book because our book club is discussing it, so I didn't read anything about it before digging in.

Having just finished it, I heard the NPR interview with the author, read the NYT review (written by Barbara Kingsolver) and read the Q & A on Fowler's website which all reveal the surprise.

This is the most interesting book I have read so far this year (besides Cloud Atlas) and will provide for very lively book club discussion. I think I connected immediately with the narrator when she told part of the story from her 5-year-old perspective. First of all, I really enjoy writing that can get at the heart of the thinking process of young children*. But Rosemary loves to talk, and I know she is not alone in that.

"Fair warning, as it turned out - kindergarten is all about learning which parts of you are welcome at school and which are not. In kindergarten, to give you one example out of many, you are expected to spend much, much more of the day being quiet than talking, even if what you have to say is more interesting to everyone than anything your teacher is saying." - p. 26

*That's why I really like the commericals on tv these days of the guy talking to the group of children. Who else but a kid would think of taping a cheetah to the back of their grandma to make her faster?

Another Little Free Library

When we went into LA for our Peruvian reunion, we met our friends in Grand Park by the fountain which is also right by a Starbucks. In front of the Starbucks and in at least one other place in the park I found these pink Little Free Libraries.

Unfortunately, this little library had only one book. Or maybe that means that people took books out and are reading them, which would mean that it was fortunately.

Mo-Chica

Because we enjoyed the camaraderie of the people on our Peruvian tour so much, we have now officially carried over our friendship into our North American lives. We checked our calendars and found a date that all six of us were available and then chose a Peruvian restaurant in downtown LA in which to continue our friendship and adoration of Peruvian food.

We chose Mo-Chica, a fusion restaurant (with Italian overtones) partly because the menu looked interesting, and partly because they serve pisco sours.

The place was crowded, so I'm glad I made reservations, but that also meant that the noise level was high. Our service was excellent, the food (which are like tapas - small plates to be shared with everyone) was very delicious, and the pisco sours were delcious, but very small and quite expensive. The plates were also on the pricey side, but we decided that it was much less expensive than actually going to Peru.

The pisco sour with the restaurant logo in the egg white foam