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.