Contra Dancing

Every five to eight years we decide that we ought to do some contra dancing. It had been awhile (who knows how long), so it was high time we went. The Carleton alumni association in So. Cal. decided to crash the annual Halloween Contra Dance at the San Dimas Community Church last night. Carleton alum, Tom Moore, calls these dances every year and suggested that we choose it for an alumni event. Our alumni group of 9 (including Tom) met before the dance for dinner at the Lucky Elephant for Thai cuisine. All agreed that it was a highly successful event.

Next alum event is when the Carleton Women's Basketball team comes to Claremont to play CMS and Pomona/Pitzer next month.

Canvas Prints

Today we picked up a canvas print at Costco that we had ordered. I particularly liked this shot of the Bean in Chicago, so we had them make and mount this print. It's an 11x14, and I would like to have had a bigger one, but the digital size of the prints made the cropping all strange.

The photo now hangs in the hallway.

CHS Homecoming - 2010

Here are some scenes from today's Homecoming Parade. The theme was Bright Lights and Broadway Nights. The seniors' float was Grease, the juniors' was Wicked, the sophomores' was (well I think it was 42nd St), and the freshmen float was Phantom of the Opera.

I watched the parade at the end of my street with three neighbor children - Samantha, Owen and Elliott. They were happy to get a piece of candy thrown at them (one for each). After the parade, Elliott asked me if I was going to decorate my house. I told him, no. He said, "Not even a pumpkin that isn't carved?" Nope. But I did tell him I was going to a Halloween party instead. He was sure that it wouldn't be cake, because I would be sad if everyone else at the party had bags of candy and I didn't.

The boys had each gotten a UNICEF box and were busy asking anyone they could see for contributions for children who need help and medicine. They didn't know just exactly where these children are, but they were sure that UNICEF knows. They also didn't know just where UNICEF is, but they know that their school does.

Bees

Our block has been dealing with bees for a number of years now. They started at one end of the block and were living in the trees until the holes in the trees were completely filled with foam. Then they moved into the house next door. Bee guys came and ridded that house of the insects, but then the apartments on the other side of our house became infested. That took over 8 treatments to completely close off their entrance into the walls. That was last year.

Now, this morning, the house sported the bee guy truck in front. The bees are back.

Makes me wonder why we haven't had bees at our house since I know we have openings all over the place. Or, maybe we have had bees, but we don't know it......

Gardener / Leaf - Blower

While we were on sabbatical in Chicago, our beloved gardener, Arturo, developed health problems and cut way back on his clientele. That meant us. He had some people he knew take over our property, but then those people crashed into our garage door and then drove off. (The issue was resolved - they paid for the parts and we fixed the door.) We decided that we would take care of the yard ourselves. That has lasted 2 1/2 years.

It takes me about 1 hour to get all the leaves raked, especially during the fall, and then I don't do a very thorough job. I started thinking that I would love to hire someone to blow and rake leaves for us, especially from November - December.

Today that someone showed up. I am so thankful that he can clear all the leaves in less than 30 minutes and leave me with clean sidewalks, and I'm sure he's glad for the extra work. If all continues to go well, I will have him come twice a month during the rest of the year. We will manage to take care of trimming and other gardening which is less demanding.

Henry VIII

When I was in 6th grade, the BBC production The Six Wives of Henry VIII played on PBS in Kansas, and I watched all 6 episodes. Each episode focused on one wife. I prided myself on knowing the names and order of the 6 wives, who had which children and how they died. Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived. I believe that PBS ran a subsequent series on Queen Elizabeth 1, and I watched those episodes, as well.

Last night we finished watching the Showtime series, The Tudors which lasted for four seasons and obviously went into much greater detail about Henry's reign. I learned much more about the political and religious climate of that time and more about the personalities of each of the queens. The series is richly staged, at times quite violent, at times quite bawdy, and mostly interesting.

I have read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel this year (focusing on Thomas Cromwell), and am now interested in reading more about this influential and famous royal family.

Book Club

So, I didn't finish this book for book club last night. I started it and probably could have finished it if I hadn't had a very, very, very busy weekend (as well as two extremely busy weeks beforehand).

The people in the book club really liked this book, and from the 100+ pages that I did read I liked some of it, but not other parts. It's a stream-of-consciousness of a 9-year-old boy, a boy who is quite precocious and has lost his father in 9/11.

I won't be able to finish it as it is due at the library tomorrow, so I'll have to take the word of my friends in book club.

Further Adventures in Ethnic Cuisine

It's been a very busy weekend, but we had time to try out a Phở restaurant in Pomona for lunch today. Phở is the signature Vietnamese beef noodle soup which we have been meaning to try for a while now. (The wiki site will play the correct pronunciation of this soup which isn't foe.)

Phở Ha, in the 600 block of S. Indian Hill, was very busy when we arrived, but we had quick service and chose the fresh spring rolls for appetizers. This was followed by the Phở Ga - or the chicken noodle soup. It reminded me a bit of Gramma's chicken noodle soup, although the noodles were much thinner and longer, and then I added the cabbage with cilantro and squirted some lime juice on it which gave it a different twist. The "regular" size is HUGE, and I took half of it home for lunch tomorrow.

We decided that the taste of Kogi BBQ is much better, but we will come back to this restaurant to try out the sandwiches sometime.

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.