Stuff...ing

I'm edging up on 40 pretty quickly, and it occurred to me that while my mom has been cooking gourmet meals since she was a teenager, I usually cook for one and don't really know any of the classic family recipes and am not adept at cooking for any sized group. At grandma's house for thanksgiving, I tried to remedy that. It helped that grandma was sidelined by arterial blockage - significantly remediated by the first stent as of this Tuesday. My mom and I cooked the dinner.

I still don't know for sure what she puts in the mashed potatoes. It's a butter and milk mix of some sort. The turkey is easy-ish. Thaw it in a tub of water, clean out the cavity and double check it- this one had a bag of gibblets, a bag with the neck in it on the other end, AND a bag of gravy helper. Next year, it might come with free wi-fi. Put it in a floured baking bag after dumping garlic salt and pepper on it, tie closed, and bake per directions on the turkey wrapper. We stuffed celery and onions in on the bottom this year, and that added good flavors so I recommend that too. This method makes a solid B to B+ turkey. If you want an A to A+ turkey, brine, smoke, fry, or magic your bird however you like, but if you want easy and forgiving, garlic salt and baking bag.

I made the cranberry relish. Having made it almost annually since college, it went smoothly, if sloppily. Sloppy because we used a manual grinder that dripped juice all over (we caught it and it was delicious). The grinder gives the relish a really delightful texture I prefer to a food-processed version, but it's really the taste of the cranberry-orange-celery-pecan mix bound in orange jell-o that's the star. For a really close flavor analog, get the Trader Joe's Cranberry Orange Relish and mince up some celery and pecans to mix into it. Or just eat it plain. Or over ice cream. It cost's more but it's easier and delicious.

Which rather leaves the stuffing. My mom makes GREAT stuffing. If you've eaten it and somehow thought it was vegetarian, you should stop reading now. If you've eaten it and want to know the general gist of how it's done, here 'tis, after the jump.

Worse Before Better

I'll post some pictures soon, but one of my good things for this week was (finally) putting up the closet system across my bedroom wall. My organizer helped me start it out and get through all the tings that needed two people - plus she's great at cutting in, so we even got the painting done. It was very chaotic looking room for a while though, with all my stuff strewn everywhere, boxes being emptied, and whatnot. Whew! It's pretty impressive though. I'm also happy with the paint color I chose. It looks like suede. Thanks again to the customer at the checkout counter for letting me run off with her paint chip.

I managed to fly up to San Jose and back for a vendor audit without having to go through a mugging machine at the airport. I did get a swipe test for explosives - and passed - which made me wonder what would happen if I had been doing some target practice. But the travel was totally incident free, no stress at all, and our hotel was nice.

I spoke to both my mom and grandma today and had good conversations with both. Apparently my grandma's brother-in-law is only 6 months younger than her and they have an unofficial contest to see who lasts the longest. She claims that him being Italian gives him an edge, but I think that at age 94, it's even odds. It's probably more tied to the lifespan of their spouses at this point. Hopefully Pop will continue to do well enough with regular "oil changes" (aka, a pint transfusion every couple weeks).

That makes three. I'm going to try and do some more of these happiness posts, interspersed with the topical posts. Upcoming are grandma's peanut brittle, my dining room furniture, and the closet install.

Regularly Scheduled

The last two months have been a blur of visitors, visiting, Angry Birds, and reading. Most of the reading has been in the last two weeks because all the book from authors from my recent post became available. I interrupted the quite enthralling Pale Demon to read my Suz Brockmann when it showed up, then read that furiously, stopping only to go to work, nap, and have one session with my new trainer. I enjoyed the book and after a brief stint last night to finally get three stars on the pesky levels 10-8 and 10-10, meaning I've hit 3 stars on the first 13 angry birds levels, I was able to get back to the demon book.

I've said it before but it bears repeating, I really like characters who march to the tune of their own drummer, then pull other people/beings in with their drumbeat, crafting a community for themselves. The stories that are most satisfying to me have this happen, and I also think that's one of the draws of a series. Not just seeing the main character, but see who they charm, protect, draw in, or otherwise gather into the fold and how this ragtag band of misfits manages to defeat the reigning power who has grown out of control, growing up and growing together while they're at it.

I'm still cobbling my own community together here in SoCal and having some of my older friends come visit was good for the soul. Even back in MN, I managed to hook up with a college pal, braving the wrath of the almighty to hang out at their catholic church for a trivia event. (We won.) We calculated it had been 11 years since we'd seen each other, and she's up to 4 kids from the 1 I'd met. (They're whip smart too and have good manners.) My mom actually left MN before I did, having a birthday invitation to join friends at a time share in Cancun. Seeing as she left behind a couple feet of snow for Chichen Itza and the beach, I can't say I blame her!

Sometime sooon - maybe next weekend, it looks like I should go see my grandmother. Her husband is having some trouble, and we're all worried for them both. My brother found a flight for this weekend but I couldn't swing it. Plus I *really* need a weekend to get my house in order - turn in my tax paperwork, and everything else I can get done after weeks off duty. Part of me worries that Pop won't hold out and that I'll think it was crazy to prioritize tax paperwork and a very expensive, awkwardly timed flight over a visit, but I'm holding out some hope that something can be done to make him feel better. At 91 they're reluctant to do more surgery, but he was pretty vital until this latest issue, so it's not like throwing good money after bad if his quality of life will recover.

In the interim, I also have my short story from Suz, which will likely suck all of my attention until I finish. So if I can keep away from the Angry Birds, put the book down once in a while and get my taxes and projects done, it will be a good weekend.

Black Friday

Any event that gets excited about how early it can start is not one that gets me excited. My family spent the day driving around the Ft. Myers and Sanibel Island area today. In our one and only stint at shopping, we made a stop at The Shell Factory, which aside from shells, sells a bunch of other randomness. I nearly took some pictures but you kind of have to see it to believe it. Suffice it to say, if you're in southern Florida and need medieval coins, fossils, fudge, taxidermied safari animals, seashell toilet seats, or just some place to goggle at for an hour or two, The Shell Factory is your place.

For me, the vacation has been good but slow. I managed to see two sets of friends and their SOs located a bit up the coast, drive over the Sunshine bridge south of Tampa, practice some Cued Speech, celebrate Thanksgiving and two birthdays, and get a sinus infection.

I'm not sure if it was the airplane or the air in Florida starting my nose tickling, but staying with my cat-owning friend put me over the edge and I woke up with a sinus infection tuesday. After finding an urgent care place that would see an out of state visitor (where other patients wondered about the sanity of a Californian vacationing in Florida), I got some antibiotics courtsy of Publix. Thank you Publix! I'm feeling better, but not good yet. Then my mom asked if I blow my nose like that every day. Well, only when I have a sinus infection, so no. I'm still not sure why she asked me that.

Also, everything I take except the tylenol, sudafed and antibiotics kicks me into an extreme case of restless leg syndrome. So my usual jet-lag cure of Lunesta puts me to sleep for 30 minutes then wakes me up with the RLS. The chlortrimeton does the same. As a result, I haven't slept much on this vacation. I don't fall asleep until about midnight pacific time even if I'm tired at midnight atlantic time. Makes me glad I'm flying out at night tomorrow because I'm not sure I'd make it in the morning.

It hasn't been all rough, though. We had a potluck Thanksgiving at the condo/yacht club's club house. One neighbor made a "Florida turkey" decoration where she drew the turkey body and made the tailfeathers out of palm fronds. The weather here is nicer than where I live. It's about 85 and just humid enough to hold the heat in. My aunt's place is on the water, where we just had drinks and snacks with the neighbors out on the dock. My brother and the neighbor between them caught 3 sailcatfish and a ladyfish. The ladyfish (a "she-fish" per my bro) became bait and the sailcats went back in the water, but it kept them occupied. My skin is liking the moderate humidity, of all things. Pretty good.

To condense, the "happiness items" in today's post:

• Seeing friends and family
• Shell Factory outing
• Drinks on the dock
• Happy skin

Here's hoping everyone out there is surviving the harvest celebrations and time with family. This is one of my favorite holidays. How is yours going? Ready to escape the family by shopping or seeing movies? Or is everyone still getting along?  What are you thankful for?

A Very Fine Funeral

I'm now in Boston.  I figured that if I changed flights to get in at the last minute, it would all go wrong, so I kept my buffer day and got in very early friday AM.   Instead of LAX-BOS, I had LAX-LAS-STL, drive to see family for 24 hours, then STL-ORD-BOS.  It was long, but bearable.  On my last segment, the gate agent even handed me a new, improved seating assignment as I boarded.

Flying into St. Louis, my brother's flight and mine were both delayed, his less so.  He picked up the rental car and some White Castle then circled back around to get me.  Getting in a little later meant we were driving in the dark after leaving the city.  But that worked out for us because there was a storm up ahead and we followed the lightning show all the way in.  This storm had more lightning in 4 minutes that I've seen in 4 years in LA.  Midwestern storms are not like coastal storms.  We stayed with my mom's mom and Pop, pulling up 10 minutes before the rain broke from the storm.

The storm broke the humidity so we had a very pleasant day today.  After a fine breakfast (thanks mom!), we eventually got out and about.  After my dad and uncle went to the lawyer's office, we had some burgers on the main square with fried goodies and drinks.  Our cousin's grandmother lives by the park, so we met our cousins in the very nice town park and realized that swings don't accommodate adult hips as well as they do children's hips.  Then they invited me to come over and go through grandma's jewelry. I think they've had a lot of it for a while - they stored most of grandma's things that didn't stay with her - and giggled a lot with the offer.  I remember grandma liking clip-on earrings and circle pins.  I had NO IDEA that she had a mardi gras party worth of costume jewelry.  So two of my cousins and I had a mini mardi gras hour, putting on layers of beaded necklaces and generally having a good time marveling at some of the choices with my brother taking pictures.  Some were creatively hand beaded, some were fads in their day, others were just grandma's taste.  I took the beaded necklace made on safety pins. My youngest cousin has the pop-bead earring and necklace set.  We decided to each wear some of her things to the viewing and all showed up in white beads with a colorful brooch.  They brought an extra necklace along for when their sister showed up about 15 minutes before I had to leave, and my brother had a tie tack from grandpa, so we got a quick cousin picture with our jewelry on at the start of the viewing.

Yes, it's called a viewing, but somehow I didn't really believe that they'd have her actually there for people to look at.  They did a good job, she looked rested and pretty normal.  The hairdresser was having fits because she'd recently cut her hair and it was too short to do much with: "I've dressed her hair for 40 years and she goes and leaves with this hair?  Aaaaahhhh"  The hair was fine, just not the finest thing.  The coffin lining was light pink with pink flowers embroidered on it.  She was wearing her good pink suit that she wore to my brother's wedding a few years back.  The funeral director thought she looked better with a hanky on her hands, and that was appropriate too, because she (and two of my cousins) had Reynaud's which made her hands very cold.  But we uncovered them a bit when it was decided that she needed her rubber finger tip on her right index finger and a pack of pinochle cards to go with her.  It was not my idea, but I wish it had been.

Thanks for all your well wishes, folks, they worked some magic. The first person to show up reminiced that my grandparents were the first people to welcome them to town when she and her husband were new.  Then a former student showed up and various friends and family, and I had to scoot out with my mom to make it to the airport.  The funeral, proper, will be tomorrow (this) morning.  It should be a very fine funeral.  I will miss not seeing more of my relatives, but I made a trip to see them last year after visiting the grandmas so I feel comfortable making the decision to absolutely be here, for certain, for the saturday wedding.

I may not have said so, but my friends over at New Door Knobs are tying the knot.  And I need to be there.  Here.

Some final words:
I'll need my aunt to fix this recounting later, but for now: Grandma woke from a nap a couple days ago, looked at my aunt and accused, "Aren't you dead?"  Taken a bit aback, she said something like "No, You?" "Almost.  almost."

My cousin took grandma out on the patio last week, in the sun.  She asked her if she was warm enough.  Grandma's reply?  "I'm one hot momma!"

There was an additional quip.  If I can get the story from the family, I'll post it too.  I had forgotten her sharp wit.

Pinochle, Fireflies and 7-up

I learned only a few months ago why my father moved to my mother's home town when he was in high school: my grandmother had gone back to college and gotten a master's degree in speech therapy, so when she graduated, they moved to a town with a school that would hire my grandfather, an ag (industrial tech, these days) teacher, and my grandmother, a speech therapist, both. I was really touched by that, it really speaks to their regard for the other. It doesn't matter if it was a primarily financial decision or not, it was the early 60s and women's lib wasn't very far advanced. In fact, Grandma mentioned that their first date was on the sly because teachers weren't supposed to date.

That Friday the 13th date turned out to be an auspicious one for the family. Grandma and Grandpa fell in love, got married, had a boy (my dad), a girl (stillborn), a boy (my uncle) and another girl (my aunt). Being a teacher, she worked with all kids of crazily named kids so they went with Bob, John, and Mary. They also both enjoyed teaching for at least 20 years, taking much pride in their work and even volunteering to chaperone some students on an international trip. Grandpa liked to fish. We all spent hours playing pinochle. They bought our family a tow-behind camper that we used for many years. Grandpa bought all 4 households our first microwave ovens when he thought they'd catch on, so he wouldn't have to learn to use different ones when he visited, and ours lasted over 20 years. Our knives were always sharpened because grandpa sharpened them with every visit.

By being somewhat frugal and having a rental income, they were able to retire comfortably and spend winters down in Texas in their airstream until the year my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer of too many things, but the liver was most put out about it and didn't let things end well. Grandma took a while to get over that loss. (Everyone did, but obviously she took it the worst.) When cleaning out her house to move her into a condo, my aunt found modern pantry goods in the front, then a gap of 7 years in the expiration dates on the goods (bads?) in the back.

She found a nice man to date for a while. Lest you think giving the family names away earlier makes this entry too specific to me, her date had kids named Rob, John, and Mary. Family stories involved a lot of surnames for a while. We'd play cards and joke about her "quivering" the cards instead of shuffling them, and she'd win regardless (unless my other grandma got involved. Card sharps both.) But her date was older and diabetic and started declining. He sold her his condo and moved to assisted living. Eventually, grandma moved to assisted living too.

More recently she's been in the neighboring long term care facility. They do a good job of making sure residents come out to the dinner area to be with other people at meals, but she stopped playing cards or seeing if she could still speech-read if the TV volume was too low. Her meal companions died off. She stopped trying to be interested in much but her body held on into her late 80s. It was not [fruitful?, satisfying?, helpful?] to talk on the phone anymore so I tried to send letters and cards to keep at least one-way contact. When she did talk, her most common topic of conversation was wanting to be with my grandfather, her husband. And as of this morning, she got her wish.

She had a good life and was pretty much healthy until last week when her body finally caught up with her heart and mind and slowed way down. I think I did most of my mourning when she stopped playing cards, but this entry has proved I'm not entirely done. My brother and I have made it a point to stop by and visit the grandmas as often as we can manage, as have my cousins. While my dad and his sister have done what they could to assist from afar, my uncle and his wife, my other aunt, have done the lion's share of taking care of grandma's basic needs, managing her finances, and generally making her comfortable since she became unable to care for herself, and it is a blessing to the family that they were able and willing to take on this stewardship. Being the closest didn't make the drive less far. They also kept us updated so my dad and his brother and sister were all able to see her during this last week. But I like to remember that her favorite color was pink and there was a collection of bells in the hallway next to the bookshelf that held the master work, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". I remember how we used to catch fireflies in their back yard on summer evenings, which were cooled and hydrated by the endless stash of 7-up stored by the garage door, before retiring to the card table where grandma would quiver the pinochle cards.

I for One

Thanks to links from links from Andrew Sullivan today, I found all sorts of cool things.  We'll start with the gloating.

I make sure I have a small commute. Always have done.  I love driving, but hate commuting.  Commuting isn't driving, it's inching through obstruction.  Right now, it means I live in the sticks.  There are days when I choose to go somewhere interesting, but not nearly enough of them to justify a long commute.  And really, research shows that I'm pretty smart to prioritize a small commute.
Commuting is a different kind of hell every day.

Where I want to be smug but can't, another link from that article points out the things that make us happy  are primarily sex, socializing after work, and having dinner with folks.  The smug comes in the fact that I prioritize having dinner with folks enough that when I can't, I substitute eating at a bar so I can chat with people even if I don't know them.  However, my attempts to find a regular dinner date are enormously tiring, and not super successful.  I do have some regular lunch dates though, which helps.  As for the first thing, let me know if you have single male friends anywhere near LA who are looking for a, well, dinner date and we'll see what shakes out.

With all my antibiotics taking recently, I've bloated up like a tick.  This may explain why
Changes to gut microbes make mice fat or trim which is something I've long suspected.  I don't need to be *skinny*, I just need to figure out how to not be starving several hours out of each day even when I know, logically, that I'm not in need of food.

Along those lines, a finding that associates schizophrenia with a microbe is similar to something I've thought about a lot.  Ever since I met my half-sister who has pretty debilitating Multiple Sclerosis, and she pointed out that (all? most?) MS patients have a partiularly large viral load of a particular virus in their spinal fluid, it has made sense to me that diseases, like fractures, usually have 2 or more facets to make them happen. 

With fractures, you have an initiation site and a breaking force.  If the breaking force overwhelms the molecular structure, it blows apart (like when the Mythbusters cleaned a cement mixer with explosives or dropping a china plate on a tile floor).  But for most fractures, the breaking point is less than the molecular structure unless there's a defect that weakens the structure.  To cut glass, you scribe a defect in the surface then knock the glass at or near that defect and it propagates along your scratch.  Without the scratch, the glass doesn't break when hit with the knocking force.  Without the knock, the glass will stay whole, although still scratched, waiting for the next knock. 

Similarly, fires need 3 things: Fuel, Oxygen, and ignition.  Take away any one of these and you have no fire: soggy wood won't provide fuel, a closed chamber (or the lack of convection in outerspace) will prevent oxygen from reaching fuel, and you can have a whole room full of matches and oil vapor, but it won't burn until the match gets struck (or someone plugs in the toaster).  Fires are put out by removing oxygen or fuel or preventing existing fires from igniting adjacent areas.

Back to microbes.  My family appears prone to turn our immune systems in on ourselves, but that turning is different for each person.  My mom is allergic to asprin and other medicines, I'm allergic to plants and animals and dust and anything that can get in my nose or eyes, my brother has asthma, and as mentioned previously, my half-sister has MS.  My theory is that we're all pre-disposed to autoimmune responses, but the form that response takes is dictated by environmental encounters.  Someone exposed to microbe A becomes asthmatic, someone exposed to bacteria B become allergic, someone exposed to virus C gets MS.    But if there was no exposure to A,B, or C, it's likely that the response would never develop. Unfortunately for us, I think the trigger microbes are extremely common so the only question is when and what, not if the trigger will initiate the response pathway.  (Fortunately, it seems like once we've got an outlet for the autoimmune response, it stops trying for more.)  It could be that there's even a third thing involved that can exert a moderating effect, and explain why two susceptible people with similar exposures might get different levels of response.  Not everyone with HPV gets cervical cancer, for instance, but it could be that it requires both HPV, a growth site (the cervix) and a cancer trigger in that causes the HPV to go crazy.  (The idea isn't all that crazy when you think about the fact that tools I run at work don't have ignition switches - they rely on cosmic rays to do the job.  Your cell phone? Some of those components exist because of cosmic rays.)

I'd read earlier about the fact that scientists were able to breed genetically fat mice.  I'm pretty chuffed to learn that they can alter that predisposition by changing gut microbes.  Now if anyone knows some good human gut microbes I can get my hands on, my waistline will thank you.  I might even take you out for dinner.

UPDATE: not 3 hours after this post, one of the features on "Is it Possible" explained that Narcolepsy is an auto-immune response to the strep throat virus, which triggers the body to kill the hypocretin producers.  Sometimes what doesn't kill you is just annoying.  I'm wondering if we're going to find a viral or bacterial trigger for things like Autism too.

Goldfish Brain

I've been having a lot of scattered moments recently. I need to make order from the chaos, so here are all the things I've been meaning to blog about recently:

• trip to Boston to visit friends (so relaxing! I fell asleep during a rock musical with strobe lights)
• trip to Minnesota to visit family (good to get back there. saw grandma, 'rents, brother, friend from european backpacking trip and her boy, the rain garden my mom got installed to drain water from their church's new roof, and turkey)
• um, alaska pictures
• food pictures
• cookies
• allergies
  

Huh. that wasn't so much but cycling in my head it felt like 2 dozen things.

And actually, I do have two things I will be blogging about in separate posts. Stay tuned.

In Suburbia

So far so good. The housecleaning appears to have eliminated the cat dander as long as I don't dig in the mess of extension cords behind the desk. Which was necessary to connect the wireless router to the internet, not the failure mechanism I was expecting. Fortunately my brother is less allergic to dust and more willing to track down cables than I am so here we are. Yep.

Everyone made it to town ok - me, my brother, and my grandma and pop. Good thing I resolved not to diet until after thanksgiving because this visit has been all about the food. My parents are getting crazier by the day but mom's nose and tastebuds have no equal. We ate the first night at The Blackbird Cafe. Maybe it's the bird in the name, but they know their way around a bird. I had the fabulous duck with wild rice topped with habanero cherry sauce. Grandma liked the London Broil (cooked to her medium raw taste). They had a reasonably priced riesling, and some sake beer so both I and my brother were happy with the drinks too.

Today, I spent the afternoon with my friend who spent a month backpacking around Europe with me back in the day. She's trying to raise her boy bilingually, so she speaks Norwegian and her husband speaks English when the talk to him. Some of her family also comes over to supplement and he seems to be doing well when my brother doesn't bang his head into the wall. Their dog is very tolerant of random bursts of chaos - so tolerant the he didn't move out of the way when my brother stepped on him... My brother was just supposed to drop me off, but wound up staying as well and aside from that one little incident we all had a good time.

Then we drove all over the back of beyond to hit up the buffet at the dry casino. We were fortunate in that pop and my mom are both using canes right now (pop is 89 and mom had surgery on her feet) and that got us into the handicapped line. Turns out that seafood night has all you can eat crab legs and half the asian population of minneapolis turns out to gorge themselves most wednesdays. (My brother partially developed his crab cracking superskills dining there with his Laotian ex-girlfriend's family who only liked the big meat parts. My brother found that wasteful and got really good at extracting meat from the smaller segments at lightning speed.) Myself I had three and a half knucklesful of crablegs, and I was out-eaten by about 8 dozen people who might weigh half of me after the meal. Unreal. They put out piles and piles of delicious crablegs. We all ate our fill of those, grandma tried the prime rib and found it to her taste too. Whew! (we asked, they go through 32 of them in a night!) So we were all happy and full. The tummies are all stretched out in prep for thanksgiving and my brother has fixed both the cable and the TV reciever.

I have not yet written the paper abstract I need to do for work. Nor have I gone through the small pile of crap my parents put out for me to dig through to see if I want to save any of it. I think I noticed some softball award that can't be for anything but participation unless my childhood is different from what I remember. The pile has doubled since I arrived - I need to get through it before it overwhelms the place.

One thing is clear, though. My parents have very odd priorities. I really don't think they think in terms of goals and priorities. Mom had two goals today: get the special whipped cream from the natural foods co-op and buy a couple extra turkey legs. It's possible she got the whipped cream around 4:40 or so as the co-op was closing. My brother and I picked up some turkey legs around 8pm after our early bird dinner when they were out of fresh and so we went with whatever pre-cooked ones were leftover. I'm sure mom'll mention something, but we had 2 days to get that stuff at least. We just didn't. I understand myself a lot better after coming home. And am feeling good that I'm leaving tomorrow night so I have 2 full days to go home and throw stuff out when I get home.

We're only expecting to have around 8 or so for dinner tomorrow, about half of the usual, but it's early yet. The upside to my parents weird prioritizing and oddball planning is that it doesn't phase them in the slightest when 10 extra people show for dinner at the last minute. And having a ton of crap in the basement and garage means there are either extra chairs or the makings of more benches and tables at the ready. I'd be up for that if I threw out more stuff... soon.

But first, the feasting. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Birthday Bash

I've been really freaking out about this birthday. While I have suspicions, I don't really know why. It's the first year I was ever dreading my birthday and naturally it's not one of the classic "big ones". However, time marches on.

And it marched on while I failed to make plans. I had considered getting tickets to Depeche Mode, a favorite band since high school. FF two dozen years, and I can afford tickets. Kind of. I didn't have anyone on the hook to go with me and I didn't want to commit to two tickets if there wasn't a guarantee someone else would go. I thought I'd do my usual trick of going to the box office on the day of, but the Hollywood Bowl just uses ticketmaster instead of handling their own tickets for some shows and this is one. With two previous local-ish shows cancelled, there was too much competition. I did almost get a ticket from someone, but I was on the waiting list and the original invitee actually went.

Last week I realized I had no plans and that felt pretty sad. Until my brother called, saying he'd be in vegas with friends. I asked if I could crash that Honda and join him and he said yes. I decided friday, mostly, to go, and moved my Saturday brunch date up.

A book club friend came over to my area (whew!) for a lovely brunch at a local place which I like because the food is good and they have buy one get one free coupons to make it affordable. We then went shopping for random junk and snacks for my trip before hitting the bookstore. I went a little wild in the bookstore. I got $150 worth of books, including a 3 audiobook set of my favorite author to listen to during my drive.

After briefly tossing some stuff in a bag (not dithering for hours about how to pack things for a plane) and seeing my friend off, I set out for the bright lights of Vegas. It's a very odd drive. Tons of high density traffic, then nada for a couple hours. There's nothing built up out there. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it needs building, but damn. Audiobooks were a good call. Even worked out that they were abridged (not my usual preference) because I could finish one and the scarier parts were edited out.

Vegas started off annoying. It took me a half hour to get from the freeway to the hotel because of road construction and bad signage for the hotel. I did finally make it and calmed down enough to enjoy dinner at the Bellagio. I got a look at the Chihuly in the entrance as well as their atrium water garden with giant red glass poppies. We each popped a few dollars in the slots. My brother came out up a hundred, I was down $10. Given the "free" drinks we got before dining, it was actually cheaper to lose my money for free beer although I wouldn't have minded winning!

Yellowtail Sushi at the Bellagio does overlook the fountains, which is nice, but it was only so-so for the money. I expected it to be more or better but I think they're selling the location, not the food. The dogpile mash of king crab, corn, and wild mushrooms in aioli was pretty tasty and the saki helped the rest go down easy. It wasn't bad by any means and I was happy to share the company of my brother (and have the big winner pick up the tab).

We managed to stretch dinner late into the night so just wandered the strip a bit, checking out fashions and hairstyles. "Now that ain't an accident!" is not necessarily a compliment. My brother's a bit of a style diva. He was totally dicomfitted by someone telling him that another guy had been wearing the same striped pink shirt. The wandering and judging was pretty fun. Finally grabbed a cab back to the Renaissance, which is difficult to get to but has nice rooms.

It also has a really nice all you can drink Sunday Brunch! We lounged at the pool in the morning then the cocktail waitress for the pool (good times, good times) recommended the brunch. In addition to the king crab legs and omlette station, the requisite pile of bacon and fruit, there was a bloody mary bar and all you can drink mimosas. We enjoyed ourselves enough that we weren't hungry later at all.

The drive back went less smoothly. It again took a half hour to get to the freeway, but this time going directly, just being so stalled in traffic that my bro got out and walked, reaching his destination before I did. I filled up on gas and noticed the freeway was slow. I paralleled it as long as I could, but it never let up. I got as far as the border casinos and outlet stores before giving up. It was 107F in full sun and stop and go traffic. I pulled off, parked in the shade, and went shopping for impractical shoes. They're really comfortable, I just can't let down my guard with the heel placement or I'll be felled like a tree.

Monday was a slow day at work. I had arranged to get the afternoon off if the concert ticket thing worked out, but it didn't. I went out with the date to Claim Jumper and got a salad and split a pot pie and cupcake. Didn't split the Tropical Storm.

All in all, not a bad birthday. Thanks to all who dropped me a line or a card! Hopefully I'll stop freaking out and won't break my ankle in my new shoes. I also ordered a cheapo netbook laptop so we'll see if I can make the picture upload work on that and I'll fill in pictures of the brunch and the shoes. And Alaska.

Ripe Old Age

My parents have the amazing ability to keep pets and plants alive long past their usual lifespan. Such is the case with the family cat. We got Tanga when she was a too-small kitty who would hop around like Tigger, and had the stripes to go with the name. But that seemed a little wrong, and her coloring did have a bit of the grey kangaroo so we mixed up Kanga and Tigger to get Tanga.

She was a bit of a standoffish alleycat in temperament. She liked to go into the wilderness of the back yard, also shared with deer, enormous racoons, a snotty woodchuck, birds, rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional fox or bobcat. Her 'street smarts' stood her in good stead though. She became deaf as a reaction to her vaccinations, so we made her wear a bell on a harness. Even deaf, declawed, and wearing a bell, she could still stalk the birds and rabbits and squirrels and avoided the predators.

The thing with deaf cats, though, is they aren't afraid of motor noises. Her favorite thing in the world was to be vacuumed. (I've spent fruitless time looking for a picture of her during a vacuum massage.) Second place was probably getting her damp paws blowdried after a romp outside in wet grass or snow. Third was knocking over breakables or eating guppies out of the fish tank - "what, I thought they were snacks!" - until mom figured out where the fish were disappearing to. Mom said she got cuddlier with advancing age, but my allergies to her which weren't noticeable when I lived there full time became horrendous when visiting after moving out, so I have to take that on faith.

Recently though, Tanga'd been having trouble walking up stairs. Then this weekend she stopped walking pretty much at all, and didn't eat anything either. So mom took the day off to hold her for a while before taking her to the vet to be put down. Dad emailed back that they buried her in the yard under a new plant. It's hard to lose a pet, even if I haven't seen her in about 3 years. I'm not sure how my parents are going to take it, even though they knew the end was near. They've had Tanga for 21 active years (maybe even 22, we lost track) which is a good run for a cat. Bye, kitty.

I've got a Smile on my Face

Wey, hey, hey it's just an ordinary day. Well, for many people it was not an ordinary day, being Easter. But for me, I slept in, fixed my shower controller, took a luxurious shower, started in on one of the books I bought while shopping with a friend yesterday, and finally found a good Indian food restaurant within 20 minutes. Whew! That, and talking to several family members, including grandma, on the phone, made it rather more than an ordinary day but still. Go listen to Great Big Sea and you'll see why it's still ok to have an ordinary day today.

Yesterday was a little less ordinary as I drove into LA, passed the blackened smoking shell of a car on the freeway, and used my Cued Speech for the first time in a while to help someone with their research project. (My cold-start lipreading ability, sans CS is at about 12%, or functionally no ability.) I even got paid for it, although I hadn't been expecting to. I was able to call up a friend at a good enough time that she was able to meet me at Borders where I pretty well shot the wad. Although I did have to kill a few minutes first and spent them replacing my windshield wipers which made up the rest of it. I don't use the wipers often in SoCal, but they were kind of shot and I have a bee in my bonnet about good driving visibility so it was time. I'm doing a test - an upgraded blade on the driver's side vs. the cheapest one on the passenger side. And then I found a book I'd been looking for and couldn't find in my town and had dinner with a friend. Yay!

Today's Good Stuff, detailed

• Shower! With the communal arrangement on our water supply and no interior shutoff for my shower, I worried that I'd have to shut off water to three buildings, roughly 30 condos, in order to fix my broken shower handle. I did find out that I could replace it pretty cheap - they sell the exact part I needed for a coupla bucks at any home improvement store here. Then I got to thinking about whether or not I'd just as soon replace it if I had to turn the water off anyway, which delayed the project by several weeks.
  
  I finally decided that I was tired of mucking about with not being sure the water was turned off and worrying that one day it wouldn't be. I stopped at an OSH in the Valley on my way home and found that I could buy the turn-off handle for $5.99, or the turn-off handle AND the water temp adjuster for $3.99. Uh, ok. I checked the directions and it didn't say anything about turning the water supply off to replace it. The picture showed a faucet adjuster that had no way for water to shoot out, and thinking it through, I realized the plastic handles would never be able to withstand the water pressure anyway. So I've been watching the handle crack and fall apart for about 2 months more than I had to, since it turns out I don't have to turn off the supply! Now that I know that, I can also pull the handles off at intervals to clean off the soap scum that builds up behind them.
  
  When the condo was inspected before I bought it, the inspector only found 3 things to point out - one was that the temp indicator on the shower was backward. It turns out that if it was rotated 180deg it would be on the right way, but would be harder to see while showering. Since I shower rather than bathe, I shrugged and replaced it in the "wrong" position. I was able to use my new shower handle and temperature adjuster today and took a luxurious shower. I still feel good and freshly showered hours later. mmmmm.
  
  
• Family: I talked with most of my family today. I ate some chocolate rabbit ears that mom sent. I had sent baskets to my grandmas, one of whom I talk to on the phone. Grandma liked her Easter basket and took the other to my dad's mom on her birthday a few days ago (Thanks for being thoughtful that way, Grandma!) and my other grandma liked both it and the card.
  
  When my friend was here we went shopping after brunch and found some adorable easter baskets. I hadn't sent anything to my grandmas at Christmas because I'm a dork. Mom suggested sending something for easter, and when I saw these, the inspiration became action.
  
  Cost + World Market had these brightly colored felt baskets for about $5 or $10 surrounded by candy and toys. I picked out two - one like a picket fence around grass and another with a flower on each side - and enough candy to pack inside. I also found a funky chicken that dispensed candy out its "barn door" that I thought my step-grandpa would get a kick out of and I was right.
  
  
  
• Indian Food! Long time readers of this blog may recall my frustration with having no decent Indian food in town. It wasn't so bad when I was heading to El Segundo regularly to blow glass because the studio was near a tasty place (Indian Summer on Main St.) and I could get my fix in. But in town, there was a place and I can only say it was a mercy when it burned down. Sadly, the rebuilt, and the food is no better. There are some places in the Valley and Ventura, but the ones I've been to have not been as much to my taste, not offering my favorite dishes.
  
  I have noticed on occasion that there's an Indian place over the grade but had issues finding it. Finally at lunch this week, we got off at its exit and I was able to figure out where it was. Then, after trying 3 places tonight only to get there at or after their closing time (closing early on Easter for reasons not clear to me), I remembered the Indian place while I was nearby, having just been craving some yesterday. It turns out that they make a tasty Matter Paneer and Chicken Tikka Masala. Even more, they offer a "dinner plate" where they serve a relatively small individual portion of a meat dish and a veggie dish with rice, naan (reg or garlic) with daal (soup) and kheer (rice dessert) for $15! It turned out to be too much food, now I know, but normally I have to buy a full entree of each, then pay for bread and rice additionally if I want them. Sure, it lasts for 2 meals and a snack, but it's usually around $35 plus tax. So happiness on my end - I have a local, affordable place to satisfy my Indian food cravings!

On the surface, I didn't do much today - sleeping late, having a shower, reading, cleaning the kitchen, talking on the phone, going out to eat, watching the sun set over the harbor - but I figure any day that makes me feel good to be alive should put a smile on my face.

Overcome

Not quite overwhelming, although I was tempted to use that title, Iowa has essentially ruled gay marriage legal. This makes me proud to see that in the often heartless-to-the-nonconformist heartland, equality is making real strides at the same time I'm still horrified at California's reversal. (Seriously, how did this happen in CA????) It's not often that Iowa gets to bitch-slap California, so stand up Iowans and be proud to be more progressive than "those SF/Hollywood liberal elites".

And keep up the bacon production. Because bacon makes everything better and I think we can apply that aphorism to gay marriage too.
PartnerA: "Good morning wife, would you like some bacon?"
PartnerB: "Yes, wife, I would love some bacon."
Son: "Me too! I want bacon!"
Neighbor kid: "Can I have some bacon?"

Edited to add: The summary of the decision is wonderfully clear and an excellent read.

Plague of Locusts

Soooo.....
The parents finally made it in last night, late. From Seattle. Don't ask unless you're loaded for cranky.

We picked up my brother this morning then stopped in Westwood for coffee, tea, and snacks before starting a driving tour of LA. While we were walking around, my brother did a double take and said, "Hey, I just ordered new scrubs from that store last week!". So we crossed the street to say, "hi" at Scrubs Unlimited and both mom and dad found some work shoes with good arches. We briefly drove thru UCLA then down Sunset Boulevard which is a fun winding drive past "star maps" signs. We detoured through the neighborhoods around Rodeo drive where the streets are named after Boston suburbs in order to see the iconic palm tree lined roads and fun architecture. We made it over to Gower to see the Hollywood sign too.

Nearer to the tar pits, we circled around a bit when I confused "Santa Monica Boulevard" with "Santa Monica Freeway" on my sketched map. Probably for the same reason I had problem with Russian. I stop listening (unconsciously) when I think I know what the remainder of a word or phrase will be and start thinking about where to go from there. In Russian, half the meaning is the ending tacked onto the root. The endings just never penetrated that well. So "freeway" vs. "blvd" took me a different map and a pull to the side of the road to sort out where I'd gone wrong - I was trying to stay north of "Santa Monica" when the pits are between the two.

But we made it, had another snack (a piece of multigrain bread dad picked up and put in the trunk), and wandered the grounds where we were nearly trampled by a tour group of 1800 people. Last time I went (and dragged Kvarko with me) we'd had maybe 18 people in our tour - and only one thought that people had planted fossils to lead us astray from God's true word.... Anyhow. I was able to give a reasonable outside tour of the excavations (and ossicles), showed them some pictures from Kvarko's visit (the wall of dire wolf skulls in particular), told them some fun facts (sabre toothed tigers had baby sabers with concave backs so their adult sabers could grow in behind them), and we decided that after a brief gift store visit that we didn't need to go in the museum after all.

One funny thing today. We were driving around and my brother swallowed wrong and started coughing. Mom sent up 3 homeopathic pills to fix coughs and the brother asked what was in them. Dad said, "eye of newt". Mom's answers were all "it helps your cough" or " it's supposed to", so he handed them back with a thanks but no thanks. Then mom went on to tell us how her coworker had a bad dentist visit and was all swollen up and purple in the face and she gave her the magic beans and - at this point my brother interrupted and said, "Poof, her cough was all gone!" Turns out there's some other pill she "routinely" carries and foists on people as of 2 or 3 weeks ago that is good for swollen up and purple, different from the cough one, but I laughed so hard I almost missed my home exit.

Where we walked over to Claim Jumper, vultured a table in the bar, and devoured about half the pub menu like a plague of locusts. (In our defense, the food was really good and a slice of bread with water is not a filling lunch.) For Years and Years mom tried to get us to eat slowly and savor. But all she gets for her troubles is my brother snagging her maraschino cherry, my dad sipping her drink, and me too far away to poach, but too busy inhaling my tri-tip dip slider and fried zucchini and kebabs and heffeweisen to really care. Even if we did get someone to bring us extra cherries and still I didn't get one.

Day One wound up with my brother helping me re-wire my media stand so that my DVD doesn't route in a way that oversaturates the screen so we could watch a movie. yay! I pulled out Love Actually on DVD. (I apparently left the tape "A wish for wings that work" in the VCR last Christmas and it was unhappy about that and broke in there.) Now, they are at the hotel down the street and I am blessedly alone again. Until early tomorrow and even earlier the next day.

So good points were that we were all in a good humor today, they made pleasing noises about the kitchen, we were not stuck on the freeway behind an overturned armored tank (but got to see them re-loading it onto a flatbed from the opposite direction), we found our parking place and bleacher seats for the parade, my DVD player works easily now, I know some cool things to take visitors to, and we laughed out loud.

Very Last Nerve

My parents are coming to town tomorrow and my brother a couple days later. The plan is to see the Rose Parade, which is my mom's favorite thing. But they're going to be here for 5 days. So they're staying at a hotel. We get along great over the phone but in person, rub each other a little raw. My brother was able to live with them as an adult on and off as his roommate situations ebbed and flowed, but my 5 months after graduation nearly killed us all. While I maintain that his having a bedroom in the basement and mine having one directly across the hall from them did have an influence in the social dynamic, we do not live together well.

And here I am, thinking I would have been in bed an hour ago so I can get up early (for me) tomorrow and kind of prep for them being here, but nope. I crashed on the couch and staggered up and, after finishing up some dishes from yesterday's late night cooking binge (I made bao from scratch starting at 11:30pm) then headed to the internets and *poof*, there went an hour.

The only thing that disturbed me from my websurfing (partly useful, I did find out that Craig Ferguson -mom's 2nd favorite thing on TV - does not have any shows taping while mom's here) was this zit on my upper lip. It was one of those subterranean (actually subdermal, I know) ones that you really can't even see but I knew it was there because it decided to grow directly over a nerve. It was only by prodding for the most painful spot that I was even able to find it. I know the pain isn't comparable, but it reminded me of my good friend whose 2 year old headbutted her nose on Christmas Eve and by all evaluations seems to have broken it. And it needs to be moved back into place to stop hurting and be straight again, but that will be really painful. Likewise, extracting this zit made my eyes water and my nose run, and me do a little dance. While it's still a little sore, I can now touch my lip without bursting out of my chair. Wasn't this supposed to be over 20 years ago? My joints now ache *and* I have acne? On the plus side, I can stay up all night cooking bao if I want to, with flavoring from my own liquor stash, and swipe bites from the rum cake.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

So I'd thought about hanging with the Jews and hitting up a movie and having Chinese food today. But I bought a lot of food yesterday to make some specific recipes and I cooked all day. Which is a little weird as I'm cooking for 1, but it's fun. I always want to make more food than anyone could possibly eat. I held back a little today, but if you add it to the vat of soup I made yesterday, my fridge is pretty full. The kitchen, it's working well, efficiency wise. Still have to figure out where some final things go (mostly the small appliances) but overall? Waaaaay better. And it smells good with the mulling spices warming on the stove.

I made a lamb stew type thing which came out too pasty to look good for a picture. But it was tasty enough to eat, so whew! I also cooked up artichokes and peeled a pomegranate so it was a Greek kind of meal. I do wonder why pomegranates were one of the earliest cultivars though. Yes, it stores well - it can last for weeks or months, maintains the juiciness of the seeds, and one rotten seed rarely affects many others. But dang are they a PITA to peel. I do wonder how Pom does it industrially for juicing.

I also made my favorite cranberry relish and just finished rolling out some egg noodles. It's a recipe I made up myself. Typical recipe is 1c flour, 1 egg, 1T water and 1t oil with a pinch of salt. I use 1c flour, 1 egg, 1T low sodium soy sauce and 1t oil - although this time I also ground up some dried mushrooms in a coffee grinder and added an extra t of water with the powdered shrooms. They're drying right now. Usually I don't have the patience to wait for them to dry, but I'm pretty full. (I had to test out the Corn Pops I bought for mom's breakfast...)

Tomorrow, I need to get out of the condo though. I'm meeting up with a friend at some point, and I want to go to the beach because it's California and I can, even if it's still pretty wet and chilly. I could use a good 3 hour walk, too. Hope you had a fun day hanging with family and don't need too many gin and tonics to recover from said family.

Road Trip

Hey all, I'm home from San Fran. Unlike my Alaskan friend who got snowed in at SEA-TAC on her way back. I have re-purpled hair, I'm getting my voice back after cable car caroling, and I've slept like the dead for about 2 days. Today's my last day of work before some extensive time off. (To me, 12 days is extensive. One day, I will take a month or 2 off. Really. Just not now.)

My parents and brother are coming out for New Years and dad called saying they did get seats for the Rose Parade, which is just about my mom's favorite thing evah. Here's hoping that our weather gets a little nicer all over the country in the next week.

YouTube Generation

Now includes my dad. He's taking classes at the local Technical College (formerly the VoTech) in Nanotechnology "so he can talk to me".

And here he is talking to other people at some event they held.


I think the term "adorkable" is apt.

In Perfect Harmony

Along the same lines as my ostensible blog inspiration, I found this list of questions in an email I got from my Aunt a while ago. It focuses on the people who have been instrumental in ones success. Someone might already have sent it to you, but instead of emailing it, I'm posting it here. I think it's a good list, and it's nice to think of and remember friendly people.

Granted in my attempt to keep the blog semi-anonymous so as not to give publicity to the publicity shy, I will be going with semi cryptic answers. If you think you resemble these remarks, you do. If you don't see a resemblance you ought to stop by more often it was unintentional.

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

• My middle school science teacher who recommended me for the only one of two slots allotted for a "space camp" (in LA of all places, not Huntsville) that wasn't filled due to nepotism. Yeah, yeah, I learned some science stuff. More importantly, it was the first time in my life I was ever in the popular crowd. I might not have been as successful in high school or gone to MIT without this experience.
  
• My fifth grade year was pretty miserable. I had grown away from my childhood friends and didn't know what to do with myself. My teacher gave me tasks to do over recess if I didn't have anyone to hang out with that day.
  
• A quick list: My high school calculus teacher. She was just a really fun lady, and the math team coach. I really enjoyed her classes and the Math Team.
  My third grade teacher taught us some German and about bacteria and positive visualization and gave us stickers. Eighth grade teacher inspired me to Eurail around Europe, which a friend and I did in May of 1992. My HS principal let me keep my drafting assignments in his office during lunch so I wouldn't have to run to class. My drafting teacher let me pick my "random" class partner from a face up selection of cards. My middle school geography teacher had us color maps and learn about Minnesota and geology. My HS chorus directors took us to sing in Europe in '89. My lab professor who encouraged me to ask my Thesis advisor for a project. My 7th grade homeroom teacher still talks to my mom at the library.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
Naturally, my list is longer than three. But I will try to restrain myself.

• Thanks to my friend who called me every morning for a month and spoke to me for 45 minutes every day until I woke up enough to get out of bed. I finally asked my parents for help and my dad took over and called me every day for a year and nearly every day for 3. I would probably not be employed without this intervention.
• Any friend who let me do laundry at their house so I didn't have to chose between their company and being clean.
• My friends at work who talked me down off the edge time and again so I could be reasonably composed after a chat and a little pork pad see yu.
• Friends who either visit me or let me visit them when I'm in need of company. Or when you are.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

• Mom and Dad, obviously. Mom sent me to Barbazon's "be a model or learn to look like one" class for makeup training and Dad taught me to drive and to knock all the nails out of used lumber so you don't get caught on them. And to open your home to people who need a nice place to be every so often. Among other things.
• Page Hazelgrove who taught me to blow glass and let the glass speak to me.
• The seminar instructor who taught me how to say "I don't like what you did" without saying "I don't like you". And the difference between being assertive vs aggressive or passive.
• HGTV designer Karen MacAloon who gave me the courage to modify things I own so they suit me, rather than live with things that are slightly wrong.
• All friends, family, professors, etc...

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

• Everyone who responded to my blog yesterday. I really am feeling more impotent about the coming election. But I'll just keep talking to people. It's what I do.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

• If I've hung out with you, consider yourself on the list, unless you were on the street corner with a "Yes" sign recently. Whether eating out, hiking in the town forest, kayaking or rafting, watching TV, unpacking, drinking, blowing glass, traveling, sitting on the beach, rock scrambling up the side of Catalina, going to booksignings, driving around, baking cookies, or doing not much of anything... it's all good.
  

.

Grins From My GrandFather

As someone who inherited my dad's chin and jaw, it kind of fascinates me to see the familiar chin and jaw in this photo from the Chicago Tribune. He may have gotten dreams from his father, but that chin came from Kansas. I will assume the grins come from love.



Other good things today:

• We had a health checkup "fair" at work today. We got 5 minute massages. My sight with my new glasses is good, even at the end of the day. My total cholesterol 5 hours after eating salad and cream of mushroom soup was 180. My blood pressure is 110/70. However I am fat. And according to my temperature dot on my hand gauging my stress level, "extremely tense" alternating with "unsettled". I still need to see someone about that possible cortisol thing. But on the whole, yep, I'm fat but healthy according to the major indicators. More genetics at work.


• Made actual progress on my tool today. It is a pesky temperamental diva. But we are making progress.


• I remembered to charge my phone. Which allowed me to take an impromptu call from my friend in South Carolina. (She is looking for technical contract jobs large and small. Let me know if you have work to contract out to someone sharp, dogged and technically savvy.)


• The red hair dye, I like it. It becomes this sorta purplish color. Looks like brown indoors and shiny red out in the sun.