two years on...

Still going strong, September 2007.
It is my bloggiversary (is this a word)?

How do I feel?

Not very excited.

Should I continue on? I wonder.

I get tons of feedback on flickr, but here, not so much. Are my pictures more interesting that my written word?

Again, I wonder.

It is a nice and rainy day here. It is the kind of rain that soaks you to the core. It is the kind of rain I fear for my half marathon next Sunday. Please do not let it rain like this, we have been blessed so far this year.

It is the kind of rain that makes you wish you had gotten up and planted those last fall perennials on Friday when it threatened rain, but you contentedly spent 15 minutes reading your book.

It is the kind of rain that cements the fact your tomatoes are done for the year and that you have some green tomato chutney making in your future.

It is the kind of rain that makes a basset hound do an about face without even visiting the front lawn.

I see many of these rainy days in our future.

I am not ready for Fall, but it is here and I suppose I'll make the best of it.

I hope you do as well.

nm

the sweetest post

Carciofi, December 2005, Rome, Italy.

I just popped over to Shauna's blog to read about their honeymoon travels in Italy. Seriously, some of the sweetest writing I have read in a while.

I get goosebumps just thinking eating in Italy by reading this.

nm who sees green tomato risotto in this weeks meal planning

books of note

I am back, not quite together, but back.

For the first time in a while I read a bunch while on holiday and definitely since I have returned. I think the return reading is partly due to my inability to sleep more than six hours and my desire not to go to work at 5 am.

In no particular order I read:

• The 64 dollar tomato
• Water for elephants
• One good turn
• Saffron Kitchen
• Many silly murder mysteries that I am embarassed to discuss
• Never let me go

I am currently perusing two cookbooks of note:

• Pork and sons
• My Italian Garden

I am too lazy to post links. We have had a morning of retrieving Ernest from Yakima. All I have to show for it is a pound of coffee from Pioneer Roasters and another lug of tomatoes that will be canned tomorrow.

more later,

nm

checklist

dog appropriate footwear
ricola
dunkin donuts iced coffee
loofah for throwing at abusers of the no cell phone use in the flagship lounge
book i hate for bookclub
passport
euros
sterling
campari
soda
sense of humour (may be lacking after my earlier email conversations with work)

be back in about ten days or earlier if i can find a computer.

however, if you are all crazed, you can follow me on flickr.

smooches and opa.

nm

what a old crotchedy woman is entitled to say

SHUT UP.

I can say it in my underwear, to anyone I want, anywhere I want, if you are talking on your freaking cell phone in front of my hotel room door and I'm tired.

I am not angry, just merely cranky.

For the record, I did not display my undergarments to anyone, especially some under aged boy from New Jersey who couldn't get cell phone reception in his room.

I have not scarred him for life.

nm

Still life with latte, downtown Seattle, September 2007.

I am fedexing my clothes to my mom for the wedding. If I could I would fedex myself.

TH is sick of this trip. I can't blame her. I was about three seconds from having to buy a full fare ticket from SKG to CDG, but found a cheaper (relatively if you think 400 bucks is cheap) ticket at the last minute.

I also realized my cheap credit card (the one that only charges 1% on foreign transactions) had expired. I did locate the new one and activated it.

Good news is that they released an award seat for me. I no longer have to fly through LHR on my way back. Gives me three more hours of sleep, which by then I will need.

Must find a new quart sized zip lock bag. Mine is toast.

nm

this big old life

Still life with preserves, September 2007.

Things here chez flora and flying are fine, considering I'm leaving in a few days and other than barely fitting into the dress I wore to my other cousin's wedding last year, I'm pretty much resigned to a short trip to Greece that is no longer about Greece - Athens, Crete, Santorini, but about seeing my family - lots of them, and they just keep on coming.

Should be a hoot.

It is interesting to try and pack for three entirely different trips in one trip. A half marathon requires running/walking stuff, a wedding an entirely different set of clothes including shoes that you really can't wear with anything else and then clothes that you hope you don't spill taramosalata on because they have to get you through London and Paris as well.

Now if I can only get American to release me a seat to Chicago that doesn't require a change in London...

Enough of that, tonight we had four men over for dinner - a spaniard, two turks and the brother of mine. First of all, I had to wrap my head around the fact they eat more than we do. Second, they don't do coffee. Third, they don't eat as much dessert as women. However, we had a great time and I had no idea that real men eat tomatoes, and how!

We have recovered from Berkeley. I must call and find out how day one of yard clean out went.

Nothing much more to report, over and out.

nm

The weekend wrap up

60-75 bags of yard waste
A large cars worth of plant material to be shredded with more planned this week
Lunch at Cafe Fanny
Dinner at Chez Panisse
A laundry list of chores completed in the 94707
Catch up with a dear friend, oh how we have missed you
Eating raisin snails in the sun
Flights that took off and landed on time
Realizing that TH is a blessing, even if we have our moments
Deciding that its okay to recycle a dress for a wedding, especially nine time zones away
Picking and eating blood peaches and fresh lemons off the tree is not a bad way to spend the day
Being glad to be sleeping in your own bed for the next four nights

the sounds of silence

Planning our next Ernest retrieval, we're getting bored of the usual routing.

It is so quiet here. If the boy wasn't in such good hands, I would be sad. Since he's running around acting like a dog, chasing rabbits, hiding from cats and walking the big walk, I'm content.

It was strange to not have to walk him this morning pre-gym, lunch, pre-dinner, post dinner and one more time because we may have missed something.

In that time I have managed to can 8 pints of tomato sauce, 15 pts of salsa and make a dinner we were able to sit down and enjoy.

Now, I am beside myself with boredom.

Good thing there are bills to shred.

nm

Really, I cannot do better than this picture.

Tickets all changed, I'm canning tomato sauce, have no idea what is for dinner and I could give a whack.

smooches,

nm

contrary to popular belief

A view from I-90, Thorp, before the fruit stand, September 2007.

I am alive, kicking, just busy.

Survived DC, coming home to the same old and today was spent taking the ernmeister to
the 509 for his rest cure.

Stopped in Winegars for ice cream, yakima for tomatoes, Goldendale for some love and Wapato for gas.

We're tired and the house is so quiet.

I'll miss the boy, but he's having a blast.

nm