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

lucky me

I am sitting in the presidential suite of my hotel, not because I'm the president (though Ernest may enjoy it), but because I asked for a room that was not on the atrium. The room they gave me was not cleaned, I went to the front desk to ask for my original atrium room back so that I could collapse. The front desk dude clicked a bunch of keys on his computer and gave me a key. He hoped I would be happy with room.

I am, I could have forty people over right now and I wouldn't even notice they were here.

I have the beginnings of a cold. I am overwhelmed by the amount of information and processing that happened today at my meeting. I am still trying to play catch up for the day and hopefully it will happend before too long. I'm bushed.

On the flip side, I found a marimekko store in Silver Spring and a cakelove. Cakelove is great, but marimekko travels better.

Here I sit in DC, sitting digesting my delicious dinner that JK and I had at Teasim and considering the salted oatmeal cookie for dessert.

It has been a week.

Really.

I am still decompressing from all sorts of work stuff, dealing with a dog in his terrible tweens, travel planning for not just me and having my parents come up for the weekend.

Its all under control now.

I hope.

Now, if I could only find something to watch on tv while reviewing my documents for tomorrow's meetings.

nm

All I can say

I lead an event driven life.

I am escaping into my hole now.

See what Kerrio's up for some fabulous summer/fall foodage.

wordless wednesday II - very few words

On my way out of the building before all hell breaks loose.

On my way in this is what I was greeted with:

Aren't they beautiful? The picture on my phone sucks, but they are magnificent and I'm touched.

When I went to pick up the dog from the groomers, this is what he looked like:
Very tired.

We then left him to go see the Be good tanyas, they are better in a smaller venue.

Now, I am at work, not really doing much of anything, but setting up directories for tomorrow's downloading of data to refine our models.

nm

home work II

You both walk the dog and you realize that your conversation is about subtracting one raster from another to compare changes in a digital elevation model and it doesn't even phase you.

God, can we just leave it at work?

nm

an amazing abundance

Still life with fig, August 2007.

The two houses on either side of us have huge green fig trees. I suppose at one time we may have had one. I just don't know. I must remember to ask Marge, our next door neighbor if they planted their tree or it was there when they built the house in the early 60s.

The trees are loaded this year and we are enjoying their fruits. On Friday I macerated the figs with some cognac and a bit of sugar and served them on top of a cake that Kimberly McK baked for Shauna's visit.

I am in love with this cake (i'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it, it was pretty). Today, we decided to try something new...

We're making fig bars.

Right now the figs are cooking away, tomorrow, in the heat (ugh), I'll make them base and then spread the lusty dark fig concoction of top and bake them. The following day we'll eat them plain or with a foil of greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

My friend B and I are fiends for fruit foraging and canning. She has devised a way to freeze figs, I am not sure that I want to go that far, but maybe this year we can work on making fig jam.

A fig is a terrible thing to waste...

pure bliss

Home grown peaches, yogurt and leftover lemon/almond cake.

I was a total slug all weekend. I may pay for it on Monday and hear about it for a while, but I just was tired.

I read four trashy books, did minimal decluttering, minimal gardening, minimal of anything and you know what, it felt okay.

This week should be a bear or something like it. Pray for no deep sea earthquakes, that is all I'm saying...

nm

Ratouille au four, over and over again, August 2007.

Sometimes I think it is better to just not read the newspaper. Then I won't get as riled up and maybe everyone will be happier.

I have nothing of interest to report, those who have been talking/emailing me know that I am not having the best of weeks.

I don't think next week will be any great improvement, but we can look on the bright side.

There are lots of blueberries and blackberries in the freezer and in a few weeks I will be sitting drinking g&ts with lime/no lemon in with a wolfhound using my shoulder as a chin rest.

Before that, there are two half marathons, a work trip to DC along with a million other things to cross of my life list.

nm

Another reason to question our mayor and our city council's sanity.

Screw art, public events and culture, let's rip.

Fuck them all.

Tag....

Late summer blooms, September 2006.

This one is for Jen.

1. Best cupcake to make? (I need to bake tomorrow!)

Make the cake I mentioned yesterday. Glaze with a chocolate frosting and they'll never know there is anything healthy in it. Use the olive oil or canola oil instead of butter to speed things up.


2. What is in full bloom in your garden right now?

Crocosmia, anemones, lavenders and phlox. Lots of weeds too.

3. Best race day advice?


If you are not racing for time, then use the portapotties en route, if you are trying to make a personal best, you can always pee later. Oh, Glide is your friend everywhere and so is desitin (in those places that only you'll discover after not using it on a long walk/run). I am so not kidding. Book massage for following morning as well.

4. Book of the moment.

Mirror Garden

5. Next major travel destination?

Philadelphia, London, Greece and Paris in September. I am so not excited right this moment about this trip. Sad, I know.


Now, you can do this too, simply follow Jen's very good instructions:

Want to play now? Here are the rules if you do:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like [the food you hate most in all the world]. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your [blog] with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

nm

Donut day

Tomorrow I move offices. I am neutral about the whole thing. Its a lateral if now downward move, but it will bring our whole group together and that should make me feel the love. Right?

It also means that I am moving divisions, though technically I moved two years ago. It means that my mailbox moves and more importantly, I leave my coffee hour group.

They are not letting me leave.

So, in honor of Dennis, V and all of the fine folks that bring us climate variability and el nino predictions, I made a chocolate and zucchini cake from the Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. I love this cookbook, I have made a few things out of it and some things over and over again.

This is another winner.

Behold, the cake.
The recipe can be found in the chocolate and zucchini archives, here.

Bon Appetit!

nm