Bye, Eugene

My father-in-law, Eugene Kelly, passed away this afternoon at the age of 86. Pat and I both lost our dads within four months. Argh.
Eugene was a kind and gentle man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He was patient beyond belief.
A veteran of the Army in WWII, he landed on the beach in Normany on D-Day and fought through France until the liberation of Paris. He was an Aide to General Eisenhower and according to my mother-in-law, knew a lot of things that were classified.
He will be missed immensely. Rest in peace, Eugene.

Here we go again and it's not good

Losing my dad this August has been a painful and sad experience for all of us. We miss him every day. The last couple of weeks I cry just about every day. I guess it's part of the mourning process.

My Father-in-Law, Eugene Kelly, slipped on the ice and fell about 10 days ago. He's 86 and broke his hip. Very worrisome. He made it through surgery fine and they put three pins in his hip. Post surgery hasn't been so good. He's had breathing and oxygen issues.

Last night he apparently had what they call "respiratory arrest" which means he stopped breathing. They think he has aspiration pneumonia and is currently on a ventilator and not conscious. Although we've been hoping for a full recovery from the broken hip, now it looks like he won't live to see 2010.

Eugene, like my dad, Clyde, is a WWII veteran. Eugene was one of the first guys to land on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day and fought through to the liberation of Paris. He is a kind and loving man.

We are hoping and praying for Eugene and for a full recovery, but things are looking pretty dire here. Not a very nice Christmas at all.

Egg nog time!

Yeah, it's that time of year. Our house has been spiffed up, the tree is up and is beautiful and my belly has been filled with lutefisk. Time for St. Nick to descend upon us, but not before we have some egg nog.
I've been making home made egg nog for about 25 years. People who don't like egg nog love mine. If you are a lover of egg nog you will never drink the emusified crap from the grocery store again. I'm going to share with you my not so secret recipe. The recipe here is a quadruple batch because it's labor intensive and my family and friends love it. I have been known to make up to 8 or 10 batches during December (in the quantity posted here) to satisfy the cravings of my family, friends and colleages.

You will need a very large stock pot, as this stuff expands when it cooks. Ready?

1/2 gallon of whole milk
1/2 gallon of half and half
cook on high (stirring all the time) until it comes to a boil
remove from heat and let cool
skim the top and add
2 cups sugar and 5 teaspoons of vanilla. Splurge for the real vanilla and don't buy that imitation junk they sell. Trust me, it's worth it.
Put it back on the stove and bring to a boil - yes, stirring all the time.
Lower the heat and gently boil it for 20 minutes
yes, 20
(some good music or a book and a glass of wine come in handy here)
take it off the heat and cool
skim the top.
meanwhile - separate 32 eggs - yes, 32
you can toss the whites or make a ton of meringue - or angel food cake - whatever
beat the egg yolks on high for five minutes
they should be thick and lemon colored
stir the yolks into the cooled stuff - the mixer works well here, as the yolks will float to the top.
add about 1 1/2 cups of white rum - more or less to your taste or none at all, if you wish
chill it until it's cold and serve with a cinnamon stick or a sprinkling of nutmeg on top.

Enjoy my egg nog and don't blame me when your arteries clog up.

PS. Don't lecture me on salmonella and raw eggs. Dozens of people have been enjoying this stuff for a quarter of a century and NO ONE has become sick from it.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a bit weird this year. Kristen and Laura are at their dad's tonight, which is normal. We often do Thanksgiving on Friday or Saturday because of Pat's work schedule and family being here or there.
What is weird is that for the first time since I've lived in this house, some 16 years, I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I've done many Christmas dinners, but not Thanksgiving. Usually we are at Mom and Daddy's house and I cook there. Daddy is gone and Mom is up at my sister, Jeanie's house.
Our kitchen is kind of small and I'm not sure I have enough serving dishes, but we'll have a great feast. The holiday season is indeed weird without my Dad. I really miss him.

House is looking good

The office is put back together - painted, carpet shampooed and office rearranged. We like the new configuration and we threw a TON of stuff out.

Today Pat painted the hall and I took everything off the sideboard, dusted, waxed, washed and dried all the crystal and put it all back together. The house looks great. Pat was even contemplating starting with the Christmas decorations already. I think it's a tad early, but we'll see how motivated we are.

Home Projects

I started a home project today, which means we'll be doing this for months. You know how it goes, you paint one room and the next one looks shabby. So you paint the next room, and on and on. You're off to the home improvement races.
We've been talking about rearranging the office for months. It's actally the third bedroom, about 10x10. We have a big corner desk and that's going to move 180 degrees, so when we're sitting at the desk we can look out the window.
Today I took everything out of the closet. Office supplies, books, books and more books. I also emptied the bookshelves that are attached to the wall. What an array of books we have! Crime mysteries, various and sundry paperbacks and medical books (Pat's) Civil War, early arctic exploration, real estate (me) and cookbooks (both of us).
Everything is still on and in the desk - computer, printer, my pile and Pat's pile. He has next week off, so we'll start again on Monday and take everything out, paint and shampoo the carpet. Then comes probably the worst of our task - figuring out what to keep and what to toss. I think the printer and possibly the phone and answering machine will go in the closet, as we had it years ago.
Yeah, this is a good chance to clean out a lot of stuff. I'm excited to have it done, but not necessarily the process.

Why do they make this so difficult?

After my dad passed away, Mom was left with a lot of prescription drugs of his. They don't expire until 2012. If we take them back to the prescribing facility they'll just be destroyed.

Mom and I have asked around to friends and family to see if anyone we know is prescribed these drugs. Nope.

My eye doctor goes to Mexico with Flying Doctors - maybe they could take them. Nope. They cannot provide follow up, therefore can't use the rx drugs.

Dr. Worrell suggested I try the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley. Nope.

They suggested City Team Ministries. I'm waiting for a call back from them.

We have a lot of older people in our Sons of Norway lodge. I can't exactly go up to them and say "Hey Ole, by the way, your doc hasn't happened to prescribe 20mg of potassium, has he? How about lasix? Can I hook you up with some?"

Sheesh, I'm trying to help someone out here. I know how expensive this stuff is and maybe we could make just a little bit of difference in someone's life. The red tape sure makes it hard to do the right thing.

The process

We all continue to mourn the loss of my dad. It comes across me in waves, which my friends tell me is normal. Whatever that is.
Most of the time I'm fine, but at odd times, like when I'm driving around town, I am awash in grief. For Daddy's memorial service I made a slide show thing and I've seen it a hundred times. While I was making it and sometimes when I just want to feel closer to him and I want to see his face, I watch it. Tonight was the first time I was not a bawling mess when I watched it. Yeah, I wept a bit, but didn't totally fall apart. I guess this is part of the process. It'll never end, just get softer, I think.
If you want to see it, click here www.dorrways.com/clydeharris and click on the little thingie below photo gallery. I wish I knew when this gets easier - I guess it never does.

Egg update

It seems the only one of our girls who is laying is Fiona. She laid her first egg on Monday, on Wednesday, I saw her lay an egg. Then Friday and again today on Sunday. She's like clockwork, every 48 hours. We just wish the other girls would get with the program.

Egg!

After months of chicken nurturing, we got our first egg today! We have been through a great leaning curve with housing, disease and death. We got our three new birds a little over a week ago and they have settled in.
We've looked for eggs every day for the past six weeks and got our reward today.
We took pea soup over to Mom's for dinner and it was pouring rain. I went out to change their water and check their food. Mom and Kristen were on the porch out of the rain when they heard me yell "Egg! We have egg!" They both ran out to the coop in the rain and we all did the happy egg dance.
Of course there was a big argument about who should have the first egg. Mom won. She'll have her fresh egg for breakfast tomorrow. Can't wait to hear how it tasted.
I'm not sure who laid it - probably Alice or Fiona, based on the color of the egg. We're hoping this will inspire the other girls to get with the program.

New chickens

We got three new hens this afternoon. From the left, the Partridge Cochin, who we have named Dee Dee, Speckled Sussex, named Fiona and the Easter Egger named Alice.
The Easter Egger is a hybrid breed - sort of a mutt in the chicken world. We can't show her - like we would. She's a funny little bird, full of personality. She was sold to the woman we bought her from as an Americuna, but she's not, as Americunas lay blue eggs. Hers are apparently brownish.

The two bigger birds, Dee Dee and Fiona have been picking on Wili. I guess they are establishing their pecking order. After a couple of hours they seem to have calmed down and we will have eggs..... SOON!

New peeve

As President of District Six, Sons of Norway, I get all of our lodge's newsletters. 56 of 'em. My new pet peeve has appeared in ALL of them.
They all say "I want to thank John and Mary for blah, blah, blah" And I want to thank Ole and Lena for whatever.... Why not just thank John and Mary. Thank you Ole and Lena. Not I WANT to thank you. It bugs me and my family says I'm being too critical.
I have become more aware of this recently and just say thank you. Not I want to thank you.

Ride on!

Pat and I had a new adventure today. We drove to Oakhurst (near Yosemite) last night, had dinner and spent the night.
Today we embarked on our first organized ride - the Grizzly Ride. They have four rides to choose from - a 100 mile ride (no), a 100 kilometer ride (no) a 24 mile ride with 4000' elevation rise (no) and a 24 mile ride around Bass Lake with a 1000' ride. (yes!).
I was a bit apprehensive as I thought maybe we were biting off more than we could chew and I also thought we'd be geriatrics compared to the other riders. Thankfully, wrong on both accounts.
This ride cost $35 each and included breakfast, lunch and dinner plus a commemorative T shirt. What a bargain! We were pleasantly surprised to see many older riders - some appeared to be in their 70s. Most of the riders we encountered were "about our age".
The first five miles was tough, as about 95% of it was uphill. I was not too proud to get off my bike and walk when I needed to do so.
This pic was taken at 7.44 miles. They had a rest stop at around 11 miles and had snacks and drinks for us. One of the snacks I liked the best was cold boiled red potatoes. What a delightful snack! Being of Norwegian and Irish descent - we loved the potatoes!
The ride around the lake was gorgeous, the weather was a perfect 72 degrees and we finished the ride. Everyone was SO nice and we had so much fun. The Grizzly is on our list for next year and we'll be looking for other organized rides.
What a great day!

More coincidence

In two days I have had contact with two Realtors whom I used to process their loans - 25-28 years ago.
The first one I called yesterday because my clients were interested in his listing. I processed Rick's loans while working at Transamerica Mortgage. We talked about the house and caught up.
Today, I got a call on my listing from another Rick, who's loans I processed while working at Mason McDuffie. I worked with Rick and his dad, Nick back in the mid-80s. We caught up, too, and his client may be interested in my listing.
So weird to have these coincidences in two days.

Odd coincidence

When we had to call 911 to have my dad taken to Kaiser last month, there was a fire captain there named Dave. He told us he remembered us, as he had been to the house a couple of years ago, when Mom had fainted and they came over. He was so nice and caring and I can't believe he remembered us.
This morning I passed a fire truck and thought of Dave and how great he was to Mom and Daddy.
Also this morning Pat had to take a class - ACLS - Advanced Cardiac Life Support, which he has to take every two years to maintain his RN license. Guess who was also at the class? Dave and Tiffany, who was also at the house last month.
They remembered Pat and asked how Daddy was. Sadly, he had to tell them Daddy had passed away. They were very nice and respectful.
We live in San Jose - a city of one million people. Campbell is on the other side of the street from us. We have Campbell Schools and phone number, but we vote in San Jo and have city services from them. Campbell has a population of about 40,000. We live on the border of these two cities. We consider ourselves more Campbellites than San Joseans.
My point of all this is we really live in a small town and we do love it.

Happy Birthday to me

My birthday last week was a delight. I don't remember when I've had such a great celebration.
Pat and I started the day with a 22 mile bike ride, I got a couple of hours of work done (even though I intended to take the day off) and ended the evening with Pat, Kristen, Laura, Mom and sister Jeanie at Royal Taj, our favorite Indian restaurant. Mom and Jeanie had never tasted Indian food and were great sports about trying a new cuisine. They loved it!
The only thing missing was my dad, of course. When I opened the card from my mom, I was bummed. Daddy always drew his little guy saying something cute in our cards and the little guy was missing. I didn't cry or say anything, but I did notice his absence.
Pat insisted I open K & L's gift and card last. They made me a beautiful apron, hand painted with an under sea motif. They even hot glued little shells on it. It's so pretty, I'm afraid to use it, lest I get it dirty.
The best part of the evening was the card they gave me. Laura drew a cartoon in the style of Daddy's little guy. THAT made me cry. It's SO cute and so indicative of how sensitive and sweet my daughters are. If you click on the picture above it'll enlarge so you can see it better.
I am blessed with the best family in the world.

Speak properly!

Nothing bugs me more than professional people slaughtering the English language. If they're from somewhere else, and English is not their first language - I'll give them a pass.

Heard today in my office... "In lieu of that, I'm willing to do this" She meant "in light of"

More peeves "anyways", "I have a self-depreciating sense of humor", "It wrecked havoc" and the list goes on...... Argh, it's an assault to the ears.

Birthday Burp

People may think I'm crazy, but my Dad gave me a birthday greeting today. I admit, it was an unorthodox one, but it was him.
Pat and I went on a long bike ride and when we got home I showered so I could go to work. When I got out of the shower I heard a masculine burp in the bedroom. Thinking it was Pat, I started talking to him. I didn't get an answer so asked Pat where he was - downstairs. "Did you just burp?"
"No"
We were the only people in the house. I know it was Daddy's goofy way of wishing me happy birthday. Yeah, I know it's weird, but I believe he was here for a moment.

Exhaustion

My Dad has been laid to rest with a wonderful memorial service. It was lovely. Our family and friends were there to celebrate the rich life that Harry had. There were some tears, but mostly funny stories.
Mom, my sisters, my cousin, Susanna and I planted a redwood tree around noon in John Morgan Park, just a couple of blocks from Mom and Daddy's home of over 50 years. The tree is between the baseball field and the kiddie play area. Right next to the path and a picnic table and barbecue. It's perfect. We have planned to have some picnics in the park next to Daddy's tree and I myself, will go there on occasion. Just to be nearer to him and talk if I want to.
This has all been such an emotional time and after making all of the arrangements for hall, food, speeches, decorations, etc. the exhaustion has set in. I am beat. Both physically and emotionally.
My dad would've enjoyed his sendoff party. There were many wonderful, sweet and funny stories. Family and friends had many kind remembrances of a great man, who we will never forget and always hold in our hearts. My dad is half of who I am today and he'll always be with me.
Thank you to all of my wonderful friends and colleagues. You have all given me great comfort and help. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be associated with.
Harry's mortal body may be gone, but he'll always be here.

Cat Lady

Ah, the joys of my job as a property manager. Don't get me wrong, I love the job and business and am good at being the go-to person for both the tenants and owners.

I manage a property that's a condo in South San Jose. Our tenants moved in the first of July. The next door neighbor is a cat lady and has been feeding five feral cats. These cats are not spayed or neutered and have been using the front patio of the unit I manage as a litter box. My poor tenant not only has to clean up cat poo every day, but she cannot use the patio, nor even open the door, lest the odor of cat feces wafts into her home.

Supposedly the cat lady has been trying to get rid of the cats, but wait, there's more!
I wrote a letter to the HOA asking them to address the problem in mid-July. Their next meeting wasn't until tonight. Hearing nothing from them, I attended their meeting. Seems reasonable to me.

The cat lady is the manager of the association and was at the meeting. She was clearly angry and combative with me. Accused me of meddling in the affairs between two neighbors. (Um, that's my job - the owner hired me to take care of this shit - pun intended). The short story is that that HOA informed me that they have no jurisdiction over the patios, as they belong to the homeowner. Okay, we'll call animal control and get some traps - probably should've done this long ago, but I was trying to do things right and be civil.

The cat lady just wanted to fight with me, which made all of the board members visibly uncomfortable. I thanked them for their time and listening to our problem and told them I wouldn't take any more time and they could get back to their meeting. This is not over and I've made an enemy for just doing my job. I asked her to be a good neighbor and not feed the cats. She just told me she will continue to feed them. Argh. Thank goodness my tenant is very tolerant and a very nice woman. We'll get some traps and get rid of the cats.

I have to say, I am an animal lover and we regulary contribute to the Humane Society, so don't accuse me of being an animal hater. I'm just trying to be a responsible landlord and give my tenant "quiet enjoyment" of her home.

We also live in a condo. Thank GOD we have great neighbors and don't live next door to the cat lady.

Family Photos

This family photo was taken at Thanksgiving 1963 in Grandma and Grandpa Mattison's back yard. It is truly a goofy pic.
Starting at seven o'clock and going clockwise, here is the narrative.... I am on Grandma's lap and I appear to be barfing on her. She and Aunt Sallie are looking at the commotion in Grandma's lap. Grandpa looks normal. Cousin Scott has his eyes closed, looks silly and his fly is part way open. Uncle George is looking at the sky. Daddy is in his uniform, smoking a cigarette, sister Jeanie is leaning against him, and looks normal. Cousin Sue has sister Karen in her lap. Susie has her eyes closed and Karen looks really unhappy. Cousins Meri and Jan are in the front with their mouths open. The only family member to escape this scrutiny 46 years hence, is Mom, who mercifully was behind the lens. Hey, it's tough to get 12 people to all look good in one photo.
My niece, Erin, pointed out that with the current use of digital photography, gems like this will be discarded. I say too bad, because this pic totally cracks me up.

Scatter brained

After my Dad passed away I got a very nice note from our friend Bob. In it he cautioned me to stay alert and pay attention, especially while driving. I think I'm okay driving, but yesterday afternoon was just ridiculous.
I left the office to go to the bank and grocery store. Halfway there, I realized I had left my cell phone at the office. I drove back to get it then realized I should've gone to the credit union to deposit rent. Rent of OPM as in Other People's Money. I went to the credit union and deposited the rent.
When I got to my bank, I filled out the deposit slip (reimbursement from Mom for Daddy's obit) and then couldn't find the check! Since I was next to Safeway, I bought the groceries, then went back to the credit union. Sure enough, I had deposited my check into my Viking Property Management account. It took them forever to reverse it and give me my check back.
When I started making dinner I realized that two of the necessary items I had purchased somehow didn't make it home with me. I'm sure I just walked off and left them. So back to Safeway I went, receipt in hand. Sheesh.
It was really nice to get home and relax. I'm going to take things one at a time today and slow WAY down.

Cartoons

My Dad has been drawing this little guy since at least WWII. He doesn't have a name that I know of, but pops up here and there on napkins, placemats, birthday cards, etc.
In the last few years Mom has found them in the morning paper. Daddy would read the paper before Mom and draw cartoons in them. Many times making commentary on an ad for this or that. They are all cute, but some of them are hilarious. His last cartoon was just 12 days before he passed away.
I'd like to find a way to self publish his cartoons, as I know the rest of the family would treasure them. Is there a way to do this inexpensively? Kinko's in a spiral bound book or something? Any advice would be welcome.

Coping

It's amazing to me what a comfort my friends and colleagues have been. Susan brought dinner on Sunday when we were all at Mom's. Pam has offered to give Mom an appraisal on the house, if she needs it (which I don't think she does) at a very reduced price and the list goes on. The kind words in person, by phone, e-mail, blog and cards have been a great comfort. Thank you all. All of these people reaching out to us in a very genuine way helps tremendously.
I've been helping Mom sort through the myriad of paperwork, gathering great photos of Daddy over the years, nursing a sick chicken and working. This has been good therapy, too.
My dear cousin, Susanna, is making a memorial website for Daddy, so we've been sending her tons of photos. I hope she doesn't get overwhelmed and cry "Uncle". Pun intended.
Things are shaping up for a memorial service. We are going to plant a tree (probably a redwood) in John Morgan Park, just a couple of blocks from Mom and Daddy's home of 50+ years. John Morgan was a colleague of Daddy's at Campbell PD in the late 50s and was a former Police Chief. We'll have a memorial service at the tree planting and anyone can say what ever is on their mind. Then we'll have a BBQ there in the park. Daddy would've liked this, because he loved to BBQ and wasn't a coat and tie kind of guy.
My sister Jeanie, found out that the US Navy (of which he is a vet) will take his ashes out to sea, have a brief ceremony and send us the latitude and longitude of his internment. Very fitting and I think Daddy would approve, as he told us, "Send me back to the earth".

Bye, Daddy

My Dad, Clyde Harris, passed away this morning. It's been a really rough week. He fell on Monday morning, not the first time this has happened. Mom called right away and Pat and I went over and got him up and into his lazy boy. He was complaining of back pain, which is understandable, and again, this has happened before. We gave him a couple vicodin and figured his back pain would ease up. Later that day, Mom called the advice nurse at Kaiser and they advised we bring him in. We couldn't move him, because he was in so much pain, so we called an ambulance.
We were totally shocked when the docs told us he had broken his back. T10 and T9, in the middle of his back. They got him a back brace and had him on pain meds, but he was miserable. In so much pain and not lucid at all.
Friday morning we got a call that he had taken a turn for the worse during the night. Mom, Pat and I went to the hospital and Daddy was miserable. My sister, Karen and her two kids, Marcus and Megan arrived later.
We had a conference with three of the docs and decided that it was time to let him go. I had talked with my sister, Jeanie, who was flat on her back, recovering from foot surgery earlier this week and she was in agreement. Daddy was getting pneumonia and had an infection. There is no way he would recover from this. We ordered the docs to take him off antibiotics and oxygen and give him an IV drip to keep him comfortable. This is the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life, but know it was the right one and what Daddy would want.
Pat and I left the hospital around 11 pm. I told Daddy I love him and he said I love you, too, babe. He was sort of sleeping then.
He passed away peacefully in his sleep at 7:45 this morning and Mom and Karen were with him. We all had a nice steak dinner at Mom's tonight (which Daddy would've loved).
We don't know if there's going to be a memorial service or not, as the family is divided on this. Daddy will be cremated and we'll figure out what we want to do when we are not so worn out.
I'm tired, so, so very sad, but am confident that my beloved father is free of pain and in a better place.

My Dad

My poor Dad fell on Monday. To make a verrrrry long story short, he broke his back, T9 and T10, in the middle of the back where a woman's bra strap would be. He's in a back brace, in a lot of pain, and not totally lucid. We're not sure if it's the pain meds or the CO2 buildup he is having. The docs and nurses (who are wonderful) say it's probably a bit of both. We are trying to take things one day at a time - that's just about all we can do. Except we visit, try to cheer him up, help him eat, tell him we love him. It's all very stressful and sad. I'm afraid it's the end of the trail for him.
It's a helpless feeling, not being able to "fix" your loved one and still trying to work and function on a daily basis.
I don't know what else to do. Just trying to be here and be strong for the rest of the family.

Chicken update

Our two girls seem to be fine. The antibiotics are doing their thing - stools are now solid. I think we are fine. Thank goodness. Next weekend we'll rearrange the coop for winter and maybe in about a month think about procuring a couple more birds. I am relieved, but still check on them twice a day.

I can't take this...

Goldie, our beautiful Wellsummer (on the left) died in my lap this morning. That's two hens gone in four days. I am so upset and sad. Grieving for a chicken.
I went to the feed store first thing this morning and talked to the owner, Sam. He said to put this antibiotic in their water. I ran over to Mom's and Goldie was laying down, barely alive. Sam said she was probably dehydrated. I picked her up and started trying to get the medicated water into her. She was drinking it and seemed to perk up a bit. She moved around a bit and even clucked a couple of times. I even got her to drink some on her own out of the cup. I thought I could nurse her back to health. Then she just shuddered and died in my lap. Waaaaaaa.
Wili and Charlene seemed fine. I worked today and went back around 5:30 - they were eating and drinking their medicine water. Tomorrow I'm going to tear apart their quarters and disinfect it. I don't know what else to do. We'll just have to watch them carefully and hope we don't have any more casualties. I don't know if I can take it.

One less chicken

I just found out our pretty girl, Wynona, died today. I am so bummed out. Mom said she was fine at 2pm. I was there at 4:30 and she seemed a little lethargic, but I thought it was the heat. Mom got the duty of getting rid of her body. Sorry, Mom! I'll go over first thing in the morning and clean out the house and hopefully, the rest of our girls will be okay.
How can a person get so attached to a stupid chicken that you've had for only 2 1/2 months? I feel so sad. Yeah, I know I'll get over it. But for now, I'm bummed out.

Michelada

We were at Maria Elena's a couple of weeks ago with some friends after a bike ride on the Alviso Slough. We noticed their drink of the day was Michelada and none of us knew what that was. Kat asked the waitress what it was and she said "tecate, pacifico, corona, negra modelo, dos equis...". We were thinking. what the hell? Do they just mix up a bunch of Mexican beers?
Another waitress came to our table to explain - she spoke better English. It's beer with Clamato. Ugh. Sounds like a hangover antidote to me. Kat declined and had a regular beer.
Now after doing more research, I found a recipe for one with beer, worchestshire sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce, lime and ice. Now this sounds kind of tasty. We may have to try this.
So I guess Clamato and beer is popular in Mexico. Still sounds gross to me.

Still more tomatoes

I picked another 20 lbs. of tomatoes tonight. That's 60 lbs in the last NINE days! Good God, we have a great crop this year. The dark red, called Black Krim are extremely prolific. I have weighed all of the stuff I've picked in the last week and a half and I would say that a full 40 lbs of them are the Black Krim ... from one plant! Not only are they prolific, they are very tasty. I would highly recommend this heirloom plant.
These tomatoes are amazing!

More maters

Well, I picked 20 lbs last Wednesday and 20 lbs on Sunday. Not too shabby, as my Dad would say. They are so yummy. Pat was supposed to take some to work to share, but he forgot. If I get time, I'll take some up there. We have tomato sandwiches just about every night for dinner. Last night I made a couscous salad. It was delicious and pretty as well, cuz there were three different colors of tomaotes.

Chicken update

Our girls are growing and getting prettier. On the left is Goldie, a Wellsummer from the Netherlands. On the right is Charlene, a Marans from France - she has feathers on top of her feet.
This is Wilhemina, or Wili for short. She's a Barnevelder, also from the Netherlands.

To the right is Wynona, a silver penciled Wyandotte from the US.
By my calculations, they are almost
four months old. They are supposed
to start laying at five or six months, so it won't be long!

Tomatoes!

We harvested 20 lbs of tomatoes tonight. The basket on the right contains about 15 lbs of Black Krim - all from one plant. The green are Aunt Ruby's German and the red are Ace. They are all very tasty, but I think I like the green ones the best. Every time we bring them in from the garden my Dad says, why are you picking green tomatoes? He doesn't seem to get that they are ripe. And tasty.

Sennep

This it the bottle of mustard Kristen and Laura brought us from Norway. I got totally excited upon receiving it and Pat just rolled his eyes, like I'm a total dork. I admit I'm a dork, but this is great mustard. K & L said their cousin in Norway thought this was a weird gift for their Mom, but I love it. This mustard is so good. It's a little darker and sweeter than our basic French's mustard.
In Norway, when you buy a hot dog from a convenience store or the like, they have about a gallon jug of this stuff hanging upside down. It has a giant spigot that you squeeze. It's like a huge udder to deliver your condiment. So fun and so tasty.
We had portobello mushroom burgers tonight and Pat admitted that this is the best mustard he's ever tasted. Who's the dork now, huh?

Valley Fair

Yes, I went to (what I think) is our best mall here today. Gaaaa, what a mistake! There were a million people there. I get REALLY annoyed when I am on a mission to get this or that and groups of people walk four or five abreast and they are just moseying along. You can't get around them. I think this is so rude. In general I think our society is getting ruder and ruder by the month and I hate it, but that's another post.
I picked up a few things we (mostly Pat) needed and did a little recon on my upcoming new phone. The choices have been narrowed to a Blackberry curve or an iPhone. According to my friends on Facebook - they are about 50/50 divided on these two phones. The iPhone lovers are rabid about it and it is very cool. But I don't know if buttons or touch screen are what I want.
I can get a new phone in mid-September, so I hope my current phone doesn't conk out before then. I am the account holder on our cell account which includes Pat, Laura and myself. Interestingly enough, Pat is the primary phone number, which gives him the option of changing phones annually instead of biennially. I find this interesting because the account is in my name, and Pat has told me he could really get along without a cell phone.
Is this another of those male-female things? That makes me crazy.
Case in point.... when we bought my new car last year the dealership sent a plant and a nice note to Mr. Patrick Kelly thanking him for his purchase. I sent them a note, telling them I was miffed, because it's MY car and I'm paying for it. Then they sent ME a plant. Which died. The monthly statement is still in his name, my name appears no where on it. Well, at least I'm on the title.
Yeah, I know the real estate market is in the toilet right now and Pat is the primary bread winner. It wasn't always that way and it'll turn around again. Pat will certainly be happy about that.
Why do these companies always assume the man is the main person on the account?

PS. The mall is a great place to people watch. I actually saw a 30ish woman today in Macy's with short shorts (what we used to call hot pants in the day) and 3" black pumps. Yeah, she had nice legs, but from where I sit that just makes you look like a hooker.

I admit

I am a total techno-dinosaur. I don't need the latest and greatest technology, I just need stuff that works. When I tried to get a cell phone without a camera they laughed at me. Really.
I realized last week that my Sony Clie (personal digital assistant) is so old that my contact management software no longer supports it. My cell phone is on the verge of conking out, but my contract isn't up until September. That gives me some time to do some research.
I've decided to bite the bullet and get a phone that will combine the phone and PDA, plus get e-mail, etc. Now what to get? Iphone? Blackberry? Touchscreen or buttons? I am so confused. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears.

Rafting on the Middle Fork of the American River

Pat and I took a day trip today rafting on the American River with son, Matt, who's on his third season as a white water rafting guide. I have to admit, I was nervous. After all, our lives were in the hands of our dopey 22 year old son. I have to give Matt great kudos. He was very professional, gave good coaching tips and we came out unscathed. We had a blast!
This is a class 4 trip, which means the worst rapids are class 4, which I THINK are the highest rapids that novices are allowed to go through. This pic of Pat is right before we set into the river.
We had a talk about safety - like what to do if/when you get ejected from the boat, then set in the river. Matt gave us some great coaching, we practiced rowing and then, heads up! There's a class 3 rapid about 30 seconds around the bend.
We rafted 17 miles down the river, had a great lunch about 2/3 the way down and a cold beer at the end. Pat did catch some air at one point and I thought he was going in, but he stayed in the boat. The water was warmer than we anticipated. So early in the season, we figured it'd be frigid. The weather was great - high 70s and the sunblock did the trick.
All in all, a great day. We want to go back and take some of the other kids with us. It's nice to be able to recreate with your children at this kind of a level and not only survive, but have fun!

The Pursuit of Truth in the Company of Friends

That's the motto of Cowell College at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where my Kristen graduated today. What an epic day!
There were no parking snafus, we took a shuttle bus very close to
where the ceremony was to take place and the weather was cooperative for an outdoor graduation.
Our friends Vicky and Bob got there before us and secured seats in the third row. Since Kristen was in the first row, she was about 20' from us. None of us have EVER had such great seats at a graduation.
Instead of the traditional Pomp and Circumstance, they had bagpipers, which was both nice and disappointing at the same time. Disappointing because it broke with graduation tradition, but good for me because it didn't start the waterworks going. I can be in the car, by myself, and if I hear this tune by Sir Edward Elgar, I start crying. I can't help it. I have to say, I was very good today. Got a little teary a couple of times, but was not the total weeping basket case I thought I would be.
Kristen was so close that we could talk - albeit mouthing words and sign language, but we could communicate. Before she got up to get her diploma she asked me if she should take her sunglasses off. Yes, for the pictures.
They had a nice reception for the grads and families in the Cowell College quad, which has about a 180' view of the pacific ocean. It was glorious.
Epic day. Four down, two to go.

More Chickens

I visited our girls today and did some housekeeping for them. Here is some video I took of them. (Hey, I actually figured out how to insert video into my blog! Click on the arrow on the lower left of the picture.) I raked out their house, put the droppings and pine shavings in the compost bin, fed and watered and rearranged the top of the pen. We had it on backwards. Duh. They've been with us for eight days now and are settled in just fine. They've grown a lot, too. They are really getting pretty and you can see how they will look when they are grown up.
Lucy was nuffing around and scaring them a bit, but Mom and I figured rather than keep her away from them, it would be best for them to get used to each other. We sat back there and watched them for a while and Lucy was pretty good and the birds were mellow. While she was laying outside of their pen watching them, they ate and pecked around. It is really is quite peaceful watching the chickens do their thing.

Schultze!

My beloved Jeopardy was pre-empted tonight by the NBA playoffs or finals or whatever. Yawn. I'm home alone with Lucy. Pat's working and Wa went up to Southpark.
I popped in one of my favorite movies, Schultze gets the blues. It's a German movie that won 10 International film awards. It's a slow movie with English subtitles. Okay, it's REALLY slow, but I love it all the same.
It's the story of Schultze and his two buddies, Jurgen and Manfred who get early retirement from the salt mine. Schultze is bored out of his mind and finds some Cajun music on the radio late one night. He picks up his accordian and learns to play it. He later plays it in the music festival in his town. This part of the movie is very Sons of Norwayesque.
This movie makes me laugh - it makes me cry. A nice tale of the human spirit. Schultze is one cool dude.

Lucy meets the hens

Lucy doesn't quite know what to think of the chickens and visa versa. I think they'll get used to each other. Lucy doesn't bark at them or otherwise hassle them, I think she's just curious.

Compost

Here is cute Kristen in the beginnings of our ugly compost bin. In our defense, all of the components of our bin were cast offs, and therefore free. Free is good. We scavanged three pallets from around town and screwed them together with drywall screws. There was a lot of open space to let the junk fall out. Mom and Daddy had two old plastic roll up shades that were waiting for the trash pick up day. We figured it was a great way to line our compost bin to keep the stuff in and not have to worry about throwing something else into the landfill. So we fastened them in with a staple gun and started throwing our junk in.
Mom and I both have a 3 1/2 gallon bucket with a lid to put compostible material in - located in our kitchens. Kristen and Laura made a chart for her about what goes in and what does not. Today when we were there I tossed the pile and added some straw and our kitchen junk. It seems to be cooking along and does not smell. Good sign.

Chickens!

Pat and I had a road trip today to procure our new hens. At the advice of the wacky chicken lady, we got four different breeds. Her rationale was that if you get all the same, they all stop laying at the same time. I don't know if this is true, but we like the idea of four distinctly different birds.
Let me introduce you to our new flock. Starting at 12 o'clock is the Barnevelder, a breed from Holland, which Kristen will name when she meets her. At 2 o'clock is Goldmember, or Goldie, a Wellsummer, also from Holland. 6 o'clock is the Silver Penciled Wyandotte, named Wynona, an American Breed. 8 o'clock is the Marans, from France, named Charlene.
I have looked at pics of these hens when they are adult and all are beautiful in their own way. They all lay some shade of brown eggs.
When we got them home and released them into their new home, they seemed fine and went into the house. Lucy was very curious about them and I think, scared them to keep them in the house. I put the dog inside and we sat and waited for them to come out. (I wanted to make sure the birds were settled in before we left). They couldn't find their food, so Mom suggested I put some in the yard. I dribbled a trail from the house to the feeder and within about 30 seconds they were all pecking away at the feeder. They found their water too, and seemed to be settled in, so we headed home.
They are young, about eight weeks old, so they won't lay for a while, but we are looking forward to getting to know our new pets and having them supply us with fresh eggs. Oh yeah, the manure for the compost bin, too.

Chickens 'n stuff

Our compost bin has been started and we have procured a very cute chicken house. We have a house that's about 4'x4' with a little yard so the hens can go outside. It was very easy to put together and was an "event" for us and Mom and Daddy.
Tomorrow is our big day.... we get our hens! This house can hold 5 or 6 but we figure 4 is plenty for us. Pat and I will go up to Sonoma County tomorrow ( just north of SF) to get some eight week old pullets. Pullets are young hens that are not laying yet. I THINK we're going to get Barnevelders, which are a hardy breed from Holland. They are nice looking birds, easy going, and good layers. The woman who sells them sells rare and heritage breeds. We may end up with some other, too, but I don't want delicate or fussy hens. These are apparently pretty robust birds and I think they are very nice looking.
Stay tuned.... who knows what kind of hens we will end up with. I started out on this journey thinking I would only get Plymouth Barred Rock, but we may just have the Barnevelders.

Black Gold

No, not oil. I am going to start a compost heap. I've been reading up on it and like the idea of putting less stuff into a landfill and making the garden healthier for our veggies. Kristen said she'd help me with it and it will reside at my folks' house in "the back 40". We have procured two sides for it by foraging for pallets. We need a third one to make the third side. It'll be open in the front.
I currently have a bucket of "stuff" in my kitchen sink. It's rice that was old from the fridge, plus veggie scraps from last nights chili and some other stuff. I need to get a bucket with a lid to keep on the deck.
My compost book also has a section about keeping a worm bin, so I may do that, too. I know, I'm a freak.
Oh, chickens are also on my list. They are on my manana list. (I know how to get Norwegian letters, but where do I find a tilde?)

Bill Rant

I just got done paying some bills and feel the need to rant a bit. No, it's not the case of "too much month left at the end of the money". (not this month, anyway).

My gripe is the way certain bills are made. Paying bills for my family and my property management business, as well as being a bookkeeper for two other PM businesses in the past, I have paid and do pay a lot of bills.

Most bills are fine, you write the check, tear off the stub, stuff it in the envelope and away you send it. Not all are so easy.

So what's my beef? Invoices that don't fit into the provided envelope and are not perforated. Case in point, I paid a doctor bill this morning. After I wrote in the amount paid, I went to tear off the part you return with your check. Guess what? It wasn't perforated and I tore the hell out of it. It says in tiny print "cut here and return with payment". Sheesh. This invoice is printed on an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper and the envelope provided is miniscule. Not only did I have to fold the return stub several times, I had to fold a regular wallet size check.

I have found over the years that small operations are the worst - Doctors, small alarm companies and small HOAs. My advice? Get a decent billing software program.

Or I guess I could pay ALL of my bills online - yeah, that would work, too.

Wig Wam!

I promised some fun... here it is. While on a trip to SoCal, Pat and I stayed at the Wig Wam Motel, which is on the original Route 66 http://www.wigwammotel.com/

We first spotted the Wig Wam Motel while on a trip to SoCal for a niece's wedding. The freeway was under construction and while on a detour, we saw this place and had a good chuckle.

Flash forward - we were going to San Bernadino to attend the funeral of Past District President and his wife, who had died within about 48 hours of each other. Pat said "let's stay at the Wig Wam!" and we did.

This place, one of seven Wig Wam Motels, is on Route 66 in Rialto, CA (which is a total dog of a town, by the way). It has 19 30' teepees on the property. There are only three of these motels left. One in CA, one in AZ and one in KY. We were pleasantly surprised. Although built in 1949 and the bathroom is original, our wig wam was large inside, super clean and very comfortable. Oh, this place is operated by Indians, too...... the Patels, who were super nice.

So, I leave you with this classic picture. Me in my bunad in front of our wig wam. Yes, we were on our way to a funeral, but both Roy & Inger had a good sense of humor, so I know they would've had a laugh out of it. (If you click on the pics, they enlarge).

Road trip, part II

We were sore and tired after our trek, but totally enjoyed the day. PS. Pat may have done this hike with a kid on his back, but I seriously doubt he was wearing flip flops. Oh, and he was probably not yet 30 years old.

We leave tomorrow for another road trip, this time to SoCal. We'll stay in another historic hotel, that also is named after Indian stuff. Stay tuned, I think it's gonna be campy and fun.

Yosemite

We decided to take a quick trip to Yosemite and do some bike riding. As an aside, I have to admit that I live only 4-5 hours from this beautiful spot and had only been there twice - both as day trips, never even spending the night.
We left Tuesday and arrive at the North Gate around 4. I had booked us a room at the historic Wawona hotel, which I thought was in the valley. Duh. It's about 40 miles south and only 10 miles from the South gate. (where you come in from Fresno). We were starting to get a bit grumpy and tired when we finally arrived to find a hotel that is on the National Historic Registry and was built in 1850.

The hotel consists of several buildings that look like the main one here. Our room was in a separate building, which was good because in the "newer" buildings the rooms have a private bath. About half the rooms don't have one at all and you have to go down the hall.
We had wine in the parlor of the main building where a guy was playing the piano and telling stories. It was like going back to another time. He told the tale of when US Grant visited the hotel in 1870, along with Civil War tunes to go along with the stories. It was fun, entertaining and relaxing.
I have to digress a bit here, as when we arrived I realized I had no cell phone reception. Trust me, there is nothing like going a day without phone, internet or TV to recharge your battery.
Wednesday morning we had a yummy buffet breakfast and headed out to the valley. It was supposed to only be 55 that day, but I think it was 65. We had a great morning of riding our bikes all over the Yosemite Valley. I highly recommend this mode of transportation to see it. Bear in mind we were mid-week in late April. This wouldn't be good on a weekend in June. We saw Lower and Upper Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, Mirror Lake, El Capitan, etc. We decided to have lunch at the Ahwanee Hotel, which we knew would be ridiculously expensive, but did it anyway. It was a great experience.
While lunching Pat suggested we hike to the top of Vernal Falls. I was wondering about the hike and he told me he'd done it before in flip flops with a kid on his back. Um, okay, so we rode to the trailhead and locked up our bikes. Long story short, it was 2.5 miles straight up (1000' vertical rise) to the top of the falls. The last part is steep stairs cut into the granite. Oh, plus it's spring and the falls are raging, so we got soaked. I am not complaining. Even thought it was a tortuous journey, it was totally worth it. This is a pic of the falls showing the stairs. The next one is at the top looking down. You can see the narrow steep trail to the left. After we got done with the hike we rode back to our truck and headed for home.All in all we rode over 15 miles and hiked 5 up and down hill. We were pooped but had a great day. I have no idea how to get rid of this underlined text, nor any idea how I did this. Sheesh. Sorry.

Moving Day

Our office is in the process of moving. We are going about one mile down the same street - one mile closer to our house, so my commute just got cut in half. Yay! It's half a block from Yiassoo, where they make the best gyros in town. (not necessarily a good thing for my diet) and a block from my hairdresser.
Our phones and e-mail were cut off today. I've been tossing stuff and packing boxes for the last couple of days. The biggest fly in the ointment is that I have a big, four drawer lateral file cabinet that I've been told I can't take with me. The new cubicles are smaller, so I've decided to put it and all of my Sons of Norway stuff in our garage.
I had Pat's truck today and was wondering how I was going to get that beast of a file cabinet home. The movers were very nice and took it out and put it in the truck, where it fit nicely, lying on it's back. I figured I'd have to drive around with it all day and have Pat help me when he got home. I was at the new office and was leaving the same time as my colleague, Dan. I asked him if I could borrow him for 10 minutes or so. He followed me home and helped me get it out of the truck and into the garage. Thank you, Dan!
My boxes of files I am moving will be moved on Sunday. The movers would not move our computers and other such equipment, which was fine with me. I took them home and they are in our garage 'til Monday.
I was hoping to set up shop today, but they were still building our new cubicles this afternoon. So I'll wait 'til Monday to set everything back up. All of this while I'm trying to prepare to go to Minneapolis for a Board Meeting. Sheesh. No stress at all. Moving is a pain in the arse!

Spring Break

Due to different schedules at schools, it seems all of the kids have break at a different time. My niece, Megan (age 12), is here from Modesto this week. Unfortunately for her, Kristen and Laura have already had their breaks. Megan has a few friends over here, but they are in school, too. So the poor kid is stuck with us old folks.
Pat & I took her downtown yesterday. We rode the light rail, had lunch at Gordon Biersch, and walked over to the Tech Museum. The Tech is such a cool place. They have all kinds of hands-on exhibits. You can scan the bar code on your ticket into various displays, then log on to the computer at home and look at what you did at the museum. Megan did a thing where she put jellyfish DNA into something, then into a petri dish with agar. It has to incubate for 24 hours. She can log on today and look at the glow in the dark jellyfish cells she made. Pretty cool.
The highlight of the day (at least for me) was the movie Blue Planet in the Imax theater. Imax film is 70mm and runs vertically. They show the movies on the inside of this huge dome and the sound is incredible. This movie had a lot of footage of the earth shot from space. It was a very cool day.

Busy Day

What was I thinking? I went to Costco yesterday - a Saturday and the day before Easter to boot. The place was packed. BUT, I did find my brown throw pillows. Nice, cushy, corderoy - 2 for 14 bucks. Yay!
Then I decided to go to Dick's Bakery to pick up their famous burnt almond cake to help my sister celebrate her birthday. Again - it was packed.
I got the garden in with the help of Karen, Kristen and Laura and I'm not too sore today from the rototilling. So I call Saturday a success.

Before and After

In looking at this before pic I wonder how we lived with this mess for so long. Seemed like a good idea at the time. There are two antique kimonos hanging on the gold wall. I'm not sure I'm going to hang those back up.

Now looking at the after - I realize it's a lot of blue and we could use some more brown. The problem is that I am frugal (and broke) and refuse to pay $40 for a stupid throw pillow. I'll figure something out.

Project update

The bedroom is put back together and looks pretty good. It's a little too blue, so we need some brown throw pillows or something.
The new curtain rod is nice, with a taupe chiffon-like fabric. It's supposed to be draped around the rod. The problem here is I am not an artist and it's just sort of hung there. It looks okay, but I am a spaz at this sort of thing. I need help. Wa come home and help me!
I did take before and after pics, but am too tired to do all that right now. It does look better and we're happy with the results. More on this later.

The Project

Oh yes, it started out innocently enough. Let's go take a look at some fabric - I want to recover the comforter. This stupid comforter set has been a bane to me ever since we got it three years ago or so. Yeah, it looked nice enough. The problem was that the fabric was shiny and slippery, so the darned thing constantly fell off the bed. Further annoying was that the top of the bed skirt was the same material, so the mattress was always sliding off the box spring. So here we are looking at fabric and Pat says he's sick of the color scheme (maroon and gold) so let's check out Bed Bath and Beyond. I had never been in this store and now I'm sorry we found it. I love it! We found some nice (badly needed) bathroom rugs. The old ones were shot.
We found a new comforter and sheet set, which then made it necessary to have new window coverings. The new comforter is sort of a robin's egg blue with taupe and brown stripes.
Oh - now we have to paint that gold wall behind the bed, as it'll clash. Well, hell, if we paint that wall, we should paint the entire bedroom. It certainly needs it. We picked out a taupe color (think cafe au lait) for the one wall and three shades lighter in the same palette for the rest of the room.
We were sitting around the house this morning about to get going when El Camino called. It seems Pat was supposed to work 8 to noon and they had neglected to tell him. SHIT!
So I spent three hours moving furniture away from the walls, etc.
After I cleaned out my armoire I discovered it was filthy, so scrubbed it out with Murphy's Oil soap. Ditto the back of my dresser.
Pat came home with paint, ate lunch and we got to work. After scrubbing all of the walls with TSP we were finally ready to paint.
Seven hours later the paint was done and it looks great. We are absolutely exhausted!
Tomorrow we vacuum around the edges, put the switchplate covers back, hang the new curtain rod and put the furniture back.
I can't wait to put it all back together and see how it all comes together.
Beware. A simple trip to the store can turn into a MAJOR project!

Irritation

I just returned from the bank where I made a rather large deposit of OPM - Other People's Money.
In this batch of checks was a Cashier's Check in the amount of five figures. I had a tenant who due to various circumstances, paid six months rent in advance.
Imagine my surprise when the manager told me they had to put a three day hold on this money. Um, hello, it's certified funds - CASHier's check???? Nope - due to the current state of the economy or whatever they are holding the funds. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.
Good thing there's enough money in the account to cover the check I wrote the owner yesterday. I'm getting a new bank - I'm tired of stupidity.

Roasted Peppers

I have been putting more roasted peppers in things and boy, are they tasty. After broiling the ONLY red pepper I had tonight to a black-roasted perfection, I had an epic cooking fail. The slimy pepper slipped out of my hands and right into the trash can. So I did what any self respecting cook would do. I used the five second rule, fished it out and rinsed it off. It was mostly covered with papery garlic skins. I actually learned something. It's easier to rinse the seeds off than to scrape them off.
Which brings me to another point - question, actually. I have been buying (for years) what I thought was a poblano pepper to roast and put in Mexican dishes. It gives a nice kick, but not too hot. They are dark green, about the size of a bell pepper, but pointy on the end. Now it seems the grocers call them pasilla peppers? Are they the same thing or have I been using the wrong pepper for years?
What ever they are called, they are tasty.

Now, after googling peppers, I think what I have been buying are poblanos. I think the grocers have been calling them Pasillas.

My new jacket

I finally caved in and bought the jacket I've had my eye on for four months. It is beautiful. Italian tailored, wool, black and white houndstooth. I'll probably have it forever and everyone will be totally sick of it. Here comes Janie in that jacket.... again.

Mourning in Song

I attended a funeral this weekend of a lodge member, who was a super nice lady. Joyce was always a hard worker at lodge and always had a positive, upbeat attitude.
It was a nice service with all of the usual remembrances, etc. There was the usual sniffing here and there, but when Harry played "Hils fra meg der hjemme" on his accordian, everyone just lost it. At least those of us who speak Norwegian.
I have often thought I wanted this song played when I die - which I hope is a LONG time from now. I hope I don't slaughter the translation too badly.
It's about a lonely sailor, away at sea, missing his family. He sees a flock of birds flying north and asks them to greet those at home from him. Greet my father and mother, greet the green pastures and the stark fjord. If I had wings, I'd fly home with you. Greet them, greet from me.

District Board Meeting

We had our District Board meeting at Camp Norge last weekend. I think it was a productive meeting and we saved the District a ton of dough by meeting at camp instead of a hotel.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to get a more casual picture of our board, so asked everyone to bring a Norwegian sweater. I really like this picture of us - it's more casual than the pic with bunads and suits and stuff, but it looks more "together" since we're all wearing similar sweaters.

Label reading

Since on this diet, I've been reading labels more carefully. On a box of supposedly healthy cereal..... "evaporated cane juice crystals". Um, I'm pretty sure that's a fancy name for sugar.

Unbelievable

My only concern with this vegan diet is my hemoglobin level - the amount of iron in my blood. I donate blood about every eight weeks and sometimes my hemoglobin is too low to donate (it has to be 12.5 to donate). The last two times I tried to donate I was too low. 11.something and 12.4 - this was with eating meat AND taking iron supplements.
My Keller Williams office has the Stanford Blood Mobile come to our office a couple times a year as part of our community outreach. When I pulled into the parking lot this morning and saw the big van, I figured, 'what the heck, I'll see if they want my blood.'
After 2 weeks on a vegan diet and taking no iron, my hemoglobin was 13.1. Unbelievable.

Some "aha" moments

We picked a date to start the four week E2 diet - 3/16 - between two out of town board meetings. We decided to try a recipe or two to figure out if we could hack this diet for four weeks. No meat, eggs, dairy, highly processed grains or oil. It actually sounds harder than it is.
I've been on this for a week now and feel great. I don't miss anything I'm not "supposed" to eat. Oh, I've also dropped two pounds and I'm still continuing to enjoy my evening wine.
The aha here is - vegans are not freaks.

We traveled to Fremont today to enjoy our favorite close ride. 22 miles total, it's all paved and no worry about cars and mostly flat. You ride out 11 miles, the last third is along the bay. We saw a few Great Blue Herons, which I think are beautiful birds. There's a picnic table at the end where we eat our lunch, then turn back. On the drive to the trailhead I was marveling at how clear and beautiful the entire bay area was. We had a few miles of a very tough head wind that was not a lot of fun.
Aha here is, if it's crystal clear all over, it's gonna be windy out by the bay.

I made an enchilada casserole last night, of course, I found it in the E2 book. It had a lot of spinach in it and I was dubious, as when I was a kid I hated spinach. Pat declared the dish delicious and I could barely gag it down.
Aha number three - I hate spinach. Still hate it.

E2, again

Okay, I didn't intend for this blog to be about diet and nutrition, it just happens to be what's on my mind right now. Bear with me, I am NOT going to turn into a food zealot. You know like a reformed heathen turns into a born again Christian? We all know how annoying they are.
We decided to try a recipe out of the Engine 2 book last night to see how it was. Sort of a test run to see if we can do this for four weeks. The brown rice and black beans were smothered in yummy veggies, cilantro, onions, etc. It was delicious. It made so much that I had it for lunch today. Tonight we're trying the portobello mushroom burgers. Should be interesting.
Some of the stuff they recommend on this diet is hard to find. Safeway doesn't sell Bragg's Liquid Aminos, which is a soy based condiment. Guess I'll swing by Whole Foods and see if they have it.

Electrolyzed Water

I read a fascinating article in Sunday's paper. Apparently if you add salt to regular water and zap it with electricity it makes a super cleaning product that's ten times better at kiling bacteria than bleach. It's colorless, odorless and non-toxic.

Well, shucks. I can't figure out how to put the link here, even though I'm using the insert link function. What a spaz.

The possiblities are endless, you can spray it on produce to kill bacteria and create a longer shelf life, it's being used on burn victims, etc. I really hope this will become mainstream. It's very cool

Engine 2

Pat read somewhere about the Engine 2 diet, created by a firefighter in Austin, TX. I got the book and started reading it a couple of days ago.
I have no doubt anyone would lose weight and drop their cholesterol significantly while on this diet. While my cholesterol is fine, I could certainly stand to lose a few pounds.
This is a four week diet and you can go one of two ways, drop things a week at a time or do it all at once. Week one you stop eating all dairy and processed foods, white bread, pasta, etc. I could do that. Week two you just stop eating all eggs, meat, poultry and fish. I guess I could do that. Week three you stop eating any type of oil, butter, etc. If you go the hard core route you stop eating all of this stuff - cold turkey, so to speak. So I'm thinking - if I cut out bread in week one, what the hell am I gonna put butter on?
I start thinking maybe I could do this for four weeks. Then I got to the kicker. No coffee, no alcohol. Wait a tick! No wine, no coffee? I know for a fact that I would drop probably 10 pounds if I quit drinking wine, but I drink my coffee black, so what's the harm there?
This diet sounds very much like a vegan diet and I don't think I could hack that. The recipes in the book do look very tasty, so maybe I'll make a few here and there and start in very slowly. Or not at all.

Chili

I had some really tasty vegetarian chili at a board meeting last fall. I got the recipe and decided to make it at my folks' house last night. The only fly in the ointment is my dad is a major carnivore. He thinks he hasn't eaten dinner if he hasn't had meat. So Mom, Pat and I decided it was best to keep mum about the ingredients of the chili.
After Daddy's first helping he says "wow, babe, that's really good chili, what's in it?"
Ummmmmm, "beans, corn, tomatoes, chili and.... a bunch of other stuff." I think he got bored after four ingredients and just said "oh". Even if he did have four (yes four) helpings, at least it was healthy.

My Lucky Day

I just returned to the office from a Campbell Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Of course the main reason for belonging to the Chamber is to network and get more business. I also do some volunteer work with the Chamber to give back to the city. Difficult stuff like pour beer at Oktoberfest and the like.
At the end of the lunch someone draws a business card and the winner gets $50. The first person drawn left early so she missed out. The Chamber President went to Don - former Police Chief and Mayor - he worked with my Dad before I was born at Campbell PD.
Anyway, I said "pick me, Don" and he did. So, I'm $50 richer, which will probably go to something exciting like groceries or gas. The better part is after I came up to get my cash I got to do an informercial and two people got my card for property management.
Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket.

Crab!

As both of my readers know, I love to cook and if I say so, am darned good at it when I put my mind to it.
While driving around on Saturday I was listening to a radio show called "dining around with Gene Burns". Gene was interviewing a chef who is taking part in the upcoming crab festival in SF. Mr. Chef said he made a crab and grapefruit salad and I thought, man, those two flavors would be great together.
I did a brief google search and found a recipe - I have modified it a bit, but we both declared it thumbs up. Here it is:
Mince 2 tsp. shallots
add 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
let sit for 30 minutes

meanwhile - clean some crab. I got one Alaskan crab leg, which was perfect, as I thought chunks would be better than the fine textured crab meat. Clean the crab and cut into chunks.

Clean one ruby red grapefruit. Remove peel, all membranes and chop coarsely.

Prepare a bed of greens on each plate (this is for two). Add the crab, grapefruit and one chopped avocado divided between the plates.

Add 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil to the shallot stuff and whisk.

Pour the dressing over the salad and add toasted chopped almonds on top. I didn't do this last night, but think it'll be very good, as I like a little crunch with my salad.

Hope you enjoy!

Phobias

Mom, Kristen and I were having a discussion about phobias yesterday. I think that there are some rational phobias, such as fear of flying, and irrational ones, such as mine. Spiders.
I say fear of spiders is irrational, because the rational part of me says "you can just squish that thing and be done with it". It's the irrational part that takes over and is screaming inside my head. I can't even look at 'em on TV. When Laura was younger she was watching some show that had those huge dinner plate-sized spiders on it. She says "Mom, you have to come see this". (Dummy me) I went and looked, then freaked out and Laura laughed her ass off. I know it's ridiculous.
Which brings me to the original purpose of this post. I am co-habitating with an enormous spider. I'm not kidding, it's at least 1 1/2 inches long, fat and black. I've seen it twice in the past couple of weeks. It only comes out when I'm alone, because it knows.
I think it lives either behind the sideboard or the armoire we use for an entertainment center. It comes out in the early morning after Pat has left for work. He has been on the lookout for it and clearly thinks I'm delusional. When I see it, I just have to look away and pretend it's not there. Then it goes back to where it lives and I'm okay again.
Oh, Moling.... tell Dan I can hear him chuckling.

Weather

It is nasty out there today. Cold, rainy and windy. Our power went out briefly this morning, so I have a few clocks to re-set.
This is the kind of day I wish I could stay in. It would be a great day to organize recipes, bake, read or even work on our taxes.
Instead I have to go out and slog through this mess, due to property management related appointments. I'm not complaining - I'm happy to have the work. It's just that when it rains here people seem to leave their brains at home. Instead of slowing down they drive like maniacs. I guess I'm just not in the mood to risk my life on the road today.

The Fifth Season

Okay, some would argue that we don't even have four seasons here, but I think we do. We are currently in that weird time of year that's between winter and spring. There is snow on Mount Hamilton to the east of us - nothing but rain and wind in the immediate forecast, which is good - we need it.
I call this season "slime season". We have three very large trees on the east side of our condo. For about three quarters of the year they have nice green leaves that shade us and are pretty to look at. After the leaves are gone and before the new ones emerge (which they are starting to now) these trees produce a weird blossom. They are not like flowers, but do contain pollen. They are small, green and when lumped together look rather like caterpillars.
It has been a warm winter so the slime flowers and leaves are coming out together this year. These things blossom, then the rain and wind knock them off the trees and they turn to slime. They are all over our deck, porch and walkways. They cannot be swept away, as they are too sticky and slimy. The only way to get (temporary) relief is to use a hose. As much as we wipe our feet, we track this crud into the house. I hate slime season.

TV

Okay another rant. As most of America knows, on February 17th, people can no longer use analog TVs. This is a stupid date and I can imagine how the committee came up with the date. Having served on plenty of committees, I know how it works. Half of the committee wanted 2/1 and the other half wanted 3/1. They compromised on the date of the 17th, which is a hard date to remember.
I do understand that there are probably a lot of people who use rabbit ears or whatever. I would imagine that people with lower incomes, the elderly and the like don't have cable.
What I don't understand is why the government thinks it's SO important that every American has access to TV. What do they need to watch? Their Soap Operas, Jerry Springer or Judge Judy? Yeah, I admit I was glued to the tube for the inaguration, but that's the exception of what people normally watch.
I do like watching TV - I am watching the news right now. But, I would not die if I didn't have TV. We lived without TV for years in Gilroy. If I wanted to stay in touch, I listened to the radio. That's still free.
So why all the hullabaloo to make sure everyone can watch their precious TV?

Hats

I have come to realize lately that some people can wear hats and some just cannot. I think I fall into the latter category.
Things I can wear on my head:
Straw hat to keep sun off my face - check
Baseball cap while camping or hiking, again the sun thing - check
Cowboy hat for western style party - check
Hat as a fashion accessory - FAIL

At President Obama's inaguration Aretha Franklin wore the most beautiful gray hat. She totally rocked that hat. I'm sure women all across America were on the phone to their favorite milliner saying "make me a hat like that!". I just googled "hat" and the number four entry was that gray beauty. Apparently it's going to the Smithsonian.

In a previous post I said Susan and I were chatting online during the inaguration. We both agreed that hat was beautiful and confessed we would look like total DORKS wearing the same hat.

Case in point... our friends Dan and Moling... Dan pictured above. Moling took this pic of Dan modeling a new cap he got for his birthday. He looks dapper and stylish. He totally rocks the cap. Pretty sporty look for an octogenarian, huh? For the record, Moling says she can't wear hats, either.

So what's the deal? Why can some people look totally cool in a hat or cap, while the rest of us just look like total dorks? It's just not fair.

Smells

I saw a thing online today about smells and how they can trigger memories, etc. I think they were trying to sell perfume. Anyway, that reminded me of a very odd thing that happened about three years ago.
My Aunt Sallie wore White Shoulders and smoked cigarettes - therefore in my growing up years I always associated White Shoulders and cigarette smoke with her.
About three years ago Kristen and I were in San Francisco in a jewelry store perusing the goodies. A woman came in who smelled like White Shoulders and cigarettes. I had an immediate flashback and thought "Wow, Aunt Sallie", but didn't say anything out loud. (Mind you, she has been gone for about six years now).
Kristen's head popped up and she said, out the blue, "Aunt Sallie". I asked Kristen if I had said anything out loud. She said no. The last time Kristen was around Aunt Sallie when she still smoked was probably when she was three years old. Is it just me, or is that weird?