Watch and Be Happy

Tears, laughter and the whole big mess of it

Yesterday was a day full of both sadness and joy, one of those weird kinds of days that leaves you feeling both stuffed full and drained empty at the end.

We had our family Thanksgiving yesterday because Nick has come home for his 3 weeks of R&R from Alaska. So I spent the morning cooking desserts and a rice stuffing. Gabi helped with a few things, but mostly she prepped for her physics classes (she's spending hours and hours every weekend getting ready for her AP class. I just keep telling her, "next year will be easier.")

I made both pumpkin and pecan pies as well as a gluten-free chocolate cake (from a mix, and it turned out really well!). Then a brown and white rice stuffing that was yummy enough that even gluten-eaters would enjoy it.

So there was all that joy to look forward to... but at the same time much grief and sorrow. Our friend Jan passed away yesterday morning. Jan was diagnosed with cancer over the summer ~ in both her colon and lungs. Thankfully, she was well enough to go home for a few hours on Thanksgiving to spend with her family. Then on Monday or Tuesday she came down with an infection and the end came very quickly.

Jan was such an amazing woman. She had that grace of spirit ~ born of generosity, kindness, strength and being absolutely grounded ~ that is both profoundly compelling and deeply comfortable to be around. Everyone loved Jan. I think we all aspired to be like her on some level.

Jan worked for the Elk River School District until she retired a year or two ago. She was the librarian, working first at the elementary school and later at the high school. Gabi came home a few days ago and told me that, when she told her classes that Jan was very sick, her seniors told her how they could still remember Jan reading to them when they were little kids. She used different voices and made the stories come alive.

So, after crying and baking and lighting a candle for Jan, we took our plunder to Nick and Amanda's house and spent a great afternoon hanging out with family, feasting and chatting. It's the sort of thing Jan would approve of. Jake and Max are getting to be so grown up, and both know all the plays that the Vikings should have run. Sofia is bright and articulate and can talk about anything, and Eli continues to be the bundle of fun, playing with everyone. It was great fun.

And it was snowing lightly, that first real snow of the season, and everything looks so clean and fresh and lovely.

After we came home we checked our e-mail to see if there was a new CaringBridge posting about Jan. There wasn't, but instead we received an e-mail from Gabi's cousin Kathryn in England to let us know that Kathryn's stepfather Andrew passed away last week. We were both a little dumbfounded at the timing, but that's the way it works, isn't it? Andrew had been a member of Parliament for many years, so Kathryn included an article about him written by the Guardian. It made me proud to have met him.

We closed the day with more physics for Gabi; she's teaching a unit on thermodynamics this week. I cleaned up the last of the pie-making mess and then made some earrings and worked on a little felt credit card case. It was a quiet close to an all-over-the-map kind of day.

Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees

My lovely Gabi forwarded an article to me yesterday that is far too entertaining not to share. It's from the Sept/Oct '07 issue of Savvy and Sage, and is a reprint of a 1943 article in Transportation Magazine. And, yes, my heading is the title of the article.

So, without further ado... the article, almost in full.

"1. Pick young, married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious [and] they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it...

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a harder time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy...

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions... [to reveal] whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time... until this point is gotten across service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest allowances during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidy, apply fresh lipstick, and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy."

*****
By the way, photo credits: The great pic above is from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, online on Wikipedia Commons. The caption for the photo is, "Two sisters who left the farm to keep our airmen flying. NYA trainees at the Corpus Christi, Texas, Naval Air Base, Evelyn and Lillian Buxkeurple are shown working on a practice bomb shell." I just have to say, the pic is great, but the last name is AWESOME. Buxkeurple. I couldn't make that up!

One more thing

I finished this scarf Tuesday night. The wool/soy blend was great to work with: knitted up beautifully and felt wonderful in the hands. And the soy-based dyes are so lovely. The picture doesn't do the depth of color justice.



I also had fun making a tag of my own. Seems a little boring however (and blurry. Sorry!). I think I need to come up with a more interesting name than just "Handmade by Brandi." Any suggestions?

The beady stuff so far

I've been busy, with the holidays and birthdays approaching, with the annual gift-making extravaganza. Jewelry, hair pom-poms, scarves. I always make more than I actually give away. What happens is that as the deadline for wrapping and/or sending approaches, I take inventory and pick my favorites and give those. The others are either kept (Gabi never minds this, particularly in regards to bracelets and scarves) or torn apart and their parts recycled. So, a few more things so far...

First, two bracelets. The purple/blue one is all glass beads, the copper/white one mixes metal, bone and glass.





I've been having a blast using, finally, some of the gorgeous beads that I brought back from West Africa. These trader beads were purchased in Ghana and Togo. The "serenity" bracelet was given to Jenny as a birthday present, and Gabi laid claim to the "peace" bracelet before it could be given to anyone else. (That is her prerogative!)





This necklace also uses both glass beads from the local craft store and mixed-glass beads from Togo. Check out the close-up to see the lovely colors of the African bead. There are many varieties of these mixed-glass, matte-finish beads, and they are much less well-known than the trader beads. However, I really like their subtlety.





This three-strand is made of glass and metal beads. I found the finding at one of my favorite bead stores in Duluth. The other beads are locally purchased.



Lastly, I went an uncharacteristically sparkly direction on this one (glass and metal). I was thinking of my niece when I was picking beads... that's why it's so shiny.

Hair Bobby Thingys

I've been playing with string again.

Last weekend I spent movie-watching time playing with felt, buttons and embroidery floss and made some fun hair doo-dads. I got the idea from Heartfelt: 25 projects for stitched and felted accessories by Teresa Searle. There are some great projects in this book. Searle provides detailed and simple instructions, and the book is a joy just to look at. The projects would be great for beginner/intermediate as most of the embroidery stitches are very basic (chain, blanket and straight stitches, mostly) and felt is so easy to work with.What really makes the projects pop is the color combinations and the light-hearted, joyful feel of them. It can be hard to find beginner-level crafts that really make a statement, but Searle's do.

And for those of us who are beyond beginner stages, the ideas here are a great jumping-off point for more felty-flossy entertainment. Searle's ideas got my brain buzzing so much that I bought some lovely greenish blue felt to use for a cell phone case and/or little purse.

In the meantime, here are a few of the silly, pretty hair pom-poms I came up with. They stitch up so quickly I made four or five in a single evening, and the simple stitches meant that I really could watch a movie and stitch at the same time (free tip: never try to both watch a movie and make a neat, tidy pallestrina stitch ~ you're just asking for bloody fingers).

First, how the hair-bobs look when worn.



Next, the group I made over the weekend.



And a couple of my favorites.





Of course, Rosie thinks they'd make great toys!



(I did make her a couple, and she promptly lost them.)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Time is flying by... and I'm exhausted just from trying to keep up.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at our friend Jane's house. It was a small gathering: Jane, her two sons Elliot and Sam, Elliot's friend John, us, and our friend Nancy (and Nancy's daughter and two friends for dessert, later). Good friends, good food, good wine. Lovely day.

Yesterday we did our traditional day-after-Thanksgiving: we slept in and then walked downtown to take in the sales at Herbergers. We have a fairly strict rule for "Black Friday:" we don't shop anywhere we can't walk to. Traffic is just insane in this town, especially on big shopping days. It's like every family from a hundred miles around comes to town and rushes between Fleet Farm, Wal-mart and the mall. Mayhem.

After we returned home with our purchases I started soup. I had loaned Jane our turkey-sized Romertopf for cooking the bird, and I brought it home with the carcass so that I could make soup. I came up with a great recipe to share. Hope you enjoy it too.

***

Day-after-feasting Soup

Face it, you’re still psychologically full from Thanksgiving, yet your stomach tells you it’s hungry. This soup is perfect. It’s very light and won’t leave you feeling overstuffed, yet the broth is so exquisitely flavorful that you feel spoiled. This is my creation, with a tip ‘o the ladle to Lynne Rosetto-Kasper.

2 Tbsp each butter and olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, including leaves, chunked
2 carrots, chunked
2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry sherry (Use real sherry, not the “cooking sherry” you find in the grocery store aisle next to the vinegar. It would be better to omit the sherry completely than use that stuff.)
1 turkey carcass
Filtered water

1 Tbsp butter
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
A couple handfuls of good quality egg noodles, preferably something thin like spaghetti or vermicelli

Heat butter and oil in large soup pot. Add onions and garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add carrots and celery and cook another 5 minutes or so, until beginning to be tender. Then add tomatoes and sherry. Bring to a boil and reduce for several minutes, until liquid begins to thicken.

Add turkey carcass and 2 to 2 ½ quarts water to soup pot, enough to fill pot but not overflow. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down slightly to keep stock at a low boil and reduce until half the liquid is gone. Add water to fill pot and reduce to half again. Add water and reduce to half again. This will take 3 to 4 hours, and by the end of that time your broth will be richly fragrant and flavorful.

Strain soup to remove all solids. Skim fat from broth. Bring liquid back to boil and add noodles (not too many as the broth is the star attraction). Melt 1 Tbsp butter in saucepan and sauté sliced carrots and celery until just tender. When noodles are cooked through, add carrots and celery. Add salt to taste and serve at once.

Better Housekeeping Through Cats

Cleo is on a diet.

She is eleven and getting stiff, arthritic shoulders. She walks like an elephant lumbers, and you can hear her on the wooden floors from across the house. Occasionally she limps on both shoulders so that she waddles like a drunken sailor, her tail doing a most inelegant jerky twist that mocks every myth of cat-like grace. She weighs 15 pounds, despite all our best intentions to get her weight down. So. It's time for a serious diet.

And, so the plundering of counters and cabinets has begun.

As soon as we leave the kitchen, she is in there sniffing, searching out bread crumbs, bits of cheese, or just the yummy leavings on a butter knife. She's not picky. She jumps up on the counters and the butcher block table, hoovering her way along.

What she's really looking for is butter. The cat loves butter. She has broken a couple of butter dishes by knocking them off the counter. We finally found a Cleo-proof dish that is plastic, unbreakable, and fully enclosed so she can't knock it open either. We keep the butter, and the bread, in the cabinet with the dishes and glasses.

So she figured out how to open the cabinet.

We've come home from work and ~ ooh look! who could have done that? ~ the butter dish is in the middle of the kitchen floor, the bag of bread is ripped open. (We're pretty sure Rosie helps with the bread but the butter is all Cleo.)

So we now make sure we push the cabinet doors all the way closed. We now make sure we remove all the prep dishes from the counters before sitting down to a meal. We wash or put away every dish every night. We are becoming neat-freaks for our cat's sake.

*** *** ***

Yeah, I'm back. Thanks to many of you for your well wishes and thoughtful hugs. The passage of Prop 8 in California sent me into quite the tail-spin of sadness and brought up a lot of stuff that I thought had been dealt with and done. Here's to lessons in humility and forgiveness. But I'm feeling more like me again, finally.

Way to Go Wanda

Finished enough

Ah, happy day. The study is finished enough for us to relax... well, no. It's finished enough for us to turn our attention instead to the yard, and the myriad chores left to do there. One of which is to find a lawn mower to borrow. Ours has decided that it has better things to do than start. You will not believe how grumpy we are about this.

However, let's talk pretty, happy things.

Our adinkra looks wonderful behind the desk. It makes me so happy to have the cloth up, even though I can't find the "cheat sheet" we brought back from Ghana to tell us the significance of the different stamps. This cloth, with its incredible detail and geometric patterns, was our first purchase together after we had decided to make a home together upon returning stateside. For fifteen years it has been in storage. Now it makes me giddy every time I look at it.

And here is one of the most colorful blankets that we brought back, looking right at home behind the sideboard that is decorated with toys made from tin cans. The motorcycle, train and vespa are all from Togo, as is the clay pot in the center. The two wooden figurines are from Benin, I believe. The wire airplane on the shelf is from Zimbabwe.

And last, but definitely not least: the craft hutch. Bracelet and necklace ideas are tacked up on the doors, and the former keyboard shelf is now home to my bead board and the felt pieces I use to lay stuff out while I'm playing with ideas. I have three fabric-collage bookmarks that I've been playing with tacked up in front. And storage beneath. There are places for most of my stuff ~ although I still need a separate rolling storage bin for ribbons, trim, purse handles and other various things.

There are still things to do in the room: re-upholster the two side-chairs (I'm thinking claret red velvet would be so cool), put up a few more things on the walls (pictures, a clock, etc.), and find some place for at least one kente strip. But it definitely feels homey and comfortable as it is.

Last night Gabi and I were both in here, she planning her week (AP Physics is as hard, if not harder, for the teacher as it is for the students. Send my sweet girl happy thoughts, please!), me playing with beads (although I was too tired to anything more than lay them out and look at them. The ideas came at 5:00 this morning). It was nice, listening to music and being in our new space, and the house still smelled like baked chicken and squash from dinner. A lovely end to what Gabi called, "the fastest weekend in history."

Paint and other short-term delights

So, here I am, looking out the freshly-painted window of our study at the grey and chilly garden outside. It's nearing Halloween and we haven't mowed up leaves, cut down lily stalks, cleaned up perennials, emptied and winterized the rain barrels or taken in the fountain. No, we haven't done any of that very, very necessary garden work, because we've been painting.

This is what we started with: old bedroom furniture, green walls, and a paint-effect-sky ceiling that came with the house (the best part was the glow-in-the-dark stars).

Honestly, I don't know how the HGTV shows do it, when they come in with three artsy designer folk and repaint, remodel and rejuvenate a room in a day. Seriously. Do they have a small army of house-pros in the background? Ten nimble-wristed painters just aching to cut in trim? And the part that adds insult to injury: they have time to design and make these fun fantastic decorator elements. Not enough cash to purchase a work of art for that wall? No sweat! The nice guy with the dark hair will throw something together... just some MDF, willow branches, a jig saw, paint and some funky copper nails and *voila* you have an original masterpiece you can tell all your politely dubious friends about.

Say good-bye to green and hello cafe au lait.

For us, unfortunately, there is no army and I'm no longer particularly nimble-wristed (I am, however, aching in some interesting places). But, the painting is done. We have successfully transformed our lovely green spare bedroom with the little computer hutch into a study and craft space: cafe au lait walls with white trim, a new desk and sideboard from Ikea, and that old computer hutch is in the process of becoming my craft hutch. I haven't had a chance to do much to it except claim the space by putting my sewing machine where the computer used to be. I have big plans, but so far have been too tired to actually do much with it.

Did I mention just how much trim there is in this relatively small room? Crown molding, a picture rail, two windows, two doors and baseboards all around. Lots o' trim.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am the biggest instigator of all this exhaustion and achiness. I do love to paint: we paint at least one room a year. I'm so hopelessly caught up in this cycle that, in spite of my better judgment, I'm already starting to plan how to redo the bathroom next year. And, we haven't even finished the study yet.

The painting is done, with the exception of a small amount of retouching on the closet door. This is so big. The trim is done. We are known for not finishing the trim. I can't overstate this. We have rooms we painted two years ago that have paint splotches on the trim because we never went back to that. We almost never finish the second coat on the trim. We just get used to the splotches and uneven paint job and figure that we'll be repainting the whole room in a few years and, well, we'll get to the trim then.

But not this time!

My sense of accomplishment is enormous.

Two old chairs that Gabi found at Savers in Minneapolis a couple of years ago look right at home next to the new sideboard from Ikea. I will re-upholster the chairs ~ eventually.

Next step: bring out the textiles that we've had in storage ever since we got back from Togo. We brought back these lovely things and then discovered that their fabulous yellow, orange and green colors just really didn't go with anything. So last year we decided that we wanted them out, dammit, and we designed the study around them. The neutral walls and white, sort-of-contemporary furniture, should be a great foil for the colorful blankets and wall hangings.

We'll pick up some curtain rods to put on the two open walls so that we can hang our beautiful adinkra from Ghana as well as a bridal blanket from Mali. We also have some kente strips ~ some vintage ones that we picked up at the blow-your-mind-it's-so-big market in Kumassi, Ghana. Also, in the process of digging out all our textiles I found a beautiful little piece from Pakistan. It was given to me by a friend of mine who worked in the embassy in Lome, but had been stationed in Islamabad before that.

All work was supervised, of course, by Rosie.

So, now comes the cleaning up and the putting away of painting supplies until next year. I'll share pics of the completed room as soon as the pretty stuff is up.

Tip 'o the billfold to Bachmann

Ah, dontcha just love campaign season...

We are giggling tonight in spite of our fatigue (busy weekend redecorating our spare room, but more on that when we're finished). It seems our embarrassment of a representative, Michelle Bachmann, went on Hardball on Friday to blast Obama. She suggested that he might be "anti-American" and that voters should get to know him better.

Her ridiculous statements have resulted in $450,000 in donations coming in for her DFL opponent, Elwyn Tinklinberg.

What strikes me about this is that in the news Bachmann's campaign just reiterates the same line about voters needing to get more information about Obama ~ that they should know how he would lead the country. However, Bachmann and her campaign spokespeople don't seem to realize that the problem is that Bachmann is suggesting not simply that Obama would have very different priorities than McCain. No, she's suggesting that he's anti-American because he has different priorities. It's the same thing that I wrote about last week ~ making your campaign tactic the tarring of your opponent as an enemy. This is wrong. Theoretically, we have a democracy. So doesn't that mean that there are people who will disagree and that we should all be able to voice our opinions without fear that we will be scapegoated and hung out as traitors?

Seriously, of course Obama has different priorities and would lead the country in a different direction. And we should be having a vigorous debate on whose policies and priorities would best serve the country in these troubled times. That's sort of the point of the whole campaign thing. But it's just beyond ludicrous to suggest that either candidate is unpatriotic, anti-American, or a similarly dangerous threat to the welfare of the country.

I think that the surge of donations to Tinklinberg would suggest that many Americans, like myself, are just disgusted by these divide and smear tactics. That is what is making me truly hopeful right now.

And, I have to say, I apologize for the political shift lately. I have no desire to have a political blog. But it's hard not to be thinking of these things right now when we are getting hammered by campaign ads ~ I'm so fed up with Coleman, Franklin, Paulson and other ads that I can barely stand to watch TV. Just over two weeks to go, and then they can start fundraising for 2012.

A little media analysis

Thanks to TiVo we just watched the October 10th episode of Now with Bill Moyers. In this episode, Moyers talked with one of my favorite media analysts, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, about the untruths and deliberate misrepresentations in attack ads by both Obama and McCain. It's a very informative and revealing discussion, andI would highly recommend it to one and all. It's not about partisan politics, but about holding candidates and their campaigns to basic standards of ethical behavior. Very, very good.

You can find the discussion here. (Sorry, I couldn't find a way to embed the video into the blog.)

Please donate: matching grant through Sunday!

To donate, go to this link to contribute to the No on Prop 8 Campaign.

Little sweet things

So, going with a little less gravitas today...

I have two discoveries to share with you my friends and readers. The first is a musician who I just discovered thanks to Pandora, Playlist, and our always-sensational Great River music collection. Vienna Teng is a brilliantly talented musician with a gorgeous voice and phenonmenal talent on the piano.

Go check out Teng's "Lullaby for a Stormy Night". I'm sure you'll like it.

My second great discovery was a little cookbook I found on clearance at Barnes and Noble. The Daily Soup Cookbook is divided by primary soup ingredient (tomato, rice, corn, nut, bean, etc.) and peppered with fun bits of trivia and whimsy. These include music to play while cooking soup, periodic table of the soups and letters sent to staff at The Daily Soup. The recipes look healthy, yummy and full of fresh vegetables, herbs and spices.

The Daily Soup Cookbook is where I found a recipe for the latest version of seriously tasty Mulligatawny soup to be added to my favorites file. Mulligatawny soup is an anglicized version of the Indian tamil, or pepper broth. It is described by FoodReference.com as

"a rich curried soup originally made with peppers, hence the name. It has changed to suit differing tastes in Western culture, and has gone through many variations at various times and places. It is usually based on a chicken stock (also mutton or vegetable stock) and curry, with cream , pieces of chicken, onion, celery, apples and almonds and garnished with rice. The cream was very likely, originally coconut milk."

I've seen mulligatawnies with apples and/or cream ~ or neither. Different kinds of curry powders are used for various versions. Some are vegetarian and some emphatically not. This one has garam masala, almonds and saffron, a combination that is always sure to get my attention. I adore saffron. Just a few threads into a big pot of broth and potatoes and the flavor is sweet, deeply nuanced and absolutely lovely.

The Daily Soup Mulligatawny

The original recipe is vegetarian but I used chicken broth and added about 3 cups of chunked, roasted chicken. Also, because I used boxed chicken broth I did not add any extra salt.

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 large Spanish onion, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and diced
6 cups vegetable stock
6 medium Idaho potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted
15 saffron threads
1/2 cup chopped scallions

1. Puree the ginger and garlic together in a blender or food processor.
2. Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion and ginger puree and saute for 4 minutes, until tender and golden brown.
3. Add the sugar, garam masala, coriander, salt, turmeric, and cayenne and stir to coat the vegetables. Saute for 2 minutes to cook the spices.
4. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Add the stock and potatoes and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, partially cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
6. Meanwhile, combine the heavy cream, half of the almonds, and the saffron in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.
7. Puree the almond and cream mixture in a blender until smooth.
8. Stir the almond cream into the soup and simmer for 2 minutes.
9. Stir in 1/4 cup of the remaining almonds.
10. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and top with the remaining 1/4 cup of almonds and chopped scallions.

Too much thinking... or not enough?

Oh good grief. I've been wanting to blog for days, thinking about little things like the amazing mulligatawny stew I made the other day, or the yummy birdseed bread...

and thinking about big things, like mitzvot (commandments) and all the obligations we are called upon to think about during the High Holidays. One of the greatest mitzvot, sort of the heading underneath which many of the better-known ten commandments fall, is simply: give a damn about how your actions impact those around you. Every day, in every way, big choices and small, we are creating the world we live in. This is so fundamental to Judaism. We are not stewards of G-d's creation, no, we are co-creators. We are here to add our bits, our colors, our weavings, our songs, to the grand spectacle of this world, this life. G-d has given us the materials to work with and the rules for how to use them, and through our actions and our mistakes we are culpable, responsible ~ every little thing we do is linked in ways we can or cannot see to everything else around us. Even when we are wronged we play a role and are responsible for it.

I did so much thinking... and so far too little writing. But the thoughts are there... banging away inside my head. Bees and flies and ladybugs caught in the bottle of my mind.

And I've been thinking about other big things, like dirty, mud-slinging campaigns and why anyone would think it would be a good idea to treat your opponent like an enemy and link him to traitors and terrorists... and what have we become, this country, when the puppet masters pull the strings and we froth at the mouth so much it seems we could never come together to solve anything. At the library I work with good people from across the political spectrum. We all get along well. We all find good things in each other. We all smile and stand a little taller when it's a warm sunny day in the fall. We all cringe at the thought of winter heating bills.

Even when we all know we vote for different candidates.

But you'd never know this from watching television. No, there you find the news-makers and news-shriekers, stomping about like so many adrenaline junkies, willing to do just about anything to raise the ratings and key up the horse-race with their daily doses of outrage.

I shake my head. I have to wonder why we can't seem to do any better than this. This isn't news. That isn't a campaign. This is the WWF. That is theater, over-acting, big hair and winking for the camera and the guys who would laugh at VPILF jokes. Whip up the mob and send 'em running off to the voting booths.

And while this may make for great ratings and fundraising now, where, seriously, will it leave us on November 5th when the votes have been counted, the dust has settled, and we as a country have to turn our attention from the mesmerizing horse-race to digging ourselves out of this hole?

It's beyond sad. It's a disgrace.

Sad day

Oh, woe is me.

Yesterday I wore long pants, closed-toed shoes, and we had to turn the heat on.

I am fundamentally not ready to let go of summer.

Shana Tova

Today is Rosh Hashanah, which marks the beginning of the Days of Awe, the High Holidays, the Jewish New Year. So, I wish you all shana tova or good new year.

I spent the morning in synagogue, at Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis, with a new friend and coworker of Gabi's. The service was very good, although before I move into reflections on the theology and meaning of the service, let me make the most secular of admissions: I love going to High Holiday services because it means I am sitting in the midst of not just hundreds of fellow Jews, but also dozens and dozens of women who have the same curly, willful, frizzy, uncontrollable hair. I love it. In a world where I'm usually around the straight-haired (even if not always immaculately coifed) I love being around a bunch of women who, like me, spent their childhoods hating their curly locks because no amount of blow-drying, curlers, or chemical straighteners would ever enable them to pull off a Farah Faucett 'do. It's brilliant.

But, I would remiss if I let you think that I spent three hours this morning contemplating hair. No, I spent that time (and several hours over the last few days, reading and studying so that I would be "ready" for my precious time in synagogue) thinking about the three things that, during the High Holidays, we are reminded that we must always do: tefilah, tzedekah, teshuva.

I always wince before translating these words, because they are mistranslated so often. Still, bear with me as I fumble through...

Tefilah, the easiest to translate, basically means "prayer." In this context, it means to study Torah, pray, and lead a spiritual, prayerful life.

Tzedikah is most commonly translated in English as "charity," partly because of the "Tzedekah boxes" that are kept in many Jewish homes so that families can gather money that will be given to the needy or otherwise used to do good. However, tzedekah is more accurately translated as "righteousness," or the using of money or other tangible effects to help those who are oppressed, assist those in need, and fight social injustice. In the Talmudic tradition, the money that goes into that little box is not so much "pennies for the poor" as it is "pennies to end poverty." The difference is significant because it means that we are called not just to give, but to give a damn.

Finally, teshuvah is commonly translated as "repentance." In this sense, the Days of Awe are all about trembling before G-d, fearing G-d's judgement, and confessing our sins. This insistence on sin and judgement was always a barrier for me in my desire to reach any kind of deeper spiritual understanding of either myself or my heritage. Then, last year as I was studying during the High Holidays, I learned that the more literal translation of teshuvah is "return," as in returning to your intention to lead a moral, hopeful, positive life; returning to Torah if you haven't read your parashahs every week as you had intended; returning to the goal of being the person you want yourself to be. Returning to the person G-d intended you to be.

I was so moved and joyful to learn of this more literal translation, because it is much more positive and affirming, and makes so much more sense in terms of other things I've learned over the last several years about Torah and Jewish ethics and spirituality. Repentance doesn't work so well for me, and I suppose, a lot of other people too. Repentance feels too often like spiritual self-flaggelation. To be completely mundane: I've been trying really hard to lose weight. Counting calories and all that. Some days I'm just out of control, however, and I binge. These days, it's not even so much that I eat things that I don't want to be eating. I might have wanted the first bite, but not the tenth. It gets to a point where I'm eating on auto-pilot or, even worse, in some form of punishment: I'm such a pig that I might as well eat these cookies (crackers, whatever) and be fat and ugly and unhealthy.

When I'm in a state like that, repentance is the worst thing for getting me back in balance. If guilt worked, if bashing myself with all the should-haves worked, I never would have gotten fat in the first place. When I'm in that state, repentance just adds to my sense of failure and that overwhelming feeling that I'm not even worthy of being healthy and happy.

Return, on the other hand, can lift me out of my hole. It's positive and affirming. Look, I can say to myself, I've already been able to follow my goals well enough to lose almost 50 pounds since my highest weight. That's right. Fifty pounds. I can do this. I have been doing this. Return is possible, because it's taking me back to a place where I've already been before. I've been balanced and positive and I've done really well. Return is accomplishing, again and a little better, what I've already done in the past.

Repentance, at least for me, is more about looking at some "place" or state that I've thought I ought to be able to attain, because of course I think I should be able to meet the overwrought, underweight, uber-successful standards I see on t.v. and magazine, and then castigating myself for not attaining that model of perfection.

I don't mean to suggest that all moral and ethical decisions are on the same level as the decision of whether to eat a small piece of chocolate or the whole bar plus several crackers with peanut butter plus whatever else is even moderately edible.

Rather, my point is that we all falter and fumble, and whether it's about eating or how we treat our beloveds, whether we help strangers or pocket the twenty dollar bill we find in the public restroom, ethical questions big and small have the same kinds of aspects. We have an image in our head of who we want to be and a sane, soft-spoken voice that tells us when we are about to stray. We make decisions, big and small, that impact our ability to uphold our image of ourselves. And the more stress and chaos that fills our minds, the more difficult it is to hear that soft voice that knows what we're really about. And finally, no matter what we choose to do ~ and how many excuses we could muster about our bad decisions ~ we are the only ones ultimately responsible and accountable for our actions.

And what is so profoundly beautiful to me in the Jewish tradition is that our spiritual year is set up not just to remind us of the importance of tefilah, tzedekah and teshuvah, but also to allow us a fair amount of time so that we can contemplate deeply and begin the process of being accountable. We aren't expected to acknowledge our failings, apologize, make amends, and make a plan to move forward in just one day or two. The entire month of Elul, leading up to Rosh Hashanah, is spent preparing (for example to do as I did and evaluate my relationships and choices during the previous year as well as study Torah commentaries before going to synagogue so that I could be more fully present when I got there). Rosh Hashanah brings in the Days of Awe, ten days to reflect, make amends, and prepare ourselves to do that which we are called to do: have a moral, spiritually positive life, to work to end oppression, injustice and poverty, and to return, regardless of our faults and failings, to that vision of ourselves and our communities that are worth working for.

Rabbi Steifel said today, "The greatest heresy in Judaism is to believe that the world must be as the world is." We are called to be change agents, for ourselves, our communities, our world. The ethic of co-creation is key: our role on this earth is to work in partnership with G-d, to unleash the godsparks in each other and all living things and bring about the constant renewal and re-creation of the world.

I'll close with one of the meditations from the Rosh Hashanah service (from Gates of Repentance: the New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, 1978):

Be among those who cherish truth above ease and whose prayers are shafts of light in the darkness that, otherwise, would envelop us. Be the same within and without. Aspire to be loving, compassionate, humane and hopeful. Become the prayer for goodness your lips have uttered.

*****

Photo credits: the pic up top is from the website MyJewishLearning.com, one of my favorite sites. They have just about everything you could hope to find on a site devoted to learning about Torah and Judaism, and they bring in commentary from many perspectives, traditional, conservative, reform and progressive.

Orphan goats, scorpions in bed and the best tomato soup ever

I've been thoroughly enjoying Cowgirl Cuisine: Rustic Recipes and Cowgirl Adventures from a Texas Ranch, by Paula Disbrowe (William Morrow, 2007), a lovely cookbook/memoir about her transition from New York food writer to Texas ranch chef. On the food side, she's taken Texas ranch staples like creamy pinto beans laden with lard and reworked them into healthier concoctions full of herbs, spices and vegetables. She also provides the recipe for the best tomato soup I've ever made or tasted (see below).

Just as entertaining, however, are the essays where Disbrowe recalls the animals, places, and insects she encountered after moving to Whistle Berry Ranch in the Nueces Canyon ~ and the learning curve inherent in the transition from New Yorker to Texan. Her essay about adopting orphan goats left me not only laughing but also wistful with the memories of kid goats and gentle nannies that we had when I grew up on a hobby farm in California. I used to love those silly creatures. Their antics, their affectionate natures (sometimes), and their energy. I still sometimes walk outside on a spring morning and think, "I wish we had a couple of goats."

There are several recipes in the collection that look wonderful, including many for game birds, venison, and antelope along with the expected beef and fish. The photography is both lush and personal: along with the requisite pics of sliced limes and plates of cheese-drenched chilis there are lots of portraits of Disbrowe, her husband, friends and their animal menagerie. But, aside from that astonishingly good tomato soup, it's the essays that are most memorable.

What I like about Disbrowe's writing is that she manages to be both self-deprecating and smart. Her tone is funny, warm and sincere, and reading her essays you can easily understand why she looks back with warmth and humor on the first calving at their little ranch ~ when she and her husband struggled to weigh 90-pound calves by holding them and standing on a bathroom scale (they didn't want to ask the local ranchers how to do everything). Of course they got wiser and learned to get a livestock scale, but she writes,

"part of me missed the earnest chaos of our earlier attempts. There was something pure and poignant in how little we knew and the logic we thought we could apply. And we got the job done after all."

My only complaint about the book is that Disbrowe should have found a better copy editor. It's always a shame to find typos in such a lovely book. That said, I still recommend Cowgirl Cuisine.

*****

Paula Disbrowe's Roasted Tomato Soup

For Roasted Tomatoes
3 pounds (about 20) plum tomatoes, halved
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Herbs de Provence, dried thyme, or basil

Soup
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large leek, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large or 2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
Kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, basil or herbes de Provence)
Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
1/4 cup white wine (optional)
6 cups chicken stock or water
One 28-ounce can plum tomatoes in juice (preferably San Marzano)
1 dried chili (such as ancho, pasilla or New Mexico)
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 Degrees F.

2. The morning (or night) before serving, place the halved tomatoes, seed pockets facing up, on a baking sheet. You do not need to skin or seed the tomatoes. Squeeze the tomatoes lengthwise to open up the seed pockets. Drizzle the tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil (a few drops per tomato), then sprinkle with salt and the dried herb of your choice. Use your fingers to rub the seasonings evenly over the tomatoes.

3. Roast the tomatoes for 8 hours (or about 6 hours at 250 Degrees). The tomatoes will shrivel and concentrate but they should remain meaty and moist ~ not completely dry. They can be roasted up to 2 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator until you're ready to make the soup.

4. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the leek, onion, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaves, thyme and red pepper and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes, until fragrant. Add the wine and scrape up any vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pot (they should not brown). Add the broth. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, breaking them apart with your fingers or a wooden spoon. Add the dried chili and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Add the roasted tomatoes (be sure to include any rich red tomato oil that has accumulated on the baking sheet) and simmer, partially covered, for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the chili and bay leaves and cool the soup briefly. Transfer the soup to a blender, in batches if necessary, and puree until smooth.

6. Return te soup to the pot and season to taste with additional salt and freshly ground pepper. If the soup seems too thick, thin it with a little water or stock. Garnish as desired and serve.

*Note: As I wrote above, this is a wonderful soup. The flavor is rich and robust, while at the same time the freshness of tomatoes and vegetables shine through. However, as a general rule I am not a fan of pureed soup. I adjusted the recipe by chopping all the vegetables finely (including the canned tomatoes) and then using an immersion blender instead of pureeing. I left the soup just a little left of smooth, the result being a lively combination where each ingredient gets a bit of a chance to shine on its own. I garnished with a little freshly grated parmesan cheese and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Fresh croutons would be lovely as well. B

A week late but still funny

Sending out a little hope

I wrote a while ago about receiving a letter from Kodjo, the son of my best Togolese friend while I was in the Peace Corps. We've been e-mailing Kodjo regularly, and it's been great to re-form that connection after years of quiet. It has been heartbreaking as well, so much so that I hope you will forgive me as I step onto my soapbox.

Some of you may know, but most probably do not, that Togo has had a rough year. The economy is poor here, but it is devastatingly weak there. Prices for staples like rice and flour have soared as the US has redirected corn toward ethanol instead of food for people or animals. As if that weren't enough, Togo was hit with devastating floods in July, washing out bridges on the main highway, destroying homes and villages, and killing many people. This natural disaster has compounded the economic one because it has made travel and trade between the cities and outlying areas much more difficult.

The floods have brought a lot of misery to the region, but we've played our part as well. Just in case you are not clear on why we, US citizens, share at least some of the responsibility for the dire circumstances in places like Togo, here is a brief and basic synopsis.

The US has enormous power to force "Free Trade Agreements" on developing nations like Togo (the US / World Bank forgives and/or reconfigures national debt in return for signing on the dotted line). These trade agreements push developing nations away from growing enough of their staple food crops to be self-sustaining. Instead, Free Trade has meant that farmers in developing countries are encouraged to grow cash crops like coffee, cocoa and cotton, and to do so in such a way that many of the villagers are able to move to cities where they can make shoes, clothing and many of the things that allow Walmart to maintain its famously low prices. In return, developing countries import food crops such as corn and wheat that we grow in surplus. In the lovely land of theory, the benefit to this is that the local farmers will make money from the cash crops, more than enough to purchase the food they need, our corporate agri-business will have foreign markets for the food crops they grow across the midwest. Oh, and we'll be able to drive to the local mega-mart and buy "cheap plastic crap."

And we ~ you, me, our families and neighbors ~ are culpable because we elect people and then pay little attention to what they agree to in international trade agreements or the farm bill. And too many of us never wonder whether there are consequences beyond our own bank accounts and immediate self-interest.

Now, throw corn-based ethanol into the mix, and the fields that were full of food-grade corn or wheat or barley are being used for ethanol-grade corn. Corn that was going to feed cattle is also redirected, the prices pushed up prohibitively high, and so the feed lots and ranchers purchase barley and other grains. The domino effect ensues, and the prices for these other grains skyrockets right along with corn.

However, the income for the farmers growing cotton in Togo has not risen, and they are using all their means to cultivate cotton so that they don't have enough food crops to feed their families. Look further east, and it's the same, as the rice paddies in Vietnam have been turned into coffee plantations to bring us our cheap cup of Folgers, and so the developing nations find themselves in the horrific place of having too few people on too few acres of arable land growing food crops. Food prices soar and people go hungry.

I saw this happening first-hand when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I was sent to Togo to educate and encourage farmers ~ who had been hand-tilling small family plots of yams, corn, tomatoes, other food crops ~ to begin using oxen to till larger parcels of land. And to grow cotton. What I discovered was a situation that often resulted in the farmers becoming something like indentured servants. The Togolese government provided the loans for the cattle and accompanying training, as well as the loans for the cotton seed. Then, the government also set the price for cotton. The end result was that the absolute only way that a farmer could dig himself out of the debt incurred from purchasing oxen was to grow virtually no food, use all available land for cotton, and to dump loads of chemicals into the soil to produce the largest yields possible.

Oh, and I must point out that, while DDT and similar pesticides are banned in the US, there is still a thriving market for them in places like Togo. And, contrary to their manufacturer's evident hypothesis, the side-effects aren't lessened just because it's a developing nation.

So, back to our friends, Kodjo and Adjo, and their mother Afoua...

Kodjo is a student at Lome University, Adjo is in high school (and high school in Togo costs almost as much as the university). The rising prices have left them without funds for school, and Afoua is without enough for food. She is also chronically ill. So we are helping them.

I don't know if it makes it better or only more sad that for a little over $400 we can send Kodjo and Adjo to school for a year and provide Afoua with enough money for food and medicine. The money is not insignificant to us, but it's brutally significant to them. We will have to make adjustments, but they get education and some health care.

I am glad that our current presidential candidates are talking a lot about the economy. However, while they argue about tax cuts and job cuts and the banking and mortgage crisis for us, it is my very dear wish that they'd also think and talk a little about our influence in far-off, tiny countries like Togo.

Homage to Brash Kate

I've been putting my book reviews on the side panel, and was happy with that until the other day when I couldn't remember the name of a book I'd read, and I knew that I'd written about it on my blog but ... oh... the shame... there are no tags and no record. What to do?

Umm. Put the reviews here and just links to the side, perhaps? Yes, that should do nicely.

How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great by Karen Karbo. (c) 2007, Bloomsbury USA, Biography

This little book came across my desk a couple of months ago and I was immediately smitten. Yes, Bringing Up Baby is one of my top five favorite movies of all time, and I spent a lot of time in college watching and ruminating on films by those iconic divas Hepburn, Garbo and Dietrich.

This book is not written with a particularly deferential air, and I'd like to think that Kate would have liked that. It's also not a filmography, nor a tell-all about the great actress' private life. Instead, it is a lively recitation of those characteristics of Hepburn that made her a remarkable character, both off-screen and on.

Chapters include: The importance of being brash, How to stick to your knitting, and Making the most of a dysfunctional relationship. I think even those who don't know much about Kate or haven't seen many of her movies would still enjoy this light read.

The anecdotes are brilliant. My favorite so far: One day Kate wore jeans onto the movie set, a move so outrageous that the powers-that-be sent a production assistant to take Hepburn's jeans while she was in the dressing room so that she would be "shamed" into wearing a skirt. Instead, Kate "traipsed around in her underwear until the jeans were returned."

Her brashness was not always appreciated. No, not even often. She was at times hated because her strong, androgynous, opinionated attitude went completely against what was expected of women, and women's film roles, of the time. Critics attacked her because she never looked convincing when the script called for her character to swoon into love. Karbo writes,

Long before Gloria Steinem observed that on some level all women are female impersonators, Hepburn was unwittingly showing it to be true. Hepburn did have a limited range, and the limit was acting insipid and submissive opposite a leading man who couldn't hold a candle to her. To make matters worse, Hepburn also managed to convey that she had other fish to fry, and there's nothing more dangerous than a woman who can't be brought to her knees by love.

The allusion to Steinem notwithstanding, Hepburn was no feminist. Karbo refers to her as intransigently "nonanalytical," refusing to think deeply, or perhaps at all, about her impact on women's roles. She was prudish about sexuality on film and fiercely hostile to the notion of mothers working outside the home.

Karbo also points out an irony that I had learned years ago but forgotten: while women's roles in society have expanded, the roles on film have withered. Karbo lists the female roles for the top ten grossing films from the fall of 2006, a list that includes Bond girl, mothers, girlfriends, wives and ex-wives, assistants and a nanny. Not one is a leading role. However, in 1938 some of the greatest actresses of the time were starring in films, leading the plot as night-club dancer (Joan Crawford), office worker (Ginger Rogers) and more. The point is that, while expectations of gender-roles were limited (marriage is the ultimate role for a woman, love is the primary destination), the women were the headliners, not the pretty/pathetic/passive secondaries.

In spite of her brilliance, Katharine Hepburn nearly fell into obscurity. Karbo points out that the only reason Hepburn became famous was that she simply refused to give up. She kept breaking the mold until society caught up with her.

That's why I like Kate.

Love, Tacos and Universal Serendipity

Ah, what a blissful weekend we had. Saturday was our big Whoo-hoo We Did It fete, and we spent the day hanging out with lots of friends and family. Our first guests (not counting Donna and Mary, who came early to help out) arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon. The last guest left after midnight. (And Donna & Mary stayed for breakfast on Sunday.) What a blast. I can't say enough how much it means to me to be surrounded by these friends and family who bring their love, joy and blessings. When I feel bruised and alone, these people make my world right.

As I said, our wonderful friends Donna and Mary came early, bearing cake. A few weeks ago we were talking with them and Mary said she wanted to make our wedding cake. We said, "Whoo-hoo!" Mary makes great and gorgeous cakes. She asked us what kinds of cake we liked and so we answered that she couldn't go wrong with chocolate, carrot or spice cakes. And we said, "Surprise us." My goodness, but did she ever take us up on the challenge! We were gifted with the most gorgeous three-tiered cake, the bottom layer was carrot, the middle layer chocolate, and, of course, the topper was spice. Cream-cheese frosting on the top and bottom, sour cream/chocolate in the middle, and roses all around. It gave a whole new meaning to "yummy."

With so much love and congratulations flowing, the day passed in bliss. People came in shifts, with no planning on our part, so we were able to spend good time with everyone and really enjoy the company. Some people brought appetizers, so the table was spread with great food. We also had a big gallon-sized donation jar out for the No On Proposition 8 Campaign, and our friends filled it up with bills. We didn't quite meet Brad Pitt's $100,000 contribution, but we did alright.

We served a taco bar, and I picked tacos because it seemed like something that would be easy to prepare ahead, could be set out and reheated in shifts, and would appeal to lots of people. It was only when I started cooking the almost 7 pounds of roast on Friday that I realized that I'd also stumbled upon the most beautiful serendipity. The recipe, Spicy Oven-Stewed Beef, came from a cookbook of my mother's (perhaps the Chevy's restaurant cookbook ~ I'm not sure because I added it to my binder collection before I became disciplined about noting the source on my copies). I'd prepared it before and really enjoyed it. However, on Friday as I was re-reading the recipe before starting, I also read the anecdote on the sidebar. It describes how the authors developed the recipe for their beef tacos after a great day skiing with the family at Sugar Pine Point State Park in Lake Tahoe: the exact place where Gabi and I got married on July 19th.

Now, if that isn't the universe saying "Hurrah!," then I don't know what is!

Spicy Oven-Stewed Beef

2 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast
2 tablespoons olive or peanut oil
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
3 whole allspice berries
1/4 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 pound tomatoes, preferably plum, coarsely chopped
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon achiote paste or 2 teaspoons pure chili powder plus 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dry red wine
2 cups water
18 corn or 12 flour tortillas, warmed or crisped just before serving

TOPPINGS
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano leaves or 1 tablespoon dried
2 limes cut into 6 to 9 wedges each

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Cut the chuck roast into pieces, about 3/4 inch thick by 1/2 inch long, trimming away any excess fat as you go.

3. Heat the oil in a large nonreactive stew pot over medium-high heat. Add as much meat as will fit in one uncrowded layer and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Continue with another round until all the meat is browned.

4. While the meat browns, place the coriander, allspice, and peppercorns on a paper towel. Fold the towel over the spices and crush them with a mallet or hammer.

5. Return all the meat to the pot and add the crushed spices, tomatoes, chopped onions, garlic, oregano, achiote paste, salt, wine and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and place in oven. Cook until meat is tender, 1 1/4 hours. (This stew can also be cooked on top of the stove, covered, over medium heat. The timing is the same.)

6. To assemble, place about 1/3 cup of the stew filling in the center of a tortilla. Top with some finely chopped onion and a sprinkle of oregano. Squeeze a lime wedge over all. Fold and serve.

* When I made this for our fete I left the beef in somewhat larger chunks, cooked it a little longer than the recipe called for, and then shredded the beef after. The flavor is marvelous, and the filling makes great enchiladas as well. B.

Silly, pretty things

According to the weather forecasters, the Seattle-like drizzle that's settled in with a chilly fwump is actually the weakened remnant of Hurricane Ike. Go figure. I'll take the drizzle.

I welcomed the change in weather with a bit of beading creativity, playing with colors and thread last night until I was nearly too tired to brush my teeth before bed. But oh, what fun. Now, the even more entertaining part: wear these new pretty things a few times to test the design and make sure it will wear well for whomever I decide to gift it to.

Anyway, it was entertaining enough for me that I thought I'd share.




This pretty one is made with five strands of stone chips strung on cotton thread. It's easy but fairly putzy when you add up all the knots between stones.



My first foray into memory wire: a cute little choker with glass beads and silver charms.



I had some memory wire left over so made a simple bracelet with glass and stone beads and a magnetic clasp. This one is a true experiment since it's made with leftover necklace-sized wire instead of bracelet-sized wire.

Update: this little experiment ran badly awry. I'll have to break it apart and reuse the beads, and just throw out the left-over wire. Unless someone knows of a way to reuse this little slip of memory wire?

This last one uses a single circle stone that I found at one of my favorite bead stores in Duluth, plus two stones, on leather cord. I've made a few with a similar bead design, but I'm experimenting on this one with an adjustable cord length. Two slip knots should allow the wearer to adjust the length to suit different styles of clothing.

More Fact Checking

I love those folks at FactCheck.org. They've recently offered some analysis of the e-mails and such regarding Sarah Palin. I'm happy to hear that, according to FactCheck, Palin did not attempt to ban books at the Wasilla Library:

One accusation claims then-Mayor Palin threatened to fire Wasilla’s librarian for refusing to ban books from the town library. Some versions of the rumor come complete with a list of the books that Palin allegedly attempted to ban. Actually, Palin never asked that books be banned; no books were actually banned; and many of the books on the list that Palin supposedly wanted to censor weren't even in print at the time, proving that the list is a fabrication. The librarian was fired, but was told only that Palin felt she didn’t support her. She was re-hired the next day. The librarian never claimed that Palin threatened outright to fire her for refusing to ban books.

See the full article, with info on Special Needs funding, Creationism, and the Alaska secessionist movement here.

Royalton Library Centennial

The Royalton Library held its centennial celebration today. The ladies from the Royalton Woman's Study Club, the group that founded the library, held an open house with a historical display and refreshments. It was great fun to hang out and chat with everyone. I spent some time looking through the old ledgers and such. There were a couple of ledgers that listed all the books owned by the library and who had donated them.

I also discovered the notebook kept by the secretary of the Royalton Library Association, begun in April 1912. I found the Rules and Regulations passed for the library, and had to share.

Rules and Regulations of the Royalton Library Association

I. Adults living in the city or village of Royalton... are entitled to draw books by filling out application blanks. Children under the age of sixteen (16) must obtain the signature of parent or guardian.

II. Each person entitled to draw books from the library will be given a card, which must be presented whenever a book is taken, returned or renewed. If the card is lost, a new one will be given, after seven (7) days notice or upon payment of five cents.

III. One book at a time may be drawn on a card. Two volumes of the same work are considered as one book.

IV. Books may be kept for two weeks, and once renewed for the same time. Books marked "Seven Day Book" may be kept for that time only, but may be renewed once only for the same time.

V. A fine of one cent a day will be imposed for the books kept over time.

VI. A temporary resident may obtain a borrower's card by filling out an application blank and obtaining the signature of a resident-free holder, or by a temporary deposit, equal to the value of the book.

I found an inflation adjuster online and figured out that the five cents it cost in 1912 to replace a card would be $1.06. And we charge $1. Similarly, that 1 cent fine for overdues would be 21 cents today... and we charge 20 cents for adult items (10 cents for juvenile, and $1 for all videos). I think it is pretty amazing that these charges have remained relatively the same for a hundred years!

One more bit from the same document of 1912:

A motion was made and seconded that... all books, manuscripts and papers detrimental to the good morals and public order shall be barried from the library. Carried.

Personally, I much prefer the sentiment of Jo Godwin: A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.