In the kitchen

On Saturday I worked the kitchen shift at church during their annual fund-raising auction. They do a big dinner -- cash bar, appetizers, nice meal, dessert for around 200 people. They have the room -- set up tables with nice tablecloths, silverware -- we're not talking plastic and paper here. One of our members is a caterer by profession, and she volunteers for a number of events like these in any given year. I always wanted to work with her. I'd hear about Erica does it this way, or Erica taught me that...she knows a lot about presentation as well as food preparation.

I have to say that I think I worked well with her -- found her pace and kind of fit in. It was pretty ambitious to serve 200 people at the same time. We had volunteers waiting on 2 tables each and taking orders. They had a choice of a vegetarian torte (very beautiful with pumpkin, eggplant, spinach, couscous and more), a pretty chicken roll with sauce, or beef that could be individually ordered for how rare people wanted it. Then there were side dishes on each plate. Erica and I were on the stove side of a long work area, and I sliced chicken into pretty medallions and put it in a little puddle of sauce, and Erica was working the stove with big hunks of beef that were finished with a beautiful currant sauce. Before the event she said she was a little worried about the beef -- how to get everyone what they wanted in a hurry. Luckily she knows her beef -- she was just slicing and grilling and had lots of pieces that needed to be handled all at once. When I wasn't on chicken duty I found a way to help her, and it seemed to work out well. I guess the kitchen did have the flavor of one of these TV shows, and Erica did get animated here and there:-) But I was really impressed with how she could get that many volunteers to work as a team -- she had to teach all of us how to do things.

She called to thank me and said she'd like to work with me again. I have to say, I don't ever want to be a caterer, but I liked that work environment. I liked the fast pace and coordination and problem solving. I think when I finish my Amnesty quilt, I might call and ask if she ever needs extra hands for a job -- I think I'd enjoy doing more of that.

I've finished a couple of books

I listened to J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun. It had been on my list of things to read for so long, and I certainly think it's earned all the praise. It was hard to listen to parts of it, and I guess he had some kind of imagery going with the flies because he spared no opportunity to tell us about where flies landed, what they ate...and ate. I started to even hear the buzzing.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith was just brilliant. I was a little disappointed to read the history of it -- seems like someone went looking for a copyright-free book to add zombies to -- my impression is that it didn't arise from a mutual love of the material. Here's what Wikipedia said:

Quirk Books editor Jason Rekulak developed the idea for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies after comparing a list of "popular fanboy characters like ninjas, pirates, zombies and monkeys" with a list of public domain book titles such as War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, and Wuthering Heights.^[4][5] He turned the project over to writer Seth Grahame-Smith.

EW called it a literary mash-up. About 70% of the book is original Austen.

The first line is: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains will be in want of more brains.”

I certainly know nothing of the zombie literature, but I do believe that putting it together with Pride and Prejudice created something that is much more than the sum of its parts.

I never knew...

Wow, about 5 people have said they'd miss this sorry old blog...I didn't know I had all those lurkers. I had run Google Analytics for a while, but then it messed up and I never bothered to fix it. Well -- I feel so challenged to do a better job now:-)

I don't know that I have any deep thoughts worth imparting. I do think that FaceBook is a fun way to keep in touch with people, but it doesn't replace the complete sentences of a blog. Must be the English major in me....(yes, I noticed that sentence).

Neko and new kitty Miki are not really friends -- Miki likes him a lot, but there is no reciprocity on that point. Neko has taken to spending lots of time outside. We'll have to see what the winter brings. Winter reminds me of Minnesota which reminds me of Richard, and we asked ourselves yesterday, "I wonder what Rich thinks about Bret Farve?" The Green Bay fans made their feelings pretty clear.

I'm feeling extremely unproductive lately. I marvel at how much time you can spend on the everyday tasks of life, and I remember when they were only done in my spare time. When I worked I did those things until I ran out of time, but now that I do have the time, I feel that they should all be completed thoroughly...and they still aren't. I mean, cooking, doing dishes, ironing, laundry -- I do that stuff and the day disappears and I didn't even work 8 hours. I don't have this balance figured out yet. Maybe that's why I'm working part time now -- to justify all the stuff I don't complete! I know people who would have lists and tasks to complete on certain days -- well, that just isn't me, though I've tried that:-)

Moving to Facebook

Well, I think I'm going to move to Facebook here. I realize that I can write more things in depth on the blog, but think that I'll save that for email. If my vast public really objects, I'll reconsider!

I feel all cast about lately, a little lost I guess. Before Kate's wedding I had all kinds of direction, doing things for that. And after I was busy doing all the things I had neglected. Now I'm working for Amnesty -- helped put together a newsletter and a survey, and have 2 quilts to complete for our prisoners. I go to an Arlington Schools sub orientation tomorrow, and after that I'll be all set to start working. I guess there will be lots of choices about when to work, which schools, etc. I think I might get a little more focused if I start to work a few days a week.

For example, I have my whole day free today. When I was working, I could only dream of such a day. And what should I do with this day? Clean? Cleaning is always there, but should I do it? Bake bread? Yes, always a good idea. Do some ironing? Yes, that's always there too. I have the luxury of asking, what would be good for my soul today, what would be good for my family. I feel that I need to do good this day, but I'm frozen by all the choices. I'm also so grateful for all the choices -- not many people get to live this way. It's also a pretty day outside -- jeans and sweatshirt weather -- and I must take that into account because beautiful days have to be acknowledged.

I'm definitely not bored -- I'm amazed by all that life offers and that I'm in a position to experience. I'm totally amazed by the lack of stress in my life -- just about nothing can stress me at the moment. So I think that shows that stress wasn't inherent to me -- because I can see that you could create stress from anything; but I don't - -stress to me was work, and without it, the stress has gone. Everyone should be so fortunate:-)

Well, here I am today. I needed a face shot for some Amnesty publication, so I curled the hair, put on make up, put a decent top on over my gym shorts, found necklace and earrings -- whew -- I don't do this much any more. So, here I am. I look so old -- I don't say this to elicit comments...it just is. Now I'm wondering, will this be my obituary photo? I mean, how many photos do most people have hanging around? As you get older you say things like, will this be my last car, my last washing machine, my last mammogram (oh please, yes), so, will this be my last photo? Well, I guess I'm not all that happy with it -- need to get a better one -- so, this will not be my last photo.

Here's a pic of the main house at Capon Springs -- this is where the game room, library, living room, and dining room is, plus a nice big front porch where everybody hangs out.

OMG -- too funny.

Doug and I just got back from our little 4-day retreat to Capon Springs West Virginia. It was organized by the Arlington UU church, and I guess there were 30 or so people there from the church. It was a beautiful place -- like time-traveling back to the 1950s or so. There were no clocks, radios, tv, phones in our rooms and no cell reception. There was a big screen tv in one area and we watched the new Ken Burns series on the National Parks, and some people watched the Redskins game. The food was from the 50s as well -- white bread, fried chicken, macaroni, spaghetti...they did come through with some decent dark greens for salad so I piled up on that. But, that's not a criticism -- seems to be part of the charm. They have a spa which is about 3 years old and it was the only 21st Century part of the place (however, it had spa elements before with the springs). I had a facial and massage -- both really good. Doug found a golf partner and played all four days, including one day in serious rain. His game was evidently pretty good until the final day. I seriously relaxed, did some reading before naps, watched the sky from a hammock -- all very nice. I took a couple of long walks and went to visit the pigs/cows.

I'm listening to Richard Ford's Independence Day -- had always heard about it. I'm really enjoying it.

Blah

So I woke up with a headache, and after 2 doses of pain reliever, it's still there. So, I'm thinking it's another migraine, but the pain isn't as bad as I know it could be. I have to think it is sugar induced. Yesterday I was just totally focused on sugar -- it was such a craving. It started the day before, and I kept trying to make it go away. Yesterday I tried to talk myself out of it, but couldn't. Since we don't have enough sugar in the house, I finally ran to the grocery for my fix. Then I finished it off with a really sweet orange soda -- that we did have but I never drink those. Then last night I could feel the headache coming, and woke up with it. It feels a lot like a hangover, but already I can see that it's not going away. I wonder if knowing what the sugar does will help me the next time I must have it. I even tried sniffing peppermint oil, which is supposed to help. Oh well -- I don't get a craving like that very often. I've kind of felt that you just have to feed it and move on. But, what causes these? It seems very chemical, rather than emotional. I was like a junkie. I wonder what I could have eaten for the last 2 days that might have helped...like, only protein?

My big summer migraine started after a vacation that included eating too much, more carbs, etc. So, it does make sense that at least for me, they're food induced. I hope this one doesn't last as long as the last one. Maybe I can start to really associate sugar with feeling bad?

Enough about the Claudia/Carb saga. I'm moving slowly, but plan to take more meds and then head off to the AI office to meet with a woman who was a professor in Indonesia with both Filep and Yusak. We've felt that as part of our effort to publicize the case we need to know more about them as people -- so I'm hoping she can help us with that.

More Miki

More of the new baby. We're all quite smitten:-)

I think the worst has passed

Last night we spent lots of energy trying to let Neko know that we love him. I.e., treats, ham on my lap. He ended up on a chair in the dining room with his wagging tail over the edge, and of course Miki couldn't resist that and started batting. Neko started to play with her, obviously enjoying real cat play, batting at her from above with his paws, etc. So, it took about 10 days, and things are looking better.

Can we say that Neko is pissed?

Yes we can -- literally. He evidently peed all over Emily's bed sometime yesterday, which was disconcerting when she tried to go to bed last night. I guess in cat behavior that was supposed to deter Miki from invading his space, but so far, it hasn't worked. Miki continues to pursue Neko -- she's determined to make friends. Em and I spent some time at the Laundromat today. Before we went Emily checked online for cat pee solutions, and we sprayed her bedding with a mixture of peroxide, baking soda, and dish detergent. Everything is outside drying in the breeze at the moment.

I hope he gives up on this method of coping:-)

Miki Update

Sorry, I still can't get a very good picture of her. And, I have to just sit down and spend time with my camera -- I don't know why everything is so grainy...

It's amazing the delight this little orange ball can give -- well, Neko has another take on that I guess. She has moved out to explore the entire house and is very single-minded in her determination to win over Neko. Neko has taken himself to the basement to sulk, but within days she found her way down there and just sits somewhere near him as he glares. She approaches him from time to time, and just yesterday we saw a nose-to-nose without Neko's hissing; however, it's far from a love fest.

Jerry, on the other hand, has been better than we would have thought. We introduced him to Miki with fresh grilled tuna in our hands, and he quickly responded to "good dog -- here's tuna -- don't kill the cat." She's still apprehensive about his big black bulk, but he's very gentle with her and approaches her to touch noses (then looks right to us to make sure we noticed).

Little Miki

Here's the new baby -- we've named her Miki (I think) -- Japanese for beautiful story, and Emily says it's also a popular girl's name. (It's not Mickey, like the mouse, but me ke...long e sounds). It was hard to get photos because she moves so fast -- very playful.

We went up to Lancaster yesterday to get her from Jackie, the woman who has been fostering her. Lancaster is a pretty old town -- we'd like to go back and spend more time there. On the way we stopped by the Iron Hill Brewery and picked up a few specialty beers for Doug and Rob.

Miki spent about half the ride home in Emily's lap, then came up to our spare bedroom upstairs. She hid in a corner of the closet, of course, and at one point I got worried and fed her some water through a dropper. But, within only a few hours she was out and about, investigating everything, playing with toys, eating, drinking, using her box. She's so cute! She runs to us when we walk in, but isn't into lap time yet - -too much to explore.

We brought Neko to the other side of the door to meet her -- he didn't pick up on her scent at all, and only noticed when her paws came under the door to play. Neko hissed and ran to the basement. So, I guess the introduction to the other animals might take a while. Jerry, with all his olfactory abilities, has not even noticed...amazing.

Can't Wait for Alice

On Saturday we're going up to PA to pick up a Hemingway kitten, Alice. I've been feeling the kitten/puppy urge here for a while, and it came to a head in Florida when I saw a shelter ad for an orange polydactyl kitten. I considered how I could get it on the plane with us. So, from there it was a quest -- and with the Internet it's easy to find yourself just about anything you want. Emily got on task as well, and within hours we located Alice. She is a shelter kitten but a nice woman has been fostering her. She got spayed on Monday, so she'll be all set to go on Saturday. Yea! More, plus photos, soon.