Thursday, July 16, 2015

Thursday Thought - and a Fortune Update

¨There is always a delay between planting and harvesting.¨

Yes, the title sounds rather morbid, but I found quite a bit of inspiration in Die Empty. I'm often impatient and want change that I'm working toward to happen at once. I also have to remember that in between planting and harvesting comes watering, weeding and fertilizing and that it's not a bad idea to stagger my crops - working on a second, third or fourth project while I wait for the first one to come to fruition.

But on to my fortune. When reading one of my library books, I came across yet another fortune - one that did not originate with Trent: ¨You will find your solution where you least expect it.¨ Hopefully, this will turn out to be just as true as last week's fortune.

Over the next few weeks, my blog posting will probably be few and far between. I've got a little more than a week before Tanzania via Amsterdam (and circumstances have moved the trip up a day, so I've got less time than I realized). I don't expect to have time OR connectivity while I'm there, so I'm leaving the laptop behind. I will be furiously writing and gathering stories to share, as long as the power holds (I've heard the entire town blacks out fairly frequently and if it happens after dark, which is about 6:40, there may not be anyone around to start up the generator). 

Friday, July 10, 2015

Summer Reading

The most recent Joy the Baker ¨Let it Be Sunday¨ post included a list to her summer reading list for 2014, which reminded me that I've been sadly remiss in sharing my own reading lately. While I no longer average a book a day, I still have been reading steadily, stealing time at lunch, on breaks and in between bike rides. While I've mostly been reading non-fiction, a few fiction titles have also captivated me.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - Oh how I love me a prickly protagonist. Ada, who has been hidden by her mother from the neighbors her entire life, due to a club foot, and brother Jamie evacuate WWII London. I don't know that a plot summary could possibly do this justice - and you certainly cannot judge this book by its' cover, but I'm hearing a bit of Newbery buzz, premature though it may be.

Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard - So I'm not ready to pack up and move to another country, but I was inspired by the slower pace of life (especially compared with Lunch in Paris, the author's first book). Maybe we can move to an island or have a few more slow weekends...

Make It Stick: the Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown - Spacing, interleaving, retrieval practice, reflection and elaboration are the keys to learning. I could not stop talking about this book, to the point that I may have annoyed friends and co-workers. Tests have never really seemed like anything more than a way of judging if you have learned the material, but this book stresses the value of tests as a learning tool (if you get something wrong on a quiz, you're more likely to remember it in the future). I am changing my Swahili-learning strategy after reading this to include more quizzes. Also, I've been thinking about the implications for classes that I teach or staff learning at work.

Are You Fully Charged? The 3 Keys to Energizing Your Work and Life by Tom Rath - Eat, sleep and move - while some of this should be common sense, these items can also be the first to go in times of stress when we most need them. I even took time to finish the chapter questions, which get you thinking about how to increase energy and engagement.

The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos - After reading Love Walked In and identifying with the Cary Grant-loving protagonist, I've followed Marisa de los Santos' fiction. While nothing has quite compared with her first novel, this one comes close. She just writes characters that I want to read about - quirky, old-fashioned and just a little of how I imagine myself to be - and Taisy and Willow, half sisters 17 years apart in age that are brought together when demanding father Wilson asks estranged Taisy to ghost-write his memoir. A very sweet description of first love made this a favorite this summer (so far).

And still on my to read pile - either on hold, checked out, but not yet read or on my mental to-be-read list:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Daughters of the Samurai by Janice Nimura
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

What are you reading this summer?

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Thursday Thought

¨You have so much to be thankful for.¨

I walked out the door one recent morning and found this fortune staring up at me, as though the message was left just for me.

On further investigation, Trent had gone to lunch someplace that handed out fortune cookies and it had simply fallen out of his pocket. But it doesn't make the sentiment any less true!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

How to Say ¨I Love You¨ Without Words

My father rarely speaks aloud the words, ¨I love you¨. In fact, I can't recall a single instance, though I'm sure I must have heard it as a child. But there are ways besides words to say ¨I love you¨. And his best, most favorite way has always been with food.

In grade school, on field trip days he would pack the best lunches - sandwiches on sourdough bread thick with deli meat, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, mayonnaise and mustard (light on the mayo, just the way I liked it); fruit - not the standard apple, orange or banana, but cherries or berries or grapes; the occasional small bag of chips and an orange mango Koala Springs. Sometimes there'd even be a Whatchamacallit or Twix thrown in. The perfect accompaniment to a day at Discovery Park or the Seattle Children's Theater.

In college, when I'd go home to visit (okay, I was also motivated by the ability to do laundry without spending 54 cents for a wash and 54 cents for a dry on my Husky Card), he'd drive back to the campus apartment via 45th and we'd stop off for groceries (despite my mom's groans) at the Wallingford QFC, housed in the same building as the Food Giant where my grandmother shopped in the 50s and 60s. Invariably, I'd also bring back Tupperwares full of leftovers from one of my favorite Papa-dishes: chicken fettuccine or BBQ ribs.

Today he's still taking care of me through food. Last autumn, he made sure to have apple pie ingredients after I'd commented that I missed having apple pie at my grandmother's (she's switched over to blackberry pie at Thanksgiving, due to my brother and uncle, who are more vocal about their preferences than I am). We ran out of time, and ended up baking an apple crisp together instead. On a recent grocery store trip, he added my bottle of fancy Woodinville Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup to his cart.

So I suppose that it's no surprise that I also show my love through food (whenever I worry that Trent is feeling down or overworked, I offer to make Fudgy Cocoa Brownies. I also often pack lunches for him, knowing that he won't do it himself and thinking back to how much I enjoyed my father's lunches for me.)

Today my library staff was in desperate need of love and appreciation. We've had many more people walking through the door than usual using the library, which is wonderful - when everyone acts appropriately. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen and we've had a few ¨incidents¨. It doesn't help that most of us are sleep-deprived, due to the heat. So I declared today, ¨Pie Day¨ and stopped by Snohomish Pie Company, conveniently located a block to pick up a peach pie. Some days, having treats in the break room is a non-event. I'll look in and be disappointed that my own starter piece is the only one that has disappeared. That was not the case today - after less than two hours, only one largish slice remained.

And hopefully everyone felt just a little bit of extra love.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Summer Picnic - with recipes!

Aubrey is one of my ¨forever friends¨ - we met as little-littles, and have supported each other through nearly every ¨first¨ possible. Even though nowadays life steps in to keep us from going over to each other's houses every day (our frequent refrain as children, ¨Mom, can I go over and play???¨), we still connect regularly. After a few canceled dates, due to illness, work commitments and Mariner's traffic, we were finally able to connect last Monday, my day off for working Sunday.

Though Aubrey had a restaurant gift certificate to use up, we opted instead for a picnic. I love an opportunity to use our picnic basket and I wanted to cook/prepare something that would not increase the heat of the 85 degree kitchen nook. The solution? Sandwiches, cherries, Perrier and a white bean salad. I decided to go a little bit fancy with Boursin Roast Beef Sandwiches and Tarragon-Parsley-Thyme Chickpea Salad. So yummy - I was glad that I had leftovers to prepare for Trent and to eat myself the next day.


The sandwiches, inspired by the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, were simple and elegant - spread Boursin cheese over sourdough bread and top with thinly-sliced red onions and deli roast beef. While the ¨recipe¨ called for arugula, I substituted spinach, since I both had it on hand and prefer it to the bitterness of arugula.

The chickpea salad was inspired by this recipe from Simply Recipes (one of my favorite recipe sites).

Dice 2 T red onions. Squeeze half of a lemon over them to cut the sharpness. Drain (but don't rinse) 1 can of chickpeas. Add to the onions. Add 1 T extra virgin olive oil, 2 t red wine vinegar, 1/2 t tarragon, 1/2 t thyme, 1/4-1/2 c chopped fresh parsley and salt and pepper to test.

While I live about a 15 minute walk away from Green Lake, we opted for the shorter 10 minute walk to Meridian Park, where we spread out a Mexican blanket, toasted our over 30 years of friendship and caught up with neighborhood gossip and each other's lives.

I'm thinking there will have to be a lot more picnics in my future!


Sunday, July 5, 2015

Independence Day Adventure

We've got a couple of go-to Independence Day activities, we will often either walk to Gasworks Park or, since getting Rock Lobster, anchor at Bainbridge Island to watch the fireworks display (there was also the year that we took Rock Lobster through the Ballard Locks to watch the Lake Union fireworks - never again! at least not in our boat...) This year at the last minute, we decided to try something a little different: watching the Seattle display from our inflatable kayaks.

After a day of puttering - coffee at Zoka, folding laundry, sweeping, reading and my requisite two Swahili lessons - we drove down to a launch in the University District a little after 5. We'd invited another friend along, but with as hot as it was, she wasn't motivated to get her kayak rack out of storage and kayak loaded (hers is not inflatable). We've now worked up a bit of a routine - Trent takes one pump to fill up the main bodies of the boats, while I take another to inflate the floors and other finishing touches.

With several hours left before the fireworks were due to start, we paddled to Ivar's Salmon House. While there was some outdoor seating, we decided to take refuge in the relative cool of the Whalemaker Lounge, where Happy Hour specials are in effect 3 p.m. to close. We relaxed over a blackened salmon Caesar salad, mussels, crab melt and fries and a couple of beers (note to self - next time skip the beer, as there are no facilities on a kayak). We chatted a bit with the table next to us, which was peopled with a group from Oklahoma City on their way to an Alaska cruise next week.



We left the restaurant at 8 to explore the shoreline for other potential launch points and to select our viewing position, as close to the fireworks barge as the police boat would allow. As we approached, a message rang out over the loudspeaker, ¨Okay, everyone is doing a good job of this so far, but remember to stay north of the buoy¨ and then later, ¨Bayliner, you're the only one south of the buoy. You need to move - they won't start the fireworks until everyone is behind the line¨. Fortunately, at that point there was still nearly an hour left to go.

As the time inched toward 10:15, space filled in with additional canoes, kayaks and motor boats, with the occasional stand-up paddleboard or sail boat thrown in. Every once in a while, our kayaks would begin to drift forward, so we'd paddle backwards a stroke or two.




Music from neighboring boats echoed on the water: Journey's Don't Stop Believin' (which inspired people from other boats to sing along, Clarence Carter's Strokin' and Poison by Bell Biv Devoe. As dusk finally fell and darkness crept in, the sounds of air horns and cheering from the other boats built in anticipation. Finally, we heard the roar of the Chinook helicopter flying the American flag.

The view could only have been more perfect if the police boat had been positioned a little to the left or right. I was also perhaps a bit more distracted than usual during the display itself - on alert for other boats, making sure I was ready to paddle if need be. Overall, it was a thrilling experience.

After the grand finale, we paddled closer to shore, with headlamps lighting the way and flashing bike lights attached to our PFDs, to avoid the mass exodus of larger watercraft. Homeward we stroked, past Ivar's, under the Ship Canal Bridge and the University Bridge, past the soggy hot dog buns we'd passed on the way there (¨if only I were a duck,¨ I quipped) and back to our launch spot, dock wobbling and swaying far more than during our departure.


We deflated, toweled of the drops of water and folded up the kayaks before driving home, collapsing into sleep shortly after arrival - exhausted, but content.