Sailing the Corn - Monday 6/22/2009

B shares her freshly picked peas with me! She also pulled radishes for our lunch. Mmmm.



J aboard the Hasty Decision. Great name for a sailboat, huh? Seats six. When are they gonna give her a maiden run on the Pacific is what I want to know.


B in her kitchen. This is typical B, telling a great story.


View of the pond from the lovely newly enclosed front porch. Family wedding photos on the wall there.


Hoosier sunset, on the way back home...erm, to Mom's house.

Um, yeah. Gotta say, that's a little sad.

Commemorates three of Indiana's 5 vice presidents: Dan Quayle (Huntington), Thomas Marshall (Columbia City), and Thomas Hendricks (Shelbyville), all of whom lived along State Road 9.

You Don't Remember Me - Saturday 6/20/2009

...but I remember you.

Those are just song lyrics. We were a small class (90 graduated) and although sometimes it was hard to recognize people, we figured it out. I could usually get people when they smiled.

I've hashed and rehashed this on Facebook and Kodak Gallery, so I'm a little over it.

It was nice to catch up with people, but it's hard to talk about much more than job and kids. I really loved that we had it at a class member's house and it was all very casual.

The View From Behind the Band - Friday 6/5/2009

We were invited to lead a Songmakers hoot on Friday night! It's a fun responsibility and honestly an honor to be invited to lead a hoot. Basically, all we had to do was open the evening with a song (in this case On the Road Again) and make sure everyone gets a turn to play and/or sing.

Kat's singing. Bobbie, Kay, Jim and Nina (clockwise in the background).


Frank takes a break on the dobro. Terry rests and listens behind him.

I don't have the energy to make up nicknames for everyone, and there are no innocents to protect here.



Except maybe Hydra.



Joel dreams up another witty remark.


Barry!


The very cool way that Barry adds some shimmer to his cymbals. We seldom have a drummer at a hoot, and he's really great at reading the tone of each song and adding the right amount of percussion.

New Year's Rockin' Eve - Wednesday 12/31/2008

The table settings for our dinner. Same stuff we used for Christmas dinner. Well, we did take the time to wash everything in between.

Our friends History and Cowgirl came up for the night. This tradition has been going on for probably seven years now. They brought fixings to make a lentil salad.

At one point, when they were both buzzing around the kitchen, chopping, shredding, slicing and checking the boiling pot of lentils, Cowgirl said I was a like a scout leader guiding them along. Well, only because they didn't know where things were in my kitchen.

Cowgirl and History are vegetarians, and it's always fun to come up with a veggie meal for the evening. I made a casserole using asparagus and fresh mushrooms in place of green beans in that classic Campbell's Soup recipe. Sort of updates it while it maintains its comfort food status. Also made shaved Brussels sprouts with garlic, capers and fennel seeds (yum!) and black eyed peas with salsa (served hot) and....


Another pineapple upside down cake. Is this going to be my signature cake? Maybe! I've tweaked it a little each time I've made it. I prefer crushed pineapple to rings and tossing a handful of pecans into the topping turned out to be a very very good idea.

History and Cowboy made spiced apple cider with rum to top off the evening (that and a little champagne.) It involved cloves and a sliced orange, too. Very good. In fact, I'm sipping at leftovers right now.

We actually stayed up till 12:05! This may be the first time we've ever made it to midnight together!

I think 2009's going to be a good collection of days, no matter what.

Wreathiness - Saturday 12/20/2008

Ooh! Hearth and Lights sent us a beautiful L.L. Bean wreath for Christmas. It dresses up our gate nicely.

These two stood up with us at our wedding, and in the past couple of years we've attended their sons' weddings. It's good to have old friends, even if you live 2,000 miles apart. (sniffle.)

Getting There is Half the Fun

Even though I sat up till after midnight talking with the woman from Santa Fe, I woke up in time to see the blood red sunrise. Had breakfast with fellow travelers in the dining car and then settled into the observation car to watch the scenery roll by. Called Hydra and Kitty from here. The train tracks parallel highway 40 most of the way through Arizona and New Mexico, so there's cell reception. (Better than at my house!)



Roadside attraction, some where between Flagstaff and Albuquerque.


Some people like to live in really remote places!



I split a cab to the Albuquerque airport with the Sound Healing conventioneer. She was catching a shuttle to Santa Fe. I was meeting Diver at the rental car place.

She arrived soon after I did and we headed for Santa Fe. Funny, our hair is about the same length, and we have jackets that look so much alike that I grabbed hers one day by accident.

Click on the photo for my TripAdvisor review
(I'm CoyoteCousin over there.)

Our home away from home for three nights: Dunshee's B&B. Very well located near Canyon Road art galleries in one direction and Museum Hill in the other direction. Finding it the first time was a bit of a challenge, but it's well worth it to stay in a residential neighborhood.

I love the way the houses are all basically the same color and style, but are adorned with painted flourishes, metal details and lovely unique doors. I took lots of pictures of doors.

We took Susan's (the B&B operator) advise and went to the nearby El Farol for dinner. What a great way to start our Santa Fe experience. We indulged in a meal of tapas, trying 8 different small dishes. Yum. I think our favorite was the parmesan encrusted roasted artichoke hearts that came on the ceasar salad. Mmmm.


My lovely room! There's a sink in the corner and a skylight overhead. I wonder if this was used as an artist's studio at some point. There was a nearly full moon, and a shaft of moonlight stretched across the bed in the middle of the night.


Diver's room. The door leads out to an enclosed patio. It was a bit too cool to sit and enjoy that, but it looks lovely for another time of year.

We hit the hay fairly early. Yay, we're on the same internal clock!

Figgy Wonders!

When's the last time you found a surprise in your lunch?

For me it was today!

Braveheart packed up some of the lovely curried chicken and rice that she made for our writing group last night and put the containers in a nice little bag for me. When I unloaded it this morning, I found an extra container with these excruciatingly yummy little figgy pastries she made.

Heavenly with coffee.

Thanks, Braveheart

Now We're Cookin'! - Saturday 8/30/2008

There was a time in my life when I eschewed all things domestic. Part of me thought I had to, to be a feminist or something.

Can I tell you, just looking at this photo a few days later still makes me happy?

I love the prospect of having dinner guests, especially when I have time to cook. And maybe even especially for the Historian and McPlaywright. They indulge my experiments, which usually happen in the dessert department.

This time they also got to sample a couple of new dips. I found the recipes in Body + Soul magazine. The Artichoke & Sundried Tomato was the best and I don't think I doctored it at all. The Cucumber & Mint was pretty good for veggie-dipping, but I shredded the cukes and added a little garlic to the recipe.



Clafoutis! (Gesundheit!)

No, actually, if you pronounce it right it doesn't sound like a sneeze.

I got the recipe from the most enlightening book I've read all year, How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons. (If you've spent much time with me in person recently, I know I've quoted this book a lot!)

It's a simple and tasty way to celebrate ripe fruit. According to Julia Childs, it's pronounced cla-foo-TEE. I'm looking forward to trying it with the traditional cherries and almonds, but the flavorful red plums were a good stand in this time.


Tip from a High-Functioning Amateur Cook: don't drop the room-temperature butter.



Ooh, other cooks in my kitchen!

McPlaywright is so fast with that knife that you can hardly see it. And she's also a recently award winning playwright...times two! Yay!


The Historian, who is a newly-minted PhD (Congrats!!), is a whiz with the radicchio.

The lovely citrus/radicchio salad they whipped up brought on flashbacks to an emotionally scarring incident from my junior year in high school involving some rogue red cabbage and the prom committee... but that's a story for another time.

The rest of the menu: fresh salsa, homemade guacamole, chips and four slight variations of quesadillas: Mexican cheese & carmelized onion, Mexican cheese & sundried tomato, garlic chevre & carmelized onion and garlic chevre & sundried tomato. I think my favorite was the Mexican cheese and carmelized onion.

A Day at the Races - Saturday 8/23/2008

I've been reading about how California's Central Valley produces something like 75% of most types of fruits and veggies grown commercially in the U.S. Click on that link for a picture of this amazing approximately 450 mile feature.

As we arrived at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway outside of Bakersfield I saw this mound. Can it be?

Does the Central Valley also provide the world's supply of Cheetos coating!?



As we waited behind our friend Racer's rig to check into the ANRA Cool August Nights nostalgia drag races we discovered that the air conditioning in our idling Echo was no match for the 100 degree temperatures.

We're here as part of the crew!


There's lots to watch while you wait your turn!

See those fruit trees behind him? Part of the bounty of the valley. We drove through miles of these on the way up here.



Hydra helps unload the Phantom Bantam!


Racer built this car from the ground up. Those metal flames are removed before start up, of course. For more info, including videos, click here.

His talented daughter did the graphics, including the saucy rooster.



The yellow band means you've paid your entrance fee to the races. The orange band means you're part of the crew.

I had one too!


It started to cool off as the sun went down. There was plenty of time for talking, although a lot of punch lines were lost in the roar of the engines. Some of the cars are so loud, when they started up I literally jumped!

Thank goodness Racer's daughter brought us earplugs!


Racer's daughter and future son-in-law and I drove to a space at the end of the track and walked back to try and get a shot of DP (the driver) opening the shoot as they crossed the finish line during the qualifying round. We were turned back by a staffer who pointed out the places where cars had come through the concrete barriers.

Oh, yeah. That shattered glass we walked around...


I'm not sure I'd have been so confident walking down there if I'd sat in the stands beforehand. Some of the cars get up to 190 miles per hour on that short track!

This shot is of a couple of cars burning rubber and heating up their tires so they expand, right before their runs.



Racer, DP and Hydra right before the first elimination race for the class. It was interesting to watch his face as the time came near.

These drag races are more about the skill of the drivers than about just having the fastest car. You have to get as close to a time of say, 7.60 seconds as you can without completing the run any faster.

It was interesting to watch DP's face as the time grew nearer. Concentration, adrenaline...

The car was towed almost to the starting line.


Unfortunately, when he revved it up for the race, something went terribly wrong. Possibly as bad as a thrown rod.

I remember Dad uttering those words over the engine of my beloved Renault 10. Sigh.

So we packed up. The others drove back to the San Fernando Valley and to Big Bear. Ooph. We were so glad that we'd decided to make a mini-vacation of it and stay in Bakersfield for the night.

Really fascinating, fun and interesting night!

In the Shadow of the Mallard - Sunday 7/13/2008

GuitarDaddy whipped us up a mighty fine breakfast!



We ate in the shadow of the mallard. I did mention that I'd had a mallard for a pet when I was in middle school.

His name was Wolfie, because when I got him from the incubator in the science lab at school he was black and gold, the school colors of Wolf Lake High School where my dad and brother went. (Before Evil Consolidation.)


A lingering look back up at our bedroom window. It was a great weekend to be at 5000+ feet, since it was about 20 degrees cooler up here.


Heidi sees us off.

Bye! Thanks!

It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and it was great to get to know these two terrific musicians better.



On the way back, we stopped to take photos around the ruins of the Llano del Rio commune, which opened in 1914. We walked around speculating, and I just found that link above which tells the history of the place.


Here's a photo I found online! Apparently the hotel burned down in 1920!

How much do I love the Internet? This much [holds arms as far apart as possible.]


The back of one of the big old fireplaces.

I've been wanting to stop here for a long time, but not quite enough to actually pause in our travels. Now they're in the process of widening parts of the 138 and I figured I'd better do it sooner than later.



An old cistern.



I suspect that this was the base of a water tank. You can see some other remains in the background. This place was much bigger than it looked from the road, with traces of what looked like a dozen or so dormitory style rooms in one area, and lots of less-identifiable foundations.


Looking through what was once a window. As Hydra commented, it's amazing how much of the rock wall is missing. He theorizes that what didn't burn was scavenged to build other structures elsewhere. Nicely collected rock.


And here's my theory...that this duel track of stone was once an aqueduct. It runs from up near the big lodge house to the furthest structure on the property...probably a distance of a couple of hundred feet.


Not sure if you remember, but a while back Hydra and I stopped at the Pines Cafe. It had been operating on the same site for decades and had a very good local reputation.

So glad we stopped there the two times we did! It's no longer there!

Now it's Habanero Grill.