Peach Harvest - Thursday 6/19/2008

The scrub jays know when it's time to eat the peaches. And if I don't get them off the tree pretty quickly, they'll do it for me.

I left the ones that they'd started on the tree for them and picked the rest.



It's a small tree, but I harvested 66 peaches!!

There is a fresh peach pie in our future...

Just One Question - Wednesday 6/18/2008

What's your position on digital cameras?

Sneaking Out - Tuesday 6/17/2008

Wow, now it's light when I leave Braveheart's house the morning after the writing group.


I guess these are trumpet vines.


So gorgeous.


It almost doesn't look real.

Tomasina Tempts Again - Monday 6/16/2008

The pix of the three other desserts didn't come out very well. The cashew honey thing was delish. There was also a brownie and a fruit tart-ish dessert. Organic, I think.

We decided that as cool as they look, we can't really get on board with the designer marshmallow thing.



Asparagus and hollandaise by Braveheart.

I brought ceviche from Lucy's again. So refreshing.

Oh, yeah. And we read to each other and wrote. That's what it's really all about!

Busted! - Sunday 6/15/2008

I love this little Oaxacan peacock. My mom brought him back for me. I went with her to Ciudad de Oaxaca a few years ago. I love the artwork from that part of Mexico...especially the Dia de los Muertos figures.

He's suffered a series of falls this year and I'm not sure he's ever going to be okay, but I'll try again!




The moon is all smug about his enviable position amongst the stars-- star jasmine that is.

To Bike or Not to Bike - Saturday 6/14/2008

You might also be amused at the amount of attention this motorcycle garnered outside of Starbucks on Saturday morning.

Like me, everyone's thinking that these babies get some impressive gas mileage. And maybe we could just talk ourselves (and let's be honest, our spouses) into getting one.

I tell myself I'd never split lanes.

For those of you living in sane states, "splitting lanes" is the completely legal practice of driving a motorcycle between lanes of moving traffic. You aren't supposed to go more than 10 mph faster than the surrounding traffic. Really, they should warn you about this when you rent a car in California...it's not a nice surprise when you're figuring out he freeway system.

Be that as it may, I'd just use the carpool lane like a regular citizen. Even if the 5 was backed up for the entire seven miles between the 170 and the 14.

I'd get over to Sierra Highway as soon as I could. I'd never accidentally hit a patch of fallen rock and gravel and spin uncontrollably across the pavement and into the ditch, minus some major skin acreage...

See? That's the way it always ends up going, for me.



Meanwhile, back inside Starbucks, I was impressed with how well this woman pulled off these shoes.

Chef Detail - Friday 6/13/2008

The Chef outside Andrew's. Once again, I'm getting pulled into the life of the diner I hang out in.

Kooky patrons are interesting. One of the servers' daughters graduated from high school. I'm writing and writing at my table in the corner.

I moved tables so the guy who mops the floor every morning could clean where my feet usually are.

One he said (he's not a native English speaker), "Every day you write too much!" and flashed a bright smile.

I'll take that as a compliment.



My Friday the 13th was just peachy... How about yours?

The only downsides were finding out that a report I thought was due Monday was due on Friday, and the traffic was a mess on the way home. Nothing too unusual.

Working from Home - Thursday 6/12/2008

Nice to be home to catch the sunlight coming in through the kitchen window. I avoided the commute today. I get good gas mileage in my Toyota Echo, but my commute still burns about 2 gallons a day.

And you know what that means lately.



After working eight hours, I used the extra time to run a couple of errands in Palmdale before going to a Pilates Pulse class at the gym. (Whew! Tough!)

Then I got creative with the shrimp Hydra cooked up. Penne with shrimp, asparagus, wilted red lettuce, really good olive oil (thanks to Tomasina), Parmesan cheese and spices. Mmmm.

Early Girl - Wednesday 6/11/2008

There she is! Ain't she a hot tomato?


Here come her sisters!


They seem to be enjoying their spot in pots on the patio.


Cool Thing : Check out this Chris Ware animation that's on the This American Life website. Very cute story from a long-time married couple. I've had this happen with stories my siblings told about living in other houses before I was born.

I adore Ira Glass and the stories he and his crew bring to NPR every week. You can download podcasts or listen on your computer. I just donated to the podcast.

The story "Giant Pool of Money" explains the current mortgage crisis so well...

Giant Bowl o' Butter - Tuesday 6/10/2008

Apparently this giant bowl of butter has intrigued others before me.

"People are fascinated with it," the night waitress tells me when I ask if I can take a picture of it. "They want to touch it."

Some have gone further.

One night a couple of drunk college students were in the all-night diner early in the morning. They were horsing around, and one of them grabbed the butter and dumped it on the other's head. (Thank goodness it's whipped!)

"Butter went everywhere! It was all over the guys, on the counter, on the floor. They were both slipping around in it. We call it the Great Butter Caper."

They have a pretty good attitude at Andrew's.





When I opened the car door outside the gym, there was this leaf on the asphalt. The arc is the shadow of my steering wheel.

Sometimes all you have to do is pay attention.

Lurking - Monday 6/9/2008

This shadow on the other side of the glass at Andrew's looked pretty spooky. Add to that the profile of the lurker with what looked like a big chainsaw and it was exciting for a moment.

But I've seen this before. It's a young man using a hedge trimmer on the shrubs outside the window.

He was still out there when I left. He flashed me a wide smile when I said good morning.

Not so scary after all.

First Watermelon - Sunday 6/8/2008

Fabulous sweet watermelon from Trader Joe's. A squeeze of lemon from Ann's tree. Freshly scissored spearmint from my yard.

Amazing!

Car Wash - Saturday 6/7/2008

In the parking lot of the gym, Saturday morning.

One of those high school car wash events that make me feel like I'm living in a community more like the one I grew up with than I did when I lived in L.A.

High school kids are actually quite often polite out here in the high desert. Maybe it's just because I look like I might know their mom, but hey, kindness just makes the world spin a little easier.

Ann's Lemons - Friday 6/6/2008

Now they're mine!

Picked from the tree in her back yard during the break in the hoot.

Music and lemons. Mmm.

Dandelion Greens - Thursday 6/5/2008

I'd like to say that the odd qualities of light in this photo were caused by some effort on my part... or at least to the haze of nostalgia lingering around this skillet full of dandelion greens. But honestly, it's hard to take good food photos. I don't know why there's a weird glow there.

I couldn’t bring myself to make them with bacon, which is the real way to make them. So I wilted them in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil and garlic.

It was just enough to make me homesick for the dandelion greens we used to pick when they were young and tender around the old church down the road that was used as a barn when I was a kid. We’d never pick them longer than about the length of our hands (kid hands!)

They’re selling these huge 12-inch leaves that are mostly tough bitter stem. Sigh. What I wouldn’t give for some good greens.

Or the flowers! We used to pick the flowers, soak them briefly in salt water (de-bugging them), and then dip them in egg and flour and saute them in butter. Nutty and fabulous. The little buds are great, too.

Please, if you have access to unpoisoned dandelions, try this!

It's Just Sad - Wednesday 5/4/2008

Yeah, it's sad that a lot of the big old pine trees in our neighborhood are dying and no one seems to know why.

But even sadder is this vision of a big wonderful log cordoned off with safety tape.

Heaven forbid anyone should have a real life experience with something and--gasp!--get hurt by it. A toe could be stubbed! A sliver could get into a fingertip!

I mean, really? What's the worst that could happened? Death by stumbling off the end of it?

It's sad that our litigious society means that kids are protected from just about everything that their healthy normal curiosity might lead them to explore. They're being protected into a stupor!

Want to know why I don't have kids? One reason is, I can't imagine raising a child and not being able to let her roam free like I did. I would not be who I am without the woods, the fields and the scabbed knees in my past.

I'm the Ginchiest! - Tuesday 6/3/2008

At least, that's what Hawkmeister over on 43Things tells me.

This is destined to be known as the Summer of the White Shades.



And you know, only the ginchiest girls get the really good photographs.



This is Jay's dog Sebastian grooming Jay's yet-to-be-named rescued baby squirrel.

Bounty! - Monday 6/2/2008

I love the Los Angeles Public Library. I put a bunch of books on hold, some of them recommended by friends. And I found a few on the shelves when I got there.

So I walked out with seven books-- for free!

I do buy books. I like to buy books. They make me happy.

If people like you and I don't buy books, really, who will?

But I've had a run of bad luck with the books I've bought, so I'm dropping back to the library for a little while.



Bountiful food at the writing group. We eat really well... and pretty healthfully, too. Cherries, grapes, smoked eggplant dip, hard goat cheese and bread provided by Braveheart. Mixed greens salad and jalapeño cheese crunchies brought by Tomasina.




I picked up two ceviche tostadas from Lucy's on La Brea. So delicious and such a good deal!




I also brought a spicy broccoli/mushroom soup that I made up. That's Braveheart's nice cookware and stovetop.



Wow! Tomasina brought treats from a bakery! Lightly banana-flavored cupcake and...do you know what the swirly one is? A home made moon pie! (The filling inside that was the best.)

Oh, yeah. Between the library and the writing group, I went to the gym.

And between dinner/check-in and the end of the evening, there was reading of our writing and discussion. We're doing good work.

Some days life seems a little charmed.

Character - Sunday 6/1/2007

In between running errands in town, we sat at a Starbuck's, reading and pretending we were on vacation.

This shot doesn't really show as well as I'd hoped this interesting outfit. The guy was all hippy from the waist up...the hat, the mustache, the ponytail, the gauzy white shirt. Then he was all equestrian from the waist down...stretchy riding pants with leather on the insides of the knees and those great English-style boots.

I'd guess he works in the movie biz, wouldn't you?

Oh, and Spider Update: Eek! The spider gobbled up that fly and discarded the husk by this morning. And the spider, honestly, looks bigger than it did yesterday.

We're thinking a move outside is in the spider's best interest.

Brewed Chocolate and the Wild Kingdom in my Bathroom - Saturday 5/31/2008

I heard about Cabaret Brewed Chocolate on Evan Kleinman's Good Food on KCRW. The April 19th broadcast is available on either site. (Oh, and Good Food is quickly becoming one of my favorite podcasts, right up there with This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.)

The makers say that this is possibly the closest experience you can have to the original way that Mayans drank cacao. Rather than shipping you ground beans, though, they concentrate a pound of cacao beans and some cane sugar down to 24 teaspoons worth of syrup. You mix one teaspoon into 4 ounces of water and it makes the muddy cup you see above.

From my first sample, I'd say that I found the lightly chocolate flavor pleasant. It finished with a hint of toasted grain.

I didn't notice any of the mood altering effects that the brew is purported to induce in some people. Energizing? Calming? I'll give it another whirl, for sure.



Here's a shot that shows off my vintage Washington, DC souvenir teacup. It has three kookie little feet on the bottom, which makes it a little perilous.

I have about three of these types of teacups. Then I came to my senses and realized a collection like this could take over my life.


WARNING: If you are squeamish about spiders and/or the brutal realities of nature, don't read any further!!



We've been letting this spider live in our master bathroom, over the seldom-used bathtub (it's separate from the oft-used shower stall) because it's been helpful in capturing the moths that sometimes flutter out of the parrot and budgie food.

Today a fly got into the house. Yeah, I admit it, I helped drive the fly into the web. It was amazing to see the spider rush over and take care of it.

There was lots of wrapping and moving and then more wrapping. The spider hung by two legs while it worked its webbing with the others.



And it's lunch time!

We left to run errands right after this little incident. I think this was a tasty and intoxicating treat for the spider.

When we got back, the spider was kind of lying face down in the fly.

"Burrrp. That was delishush."

Okay, sorry folks. But I have a little bit of a Marlon Perkins swagger on this evening.

Man, that guy was a hero of mine when I was a kid. Not least because he always managed to stay on the bank while the intrepid Jim waded into the river and wrestled the giant snake, or got bitten by a scorpion, or let a monkey rip out little tufts of his sideburns.