Smashed Squirrels

When I wake up in the morning I watch the sun come up on the neighborhood trees. Before the Big Wind I would watch the neighborhood squirrels darting from their home in that palm tree, along the electric and telephone wires to the huge pine tree in front of my apartment. Sometimes I would watch the crows or the green parrots on the same wires. No more. Where are they? Adrian noticed this too. The squirrels didn't just entertain me in the morning, they were always scarpering about. No more. We decided that the big wind picked them all up and blew them. . . where? Is there a block wall with animal and bird bodies smashed into it? Or are our birds now in Temecula? If you see them, let them know I miss them.
Pie perfection. In his eternal quest to increase diabetes in the San Gabriel Valley, Adrian has now perfected the lemon meringue pie. He is working through the fruits of the season, despite Emily asking for peach whenever anything else shows up. Summer, Emily. For now, lemon.
Natalie posted this great picture on her blog. Love this family.

Reading continues. This week I've juxtaposed The Drop, Michael Connelly's latest Harry Bosch mystery, with BossyPants by Tina Fey. Both good. Fey's book seems to me like it would be more pleasing for women than men. I recounted some of the passages that made me think so to Adrian. He agrees. She reads the book so it has her wry tone. I like that. And I've found a great new to me podcast - Best of the Left. Always interesting. One thing it has underscored for me is that folks on the left are not the final aribters on truth. We miss it sometimes ourselves.

I've signed up for two new PALAC groups that will start in January. One is about ginseng collecting along the China and North Korean border. The other is based on Montaigne's essays. Should be fun.

OH MY!!! (Updated)

Did you hear that we had a big wind in Southern California? Kajillion mph winds blew through on Wednesday night and toppled trees, took out electricity, and ruined my life. You may think that is a little severe and I would agree. It didn't take out electricity everywhere. In fact, the people in the house on the corner, just down the hill from us had their GX DX porch light on all night, proclaiming their poweredness to all us poor fools up the hill.

Adrian was driving home during the big wind. He said it was stunning. I'm happy he made it home safe. First thing I thought of was the packages of chopped up bunny that I am going to use to make a rabbit terrine in a couple of weeks and the rabbit legs I had confit-ed earlier in the week. This is expensive stuff. I didn't want it to die in a dead freezer. Adrian's first thought was that he promised to make a chocolate cake for his fans. Our second thought was that we would not have Internet connectivity and we couldn't recharge any of our electronics. Groan.

We took the freezer stuff to my old boss Bill's house. They have a beautiful home in an area we thought would be most likely to have trees down and electricity off. Luckily, no. So we got to power up our cell phones and iPod. Then we came home and made a cake by hand. Sure, people have done that for hundreds of years, just not us. Until Thursday. It looked really pretty.

Still no electricity on Friday. I was pretty miserable. I couldn't update my podcasts, I'd buzzed through everything I had on my iPod. I went to bed on Thursday night at 6:00. Sun is down at 5:00, my apartment is pretty dark anyway (except for that porch light down the road.) and candles don't give you Internet connectivity. I listened to a really good book, The Night Circus, throughout the night. I have been relistening continually because a lot of stuff happens in this book. Went to bed at 5:30 on Friday, thinking, now I know how depressed feels.

I was miserable. Yes, I felt like a naked rat mole. I just wanted to stay in bed with my slow metabolism and try to keep warm. How the Hell do people survive really major disasters? I guess the secret is that humans are resilient. My major problem was not having control over when electricity was coming back. If I knew the answer was never, I could make plans and move on.

At 5:45 on Saturday morning, our electricity came back. The bathroom light went on and two Norman's jumped up. Adrian got up to turn off the light. I got up to turn it back on and then turn on my laptop. Ahhhhh. LIG.

UPDATE: Just saw this about the damage to the Arboretum in Arcadia. We used to drive out to the arboretum when we were kids and have visited often since moving to the area. This is very sad news.

A Thanksgiving Gift

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in Northern California. We drove up Monday to stay in Albany until Wednesday. During that time the deadly duo of Adrian and Peter cooked. These guys both like Cook's Illustrated. Adrian has been trying to perfect his pie crust using their recipe. He got to sous chef for Peter while making apple turnovers for our Tuesday dinner. Now, thanks to Peter, he can turn out a perfect apple pie. That night he returned the favor by making the most delicious chicken with dates. We were certainly giving thanks for that meal.

Then we drove down to Fremont to help Natalie and Kevin prepare for our Thanksgiving dinner for 12. There was a lot of really good food. Natalie made two types of stuffing. Num. Peter made a perfect gravy. Trina made butternut squash, Karen brought a green bean and tomato salad, I made brussell sprouts and the turkey. And there was more. Blimp.

Most fun was seeing everyone. Our newest grandbaby, Matthew, was adorable. I know, that's his job, but he could have been whiney and pissy. Instead he bonded with Maggie, laughing and smiling sweetly. Then he showed off his rolling and almost sitting and almost crawling abilities. Both of his grandmothers were there. It's fun to watch their joy. I've got to say, it was a night to be thankful for. Great company and good food. LIG.

Where Have I Been?

Wow, July. What have I done since then. Well, nevermind. One thing I know for sure is that life is long and memory is short. I'm still very active in my Pasadena discussion group. This week I was in the office 4 days. Seems none of the other ladies knows how to print labels using mail merge. Or merge information into letters going out to our members. It's nice to be able to offer something unique. This fall term I attended two groups.

The first one read Updike short stories. Karen and I agreed long ago that we do not like that man. So fixated on sex and running around on his wife. But my friend Susan was leading the group and she assured me that there is more to Updike than that. There is. He does write well. Or he uses a lot of lovely adjectives and descriptors. But just about every story involved some guy's wandering eye and raging hormones. Oh, and Updike is confirmed anti-gay and probably has issues about race. But never mind. The company was good. I've met even more nice ladies who I will enjoy spending time with next time we talk about fiction.

Then there is my non-fiction group of the season. The book was written by Jim DeMint, godfather of the Tea Party movement. (And I can't remember the name. Sure I could look at the picture at the beginning of this post, but that would mean reading more DeMint.) They do love that man and this book sorta tells why, if you can read it. I met more nice people in that group. All of us had difficulty reading this simplistic and fundamentally misguided book. But the discussions were great. Our last group was yesterday afternoon. I asked one of the ladies, as we were walking to the house, what words she writes in her book as she is reading. We always do a lot of underlining and making notes in our books so we can talk at the meetings, referring to the correct page. She wrote the same words in her book that I wrote in mine. We laughed a lot about that. She said her family would be surprised. I told her mine wouldn't. I asked her what she was going to do with her book when the group was over. In fact, the whole group discussed what they were going to do with their books when we were done. Burning was mentioned often. I was going into the office, so I figured shredding was a good alternative.

One of the big problems with the book was that he states facts, but doesn't say where he got them. There is no index and the only footnotes relate to resources written by him or some other people's speeches. Most of us read the book with a computer on our laps or in our hands. We did the research he should have done. And maybe if he had done it right, we would not have been as beholden to Wikipedia. And he's disingenuous. People he can't stand are always good people, but wrong. He had great hope for Obama, but lost it in one day. I had great hopes for Bush, but gave him a lot of chances before I gave up completely. After all, whoever is President is responsible for all of us. Right? If he succeeds we all benefit. Right?

Anyway, going to that group made me more aware of the man. Cain wants him in his cabinet. DeMint's name is in the news every day. I hope that all changes soon. Or at least by this time next year.

Caught Red-Handed

We are still here. Adrian is still baking. A friend wanted a red velvet cake for his birthday. Adrian had never made one, but that is no problem. Well, one little problem. I assured Adrian that we have red food coloring, a major ingredient. We did, but it was paste, not liquid. He had to massage the stuff by hand to get it soft enough to mix into the cake batter. It finally came out of his pores, but it sure looked gruesome for a bit. He made two cakes for that party and an upside down apple cake for an earlier party. The house smelled good.

The wine tasting was last weekend and everybody loved it. We will have a beer tasting in October and our next wine tasting is in January. This time it will be NoCal v SoCal. I wanted to do a East Coast / West Coast Slam, but our wine seller of choice doesn't have a lot of East Coast wines. I am attending three other discussions during this summer quarter at PALAC. We've been discussing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoons and The Waxman Report on Tuesday evenings. These two discussions are very interesting. Of course, the Waxman Report is about how bills move through Congress. We talk some about bills that have been stalled in Congress or were poorly drafted. I sure hope those guys resolve their issues with the debt ceiling. I really do need my Social Security check.

The third group is next week. We will be listening to one of our members talk about life on a submarine in WWII. That should be interesting. I've spoken with Jim before. He's pretty sharp for a guy who is old enough to have been on a submarine in WWII. I've mentioned that a lot of the members of PALAC are in their 70's and 80's. Of course, some are a bit doddery. We had one meeting of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with 3 walkers attached to their people. But a lot of the people are something to aspire to. Gosh, even the walker people are something to aspire to. Most are still very bright and have a lot to contribute. I am hoping that hanging around with them will improve my chance.

A Very Successful Practice

Tuesday, Tuesday was insane for me. Oh, you young whippersnappers do this all this stuff every day. I need a very slow and ordered day. But no, Tuesday was...special.

First, I'd noticed a little oil can flashing on my dashboard. Adrian couldn't see it. Is he blind? Probably not, but the Jiffy Lube guy I visited at 9:00 said that I had very little oil left in my car. Let's hope that was just in time.

I got to the Los Angeles Farmer's Market on Fairfax just in time to enjoy a lovely lunch with my friends, Peggy and Marilyn. Besides lunch, we shopped for little souvenirs for friends of Marilyn. That was interesting, because I never like to buy little things that people won't ever use. However...we did buy a fedora for a 13 year old boy. So Justin Timberlake. So Adrian Norman at the Academic Decathlon with a Press pass stuck in the hat band of his fedora. I think the young man might actually wear this charming hat whenever he can.

After working my way through a traffic accident on the Pasadena Freeway, I got home in time to throw half my kitchen (as I've said before) into bags and rushed to Bill and Jaine's house for a practice run of the wine tasting we will be doing in July. We just wanted to make sure we knew about the table setting, dishes, chairs, food and wine that we would be serving to the real group of 14. This time we had 7 (the eighth arrived near the end of the day) people to critique all.

This is my duck pate, sort of a country pate, not spreadable, but very nummy. It was a big hit, even at home. Adrian mentioned today that he is sad that there won't be any leftovers next time because we will have 14 people at the real wine tasting. Maybe I'll make one for his gaming group. Grapes surround the pate. We had baked grapes at a previous wine tasting. When I tried to duplicate, I ended with a mess. I guess you need to find concord grapes, which they used.

This is Jaine and Bill at their dining room table. You can see the basket of gougeres that Jaine is looking at. That was the other thing I made. They are cream puffs with cheese baked into the dough. Cute. And easy. Karen and I used to make cream puffs for Mom to take to her church circle bazaar, so I was an old hand at choux pastry.

Jaine and I went shopping for cheeses which looked lovely on her wooden cutting board. I've since bought porcelain cheese markers so we don't have to hide the label (with price) under the cheese to remember what they are. We also had condiments to go with the cheeses - chipoltle jam, spicy pear jam and plum paste. Oh, and 5 wines. We had a wonderful time and now feel very good about hosting all those other folks.

I was having too much fun. I'd promised Adrian I'd be back before 7:00 so he could visit a sick friend at the hospital with all his pals. I ended up flying out of the house with left over pate in hand. Really, Tuesday was much too active for me. But I enjoyed most minutes of it (that car accident not included.)

The Visit

This is Matthew Cole, the newest member of our clan. Cute, no? Adrian and I spent our weekend up in the bay area visiting little Matty, his parents, and a few others. But can you believe how very cute he is at only 6 weeks? He was early, so he is smaller than he might be, but not so anyone would notice. And he is perfectly formed. Good job all around.

We arrived on Friday afternoon. I baked a strawberry cake for Peter and Karen, we tasted some Arizona wine from their recent trip and then went to a killer restaurant, Burma Superstar. Great way to start a weekend. Their Tea Leaf Salad is famous for good reason. I am still craving it. Even the Arizona wine was good.

We got up early the next morning because Natalie was participating in a triathalon! What a woman. She went swimming in the Pacific Ocean (after cutting her feet on the gungy rocks by the shore; such poor planning.) Then she biked, her favorite part of the day. Finally she raced past us. We had missed the other two parts. I thought she looked great, even though this was the last leg of the event.

Here are her adoring fans. It was freezing. For some reason, Adrian and I forgot that the bay area can be cold. And somehow the swimming part absolutely eluded me. But here are Peter, Kevin, Karen, and Adrian, waiting for the runner to return. Oh, in front is Maggie. I wonder if she had any butterflies in her stomach at this moment. The Mini-mermaid run took place as soon as most of the tri-athletes crossed the finish line. She was amazing. Her dad joined her on the last leg (I thought he'd run the whole thing) to cheer her on. She would have made the 1.5 mile run without his help, but is was fun to see them running together.

We spent the rest of Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Kevin and Natalie's house. On Sunday, we visited Mark and Trina. This is where the adorable child comes into play. I love this picture of him sleeping on Kevin's shoulder as Kevin eats yet another strawberry cake. Don't worry, strawberries will go out of season soon. Don't you think Matthew's bib looks like a speech bubble? He must be talking up a storm.
Then it was Adrian's turn to hold the sweet bundle. See what I mean by tiny? All these guys tower over the wee one. Mark was not concerned about damage to his offspring. Adrian is really very good with the young of our species.

Natalie was in front of me, taking an official family portrait. But I like the slightly aerial view of this now complete family. It will be fun watching Matthew as he grows.

That Was Embarassing

This is my beautiful rug that I bought when I was in India. It gives me endless pleasure. When I look at it, I remember my time in Bangalore and the very nice man that I bought the rug from. It brings back a lot of stories and you know how much I love stories.

Two weeks ago, we had a horrible accident and bright pink Crystal Light laden water was spilled all over the rug. Argh. Adrian took it to a Persian Rug vendor and cleaner near his gym. It was ready today so we both went to pick it up. Sort of embarrassing. It seems this rug should not be kept in a busy location. It is in our living room, my bedroom, the TV room, the place where I spend a great deal of my time. It gets walked on a lot. A lot. It doesn't have Crystal Light spilled on it every day, but it is in a busy room.

Then he wanted to know if it had furniture on it. Heavy furniture. No. It sits in the middle of the room. There are just a couple of ottomans and . . . my rocking chair. That I live in. Oh. There were grooves in the rug. So now, this is where the rocker lives.

I asked Adrian if he had said anything to the rug guy about how upset I was with him for spilling the drink. Maybe he was telling me that I'd done enough damage on my own. Adrian laughed and told me that he got quite a berating all on his own. The thing is, this rug is very beautiful. The rug man told Adrian that it was very good. Today, while I was paying for the cleaning, Adrian was looking at the prices on the other rugs, the other rugs that may have been the size of mine, but not pure silk. $10,000. I don't even want to know how much my rug is worth. The rugs in the store are very nice, but I know my peacock rug is special.

So, no more heavy Peggy on furniture on the rug. It could be spilled on again, but I really don't think so.

Baking and Reading

Isn't that beautiful? Pasadena's Farmers Market has the best strawberries. And one of my favorite cooking blogs, had a great recipe for strawberry cake. Serendipity. This has not been a good weekend for any diet. Adrian baked his best deep dish pizza ever. And I baked this luscious cake today. We will live, just a bit rounder. The good thing is that I also got a bunch of vegetables at the FM, so the rest of the week might save us.

I've been reading a lot lately. First is a book about Don Benito Wilson. It's paper and it's for one of my PALAC groups. As always, love the group. Bill is the leader, but he couldn't last week, so I lead it. I do love the group, but the book is ridiculous. I'm sure the writer is a very nice man. Everyone in the area seems to know him. Bill and Jaine heard him speak about this book. He's just not a very good writer. A really not very good writer. Just two more sessions.

The rest of my books are digital. These are most of the books I've listened to recently:

Brothers, Rivals, Victors - I just got this one. It's about Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley. Most of the action takes place in WWII, but it also tells the history of each man. I'm a third of the way done. One really interesting thing is that Patton was the grandson of Don Benito Wilson. Some say they were a lot alike. Poor Mrs. Wilson. The book is well organized and well written, always a plus. Another plus is that these are three very interesting men during a very interesting era. Highly recommended.

Screwtape Letters - I've read this before and found it again when looking for books read by Ralph Cosham. This book is perfect for his soothing tones. CS Lewis wrote a lot of books about Christianity. His most famous are The Narnia series. Screwtape is a devil who is writing to his nephew Wormtongue. He is guiding Wormtongue through his attempts to seduce a human into Hell. Lewis was one heck of a writer. Screwtape's explanation about how humans work and think, how they can be corrupted, how they can be lost to "our father below." I recommend this to believers and non-believers. Why should either group lose out on great literature.

A Cure for All Disease - Reginald Hill writes detective stories based in Northern England. Sometimes they focus on detectives Dalziel and Pascoe. I like those best and this is the best I've ever listened to from that series. First, the narrator, Jonathan Keeble, is excellent. He has a lot of people to voice; they are all distinct which makes the book easy to listen to. Second is the way this book was written. The book begins with Dalziel in a convalescent home after a very serious injury. His doctor has suggested that he records his feeling on a tape recorder, which Dalziel has named Mildred. We hear his recording through much of the book, particularly through the first half. These recordings are interspersed with the emails that a young girl is writing to her sister. Lovely.

The middle of the book is a third person narrative. Fascinating. I must remember to listen to this again.

Drawing Conclusions - Another detective story, this one is written by Donna Leon featuring her Venetian detective Brunetti. Well written. I don't know if you remember these stories. They always focus on a social issue. In this case it is about the poor and the elderly and nursing homes. It's amazing how many soap boxes there are to climb on in that gorgeous city. Probably true of any city. Although I liked this book, it isn't one that I would read again. I listened to it over night which means I heard it all at least twice.

Born in Shame - Oh, shame on me. Nora Roberts trash. Third book from one of her trilogies. Yes, I listened to the other two. In fact, the reader was so breathy on the first one it took me a while to get into it. I guess I did eventually. I wasn't born in shame, just reading in shame. Only if you like Nora's books.

George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm - This one took me forever to finish. That's because I really wanted to hear every word, so I had to be awake and aware for every second. George V of England, Nicholas II of Russia, and Wilhelm II of Germany were cousins, all grandchildren of Queen Victoria. They were all affected by WWI, one more adversely than the others. Although the most interesting part of the book was how they blundered into that horrible war, it was all highly readable.

Of course, we all know that Victoria reigned forever. Her son, Edward, took over after she died. Wilhelm and Nicholas had reigned for some time before George got his chance to reign. Despite their biologic closeness, there could not be three more different men. I recommend this one.

Guardian of Lies - for when you need a spy thriller. I recalled that I like Paul Madriani stories. This one is a little far-fetched, but good to listen to as you go to sleep. All of this using books as a sleep aid has reminded me that podcasts are made for that purpose. I've learned this month that I fall asleep within 15 minutes of plugging in. Some of these books are 14 hours long. What a waste. My NPR Shuffle podcasts are about 25 minutes long. So much less to catch up on the next morning.

The Rapture (Updated)

Just a brief word on the Rapture, which is to take place tomorrow, 5/21/2011. Some people are calling this the end of the world. Here's a quote from the bible verse this is based on:

.. and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord

This sounds fair. It wouldn't be bad if that happened, unless you were standing by a graveyard. Spooky to see all the dead in Christ rising from their eternal rest. Also pretty off-putting it would be to see those who are alive and remain being caught up and drawn into the clouds. But if that pleases them, go for it. Some countries will be less crowded. Some political parties would be less crowded. But don't let that discourage you true believers. We will miss you. Really, many of my best friends and family are true believers. In that sense, I'm hoping this is yet another false prophecy.

If it does happen, know that I am on earth, waving you a very fond adieu.

Update - Oh, I see. The Final Judgement is part of this Rapture thing. Non-believers get to enjoy a fiery Hell on Earth. I guess that would prove global warming. Seems a little negative to me, but that threat would probably keep your followers in line.

Looks like we will have an interesting day ahead.

A FESTIVAL of Books

This is the 33rd year of The Times Festival of Books (FOB). Or it seems like it. I feel like I was 33 years younger when this started. FOB was moved from UCLA to SC this year. There were many justifiable complaints, but it is a more compact layout. It was very hot, but clear and dry.

Karen drove down Friday and spent the night on my living room floor. I am so accommodating to guests. We ate pizza, drank wine and planned our next day. Everything but who was driving. Karen drove, I directed and we only had one mis-step in getting to valet parking. Yes, valet parking. Karen got a Panel Pass the moment they were available and got one of the few valet parking passes available to the general public. The lesson is to plan ahead and go with Karen.

Our first panel was Edmund Morris speaking with Scott Berg. Morris has written his third book about Teddy Roosevelt. He also wrote that controversial book, Dutch, about Ronald Reagan. He is a charming speaker. His best line of the day was about Reagan. Morris met with him often at the White House. Morris calls Reagan a consummate actor who played the role of president well. When they were alone together, Reagan was a zero. Morris was shocked that he could be President without a thought in his head. But he was a better actor than I ever imagined.

Here is my sister at lunch. We had trouble finding places to eat. Hopefully they will do better with signage next year. It was a lovely place to eat, once we found it.

Friend John and Murphy's Flaw have been playing at the FOB for years, in many iterations. They played very well. I like the new singers, now that I can hear them. They were unmiked at the coffee house were I first saw this configuration. They were out in the sun, which wasn't great. But that was a small price to play for good music.

We went to a panel about the movie Brokeback Mountain. Interesting, sometimes repetitive, not picture worthy. The next panel was called From Henry Hudson to California Dreams. All the guys pictured above teach history at SC. Kevin Starr was the star. He is a fount of information about all CA history. The other two were also knowledgeable and interesting. It was a great way to end this day.

But wait, there was more! We made our way to pick up the car from valet parking. Karen identified the woman leaning against a light pole there as Maxine Hong Kingston. I knew she was from the bay area. For some reason, I thought Karen knew her. Karen had surprised me before when she knew the secret life time achievement award winner, Ishmael Reed. Karen did go over to talk to Hong Kingston while I sat down. She returned to tell me they were waiting for the author bus. Our car came and I couldn't figure out why we were leaving Karen's friends stranded. So I asked which hotel they were staying at. It was ours, The Luxe. We took them there and it wasn't until after our chatty drive that I learned they were not old friends of Karen. Pretty funny.

We returned to California politics on Sunday morning. This one was Going Under? Broken Government. The highlights were Joe Mathews, a former Times' reporter who has written the book California Crackup, was moderate and well reasoned. He does feel that a radical revision of how CA's government works is necessary, but he was very conservative next to Chris Hedges. Chris wants riots and protests in the streets. This was a very exciting discussion. Joe is right middle and Chris is far right. But only in the picture above.

We walked over to the Cooking Stage to listen to Thomas Keller. There were very few seats out of the blazing sun. He is a very interesting and charming man. I was happy to sit in the sun for a while to listen to him. I have never been to The French Laundry, but Karen and I both realized we had visited another of his restaurants in Napa called Bouchon. He is a very good and thoughtful chef.

Democracy and It's Discontents would have been good without the moderator and the snarky little man sitting next to her. Scott Martelle and Barry Siegel are old Times reports and know how to talk in public. In fact, I would be interested to read Barry's book called Claim of Privilege about the Supreme Court's finding for the government on a civil suit against them. He has a real passion about good writing, as opposed to sarcastic revelations.

Finally, our last panel group may have been one of the best. One of my favorite reporters, Henry Weinstein, was there as was Erwin Chemerinisky and John Dean. The panel was The Living Constitution. None of them have much hope for us as long as those idiot Supremes are still on the bench. My solution was to send cake and cookies and fois gras to Thomas until he explodes. Other than their death, we will just lose our rights by a thousand cuts.

Still, we weren't depressed. It was a stimulating weekend. We finished our Sunday by going to Frying Fish in Little Tokyo. They have a conveyor belt that passes sushi to all seated around the bar. Pretty fun. We also ordered a special roll and eel from the chef in the middle. Fun. Fun weekend all around. I am so happy that I have Karen as my sister and FOB partner.

Reading with my Finger in the Book

I am reading two books concurrently, Angle of Repose and The Troubled Man. I really don't know if I'm loving The Angle because of the book or because of the great discussions we are having at our weekly PALAC meetings or because it sort of reminds me of family. Wallace Stegner was born in Saskatchewan 3 years before my father, several hundred miles south of Dad's birthplace. He had a different life, at first a very hard life, then a very blessed life in that he got his college education and degree, then a very writerly life. Dad followed his own straightforward life from 8th grade to a skilled profession to retirement. In between he pursued his interests without benefit of degree. It all mixes together in my head. I L O V E this. I love the connections to my family in my mind, I love the depth of Stegner's writing, I love the discussions I have with these very interesting people.

We were talking last week about why the character in the book, Lyman, had such difficulty with his son. I asked the two men in the group if they had sons. If so, how did they feel they were doing? Poor Bob was the only guy with a son and he had completely disappointed him. Too much information. Boy, did I feel bad. But I remembered how Dad wanted his two very bright sons to be just like him. Engineers, bah. Can you build a fence? Sure, that was in my Beginning Engineering 101 class. Sons have it rough with dads and Lyman's son has it rough with him. And since the book is written from Lyman's viewpoint, poor Rodman does't have a chance. I'd probably like him, like I love and admire my brothers.

Also, Lyman is worried about the end of his life. After all, he is 60. Sigh. (And horribly crippled, but I still just hear 60.)

Then there is The Troubled Man. I slept through the first part last night, but I am catching up on all that today. What I know for sure is that Kurt Wallender's (the protagonist's) Dad died of Alzheimer's complications. In between solving an interesting mystery, he is dealing with his own aging. Yep. 60. These guys are such wimps. However, Wallender is displaying symptoms of Alzheimers. Just my feelings. He may just be experiecing overload. That's what I always tell myself when I forget. So, the story is good, but I am missing Per. He turned me on to Wallender. After reading my last Swedish mystery (there are so many) I chatted him that I wanted to cruise around there with him when he got better. He was a little sad that his father is dying and we couldn't go right away.

Per's funeral was Saturday. I could not tell his sisters that we loved and cared for him despite the outcome. All I could do was cry. But only about Per. At the funeral I talked to some people about health care benefits, others about people in their departments. But not about Per. Our dear friend Tom gave an endearing tribute to his friend. Per's friend and one time boss, Manny, told about Per training him on the pagination system and being scared shitless as that was happening. I talked to Manny later. I told him how much Per cared about him. Per was very particular. I slipped under the wire because I didn't have anything to do with the pagination system. We just lunched and socialized. My favorite thing was "what are you reading?" "What are you anxious to see?" "What do you recommend?" "What are you cooking?" It was my most stimulating time. Now I have PALAC. But no Per.

No "Hubba, hubba." No, "Hi, beautiful." No Per. But we know the Life is Good (LIG) and now we know that LGO (Life Goes On.) It does.

Stuff

No, not my favorite word for miscellaneous thoughts and things. Stuff, the book about people who hoard. A couple of my nephews had a grandmother who hoarded. It is the topic d'jour, many reality programs on cable focus on it. The book was highly recommended and I will join those people who like it. I especially liked it because it gave me insight into what was going through that bright, charming grandmother's head as she filled all the rooms of her apartment. It seems to me that her grandsons did a good job in dealing with this. They loved her and took care of her to the end and didn't start to reclaim the apartment until she had died. That may be the only answer.

Okay, a little of my kind of stuff. Tomorrow I will be attending the funeral service for Per. His sisters will be there from Denmark. I am anxious to meet them. I know that a lot of people from The Times will also be there. They will not leave here without knowing that Per was loved. Since I didn't see him often lately, just emailed and gchatted, it's still hard for me to believe that I won't see him again. So I think I'll just keep putting his pictures in my blog. This one was taken at my going away party. He sure looks happy.

Per

My friend Per, who has been suffering from an odd twist of fate that left a hole in him, has succumbed to a mysterious complication from the latest operation designed to make him whole. Now the hole is in my heart. This big Danish bear who said he didn't like people yet was a good friend to all he let get close to him will be missed. Every day.

Wow Oh Wow

It's hard to say that I'm really busy. I get out of bed at 8:30 or 9:00 or 10:00. I'd be at least starting work at that time, if I were working, if it wasn't that time in my work career when I had to be at work at 6:30 a.m. Oh, my blood just started flowing the other way. I still get up early, but now I go back on my iPod to listen to what ever story is very interesting at the moment. There are so many. And I will lay there as if I was sleeping until what ever hour suits me. Hey, this is pretty nice!

I haven't told you about my PALAC groups and one is almost over - Fragile States. We are looking at Fragile or Failing States and how they might affect us. US, not so much unless we are talking about Mexico. Take a look at the link. We are yellow, Mexico is orange. Canada and Scandinavia are green. At least we don't have a red lurking on our border. What makes Mexico orange is that drug problem and, I think, bandits on the southern border, something about oil. Yada, yada, yada. This is all really interesting. The group is making me think, we haven't really discussed Mexico, so I'm not sure about all its issues, but I am fully aware of Congo, East Timur and Bosnia's issues. A former prof from Occidental College leads the group. Love him. Lot's of feisty seniors in the group. "Tax them and tell them not to have kids." "Which tribes are beating up on other tribes?" Love them. Monday nights, but just three. We have the third tomorrow. So sad.

Tuesday afternoons are Angle of Repose. So good. I read this back in 1994. How do I know? Before I had Audible, I had Books on Tape. They sent big boxes of tapes for us to listen to. Before they folded into Audible, I was able to create a spreadsheet of books read, date rented, authors, readers, and genres. 1994. 17 years ago. Needless to say, I'm glad to be reading it again. Wallace Stegner is a great writer. I also read his book about surveying the West either just before or after Angle. Great group. A very dictatorial leader. I like her, but she is funny if you get off topic. Have you ever heard me stay on topic? I will not be moved, but in this case I don't care enough to man the barricades. I do keep putting in my two cents about what it was like to be a Shelley-type creature in the age of Aquarius. Sorry that you would have to actually read the book to know who Shelley is.

I went to old Pasadena royalty on Saturday. I work with the daughter of the old Mayor of Pasadena. They live in a lovely old house overlooking the Rose Bowl. I got to go inside on Saturday to see how Old Pasadena lives. In fact, all these groups in PALAC allow me to see some pretty lovely old houses. This is why there will never be a group meeting at Casa Norman. I can see them sitting on my bed. OK for family, but others? No. Anyway, Louisa is fun to be with. I helped her with some Excel questions and we went out to lunch. Busy in a Peggy kinda way.

4 Things

1. I noticed yesterday that I my first post from India was posted on 3/31 four years ago. Damn, it is so easy to sound like an Old Fart. - especially when you are one. It just seems like yesterday. And yet, it's good to have a record of all that since I would surely have forgotten the details.

2. Speaking of dates, I am attending PALAC wine tasting on 5/15 and 7/24. I know that doesn't mean anything to most people, but that is my sister's and my brother's birthdays. Nice to know I will be eating and drinking with good people while thinking of a couple of dear people.

3. I'm listening to Master and Commander. Yes, it was a movie some time ago. Yes, it's a pretty old book, but it was on sale. I'm enjoying it immensely. This is the first book in a long series.. The author, Patrick O'Brien, takes a long time to explain how the schooner works, what the Maritime traditions are in England, everything. And I'm glad he does. I just can't get my bil, Peter, out of my mind. He loves to sail. So the Commander in the book looks like him. I know he will not be hurt because he is the Commander for a long time. Yea, Peter.

4. Mark and Trina, mostly Trina, are having difficulties with the pregnancy that will result in a lovely new great nephew. She is in good hands at a local hospital and there she will stay until the young one finally shows up. We are all hoping that won't happen until May. Fingers crossed, everyone, and if you pray, please do so.

Thanks.

Astronomy for Beginners

See that guy's sweet face? He seems nice, but he is a killer. He's the guy who was not happy until he killed Pluto. No, he was happy. He has a very full life with love, marriage and fatherhood. He was sort of happy when he thought he had discovered a 10th planet. But his scientific brain wasn't satisfied until they had a good definition of what a planet should be. Well, actually, that's not true. But you have to read How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming to understand his dilemma once he and his group had found a celestial body that is bigger than Pluto.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is that he works at Cal Tech in Pasadena. Many of Adrian's best friends work or studied at Cal Tech. One is an astronomer. So I spent much of the book thinking about the connections and wondering if they overlapped with this story. Adrian's astronomer friend works at the big telescope in Chile that plays a big part in the story. He's only been there three years, so he got there after the big discovery. But these guys seem to always be looking for the next big thing, so he is probably helping with that.

Another reason I was drawn to this book is that I like scientists who write well. Richard Feynman also wrote his fascinating books while he worked at Cal Tech. Brown has a similar down to earth method of explaining things. Maybe I just like people who are able to explain complex things simply. You know, simple enough for me to understand. Brown also seems to have a good sense of humor. He named his dwarf planet Eris. That's her picture below. Finding Eris raised a real shxx-storm in the scientific community. It seems that the goddess Eris had that ability too.

Truth in Blogging

Now I've become interested in health care in China. After mentioning my reading at lunch yesterday, one of the women seemed to be quite knowledgeable, certainly much more knowledgeable than I was after reading one book. She says that China has/had health care for many of it's workers who worked in factories. She indicated that this has changed as situations change in China.

A cursory look at a Google search tells me that there is health care, but it is overwhelmed. I guess more reading and research is required. It seems, though, after reading one book, that circumstances are different in the cities and in the country. It also seems that local corruption may influence what really happens locally. We'll see.

The lunch was with three women from PALAC. One is my old boss Bill's wife, Jaine. Another is Audrey who barely remembers that we have met often. And Judy, another friend of Jaine and Bill's who has recently joined PALAC. We were inspecting the site of two wine tastings we are holding, one in May and one in August. It's an interesting location. The food is overpriced, but the wine seems to be fairly priced. They do cold storage there if you really love wine. The wine tastings should be a lot of fun. I know it was fun to chat with these three fascinating women.

But now I do really need to learn more about China.

Country Driving

Country Driving is a very good book. The first part is about driving around the Great Wall of China. That was interesting. Besides learning about the Great Wall, you learn a bit about Chinese bureaucracy and customs. I thought this was going to be a travelogue, but it isn't really. I think its a very good way to get a view of China outside of its cities. Look at the policeman in the picture above. He's made of plexiglass. This figures aren't just in the country, they are in the cities. All with the hope of taming Chinese traffic.

I know some of you have been to China and have seen that mess. Cars without dings are the ones that are coming off the factory floor. Everybody else has dings. Hessler rents a house outside Beijing in the second part of this book. He becomes attached to a family there, driving them to emergencies and becoming a part of their lives. And we learn about the life of one of the millions of entrepreneurs in this country. And we learn more about the role of women. It is as you would expect.

We also learn that China does not have universal health care. Aren't they Communists? Isn't that what we are afraid of becoming when we get think about health care in America? Once again, we are sorely misinformed.

Finally Hessler investigates a factory in one of China's Economic Zones. This is where American jobs are going. What's funny is that Chinese businessmen are like our impressions of American business owners. At least the greedy ones. No unions (aren't they Communist inspired groups?) and no regard for worker's health or well-being. Really, if you think about it, if you have hundreds of millions of casual laborers, why worry about losing a few?

Read this. Or read a different good book about China outside it's politics.

A PALAC Emergency

I think I'm losing my desire to B-log. There is far too much naval gazing going on in this house. So much so that I became infatuated with a very odd mushroom growing in the front yard. A fungus. Oh dear.

And we went on a wonderful trip weekend before last to the Bay Area. My eldest nephew and, more accurately, his wife, are expecting their first child. Pretty exciting. But no pictures. All the No Cal relations were there and besides Adrian and I, Jeff and Sandi flew up from San Diego. It was a wonderful event. The almost-grandmothers were there and thrilled. Mark and Trina looked happy about their pending son, who will arrive mid-May. Nice people are born mid-May, so I expect a lot of him.

But now we are home again. Mushroom gazing. We have new neighbors. I'd say aging hippies, but he is closer to 40 than the requisite 60. His wife thinks he looks like John Lennon. Humm. Not. But it pleases her, so okay. John Lennon.

It's not that life is boring. I'm listening to several books. I've decided to read Lords of Finance since Karen has now read it. Adrian has tried forever to get me to read it and I demurred. Reading. It's a skill I reserve for very few books. But now I'm thinking that I might hold a discussion group at PALAC if it's as good as K&A say.

On Saturday we had a PALAC emergency. I've started working in the office two days a week. Others are trying to publish the official handbook and had a Word problem. I jumped on my horse and rode to the rescue. Not really. It's just that the woman who was doing it hates Word. She had thrown in the towel, couldn't get the darn page numbers right. My solution? I deleted the page numbers. It's only 17 pages long. And those of us who use Kindles are used to not having page numbers. Maybe I should have put a little gauge at the bottom to show you how far you are in the text. Or you could look. See. They really need my skills.

Audible had a $5.00 sale of books. I bought a bunch of mysteries. two books about driving or training through Asia, esp. China, ScrewTape Letters, True Grit, old Swedish mysteries. Now I can't decide what to listen to. See, it's a pretty exciting life. If you like to watch mushrooms grow.

Roofs and Rain

The roofers came by today to replace my entire roof. This is not a great photo, but you may get the idea. When it rained last month, water got under the shingles and messed up my bathroom ceiling and wall. To the right of the ladder is where my bathroom is. Rain pours down from my neighbor's overhang. And we had big winds with the last rain. That meant more rain under the shingles. I was surprised that these guys stripped off all the shingles, but that's done now. You can't see the guy who is laying down on the roof under my neighbor's overhang. It's a pretty tight space.

Yep. Life is very um, exciting here.

But learning is going on inside. I am reading Cutting for Stone. The majority of the book takes place in Ethiopia. What did I know about this country before? Haile Selassie. Maybe Addis Ababa. And where it sits on the horn of Africa. But I did not know/remember that they had a revolution in my lifetime. Eritrea left that union to start it's own state. And it is where the Ark of the Covenant resides. this also has a lot of information about medicine. More than that? It's a great read. And a great listen. Many of the characters are Indian and the reader is Indian. Beautiful to hear that voice. The people are complex and a delight to know.

Happy Birthday, Mom

Picture her picture here. She is surrounded by her grandchildren. She is very happy. The big two loves of her life were her children/grandchildren and her birthday. I just wish I had that real picture to put here.

Venus, After Rising

I just googled "Venus Rising." I remembered a beautiful woman and water. True. She is on a wave and unclothed. This is her after her bath. She's put up her hair, put on lots of clothes and picked a basket of flowers. Next I need to press her flat again, measure the tapestry then I will pin, fold and secure. Pshew.

Adrian has started his anti-carb diet again. No carbs all the time. I think he wants to lose another 40 pounds and then call it a day. Maybe I'll get to see a six pack. That will be fun. His mother isn't following suit. She should. I'm not sure about no carbs all the time. Only time will tell. I won't.

Creative Moments

Adrian is still baking something new every day. Today he made two cakes. This is a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Num. We've been making chocolate leaves for the last few days. I say "we" because Adrian has asked me to help him with all things chocolate. I chop. But I got to paint one of the leaves. He would have let me do more, but I painted it so thin I almost had to lick the solid chocolate from the chilled leaf. He still would have let me do more, but I think I'm a better watcher and chopper.

He also made a carrot cake for his friend's wife. She just had a kidney removed. Adrian says she's doing okay, but has been craving a cake with cream cheese frosting. Those friends know who to ask. Adrian bought aluminum cake pans so he can give the whole thing away. Bake and Release taken to its highest form.

I've finished the stitching! This is the finished fringe. When I took pictures of it, I noticed that one of the strands looked way out of line. I snipped its mooring thread and re-aligned it. I look at this thing, but didn't really see it without the picture.

The next step is to clean her. Then I need to buy a cardboard or foam backing to mount it on. Boring! But it will be further than I've ever gotten on my needlepoint projects. Then I need to decide what to do when I listen to my books. I've started cleaning and I think it is freaking out Adrian. Maybe I can work on the front yard.

Cording

Can you see it? I'm actually doing cording. I think I'm a bit over half way done with the shawl fringe. Once again, it isn't as horrible as I thought, but I do get cramps in my fingers when I'm twisting the thread. Charlie-fingers.

Finished Copperfield, starting on Churchill again, Milestones to Disaster. So many good lessons in there. More than was in the Lee Child Marathon. I listened to all but the last two. I'm also listening to Fools Moon, the second of the Dresden Files books. My dear friend Tom sent me a photo of a bumper sticker. It was something like "I like to read books in chronological order." Does he know me? That is too funny. So now I'm reading the Dresden Files in chronological order. I'll be buying one a month for the next year or so.

I'm bringing my lady up North for the baby shower. Oh, speaking of babies, Carina and Sean had a baby girl, Evelyn. This is Cindy's second grandchild. I bet she is beautiful.

Let the Couching Begin!

I've started the dreaded couching. This involves twisting two strands of thread 80 - 100 times (but who can count such a mundane task) then tacking this cord to the tapestry. In this way, the fringe of the shawl will be made. It isn't as bad as I thought, what could have been. I may actually get this done before Valentine's day. Maybe I'll gift myself with a new blank canvas on that day.

I've called the PALAC office to volunteer there to do office work. Nobody has called me to tell me if I can and what I'll be doing. I can see this very collaborative group discussing this now. OR they haven't picked up the message yet. It will be nice to help them, they are all good people.

All work on the shawl's fringe is being accompanied by David Copperfield. Dickens at this best. As I told Karen, it is a very sweet and smooth book. For a while I needed something crunchy, so I listened to all of the Reacher books. Most were "read" while I went to sleep and through the night. It was a good experience because it left me ready for David's life.

RINO

This is my view as I sit in my rocker and watch the sun go down. If not the best seat in the city, it's my favorite.

I went to the PALAC luncheon on Sunday. This room is filled with sept - oct - and probably nonagenarians. But they are by and large bright as the sun in my window just before it starts to set. I had a great time meeting new members and visiting with many I've already met. One delightful member who has been a member for 50 years mentioned, for some reason that the Superintendent of schools for La Canada way back when was... Couldn't remember this guys name. I sayed, "Max Rafferty?" Yes! However did I know? I don't know. Lucky guess, I think. But The Blue Max is the reason I'm registered as a Republican.

In 1968, yes, the middle-ages, I was too young to vote in the primary election since I wouldn't turn 21 until August. Too late for the June primary. Max Rafferty was a Neolithic Teaparty member. He defeated the liberal (or moderate) Republican Senator, Charles Kuchel. I liked Kuchel. I may have voted for him. Instead, we got Max Rafferty who was by then the Superintendent of Public Schools for all of California. He was doing horrible things to our schools. So that year, I registered as a Republican so that horrible people like the Blue Max would never win again. And I held my nose and voted for Alan Cranston. Cranston was never a very good Senator and I have been totally ineffective in voting in good candidates for California Republican office. We both try.

I'm still shocked that I remembered that at lunch. Guess the event was burned into my brain. Being around all these bright old-timers has helped my brain cells already. Just in a nick of time.

French Knots

Most exciting blog ever. Isn't this a little like watching paint dry? Maybe I should write about the body count in my brain because I'm listening to a Jack Reacher marathon. I'm mostly listening to the beginning and the end of each book, but I am re-listening to every book in order.

I haven't made French Knots in years. You can see them in the lady's flower basket. I think they are there to look like baby's breath. And they do. I'm now adding green tendrils to the leaves and flowers on the shawl. The worst will be the cording for the shawl fringe. Karen has been listening to me whine about that for weeks. I'm doing everything but. French knots have sort of built my confidence so who knows, maybe by February.

Tribune Co raised my insurance rates this year, or they would have if I'd stuck with UHC. Instead, I opted for PacifiCare. And was griping all the way. Man, I've turned into a whiny, bitchy shrew. Met my new doctor yesterday. Very competent doctor, efficient and customer-focused staff, easy access and parking, associated with a hospital in Pasadena, not Hollywood. I think I'm in love. Yes, we're talking knees, but this relationship is new. We have to check all my other body parts before we move south to the knees. I think Tribune may have done me a favor without meaning to. Thanks, guys.