Awwww....the final post of 2011

I set out to blog more this year, and I think I did write more than in the past, but I'd still like to have a post a week in 2012. Today's a cloudy day, but warm for this time of year (5 degrees). I just finished cooking some soul food to welcome in the new year southern style. All ideas compliments of my cousin Kim and her husband Pete who grew up with good southern cooking.

Kim had written that the food she was preparing was symbolic for the new year blessings. There was black-eyes peas for good luck, cabbage for prosperity, and rice for abundance. I mixed it all together in the following recipe (which is dairy free and vegetarian):



Abundance Dish

one pound cabbage (1/2 a small head)
one can black-eyed peas (do not drain)
one bag of boil in the bag rice
one medium onion
1/2 cup or so of vegetable broth
tablespoon olive oil
spices to flavor

Cut up cabbage and steam. While that is steaming, boil up the rice. Chop onion, into fine pieces and fry in the olive oil. Add spices to the onion and oil mix. Open the can of black-eyed peas and DO NOT DRAIN. Add the peas to the onion mix and let everything come to a warm temperature.

Once the cabbage is steamed and is soft and easy to break with a fork, drain and add to the peas and onions. I like to chop mine somewhat smaller, so that the pieces aren't long and messy. After that cooks for a bit add the rice and the broth.

Simmer and season until it's to your liking.


I've also made some simple salmon in phyllo cups. Sounds hard, not at all! ;)

Happy New Year. Reflect and move forward, but keep friends and family near.

Recap of my 2011

Quick ReCap of 2011

New Year’s Eve 2011 was spent with good friends: Christine, Meski, Lisa, Jeannette and Shelly at Shelly’s house. Her dog Kiva was with us too, Kiva was growing quite old and it would be her last new year. The group of us went to a Pow Wow. And yes it was indoors, I’m still not into roughing it. It was my first and it was very exciting. What a great way to set things in motion for the new year.

Maybe I should state how much New Year’s is my favorite holiday! And due to being a teacher, I get two of them!

I’m a person who has learned there is great power in intention. Don’t make resolutions, not that I don’t say: “this year I will lose weight, or this year I will save money.” I do like to plan, but that’s a little different from a resolution and a resolution is a little different from an intention. This was the year when my intention was to explore adopting a child. In February, I began classes to become a foster parent. I felt pretty certain I was doing the right thing and in May I “graduated” with my group of about 10 people. Summer came, the perfect time to start with a child, but there were no calls. By fall I did a lot of soul searching and decided that adopting and foster care were not for me. I love children, but the time and effort for me being alone would make it very difficult. I just didn’t have a large web of people to rely on, and really, it does take a village!

In between all these life changing decisions I traveled a little. In May, Christine and I went to NYC for a Yoga Journal Conference. We did three different Yoga classes while we were there. Most of the participants were women, but of all ages, reminding me that healthy has no age limits and that I need to keep myself fit. Not that I did in 2011. I didn’t run any 5K races, didn’t do Yoga, didn’t lose weight.

I did go to Chicago in July! That was fun. I always wanted to just visit a random city for a weekend. That’s precisely what I did. It was pretty serendipitous, the best kind of travel.

Two big changes were made on my house. I had my beautiful Douglas Fir cut down because she was too close to the house (and 90 feet tall). I also pulled out the carpet in the living room and had the hardwood floor refinished. Otherwise, house changes are slow moving since they can be so expensive.

In August my peach tree gave a yield of three dozen peaches. I made a few crisps (I don’t like pie) and froze some that Ellie and I had picked at Fix Brothers orchards. I gardened a little, mostly keeping up the flower beds and growing tomatoes. Mom came to visit in August and spent a few days.

School started, and then it didn’t! Excessive rain following only a week after Tropical Storm Irene cause flooding and my school was closed for four days (they closed the school’s county, but the school was fine). So the start of the year was odd. Soon, we were back at it, and what a wonderful group of students I got for this year! I’m still teaching Special Education, still grade 6. In fact, I’ve been at the same school for 15 years. I’ll retire in 13 years! Hard to believe how quickly time passes.

School’s kept me busy throughout fall and here it is…winter and a new year!

Christmas was spent with Mom and cousins Dana and Kim, their families, and my mom’s sister Pat and husband Roger. Then Mom and I lounged around for a few days. I even made her watch the Buffalo Sabres play hockey (and she says she kinda liked the action). So here we are at the end of the year!

If I left anything or anyone out, forgive, but tell me! LOL! :)
I love New Year! Hope it finds you well and blessed!

C is for Compassion, not Consumerism

Musings in December

I had to go to Walmart today. No, not because I was compelled to go to the most evil store in the world, but because I had to get some gift cards for my amazingly smart students. I’ve run an incentive program since forever for them. If they make merit roll (85-89 average) they get a $ 7 gift card. Personally, I’d prefer to buy them a Target card, but many of them don’t get there at all, but they do get to Walmart. So, sadly, I have to buy them the Walmart card.

Walmart was not as crowded or chaotic as I thought it would be! It was really like any other Saturday at the Mega-low-Mart! ;) I did end up buying myself a bouquet of colorful alstroemeria flowers. alstroemeria flowers They were nothing like the right color or style for December, but they were very very pretty and I just love alstroemeria!!!!! So I got the gift cards and made it out of there alive and with my morality intact! I do believe it must be the mall that is teeming with evil, but I haven’t been there in several weeks; so I wouldn’t know.


What I guess does bug me about this time of year is the worship of Santa. It’s all about the list, all about what you want to receive. It just seems so sad that it is removed from a religious holiday. Everyone rushes to meet Santa, to let him know what you want. It’s a greedy holiday when the focus is on “making a list and checking it twice”! I’ve been behind people in Toys R Us who have a cart filled with presents! It’s fine to buy presents, but truly, do you need to spend hundreds of dollars? Do you need to up the credit card debt, does the child need ten things to open? And sadly, the man whom Santa steals his name, Saint Nicholas, was so far removed from the greed and commercialism of this holiday it is an absolute shame. It’s a dishonor to Saint Nicholas.

Who was St. Nicholas? He was a second century Greek who gave his riches and his life to the poor. Nicholas never wanted or expected anything in return-he showed his devotion to the Creator in extraordinary kindness and generosity to those in need. He did not supply luxuries to the affluent.

He took a vow of poverty and he fasted. Yes, fat Santa is not the Bishop of Myra, Saint Nicholas was not a big fat purveyor of greed.

Now I’m not a Christian, though I do believe in Jesus. Let me explain.

Jesus was a person, a spiritual leader, an educator, a prophet, and maybe yes, sent directly by God. I don’t have a clue when he was born, but I really doubt it was right after the Winter Solstice!

Early people worshipped nature and followed the seasons. My pagan ancestors would have celebrated Solstice as the rebirth of the sun. They would know the cold dark days were still upon them, but that the hope of the increasing light would see them through until spring. Winter Solstice for me is the return of hope. It’s a favorite of mine, right up there with New Years because that whole time you are thinking: “What can I do to make myself a better person?” I think that self-reflection is so incredible and inspiring.

Now while Christians might be out there praying for my soul (and sincerely I wish you wouldn’t, do you pray for the Dali Lama’s soul too, not that I have even a 10th of that man’s soulfulness)!!!! I’m trying to explain!!!! Listen! It’s not about votes. This isn’t X-factor or Dancing with the Stars. This is about a time of year that is entwined with commercialism. As I said, I don’t worship the church of Santa. I want this holiday to have the meaning of love, family, generosity, hope, rebirth, reflection, right living, and acceptance too. So I do hope that people who are Christian celebrate the birth of Jesus. I just wish people who weren’t Christian, didn’t celebrate the commercialism.

Rant aside, this month is moving along. I don’t have to find myself stressed worrying about getting the right gift. To me, gathering with family and friends is the best way to celebrate the spirit of a season of rebirth.

Things that scare us, but thrill us when we complete them: part two

It wasn’t until adulthood that I took a hard look at just how much I limited myself to the safe and the known. It’s in adulthood you say, “I wish I ...”

I do wish I’d played sports more and stopped worrying about whether I was good enough. I was never highly athletic, no sports scholarship here, but I played well enough to get by on whatever team I was on. I only did one year of skiing, one of volleyball and one year of field hockey. However, each one came back as a useful muscle memory I put to use in adulthood.

In college we played intermural broomball! It’s so crazy it’s great. You run around the hockey rink in sneakers chasing after a ball with a broom for a stick! Running in that cold environment gave me quick appreciation for what hockey players experience. Although as I played I over analyzed the whole thing, I did have fun. Despite being on an intermural team with varsity soccer and lacrosse players, I managed to keep up and contribute. No, I never scored, but I did get one really good shot on goal in! And we all had fun! Later, my friend Laura would found the Geneseo women’s lacrosse team. It started as a club sport that year and I remember playing around with her and she said I handled the stick as well as the players on the team. One of my sporting regrets is that I never joined that fledgling team. Sigh.

But I started to learn that I could do whatever anyone else did! So at age 26 I taught myself to play in the water, to hold my breath more naturally, and to be confident goofing around. That same summer I white water rafted for the first (ok, only) time. It was in North Creek on the Hudson. I was nervous. My greatest fear was falling out of the boat. I was terrified it would continue on without me and I would never be able to swim back to it. My ex said that I was white-knuckling it the whole time, but he was still excited for me. Later, we stopped in calm waters and jumped out of the boat by flipping backwards over the side. Once I did that I was no longer afraid of leaving the boat and the rest of the voyage was more relaxed. Still, at the end, that beer and steak celebration was satisfying!

So then I skied! Now, at age 10 I joined ski club at school and dutifuly took my lesson at Mystic Mountain, but I didn’t enjoy it. After the lesson I’d sit in the lodge. Somehow, I learned something, because 20 years later I skied again. I took a lesson at age 30 and my body remembered everything. Right away I was doing the proper Christie turn. The instructor was pleased. I was shocked I remembered! I wasn’t even thinking about it, it just happened. So we chairlifted to the top of West Mountain and I did my best to keep up with everyone and I did okay. I had to fall a lot because every time I got going too fast I didn’t want to lose control. One time I got into a field of little moguls and I rode them out. I’d say the moguls were the best. That time around I wasn’t ready to hang out in the lodge. I wanted to play.

I played volleyball for a few years with some friends of mine. Experienced jumping from a boat into a deep lake. Found going fast in the boat thrilling. Actually rode a tube behind said boat while hanging on for dear life. I was hooting and cheering and had a big dumb goofy smile plastered on my face. It was good. And dammit, I didn’t even over think it!

Things that scare us, but thrill us when we complete them: part one

Ever do something outside your comfort zone that at first scared you just to think of doing it, but when you did, you never had so much fun?

I was thinking about how as a kid I never was a thrill seeker. My idea of living on the edge was taking a sled down a snowy hill or riding my bike without a helmet. I didn’t do a lot of things because I always felt they were for other people, or that I wouldn’t be good enough at it so why bother.

But once in a while I did just jump in, and whenever I did, I never regretted it.

In childhood there weren’t too many moments. Perhaps the most notable was not the typical experience for a twelve year old. It involved me, a 1940’s Farmall, a baler and a wagon attached. One hay season we were a little shorthanded, and my dad, level headed, but unafraid, thought it was time to teach me to drive the tractor. That way, he could single-handedly maneuver the hay from the baler to the wagon as I drove the equipment.

Can I just stop to say how awesome that was? At twelve I was somewhere around 5 feet tall and 100 pounds. I was smart, eager to be adult, and cautious. I’d been driving the lawnmower independently since I was eight, and had just started driving the truck in the fields. I was so ready for the responsibility.

The Farmall didn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles of the modern tractor. In fact, the starter seldom worked that most of my memories involve my father cranking it to start. It had a stick shift in some H configuration, a peddle on each side to apply brakes to the enormous rear tires, and a clutch. Fortunately for my five foot self, my legs grew faster than the rest of me and I was able to reach those peddles. Good thing, since much of the hay field was on a hill.

I’m really not sure what was scarier, going up or down. Going up required me being harder on the engine than I thought I should, with shouts coming from my dad to “give her the berries” (that meant slowly keep upping the throttle). Slow it down and strain too hard and the tractor would have stalled and we (meaning: tractor, baler, and hay wagon laden with hay and my dad) would have started rolling backwards into an inevitable jack knife. I learned to throttle. Going down hill meant down shifting and some weird clutch brake combo thing. Frankly, it’s uphill I remember more!

All I know is that when we came back with the wagon full and the job done, I felt like a real woman!

My decision

This post is one month overdue. I’d say it’s been delayed due to the difficulty in sharing the information. Not difficult for me, because once I made my decision I actually felt relieved. I guess I think too much that its difficult to share what I “un-decided”.

I am not going to pursue foster parenting. I was excited by it and during the training last spring I felt invigorated that this was exactly what I was supposed to do. Maybe it was for that nano second window, maybe it was the rebirth of spring that inspired me. It’s hard to say.

It isn’t foster parenting I shy from, it’s parenting in general. I think that given enough hours in the day, and enough money so I could just stay home, yeh, I’d be a good mom. But by myself, and with work? It’s scary to think about it. This whole fall has been difficult. It’s hard enough to get me out of bed at 5:30 and off to work on time. Imagine having a child to get ready too.

And work? Where do I begin? The students are fantastic. I think one of the nicest groups I’ve ever had. But the demand? The state has a new commissioner of education. He’s a charter school guru. It isn’t hard to put this all together. We have state exams, and we were doing well on them; so then they changed the cut so statistically, we were no longer doing as well. Then the special education students weren’t making AYP. Now we are on a list, a list that is a continuum, a continuum that ends with the ominous words: restructure.

And you wonder why last year I kept saying I wanted to be a legal assistant!

Back to parenting: interestingly enough, even though my house “opened” in June, I was only offered a baby in July and never called again. Odd given that all you seem to hear about is the need for foster parents. There is a trend in fostering where children are being placed with their relatives (kinda like the old days). This might be good for many of them, but others need out of the family entirely.

Maybe the Universe was trying to give me time to understand what my purpose with children would be. I think I am more suited to being the auntie than the mommy. I’m okay with that. Auntie is fun, but like grandma she can give them back! And being a mom, especially to a child who isn’t mine, but at the whim of another, would be an incredible stressor. Children are sick constantly! My job would be 30 minutes away and I really have no back up like a big family. Yes I have CK and she is a sister, but that’s not the same as the lucky women with retired parents who are still in their 50’s! I hope they know how blessed they are.

I think at my age you get into routines. I like the predictable and I am a scheduler. I just wanted anyone who reads this to know I am okay with my decision. Not having a child is not a horrible thing. I hope that in my profession I have at least made a positive impact on the students I’ve taught.

October Snow

I really don't have much to say, but snow in October? It was October 27th! There was about 3 inches!!!!! They had to plow! The leaves were still on the trees! It wasn't bad in eastern NY, but in CT and MA they had 2 feet! That's a lot in January!

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

How I spent my summer vacation

One week from today I will be at work, pumped up and energetic! I’ll be in ELA with the new group of tiny 6th graders, they’re always so little at first. I’ll be longing for this morning, the sun shining, the air sweet, the coffee hot, and me just lounging about in my pajamas. But it will be over again, as it always is, and fall will start to remind us that it has to take its turn in the seasonal dance (seasonal dance? That’s the “metaphor” you were able to come up with? Seriously lame-o and cliché)!!!

So what did I accomplish this summer?

I began summer by heading to the homeland for cousin Dana's birthday. She got a kayak! Birthday presents should be healthy!



As for me? I didn't get a kayak, didn't hike, run, swim, boat, get physical much at all! :( I did manage to not drink a whole lot. There were several completely dry weeks and that felt good, not to mention that my face looked much healthier. I did not, however, work out! Dear god, the old middle aged woman is coming out, and I don’t like her. I keep hearing about the 30 Day Shred. I think I just might have to buy it!

I ate well, mostly vegetarian with the occasional meat. I think that is best for me. I am a true omnivore who likes to mix it up. I am trying to only have meat twice a week, and fish twice, and then on the other days just vegetarian. I became enamoured by the fantastic creations offered in a bento box and am determined to pack bento at least once a week this year.

Which segues into my garden which wasn’t all that exciting. This year I tried my hand at beets. I ate one of them because, unlike potatoes, that is all you get at the end of the leafy mass. I planted some sweet peppers, but they yielded about 4 little bells and a lot of blossoms that are there now in late summer. Umm, excuse me little pepper, but you’re not going to make it before the frost. I also planted some zucchini, but clearly some rodent finds the blossoms delicious. I did get to eat one of them, and yes, it was delicious. (The zucchini, not the blossom). This year I bought tomatoes at the Cornell Cooperative Extension plant sale. At first they were scrawny and deficient, but they caught up. I just plant the cherry kind so I can eat them right off the vine. I had two plants of regular sized tomatoes; they did well.



For the flowers this year it was a good year! The demon rose bloomed healthy and pink! Her little demon child also bloomed and continues to grow at insane rates. Old Rugosa from my mom’s yard made tons of flowers and even blossomed a golden rod plant that normally wouldn’t be growing in Albany. And then there is yellow rose! She was the last of her kind (not really, I’m being dramatic) when I got her tiny 2 foot stalk from my mom’s. she was the offspring of a larger flourishing plant that came from an abandoned lot in the state lands. It’s good to have her present, she’s like a piece of the homeland. I also have two beautiful rose of Sharon bushes that continue to mature and fill out. My lawn never dried out thanks to too much rain in August.



All this garden talk is fine, but the glory this year goes to “Peachy”. My three year old peach tree from Fix Brothers yielded about 3 dozen peaches this summer! They were untreated with chemicals; so some of them had little spots and such, but they were delicious! I was able to make a peach crisp with them and the others I just ate daily for two weeks.



Ellie, lil M and myself went to Fix Brothers to pick peaches. That was on August 12th. Their season had begun the week before, and when we got there it was obvious that the peaches were starting to go past, but we still found plenty. I put 12 containers up in the freezer, and made 2 more crisps! YUMMY!



Travel this year included three times in Massachusetts: Springfield for the Basketball Hall of Fame, Lenox to meet an online friend, and Wahconah Falls in Dalton with Christine, Jahkeem and lil M. I had a fantastic trip to the Great Escape with the Dornburgh family! It was pouring all morning! We got there at 10 AM and the rain stopped, but an hour later the sun was shining, but the weather had scared people off, so we had almost no wait time in the lines! Best ride? The water ride the tornado!!!! Second best? The Sasquatch!



Wow! Finally, the biggest trip this year was flying to Chicago and doing the touristy thing there.

Oh, and we had a hurricane! Being north and inland hurricanes usually mean lots of rain, but this time Irene made landfall in the north. She was a tropical storm of 60 mph winds when she hit NYC and continued north bound. That Sunday was very windy, sheets of rain, etc...! It caused massive creek and river sweeling and flooding. Peaceful Wahconah Falls, four days before Hurricane Irene!



A link to a you tube video of the falls after what became Tropical Storm Irene!

One highlight of my summer was watching lil M every Friday. I looked forward to it and planned out what we’d do each day that would be special. We managed to get to the Lincoln Park pool where she swam like a fish and we laid in the sun on a hot July day! That day was the first time I’d gotten an ice cream from an ice cream truck! We also went on another day to the free State Museum and rode the carousal twice!



But there was no child of my own, and honestly, I’m not lying when I tell you it’s okay. Patience is a big part of the process. It seems that many children are just being cared for in families and not by agencies. There just weren’t new children coming into care. The right thing will happen, of that I am sure. Yesterday I was playing at a park with a 5 year old boy (this story could get really long, so I will condense it) who was all rough around the edges. One minute he was calling the little girls bitches and the next he’d ask me to tie his shoe. He was so trusting and so vulnerable. I wondered where he came from because I saw no parent! Imagine letting your 5 year old walk down the street to a park ALONE! Eventually there was a “dad” (and I use this term lightly) sitting on a picnic table. You’d think he’d come talk to me since I (a complete stranger) was playing soccer with his kid! He didn’t. The point of this tale is that I realized that 5 year olds are still so little and sweet and just want to do right and be cared for. When the boy had called the girls bitches they were really letting him have it. I told him: “You won’t have any friends if you call them names”. He quickly apologized to them. It’s sad though, because where he is now, you know how his story ends.

In my creative life I managed to blog more this summer! Yay! I also completed my story “Acts of Sedition” which I had begun in 2009 and abandoned. So it felt good giving it closure. I still need to scan more photos to archive them digitally. I still need to figure out if this printer is at all usable with my new lap top (yeh, bought a new Toshiba laptop last week), I still need...to do a lot! LOL! That’s the fall list right?

What I did learn was more time management. I worked hard to keep up with house work, made sure al my closets were neat and organized, took old stuff to the Salvation Army, recycled my first computer and printer, organized paperwork and computer files. But there is more to be done.

And that’s my summer!

Computers!

"When I buy a computer, I'm going to get a Mac." Me, 1991.

Guess what? I never did. Seems computer usage wasn't absolute in the early 1990's and my little Brother word processor was adequate to get me through graduate school (1993-1996). I'm pretty sure that we did not have any version of the internet in 1991. Never really thought about it until 1997 or so when I first saw it on my sister-in-law's TV. What was it? WebTV. An interface that allowed users to explore the internet on their TV's. Seemed cool! It appeared around the same time at work, suddenly seeming like the most practical thing ever, but with a screen with a million things on it at once!

So by the time my work place had computers they were rocking to Gateway running early Windows systems. So what happened to the Mac?

Frankly, if you asked me this question in 2001 I would have speculated : "Did they go out of business?" They just simply weren't there at that time. There wasn't a presence that allows you to remember that they are out there. What was there was in 2000 was this great deal that People PC offered for dial up system and a HP desktop. So in 2000 I got the HP computer and went online. Been there happily ever since. On the internet, not the dial up! LOL!

So what happened to Mac? Slowly I became cognizant that they had not disappeared at all, but had grown and chnged over time. By the aughts the Apple company had expanded to include laptops and this new fantastic gadget called the iPod.

The iPod finally caught my attention and let me know that the company that created the Macintosh computer that I so adored in my junior and senior year of college still was in existance and was florishing. Oh the iPod! What a concept, every song you own in one tiny little device! I bought my first in 2006; my second in 2010.

But to buy a Macintosh? 20 years later, the question resurfaces because my current desktop (my second, an HP Pavilion purchased in 2005 and running windows XP) is slowing down and my laptop, an rather deficient example of the horror that was Windows Vista: A compaq purchased in 2006, is totally spazzing out!!! I want to replace both, but am trying to decide which is more important to me and which I will be most likely to be using in 5 years. So many questions.

What does it all mean? The Mac is over priced without ever guarenteeing that it won't spazz out. The Mac will not allow me to use HDMI with my TV (a number one priority of the new laptop I want to buy), and I just don't know how compatible it will be overall.

:( Sorry Mac! You were once the golden child (I remember the Mac labs of the schools I once substituted at....so shiny), but now you have lots of pretty competition.

Yes, I love my iPods, but they work just great with my PC. So Mac, unless I win the lottery and find a buring urge to purchase your over priced system, I guess it'll be me and the PC's.

pss.....ended up buying a Toshiba Satellite laptop with plenty of bells and whistles. 3 months in and i love it!

Cooking with Pearl

I had an old post called "Cooking with Rosalie" in which I thought of my maternal grandmothers as I cooked latkes. Today, I was using apples from a tree my grandmother Pearl planted about 70 years ago. The tree sits on my mom's front lawn, and with rare exception has had many bountiful seasons. The tree continues to grow, it's branches become thicker and covered with flaky bark as the years pass. I gathered up a bunch of apples less than a week ago with the intention of making something I could freeze, since apples don't preserve by freezing like peaches do.

I found this apple oatmeal cookie recipe on Allrecipes.com (actually on the android app on my phone.)


Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup diced apple without peel
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Beat in the eggs until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended. Fold in the walnuts, oats and apples. Drop dough by spoonfuls about 2 inches onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on wire racks.

I made a few modifications like adding mini chocolate chips and less butter. In fact, I used half a stick of butter and then added about 1/4 cup applesauce. I like to play around with recipes, but I'm sure that the recipe would be good as it is written. And yes, I sampled several of these cookies and I really like them.

they are cake like and not sweet. The fruit wins the flavor contest here.

One caution with the recipe. There is a metric converter, but the measures were in grams rather than decilitres. You might have better luck converting the measures yourself.

Bat Removal Horror

NOT OUR BAT, but they all look like mice with Satan wings!

Frankly, having a bat in the house is right up there with things I DO NOT WANT! And it will continue to rate up there, forever. That said, Christine had a bat at her house, and WTH...you gotta do something about it, right? If not yourself then an expensive professional. Last night, Peter and I bravely entered Christine's dark house, and guided by my Maglite searched for the little bugger. Sure enough it surfaced, well flew right at me! Yuck! I ducked, but I also tried to put the bat net up to get it. Thankfully Christine had bought the bat net at the dollar store! Peter took over the net at that point and I was glad because he had great aim. After a really frustrating time of hide and seek he brought the bat down. I tried really hard to scopp it into the shoe box I had(without touching it at all), but the little sucker got away. We were getting frustrated because those things fly fast. Finally! Finally, we got it down and this time were smarted about getting it into the box. We used a towel to nudge it into the box without touching it (hidesight: wear thick gloves, you never know)and then I taped the lide down so that not a tiny bit of area would be open for the little guy to escape.

But I felt bad, really bad and apologized to him. He didn't ask to be born an animal that nobody likes, and animal that is really useful but that scares the bejesus out of everyone! Poor little guy. I also felt bad because I was going to be responsible for killing him by suffocation. A long time ago I was at a sunday school picnic and a bunch of kids found a frog and were trying to stone it to death. I never valued the lives of animals when I was a child, never thought about it until that day. When the leader, Miss Goodyear saw what was going on she gave us a lecture I have never forgotten, that you never senselessly kill an animal. I think she woke in me that day an understanding that all living things are connected. I do hope that little bat is reborn as something loveable like a kitten or a puppy!

So moral of the tale is that capturing a bat is difficult and you need to be cautious! Working with a partner is also a neccessity! Today I took bat to the NYS Lab where they will test it for rabies (just in case). I hope Christine is done with bats! Please! :)

The last of the Chicago pictures!

Day Three was Monday. I got up early and got my Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and sat in the park. Then I walked over the BP bridge which spans Columbus Ave. It was early morning rush hour and so I finally got to see what real Chicago denizens looked like! Here are two shots of the Hotel Burnham's interior. Ornate and amazing, but alas, it was the last day of the trip and time to check out.





I checked out of my hotel and went to the Art Institute. It does have a complicated and somewhat frustrating floor plan. You have to go down one flight of stairs, but then walk over to another flight to go back up to the same level but a different section. Weird. Well, I got my stairmaster workout there. I saw almost all of the famous stuff you are suppose to see like Hopper, El Greco, and the famous “American Gothic”. Then I found the “Fates Gathering the Stars”. I’ve always liked that piece and had no idea it was at the Institute. I also liked the “Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys.” I like the subject matter of the taunt, especially when you realize Spartans took their athleticism to an extreme. What Degas was trying to say with this work (BTW, there is a similar version in the National Gallery in London) don’t ask me. I’m no expert on Art History, that’s for sure. I just know what I like and why I like it.

So after my Institute trip I headed back to the orange line and the airport. Again, no difficulties there, smooth lines, no delays. I was home at 8:15! Great trip!!! Don’t have any idea when I’ll be doing something like this again, but I hope to.

Following are just lots of pictures I took on Monday:

Chicago Trip: Day Two with more pictures

Day Two sent me to Hyde Park and the Museum of Science and Industry. First I had to see Lake Michigan, take off my shoes and wade in it! I love the great lakes. Now I have waded in 3 of 5 of them. As I was drying off my feet I noticed a lot of motor cycles passing by on Lake Shore Drive. And then there were more, and then more, and then I noticed that the police had blocked off the road for them. The police were escorting them, and there must have been a couple hundred. It when on like that for quite some time, maybe 20-30 minutes. If you live in Illinois you don’t have to wear a helmet, who knew? Who would choose not to? I googled the affair and discovered it was an annual ride in support of police killed while on duty. The article stated that there were about 1,000 riders! No wonder why they had an escort!



Before the museum I walked to the Osaka Garden.



Honestly, thought it would be bigger and not basically in some secluded section of the park. Some people were there photographing half naked male models in this little waterfall. It was...different. Hmmm, there wasn’t too much to see. The old grounds of the Columbian Exposition retain nothing from that time, not even an echo. There was however, a fairly large quantity of garbage strewn around making me think perhaps there had been a concert there the night before. There was also one or two homeless guys muttering to themselves. The homeless in Chicago are abundant. The ones on Michigan Ave are aggressive in that they will ask you for money. There were also too many in their 20’s! They weren’t even scruffy looking, I thought that was just down right strange.

As for the Columbian Exposition, only the museum of Science and Industry is left of the buildings that were there over one hundred years ago. The museum was interesting, and would be a blast if you were a kid over seven years old. I enjoyed the weather section and the chemistry info.



There’s a real airliner in there. An old 747. The display itself is getting dated. It mentioned how planes soon would be using GPS to navigate. Heck, my phone was already triangulating my position as I was reading that. I bet the display was only from the 1990’s. Technology changes so rapidly. I didn’t go into the sub or the coal mine, but I bet both are really interesting. I did get to see a baby chick hatch! Cool!

After that I was beat. I still hadn’t seen Hyde Park and the Robie House, and quite honestly, I wasn’t all that close to it. Since I had no idea exactly where I would venture there, and how I could get there safely, I decided it would have to wait until another trip to the city.

Heading north on the # 10 bus I consulted my phone for my next move. It was my smart phone that decided to go to Pizzeria Due on Wabash and Ontario. While there, I was talking to a man who was from Illinois, but like 30 miles away. He was there with his friend talking Hungarian. She was from Hungary and spoke little English. She asked me if I were German or Russian. No one has ever asked me if I were Russian before! LOL. I often get Irish, German, Italian, and I’ve even heard Jewish, but not Russian. Seems that Pizzeria Due was recommended to this man by his friend who lives in Chicago! SERENDIPIDY. Man asks me how I knew to come there: I answer, I used my phone.



Let me stop here and say that most of my trip was facilitated by my smart phone. I had constant use of the map and an app that specifically gave the timing for the bus and train routes. Of course, I was also able to go online to find info as needed. I know that years ago I did very well with just a paper map and a lot of preplanning, but the phone just makes it so much easier.

The pizza was excellent!!!!! Such a fine crust that was crisp, yet doughy, and not all rough and hard to chew like NY pizza. The pizza was filled with peppers, onions, mushrooms, and cheese and topped with tomato sauce. I ate every single bite!!!!! After that I needed a walk. I headed back to my hotel which just happened to be across the street from Macy’s. This Macy’s used to be a Marshall Field’s Department Store. It’s old and ornate. There are 9 stories with a balcony that overlooks this open area in the center. At the top of the roof is a dome with colorful mosaic tiles. I spent probably less than an hour there as it was Sunday and closing time was 6 PM.

Being exhausted, I pretty muh called it a day. I did wander the park a bit, but got back to the hotel by 8PM and settled in to read before going to bed early. The only thing my hotel lacked was HBO! It would have been the perfect thing to watch on Sunday night (TrueBlood)!

Below are just a few more of the pictures I took on Sunday:

Chicago Trip Day One

I’ve always wanted to just buy an airline ticket, fly off to some city, and spend the weekend. Guess what? I did it! I just got back Monday from Chicago. While it is a little strange to travel by yourself, I had such a fun time that I would most certainly do this type of random travel again.

Everything about the trip was pure serendipity. I was able to get a flight direct from Albany to Chicago that left early in the morning. When I got to security, there was no line and no hassle! Then, not only was the flight on time, we had no wait for departure and arrived 15 minutes early. Finding the orange L train line was easy and it took off only a minute after I got on. I exited at State and Lake, and this is what I saw:

Later, I would take this picture from my hotel room! So when I exited the train I was only 2 blocks from my hotel. I just didn’t realize it at the time because it was too early to check in. Instead I headed north towards the river. I got some good exercise following the river walk and then over the bridge towards Michigan Ave. I circled around the NBC building and happened upon Marilyn. Mom had told me to look for her, but I hadn’t actually searched for the statue, it just found me. This statue just got erected in mid-July 2011. I made my way back toward the river and my Architecture River Cruise.

The cruise was a good way to see the city and hear its history in buildings. Chicago is famous for its architecture and designers like Frank Lloyd Wright and Daniel Burnham. It’s also birthplace of the skyscraper. So we cruised into view of the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) and some interesting buildings. We also went past what had been the Montgomery Ward distribution center. All I could think was: “This will be Amazon.com in a hundred years.” Our docent did a fantastic job of keeping the story flowing for 90 minutes. If you geek for architecture, take the tour. At the end of the tour the docent mentioned a free concert at Millennium Park that evening. I kept that in mind as I made my way to my hotel.

I stayed at the Hotel Burnham! Best choice I could have made. It’s within an historic building known as the Reliance Building that was designed by Daniel Burnham and erected in 1895. The rooms are clean, well cared for, recently refinished. The staff was good and the hotel was quiet at all times. They actually allow pets! But I never heard a noise, nor was there any odor. This hotel is in the best location. I can’t recommend it enough. I was 2 blocks from Michigan Ave. (the main area in the Loop) and 2 blocks from the train. Several buses ran down State Street (that’s the corner street for the hotel), and then the two parks, Millennium and Grant, were 2 blocks away and maybe 5 blocks was the Art Institute. It was too easy!

I checked in early, got myself reenergized and headed out to Navy Pier. Navy Pier is a tourist stop, but who cares, I was a tourist. There’s a lot to eat and some amusement park level stuff. It made me think of Old Orchard Beach in Maine. There’s a great view of Lake Michigan there, a Stained Glass Museum (it’s free) and a big fat Ferris Wheel. Did you know the first Ferris Wheel debuted in 1893 in Chicago at the Columbian Expedition? The one I went on was only half its height! Still, good view. I capped off my little trip to Navy Pier with a Chicago Hot Dog. Beef dog, on a poppy seed roll, cover with chopped tomatoes and onions, a pickle and mild hot peppers! No condiments, at least no ketchup (I’m not a ketchup fan anyways). It was DELICIOUS!!!!











I finished off Day One with a trip to Millennium Park for the free concert. It was the music of Jean Sibelius, the Finnish composer. It was so stirring to hear the chorus singing the epic sounding Kullervo in Finnish! It’s a long song that went on for over an hour as the sun set, but the city is just as vibrant at night.