So much cooking... today my mom and I made beans salad (well it turned out kinda souper then expected), peach pie, pumpkin flan, presimmion pudding, cherry clafouti, and a chocolate cake. We also chopped lots of veggies for roasted root veggies (well my mom did), set up the sweet potato and apple casserole (a good bit of chopping there), and set the turkey to brine.

Before all that we went to the Cheese Board -- which was very very busy but quite fun to visit.

Today I had lunch with an old friend who is in town for Thanksgiving. We had Burritos, and a good talk. I got to hear about her grad school, and NYC (and how Berkeley is better) and tell her about my life. After eating we wandered around after lunch and looked at stores, and bought cookies.

I had an exciting breakfast this morning. It consisted of a pear, a muffin, a mugful of milk, and fried oatmeal. I don't end up with leftover oatmeal often - but when I do I tend to make it into fried oatmeal. When the oatmeal is still warm place you place it in loaf shaped container and stick it in the fridge. Latter when you want fried oatmeal you cut it into slices and fry them in butter until nice and brown. I think they are very nice with some jam.

I went and visited my dying neighbor today. (The neighborhood people have set up a vising timetable for him -- but they don't seem to have told his aide about it yet -- more work to be done I guess) It was really sad. He looks awful and tried out after a little bit of talking. And he talked about "when I'm back on my feet" which was just so sad.

So I got back into sewing again (at least for now) on Monday My mom and I went to the fabric store. We didn't get that much stuff -- mostly notions at patterns.

Anyways that inspired us to work the current sewing project which had been dormant for a long time. Hopeful it will now get done.

Also got a pattern for some holiday gifts -- I've now filled out more then half my list anyways, but there are still lots of empty spaces.

I saw the Globe's touring production of Love's Labours Lost last night. My dad got cheap tickets at the last minute and my mom couldn't go so I got to go. It was a very good production. I liked the set -- they used scaffolding to build up a balcony with doors below (A lot like the Elizabethan theater at SFO, and I guess like the globe). They had sheets with stylized trees painted on them, I don't know, it was simple but I liked the effect. One odd thing they did was to keep the lights on the whole time. My Dad said latter that if we've know we could have brought the text and followed along. I'm not sure that would have helped though. I did lose the thread a lot, but still think acting is easier to follow then a book. The acting was well done too. All in all it was very good production and I'm pleased to have seen it.

My neibour is going to be in hospice. My mom found out from his husband, who she said was just totally sobbing. These men have lived on my block my whole life. My mom is getting the the neighbors involved, and has told them I can help out when ever. I'm glad for anything I can do to help, but I can't make him not die.

You know what is kinda depressing? Spending a bunch of time in a book store and not buying anything. I went by Moe's today on my way home, and browsed for a while -- and I did pick up some non-fiction but no novels. I'm just not excited by any of the novels in my pile right now. Mostly there is stuff I borrowed form my mom, so it's all depressing lit fic. Any I like a bit of that, but as steady diet it's not my thing. I want more SF, and maybe something light hearted. I hate having no income and thus no money for books.

I've been waking up in the middle of the night. This a new way not to sleep for me. Last night I was able to go back to sleep fairly quickly but the night before I was up for a few hours. Ugh. Not a Fan.

I'm slowly deleting all my old e-mail, or putting it in folders, but mostly deleting. I have goal of 10 e-mails a day, but generally I do more then that. It's amazing how many e-mails about arranging supervisions I have, and lots of old homework. Also I've saved every Pooh Soc e-mail ever, and most of those are going in the bin -- they are archived online after all. I am keeping one or two funny one's. Beetle's are especially good.

So Friday we had a pumpkin carving party. It was a potluck I baked challah and made baked beans, and my mom made a steamed persimmon pudding and took a pie out of the freezer. (I also made an Angel food cake -- more on that in a bit)

The Challah recipe made lots and lots this time: Four very long loaves. This is the third time I've made it and it's been different every time.

Party was a success. People liked the food, and brought their own good food. Many pumpkins where carved and we had nice porch full for Halloween.

Next day (Halloween) my mom had doctor's retreat at our house, because it was Halloween they where all dressed up (the theme was your fantasy for medicine) so my living room was full of doctors in consume.

They had potluck lunch -- which had bit of food and chat at, but then I ran off to the block party (that's what the angel food cake was for) where I chatted with my neighbors and had more good food.

I had planed to take my niece trick-or-treating but it didn't end up working out. Oh well, next year.

I went and worked in the garden yesterday. Even though it's been warm since the last rain, the ground was muddy. I thinned a whole bed of carrots, and also got to do some digging. Outside and being helpful are both good mood boosters.

My new computer is finally here! I'm stilly playing around with it and getting stuff set up -- though I'm trying not get too into it because I'm going to upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as they ship me the disk to do so.

Still I've got firefox and trillian installed. Any rec's for firefox add-ons?

Here are some of my thoughts on some of the other non-fiction I've been reading.

American Chestnut: The Life Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel: This was a nice bit US historical ecology with lots of focus on how the death of the chestnut trees effect the people who lived with them. There are some nice bits of oral history collected in the book.

The 2nd part of the book is all about the efforts to breed a blight resistant chestnut tree which are on going. This bit had cool plant breeding stuff and some interesting characters. There are some bits about GM too. I think that using GM for this would be great I'd far I think there are less likely to be unintended consequences of a few genes deliberately inserted the ~10% breed in (but including those few genes) however the author is a bit less then enthusiastic about GM.

Cheek By Jowl by Ursula K Le Guin: This was book of essays about and defending fantasy. I quite like Le Guin's essays in general and I liked these too. My favourite was the long essay about different kinds of animal stories.

Moveable Feast by Sarah Murray: This was kinda fun but not very deep -- it's kinda "free markets are probably good and environmental destruction and global warming are bad" but not really looking into the interconnections between these things or these thing and the stories the author tells. However they are neat stories, and I now know more about Roman olive oil trade, shipping containers, and the dabbawallas of Mumbai than I did before.

Yesterday I hosted a tea party, with a friend to help with set up, because I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much all by myself. Our guest list was rather changeable with some people not attending at the last minute and other people changing there minds and attending after all. However the people who did attend where lovely, and all seemed to get along well. Many stories about Berkeley High where told. And many other silly stories as well.

Menu:
Black Tea
Herb Tea
cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches
egg and cress sandwiches on home-made maple-oat bread
scones
Over clotted cream[1]
Jam: Strawberry-rhubarb and Mystery
Delicious Lemon Oat Bars[2]
Peaches
Pear
Cherry Tomatoes

[1] It didn't work out the way I wanted it to failing to become clotted cream. However people liked it anyways, so I guess that's ok. I tried a different recipe and that seems to have worked better, but it wasn't done in time for the party.
[2]People where actually saying "please pass the delicious lemon oat bars so I feel justified in calling them that"

1st day of field work today. Drove down to San Jose to sample the river there - -this was post storm sample so it was done on a sunny day. I learned about clean hands/dirty hands which is like sterile technique but for metals rather then germs. We are testing the water for very small amounts of mercury so it is important not to add any extra metals. I was clean hands which meant I couldn't touch anything but the sample bottles and some of the bags. It was kinda difficult to do. Also it's hard to open a ziplock bag with gloves on. I did really badly at the 1st place but I was able to improve a lot on the 2nd try. Then we came back and mailed our samples to the lab. It was fun. I'm glad I got to practice that when it wasn't raining.

I had an interview this morning. It didn't go all that well. I was nervous and failed to sell myself. In the end she said that most of the other candidates had more experience so they probably won't hire me. I'm still a bit worked up.

I’ve been reading more non-fiction since I got home form Uni. I used to have trouble getting excited about non-fiction, I wouldn’t focus, and I’d put the book down and not care to pick it up again. I suppose my new focus maybe a result of reading all those papers.

On of the things I’ve been reading non-fiction about are food systems. I’m fascinated by the complex mix of ecology and economics. And I think it’s an area that could use my talents if could just figure out how to apply them and get paid too.

Anyways, this leading up to telling you my thoughts on Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel, a book about the world food system.( Read more... )

It's raining buckets and buckets today. I didn't get to work during this storm though -- they though they where going to want me last night but changed their minds. I'm a bit disappointed but also glad of getting to sleep.

Did I mention the dog having a cone on his head? I don't know that I did. Anyways, dogs are not good at space -- he doesn't get that his head is bigger with a cone on it. Not at all. So he goes around knocking everything over, and getting stuck, and knocking his water over, and bumping into people. Maybe I did write about it.

Anyways today my mom took off the cone --And went right back to licking. He licked off his whole thick scab. So I think the cone will have to go back. I don't think I can put it on by myself or it would be back on now. Drat.