Dinner Therapy

• Baby scallops seared in garlic, lime, and a dash of dill and steaming clams in the shell soaked in garlic butter served over capellini pasta.
  
• A blend of baby red and green butter lettuces and baby spinach tossed with fresh tomatoes lightly dressed with extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar, fresh cracked pepper and course sea salt. Lay Parmesan shavings on top.
  
• Hearty slices of whole grain millet bread spread with fresh cream butter.
  
• Begin with a warm creamy tomato bisque.
  
• A nice glass of Cabernet sauvignon.
  
• Follow with a healthy piece of dark chocolate truffle and a cup of mint tea.
  

Dinner at home with the family tonight. . . all thanks to Trader Joe's. The ordinary Monday night family dinner that helps one face the week ahead - deliciously.

Hannah's At It Again

Buy this girl a camera and she wastes all her time.

Poll Workers (Note, I hear: Pole Workers)

It's finally Election Day.  An exciting day for so many reasons . . . and an amusing one.  Listening to the radio on my commute to Oakland, NPR heavily covered voter activity.  There were many interviews with "poll workers", which I stereotyped by their somewhat nasely, soft-spokeness as nerd-types, and now I envisioned them "working the pole."  Many discussed how long they have been poll (pole) workers.  One man said he brought home an application to his stay-at-home-wife encouraging her to become a poll (pole) worker.  "Honey," he urged, "you would get a lot of satisfaction from being a poll (pole) worker."  I chuckled to myself in my twisted little brain.  A news reporter said he was admonished by The Head Poll (pole) Worker not to take photographs. Hee-hee.

Ok, time to be mature now. . . the moment has come . . . time to go vote.  And check out my local poll (pole) workers.

Sleepless In Salt Lake City

It is almost 4 am and I have not slept a wink (well, maybe an hour which can be counted as a wink). I have been in SLC for five days and my sleeplessness is progressively getting worse . . . I believe I am going to die.

I recently changed companies (same job, new and improved company) and realized I don't neccessarily like change. I think I need to warm up to things, but this warming period is taking an exhausting toll. I am going back home in two days, and hopefully, I can rest easily there, with my cats on the end of my bed (or sometimes tucked up around me) and my kids asleep in the other room. Although, it's not just being away from home that is causing my insomnia, because sometimes we all need to get away from home. There is just a lot going on . . . and it's an election year.

Wish I could say "good night," but I'm afraid I'm not feeling it.

Duathalon

This Sunday I will be participating in a local duathalon event. Not to be confused with a biatholon (pictured). I will NOT be carrying a rifle and shooting at targets along the course. I will, however, be running and mountain biking through the beautiful American River Canyon. With a few good rains, the trail conditions are perfect. The ground has nice give to it and the gritty dust been dampened down (not muddy at all) allowing for more control on the bike by diminishing the slide effect.

It is important to note that I will be participating (not racing) in an event (not a race). Although, I anticipate the enthusiasm will kick in and "race pace" will inevitably take over. This makes me nervous about maintaining good energy levels -- any suggestions sports fans?

Palin's Joe Six Pack - Who Is He?

I know where Main St. is, but who is "Joe Six Pack"?

Is he an alcoholic?

Or an unnaturally sculpted male?
(I understand that "Joe Six Pack" is supposed to be a euphemism for the average American male.  I'd be offended if I were an average American male).

Ahhh, too much to think about. My new career goals. . .

My Cup Runneth Over

Actually, my plate has been very full (I wonder how many ingestion analogies can be applied to just being really, really busy, or as in the King James reference in the title, "more than enough" to do? No time to figure that now). I have been here and there, and Salt Lake City, Utah for a job interview. Although I have a good job, an opportunity has arisen for another and has left me analysing, debating, and researching for which position will suit me best.

Until the negotiating is final, I will try and enjoy being taken to mulitple dinners by a potential and current employer. . .

Rock Around The Clock

Tonight Cole was playing with the innards of a music box that Donna had bought for me on her trip to Europe years ago ('my friend went to Europe and all I got was this lousy innards to a music box,' I think that's what the t-shirts says). This musical device looks like a miniature piece of what is inside a player piano; it plays one song and you crank it by hand, or with your fingers really. Cole asked me how fast should he be turning the tiny crank to get the tempo right. So we opened up You Tube to play the song "Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley and The Comets. I knew Cole had heard the song when he was very young because I had it on a CD we used to listen to often, but he hadn't heard it recently enough. None of us have . . . anyway, here's to you! Enjoy.




Soccer Season Is Upon Us

Thanks to my friend Steve Levine (husband to my awesome mt. bike partner and friend Marianne), I was able to capture a few photos of the first game of the AYSC soccer season 2009, Auburn, California, USA. Woohoo!I love soccer season -- standing on the sidelines in the (soon to be) Fall weather with a cup of coffee, the sky is usually the crispest blue, the leaves are just beginning to change to gold, brown, and red as a slight breeze loosens them from their tenuous stems on trees that line the field, and the excitement in the air generated from the players buzzez about while parents chat convivially and occasionally stop to cheer on a player.

We have a great team of players this year, a great coach, and (a fact I am happy about) a great group of parents to mingle with. That's always and added benefit.But what I am most happy about is times like yesterday, when driving home with Cole he said "I think that was the best game I've played so far." And he had that mixture of satisfaction and excitement you get when know you hit your mark -- you pushed your body, tested your talents, focused your mind, put them all together and achieved success. It is a fantastic feeling and a hard earned privilege of an experience that comes with participating in sports.

I look forward to the unfolding soccer season . . . I apologize, but I must quote "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat (read, personal defeat)." This sports idiom has not persisted for years without reason.

The Seventh Sense

Humor.  

Rock N' Roll: The Devil's Music

This photo is of my daughter and one member of the musical duo 3OH!3. If you haven't heard of them, that probably means you're my age, or close by. I only heard them because one evening while my daughter had itunes playing, foul lyrics were hip-hopping out of the Mac. (I read that their music is a sort of satire of rap music, but sheesh, satire can be so heavily veiled sometimes).  This is how the scene went:

What!? Hannah, please turn this music off.

Huff. I like the beat -- that's what I listen to, not the words (or something very similar, I've heard it several times).

You hear the words subliminally. You're hearing the words whether you think so or not (is what I usually say).

So how did I end up asking this character from this band who described their music in a recent "Rolling Stone" article as 'Celine Dion on ice - not the skating ice, the meth ice' if he would pose for a picture with my daughter back stage at his show?

Well, it wasn't as hard as you think.  My good friend, Tina, (part of the Marianne and Tina mountain biking fame) brought Hannah and I as guests of her daughter to the Warped Tour. Tina's daughter works for Capitol Records and was at the music festival representing an artist signed by Capitol, a young woman who sings a song about kissing a girl and liking it. Tina's daughter got us backstage everywhere. We ate lunch with the bands, we went on Capitol Record's tour bus, we stood in line to use the restroom which doubled as the female artists showers. . . etc. But my daughter's best moments, she told me, were getting to be on stage with at least four or five of her favorite bands while they played to a teenage crowd. Days later it made me think how differently my daughter is growing up than I did -- in significantly more ways than just back stage passes to the Warped Tour -- and I wondered how differently this will influence her choices and her life than mine. Growing up in a different generation, raised by a parent with different beliefs than my parents had, and being shown a different outlook on life.

And even while I ponder, I need to go monitor what she is listening to. I can't believe what kids call music these days. Alas, I guess some things will never be different.(One of the musical influences of the members of 3OH!3 is the Beastie Boys. I hope these boys change their "party" image like the Beastie Boys eventually did, because in actuality they are two summe cum laude with a lot of humorous energy on stage. And they even seemed like nice young men back stage.  But their lyrics, ughh.)

Foreign Policy, It's What's For Dinner

Are you looking for something new for dinner that is tasty and stirs up conversation in one serving?  I heard of this cookbook at evilcuisines.com, "Cuisines of The Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States:  A Dinner Party," and it has whetted my appetite.

Hannah's Photos

I know some of you feel it is a cop-out of a post when I only publish photos that my daughter has taken. You are probably correct, I am not putting any writing effort (or thought) into the post; I did not pick up the camera and take the photos myself (mostly because Hannah is bogarting our old, cheap camera. BTW, the etymology of the word "bogart" is '1969 "to keep a joint in your mouth" dangling from the lip like Humphrey Bogart's cigarette in the old movies, instead of passing it on. First attested in "easy Rider."' Etymology.com); and I am not sharing any useful information I overheard or drawing any conclusions to help us all understand the world around us a little better.

However, I do love the photos my daughter takes and they inspire me in untold ways. So here are three shots that she took at my Aunts' house in Ventura -- and tweaked a little with our stock photo editing program on the Mac. Enjoy!

(I call these the "Muppet Flowers.")

Look Before You Blend

Have you ever been so groggy, because you were supposed to wake up at 6:00 am for a 6:30 am bike ride but you turned your alarm off in your sleep (partly due to the fact that you were so excited about an early morning bike ride that you kept waking up through out the night) and your friend who showed up at 6:30 am had to finally at 6:40 am come in your room and wake you up, that you stumble in to the kitchen to quickly make the protein shake that you had set all the ingredients out the night before but can't find the plastic insert to the top of your blender and you're in a hurry (because you're supposed to ride down and meet up with two others from your group and be at the confluence by 7:00 am) so you decide to just cover your hand over the gape in the lid of the blender and once you turn it on it is really making an obnoxious grinding noise (and you think, wow, that ice in the shake is tough and you wonder if you made the right decision to not get the new blender at Costco yesterday because you decided your old blender/food processor, which your mom gave you and is from the 70's, is still working and you don't want to needlessly consume) and so once the shake is blended you pour it into two cups, one for you and your friend, and you shortly realize that you are drinking shards of blended plastic and your friend accuses you of trying to kill him (Namanny) and you realize that inside the blender is where the missing plastic part to the lid was, why didn't you think to look there, but you can't worry about that or even nutrition at this point because your other two friends are relying on you to be at the confluence on time so you rush off on your bike spitting plastic out of your mouth thinking that now you really like your old 70's Moulinex blender/food processor even though it is the ugliest piece of equipment in your kitchen and the plastic is yellowing but you highly doubt you can find a replacement piece and may actually have to go to Costco and spend the money to buy the new one?  

Have you ever been that groggy?

Props to Butterflies

Shadowing after Cole while he long-boarded through the neighborhood streets of Ventura, CA I ran across a deceased butterfly laying fully intact on the sidewalk. It was lovely in its death and I decided to take it back because I thought Hannah might like to see it. It really was lovely. I set it on a porch bench by the front door and forgot about it until the next day when we were departing for our long drive home.

"Hannah," I said, "look at this butterfly I found." She paused to look it over and then took it from my hands. Without seeming hesitation she walked over to my Aunt Gerry's rose garden, placed the carcass on top of a rose, and began snapping photos as she contorted to get different angles.

What she produced are some almost surreal photos of a dead butterfly (is 'almost surreal' a description [almost a hallucinatory dream-like state]?). I say . . .

Ventura, CA

Cole in pool. 

Photo by HannahHannah on beach.

Photo by Kirstie

It was a lovely time. . .

The many faces of Hannah Rochelle . . .

Right now Hannah is out on the town with some friends of hers. I had been calling her every half hour, and then she told me it was getting embarrassing, so I've limited myself to every forty-five minutes . . . that works much better for us.

At the same time, I am listening to Cole and Brent discuss the "Oblivion" video game they are playing as if they are discussing a real society . . . it's quite a comical conversation to be eaves dropping on. They are dead serious. Every once in awhile Cole will pause during play and say, "look at this mom." He points out a particularly beautiful country side and I am pleased that Cole knows I would like it. But the video game playing -- agh, it can get so out of control.

One child is out and two are glued to the video game . . . summer slowly draws itself out to the point of feeling quite finished with it.

This woman is made of steel.

This woman is tired.

This weekend I was at mountain bike race in Downieville with a friend of mine. Neither of us participated in the race, we were just there to check out the activities and to see if we wanted to sign up next year, we do. It is a beautiful course and it is really too frustrating to be around a race unless you, or someone you are helping out, is in the race.

At one point I was sitting on the ground next to a woman while we were waiting for the awards ceremony to begin. Someone nearby mentioned they were tired and I chimed in, me too. The woman asked me if I had raced that day and I said no, I really had no reason to be tired (other than flying to LA for two days of training for work while still managing the house and family, coming home to out-of-town visitors, and then taking off the next day to Downieville.) I asked her if she had raced and she said she had and when asked how it went, she said it was tough.

A few minutes after the awards ceremony began, this woman sitting next to me, who I complained to that I was tired, got up and went to the stage to accept her second place medal for the women's Pro Division with a stunning time.
Uhhh, congratualtions, is what I said to her when she sat back down next to me on the ground.
I am not made out of steel. I am tired.

Back In The Saddle

With the smoke finally abating from all these Ca. fires (knock on wood, or better yet, some other non-flammable surface), we've finally been able to hop back on our bikes, at least for now . . . and it is glorious to ride again.  Being grounded because of poor air quality created such a yearning I felt as if I were going to burst out of my skin.  It's not good for a person who weights challenging outdoor activities as an important part of life to have that taken away.

My sister Rochelle and I decided since it is in style to label every kind of imbalance (or perceived imbalance) with an acronymable label, we came up with SDD -- Smoke Depression Disorder. "How's your SDD going?" we may be heard to say.

I am happy to report that after a fantastic evening ride tonight -- no SDD resides here.

Photo by Hannah

The Livin's Easy

Summertime is for jumping off docks with good friends.
Photo by Kirstie

And for capturing your mom in a contemplative moment looking out over the Clementine Dam.
Photo by Hannah

Flume Trail Ride

Photos by Marianne LevineThe ladies and I headed out on an epic 22 mile ride on Tahoe's Flume Trail.

The scenery was spectacular and the trail was narrow, winding, and sandy.

With sheer cliffs on one side and the entire Tahoe basin leading out beyond us, it was a breath taking ride.With an awesome group of women, we laughed the whole way. And kicked ass.

And apparently the group of young boys we passed on the trail thought the same thing as evidence of the remnants they left on the windshield of the van we all piled out of. We are thinking they do not mean "cougars" in the traditional derogatory term. Some in our group looked at the cup half full and took it as a compliment. Whatever your meaning of cougar is, we really prowled those trails and attacked them. Like spectacular female mountain bikers would!

New Blogger On The Block

Yesterday evening while laying in my bed reading, an activity I like to do to decompress from the day's work before I head into what family responsibilities beckon me, Cole came in my room and asked, "how do you post a picture on a blog?"

Well, you do this, that, and the other thing. . . wait a minute, do you have a blog?  Yes my friends, Cole has joined the blogosphere. . . check it out! 

A Unicycle Built For One

Cole is perfecting his new skill of unicycling. Our friend Jason told Cole about a unicycle for sale at a church yard sale for $4 and Cole ran, not walked, to purchase his new one-wheeled-wonder.You know you live a rich and colorful life when you have to tell your son to get off the unicycle before eating his breakfast (he rode up and leaned against the kitchen table). Words you never imagined yourself saying, "please get off the unicycle while eating your waffle. You could choke or something." (or shoot your eye out).
Hannah expressed her talents by drawing a picture on my back. It felt good to contribute to her art, no really, the pen felt good on my back.

Summer Vacation Is Upon Us

Goofing off and Guitar Hero were the order of the day for one of the first official days of Summer vacation (with menacing chores sprinkled in).

Piggy back rides quicky devolved into Hannah giving her brother Cole "airplane rides" like I used to give the kids when they were little (way to go Muscles Hannah McGee). . .

. . . this activity fell into self-portrait poses on the floor. . .

. . . which morphed into a wrestling match in which Hannah conquered her brother. Fortunately, he has all Summer to work on a comback.

Molly Rocks

Molly, of A Foothill Home Companion Molly, and dear, sweet friend of mine crafted my new banner and emailed it to me out of the blue the other day. Molly often has a catching new banner on AFHC and she has spread the love to me and my, severely neglected blog -- and it is one of my favorite Edward Hopper paintings.

Thanks Moll -- you rock!

Diet Coke and Mentos Extravaganza

A few weeks ago at the Maker Faire in San Mateo (we made the trip owing to our fearless leader Jason Adair), we saw a lot of things -- too many things to mention, so I will mention them slowly, and one at a time.

One thing we saw was Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of the Diet Coke and Mentos revolution (if one can call it a revolution; considering they have taken a backyard experiment to a professional level and are traveling around the world, it could be called a revolution) perform their show live. Yes, they have actually created a SHOW
And we saw it . . . you must click on SHOW and see it for your own eyes.

The two have rigged Diet Coke bottles with PVC pipe, creating a different internal structure to produce different sprays. The PVC pipe is outfitted with a pin that suspends the mentos in the pipe until the pins are pulled and the mentos are released, creating the spray reaction.

Being a nerd for science, I found it interesting that the reaction is NOT in fact a chemical reaction, but a physical reaction. As explained on Eepybird.com:

"It’s mostly due to a process called nucleation, where the carbon dioxide in the soda is attracted to the Mentos (they are awfully cute). That creates so much pressure that the soda goes flying. We built nozzles that make the opening smaller and that makes the geyser go higher."

Yes, I found it interesting, but only for a second, I swear.

By the end of the "show," the two are covered in Diet Coke. . . this, they explained is the reason for Diet. Less sugar, less sticky. By the way, they are actually now sponsored by Diet Coke and Mentos. Blows the mind.

At the Maker Faire, we also rode around on some crazy bikes; I did mention that I would show you things slowly, so here's just a quick preview.
Jason top photo (Rob Fingerson on other side not pictured). Cole bottom photo.

Mmmm.  Eating Harry & David's chocolate truffles in bed.  

Photos by Hannah



Photo by Photo Booth

Where The Boys Are