Nibble Nibble, Part III: Housing Collapse

So this is the finished house, pristine, gracing the dining table for exactly a couple of hours. Within minutes of its completion, the makers began to withdraw their profits, as evidenced by the erosion of the far front corner of the roof, broken ridgepole and missing gumdrops.

After several days, this is the sorry condition of the gingerbread house. Everyone has been pilfering edges, corners, decorations, and last night Daughter and Friend abandoned all pretense of decorum and broke it apart into a pile of cookie pieces. The pieces now live in the cookie jar from the gift basket I won in the library's raffle, but I don't expect them to last much longer..

As we continue to nibble, we remember the fun we had baking and building the little house, and the glow of Christmas cheer warms us all anew. I know I would cheerfully do it all again next year!

(The recipe I use was originally published in the Honolulu Advertiser on December 17, 1970, page G1. The featured baker was Christl Chun, of Manoa.)

Misty Moisty Morning

A and I went for a walk up on the levee late-morning and found a few more interesting things to photograph. Lately, it has been very foggy, although this morning the fog was mostly higher. There is a difference between "fog" and "tule fog". Tule fog rises from the ground and hides everything: trees, traffic lights, street lights, tail-lights, and rivers. Regular fog masquerades as "overcast". Thursday night, M and I went to the Celtic Thunder concert. On arrival, all was good. On exit, we couldn't even see the parking lot from the arena doors.

Because the fog layer is so thick, the daytime highs are in the mid-40s - at 2 p.m. today it was 43 degrees! Yesterday, the high was 46. The lows are in the upper 30s. It's cold for this time of year! To take the chill off, L and I plan to bake cookies after dinner tonight and have them for dessert with hot chocolate. (These are the cookies that were in the gift basket I won in the raffle at our staff's "Winter Wowzer" meeting/party on Friday. As advertised, they are "scandalously good!") I opened the cookie jar and shared it with the staff, so didn't bring even one cookie home!

Thanksgiving Eve

Boss gave a beautiful speech at our reference staff meeting this morning, saying she is thankful for having the opportunity to work with such an awesome and capable staff, despite her high standards and the many changes she's implemented over the past year. We applauded. She's a very good Boss!

A family we know is traveling this week in Thailand. The recent news stories about PAD protesters causing the airports to close makes me thankful we live in a place where such disruptions to free movement are not likely to happen. Our friends are now "upcountry" and out of the danger zone, but there is still the question of whether the airports will be open by the time they are scheduled to return. It's interesting following their tweets.

Daughter made the apple pie, and it looks scrumptious! I haven't cooked the squash or made fruit breads yet, but made some pickled carrots, peppers and cauliflower instead. The turkey should only take a few hours to cook tomorrow, so I will be able to do the breads first, and the squash can go in the microwave.

Random Thoughts on Fall Themes

About half the trees decided it was getting pretty darn late in the year, and all decided to turn color at once. Then 3 days ago, they all decided to drop their leaves at once, too. There isn't much color this year - most of the trees are a drab orange-brown - but it's getting colder now. It's the cold that produces the brilliant colors, I'm told. We have fewer than 10 hours of daylight now, because it gets light around 6:15 a.m. and is dark by 5:15 p.m. The days will continue to get shorter for another month.

Today, my friend A and I went looking for photogenic trees in the park. I took some photos with my Blackjack and posted them on Flickr. Nothing spectacular this year...

It looks like I may just barely make my heating benchmark: no turning on the heat until Thanksgiving. It might be hard for the next couple of days, because the outside nighttime temps are forecast to dip into the 30s and there is a frost warning for tomorrow morning. We've been staying in the 62-68 degree range indoors, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last. I took the precaution of bringing in the ginger, plumeria and anthurium tonight, but the ti is too big - it's gonna have to take its chances outside. When it gets really cold, I'll cover it with a blanket. And when the inside temperature hits 60, the heat will come on.

I rummaged through the storage tote this afternoon and got out my long-sleeved tops and pajamas. I put away the shorts and tank tops. Found a couple of sweaters I'd forgotten about, so I'll have some options for keeping warm. I've been using my fleece booties for a couple of weeks, now, because we have a draft across the floor (no square doorframes in this apartment, so lots of outside air sneaks in.)

Thanksgiving will be smaller this year, both in numbers and in amount of turkey. We got a free 13.5 lb. turkey from Save Mart for spending over $100 last week on groceries. It's about half the size Husband usually buys, and I get to cook it - my first turkey in over 21 years! Son will not be joining us this year, because he's gone to visit his friends Mike and Miranda in Georgia. Left this a.m. and will return next Sunday. So the smaller turkey is not amiss. I made the cranberry chutney this morning, and plan to make some cranberry and pumpkin bread on Monday or Tuesday. On Wednesday evening, I'll bake the pumpkin pie, prepare the butternut squash for soup, and Thursday will be clear for the stuffing and the turkey.

Boo!

Some of us dressed up a bit for Halloween at Central - many as tastefully as I. (M says he's going to write a poem for me à la Dr. Seuss.) Most wore some version of black-and-white with headgear, necklace, pin, or shoes indicating the holiday. No dressed-up kids, though, except for the babies that attended the toddler-time program this morning.

L is with her friends in Kelseyville for the weekend - they're planning a bonfire, if it doesn't rain. so tonight is the first halloween in 21 years that I have not had a trick-or-treater in the family, and the second that I have not had to go walking around in the dark and cold following one. I think we're giving away apples this year, instead of candy.

Our rainy season has begun - it rained pretty good last night, and more is expected tomorrow and Sunday. We typically get no rain at all between March and October, so everyone is happy right now. I hope we get ample rain this year, because the last couple of years have been drier than normal, and the reservoirs are depleted. We depend on the snow-melt to keep us in liquid assets during the summer.

White Minnesota

When we got below the clouds, the view of Minnesota was spectacularly ... white! There is still snow on the ground, and the lakes are frozen. There is even snow on the sidewalks of the city. It was cold this afternoon (33 degrees), but the wind stings cheeks and makes eyes water. I should have taken my coat and hat!

I met two of my colleagues for dinner at Palomino, and we tried to get back to our hotels via the skywalks, but found that they close at night on Sundays. So we had to go to street level and walk back to the hotels. It was only a couple of blocks, but I was glad to get indoors again!

Jamaica Day 5 - Sunday

I broke down on Sunday. It actually started Saturday afternoon, when it suddenly hit me that I didn't want to leave Jamaica. But Sunday, I broke down big-time. We all went to Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Old Harbor. Peter's sermon was humorous and well-received. I expected the hymns to make me teary, based on past experience, but I didn't expect to lose control! The parishioners were so genuinely warm and welcoming, and the special blessing conferred by the pastor on all first-time visitors to the church combined with my already emotional state, just caused tears to stream down my cheeks. It was like finding a family and having to leave them just as I was getting to know them.

We were tired from having stayed up late Saturday night, so after breakfast, we all took a siesta before returning to Fee's for the night. There was some car trouble on Peter's side, and we were to borrow Fee's vehicle to be sure I got to the airport on time. Fee had additional guests, and had ordered Chinese food to go, so we had more music Sunday night. I did manage to get my packing done, and crawled into bed around 11. We needed to wake up around 4 a.m. to get to the airport on time.

Jamaica Day 4 - Portland

Okay - here's a map, so you can see where I've been going. For those who have been to Hawaii, I gather (no research - I'm on vacation) Jamaica is about 3 times bigger than the island of Oahu; Moloka'i is 40 miles long and 10 miles wide. Jamaica is 120-some miles long and 40 miles at its widest point. It has a population of about 3.5 million, I'm told, and the city of Kingston houses 1 million.

Yesterday Peter drove me from Kingston around the eastern end of the island, through Bull Bay, Yallahs, Green Wall, White Horses, Morant Bay, Port Morant, Golden Grove, Manchioneal, Priestman's River, to Boston, where we had Jamaica's world-famous jerk for lunch. On the way, we discovered his battery was dying, and at one stop we had to ask for a passing taxi to help jump-start us - no problem, man!

Continuing, we drove through a winter storm over roads badly damaged by the last hurricane through beautiful country to the Folly, Port Antonio, St. Margaret's Bay, Hope Bay, and Orange Bay, past the Rio Grande (which is where everyone goes Rafting) and the Blue Lagoon to Buff Bay and Anotto Bay. Then we turned south and returned along the route we took the other day, through Castleton, past Temple Hall, etc. I remembered that my previous visits here had been in July and August, when it is very hot and sticky. Although it has been rainy, the rain is warm.

When we reached Kingston, we branched east and went to Peter's house in May Pen to sleep. Peter's wife, Velia, fixed us a late dinner, and we listened to music until very late. This morning, we had sausage and ackee with dumplings (biscuits), a lovely chat, and then I was returned to Fee's house in Kingston, where we are preparing a large family get-together this evening.

Jamaica - 40 Years Since My Last Visit

This morning went absolutely without a hitch: the "continental breakfast" included pancakes and waffles, muffins, bagels, cereal, hard-boiled eggs, and various fruits and beverages. I doubled the desk clerk's estimate of how long it would take to get to the airport, and I planned to arrive two and a half hours before flight time, instead of two hours. The line at the American Airlines checkin counters was very long, but it actually moved fairly quickly, and in 30 minutes I was checked-in and had my boarding pass in hand. Nothing left to do but sit at the gate for an hour before boarding began, and the flight left on time.

Fee met me at the airport - recognized me immediately, and I recognized her from recent photos. Big hugs! We stopped for the Jamaican equivalent of "fast food" - two beef patties and a soda - and she brought me to her house, just a few blocks from where I stayed on our last visit. Our cousin Peter stopped by later in the afternoon and took me to visit some of Mom's friends from the theatre: Noel Vaz and the two sisters, Carmen and Gloria. (I'm going to edit names in the next day or so, to be sure I get them right.) Fee is hosting a family party next Saturday, and they will come, too, for a get-together and an evening of music and entertainment.

I may have left my flash card reader at home - if so, I'll need to buy one here so I can post photos. In the meantime, I'll also take pictures with the cell phone and e-mail them to blogger. Maybe - the first one is still in my phone's "out box" after 15 minutes, and bluetooth doesn't seem to be connecting, either. May have to re-establish the connection. Ach! Technology!