Weekend that Went (A Bit) Awry

The weekend before Halloween I traveled to D.C. to visit my mom and one of my best friends, Beth.  I took an overnight train from Toledo and though I froze and slept poorly during the dark hours, I was  rewarded for my discomfort in the morning.

As my eyes peeped open at dawn, I saw a burnished gray ribbon of water, steel cliffs, and silvery fog.  This was Pennsylvania, and I hardly stopped looking out the window for the rest of the ride.

Soon the steely morning turned pinkish-orange. The fire of the autumn leaves popped on the dark hills and even the fog took on the colors of the sunrise.  The fog was like those wispy, blush-saturated "heaven" clouds sinking down to earth.

I finally tore my eyes away from the window to go to the club car to buy some tea; lo-and-behold I saw an Amish woman and her son!  The boy looked about twelve and wore brown linen pants, a button-down white shirt, and suspenders. His mom wore a bright blue dress with a full skirt and a handkerchief tied around her hair.  Both wore black shoes with laces.  The woman was beautiful: tall with an angular face, blond, and with blue eyes that matched her dress.  I didn't know the Amish rode trains--or bought snacks from club cars--and I wondered what they though of all the passengers who were obviously shocked (well,  I was shocked), but pretending not to be.  The woman wore a beatific/bemused smile; I don't think she cared.

Once in D.C. I made my way by metro to my mom's condo, saw her briefly, then ate about half the food in her refrigerator and took a nap.  That evening we went to a Socialist meeting hosted by her friends. My mind was blown learning that Libya scored extremely high on the human rights index by paying for education, housing, legal fees, and car payments for its citizens. I mean, it's not like I trust the U.S. government or the New York Times to paint an objective picture of anything, let alone Libya, but to learn actual facts that counter their starkly-painted national picture was illuminating.  Not that it's all peaches in Libya, but in terms of providing its citizens with economic resources, the U.S. could learn something from this nemesis government.

The next morning I was reunited with Beth and she and my mom drove to Baltimore to visit one of our favorite museums, The Visionary Art Museum. I'm pretty sure Beth was duly impressed. After a delicious Thai lunch, we drove back to D.C. in the snow! Specifically, I drove back in the snow. D.C. was one of those east coast cities that experienced a freak snowstorm in October. The air, trees, and blacktop of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway was hushed in white.

After some boot shopping (thank you, Mom, for my early Christmas present!), Beth and I ate dinner at one of my favorite D.C. restaurants, Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe. Both laughter and tears were shared and I pushed away the though that, so far, there isn't a Beth-like person in my life in Ohio, yet.

The weekend went awry the next morning when Amtrak called to inform me that my return ticket to Toledo was indefinitely put on hold due to a mud slide colliding with a freight train. I had to be in Bowling Green the next day for a minor surgery/stitches situation, so after some quick finangling, I rented a car, said goodbye to Mom and Beth, and was driving through Maryland.

Now, I've become a bit of a wimp when it comes to driving long distances. My dad and Javier did most of the driving this summer when headed to Ohio. I also miscalculated the amount of time I would be on Interstate 80. I thought I'd be driving for ten hours and would have to stop at a hotel before reaching BG.  No so. Not only did I make it back to BG  in less than eight hours, I had a good time. Well, as good a time as one can have driving alone.  Again, the view was gorgeous as I wound my way through the hills--some still snowy--of Maryland and Pennsylvania, singing to Top 40 radio hits and to the Dixie Chick's version of "Landslide" about a million times.

And then I was able to curl up with my boo and dog and go to bed.

Food Diary II

More kitchen creations:

Pear and Apple Crumble Pie

Halloween Super Nachos with Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale

Chicken and Dumplings. Not how my Grandma Conway made them, but good.

All homemade: Pita Bread, Baba Ganoush, Tzatziki, and Greek Winter Salad

The Castillos Come to Town

Javier's parents came to visit.  They were here for some nice, but mostly not-so-nice, weather; though we were able to take some great day trips to Toledo and Detroit.

Tomas, Amanda, and "Cholo" Castillo in Toledo

"Jessie" Dahlias at the Toledo Botanical Garden

A quince biscuit pie I made from quinces handily lifted from the Botanical garden. (The quinces were on the ground, I didn't pick them.  Though, the moralizing doesn't matter: the pie was delicious.)

Tomas at the Detroit Institute of Art

In the DIA

In front of a Diego Rivera mural at the DIA, holding an iPad that has interactive apps to learn more about the mural: free and cool.

Goose crossing on Belle Isle

Chicago

Last weekend I Megabused it to Chicago to visit my dear friends M.G. and Eva.  I stayed with M.G., her boyfriend Matt, and their cat family in Oak Park.  The last dregs of summer warmed the air with the fiery bloom of autumn in the trees.

What a relaxing trip! I spent the evenings curled up on M.G.'s couch looking at Matt's awesome drawings, admiring their cats (Sebastian, or C-bass; Mama Cat, and her daughters Muffin and Lizzy), and laughing with M.G. and Matt--laughing a lot.   I love good laugh fests, and those two are pros.

On Saturday M.G. and I went to a feminist bookstore in Andersonville called Women and Children First to get  books signed by Jane Lynch. Once we made it to the end of the line we could see her (she is strikingly tall) and hear her talking.  She sounds exactly like she does on T.V. and in the Christopher Guest films.  She also cracks teasing, jovial jokes like some of her characters do.  She's from Chicago so some of her family members were hanging out, including two of her nephews, one a "ginger," as she called him, so I hoped she'd make a similar remark about my hair, but she didn't.

Of course food was a prime feature of my trip, including my first restaurant-style Mexican food since leaving Tucson, the yummy vegan "Aztec" salad at Native Foods ( a restaurant M.G. and other friends and I would frequent in Palm Springs when we attended  Redlands), and a yummy snack at an organic Algerian coffeehouse.

Since M.G. is in library school, as I call it, I also visited the libraries in Oak Park and at Dominican University. I give them all my stamp of approval.

I had a quick visit with Eva before heading back on the El to Union Station, and a frantic walk to the bus stop, fighting my way through (sadly not with) the Occupy Chicago protesters.

The visit reminded me how much I miss Chicago and how I wouldn't mind, may even love, to live there someday.

C-Bass posing in a costume and hording the catnip M.G.'s dad picked from his garden and sent home with us 

Jane Lynch  mid-joke

Matt, M.G., C-Bass, and Mama Cat

Me and M.G.

Crepes and mini-umbrellas at the Algerian coffee house

Baking Diary

Some yummy creations I've baked recently:

Peach and Almond Tart

Dill loaves

Split tin loaf

Plaited loaf

Detroit, a Boon

After our disappointing day in Cleveland, I was looking to reclaim the region.  We had a trip scheduled to Detroit last weekend for a friend's wedding, and to visit a friend of mine, Kyle, from Catalina HS who had, over the summer, moved back home to Michigan.

We dropped Paco off at Poco's Playhouse, where he was to be boarded Saturday night. I felt like an anxious parent dropping their kid off at camp for the first time.  After checking out his room (that's right, no kennel cage for my baby) and waving good-bye to him (he was being smelled over by the friendly pack of dogs also boarded that weekend), we headed off to Detroit and made it without a hitch! (Well, I forgot to get gas again, but on the freeway we found a station in under five minutes. Oh yeah, and I went the wrong way on a one-way street in Greektown, but there were no other cars).

Our hotel (reserved for wedding guests) was the Marrriot at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.  Squeezed between two towers, our floor-to-ceiling window had a spectacular view of the Detroit River and Windsor, Canada!

We met up with Kyle and found a chicken and waffle restaurant in what appeared to be an old bar which may have been a church before that.  We caught up on our lives in the Midwest and Kyle and I exchanged what word we had of former students and colleagues back in Tucson.

Then, the wedding: It was held at the beautiful Detroit Yacht Club on Belle Island.  It was a Freemason ceremony, which was a new experience for me.  My friend Farzin and her bridesmaids wore gorgeous saris.  The flower arrangements were stunning. (When I was in high school I started writing a short story about a wedding, which was really me just writing about my fantasy wedding.  I made it as far as the location--somewhere in the Santa Cruz Valley south of Tucson-- and a long description of all the flowers.  I didn't describe the gown, the guests, or even the groom.)

That night we went to a couple drinking establishments in downtown Detroit. The first one was very cool (old, small, with two middle-aged women running the bar), but a bit loud.  The second one I picked by peeking in to its window and declaring it was great, and it turned out to be just as I hoped.  It was cavernous with only a handful of patrons, a man playing the Blues on a guitar, and an 80-something year old Greek bartender who poured us shots of Root Beer liquor unprompted (and, admittedly, unwanted, but we accepted).  We met some friendly locals and a woman said I looked like Florence (of The Machines fame), which was a fabulous compliment. All in all, a good night.

The next morning, a bit haunted by our Cleveland trip, Javier and I raced through the parking garage thinking our car had been stolen (we forgot we had parked BELOW ground-level). After finally locating it, we ate a yummy breakfast in a hip diner by Wayne State and drove home to pick up the baby who, apparently, was now besties with a poodle and a beagle and was invited to return anytime.

Detroit Yacht Club

View from Belle Island to Detroit

Beautiful bride and our reception companions

Bride and groom

A stud

View from our hotel

Stunning flowers

 

Cleveland, a Bust

A couple weeks ago, Javier and I made a day trip to Cleveland.  It did not go as dreamy as I had hoped.  We got a late start; the Google maps I printed led us astray; I forgot to get gas so there was a tense 25 minutes on a small freeway as we willed a gas station into existence.  When we finally found one of our destinations, it was somewhat of a letdown.  A cool idea in theory, the Ingenuity Fest was held under a bridge that leads to downtown Cleveland.  The Fest hosted government, nonprofit, and merch tables; some technology/art projects like home-made video games,  kid-made remote-controlled cars and chairs built from scrap metal; fair food; and lots of deafening bands plugged in to the corners of the bridge's tunnels.  Perhaps scrappy because it was Sunday afternoon, my favorite part was not the content but the location, and Paco loved eating all the pizza crusts, hot dog buns, and whatever other food was dropped and ground in to the concrete.

The day was beautiful and we perked up when we ate some grub (Jamaican jerk chicken and a beer sampling from a local pub), but then it turned super sour.

We walked back to our car parked in a neighborhood that earlier in the afternoon had people strolling about, but at sunset it had tuned a bit sketchy.   I buckled Paco in to the backseat, not noticing that the front passenger window had been smashed.  Shattered. Busted. The window lay in slivers and shards on the floor and as a glittering, caved-in hunk of glass on the seat.   Javier kicked a fence. I called my dad and then the police.  Javier chauffeured us the 2 hours home, Paco and I in the backseat.

It turned out my insurance payed for the window.  The window-fixers in Toledo came to me. Nothing was stolen (our cds were rifled through but I guess the ruffians didn't like Tori Amos or Nigerian rock music).  It was a pleasant 70 degrees, not ten below with icy wind blowing in our faces.

Here are some photos to illustrate the day that wasn't quite ours:

Oh yeah, and a dumpster caught on fire.

Cleveland had its charms, like this little park by the water.

I think Tim Burton would be proud, or inspired.

Car sans window

The Kids in the 'Hood

Maybe it's because I didn't go back to teaching high school this semester, but I found myself thinking about some of the neighborhood kids I have frequent encounters with, though they're mostly peripheral encounters.

The kid most discussed at our dinner table is a high school student Javier and I dubbed "Kick a Stick" because, with no provocation, he kicked a stick Paco dropped as we walked by him one evening.  Kick a Stick is usually seen at the skate park down the block from us, but I've also seen him race off in the direction of the local high school on his bike.  One morning when walking Paco, a police cruiser headed for the skate park, just where I had seen a young ruffian enjoying the early a.m. breeze on his trucks and wheels .  Sure enough, as Paco and I were on our way home, the cruiser and Kick a Stick, on his board, passed us by. Kick a Stick has also been seen carrying a gas can by our house, but I hope he was just filling up the lawn mower tank.  Good ole Kick a Stick, we believe, lives in a house whose occupants and hierarchy we can't figure out.

The house is down the alley from our house.  I've seen a woman who looks like she's in her twenties there; Kick a Stick; a yappy Jack Russel terrier and her litter of puppies, and a pre-adolescent boy who one morning, again when I was walking Paco, was out by the garage and asked me if I wanted to buy one of the puppies.   At this moment said puppy slipped through the bars of the gate and the kid scooped her up.  I indicated I had my hands full with Paco and he pressed on, asking if I knew anyone else who wanted a puppy.  This is all at 7 in the morning so I think the kid is pretty intrepid and though he didn't make a sale, he may have a business career ahead of him.

Other kid highlights are the brothers across the street: the cry-baby boy and his older brother who patiently bikes with him, though it's clear he desperately wants to bolt down the block.  There's also the boy who remains elusive behind the curtains of his house but who invariably yells out at his barking dog: "BarnIVal, stop barking! BArnIVal! Stop barking!" The emphasis on the various syllables is hilarious and can't be accurately communicated in writing; it sounds like he's taken over the task of some adult who once admonished Barnival the dog but who has since given up.

Sadly, there aren't as many funny girl stories, or many girl stories at all, except we once saw a young girl in a t-shirt that said "50 Years of Excellence" call out "I'm going to get lost!" and give chase to what seemed to be an older sister; the older sister and her friend promptly ran away.

More Adventures in Cooking

Last night I made dinner for one of Javier's colleagues Luke and Luke's wife and baby daughter. I love love love cooking for people and I made of feast of recipes from a "new cuisine" African cookbook Javier's family gave me last X-Mas. I like this cookbook so much I thought I should copy the Julie & Julia blog model and make a recipe (or two) from this cookbook everyday until I've exhausted the contents. I don't think I'm quite that ambitious, however, and I'm also reluctant to work with some of the ingredients, like lamb, or don't know if I'd find the best quality of some of the products, like shellfish.


 The menu was as follows:
 lemon and olive chicken
potato and lentil dumplings
 red rice
 a simple salad of baby lettuces from our garden with a peanut dressing
papaya ketchup
ginger beer
 mint green ice tea
 banana frittes for dessert

 We ate some of the food too fast for me to photograph, but what I did capture is bellow. I also had another successful session of bread making so my bread-baking phobia is over. I baked two loves of Greek olive bread, with cilantro and red onion, with pretty dough braids wrapped around the loaves. Again, it was too good and gone too fast for me to take a photo and the second loaf was given to our neighbor who kindly mows our lawn for us.

Papaya ketchup and Ras Al-Hanout, which is a mix of spices and which I rubbed into the chicken before roasting. It includes ground cardamom, the seeds of which I pulled from the pods and ground myself; I now realize why ground cardamom is $11 in the store: it's painstaking work.

Potato and lentil dumplings, fried and then baked

A peach and blackberry pie I made a few weeks ago with fruit from the farmer's market.

First Days of School, Environs, Food, etc.

My first ever successful savory loaf:Italian Olive

Salad completely from our garden: Young lettuce greens, basil, and tomatoes

Wood County District Library garden

Wood County District Library

The Prof in his office

How I felt before my first class last week (It went great! My professor has zombie kitsch all over her office.)

Self portrait before the sub interview; as you can see, I have plenty of time on my hands

Flower from the farmer's market. Maybe Emily Wick will paint a timed oil painting of it:)

Ottawa National Refuge

Yesterday Javier, Paco and I drove to the Ottawa National Refuge, a migratory bird haven about an hour away on Lake Erie. It was beautiful with multiple pools, patches of woods, wild grapes, queen's lace, carnibal, Northern Blazing star (plus many more) wildflowers attracting plenty of butterflies, egrets, blue herons, frogs AND a jet black snake (maybe a garter, racer, or water snake). Luckily, Paco can be amazingly unobservant so while both the snake and I were startled, Paco had no encounter with it.

What follows are photos and video Javier took on our sweet little day trip.

Look closely for the frog

Crane Creek and Lake Erie beyond



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RsjZB9v_k0

Enter the link for the lovely lily pad video