Favorite Photo Friday

Taken August05 with Canon EOS Digital Rebel in Spokane, WA

I'm pretty sure this was Cameron's 2nd birthday. Which means that this picture was taken back when he was my only nephew. River was born a month later. I'm not the biggest fan of the composition of this picture, particularly the shadows of the trees. I do love everything this picture symbolizes to me, though; when I look at this photo, I conceptualize guidance and safety. My brother is such a great dad. From the moment I took the picture, it reminded me of another picture:

(I didn't take this one...)

Beware the End of the Age

Just overheard on The Daily Show:
"All hell broke loose, quite literally."
I wanted to give you a heads up because I don't think these kinds of things can be contained locally, so it could get ugly everywhere.

Favorite Photo Friday

Taken 19Sept08 with Canon EOS Digital Rebel near Mt. Baker, WA

This is really the first picture I've posted that I took because of my concentrated effort to take more pictures. We were at the Firs Chalet near Bellingham for our student leadership retreat and I decided to go for a walk one morning. The lake right outside was as smooth as glass. I played around a lot with the manual setting and loved capturing the moment. I'm sure a few of the other pictures from that morning will make appearances on FPF. The pictures themselves are fine, but I love the moment they catch - the quiet of sunrise in the setting I love the most: mountains.

Don't ask why the text is so small. I've tried to change it several times and it looks right in the WYSIWYG. I blame blogspot.

The Great Depression

Ok, it's time for me to weigh in on the issue that seems to be on the mind of everyone I talk to these days. It makes sense that this topic has become so ubiquitous - who could ignore such an historic crash? It makes sense that I get sucked into the bad news and lose sleep over it regularly. I mean, just a few years ago, things were looking pretty good. Numbers were up and there was a reason to be optimistic about the future. Now, on this side of the crash, it's hard to see how things will ever improve. I find myself worried that things will take a long time to improve, or (shudder): they will get worse.

I'm talking, of course, about the state of my favorite sports teams. As can be seen in this picture of a man forced to watch a Carlos Silva start after learning how much he was paid this season, the sports year in Seattle has been vomit-inducing. The brilliantly insightful and humorous Bill Simmons (AKA, "The Sports Guy") recently called this "the single most depressing season for a city in the history of professional sports." Oh, the agony it is to admit that he's right! Unfortunately, though, he's only scratching the surface. Throw Division 1 NCAA teams in there - at least the ones people will pay money to see - and we're talking devastation of epic proportions for this city.

Let's face the facts: it couldn't possibly get much worse than this.
Over on Mountlake, the Huskies' basketball team underachieved when it failed to play in any postseason tournament at all. The football team's recruiting class was getting rave reviews which made me a believer. Certainly they would contend for a bowl this year, right? My optimism was quickly squashed. Now I don't even get to watch Jake.

My beloved Mariners had the 9th highest payroll in Major League Baseball this year. What did that earn them? The second worst record in the game. To top it off, they mortgaged their future with the Bedard trade last winter, so "there's always next year" never rang so hollowly.

The Seahawks depressed us with a drubbing at the hands of Green Bay in the playoffs last January. Now they look like they may make the meteoric fall from 5 straight division titles to a 1-15 record. Looking at their schedule (and their injury report), I'm predicting a 6-9 finish at best and a windfall for local sports medicine doctors. The one team we've been able to count on lately is letting us down.

I don't even know what to say about the Team Formerly Known as the Seattle Supersonics. This is the team that won the National Championship - the only significant national championship in Seattle (sorry Storm fans) - two months after I was born. Memories of watching Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Nate McMillan, "Big Smooth" Sam Perkins, and Gary Payton definitely gave me an emotional bond with the green & gold. (We're ignoring their brief flirtation with red right now). Not only did this team suck this year, but they were stolen from us! If I ever meet David Stern or Clay Bennett at a 4-way stop, I am NOT letting them go first. They are bad people.

Poor Seattle. Clearly we have much more important crises to worry about. But sports are supposed to be our diversion and the place we can turn to be cheered while the world going you-know-where in a you-know-what. That might be the case in many parts of the country (curse you, Boston!) where hope abounds, but not in the otherwise glorious city in which I live.

Do you think we could convince the federal government to consider a bailout of professional sports in Seattle?

How depressing.

Favorite Photo Friday

Taken October05 with Canon EOS Digital Rebel in Spokane, WA

This picture combines 3 of my favorite things:
1) Nephews. My very favorite "things" there are.
2) Fall. Again, sorry to belabor the point.
3) Pumpkins. The perks of which I have previously enumerated.

Therefore, how could I not love this picture? A nephew dressed as a pumpkin, two nephews in front of hundreds of pumpkins on a beautiful fall day. It does not get any better than that.

Favorite Fall Foods

Rumor has it that today was a beautiful warm day in Seattle. I'm not really sure because I spent less than a minute of daylight hours outside today. I'm ok with that because I'm done feeling guilty for not being outside more. Another reason I'm glad fall is here. Back on that subject, my list of the best fall foods. Do you have any to add?

*Candy Corn. I was a late adapter to the candy corn phenomenon, only starting to like it a couple years ago. I'm not sure what's not to like, though. There's nothing wrong with pure sugar.

*Pumpkin anything. I'm a huge fan of the pumpkin... Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin bagels, and pumpkin doughnuts are among my favorites. Pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pie (which is near the bottom of my pumpkin list, but still good), pumpkin pancakes... Yum.

*Chai Tea. Nothing says fall like drinking chai somewhere inside when it's not-so-warm outside. I personally prefer Tazo (milk only, no water) to some of the sweeter chais like Oregon, but any chai will do.

*Soup. What a great food category soup is. I love how easy it is to make in a Crock Pot. I love how easy it is to heat up as leftovers. I love what a great conduit it is for eating bread.

*Apples with Caramel. Just good. And so fall.

I don't really eat/drink any of these in the summer and many of them are so seasonal I only have a 2 month window to partake. Yes, indeed, welcome back fall.

Here's that Pumpkin Bread recipe. This makes one loaf. I almost always double it:
Mix: 6 T butter, 2 eggs, 1/3 c. milk, 1 t. vanilla
In a separate bowl, combine: 1-1/2 c. flour, 1-1/3 c. sugar, 1 t. baking soda, 1/4 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. cloves, 1/2 t. ginger, 1 t. cinnamon (I add slightly less ginger & cloves and slightly more cinnamon...)

Add 1/2 the flour mix to the rest and mix. Add 1 c. canned pumpkin and mix again. Add the remaining flour mixture (don't forget this part) and mix. Add 1/2 c. walnuts (if you want to ruin the bread with walnuts) and mix.

Bake at about 350 for about 50 minutes. (This recipe is written in the back of a book because someone recited it to me in Core Group 7 years ago. I have to get the book out every year to make this bread because I've never bothered to transfer the recipe... And I don't have the temp or time written, so I make it up. It works much better when you turn the oven on.)

The Cluster that Just Was

I know, right? I don't post for three weeks and now I post twice in one evening. But, I have 44 minutes to spare, I need to stay awake, and I already had date night with TiVo this weekend. So, it's either this or read and I did that all afternoon. I can only bleach the sink one time before I get labeled OCD. Besides, what just happened needs to be chronicled for posterity.

Tomorrow morning I'm hosting the UMin staff meeting at my house. That entails basically having coffee and a few snacks for the 14 folks I work with. No problem; I love baking. Janie requested pumpkin bread, one of my specialties (and something that should have been listed in the previous post as something I love about fall. Perhaps "Fall Foods" needs its own listing. I digress.)

This evening, I go to make the bread thinking I have everything I need. I even had a can of pumpkin because I knew fall was coming. Around 9, I go to the kitchen to start the project only to find that I don't have milk, so it's off to Safeway for me. I get home, work my magic with my lovely Kitchenaid, get the batter in the 2 loaf pans, and put them in the oven. Then I start cleaning up the mess - something that gives me an odd pleasure. I get the Kitchenaid bowl filled with soapy water, measuring spoons & cups, spatulas, and anything else that needs cleaning and fits inside. While that soaks, I go to wipe the counter. Only to find a bowl with about 1/3 of the remaining flour mixture. D'oh!

I rush to get the loaves out of the oven thinking they hadn't been in there long enough for it to be too late. I found out quickly they had definitely been in there long enough to burn my fingers off (apparently 5 minutes or so is long enough to need a hot pad). YOW! I put my hands under cold water for a few seconds before rescuing the bread from the oven. How badly was I burned? Let's just say I don't have to worry about those crimes I recently committed because my fingerprints on my thumb and first two fingers of both hands has now been altered. I wish I were kidding. I cannot feel the keys as I type.

So, after a little while longer at the sink, I return to the pumpkin bread. All the batter returns to the now-clean mixing bowl and I add the remaining flour, remix, throw it back in the oven, and return to cleaning. I throw the kitchen mat in the washer since I have to wait 50 minutes for the bread anyway. The sink gets scrubbed. My hands periodically return to the cold water. I go ahead and pull out the tea and mugs for the morning. I look at the oven. Two minutes left. Sleep is near. I take a peek. They are just as I had put them in. Once again: D'OH! I.am.brilliant. Apparently in my anger at the oven for heating so quickly and burning off the pads of my fingers, I had turned it off. "That-will-show-it." Except I forgot to turn it back on. Yes, brilliant. So, this project I went into the kitchen to start at 9 that was supposed to still get me in bed by 10:30 continues even now. I tell you what, whatever comes out of that oven 21 minutes better be damn good. Now how should I spend that time?

This blog needs some fall colors.