White Coats

I recently purchased a new winter coat--the quilted, down kind with a hood. Despite the obvious concern about how quickly white gets dirty, I chose a lovely eggshell hue. Mud and snowslush splatters were a potential danger, but I figured I could handle them. Coffee, however, was a threat I hadn't anticipated.

I've noticed recently that when I get to work and go to rinse out my travel mug that there is a little bit of coffee left in the bottom. Today on the train I decided to get that last drop by tipping the mug ALL the way back. Before I knew what was happening, I was pouring tepid coffee all down the side of my face, much to the amusement (I'm sure) of my fellow passengers. (Mostly when embarrassing things happen people awkwardly try to look away. I know this because it happens to me occasionally.) I had to wipe my face off with something, but with a white coat and white gloves, nothing readily presented itself for my use. I decided to let the collar of my new coat take the brunt of the abuse and rinsed it out in the sink when I got to work. Hopefully there won't be a stain, but I hope even more that it is dry by the time I leave.

Kilauea Makes an Impression

After a few days on west Big Island at Kona we drove around to the east side where Kilauea is actively erupting through a vent on the southeast flank called Pu'u O'o. The lava was flowing to the sea via lava tubes and spilling over 400 foot high cliffs. The steam is both dangerously hot and toxic with both hydrochloric and sulfuric acids. Fragmented tiny particles of lava called tephra can get into and scratch a persons eyes. We didn't try to go to the sea entry point, but did hear about another house that was destroyed in a neighborhood under siege by the lava flow. We went to the science center on the crator rim at Kilauea from which the glowing pit of molten lava could be viewed. We had heard rumbles like thunder, but more sustained, earlier in the day and discovered that night that more of the pit wall had collapsed creating leaping flames, lava spatter, the seismic rumble and a huge flume of caustic steam and ash. Today we took a terrific hike in a crator adjacent to the main Kilauea Crator called Kilauwea Iki (little Kilauwea). It last erupted in 1959 with a fountain of lava spewing 1900 feet high, higher than the Empire State Building. It created a lava lake 400 feet deep that we hiked across. It took about 39 years to solidify, but it still spouts steam from vents. The immensity of the forces and weights of material being tossed around and the unimaginable shapes and chaotic landscapes associated with these lava flows just takes your breath away. Amazingly, where the lava didn't flow or spatter around this crator, old rainforest persisted with fern trees and a profusion of flowers and exotic tropical plants. Tomorrow we're off to Kauai.

Hawaii Culture

We've been impressed with the bounty of edible plants, in the sense of plucking fruit off the tree in the garden of Eden, though not the apple of course. We learned about growing and processing coffee, from picking the cherries, removing the pulp, soaking away the gel around the beans, drying and removing the two layers of membrane around the beans themselves. Yes, it's a tedious process. The coffee cherries (pictured) are sweet and a healthful drink with lots of anti-oxidants can be made from them. We're bringing a pound of home-grown roasted coffee beans home with us, but you'll have to visit Naperville to taste them. At the Cultural Center on the north coast of O'ahu, we posed in front of several moai look-alikes, trying our best to fit in. The Cultural Center was neat because it brought together artifacts, songs, dances, and other cultural elements of all polynesian peoples to one place. It was fascinating to see the similarities and the differences. When we moved on to Big Island we were exposed to more recent volcanism and "black beaches" made up of fragments of basalt and in some places, green olivine crystals. A big effort is made to keep the beaches safe for green sea turtles, such as the one pictured here. This big fellow was oblivious to us as he washed back and forth in the rocks with the surf while casually eating seaweed off the rocks.

Hawaiian Scenes

We are almost a week into our stay and have moved on from O'ahu to Big Island. Though overcast and rainy when we first arrived, we've generally experienced good weather for our major outings. We've been to the Polynesian Cultural Center and impressed with the luau and dancing, visited Pearl Harbor Memorials, and strolled Waikiki with fireworks. Our B&B on the Big Island is near Kona on the west coast and the owner is a chef with a grove of coffee trees, avocados, passion fruit (lilikoi), papaya, and bananas, all ripe for the picking. Meals are prepared with fruit fresh from the garden. Our B&B host had a dinner for 25 last night, mostly locals, and it was superb. We've been eating well! We visited various beaches today but were warned of particularly high surf. At the black sand beach pictured with high surf and lots of cautionary signs about swimming, we saw a group of four young couples in their 20's get into trouble in a rip current. We signaled to them to go down the beach out of the rip and finally they made it out, but not without some panic and a lot of adrenalin - close call. People are drowned there frequently it seems. The last picture is a fifteen foot wave coming in at a spot where we stopped along the coast. It was impressive.

Ode to Parallel

..parking that is. I just parked in the tightest spot of my driving career. I measured it in fact, so proud was I. 4 inches on the front. 1 inch in the back. Oh, yes.

In. the. snow.

Mountain Man Sandwich Bread

Mike and I used our bread machine that Mom and Dad got us for Christmas for the first time today. We made Mountain Herb Bread, or as Mike calls it, Mountain Man Sandwich Bread. It smelled delicious while cooking and when it beeped and we took it out to cool I was ready for the fight usually required to get the loaf out of the pan. However, the loaf slid right out, without a fight. Amazing.

It was in perfect condition, it rose beautifully and had perfectly golden crusts. The blade was still stuck inside but Sunbeam provided a blade removing hook that pulled it right out with no bread stuck to it at all. Again, amazing.

We gave it about 10-15mins to cool before cutting into it, during which time I called Mom to tell her that she needs the bread book she gave me and this bread machine. The bread tasted just as good as it looks and smells and might make some great salad croutons. Fingers crossed we have such a trouble free time with the next loaf.

It Is Finished.

Yes, indeed. Last night after a week-long reading marathon, I read the last page of The Count of Monte Cristo. I consider this one of my life's great accomplishments.

A Little Light Reading

A few weeks ago I put The Count of Monte Cristo on hold at the library. I've been on a kick to read the classics, and having a vague memory of the storyline from the movie, I thought it would be a fun read.

I finally got the notification that it was in, but when I went to pick it up I was in for a surprise. Nobody mentioned that The Count of Monte Cristo is 1200 pages long, and as a tome it's size rivals none other than The Holy BIBLE. The fact that the majority of my reading is done on the train while commuting to one place or another made Monte Cristo a less than practical choice, but I was determined. At the circulation desk they stamped my due date: Dec 1. 1200 pages by Dec 1. I had three weeks.

By Thanksgiving I was only at page 350. I renewed. New due date: Dec 22. I am now at page 500, and I have to admit that the story is thrilling. So many stories within stories, and I'm literally on the edge of my seat wondering how they will all weave back together. I do, however, have to carry the tome in it's own separate bag.

Last week on the train home from the office I was totally engrossed with The Count. I looked up occasionally to check the stop and noticed a man sitting across from me dozing. At one point he was startled awake by his bag falling off his lap. But no matter, I was enthralled in my book. As we approached Belmont the conductor announced that the train would be running express to Western. (While other people start grumbling and gathering up their belongings to switch to a local train, I love these surprise announcements because my stop is one after Western.) How convenient! I thought and went back to reading.

Bandits, buried treasure, clever witticisms, and danger all played themselves out deliciously in my mind, and the next time I looked up we were pulling out of the station AFTER mine! I inconspicuously gathered myself up and got off at the next stop. I couldn't believe I had zoned out so far that I hadn't even heard the conductor's announcement when we pulled into my station! Luckily there was a train already coming in the opposite direction.

Two stops later I got off, and who should alight with me? The sleeping man from the original train! Apparently we both missed our stop, and I silently gave him the "all for one, one for all" nod. If I ever see him again, I've got his back.

Blaise Michael

Yesterday morning at 3:12 in the morning, a stork dropped off Blaise Michael at Holland Hospital. After a short, but intense and unmedicated labor, Jennifer held Blaise on her chest as he blinked and tried to figure out what just happened to him. So far he is a calm and relaxed little guy who gazes into our eyes and follows our voices. Toby can't wait to teach him to play with trucks, and Elinore is smitten. She loves to hold him and keeps remarking at how cute he is.

Jennifer is recovering extremely well and looking forward to being discharged from the hospital tomorrow. Hopefully Blaise's calm and sweet-tempered nature will last once he gets home...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Yesterday, Mike and I went out and cut ourselves a Christmas tree. The place we're doing our new CSA also has a tree farm. We wanted to get a feel for the place and the people, so we gave it a go. We underestimated the cold and our hands froze during the tree selection and cutting. We ended up with a 7ft Canaan fir. I made an attempt at cutting but I wasn't very good at it and we would've been there for hours, so Mike took command of the hand saw.

The tree guys drilled, shook and twined our tree for us with old school hand (or foot)-operated instruments, and then helped us secure it to the car. We stopped in the shop to pick up our envelope with the bill and discovered a plethora of delicious jams and chutneys. I made have to send some to Mom and Dad.

Now we couldn't return home without everything we needed to decorate our family room so we stopped at Target on the way home and picked up ribbons, a tree skirt, tree lights and some garlands for the room. If only it was that easy. We got home and set up our garlands, pounded in our tree stand, wrapped the skirt and admired. Now for decorating! But first, from good instruction from Dad over the years, I checked the lights to make sure they all worked. One was out so I changed the bulb and then we wrapped the tree. We got 3/4 of the way up and ran out of lights and then half the strand went out. Then it came back on. Then back off. So Mike headed out to get some new lights at Ace (since it's close). I re-packaged the target lights and then we took out the new strand. Again, we checked to see if they worked and wrapped the tree. This time we only made it up half the tree. Thwarted again! We had the same amount of bulbs but 24 less feet of lights. Christmas spirit dwindling, we headed out AGAIN for more lights at Lowes/Home Depot. Nope. All they had were LED, colored and blinking lights. We did manage to get a carpet protector for the front door though. So Mike made the executive decision to go back to Target and buy a new strand of the original lights, plus 50 more, with the intention to return all others.

We arrived back at home, fingers crossed that Sabbath hadn't knocked over the tree. And found the tree, still standing. The lights all worked, and we successfully wrapped the tree first with lights, then ribbon. We had bought a variety of ball ornaments for 50% off at Michaels and took them out, ready to put the finishing touch on the tree and discovered NONE of the ornaments had wire or string with which to hang them. SERIOUSLY? We have no pipe cleaners or small enough twine but we had just bought ribbons for present wrapping. It didn't go well. None of the material was fabric to it was too hard to work with. Critical thinking time. Maybe some thread or floss from my blanket? Then Mike says, what about yarn? You just bought some. Yes! Yarn. So I grabbed the yarn and we cut pieces to tie on the ornaments. But it started fraying, so we resorted to licking and trimming the ends. Finally, we were able to put the ornaments on the tree. Then the star. But it wouldn't stay upright. We resorted to duct tape and pulling one of the branches through. It was worth it.

We have about 3 inches between the top of the star and the ceiling. Perfect. Our whole house smells of pine. Perfect. Our living room is very festive and we have some holiday kitchen towels and a table centerpiece. Let's hope wrapping presents isn't such a fiasco! Happy Holidays!

Jingle Bells

Imagination Station

I have several students with WELL-developed imaginations, but only two students who are boys! One of my boy-students falls into the imagination category. It doesn't matter what we are talking about, he figures out some way to make it into a crash-action sequence and often ends up writhing around in pretend pain on the floor. (In a piano lesson...) Some kids, you can tell, are doing this for attention, but Michael just seems to live happily in his own little, imaginary world of collisions, crashes, action, unusual smells, etc.

Last week I asked him to fill in the note name on his new song. "There's a pencil right there," I said, pointing to a yellow pencil on the music stand.

Michael's reply? Totally to himself, as he reached for the pencil, Michael said passionately, "Ahh. The golden pencil of destiny!"

Djembe Part 3

Scroll down to Part 1 and watch these in order. (This is the one where I got my fancy part. Though you might not be able to tell as a casual observer. I can tell.)

Djembe Part 2

Djembe Part 1

A few weeks ago was the official end of my djembe class. At the Old Town School all the classes gather on the last week of classes to perform for each other. My djembe class was the grand finale and we had a GREAT time. We had to downgrade the quality and upload in 3 parts onto YouTube, so I'll make 3 posts. Here's numero 1:

Urban Legend

Back in July I met a guy online named Brian. I was blase as I got to know him, but he was very enthusiastic. We met up for the first time over a beer. It was a fine time, nothing to write home about, but as we left he said that he would really like to get together again. I decided to give it a second chance.

The next day I received a text message from him and the subsequent conversation went something like this:
Brian: I really enjoyed meeting you yesterday. I hope my nerves didn't keep me chattering on too long. I'd really like to see you again :-)
Caitlyn: It was nice to meet you too. Sure we can get together again sometime.
Brian: Awesome! I'm really looking forward to it.

I thought it was weird that he was so enthusiastic about getting together, but didn't suggest a time to do that.

(about a week later)
Brian: Caitlyn, do you still want to get together again?
Caitlyn (annoyed that he still hasn't suggested a time): I'm free next Tuesday or Thursday, do either of those work?
Brian: Thursday would be great! I'm so glad I get to see you again :-) Any ideas?
Caitlyn (even more annoyed that now I have to plan the date): There's live music in the square and a new gelato shop.
Brian: Live music and gelato with you would be fantastic! I guess we'll figure out the details a little closer to it, but for now it's in my calendar. I'm really looking forward to seeing you again :-)

Thursday came and I still hadn't heard from him about where and what time we were meeting. I realize I could have called to find out, but I guess I was sort of testing him to see if he could put even one detail into action. At 6:30 on Thursday evening I finally sent him a message:

Caitlyn: Are we still getting together tonight?
Brian: I am so sorry, but I have to cancel tonight. I apologize for the inconvenience and I hope you understand. I'll never let anything like this happen again, and I hope we can reschedule.

I didn't respond and wrote him off. The next day I got another very similar apologetic message. Again I didn't respond. That was the last time I heard from Brian until randomly 3 weeks ago.

Brian: Did I see you last week on the corner of X Street and Y Street, Caitlyn? I think I did :-)

I thought about it before responding. Did I want to open up this communication again? But I had just seen Must Love Dogs-- all about bad first impressions, so I decided to give it another chance.

Caitlyn: Yes, that was probably me. I was at blah blah blah that night.
Brian: I thought it was you! But you were with people so I didn't want to interrupt. So how are you? Since I haven't heard from you in a while I just assumed I was supposed to move along. But if that's not the case, I'd love to see you again :-)
Caitlyn: Sure, we can give it another go. I'm free next Tuesday or Thursday. If either of those work, just let me know where and when to meet you.
Brian: I'm so glad I get to see you again! Thursday would be great. I guess we'll figure out the details a little closer to it, but for now it's in the calendar so I'll be sure to be available.
Caitlyn: Cool. Just let me know the details whenever.
Brian: Really looking forward to it :-)

On a couple of occasions between the last conversation and the day of the proposed date he sent me messages like, "how are you, Caitlyn?" or "how's your Friday?" Which I found strange since we hadn't even gone on another date yet. (Which I probably should have taken as a sign that I really wasn't into this guy, but whatever.) However, Wednesday came without any word from him. Thursday came, and over lunch my friend Paul counseled me that if I hadn't heard from Brian by 6 pm I was not to wait around.

At 6 pm, Paul called, "Any word?" I replied in the negative and Paul told me to meet him at the Fiddlehead for a beer in 20 minutes. Paul and I had a great time tasting autumn beers and cheeses, and I periodically pulled out my phone to check it. 6:45.. no contact. 7:15.. no contact. I have to admit that I wasn't so surprised that Brian never planned anything, but I was surprised that he hadn't called AT ALL to cancel or apologize or anything.

At 8 pm, Paul and I were settling the bill and I turned to pick up my purse. Absent-mindedly I made eye contact with a man who had recently been seated in the corner of the restaurant by the window not 10 ft from me. And guess who it was?! ON A DATE! You guessed it, Brian himself. Sometimes the world is too small. How on EARTH did we end up in the same restaurant at the same time??

Unfortunately I didn't have the mental clarity at that moment to think of anything to say, and in the subsequent re-telling of this story my friends have given me many suggestions of things I could have or should have said. I'm sorry to say that on the spot, NOTHING came to mind. I just got out of the place as quick as I could. However, once outside, Paul and I walked by the window 3 times. I wanted to make him sweat. I'm grateful to report that I've never heard from him again.

But who knows, maybe in 3 months time...

And if I get another smiley face I will probably throw up.

Halloween

Here are some photos from Halloween for those of you who couldn't be here. We went on a hayride in the afternoon which was really fun.

 

The kids were dinosaurs and super cute. Instead of saying "trick or treat" Toby got really good at growling at people. They had a blast! Even Caity and I dressed up. Since Kevin didn't get into the costume spirit we let him stay home to pass out candy! I've let them eat a lot of candy, so it is almost gone. By the end of today, they will be done with candy! YIPPEE!!

 

 

Hope you all had fun!

Environmental Watchdog

Yesterday I was walking on my way to the train, and I passed a squirrel who was tripping over itself trying to run with a plastic bag between its teeth. Instantly visions of birds choked by 6-pack holders and sea turtles strangled by plastic bags flashed to my mind. I chased the squirrel away, which meant that in order to move, he had to drop the bag. I picked up the bag and shimmied the half-eaten long john out onto the ground, all while the squirrel clung to the tree at eye-level and watched me work. I left the long john on the ground for the squirrel (which might end up being more detrimental for the squirrel than the plastic, but whatever) and went on my way to find a dumpster to throw the bag into. But I swear, the expression on the little squirrel’s face said, “*$#&%!”

I’m really glad it wasn’t an attack squirrel.

(Especially since some of his brothers already ravaged my pumpkin.)

Who has seen the wind?

 

 

Yesterday the storm knocked down the tree in front of our house. It has been very windy, but I haven’t thought that it is worse than other storms. Poor tree. Elinore and I were reading in the front room, so we jumped up and saw it on the ground. The tree crew just happened to drive by about 2 minutes later and went to work. Within 20-30 min it was all cleaned up and chopped up. Promptly at 8am this morning another crew came and hauled away the trunk and large pieces. Only thing left is for the stump grinder people to come. I hope they plant a new tree!

When we were up in our bedroom last night we realized how much privacy that tree had given us. Now it is a plain view into the house across the street. We’ll really miss that tree! Thank goodness for curtains!

Another Case of Spontaneous Combustion

Who would have thought that making macaroni and cheese could be dangerous? Before today I would have said it most definitely isn't. But that was before I heard the explosive gunshot of glass shattering. The dish was an Anchor Hocking product and had only been in the oven 2 mins, when I heard a bang and opened the door to find my mac and cheese falling onto the (thank goodness) cookie sheet I had put under it in case it bubbled over and chunks of glass all over the bottom of the oven.













I have since read dozens of accounts of this spontaneous explosion of bakeware by Anchor Hocking as well as Pyrex. I'm thankful the dish was behind a closed door when it combusted and that I wasn't hurt. This dish was one of a set of 3 that I had to return 3 times to bed bath and beyond after finding chips and one completely broken. If you have glass bakeware by these 2 companies I would use with caution of find something else. Mine are in the recycling and I'm getting Le Creuset, I'd rather pay more for better quality and something that will not explode on me.