A past way of meal planning

I had a spiral-bound recipe book and was integrating those recipes into my regular recipe 3-ring binders.  In the front were some notes from when I was pantry-style cooking and whipping things up.  I had my monthly shopping list, my regular breakfasts, my rotation of beans, and a list of things to make regularly to have on hand to assemble meals. Plus my cooking plan and a rotation so I would buy specialty oils on a regular basis.

If memory serves, this was a moderately successful venture. While I’m good at cooking from recipes, I’m not the greatest at taking prepared ingredients and making a fabulous meal, possibly because I’m not good at seasoning food. Thus, everything kind of tastes the same.

I think after this I signed up for a monthly Stonesoup subscription where she sent me six (or seven?) 5-ingredient recipes. That cost $20 per month and I did that for about a year.

SKS postcard: New York


This is a great postcard from Sara which she picked up at a NYC street fair. It’s an advertising postcard–the back is full of details about the artist, but Sara has covered most of those details with blank address labels, so she can write me.

Sara reports she’s made it to the last day of the semester!  Hooray for that!

If you want to see more from this artist, her website is www.bicyclepaintings.com

Small house probably not long for this world

This house is right next to the Bethel Lutheran Church, but it looks too small to have ever been a rectory or clergy house.  I’m guessing that if there was a rectory, it was in the space the parking lot is now taking up, behind the church.

This house was built in 1927 and is 502 square feet. It was advertised for sale “as is” and said it would have to be a cash buyer on the sign. That usually means a tear down  It sold for $235,000 on April 19, so expect that soon there will be a monolith sprouting here. It’s got some nice details that I will miss.  Not to mention the loss of yet another sub-1000 square foot house. Not everyone wants a big place.

Three sentence movie reviews: The Gift

Continuing the psychological thriller theme of the day, Matt and I watched this post-anniversary dinner. Matt’s presence was essential to my viewing; during one scene I was so scared, I bit his finger. This was a complete and total perfect movie experience with the story zinging in different directions, keeping us guessing; by the next day my enthusiasm dropped a notch or two when I realized that Rebecca Hall’s character existed only as something to drive the plot.*

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home with Matt.

*Aside from, at times, making choices that were completely out of character, she was, by the end, quite literally a vessel.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/gift.html

Three sentence movie reviews: A Quiet Place

This was one of those movies where I was completely engrossed while watching and then the entire world fell apart once I left the movie theater.* However, the acting was so good and the movie was so scary, I don’t much mind that this was a perfect movie-going experience and not a perfect movie-ruminating experience. Both Blunt and Krasinski have excellent faces for this kind of peril.

Cost: $6.00
Where watched: The Laurelhurst Theater with S. North.

*For example: the creatures at times had variable hearing–that scene in the poster was one example; how, exactly does winter work, with all that crunchy snow and doors that have to be closed?; I also question how the fields were planted with corn but without the use of any animal or machine.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2018/quiet_place.html

Postcards: SKS and one from Alaska


I got a very fun postcard invitation of Cindy’s parents’s anniversary.  In strange happenstance, they are also expecting their first grandchild this year.   Here’s a delightful post from 2013 where Matt and I attended Cindy’s wedding.

I also got a fun postcard from Sara.  She got it at the Red Balloon Children’s Bookstore because she LOVES Jane Mount, the illustrator.  I was not familiar with Jane Mount, or Ideal Bookshelf, but it seems to be a good way to celebrate books.

Miss Joan Gunnuss

Miss Joan Gunnuss died today. I know her because her husband John is one of my former co-workers. She died of cancer, and like probably all cancer deaths, it’s a shame.

Joan was one of those good people that there should be more of.  She was kind and curious and was always glad to see me.  I’m guessing she was always glad to see hundreds of people.

My first encounter with her was an observation.  It was back-to-school time and everyone was getting into the swing of things.  For me and two other teachers, it was the first time we did the back-to-school thing at this particular school. It was hectic and tiring and there were so many new faces.

One of the new teachers, Ariel, was going out of the school, passing through the vestibule–a passageway I could see from my desk.  A woman was coming in and Ariel and the woman locked eyes.  There was some sort of recognition and exclamation and hugging before Ariel continued out the door and the woman came in.

The woman was Joan.  She had taught Ariel dance, or possibly yoga, when she was a girl.  Ariel was glad to see Joan and Joan was thrilled to run into a former student all grown up.  They had a connection, even after all the years had gone by.

I officially met Joan later that day and we had a connection too. Because Joan wasn’t the type of person to give you a cursory once-over and a “nice to meet you,” then slot you into a category and be done with the meeting.  She really looked at you. She was genuinely happy to meet you.  She remembered things about you.

Joan was a hippie in the best way. She taught yoga. She had long hair.  She was full of joy. She lived in a tiny old house on a blueberry farm that was surrounded by a huge suburban housing development.  She was long and lean and moved with grace and purpose.  She loved her dogs, her children, her husband and seemingly everyone else.

I remember at her and John’s wedding watching her walk to the alter.  She took time to look everyone attending in the eye. “It was like she was thinking, ‘I want to remember everyone who was here,'” my co-worker said later when I remarked on it.

Aside from movement, Joan loved music.  She was always up for a sing along, played guitar and loved to have at least a couple songs where the choruses were whistled.

She will be missed by many.  I’m glad to have known her.

Books read in April 2018

A big month of YA.  And a great YA month.

Picture books: Baby Monkey, Private Eye
Young Adult: I mean, everything?  Except the Hazel Wood.

They Say Blue
Jillian Tamaki
Read for Librarian Book Group
Beautiful illustrations and a meditation on color.

Baby Monkey, Private Eye
Selznik & Serlin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Hilarious easy reader story of Baby Monkey solving important cases. You’ll love Baby Monkey’s expressions, his difficulty putting on pants, and how his office decor changes to match the case. Don’t forget to read the index!

Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship
Latham/WatersQualls/Alko
Read for Librarian Book Group
Good poems exploring race and other topics kids bring up.

Island Born
Diaz/Espinosa
Read for Librarian Book Group
What to do when your assignment is to draw a picture of where you come from, but you have no memories of that place? Lola asks people to tell her their stories and they do, giving her lots of things to put in her picture.

The illustrations are delightful. I could easily frame every one of them.


The Story of Owen
E.K. Johnston
Read for Family Book Group
While my second reading of this book was just as delightful as the first, the Family Book Group discussion was very polarized with about half of the group disliking the story intensely.  Reasons for their disinterested: nothing happens (so not true!) and the dragon slayers are the bad people (missing the dragons=climate change connection, and actively rejecting it when presented with it). Our ratings were siloed at the zero level and at the 9-10 level, with only one participant giving the book a seven.  Overall this is our worst reviewed book thus far.  Sigh.

Speak: The Graphic Novel
Anderson/Carroll
Read for Librarian Book Group
I have not read the non-graphic novel version of this story, so I can’t say how well the story translated to graphic form. I can say that all of the swirling feelings were deftly illustrated and the book had great resonance.

Thunderhead
Neil Shusterman
Read for Librarian Book Group
And so our story continues.  This book picks up Rowan and Citra’s story one year after Scythe ends.  We re-acquaint ourselves with people from the first book, meet a new person, and spend time with the Thunderhead.  The pacing is unbelievable.  This 500+ page book goes down fast and furious. It left me panting for book three, which–alas–has no release date.

The Hazel Wood
Melissa Albert
Read for Librarian Book Group
I found the dark fairy tale/mystery/weird-things atmosphere intriguing for a good chunk of the book. But by the time Alice set out for the Hazel Wood, things turned trippy in a way that reminded me of some subsets of 60s cinema.  And not in a good way.

I Have Lost My Way
Gayle Forman
Three strangers have all lost their way, but they find each other in New York City’s Central Park. Forman weaves the present day narrative with episodes from the characters’ past and a complete picture of their lives emerges.  This book also fit into the “famous” category of book I’ve been enjoying for the past few years.

I happen to think it has a terrible cover.  The story inside the cover was much better.

Zenn Diagram
Wendy Brant
I loved the premise of this book:  when Eva Walker touches a person, or objects that they own, she gets insights into that person.  This comes in handy in her job as math tutor, because when she picks up a person’s calculator, she can tell exactly where they are getting stuck.

This is a good first-relationship book and also a good changing-friendship book.  I liked how Eva’s father is a minister, and Eva is not religious, but that never became a fractious plot point.

Overall, I thought the great premise was slightly spoiled by a little too much of everything: feelings, reactions, drama, quadruplet siblings.  But it was an enjoyable read overall and I look forward to Wendy Brant’s next book.

The Poet X
Elizabeth Acevedo
Read for Librarian Book Group
A novel in verse that is very readable! Xiomara is doing the things that her mother wants her to, including attending confirmation for a religion she doesn’t really believe in, and ignoring the attention her curvaceous body brings from the neighborhood boys and men. She writes poetry, but doesn’t share it.

As her life grows more complicated, Xiomara’s poems capture the conflict she has with her mother, her observations of her brother’s problems, the interest of a classmate and other parts of her daily life.

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart
Jenn Bennett
Beatrix Adams wants to be a medical illustrator. A chance meeting with Jack leads to a summer romance. There are complications, but my favorite thing about this book is that the complications never have to do with the question of whether Beatrix and Jack will be together.