All's Quiet on the Western Front

Yes it's been a bit quiet around our little blog lately. I've been afflicted with a case of work that I haven't been able to easily shake. Don't be concerned though, it's nothing serious, just some billable hours for a couple of weeks, nothing that will interfere with my long term ambitions of being the most slacktasteric slacker I can be.

This is my first trip back to San Diego since the move to North Dakota, and my time away has made me think, reinforced some of my perceptions, and solidified in my mind that moving out of San Diego was the right thing to do. One thing that amazes me is how easy it is to acclimate to a slower pace of living. Being gone for just a few months in mellow North Dakota, I come back here and my first impression is what an immense hurry everyone is in. I'm on the freeway doing 70+ and people are whizzing past me left and right, it's amazing.

And I know that just about everyone is more technologically savvy/competent/enamored than I am, but the proliferation and constancy of use of cell phones and PDA's really made me take notice. Just today while eating my lunchtime gyro, every other person in the restaurant checked, touched, used or monitored their cell phone at least once while I was there. On my way from the parking lot to eat, a Mom and her kid were in one of those psuedo-Bohemian paint-your-own-ceramic places, and she was gabbing away on her cell while supposedly having a tender moment with her child.

Seeing all the cell phones and rapid speed of life, it makes me wonder, is anyone slowing down to enjoy anything? Is anyone engaged in the moment, in reality, or just text messaging to pass the time? And why the hurry? It makes me feel odd, like there's something I'm missing, some reason that compels everyone else to move at such a pace.

This might sound like sour grapes from a former resident, but it's really not. Just observations now that I have a little (more) perspective. I still enjoy San Diego, it has its positive attributes, but I don't think I could ever come back and live here.

Applesauce Day

The whole house has that warm apple smell, a sure sign that there's some manner of appley shenanigans going on. About a month ago the apple people were in Grand Forks with their semi trailer full of apple boxes. I purchased a case of golden delicious, stored them in the back porch (where it's nice and cool) and we've been eating them fresh, pretty much every day, and have managed to consume about half the box.

Now that the apples aren't quite as fresh and crisp, it's time for their next incarnation - to live again as delicious applesauce. The whole family unit spent a few hours this morning (people peeled and chopped apples, dogs prowled the floor for fallen apple bits) and now we have a large vat of applesauce, bubbling and gurgling away on the stove.

Applesauce is a tremendously simple food to make,and honestly that's part of its appeal. Take apples, peel and chop. Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, a bit of sugar, and cook it all until everything is squishy. It couldn't be easier, and it's also really hard to screw it up. Simplicity and difficulty to mess up are two qualities that I definitely look for when choosing a recipe.

It's such a pleasant thing on a cool, cloudy Sunday afternoon to have a big ole pot of applesauce cooking on the stove. Football is on the television and we're getting prepared to get our applesauce canned up and preserved for future consumption. Now I'm gonna relax on the couch with some warm applesauce and watch the Chargers game.

More Halloween Fun

As promised, I plan to divulge what our little precious deaf dog Shaak Ti was for Halloween. During a recent trip to Target Alycia saw a squirrel costume and knew it would be the perfect outfit for our magical little canine. So Shaak Ti got to be a squirrel for Halloween, and we even have a few pictures to prove it.
Here's Shaak Ti (aka Squirrel Ti) in all of her costumed glory, note the fake arms holding the stuffed acorn. As squirrels are apt to do, Shaak Ti got right into character and tried to devour the acorn, though aside from chomping at her acorn, Squirrel Ti was fairly well behaved in the costume.

For the record, there was actually a great idea to take the squirrel costume, secretly dress up Tito as a squirrel, and release Shaak Ti upon him to see what would happen. My hope was that she would think "holy crap!!! A squirrel in my own house!!!" and then I could watch Tito run for his life. This would not only cause great entertainment for me, but could also potentially answer the question of what Shaak Ti would do if she actually caught a squirrel. Would she give it kisses? Eat it? Try to organize a game of Texas Hold 'Em with her new squirrel friend?

Unfortunately our attempts at using the scientific method to peer into the brain of our awesome-rad, though syrup fueled, little dogs' brain were thwarted by Alycia who thought it might not be the best idea. You'd think a Professor wouldn't be such an obstacle to learning and a detriment to enlightenment.
And as you may know, being a squirrel can be darn hard work, and it can make the best of us sleepy.
And in our final picture of this Halloween, we see Alycia Cummings proudly posing on the front steps with our jack o' lantern. Isn't she cute? I think so. For the record, the jack o' lantern was a team effort, art by Alycia, and carving by John. Nothing like a team effort to take that gourd and make it into a candley illuminated Tour de Halloween force. And if you look real close, over her right shoulder, you can see two inquisitive sets of doggy noggins and ears...

Halloween Recap

Halloween was three whole days ago and we're just getting the stories now? What gives? I wish I had a good excuse for you, faithful readers, but things just got a bit busy. I got wrapped up in watching football on Sunday (Farve's return to Lambeau Field as a Viking was given the amount of attention I would expect to be given only to Jesus going to Lambeau Field, but that's another story) and forgot to relay Halloween stories.

Over the past year I had forgotten how personally Alycia takes it if we don't have what she perceives to be an adequate number of trick or treaters. She sits by the door and jumps up at every knock and really seems to enjoy asking the kids about their costumes and handing out candy. She only acknowledged one minor faux pas - she told a little boy she liked his goat costume. He was actually Yoda. She was indignant.

"Isn't Yoda supposed to be green?" She demanded, "I thought Yoda was green? This kid was white. Maybe he wasn't white, but he sure wasn't green. Isn't Yoda supposed to be green?"

I sighed deeply, mostly because it disturbs me when the woman I love can't be certain about basic Star Wars facts, like what color Yoda should be. I tried to assuage her by suggesting that in the dark it was possible that she just didn't pick up the green color too well, or that maybe the kid was just light green, but she seemed to have none of it. I was almost sure she was going to track the kid down outside and either demand an explanation for why he wasn't green, or give him a handful of candy and apologize for saying he had cute goat costume.

After the Yoda debacle, the rest of the night went fairly smoothly, though we only saw 40-50 kids. I did take the opportunity to be neighborly and go across the street to chat with our neighbors to the North, the Moe's. This proved to be a fortuitous event for the Moe's as they had to stop by briefly to borrow some candy, buying some time to run to the store to replenish their stock of sweets. We had a good time chatting with them and enjoying the Halloween fun.

I'll post another entry with pictures of Shaak Ti in her costume. Can you guess what she dressed up as????

Smart Choices Program Suspended

I was at the grocery store recently and saw first hand the most recent terrible idea from the food industry - the "Smart Choices" program.

Under this program, created by a PR firm associated with food giants like General Mills and Kellogg, junk food a sugary cereals were labeled as "smart choices" and made to seem like healthy foods to choose. My wandering through the grocery store demonstrated the insanity and hypocrisy of this program, crap like Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes were given this alleged seal of approval.

Another abomination of processed food crap, Bagelfulls, which judging by what I saw in the freezer container was nothing more than some type of doughy stuff filled with cream cheese and corn syrupy jam. If crap like this qualifies as a "smart choice" than it's plainly obvious that such a program is useless.

Thankfully the public outcry over this program in the last few weeks has lead to the recent cessation (see LA Times article) of this program. We'll have to see if they try to roll the program back out, with changes? or with less publicity? or perhaps they'll put the program where it belongs, in the trash can.

Snow on the Way

Weather is probably one of the first things that you want to stay updated about regading our move to North Dakota. So you'll be happy/excited to know that our first decent snow storm is on the horizon. The timing and amount of actual snow (versus rain that could fall instead) is dicey, but for now it does look like there will be some snow on the ground come Friday morning.

Here's information from our local newspaper - the Grand Forks Herald:

"The National Weather Service says a storm is expected late today through early Friday across central and southern North Dakota, and in the northeastern part of the state late Thursday through Friday. The winter storm watch for Thursday night and Friday afternoon is primarily for counties outside the Red River Valley, including the Devils Lake basin.

Rain in northeast North Dakota is expected to turn into snow by Thursday night over a large portion of northeast North Dakota. More than six inches of snow accumulation is possible by Friday afternoon, with winds expected to increase late Thursday night and Friday morning, possibly reducing visibilities."

We'll see if and how much snow we actually receive, but we'll let you know, and if there is a blanket of snow on the ground, I promise to take plenty of pictures.

Morning in Grand Forks

Just a quick picture of the sunrise this morning to prove to you non-North Dakotans that this is indeed a pretty place.

It may not be a sunset at the beach (I grew tired of those anyways), but it's still fairly pretty.

I'm trying to get better at taking pictures, and haven't forgotten my camera as often as I did before. Previously it seemed that everywhere I went there would be some picture worthy event that I would curse myself for not having my camera. My commitment to show all the picture worthy events that occur back here and bring it to all of you out there, well that commitment remains strong.

It's another windy day today, gusts up to 30mph, leaves are blowing around like, well like leaves on a fall day. At least it's not too cold, mid-40's, otherwise it would be pretty unpleasant outside.

Quitting the Paint Factory

I read a fabulous essay this morning, it's actually a reprint from 2004, from Harper's magazine by Mark Slouka, and thought I'd pass it along for everyone to enjoy. Here's the link. I always enjoy cerebral justifications for my semi-retired lifestyle, and pieces like this really resonate with me, not because it justifies laziness, but because it validates my urgent need for regular time for quiet introspection.

There's also some interesting dicsussion of the perceived differences between leisure and idleness. Leisure being activity which is directed in pursuit of a goal - fishing, golfing, sailing, and idleness is directed in pursuit of doing nothing - resting, reading, thinking, or just sitting there doing nothing. Naturally you can guess which of these society deems morally good, and which is morally bad. "Idles hands are ___ (fill in the blank on this one, but it won't be a positive reference)".

Here's a quick passage from the piece that I'll leave you with:

Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, req­uisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idle­ness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy."