Missed You!

Hello darlings!

I feel like I'm curling up on a cushion in a sunny bay window with a cup of tea and a friend (more likely, a glass of wine!). I missed you!

I know the first question on your mind is "How is Grandma?" She is doing well, consistently staying out of trouble (mostly) and the emergency room (fingers crossed). Mike and I and possibly one of the dogs are going up this Sunday for a visit and work day to get a few things done that need to be done before the winter weather really sets in.

Pixie had her "tanks pulled" as Mike puts it, on Tuesday a week ago. I felt sort of bad getting her spayed, just because it was elective surgery, but it had to be done. She was fine with the surgery, but had a pretty hard time afterwards, a bad reaction to the anesthesia that made the vet keep her overnight. He's a great vet: he spent all evening with her at the office, up until 10 p.m. when he determined she could finally keep some food down. Sometimes she is a royal pain in the ass (like tonight, fidgeting around, stealing Tugboat's toys and chewing up the coasters when we're not looking), but I was so worried about her that day that I cried for hours, no lie. She was supposed to have nothing more strenuous than leash walks for two weeks, but she's so restless tonight that I don't think either one of us can handle not running for that much longer. I'm not a running freak, but when my days are busy, my gym time shrinks, so sometimes that hour with the dogs is the only workout I get. And I have to remind myself that there are only a few months (3 to 9) of her doggie teenagerhood left. If I can just survive this, I'll have one really nice dog and one totally neurotic one.

A couple of notes: Sarah Palin. WTF?! I thought I was overreacting to her, and then I saw the interview with Katie Couric. She is a joke! I don't really care anymore what she stands for-- she's a total idiot. The only thing I can think is that after the cute factor wears off, the Republicans hope that McCain will indeed die during his term and they'll have another clueless puppet president in the back pocket of the oil interests.

Saw the debate. Thought Obama was much more together and definitely more presidential than that woodchuck McCain. I really tried to listen with an open mind, but it was difficult. Here are some of the phrases I'd like to plaster to my car, were I the bumper-sticker type:

SARAH PALIN IS A JOKE

I JUST WANT A PRESIDENT WHO ISN'T EMBARRASSING

CAN YOU AFFORD FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS?

and

THERE IS FAR TOO MUCH AT STAKE TO VOTE REPUBLICAN

Oh yeah, and based on the fact that a large number of people said that they voted for Bush because he seemed like the kind of guy they'd like to have a beer with:

THIS TIME, BUY McCAIN A BEER AND ELECT A REAL PRESIDENT.

Ok, that's enough of that. In the past, I've been always been blase about politics. I hate to say it, but has always been more like celebrity news to me. It never affected my daily life. Something to talk about, as remote and untouchable as goings-on at the space station. I got excited about Clinton and he disappointed me, so I'm reluctant to stand up and cheer for anyone. HOWEVER, I would like to be proud of my country again, and I would like to have respect for the person elected president. I don't know if Obama can change the way the world now perceives us, but it is important to hear that he understands the concept. Marching Band McCain and his wooden rendition of God Save the Regime doesn't work for me.

In other news...the girls and I had a fun day at the preview of the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park two weeks ago. The Academy officially opened this weekend, and 250,000 people attended. When we were there, I had the feeling that it would eventually grow into its space, but hearing that number (500 admitted every half an hour from a line in which people waited two-and-a-half hours) I'll bet the space was filled out as it was.








We checked out the scene then had a picnic on the green, did some hill-rolling under the Francis Scott Key statue after lunch, and then checked out some more. There are a lot of really cool things to see. I enjoyed watching the skates and rays in the lagoon. I'll probably go back by myself during the week sometime to sit in front of the coral reef and watch the fish. The alligators (crocodiles?) gave us a surprise thrill from the downstairs vantage point. The centerpiece rainforest was still being...forested... when we were there. In fact, I wondered if they'd get it all finished in time, given the number of things being unpacked, assembled, painted and built while we were visiting.

The penguins were cool, if a little surreal. They are situated at the end of the restored "African Hall" which is a display of incredibly skillful and realistic taxidermy of African animals. Sealed completely into their habitat, they appeared as in a giant fish tank. They were friendly and definitely interacted with those of us on the other side of the thick glass, but it was a little confusing to the smaller children. More than one asked why the taxidermied animals weren't alive, and if they were real. Well yes... and no... Maggie repeated our explanation that they were real on the outside, but not on the inside anymore. It's hard to remember that you're not exactly in a zoo. For a first day, it was pretty darn cool. I wasn't sure how much Maggie liked it, until she said, "I wish every day could be like today!"

After flailing around King of Thai on Clement Street, we made our way sleepily home. Ahhh.

Still more to catch up on. Talk to you soon.

Melon Granita

We are overwhelmed by beautiful melons from the veggie box at the moment, and this seemed like the best way to use up one or two that we couldn't get to.

Melon Granita

1 1/2 small melons, canteloupe, orange honeydew, etc.
1/4 cup sugar
fresh lemon juice to taste if desired

Cut peeled melon into chunks, place in blender, add sugar and lemon juice (if desired). Blend briefly, just until you have a slightly chunky puree. Pour into a metal cake pan and freeze. Scrape with a fork to make snow-cone textured granita. Serve with a garnish of mint leaves or a thin dutch butter cookie. An orange granita alongside a green honeydew granita would be an elegant, tasty and inexpensive dessert for a warm summer night.

The basic recipe I consulted called for 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp lemon juice to 2 cups melon. I used at least twice that much melon with the same amount of sugar and no lemon juice, because the melon was very sweet and I wanted the true flavor to come through. You could make this any way you like it.

That's it. It tastes absolutely divine, especially since my mouth is burning from the sriracha* on the take-out pizza we had for dinner tonight. I promise to try to photograph this some time in the next few days, as I realize I have been slacking on good food photographs since I took the photo class back in July and August.

*If you haven't tried sriracha on pizza, and you are someone who flirts with danger when it comes to the chile flakes on your pie, this may be your new best friend. Indispensable when it comes to chilis, curries and chinese peanut sauce.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Bunny with a Handgun

Sarah Palin is cute as a button. I admire a perky, smart, ambitious woman as much as the next person. I love that she's from a woodsy state like Alaska, wears big husky fur collars and was voted Miss Congeniality. How cute!

However (prepare yourself, o conservative reader) I believe that a woman's right to decide whether or not to carry and deliver a child is the most fundamental freedom. There is nothing more important. Without the right to decide for herself who lives inside her own body and when, a woman becomes no more than livestock. No man, no god, no party and no government has the right to make that decision. Cute though she may be, Sarah and her party are carrying hatchets meant to chop away my fundamental freedoms.

Nobody likes abortion. It's an ugly word that no one likes to say. I would love to live in a world where education, planning and prevention made abortion obsolete. So what if her "abstinence only" policy with her own children left her own young daughter high and dry?

According to the Washington Post, "The choice of Sarah Palin smacks of desperation..." She is being dangled before us, a cute hand-puppet, a spunky mom with troubles of her own, to distract us, to give the impression of change where there is none. Everybody loves moms, right? So what if it's an anti-gay mom?

It is almost unbelievable that Sarah Palin is being offered as an alternative to disenfranchised women who felt defeated when Hillary Clinton did not win the nomination. (Except that I'd believe just about anything at this point.) As long as the women in question don't really care what a woman in power believes, as long as she's a woman. As long as they don't give a hoot about the rights of their friends, their neighbors, or their daughters.

Lisa Schiffren, speechwriter for Dan Quayle (talk about the blind leading the blind!) says: "Talk about a role model for our daughters: Annie Oakley in the halls of power! With a newborn . . . and a son serving in Iraq. I am giddy!" Hmmm...except I think Annie Oakley might have been a lesbian, and therefore a non-person in Sarah's world, the newborn is her underage daughter's, and she thinks exploiting the Alaskan wilderness is the way to get us out of Iraq. Sorry, son!

How's Grandma?

That is the question of the day.

Grandma is great. In fact, I just called the house to thank Grandpa for referring me to Redwood Credit Union (they are so nice!) and she unexpectedly picked up the phone and chatted for a minute. Apparently, the caregiver got sick today and went home, so Grandpa made lunch.

Grandma is also 85. There are a lot of things that go along with being 85, most of which are a little too delicate for public airing. There are caregivers coming to the house to help out with basics each day. It's not an ideal situation, but it is the best thing for right now.

She seems pretty good, generally, except for the days when things go very badly. Those days sometimes wind up in the emergency room. But if you ask her, she'll tell you herself that she's doing better and better every day.

Who Are You, and What Have You Done with August?

Where were we?

Since I have no idea where we left off (ok, I read the posts, but before that) I'm going to start somewhere. Mike bought the audio book of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" recently and has made it to disk 3, so I've been listening to it in the car on my way to and from work so that I can catch up with him.

It is blowing my mind to think that the people in the book are people of my grandparents' generation. The urgency of youth is both enviable and sweetly naive. The rhythm of the prose is like the works of a ticking wooden clock, moving at a staccato clip and glinting with curious and unexpected little jewels. It's funny to be driving through the Napa Valley in the cool mornings, smelling fermentation happening, following grape gondolas and teams of dark and serious workers, and simultaneously hearing Kerouac's romantic rendering of the October mists of Fresno and his holy communion with dirt while picking cotton in the Big Valley.

Apropos of nothing, here are ten things I like right now:

My Grandma and Grandpa (I'm not counting that, because that is a different level of love than the things below)

Whole Foods
Bumble and Bumble Curl Conscious Conditioner and Creme (but it's stupidly expensive for conditioner)
Dr. Hauschka Mascara
Pixie
Mark Helprin's Books (when is he going to write a new one?)
The New Best Recipe cookbook
Mother Jones Magazine (Wow- where has this been my adult life? The last I remember, this was a grow-your-own type of rag in the 70s. The cover this month with George Bush as the melting Witch of the West is damn funny.)
Dooce.com
Sea Wolf

Just a totally random list of things I could think of quickly. No links, look 'em up yourself.

Oh yeah, and caffeine. Dude! I haven't had any caffeine to speak of for years, and Sunday I had a very dainty regular espresso in my favorite fashion, which is to say with a tiny dab of sugar and half-and-half. (In Healdsburg, where we went to a new shop called 14 feet- faboo). It was incredibly delicious, and I had such a nice time. I came home and organized my entire office, including the closet. I knew it was dangerous when I craved another hit the first thing the next morning, so I will avoid it again for a while.

This is my week for doctor and dentist check-ups, and then next Tuesday I am SO EXCITED to be going to a member preview at the spanking new Academy of Sciences. I have been waiting for this ever since they closed the Steinhart at the park.

This is it for now...need to see what my little dog is doing snuffling under the bed....

It's good to be back!