but what do you do?

Some days being a part-time Reference Librarian is a little like Seinfeld--a show about nothing...Most days it is at this library because since I am part-time I don't get to teach any of the computer classes (that is reserved for thee full-timers), and don't get to do any programing because our library just doesn't really do adult programing--programs are occasionally done by outside groups like the Friends of the Library--is that weird, or is it just me?

Anyway, tonight was slow, but just thought I would share some fun stats:

• Recommended/searched for/ordered 23 books for patrons
• Aided patrons 9 times with computer or printers
• Had a lovely conversation with an eldery woman about downloading ebooks to her iPad. She was super cool! And very nice! Hooray!
• Assisted a college student in a hunt for 8 journal articles
• Talked to a middle schooler about books she loved (mostly listened) and helped her find a saucy looking vampire book which she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into (pun intended, a thank you)
• Booted a regular patron off a porn web site. Seriously, you may have gotten away with it, tucked back in that corner of the library, had it not been for you, Mr. Nasty Pants, hooking your headphones up in the wrong plug. Thanks for making sure we all heard the sexy naughty music. My night is complete!

Miles and I on a sick day

I am home sick today.

I am not really sick in the traditional sense, but rather in the my-allergies-are-going-haywire way; I blame the summer-turned-fall-turned-summer-again weather. On this first lovely day after a couple rainy days, I have been stuck in bed resting and reading and napping and blowing my nose and drinking lots of tea and sneezing. And looking out the window and listening to music--I do that a lot when I don't feel well, which is what inspired this video.

For the full version of Miles Davis' "It never entered my mind," check here.  More soon.

let's all just say "YES!" ok?

"Yes man," The Harry Potter scene, Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel
I LOVED this movie

Cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say "yes." ― Stephen Colbert

gah ha ha

for all you Gleeks

Sesame Street, "G"

This is great.

fall is finding the Farm

"In Blackwater Woods"

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

- Mary Oliver

cravings

I am at the library and somehow I am hungry, but as is my norm, I am hungry for particular things. Tonight it's:

• The Kitchen is being flooded with tomatoes these days, which I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT! Earlier this week I made roasted Farm tomato soup with garlic and dill. So good. I don't have a recipe really, I change it every time I make it, but Mollie Katzen has a great garlicy tomato soup recipe in Moosewood. Also, always wanting to support other bloggers, I would also recommend Smitten Kitchen's Roasted Tomato Soup with Broiled Cheddar--it looks A-MA-ZING! Can't wait to try it!
• Also craving a really, really juicy peach. I bought one from a street market in NYC last Thursday and just thinking about it is making my mouth water...mmm...drooling like Homer Simpson.

I can't wait to go into the Kitchen tomorrow morning and do some cooking. Library be damned tonight. This is my favorite time of year; abundance rains, as M put it today, "the fridge is really full!" We are still enjoying the gardens':

• jalapenos (which I am pickling/canning)
• Farm apples (which I have been applesaucing)
• Kale
• chard
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• cabbage
• green beans
• lettuce
• eggplants
• summer squash and zucchini
• edamame
• also, spices from our little Kitchen garden
• and some other things which I know I am forgetting

I am excited for fall, but afraid of this abundances' waning.

XXXIX (from Last Poems)
When summer's end is nighing
And skies at evening cloud,
I muse on change and fortune
And all the feats I vowed
When I was young and proud.
The weathercock at sunset
Would lose the slanted ray,
And I would climb the beacon
That looked to Wales away
And saw the last of day.
From hill and cloud and heaven
The hues of evening died;
Night welled through lane and hollow
And hushed the countryside,
But I had youth and pride.
And I with earth and nightfall
In converse high would stand,
Late, till the west was ashen
And darkness hard at hand,
And the eye lost the land.
The year might age, and cloudy
The lessening day might close,
But air of other summers
Breathed from beyond the snows,
And I had hope of those.
They came and were and are not
And come no more anew;
And all the years and seasons
That ever can ensue
Must now be worse and few.
So here's an end of roaming
On eves when autumn nighs:
The ear too fondly listens
For summer's parting sighs,
And then the heart replies.

--AE Housman

I am a librarian who steals

...NO, not books, just suggestions.
Today in the Kitchen we began talking about our backgrounds and education, which of course lead to people learning that I am also a librarian, which of course leads to the age old questions:
"What's your favorite book?
"Who's your favorite author?"
"What are you reading right now?"
"Can you recommend any books for me to read?"

So, I told them:
Too many to chose one, but some are: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee; Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck; Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell; Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen; Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt; Roots, Alex Haley

Too many to chose one, but some are: Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain

Right now, well, you can see those on my side bar.

YES! I gave them my list.

And also what I always mention when books come up is how I am constantly stealing ideas for what to read from my patrons. For example, tonight I ordered two books (after ordering copies for patrons):

• An Unquenchable Thirst:Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life, Mary Johnson
• Jacqueline Kennedy: historic conversations on life with John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, with  Michael Bechloss

So, what are you reading?

Also, I thought this article was great. One of my favorite parts about being a librarian is the tough question which can happen across your path. These are great. Librarians, what have been your toughest/funniest/weirdest questions?

don't give up

"Giving Up," Ingrid Michaelson

I heart Ingrid Michaelson SO MUCH. And whoever made this video--two thumbs up. Super cute. Hope your Monday morning finds you NOT giving up! YOU CAN DO IT!

pressing matters

 The town dump isn't far from the Farm. While that is nothing to get too excited over, the fact that our town dump has a "Swap shop," where people bring their old stuff and it's up for grabs--think "one man's trash is another man's treasure," think garage/tag sale without paying, think FREE! Anyway, Farmer Jay and I try and go down there Sunday afternoons before we milk and last week SCORE! I found a brand new French coffee press (I found a duplicate in town for around $30!) and Jay snagged an Italian garlic press for me. It was a good good day!

My new French press by my favorite cow mug.

My new garlic press--it even says Italy. How cool!

And speaking of new additions, wanted to take the time to thank Lady Roisin and BlogCatalog for joining on as followers. I hope you enjoy reading the blog/listening the to the music/looking at the pictures (and feel free to comment). Thanks!

doing the can-can

I was supposed to sit in bed all day and read, but nagging at me were the three flats of tomatillos, the pounds of tomatoes, the 4 (LAME!) squash and the bag of beets. Don't even get me started on the buckets upon buckets of Farm apples in our walk-in fridge (that is Sunday's project). So I:

• hunched over the sink and scrubbed tomatoes in cold water for what seemed like hours; roasted tomatoes with garlic, chipotle, chili pepper, green peppers, cumin and chili powder; cooled; blended with red onions, lemon juice, salt and red wine vinegar; canned salsa
• peeled and scrubbed tomatillos; pureed and drained off excess juices; mixed with garlic, chipotle, chili  cumin and chili powder, tons of red onions, lemon juice, salt and red wine vinegar; canned salsa
• washed, halved, oiled, salted, roasted, gutted seeds and salvaged stringy strands of spaghetti squash, bagged and froze
• boiled, cooled, skinned, sliced and pickled beets

Then I pondered the one green tomato I left on the counter. I was tired and wanted a nap but fought the urge and instead found this recipe on the quick and made my first ever batch of fried green tomatoes (well, tomato, since I only used one). The recipe was good, I just added a little extra salt to my batches. Mmm...fried green tomatoes...yes PLEASE! Never again will I fret a frost and being stuck with green tomatoes. I have found a new favorite. Yannick and Sascha also gave their thumbs up on this recipe too.

My reward for a job well done was a really good dinner out with my friend Ian. We feasted on amazing calamari with chipotle mayo; beef brisket slathered with bbq sauce, steak frites, mashed potatoes, mac n' cheese (brought by mistake--mmm...free food always tastes better), local greens and beer at Route 7 Grill. Aside from the food being AMAZING, I really appreciate that Route 7 tries to use as much local food as possible--so, if you're in the area, check them out!

On our ride back to the Farm we took the back way; we enjoyed the slow and meandering New England curves; talked about music; mulled over life. We parked the car and walked back to my cabin from Ian's house so that we could admire the starry sky. We enjoyed a glass of wine outside in the cool summer-becoming-fall night air and both commented on how life is good...and life is very good.

an amazing day

Yesterday was day 2 of my 3 day weekend and I had almost no plans, and yet, I find that these are the kinds of days that fill up so quickly. I had a scheduled dental appointment and had arranged for my friend Yannick to come along in case they gave me laughing gas and I needed a designated driver; the procedure wound up being fast and gas-free, so we found ourselves with no agenda.

"Have you ever been to Taft Farm?" I asked.
"NO?! Than we MUST go get doughnuts and cider...and birch beer!" (I must point out that when I have particular cravings, I MUST have that thing RIGHT THEN!--it was one of those mornings...I was feeling a little cavity-free giddiness).

So we found ourselves at the lovely Taft Farm, oggling the squash being carried outside in huge crates; eyeing the cherry tomatoes; marveling at the many local products. We left with two birch beers, two doughnuts, a bag of beets and frozen portabella mushroom/carmelized onion ravioli for me and a little box of tomatoes for Yannick.

"Have you ever been to Berkshire Mountain Bakery?" I asked as soon as we got into the car,
"NO!? Then we HAVE to go get some bread!"

Ten minutes later Yannick and I could be found standing on a bridge in little downtown Housatonic, watching the river pass underfoot and feasting on our makeshift lunch: kalmata olive bread with cherry tomatoes whose guts we squeezed out and onto the bread (and all over ourselves) before tearing the tomatoes in half and placing them on the bread, chocolate ciabatta bread, cinnamon and sugar coated doughnuts, birch beer and coffee. It sounds horrible, but it was amazing. Maybe it was because it finally felt like fall, cold morning air, wear sweaters and jeans and shiver a little weather. Maybe it was because the sun was shining diamonds onto the water below. Maybe it was because we were in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it was because all those things put together made me feel so alive and youthful, whatever it was, in its simplest terms, I was sharing this very impromptu meal with a friend who was enjoying it as much as me.

It was wonderful and it was filling and we drove home full and happy.

And it was the memory of that meal that sustained me later when I was bent over my squash, peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos for over an hour, picking as many as I could, trying to salvage as much as possible before last nights' projected frost; as my fingers flew over the plants as fast as I could manage, I smiled and dreamed of those still warm doughnuts.

The late afternoon sun shining down of the remains of our gardens.

 

My cosmos in all of their September glory.

Cosmos.

I can just hear Grover shouting, "FAR!"

And now Grover shouts, "NEAR!"

My pathetic squash crop--I only harvest 4 and they were fairly flavorless upon roasting.

Tomatoes

 

More tomatoes, plus peppers, plus three flats of tomatillos equals SALSA!

loveliness of Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter, "The Curse"

remember the rainbow request?

See the rainbow I requested!?

My ride home

My ride home

My ride home

My ride home

My ride home

Remember when I asked for a rainbow instead of the rain? Well, it did rain on us in NYC yesterday (and at the Farm and everywhere in between too!), but it was worth it. I DID get the rainbow and a lovely, very cool drive home!

Lady Liberty

View from the Battery Park ferry over to Liberty Island

NYC from the ferry

Heading toward the Statue of Liberty

From the ferry

Heading toward the museum and monument

Looking up

Looking up

Ellis Island

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name,
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

--Emma Lazarus

post 9/11

World Trade Center Memorial building budding up through Manhattan

NY Stock Exchange remembers 9/11

View down Wall St. looking towards Trinity Church

Washington watching over NY (Site of his Presidential Inauguration)

"The Sphere," a sculpture by Fritz Koenig which stood at the World Trade Center as a symbol of world peace, was relocated to Battery Park on March 11, 2002, approx. six months after 9/11. The new memorial also includes an eternal flame (lit 9/11/02), "in honor of all those who were lost," says an explanatory plaque, "an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country."

View of the World Trade Center Memorial building from Battery Park, NYC

View of the World Trade Center Memorial building from Battery Park, NYC

I went into the City to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, to eat dumplings, maybe go to a museum, have good coffee; I did most of those things and in the process was overwhelmed by the City, how each time I visit I feel a little less of a stranger, how every time the city seems smaller and more accessible. The day was perfect: a pre-dawn drive to the train station; a 6am train ride into NYC, watching the sunrise over fields and small towns turning into city, listening to Simon & Garfunkel; breakfasting surrounded by skyscrapers; ferrying over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and being overwhelmed by the importance of these two places; eating dumplings on a borrowed stoop then wandering around East Manhattan; cold beers outside at the end of a humid day; a train ride back, tucked away in anonymity, a sunset ride home. A good day.

I know I already posted a blog about September 11, but I wanted to share these pictures which I took in NYC yesterday. It is impossible to not notice the change in the skyline, the attempt at memorializing the events of 9/11; it was impossible for me to be in NYC this week and not feel the emotional charge of the city, to feel the jump in the pulse of its people, to notice the steps that are still being taken as precautions--armed officers at Grand Central Station, more police than normal patrolling the streets, directing traffic in busy section of the city. I was grateful to be in the city, to be absorbed as one of Her children; it felt good to be taken in and alone in the embrace because sometimes there is too much emotion and too much thinking and remembering for words. I was grateful for that kind of loneliness that you can only get when you are surrounded by thousands and thousands of strangers, striking out for the next destination void of a companion. It felt good to be alone so that I didn't have to feel the need to stifle tears that needed to arise and fall.

Thanks New York, I am still thinking of you today and feeling that amazed feeling I get when I think of the city that never sleeps.

NYC says hello

Here is a quick video of NYC--looking in at Battery Park and the Financial District (if I'm not mistaken you can see the World Trade Center Memorial at 7 seconds?)--taken while I was riding over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

praying for rainbows

Praying for rainbows tomorrow, but the weather report is calling for rain in the Big Apple. Heading into NYC EARLY for a day alone, spent wandering--never done it before, so excited at the possibilities.
Just one day. Will be back at the Farm tomorrow night. Hoping for: Statue of Liberty sighting, Ellis Island, a museum, dumplings, good coffee.
Wish me luck.
Ahh...the start of a 3 day weekend.
Pics to follow.




Ingrid Michaelson - "Somewhere over the rainbow" cover

interesting library articles # 8,520

A returned book with an interesting story

Tough times for MA libraries


ALA info on Banned Books Week 2011

Library Media Box (think RedBox)

Vintage posters revamped

Learning to drive with the help of local libraries

a decade later, September 11th

After the grumblings of yesterday, I am humbled today in the memory of September 11th; nothing I write or say today in the remembering will be as profound as this video and this reflection.

Under One Sky

Isaiah 43: 18-19

"Did you not know? Have you not heard? I am doing a new thing. I am making a way when there was no way. I am making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands."

On this tenth anniversary of the invasion of American sky by attacking and suicidal airplanes, my congregation is putting up prayer flags. There will be hundreds of them across our grand interior sanctuary, each hand-calligraphed by artist Carla Shapiro on pillowcases. In the year after the attack, she wrote out 2,500 obituaries of those who died in the World Trade Towers on prayer flags. She then hung the flags over the Esopus Creek in upstate New York, where the printing weathered into what can only be called an ancient script. Now the words are blurred, like the words on an old tombstone. The language looks Arabic or Aramaic in script, but words can no longer be read. Shapiro was trying to tell us something. She was visiting the 9 – 11 grave. She was mourning. She was remembering. Ten years later what she remembered is that memories fade. Images blur. Time moves on.

After last year’s downtown anti-mosque campaign, courtesy of the hate people and their signs, "Jesus hates Muslims" and "No Mosque on Sacred Space," the fading and the blurring is welcome. We will learn again that no one religion can own Jerusalem or ground zero or Jesus or God. We will know sacred space in a blurred obituary, a prayer flag, a neighborhood, anywhere and everywhere but in an expensive fight for it. Sacred space will be known by the wars it does not create instead of for being their instigator.

Across the street from Judson Memorial Church, on the South End of Washington Square Park, a seven-story Spiritual Life Center is opening at New York University. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and more will cohabit a space. Students will learn a new way of campus ministry. We joke about whether such ecumenicity is too close or too far from ground zero. Framed between this new building and our own rises a new smaller tower at the World Trade Center. From the arch at Washington Square Park North, you see all three buildings, as though they were always there, as though we hadn't lived through a decade of emptiness in the sky or immature religion on the ground, and Americans, Afghanis and Iraqis uselessly dead in wars no one really understands. The artists and architects have given us what we couldn't find ourselves. They have shown us a new sky and a new scape. From these we will also draw a new spirit, a mature religion, and a revenge-free way of living under one sky.

--Reflection by Donna Schaper
Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City

irate me

In this economy it is amazing that I not only have a GREAT job working at the Farm, but I also have a part-time job in a library, so I get to have my cake and eat it too. But, after nearly a year in BiggerCity Library I am feeling disinterested and craving library work like I did back in Michigan: I wasn't just a librarian, I was a children's librarian;  I planned activities that both the kids and I enjoyed; the Reference work was even more enjoyable because we weren't constantly having to deal with rude patrons and drunk homeless persons (I am not being nostalgic here, I really didn't deal with anything worse than someone occasionally looking at porn at my old library--and that was GREAT!); the library was a little smaller and more like a family; the city had a good school system and that small town feel.

Maybe I am just too tired for it today. I didn't get enough sleep last night and I have been working my normal hours at the Farm and a ton of hours here to help out with vacations/filling slots as someone retires/someone takes emergency leave; I am looking forward to a three day weekend next week, and until then cancelling out the ho-hums with some fantasy situations:

•  Annoying children screaming while their parents looked at FACEBOOK! (They left right as I was going to talk to them). **In this scenario I fantasized shoving sticky peanut butter sandwiches into the kids mouths until they were lock-jawed shut. No more noise. 
• Loud man on a cell phone disturbing other patrons; kept interrupting me as I tried to ask him to take his call outside. **In this scenario I would pull out a Wil E. Coyote inspired mallet and smash the mans' cell phone on the counter. If he protested I would give him one lump on his head as a reminder for his next visit. 
• Smelly man who kept asking me to cancel his reservations as he remembered appointments which prevented him from using the computer time I just set up for him. **In this scenario I wanted to ask the janitor to take him outside hose him off, then liberally apply hand sanitizer to help with the smell (this library has buckets of the stuff, thank God). I would then give him the planner on the library desk, which NO ONE uses.

In honor of my first Shel inspired fantasy:

"Peanut-Butter Sandwich"

I’ll sing you a story of a silly young king
Who played with the world at the end of a string,
But he only loved one single thing --
And that was just a peanut-butter sandwich.

His scepter and his royal gowns,
His regal throne and golden crowns
Were brown and sticky from the mounds
And drippings from each peanut-butter sandwich.

His subjects all were silly fools
For he had passed a royal rule
That all that they could learn in school
Was how to make a peanut-butter sandwich.

He would not eat his sovereign steak,
He scorned his soup and kingly cake,
And told his courtly cook to bake
An extra-sticky peanut-butter sandwich.

And then one day he took a bite
And started chewing with delight,
But found his mouth was stuck quite tight
From that last bite of peanut-butter sandwich.

His brother pulled, his sister pried,
The wizard pushed, his mother cried,
“My boy’s committed suicide
From eating his last peanut-butter sandwich!”

The dentist came, and the royal doc.
The royal plumber banged and knocked,
But still those jaws stayed tightly locked.
Oh darn that sticky peanut-butter sandwich!

The carpenter, he tried with pliers,
The telephone man tried with wires,
The firemen, they tried with fire,
But couldn’t melt that peanut-butter sandwich.

With ropes and pulleys, drills and coil,
With steam and lubricating oil --
For twenty years of tears and toil --
They fought that awful peanut-butter sandwich.

Then all his royal subjects came.
They hooked his jaws with grapplin’ chains
And pulled both ways with might and main
Against that stubborn peanut-butter sandwich.

Each man and woman, girl and boy
Put down their ploughs and pots and toys
And pulled until kerack! Oh, joy --
They broke right through that peanut-butter sandwich.

A puff of dust, a screech, a squeak --
The king’s jaw opened with a creak.
And then in voice so faint and weak --
The first words that they heard him speak
Were, “How about a peanut-butter sandwich?”

--Shel Silverstein

this makes me want to roadtrip soon

Movin' Right Along - The Muppet Movie

gah ha ha ha

attempting to articulate

I love my morning walk up the hill to the Kitchen, the moments which belong to only me. We've replaced sweating in the Kitchen's heat with sweaters in the morning. The summer is ending. All the signs are there and obvious, if you're watching for them as eagerly as I am.

First the trees, the weaker ones are already dropping off their leaves, or losing some to all of the rain. A blush of color has appeared in the mountains, so slight that I wondered that it hadn't been there all summer. Next the garden with this seasons' delayed tomatoes now fat and ripe and pungent and delicious in everything. A fridge stocked with purple peppers, cucumbers, the last of the deliciously sweet carrots, summer squash and zucchini, basil, broccoli boxes taking over everything, cauliflower, kale, chard, scallions, shallots, eggplants upon eggplants upon eggplants until I can't think of eating more eggplant parmesan! Falls' squashes are fattening themselves daily; delicata's paint their stripes while spaghetti's pull their guts taught like guitar strings; pumpkins laze about, listening to the "caws" of the crows and watching as the cows feast in the field that used to be shoulder high barley. My sunflowers look less sunny and more seasonally abused, petals sagging, rain-soddened; the cosmos stand erect, more dignified because of the sunflowers' disarray.

That wonderful back-to-school smell of beginnings and possibilities is back; the smell of the late summer apple trees' heavying fruit which is doled out, dented apples rolling away from their trees. Squirrels clutch the smallest apples and run across streets with the bounty that will be their winter store. Porcupines take the night shift. I will go, bucket in hand, this weekend and collect the bruised groundlings for a first batch of applesauce. I too must set aside my winter store.


"Embers"
Poor summer, it doesn't know it's dying.
A few days are all it has. Still, the lake
is with me, its strokes of blue-violet
and the fiery sun replacing loneliness.
I feel like an animal that has found a place.
This is my burrow, my nest, my attempt
to say, I exist. A rose can't shut itself
and be a bud again. It's a malady,
wanting it. On the shore, the moon sprinkles
light over everything, like a campfire,
and in the green-black night, the tall pines
hold their arms out as God held His arms
out to say that He was lonely and that
He was making Himself a man.
--Henri Cole

take a look at me now

The Postal Service - "Against All Odds" (cover of the Phil Collins song)

I am not sure what brought it on, but I have been missing my Dad a lot this week. I can't believe that this October will mark 4 years since my Dad died, since it all still feels so fresh at times.

When my Dad died I spent hours pouring over the same CDs. When nothing that my friends said or did made me feel better, I somehow felt comforted by Ray Lamontagne, The Weepies, and this Postal Service cover which I played about a thousand times that first week. This song came on my iPod shuffle today while I was driving and tears came into my eyes--funny how songs can carry such an imprint.

one about FOOD!

1. What is your most memorable meal that you ate in your life & why?

So many great great meals shared around the dining room table at my parents house. 

I am thinking also of a really excellent meal that I shared with some friends at this little, wonderful restaurant called Rouge. 

2. Why did you started blogging?

My friend recommended that I write a blog so that he and some other friends' back in the Mitten could better follow my life at the Farm. It took me two years after that to finally sit down and start blogging, but by this time I was just the Monster Library student. I guess I finally did it because I love writing and I thought it would be fun to cast my voice out into the ocean of the internet and see what came back. 

3. What is your favorite restaurant, where & why?

The French Laundry. I love that it's in my hometown. I love that I have never had anything that I didn't enjoy. I love that I have eaten there with all my besties at some point or another. I love that I used to go there with my family. I love that the breakfasts are SO GOOD and so much--did I ever mention that breakfast is my FAVORITE meal of day!? I love that when I go home I meet up with my favorite Auntie Ruthie there. I love that I have taken my Farm friends there when they visited me in the Mitten. So much good food. So many good memories.
 

4. Who are your 3 most favorite chefs/cooks in the whole world and why?

1. My Mom is a rockstar cook who taught me how to make simple foods that fit into our simple budget, and the person who also taught me the important family recipes: nut rolls and chocolate chip walnut cookie bars (both are made at Christmas time), Grandpa's sweet iced tea, Grandma's Easter custard, Swedish meatballs. 

2. My friend B1 (though a CIA trained pastry chef) is an amazing cook. I have never eaten a bad meal when B1 is cooking. I miss the days when we all lived in TSide and did house dinners, when everyone would cook something--I will never forget these twice-baked potatoes which B1 made (that was 2005!) Mmm...

3. Julia Child. I love Julia's very story: a bored housewife looking for something to fill her time and feelings of being a foreigner in lovely Paris. I love that Julia was tall and a little awkward, but always honest. I have this fantasy that I will get to meet her in Heaven and we'll cook together. :) 

5. What is your favorite recipe on your own blog and why?Best summer dinner #1 was a great meal all around. All the foods were grown by us, at the Farm and the beef was our cows. Mmm... 

6. To which music do you listen to when you cook and bake & why?

Usually leave my iPod on shuffle. Listen to country music and bake ONLY when I am sad or nostalgic or both.

 7. What is the strangest food that you have ever eaten and did you like it or not?I dug up a clam, popped it open, cleaned the sand out in the ocean and slurped it down raw; 1997, Rainbow Beach, Australia. "It's what the locals do...?" The cool part was finding the clams by looking for bubbles at the sands' surface, the not cool part was the all day stomachache after.

8. What is your most lovely food destination in the world & why?

The food in Spain was amazing. Everywhere we went. I especially loved having gazpacho at lunch and dinner EVERYDAY. Also, my sister-in-law, a Spaniard, cooked the most amazing food for us while we were there. I still crave her langostina paella.

9. What is your most favorite food shop in the world & why?

I love food shops. I usually never have enough money for all I want. I do LOTS of oggling.   

10. Which kitchen gadget do you love the most & why?

I love the Kitchen's ENORMOUS and ANCIENT Hobart mixer. I love that Tuesdays are my days to make any kind of bread I want for our afternoon tea snack. 

I tag ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MEME.

it's still raining

"Rain"

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.  
-- Shel Silverstein

this is what I listen to when it's raining

Long before Mumford &Sons, it was the Beatles. I have been listening to and loving the Beatles since I was a little kid and still when it's too rainy, or I am too angsty, or I need to lose myself something fierce, I put on the Beatles and I slide back into feeling good. And understood.

too much laboring

YUCKO! Not the baby bringing kind.

I am tired. Worked all day, and then some, staying extra to help out the kitchen closers. Somehow everything took so much longer today...maybe it was the humidity...maybe it was the gloomy day...maybe it was just because we were trying to do too much. Did I really need to wip up that batch of Farm broccoli pesto--no, no, I didn't, but sometimes when an idea hits I do it, even though I am already running around and roasting veggies, making potato salad, grilling 100 hot dogs and 50 soy pups, making sure that things are going in the oven for lunch, thinking ahead at what needs to be done for the next two days.

Yesterday I envisioned an easier day. A so-we-have-to-work-the-holiday-let's-take-it-a-little-easier day, but I don't think it happened. I was just so glad to finally go home, shower and crawl back into bed for an hour nap--falling asleep to the pounding of rain on the roof and the downed tree outside my window; to hear it slap into pockets in the leaves--then an hour read. *SIGH*  So, in the long run I was able to sit back and relax and think a little about what work means, be thankful for the work I have, and be thankful for the time away from it too.

Happy Labor Day ya'll.

And if you need the history, here.

flying pigs and laid back librarians



Pigasus, the flying pig, used by John Steinbeck
throughout his life; used as a symbol of himself,
"earthbound but aspiring."

I love HuffingtonPost. I love the bizarre articles. I love the good articles. I love everything. I enjoyed the doodles by famous people today. I enjoy that it also links to other websites too. Somehow I made
Somehow, I made my way to this article, a list of the Highest Paying Jobs with the Most Time Off, Librarians made #6,

"Librarians
Hours worked/year: 1,819
Median hourly earnings: $27.35
No. employed: 148,240
Hours worked/week: 38.3
Median annual income: $54,500
Top annual income: $83,510

There are several different types of librarians, and depending on the position, workloads can either be demanding or much lighter than the national average. According to the BLS, those working at colleges can work full-time, and even weekends and some holidays. However, nearly half of librarians (63,000 out of the 148,000 positions) work in elementary, middle, and high schools. This means that their schedule is limited to the morning to mid-afternoon on school days, and rarely in the summers. U.S. News and World Report listed the job in its Best Careers of 2009 report."

I wish I had created this

...but I didn't.

sighing over the classics

1.  The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (25732)
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (18298)
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (15090)
4. The Best American Humorous Short Stories (13854)
5. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (12106)
6. Ulysses by James Joyce (11361)
7. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (11248)
8. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (11063)
9. The Art of War by Sunzi (10303)
10. Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (9228)
11. War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy (8694)
12. The Bible, Old and New Testaments, King James Version (8626)
13. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (8367)
14. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete by Leonardo da Vinci (8313)
15. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (8249)
16. The 2010 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency (8130)
17. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (8105)
18. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (7717)
19. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (7681)
20. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (7330)
21. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (7087)
22. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (7055)
23. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (6982)
24. Dracula by Bram Stoker (6927)
25. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (6859)

According to OVERDRIVE, this is the list of Top 25 Project Gutenberg eBook Titles (US Edition)

September cometh

Standing in one of Irene's gifts.

“Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine."

--Rainer Maria Rilke