Taking Stock of the Rain

I'm sitting at my dining room table, listening to the rain pound against the skylights, and I am suddenly possessed with a need to make STOCK!  

It will take several hours, and there's nothing better on a day like today than a hot bowl of fresh veggie soup with homemade stock.  It smells like warmth and tastes like a comforting hug.  

If I venture out later, I'll buy some crusty bread and fresh butter to serve alongside.  

Maybe some different veggies in the soup today.  Let's see.  Fennel would be nice, and lima beans , carrots, and a can of diced tomatoes.  Oh, and fresh rosemary from the neighbor's plant is a good idea. 

And this time, what about egg noodles, cooked separately, and added at the last minute, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top?

OK, better get to work!

Dance Classes

This blog is actually called "Dancing Through Life",  so it's about time I post something new about dancing!

I had my first Waltz-3 class tonight, and it was so much fun to be with advanced-level waltzers who know what they're doing!

For some reason (perhaps my German heritage?) I immediately took to this dance when I first learned it in high school.  I even took it upon myself to teach the cast of a musical senior year how to waltz for a particular scene.  After that, I promptly forgot, and didn't waltz again until my mid 30's.  And then, it wasn't so good.

But when I returned to Seattle in 2002 I started taking lots of dance classes.  It let me hold men without getting too close, you know?  

I also learned a lot about waltzing, swing dancing, salsa, blues one-step, rhumba, cha cha, and a few other assorted dance steps.  

These aren't competition-style dance steps.  But I know enough to get by in a social situation, which was my goal.

Back to the waltz.  I took to it like a duck to water.  I've done several day and weekend-long waltz seminars, focusing on different aspects of the dance.  And when the music sweeps me away, and my partner knows what he is doing, the magic is like no other I have experienced.  I am transported to Vienna in the 1700's.  

Did YOU?

I just came back from the polls.  It was pretty crowded, but I didn't have to wait in line.

And, since I haven't been to the polls in years, things were pretty different.  I had the option of voting on a paper ballot (fill-in the circles, like on an absentee ballot) or a voting machine.

I picked the paper ballot.  The poll workers were pretty young.  In fact, the girls who told me where my precinct was were probably younger than 16.  

In fact, there were many enthusiastic people there to help, and it was a lot of fun.  And, I got my sticker!  Now I'm going to go to Ben & Jerry's for free ice cream and Starbucks for a free cup of coffee.

It was a lot more fun than absentee ballots.  I'll miss it when the polls are closed for good.  It's the ritual, the community and, of course, the free stickers!

Hope you voted too!

What Every Cook Needs...

Seriously, what IS this?  

I was killing time in The Mrs. Cooks store in University Village, looking at fun  cooking toys and this just about leapt off the shelf at me.  Had to share it with you.

Don't eat too much Spatzel or you'll get a "Spatzel-Ass"!!

Aw Shucks!!!

Tonight was the Oyster New Year event at Elliott's Oyster House on the Seattle Waterfront, and once again I was honored to be asked to be one of the judges in the "Most Beautiful Oyster" contest.

And therein lies the joke. Most Beautiful Oyster???

But it was a lot of fun. Public Relations Goddess Katie Wilkinson ran the whole shebang, and made sure we silly media types knew what we were doing.


Fortunately, we didn't have to do any oyster shucking. That was left to the pros, who made it all look so EASY!!


Part of the admission price went to the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, which is helping to bring back oyster habitat. They do great work.

There were dozens of seafood companies with all the raw oysters you could eat, plus Elliott's had a great spread of cooked seafood and veggie options.

And the dessert table looked lovely, although I was so full I didn't even try them!

Also there were many Washington wineries and a few breweries with samples to go along with the seafood. I stuck very close to the nice men handing out the Pear Cider.

Very fun event!!!

Halloween Dancing

For the last time ever, there was dancing at the Mountaineers Club on Lower Queen Anne in Seattle last night.  

The Mountaineers have sold the building and the whole place is going to be torn down to make room for.....CONDOS!  What a novel idea!

Anyway, it was a huge blow-out, with hundreds of costumed dancers, crazy DJ Ron Bolin, and prizes.  I waited in line about 30 minutes, just to get a ticket to get inside.

And then I sat.....and walked around the dance floor, and sat again, and smiled, and made small talk, and sat.  The only dances I had were during a "mixer" when the women line up on one side of the room and the men line up on the other.  you walk up, meet in the middle, and that is who you dance with.  So everybody dances.

Junior High School returned.  I blame myself.....I was all in black, pants, long sleeves, with a shot glass worn around my neck.  My costume?....."a shot in the dark"....   OK, it was a theme thing at the last minute.  

And work was stressful, so I probably brought that into the ballroom with me, although I tried not to.

I will not take it personally.  I will not take it personally.  I am a good dancer and a fun partner....really.  I will not take it personally.

Scheduling a Phone Call

How complicated should this be?  Really?  

Recently, through Facebook, I've re-connected with a childhood friend.  We exchanged a note on the message function of Facebook, containing phone numbers.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I returned home from work Tuesday night to find a message on my voicemail from her.  She wanted to call again at the same time (4:30 Pacific Time) the next day.

Rather than frustrate her with a string of un-returned calls, I sent her an e-mail suggesting several times we could schedule a call, because of time zone differences, work schedules etc.

Sounds simple enough, right?  But here we are, on our 8th e-mail and we STILL can't find a good time to talk on the phone!!!!!

I thought communication was supposed to be EASIER in this new era!!!

What do YOU suggest?  I'm trying not to frustrate her and lose her again after 35 years!

Why GPS Doesn't Work for Me

I miss two things about Ohio. One of them is the Blossom Music Festival, the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra. We had season tickets and would attend outdoor symphony concerts nearly every hot, sticky summer weekend. We'd bring a picnic supper, sit on the grass or in the pavilion and get lost in the music. As darkness fell and the stars came out, the music would lift my soul to the heavens.

The other thing I miss about Ohio is getting lost on drives to Amish country in South-Central Ohio on crisp fall Saturdays. My ex-husband didn't care for the adventure, so I went by myself.

I would drive about 2 hours and reach the tiny towns of Sugar Creek and Berlin (pronounced BER-lin), turn right, and just meander down the country roads. If there was a tiny unpaved side street, I'd take it. I learned that these streets were the homes of Amish furniture, quilt and dry-goods stores.

I bought beautiful furniture, quilts for my beds, wonderful jams, mustards, sauces and incredible baked goods. My favorite were the amazing soft, huge molasses cookies with white frosting in one of the bakeries.

I also loved looking through the blacksmith shops that catered to farmers. I learned serious horsemen and women across the country relied on these shops to keep them in high-quality bridles, harnesses and saddles.

Once, I took an unexpected left turn, and drove and drove, only to come across an Amish funeral. I was mortified because I had interrupted the service. I backed up as quietly as possible and turned around when the road was wide enough.

And once, in the town of Berlin, I ate in a Main Street cafe that was popular with the tourist trade. All the waitresses had to dress in Amish clothing, but it was easy to spot the only real Amish young woman working in the restaurant. She used straight pins to hold her apron on, and close the neck of her dress. Her hair was perfectly swept into a bun on the top of her head, and the head covering was impeccably clean and starched ribbons hung down from the sides. She carried herself in such a way that I knew I had seen the embodiment of the word "grace". She was God's grace in human form.

The simplicity of the people, and their strong values were a comfort to me, especially when personal issues clouded my thinking in Cleveland.

And why doesn't' GPS work for me? Because none of these places are mapped by satellite, and a GPS system would not have shown me the random turns that would shift my consciousness.

Don't be afraid of getting lost. Because that, my friend, is where you may find a part of yourself.

Our Day

This is how we ended the daylight portion of our day.  

Prior to the bath at the "Rub-a-Dub Dob Wash", Dudley and I took 2 trips to 2 separate dog parks.

He romped around Greenlake, then we met up with an old friend at the Magnuson Park Off-Leash area.

He's keeping me moving, this lil' boy.  And at Magnuson, he romped with the big dogs in the water play area.

Trust me, he was BLACK when I got him in the car.  I put him on a big garbage bag and belted him in with the seat-belt on the front seat to keep him from getting his black legs and paws all over the car.

.....it's a small life we lead, but a rewarding one.  Nothing smells better than a clean dog.

Light, Form, Color

I haven't posted a painting in a while, so I thought I'd share Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus", which he painted when he was just 33 years old.

PLEASE click on it to show the entire painting. For some reason, I can only get 2/3 to come up on the blog, even when I change the size of the painting.

His use of light and shadows, in my opinion, are unsurpassed.

Ironically, he painted another work with the same title 5 years earlier.  the colors were much brighter and the lines were so much more defined.

I like this one better.

Butternut Bisque - Thank You Linda!

I was invited to a dinner party potluck last night, so I decided to try a new recipe.   Butternut Bisque.

I have some experience with soups full of vegetables and flavor, but I've never cooked a blended soup before.   I've long been a fan of butternut squash soup, but didn't have a great recipe.

Here's where thanks to Linda comes in.  She had her favorite cooking magazines transferred to my address, and didn't forward them when she moved to NYC.  So, I am the lucky recipient of "Cooks Illustrated" "Saveur" and "Martha Stewart's Everyday Food".  They're chock-full of great recipes, information on techniques, travelogues of trips to food producers and interviews with chefs and food providers.   

My sister Linda is an expert of all things food.  She graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in the 1980's but refuses to work as a chef.  She is much more interested in other aspects of the food business, but is truly drawn toward writing.  If you've read her blog (I link to it on the side) you understand why.

When Linda was here for a few months earlier this year, she also bought a stick blender.  I've never owned one, and avoided making blended soups because I hated the idea of transferring hot, chunky soup into the food processor in batches to get the right consistency.  I've had too many experiences of hot soup spilling out, and inconsistent creaminess.  Viva La Stick Blender!!!!

You use it right in the pot, and the soup was wonderful.  I selected a recipe from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine that didn't use heavy cream.  It used stock and half-and-half.  No roux either.  The base is onions (I used shallots) garlic, 3 T of butter and just for fun, I threw in some slivered fresh ginger.  

It turned out great, and was very well received by the guests at the dinner party.  No leftovers either!

Linda, it's not going to be easy getting that stick blender back.

Figuring out Facebook

About 10 days ago, I joined Facebook, after being encouraged (i.e. naggedd...) by a friend for several weeks to get on board.

If you're on the fence, here's what I learned:

1. I now have more than 80 friends.  Most are people I solicited.  A few have solicited me.  It's nice to be contacted by people you went to high school or college with or worked with many years ago.

2. The Facebook system tries repeatedly to gain access to your personal information on your computer.  It does this by asking  you to let a friend add you to a birthday list, send you a flower, poke you etc.  I always say no because I do not want this system to have access.

3. There's not much to do on the site other than invite friends, write on their "walls" (their home pages) and write about what you are doing at any given moment.

4. Some people use Facebook as a marketing vehicle.  My high-school colleague Eric Yaverbaum has done quite well for himself and he is on Facebook to solicit users for PR and book projects and to provide opinions and hits on his business website.  Nothing wrong with that.  It's just interesting to learn.

5. I don't do anything interesting enough to post on my "wall", so I make stuff up.

No "Joe The Plumber"...but not bad!

Yay, Leanne!!!!

Leanne from Portland is the winner of season 5 of "Project Runway".  Hooray!  "Judy Noodles" as she is affectionately known on the Project Rungay blog site has been a favorite since the competition began.

The woman has a unique aesthetic.  She combines draping elements with crisply cut waves of fabric that undulate as her models move.  And she uses breathtaking pastels and crisp linens to compliment the waves.

I loved her collection.  LOVED it!

It's not easy for me to watch "Project Runway".  I have to wait until somebody posts it on YouTube with an obscure title so it won't get pulled by the network.  It's usually in 5 parts, with commercials edited out.  Yay.  

When you have the cheapest possible cable package, the only "premium" channels you get are Hallmark (ugh) and Fox Sports Northwest.  

Go Judy Noodles!!!

What to think now?

Everybody is afraid to talk about it.

We all dance around the issue without saying anything about it, and yet, there it is. Right in front of our faces all of the time.

When will we just speak up and be honest?

Aren't you tired of the lies? Tired of pretending like it's all fine?

Speak up, dammit! Don't waste any more time. Say it before it's too late.

You'll feel so much better once it's out there.

And the funny thing is, they've been thinking the exact same thing.

.......whew. I had to get that off my chest.

What Would Jesus Do?

You may know my penchant for destroying Easter Peeps. This truly takes it to the next level.

This Morning at the Dog Park

His name is Moglie.  He's a 5 month old Havanese, and Dudley and Abbey were enchanted.

So was I.  They played for a very long time before I had to literally drag my guys away because it was time for work.

"sigh"

Another Career

Do you ever wonder what ELSE you would be doing, if you hadn't selected the career path you are presently following?

I am wondering that right now.  

I returned to college and received my degree in communications with an emphasis on Public Relations and Psychology.  Perhaps PR would be a good opportunity.  

I also learned to produce television specialty programs and found I was very adaptable, although I have a lot to learn in that department.

I have also worked in retail, and while I enjoyed interacting with the public, I didn't enjoy the frequent schedule changes.

And I dally in commercial and corporate voice-over work.  This gives me great pleasure, although it is not exceptionally lucrative at the moment.  If I knew how to turn this into a financially productive enterprise, this would be a lot of fun for me.

What would YOU do?

Just Real Enough to be Scary

Today Just Got Much Better

It's the little things in life, you know?

Today started out as a typical rainy Monday. The financial crisis is looming large and dominating the headlines.

But I'm not feeling anxious or concerned.

No, not me. And it's because they're stocking FRESCA once again in the soft-drink vending machine!!!

There's something about those tangy, citrussy bubbles tickling my throat that makes me just smile.

I've always loved Fresca, even when it wasn't cool to love Fresca. It was the first diet soda I remember drinking. My mother bought some when she joined Weight Watchers for the umpteenth time sometime in the early 1970's.

It was the first time we had soda in the house. And she even let us drink some of it. YUM!!!

Viva la Fresca!!!

I'm a Fan

There are a couple of men who regularly wear kilts when they dance at the venues I frequent.  And I like the kilts.

I find the number of times I am asked to dance goes up if I wear a skirt.  I wonder what THEIR odds are when they wear the kilts?

Although I've never danced with a man in a camouflage  kilt like the one pictured above, there is a man who wears a khaki one who looks and moves quite nicely.

What do you think?  Do you like kilts?  If you're a man, have you or would you wear one?  I've seen them on construction sites, on the street, at social events, and all over the place in Seattle.  

Where have you seen them?

Walk FOR the Animals

Well at first, that's what I thought I'd be doing....walking FOR the animals.   But fortunately, I didn't have to do that.

They did just fine on their own.    
Especially when they were sniffing others just like them.

Dudley, myself and some 600 other people with pooches did a 10K walk benefitting the Seattle-King County Humane Society.  

It was  a huge success.  Even in the rain, we managed to raise 50-thousand dollars to benefit programs for homeless animals.   It makes you feel pretty good, doesn't it?

My good friend Helena Cohen joined us for the soggy stroll and kept us smiling.  

And other fabulous folk like ace reporter Travis Mayfield and Super Sweet Sadie joined us for the walk.

What a great event!!!!   We're a little wet but otherwise happy and tired.

A Sure Sign of Fall

Every year about this time, I get a craving. Nothing says fall better than a caramel apple. One with lots of nuts. The sweetness and crunchiness of the apple, mixed with the chewy caramel and salty peanuts should be a taste of heaven.

But every year, I have just one. Then I remember why I don't eat more than one.

It's because of the year I was in 5th grade. My mother decided to melt down a bunch of Kraft caramel candies and coat apples with them. My sisters and I put sticks in them and we sold them around the neighborhood.

Trouble was that we didn't sell that many. We ended up eating most of them.

I was so sick of caramel apples that I couldn't look at one for more than 10 years.

Now, I have one a year.

Just one.

"Sigh"

More than you know.

Douglas Adams, Where are You Now?

We're all losing money. We're all concerned about losing our job, or at the very least, losing our present financial status.

But concern does not have to be acted on in panic.

Douglas Adams, the late, great science fiction writer and, in my mind, great philosopher saw total global collapse through the eyes of his anti-hero Arthur Dent, in the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series. And while there was a lot of nonsense in the prose, there was also a lot of wisdom. Paramount was Dent's penchant for looking on potentially devastating circumstances with a droll detachment.

Believe it or not, this corresponds with ancient Buddhist tenants of detachment. And the good thing about this is that it allows you to take a step back from the situation and breathe. It is in that breath that wiser decisions are made.

And in the words of my good friend Anurag Asthana..."Do Nothing". Those words, while seemingly simple, go through my mind often, in times of distress. Things do resolve. And no, it does not mean ignoring the situation. It means, at the moment of panic, stop, take a step back and regroup. From this place, a wiser choice will emerge.

That's why I'm not worried that Congress will come up with a better way. A better plan not built out of panic, but more grounded in wisdom. It's not too late.

Why Today Wasn't So Bad After All:

A nice refreshing change.  Thanks, Jeremy and Cheryl.

Good to remember there are other things besides work.

Perfect Dog Day Afternoon

I spent the entire afternoon playing with the pooches.  What fun!  First, it was off to Magnolia, where I needed to go to the drug store.  But first....

We headed to Discovery Park.  Abbey and I used to walk to the Bluff all the time when I lived a few blocks away.  She started to stamp her little feet in excitement the closer we got to the park.

Dudley had never been there before, so he was just excited that Abbey was excited.

It was such a beautiful day for a walk.  We went all over the bluff, stopping in the tall grass to rest.  (Abbey can't go as far as she used to....and neither can her mommy!)

Then I ran my errands in Magnolia, and stopped at my favorite Greek take-out place for a halibut gyro.  YUM!

When the pooches and I took off again, I thought, maybe a ferryboat ride.  But the dogs had other ideas.

Dudley, the sneaky 'lil cuss, somehow managed to bind my wrists and ankles with the leashes, and Abbey got behind the steering wheel.   After I was shoved to the back seat, Dudley stood on the pedals.  I didn't even know they could drive!

We ended up at Westcrest Park in West Seattle.  I was untied, and we made it to the off-leash area for yet another romp!  This time Abbey made fast friends with an extremely UN-altered male basset hound.  Dudley played with a sheltie, a Westie and a yellow lab.

We made it home shortly before 7.

We're tired!

Mystery Solved

His name is Stephan Tewksberry.   And Stephen is no stranger to the title role in "The Phantom of the Opera".

Tewksberry played the lead in the present Broadway touring company until Richard Todd Adams stepped into the role in mid-June 2008.

Tewksberry was on hand because Adams had just returned from a week's vacation to visit his wife and brand new baby in Chicago.  Adams perhaps got a respiratory infection on the plane, or with his family.  

I agree with Kristin's comment in the previous post.  The second-act understudy was much more appropriate for the role because he appeared not to have matinee idol good looks, and took on the physicality of the role with such gusto.  

Thanks, Julie Furlong, for solving our mystery!!!

My night was filled with music.   And I think my true calling is opera.   At least that's my feeling after "The Phantom of the Opera" at the Paramount Theater last night.

I waited for my soul to stir in the first act.  But something was missing.  Turns out it was the upper register of the Phantom.   When he bowed out after the first half, and was replaced,  the soul awakened.  Who was that masked man?  The Phantom was a Phantom to us all.

The regular understudy was already employed in the role of Raoul. And they couldn't risk changing 2 roles in one night.  So, the 3rd string understudy was brought in.

Or was he the third string?  I never quite caught the name.  It sounded like a single syllable for the first name.  I found no such name in the program.    Who was that masked man?  My God, he had the role down as if he had lived and breathed it for years.  The pathos.  The heartbreak.  The yearning.  The agony.  It was all so real.  It was as if his inner core had been longing to release itself for ages.   Was he a Phantom of years past, brought in to fill a void at the last moment?  Was he an attendee in the audience who knew the role?  Stay tuned.  This question needs to be answered.

Who was that sweet, tortured soul?  I must know!!! 

American Politics

I realize I've been writing about food, or fun, or happy experiences to keep my blog devoid of politics.

This is difficult. American Politics is in crisis.

And even though I am not as stupid as the political campaigns assume I am, I wish I were. It would be easier.

But for now, I will continue my pledge to blog about "other" things. Vacations, life, pretty food, pretty flowers and paintings I enjoy.

Maybe when my head comes out of the blogger-sand, it will all be happy.


(nobody I know)