Sunday morning

It's almost 8:00 on Sunday morning, and the paper has not yet been delivered. I like to get up early so I can read the paper before going to church. Today is Pentecost Sunday, so in the service about a dozen of us will read John 3:16 in various languages. (I was assigned Hebrew.)

Yesterday I needed to get out of my house. I had intended to study, which is why I chose not to go to the Huntington plant sale. But later in the day I made a pilgrimage to the used cookbook store nearby. It's right next to the biblical studies and theology used book store, a very dangerous stretch of road for my wallet.

I picked up a couple cookbooks. Dear S.O.S.: Thirty Years of Recipe Requests to the Los Angeles Times is a collection of recipes from a column in the LA Times that often prints recipes from local restaurants, as well as previously published recipes from the paper. I also got Gormet Every Day, which has some unusual, delicious sounding recipes that are fairly straightforward.

One idea I want to try is preparing lettuce ahead of time. The recipe (p. 163) recommends red-leaf lettuce, curly-leaf green lettuce, arugula, and grated carrots. Wash the lettuce but don't tear it. Then lay out the lettuce and arugla on a length of paper towels, sprinkle the carrots on top, roll up the paper towels, and put the bundle in a zip-lock bag. (If you use one head each of the red and green lettuce, two bunches of arugula, and half a pound of carrots, you can make four bundles.) The bundles will keep in the fridge up to one week. When it's time to make a salad all you have to do is tear up the lettuce.

I also have a piece of terry cloth I was going to make into a salad bag I saw in a store (for $10!). I'll have to experiment to see which way keeps the washed lettuce the longest.

Well, the paper still hasn't arrived. It must be because of the smattering of rain we got last night and this morning.

Notes of the week

Today I went out to school to take care of some paperwork. I was hoping the computer lab director would be there, but he is on vacation. I need to figure out how to get some fonts on the lab computers so I can print a manuscript for a professor. I was going to do a few other things, but when I went out to my car, I noticed it was leaking coolant. So I called a friend who lives in town, and she recommended a mechanic. I didn't want to drive all the way home to my mechanic with coolant leaking.

It ended up it was leaking from the heater core. I didn't have time for them to change the heater, so they bypassed the heater. Since summer is approaching, I don't need a heater, so I'm in no rush to have the bigger job done.

I got home just in time to round up my cats and get them in the carrier to go to the vet for their annual shots. The little cat protested vigorously. She did not want to get into the carrier. The vet told me to hold her by the scruff of her neck and put her in rear first rather than head first. So I'll try that next time (hopefully not for another year). Leo has to go in again to get his teeth cleaned, but he doesn't fight so hard.

So it was a stressful day.

Work has been pretty busy. On Tuesday night three of us took some business partners out for dinner. It was really fun, and the food was excellent. I don't dine like that in private life, but it's fun to do it occasionally for work--cocktails; appetizers; dinner; wine; desserts; and dessert drinks. Wednesday we met all day with the business partners and planned for the upcoming months.

Switching back and forth between corporate life and academic life can be dislocating, and, frankly, corporate life often wins out. I'm trying to figure out how to scale back so I don't have to depend so much on my job, but haven't quite figured it out yet. Anybody know of a cheap place to live that allows cats in the Pasadena-Claremont area?

I've been following the Crusader story with some interest. Last night the NewsHour had a short segment on the story.

Postscript

It is now completely dark. The birds are quiet. An occasional car drives by. A neighbor is outside watering the lawn. In a short while I'm going to watch PBS's Masterpiece Theatre's The Road from Coorain. Maybe it will inspire me to hurry up and finish my degree so I can embark on an academic career. One can hope....[Edit: The program only covered Jill Ker Conway's life up to when she was accepted at Harvard. But what a wonderful portrayal of a complex (is there any other kind?) relationship between mother and daughter. Juliet Stevenson is a favorite actor.]

Now, and soccer

I was just about to write how quiet it was. Both doors are wide open after a warm almost to the point of dragging out the fan day. One cat is sprawled on the (newly vacuumed, I'm pleased to report) carpet; the other is outside on the front porch tracking the activity of the birds overhead. The birds were the only things making noise in the dimming twilight until an helicopter flew over and a few cars drove by. Still, this is a favorite time of time of day. Most people have arrived home, so not many cars are on the street. It's cooling off. There are three or four kinds of birds trilling in the trees. I've turned off the television after watching the NewsHour. Occasionally I hear the clink of dinnerware as a neighbor family finishes their evening meal, then the voice of a child who has come outside to play for a few more minutes before it's too dark.

I thought I'd take this (rare) opportunity to write about a sports event I watched yesterday: the U.S. men's soccer team vs. Uruguay in a pre-World Cup match. I happened to catch the very exciting second goal by DaMarcus Beasley on the U.S. team.

Chevrolet Man of the Match Beasley was dangerous all afternoon, recording the game-winning goal in the 40th minute. Only a great save from Uruguayan goalkeeper Gustavo Munua in the second half kept Beasley’s name from appearing on the scoresheet a second time. Beasley helped create the first goal, earning a corner kick with his work on the left flank. Agoos curled the ensuing free kick to the near post, where an onrushing Tony Sanneh nodded the ball just under the bar into the upper left corner of the net.

Beasley did all the work alone on the second goal, intercepting an errant pass in the midfield and carrying the ball into the penalty box. Beasley cut the ball around defender Gonzalo Sorondo and fired a shot that Munua saved. Beasley jumped on the rebound and knocked it home before going to celebrate his second career goal with Sam's Army in one end of RFK Stadium. (From the U.S. Soccer's World Cup 2002 Plus site.)

The advent once again of the World Cup reminds me that it was two World Cups ago that I moved down here and witnessed the post-final match euphoria in the the streets of my city when Brazil beat Italy. (Speaking of helicopters overhead, my apartment at the time was directly under the departure flight path of the helicopters that covered the matches. So, each night after a match finished—around 11:00 PM—a convoy of helicopters flew over. Just as one got out of earshot, another one would drone into hearing range.)

Watch and support your local PBS station!

Right now I'm listening to a favorite CD, O Brother, Where Art Thou? I first heard the music on a PBS/KCET program, Down from the Mountain, of a live performance of the soundtrack. It was one of those times when I was flipping channels, happened upon the music, watched and listened to the end, and then immediately went out to get the CD. I like singing along and harmonizing with the songs. "Some bright morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away...."

Experiences like learning about and enjoying a type of music I'd never paid much attention to before (bluegrass) because of a television program make reading today's front-page LA Times article on PBS's low ratings very sad.

Its prime-time ratings have hit historic lows, the median age of its viewers is a demographically unappealing 55, and it is fighting for its place--some would say its life--in a television landscape full of better-funded cable copycats such as A&E and Discovery. Even Britain's BBC, while it still has close PBS ties, has launched its own U.S. channel. And a looming $1.8-billion conversion to digital transmission threatens to add complexity and confusion to the situation by turning each PBS outlet into as many as four channels.

I don't have cable, nor do I want to pay the minimum $45 per month to get cable in my city. Besides PBS programs have a depth (as well as sheer escapist entertainment) that most cable programs I've seen don't.

Technical note: LA Times now requires free registration to read most of its articles online.

Marmite

From the "About" page at the weblog Wherever You Are via the blog list at Barbara Fletcher's blog: the website for Marmite. At boarding school we were served a blob of Marmite with our rice cakes at breakfast (except on Wednesdays and Sundays when we got catsup instead).

Back again

Well, the trip happened after all, just a few days later than planned. The baby is perfectly gorgeous, and my niece is lots of fun. Pennsylvania is so green. Spring already happened a few months ago in So. California, so I was surprised by all the blooming and newly-leafed trees in PA. I now know what dogwoods and sycamores are. It was fun to experience the spring I've been reading about in east coast weblogs.

I got home last night at 2:00 AM. My flight was half an hour late because the pilot had to skirt some thunderstorms. Then the other passenger on the shuttle was headed for the Greyhound bus station in downtown LA and the shuttle driver wasn't quite sure of its location. Almeda and 7th is not a place you want to be lost in LA in the middle of the night.

My cats were happy to see me again. They have full run of the house while I'm gone and come and go as they please. A neighbor girl feeds them. Thankfully they didn't drag in anything too nasty this time.

Now I feel like it's time to buckle down and get things DONE. Top on the list is to clean up my house. My sister-in-law puts me to shame.