Etc.

1) My flame lily plant produced two flame lilies.

2) I finally rigged my one telephone line outlet to accommodate two wires, one for my phone and one for my computer modem. I no longer have to unplug the wire from the phone, string it behind the filing cabinet, table, and desk to plug it into the computer in order to access the web or e-mail (then reverse the procedure to be able to use the phone again).

3) Yesterday morning I took my two cats to the vet to be de-wormed. Putting them into their carrier rear first was much less traumatic then previous attempts to cage them head first. I learned that cats get tapeworms from swallowing fleas.

4) Then I went to the local branch of the public library and finished going through the ms. checking the Hebrew transcriptions. I need to go there more often: I am not distracted by my (messy) house; it's not so lonely; and it's air-conditioned.

5) Late yesterday afternoon I accompanied Suzuki violin players at a recital. The children with their tiny violins are so cute!

6) This morning I did laundry and hung it out to dry, read the newspaper, and soon will be heading off to church.

This is the record of occurrences, of interest only to myself, which, for some reason, I wish to document.

O inspiration, where art thou?

Still tired. The subsidiary of my company that took over our little department has been taken over itself by yet another subsidiary. So that means another round of reports trying to explain what our group does. Just leave us alone so we can do our job and make you lots of money.

It's very hot and my house is very messy. And I have a 600 page ms. (not my own, unfortunately,) I need to go through and edit.

That's all, folks.

Tired

Tired, mentally and, therefore, physically. Not much inspiration to write here. But hop on over to Susie's site to see some excellent photos from Munich. I love the one of the little boy climbing into the fountain!

On the front page of today's WSJ is a disturbing article about manufactured food: Marketers Push Single Servings And Families Hungrily Dig In (paid subscription required). You can now buy pre-made, individually wrapped, frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then there's the woman whose pantry includes individual serving size packs of:

Oreo, Fig Newton, Nutter Butter and Chips Ahoy cookies, wrapped several to a package. There are packs of Quaker Oats s'mores flavored chewy granola bars and Goldfish crackers. And there is Gatorade in bottles with pull-up sports tops, Poland Spring water and Capri Sun juice pouches.

Here's another quote explaining the popularity of breakfast hot pockets: "People were saying putting cereal into a bowl, adding milk to it and eating it is not convenient."

The focus of the article is on the individual serving packs and the fact that larger individual-size packages sell better. What the article doesn't investigate is the accumulation of all the excess packaging for individual servings, much of which is not recyclable or even eventually biodegradable.

How to be a foreigner

I thought of Susie when I read in the LA Times Book Review this excerpt from the new foreward by Pico Iyer of The Inland Sea.

Iyer describes Donald Richie, the author, as "a writer on the peculiarly modern art of learning how to be a foreigner." Although The Inland Sea is about Japan and was first published in 1971, Iyer writes that Richie

tour[s] around the human landscape with a tolerant acuity. And he has more to say than anyone I know on the expatriate condition, the freedom of the man abroad, and the poignancy that underwrites it. He needs to be read by people with no interest in Japan and by those who never plan to visit that far-off island.

Bridge party

Saturday night I helped my boss at the Pasadena Heritage Bridge Party. The party is a fundraiser for an organization that works to preserve historic and architectually significant buildings. The entire bridge (which was preserved by the organization) is closed to traffic and set up with food booths, music stages, and other entertainment. It is a big, fun block party for our city.

[Edited 1/22/06: Removed image of bridge painted by R. Kenton Nelson, which was used on T-shirts and posters for the event.]

Clotheslines

From the WSJ:

July 5, 2002

DETAILS

With Their Feel-Good Scents, Clotheslines Make Comeback

By EILEEN WHITE READ
Special to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

With four kids and a pool, Deb Johns used to run her clothes dryer every night. But last month the fashion consultant installed a device that's even hotter -- a clothesline.

After years of disuse and despite conjuring up an image of the nomadic Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath," clotheslines are suddenly popping up in even the most exclusive ZIP Codes. Makers like Butts Manufacturing of California say demand has jumped as much as 40% in the last year, and Stacksandstacks, an Internet retailer, says sales of air-drying devices are soaring 60% to 80% -- a month. Of course, unlike the cheap rope or metal versions of yore, these can get pretty pricey: One sleek chrome rack from Switzerland, designed for mounting on a laundry-room ceiling, goes for $75.

Why would anyone want to make the drudgery of laundry last even longer? Cost, for one thing. Californians started buying clotheslines during last summer's electricity crisis. Then word spread about the scent of air-dried laundry, something most people hadn't smelled in years. "Once you sleep in a bed of outdoor-fresh sheets, you can't imagine linens from the dryer again," says Elena May, a Kentucky garden-center owner.

Besides the feel-good scent, observers say, clotheslines appeal to boomers' nostalgia for the days when their mothers did the laundry. A more self-indulgent reason: These days more people are shelling out for high-priced Italian cotton, silk and linen sheets that they're afraid to put in the dryer. (Indeed, Americans so distrust their dryers that they air-dry more than 30% of their household laundry, according to appliance-maker Whirlpool.) Last year Procter & Gamble even introduced a "wrinkle-reducing" spray designed for line-dried items.

One wrinkle homeowners may not have thought about: Many homes built in the past 20 years are part of homeowners' associations -- and nearly all of them ban permanent clotheslines. (Florida, in contrast, actually has a law protecting them.) That's why the newest models fold up and store away. Butts's best-seller, for instance, works like a deck umbrella, with a base and removable pole. Also available: multiple-line models that hang on a wall and retract when not in use, so people don't think the Joads have moved in next door.

Veronica Jones's neighbors aren't bothered at all. In fact, says the Minnesota homemaker, they ask to borrow the line for their own sheets. Her children are another matter, though. They're so appalled at the idea of their mother doing something as old-fashioned as hanging out the family laundry, they practically hide inside on laundry day. And the next step, they fear? That "I'll move them all to an Amish colony in the middle of the night," she says.

Le Menu

Wednesday Night Dinner
Messiah/Mesias Lutheran Church

West African Groundnut Stew - Vegetarian
Jasmine Rice
Garnished with Mangoes and Banana Slices

Molasses Crinkles Cookies

Ice Water
Punch
Coffee

My dinner turned out to be delicious, although I'll be eating stew for the next month; I slightly over estimated the amount of food I'd need. It was fun to prepare, except chopping the sweet potatoes. I forgot that sweet potatoes are like squash, not regular potatoes, and my wrist is still sore. I got the stew recipe from The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd: Recipes With a Vegetarian Emphasis for 24 or More.