Our Condo

We bought a condo! What a  fun adventure it has been!

Cooking Class at "Kitchen Kneads"

Dave and I had an adventure. We went to a real, live cooking class. It was like watching the cooking channel, but so much better because you could smell and taste all the foods! Plus, there were a bunch of ladies there who weren't afraid to ask all kind of questions- "Will this keep in the fridge?" "Could I use Swiss instead of Gruyere?", and -of course- "Where can I buy that [insert name of fancy cooking device/spice/product]?" -to which the answer was always, "Right here at Kitchen Kneads, of course!" Since the class is taught from a kitchen in the back of a cooking goods store, this is hardly surprising. (We did buy some super-nice, rust-proof mixing bowls while we were there.) I sat by a really cool older lady who kept whispering her "trade secrets" in my ear, and the resident chef there is actually the librarian at the school where I work, and she was characteristically free-flowing with her knowledge and opinions: "Only cook deep-fried food twice a year," "always toast your nuts, "always soak your onions in ice water", "store your garlic oil in the fridge or it could go rancid on you", and many other such gems of wisdom. It was fun -the theme was "everything but the turkey" and I did like her a-gratin potatoes with walnuts and sage, but nothing yet has topped Mom and Dad's cranberry sauce, candied yams, and stuffing. Can you tell I'm excited for Thanksgiving?

Some Music

Music has been a really good friend to me lately. Here are a few CDs that have helped me make it through some rough spots. I am always looking for new good stuff -I wish there was a goodreads equivalent for music -"goodtunes", they could call it.

Johnny Cash -American Recordings Series
I always liked Johnny Cash, but didn't really love him until I started listening to these CDs. -They were produced during the later years of his life -the last one in the series actually released after his death- and include original songs as well as his versions of many country classics and even modern selections. I like his "Rowboat" (Beck) and "Hurt" (9 Inch Nails), and of course the classics like "Sea of Heartbreak" and "Memories are Made of This." But sometimes, there's just nothing that hits the spot as well as his mournful cowboy ballads ("Streets of Laredo", "I Hung my Head") and that voice. Deep, plodding, immovable, jaded, hopeful, genuine, heart-on-your-sleeve country boy honesty.




Cat Stevens/Yusuf's -Roadsinger
This is a recent Yusuf release (2009) that promises to "warm you though the night"; well, it delivers on that promise. This might be my most frequently played CD, and it has brought me home on many a dark and weary night. The track "Thinkin 'bout You" probably has more power to cheer me up than almost any song I've ever heard. "Be What You Must", unabashedly cheesy, has the kind of heart-felt hopefulness that even in my most skeptic, doubting moments, I simply can't resist. What makes this album a stand-out for me is Yusuf's beautiful tone throughout- always pensive, sometimes definite, sometimes questioning, sometimes whimsical, but always grounded in faith and peace; a voice that covers like a salve over the achy parts of my soul.




Rufus Wainwright -
I don't actually have any of his albums; I created a list off itunes, but I would like to get this Poses one sometime. A lot of his songs miss the mark with me, but when he's on... And what a heck of a voice. Lethargic, tremulous, the biggest, roundest, resonant tone, and emotions so real and powerful that they melt off his vocal folds. Sometimes described as "popera" (pop+opera), a lot of his music does have an almost operatic drama, but some of it is also so wonderfully understated (listen to "Poses", "Nobody's off the Hook"). Some of his songs are full of life ("Beautiful Child", "11:11", "Another Believer" -from Meet the Robinsons), but most of the good ones drip with longing and disillusionment ("Oh What a World", "Going to a Town", "Go or Go Ahead", "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" -remake of Leonard Cohen's). It is perfect music for wallowing, for letting someone else really feel your pain for a little while.




She and Him -Volumes 1 and 2This music has been a happy discovery for me. The "She" referred to (Zooey Deschanel -Elf, 500 Days of Summer) writes and performs the songs while I think the "Him" (M. Ward) does instrumentation, recording, back-up singing. The music is generally upbeat, sing-a-long, downright peppy stuff. Sometimes reminiscent of love songs from the rock 'n roll era, sometimes of country -but all completely fresh. I love her melodies, vocal style, and they way everything comes off as sincere. Mostly, I love singing these songs in the shower. Some favorites include "Sweet Darlin'", "Over It Over Again", "Gonna Get Along Without You Now", and "You Really Got a Hold on Me".




Natalie Merchant -Leave Your SleepI've only had this 2-disc set for a couple of weeks, but I'm lovin' it. I don't have any other Natalie Merchant stuff (she was the singer for 10,000 Maniacs and has since done lots of her own stuff -you hear her song "Jealousy" on the radio and others), but oh boy can she sing and write. This album was 5 years in the making, involved 100 musicians, and includes over 2 dozen poems that Merchant set to music. The poems are all over the place (e.e. cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack Prelutsky, Moother Goose, Christina Rossetti, and many lesser-know poets as well as anonymous selections); the music is as diverse as the poetry -sorrowful, fanciful, comical, sassy, sweet, playful, moving. I love the way each track has a life of its own -how she pulled out the mood -essence- of all the different poems. I love her voice and how it does this. Beyond that, some of these poem-songs have the kind of catchy-ness that has you bobbing your head along to the tune days after listening -sort of like the way a line of poetry can lodge itself in your mind -and heart. My favorites are "Adventures of Isabel", "Equestrienne", "Griselda", "Spring and Fall: to a young child," Calico Pie", "Crying, My Little One", and "Sweet and a Lullaby".

North Logan Pumpkin Walk

I've got to hand it to Cache Valley on this one -it really is a pretty cool local tradition. This was my second year going with Dave, and we were both impressed. -As the sign says as you walk in, hundreds of volunteers spend countless hours working to create all of the pumpkin displays -and it shows. It is just delightful to see what people come up with and how much effort they obviously put into it. These pictures are from last year when the theme must have been advertisements, but this year's theme was "the magic of animation" and we liked it quite a bit better than last year's. It's a pretty big deal up here. -The local bus system carries people back and forth between various parking lots and the pumpkin displays, there's a big power generator thing for the lights, music, and animated displays, and the whole thing is free; I think most of the valley goes, and we must have joined the masses at just the wrong time because we were in line for at least 30 minutes before we got to the displays, but it was very worth it. I think my favorite part is how all the walkways are lined with candle-lit carved pumpkins, and so you can smell that wonderful burning pumpkin smell the whole time. -That really gets me in the fall spirit.

Lovelock

Lovelock is a small town in the Nevada desert. We've been wanting to get out there to visit Dave's grandma since our wedding. She is just a really neat lady. And she loves "her desert." :) We had a wonderful weekend with her, exploring the town and desert in her old white pickup, having picnics, and hearing lots of stories. There was also a snake at one point. It was an adventure!

For me, there is something soul-renewing about being out in the desert, but even more wonderful and soul-renewing about being at grandma's house, and this trip made me remember that. It made me miss my grandparents, but also so happy to have a grandma again. I have definitely "locked my love" in Lovelock (that's the town slogan). The pictures are of some neat rock formations (the bumpy one is called "tufa"), views of the valley, and the Lovelock Cave. We also drove across a long, dirt road to find an old, ghost mining town, we drove out to some areas where they mine diatamacious earth, and we got to spend some time with aunt Dana's family. We just loved being there. Thanks grandma.

Fall Colors

Dave and I made it out on a couple of hikes to see the Logan fall colors. I'm so glad we did. These pictures are from a hike up the mountains on the west end of the valley (just above Mendon -where I work). It was pretty dark when we got back to our car.

26

I had a birthday. I had parent teacher conferences that night, and didn't get home until pretty late, but then Dave and I splurged by going to a fancy restaurant (Elements) where I got some really yummy mahi mahi, and some enormous chipotle onion rings. Dave also made it special by making me a cookie dough cheesecake and getting me flowers and lots of other nice stuff. Thank you sweetheart!

Preschool Moment - "Button, Button"

This week was all about toys, teddy bears and buttons since the book was "Corduroy" by Don Freeman. So yesterday, we played "button, button, who's got the button" with our preschoolers to work on asking questions to peers, increasing sentence length, and answering yes/no questions. (I actually have this memory of being like 4- or 5-years-old and playing "button, button" for a family home evening activity and thinking it was the like best thing ever.) It's funny watching our preschool kids try to figure out simple games like this one -many of them are still confused about who should be closing their eyes when, not peeking, and this whole concept of "keeping it a secret." It was fun to watch as some of the kids caught on to the idea of tricking the other child by making it look like they were holding the button, but, for most of our kiddos, deception is still a pretty foreign thing (also, it was usually painfully obvious to the teachers who had the button, but the kids generally missed these "subtle" clues). Some of the kids could hardly handle the suspense of having the button, and would throw it out of their hands before the other child even had a chance to ask them, which was pretty hilarious. It was also something to play this game with several kiddos who struggle to correctly answer yes/no questions, since the crux of the game is being able to answer a simple yes/no question ("Do you have the button?"). So here's the preschool moment: A darling little blonde waif of a girl who had not yet figured out yes/no questions (her language skills were very delayed)  -but who wanted to participate, had a lot to say, and was very emphatic about it, holding out her empty hands and with a big smile on her face, nodding her head and saying, "yes! button!"