twilight and tractor engines

On Sunday Jon and Christopher and I joined Jon's church family at Greenbluff for a late afternoon of pumpkin carving and tractor driving, carmel apples and hot dogs. This event was hosted by a retired farm couple, one of whom collects antique International letter-model tractors. There were at least 6 tractors, the oldest dating back to 1934. I asked to drive his model M Farm-all because it reminds me of my dad's tractor. He helped me get it started and showed me the shifting pattern and how to adjust the choke, then sent me off across the field. As I puttered along in the twilight, across the wide open close-shorn meadow I listened to the sputtering growl of the engine and inhaled the exhause fumes that came back at me from the smokestack on the tractor's top. It reminded me so much of home. The sounds and smells took me back to riding on the tractor while mom and dad made hay or helping pick rocks or even later getting to rake hay and cultivate by myself. There was nothing better than riding home on the tractor at dusk, pleasantly tired and just starting to drouse to the sound of the tractor engine, looking forward to the glowing kitchen windows, washing the field dirt off your hands and face and out of your ears and then a warm supper before bed.

How it started....

I just want to send out a "thank you" to Katie, who introduced Jon and me over a year ago.
It's nice to have a hand to hold at lunchtime.

One, two threefourfive, six seven eight nine ten, ELEVEN, TWELVE!!

The title of this post should be sung, Sesame Street style.
Twelve months. That's how long it's been since one sweet young man, somewht girl-shy due to an oft-broken heart and a very shy young woman who thought she wouldn't get another chance at love finally figured out that the signals we were sending one another weren't all in our heads.
We've been a couple for one year. Happy Anniversary Jon.

My new favorite place ever!

Last night a friend and I decided to walk to downtown Portland and find Powell's Books. As we were walking through the parking lot we met some other VISTA's who were driving there so they gave us a ride. Powell's is fantastic!! It's an entire city block of books on several floors. While there we caught a book talk by auther David Callahan on his new book, Moral Center.

Food magic

I'm currently at In-service training in Portland for my Americorps position.
The sessions have been quite informative and engaging. Yesterday afternoon I learned about effective meeting facilitation. This morning I learned about "Shopping on the Edge" from Nutrition Magician, Tom Ohling. He advocates shopping from the perimeter of the grocery store where the fresh produce, dairy and whole grains can be found, rather than buying the prepackaged stuff in the center aisles of the store. We also learned the benefits of washing and blanching produce as soon as it comes home from the store to facilitate the speedy preparation of future meals. And he taught us to make quick and easy vinagrette and mayonaise.
Vinagrette: 1 part acid (lemon juice, pickle juice, vinegar, tomato juice, etc) plus 3 parts oil, and a littl mustard powder as an emulsifier, plus salt to taste. Voila! Vinagrette!

Also, it's notable to mention that the food at this training session is about a zillion times better than it was at the training in July. And there are actually options for the poor vegetarians this time.

"They made up their minds, and they started packing. They left before the sun came up that daaay."
Well, the sun had been up for about five hours when Christopher and I picked up Jon at his apartment. After two stops we headed west to the land of good friends, adorable babies, and cool cities having good food, better architecture and crazy traffic.... and adorable babies.
We listened to Tom Lehrer and Jonathan Coulton on the drive west, and when we got close enough to Seattle we tuned into KEXP, which happened to be playing Michael Frante live at Sonic Boom Records.
I'd brought along yarn and a crochet hook, intending to make a gift for the world's most adorable baby. I made a hat with little ear flaps and pestered Jon and Christopher from the back seat to tell me if they thought it would fit her or not.
We hurried through rush hour traffic hoping against hope that we'd make the Utilikilts store in time...and we did....but it had moved. This was disappointing, but we salved our souls with some really good Greek food in Pioneer Square. I'd never had babaganoush before. (They also mispelled spanakopita as "spanapikota" on one of their menus)
We pressed onward to Vancouver. It was strange going from freeway on the US side to what appeared to be a back alley in a residential area on the Canadian side. We passed a really cool-looking Buddhist temple shining in the darkness, decorated with what looked like Christmas lights. We had no problem finding my cousin's apartment in Kerrisdale. Inside Jon commented on the strangeness of old ornate mirrors and shelves paired with modern looking light fixtures. Her husband was out and the world's most adorable baby was already asleep in her crib. We enjoyed tea and sat and chatted until quite late.
The next morning we went on a walking tour of Kerrisdale. Annika (aka the world's most adorable child) wore the little hat I'd made and a dignified English lady in the elevator even commented on Annika and her cute little hat.
We went to a really neat little thrift store and a Please Mum store. Then we went back, ate delicious leftovers and took a driving tour of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park and drove past Vancouver's version of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. We went to Ikea and then we were off again to Bellingham. On the way through the border the border patrol officer checked our ID's, asked our business in Canada and when we said we'd been visiting a friend he said "And how is it you came to have a friend in Canada?"
Right. So I guess Americans and Canadians don't mingle. It must be the vast language barrier between us.
In Bellingham we met Tiffany at Boundary Bay brewing company and had wonderful food and terrific beer. I've wanted to go to Boundary Bay ever since my first trip to Bellingham, when I couldn't go because I was only 20. After supper we went to our hostess's new digs where we dropped off our stuff and then went out for gelato. We pondered why on earth they don't serve the gelato in earth friendly cups made of corn plastic or paper. The cups they use are adorable, but aren't recycleable in Bellingham. We went to see where Tiffany works, a really really cool organic market and natural foods store. Much better than Huckleberry's even. Later we went to Nimbus for drinks.
We crashed at her place, and went out for bagels and coffee the next morning. The lines at Old Town where we intended to go, were too long. Then we hoofed it (hmm..."wheeled it?") back to Seattle where we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, wandered a bit in the Pacific Science center and took many photos around Seattle Center. We were mistaken for bums while lying on the ground photographing the opera house.
Then we went to the pier, saw the preserved man and Mexican jumping beans at Ye Olde Curiousity Shoppe, ate at Ivars, and went back to Spokane.
I'll post the rest later, but for now you can also read of our adventures here.

roadtrip, music and mingling

"And we're leavin'
in a jetpl...er..minivan!"

I'm super-excited for this weekend's roadtrip west with my boyfriend and another dear friend.

I'm not super-excited about the new responsibilities I've taken on at work. I was for awhile, but the words "steep learning curve" are getting old.

Last week our office had a reception to premiere a fund-raising video of three short television spots made for us. The film studio that produced the film also hosted the reception and since they had a piano sitting in the corner, guess who got asked to provide background music. Yup, that would be me. Jon's family was kind and let me practice on their really really nice baby grand piano. And I spent the next morning freaking out because I couldn't find my favorite piano book. And then that night I found it...in the file cabinet I bought specifically to store piano music. Apparently, when I actually do organize, I confuse myself.
Piano playing went fine. I played a little Debussy, Samuel Barber, a piece by Ross Lee Finney (who grew up in North Dakota!!) and a few simple jazz pieces. Sadly I didn't get to play any Chopin because they switched the piped in music back on after half an hour and set me loose to mingle and sample hors'douvres. (I'm not a mingler. Small talk makes me feel awkward. I'd have been happy at the piano all night.) I did manage to chat with some of my co-workers and discovered that one was entirely unhappy with his position, wanted to back to broadcasting work and told me that should I ever play craps to bet on 6's and 8's. Another co-worker revealed that although his son had received a college scholarship to a school in Ohio, he and his wife had not shown the son the acceptance letter, thereby forcing the son to attend a college closer to home. I felt thankful for my parents who supported me in making my own college decsions. Next time I'll stay at teh piano all night I think.