Fidget

Aren’t these pretty? BN got them for me to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. That’s not all - he also made me a wooden jewelry box with embedded magnets to keep the lid on. He used some exotic hardwoods he’d gotten for Christmas - purple heart and zebra wood. I love the way the cross grains and lengthwise grains create subtle contrasting surfaces. Inside was a whole collection of silver earrings - I’d been wanting some hoops to wear all the time comfortably with no posts poking into my head.

We took a weekend getaway to Bend, which is east of Eugene. We stopped for lunch at Sahalie falls. It was a warm day but sitting within sight of the falls was cold! The rushing water really cooled the air.

Our hotel room looked out over the Deschutes river, which had a slight dam to create a calm surface for ducks and geese in Drake park downtown. We drove a short ways into downtown to find some dinner, and discovered that there was a pro bicycle racing event going on right in the middle of town - they’d closed off a several-block area and the racers did laps. Our dinner location was right at the corner of the home stretch and after we ate we watched the women’s race. It was very exciting!

From there we went to watch Wall-e. It was a sweet little movie. I appreciated that the tone wasn’t preachy (it could easily have been, with a planet made uninhabitable by garbage and the human race turned totally sedentary) and I think perhaps we were meant to identify with the robots more than the humans? It was definitely more about Wall-e and Eve than about the cruise passengers.

On Saturday morning we went to Smith Rock. We hiked up to the top of one of the formations and got some great views of Central Oregon, the various Cascade peaks, and a cute little lizard.

Smith Rock State Park is a rock-climbing hotspot, and we observed some climbers on Monkey Face, a huge pillar that’s a signature feature of the park. If you click on the image above you can see a climber right below the shadow on the lower left face.

We were very hot and sweaty after our hike, and we wanted to go swimming in Tumalo creek but we figured we’d go back to Bend first and get some lunch. A short way into our drive back we realized the car was overheating. To make a long story short, we did make it out to the creek to swim, quite a bit later than we’d planned, and after learning several new facts about the cooling system of the car, plus discovering the insider trick of pouring roadside creek water over the engine to cool it off.

When we got back to town after our swim, we cleaned up and went to check out the street fair that was going on downtown. (When we planned our trip we had no idea that Bend was going to be such a happening spot this weekend!) There were lots of booths selling art and crafted goodies, and several live bands. One of them was really groovy and we stayed to listen. The singers reminded us of some girls we’d heard singing down by the creek. I think it was the same girls.

We ate dinner at Typhoon, a very good Thai place. Best Thai we’d had in awhile, and it felt very upscale without being too pricey. Bend as a whole is so much more upscale than Eugene, astonishingly so. After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning we strolled in Drake park and looked at the geese and ducks.

Driving home, we took a detour to Waldo Lake, where we’d been with my family last summer camping in the Cascades. The mosquitoes were just as vicious this year, but we scampered past them as best we could and the lake was cold, clear and refreshing. I’m amazed by how many activities we fit into this trip - besides the ones we planned on, even. It was a lot of fun.

Once again this year, I ran our local Butte-to-Butte 10k on July 4th. I decided my goal for this year was going to be to finish in under an hour. Last year was so, so hot - I wondered if I should carry a water bottle rather than depend on the water stations which can get congested and cause delays. BN offered to wait along the course with a bottle for me, so that worked out well. He didn’t register for the race but ran on a nearby trail and then the last couple of miles after giving me the water. I could see him getting gradually further ahead of me. There’s usually a guy at each mile marker calling out the elapsed time, and mine were hovering at the 10-minute mile mark - 21, 29, 39… the 5th mile didn’t have anyone. But I knew I would be cutting it close if I indeed made it in under an hour. BN popped out from the sideline near the 6 mile marker and urged me to speed up, I still had a chance! Aaaagh! I put on a burst of speed and caught sight of the finish clock in the middle distance. 59:33… 34… 35… ! Another burst of speed and I staggered across the finish line gasping, oh-my-god-oh-my-god! (There are videos of 5-minute increments of the finishes here but my browser won’t let me see it so I don’t know if I show up or whether I look like a complete idiot. You’ll have to check it out and let me know! I’m wearing a green tank top, black shorts and my white-and-green “track town USA” bandana for good luck (from the olympic trials, left behind on a bleacher near us)

While I was trying to get some breaths of air and waiting for the timing chip to be cut from my shoe (hi-tech this year!) a guy next to me leaned over and vomited. Gross! I looked away and edged to the side. I took some more gasping breaths. I looked to the left again just in time to see the vomiting guy hurl again. Great. I finished level with the vomiting guy. At least I wasn’t the one barfing.

My official time was 59:54! Yay! As they would say at the Trials, that’s a PR for me!

We have an art-film theater in town, the Bijou. If The Fall is playing anywhere near you, go see it. A visual treat, the story is also immersive and the acting is top-notch. A story-within-a-story kind of experience, it reminded me of one of our favorite books, Momo by Michael Ende. It also has hints of Alice in Wonderland and other fantasies where a child is gradually drawn into a story-world and the events in the story mirror the teller and hearer’s real life. A young girl, in the hospital recovering from a broken arm (she fell out of a tree when picking oranges with her displaced/migrant family) becomes friends with a young stunt actor, bedridden after a fall from a railroad bridge during the filming of a silent “flicker.” (it’s 1915.) Roy tells Alexandria a fanciful story, full of exotic scenery and colorful characters. The intensity of the action mounts to a brutal climax (be prepared for violence!). The best part about the movie was the sweet, mischievous little girl. The part I liked the least was the wrap-up - it was quite abrupt. But overall it was a rich entertainment and a refreshing change from the American blockbuster fare we get in the mainstream theaters.

For more than a year, Eugene has been a-buzz with news of the 2008 Track & Field Olympic Trials to be held here at the U of O Hayward Field. Evidently the Trials used to be held here every 4 years and now they are back after an absence - renewing much pride in our title of “Track Town USA.” Finally the big week arrived!

BN and I got to go see the Monday events. He’s teaching a morning class this term so I rode my bike to campus (no parking within a 2 mile radius of the venue!) to meet him there. Before entering we scarfed down the sandwiches I’d packed (no outside food or beverages, you must fork it over for overpriced festival food) and got to the field right as the first event was starting, the men’s decathlon 110m Hurdles. Those went so quickly that I didn’t get any good photos - those guys probably had to count every step to stay in sync with the hurdles, and I couldn’t even get my shutter finger in gear quick enough. Oh, well.

The rest of the daytime session was decathlon events - next was the Discus Throw. This was also hard to capture on film since the throwers were in a small “batting cage” down at the opposite corner of the infield from us. But we had a good view of the distance markers and we were amused to note that they used remote-control toy trucks to carry the thrown discuses (disci?) back to the starting point.

(Click on the pictures to see them bigger)

One of the most interesting and suspenseful events to watch was the Pole Vault. There was some complications around who started at what bar height, but basically how it worked is each athlete had 3 attempts to clear the bar, and if he made it he’d go on to attempt the next height increment. So the decathletes were gradually eliminated until the only ones left were Tom Pappas of the top-3 superstars and Ashton Eaton, a local darling from the UO track team, only 19 years old. TP set a new personal record (PR) and AE cleared almost every attempt, rapidly rising to almost the same height as TP. Yay!

We jammed out of there to grab an early dinner at McMenamin’s, our preferred burger joint about a block from Hayward Field. (no overpriced festival food for us!) When we got back the Javelin Throw was under way.

The evening session started to get a little crazy, with multiple events going on at once - the men’s Hammer Throw which was actually outside the main field; women’s High Jump and Long Jump (we didn’t get a great view of those) and Javelin; and lots of running. Here’s a picture that shows the big screen where we could see some closeups and instant replays that we would have missed otherwise; the sand pits for Long Jump and the High Jump poles with landing pads. The men are lining up for their 400m Dash semifinal.

It was so much fun to be at the trials and see a little bit of everything. We watched 2 semifinal heats of women’s 3000m Steeplechase - the girls have to run about 8 laps with several obstacles consisting of a fixed jump thingy (don’t want to call it a hurdle, not sure what the real name for it is) and a puddle of water. I’ve run across obstacles like these out in the wild while backpacking - downed trees and muddy creeks. Glad I didn’t have to run and jump… (but those girls didn’t have 20 lb loads on their backs, either.)

The stadium really filled up by the time the evening session was in full swing, and the peak of crowd-cheering intensity came during the astonishing finish of the men’s 800m final. Just twice around the track, the top 3 finishers came from behind for a flashy finish - and all Oregon-sponsored. 2 from the Oregon Track Club and one from the U of O. Rock on, home team!

We got to watch our decathletes complete their final event, the 1500m. The top 3 guys didn’t finish first in the run, but their cumulative scores were secured from the preceding events. Those decathletes deserve serious props for their well-rounded skills and stamina. Very impressive! Here they are on their post-awards-ceremony victory lap:

To wrap up the evening we watched the men’s 5000m final. For the first half at least, one guy was way out in front and the rest were in a tight pack. That was kind of a different approach than we’d seen all day. He eventually fell back to the middle-rear but we mused how the race results had been affected - maybe everyone ran faster because of him?

After an enjoyable and inspiring day, I was a bit sore from spending so much time sitting on bleacher seats, but all fired up to run the 10k on the Glorious 4th - thinking that 2008 is a fun year to be a resident of Track Town USA.

Yesterday morning I made myself a smoothie for breakfast, as I often do - but it turned out really good so I though I’d share.

Strawberry-Lime Smoothie

- about 10 small frozen strawberries (hand-picked and fresh-frozen!)

- a frozen banana

- 2 T limeade concentrate

- 6oz container lime-flavored yogurt

- Soymilk

Place ingredients in blender in the order listed. Pulse to break up the frozen items and blend till smooth, adding soymilk as needed to adjust consistency. Refreshing for breakfast or delicious for dessert.

Last weekend was the annual Black Sheep Gathering - a fiber festival at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. I rode my bike over there - lucky me - some people come from far and wide and camp out in the field behind the fairgrounds. I could tell when I was getting close… and after awhile I just had to follow my nose. Sheep are cute, but they smell.

Look at the horns on that guy! I ran across my friend S from the Monday night knitting group and we strolled around admiring the sheep. There were big white sheep…

And little black sheep…

And, when I went back on Sunday, I got to watch a sheep get sheared. She was big and looked funny sitting there on her bum.

Besides all the critters, there was a huge market with all kinds of fiber-arts related goodies: spinning wheels and drum carders, buttons and shawl pins, knitting bags and handknit garments, roving for spinning and lots and lots and lots of YARN. Some knitters in my group had been planning for months about what they were going to buy at Black Sheep. But I was totally overwhelmed, there was no way for me to evaluate and choose something for a purpose or with intention. But, I did end up at the Blue Moon booth and buy some Socks That Rock. I’d heard and seen a lot of good about the yarn and it was easy to find 2 color schemes that I liked. Mmmm, pretty soft yarn. Very nice.

Later on Sunday I went to hang out with another knitting friend, M. She was spinning with her mom out in front of their house. When I got there she offered to give me a spinning lesson on one of their several extra wheels. (They are quite the fiber family.) So I learned how to spin! The concept is easy but I can see how it must take a lot of practice to get consistent yarn. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture. But I felt like that was a fitting conclusion to a fiber-arts themed weekend.

Last Friday we went strawberry picking.

They charge by the bucket, so we picked two full buckets and felt like that was probably enough. When we transferred them into the bowls we’d brought from home, we realized two buckets’ worth was a lot!

We also saw a freaky white spider (I’ll keep the image small for arachnophobes, click if you aren’t afraid to see it larger):

We’ve had a strawberry-filled week since then. We had strawberry cocktails, strawberries wrapped in crepes with yogurt (yum!!!), strawberries with ice cream, and I froze two large bags full for use in smoothies. Cool.

This week I had another big batch of farm-fresh goodies: bok choi, shelling peas, cucumber, radishes, carrots, and rhubarb. I decided to make Thai curry. I used one of my trusty curry-paste cans from the Asian market, a yellow curry. First I aggressively sauteed half an onion, sliced, so that the edges got nice and brown. (Took those out of the pan to add back later, since I wanted them to keep some crunch.) Next step, chicken, sliced, sauteed until opaque. Then stirred in the curry paste, it’s oil-based and frying it brings out the flavor of the spices. Then I stirred in a can of coconut milk and some fish sauce. I have discovered that a good way to add root vegetables like potatoes and carrots to a curry is to roast them separately in the oven. So that’s what I did, just tossed with salt and a bit of oil.

My favorite kitchen toy recently has been the Camp Griddle that I got as a wedding gift from my grandparents. At the time, I was pleased since we love to camp. But I didn’t realize I would end up using it practically every time I cook or bake anything. The reason it’s so great is that it’s like a nonstick skillet in the shape of a baking pan. Nothing will stick to it, and one of my best tricks is oven-fried potatoes. With just a teaspoon of oil per potato, you get crispy, browned fries or hash browns. Yum. And it makes biscuits or cookies trouble-free (you have to bake them in smaller batches, but I only have 1 rack in my oven anyway.)

So, my curry was all arranged. I shelled the peas and stirred them in with the onions right before serving. These precious peas are the best I’ve ever had - they were sweet like candy. Luscious. I considered stirring the bok choi into the curry, but I hesitated. I was happy with the curry’s texture and didn’t want to throw it off… So, I decided to stir the bok choi into the steamed rice. I sliced it thin, as if it were cabbage or celery, and stirred it with the hot rice fresh from the rice cooker. A few minutes in the microwave helped get it just right - the stem slices were still crisp but the leafy greens were nice and wilted.

Earlier in the day, I had made a chopped salad for my Bible study ladies with the cucumber and radishes, plus some red bell pepper, red onion and cilantro with a lime vinaigrette. There was a bit of it left, and after I had ladled up the curry over the bok choi rice, I topped each plate with a bit of the radish “relish.”

Wow, that was the best Thai meal I’ve ever made! It tasted so fresh. I think the fresh organic veggies really made a difference, and it was really not a complex process. I guess it really supports the idea that the better your ingredients are, the less you have to do to them to get good results.

Oh, and the rhubarb - I made muffins. They came out well, studded with tart pink rhubarby goodness.

Today was World Wide Knit in Public day. Luckily it was also a Sunny Weather day, otherwise knitting in Eugene would have to be not-any-more-public-than-usual! I was sitting outside the Knit Shop with some knitters. A car drove up in front of the coffee shop nearby and the driver started honking the horn… apparently she was trying to get the attention of someone inside the coffee shop… not considering the knitters and farmers market shoppers who were deafened by the earsplitting honks. Just then, one of the knitter’s greyhound dog that was sitting with us started howling, a slow, melodious howl that lasted just a bit longer than you’d expect for a pair of mammal lungs. Evidently he heard a siren in the distance, his owner said he always howls with sirens. I couldn’t hear the siren, really, and I wonder if the honking driver thought maybe she’d provoked the howling. A little bit later I noticed a very old, feeble man getting into her car - and I wondered why she’d been honking for him rather than going into the shop. Must have been in an all-consuming hurry, or something…

Suddenly, the greyhound went bounding across the parking lot, his leash had gotten caught on a metal folding chair and he got scared and tried to escape, but the chair was still attached to him and clattered alarmingly against the pavement. One blink and he was already across the opposite street, and we gasped in horror as he sped uphill toward the main drag, a busy street with 2 lanes in both directions. In the time it took me to think that we should all have jumped up and chased after him he was already out of sight, and none of us could have come close to keeping up let alone catching him, and he was towing that chair as if it were a plastic bag. The owner did set out after him, and the woman next to me anxiously murmured that Eugenian motorists would definitely stop for a dog. (That is, if they even saw him, tearing along approaching the speed of sound!)

We were relieved to see him come safely back with his owner and her friend, mostly OK except for a bloody foot. (I think the chair had scraped it.) One of the other knitters got a first aid kit out of her car and someone held onto him while 2 others worked on bandaging him up. He stayed pretty calm except his brown eyes looked a little bulgy and he let out one sharp bark of protest.

I have been reading a volume of “short novels” by Anton Chekhov, and in the current story the narrator mentioned cruel adolescent townsfolk who would tie an empty kerosene can to a dog’s tail and the poor thing would run himself ragged trying to escape… I felt it was an odd coincidence that I’d just read that a day or two before today’s dog/chair incident.

My friend LL has been sharing her locally-farmed-weekly-produce-box with me. She found they sent stuff in the box that she’s not interested in eating, and it’s just her and her husband anyway so they wouldn’t be able to use it all up themselves. As she told the other ladies when she gave me my portion at our Wednesday bible study, “… and you know, KT likes weird stuff so I’m giving it to her.”

This week I got 2 small fennel bulbs, a big bunch of rapini (also known as broccoli rabe), a bunch of basil and half a bunch of radishes - “French breakfast radishes” no less!

So tonight for dinner I cooked Fennel Risotto - carmelized the chopped bulbs to start with and sprinkled some minced fronds in at the end. It was pretty good! I also blanched-and-shocked the rapini as suggested on Martha Stewart Everyday Food. This involved dunking it in boiling water and then in ice water. Then I sauteed it with garlic. But it came out fairly bitter, so I’m not sure I’m a huge rapini fan yet. I roasted chicken thighs with a mixture of butter, garlic, lemon, salt & pepper stuffed under the skin. Mm, that came out good.

To do: make pesto (duh!) and do something with the radishes… maybe some kind of relish/salsa?