Monthly Archives: January 2010

Sensing an Undertone of Prejudice

18 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by in News and politics

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Last week, I received a belated Christmas card from a woman I met in Texas. She was my roommate at HealthSouth, a rehabilitation center in Austin. She’d been hit by a car that backed into her and broke her hip. I was recovering from a car accident that fractured my pelvis. Initially, I was leery of having a roommate, but was deeply grateful for her friendship and encouragement.

We kept in touch after I left HealthSouth. Her recent letter, however, reaffirmed what I believe is an insurgence of prejudice in America. She wrote of her travels, noting “Portland – the delicious blueberry pancakes made by a black chef in the downtown area.”

The use of the word “black” not only seems out of place, but also possibly reveals racism. Is she implying that they’re willing to eat at an establishment where the chef is black? Perhaps she’s surprised that a black man can cook.

I’m jumping to these conclusions because of the volumes of emails that she sent prior to Obama being elected. She deduced that Obama was an evil man with Islamic upbringings and undoubtedly was of foreign birth. She relied on her strong Christian beliefs to fan her fear of liberal policies and the perceived inevitable downfall of America. In addition, she was deeply concerned with my husband’s and my salvation. She even sent us tape to help us “see the way.”

Admitted, during the presidential primaries, my first choice wasn’t Barack Obama. “Who is this man,” I wondered. Once he spoke and I learned of his past, I was not only a supporter, but also enthusiastic devotee. I never figured out whether he was a white man with a black father or a black man with a white mother. It never really matter. I was in awe of his intelligence, accomplishments, and extraordinary determination to obtain his goals.

I was proud to elect a man whose convictions propelled him to become a humanitarian (community organizer) as opposed to someone whose newly found religious fervor — after decades of drinking, partying and failed business schemes – was a testament of his compassion.

The facts are irrefutable. When Bush was elected Governor of Texas, he inherited a large surplus from the former Governor, Ann Richards. After burning through the money, borrowing billions, relaxing regulations ― resulting in Texas becoming the most polluted state in the nation ― and signing the execution order of 155 people (the most execution by any governor in American history), he waltzed into the presidency, a result of political machinations.

Once again, he was given the luxury of a budget surplus. Eight years, two wars, creation of the biggest annual deficit in history, and other unprecedented economic woes, he left office with a smile on his face and not an ounce of remorse.

During his tenure, he set the all-time record of the most days on vacation by any president (including the entire month before 9/11), and turned a blind eye to Americans in need — over 2 million Americans lost their jobs in 2001 and 2002, unemployment benefits were cut along with healthcare benefits to war veterans, and freedoms and civil liberties were axed. In addition, he ran a corrupt, highly secretive government that included changing US policies to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts, appointed more convicted criminals to administrative positions than any other president and signed more laws and executive orders that circumvented the Constitution than any other president! View his resume.

In spite of his undeniable incompetence, mendacity, and determination to destroy the American way-of-life by creating massive budget deficits, invading countries, removing civil liberties, pampering the rich, rewarding the unscrupulous, and remaining oblivious to those in need, swarms of Americans continue to praise Bush while denigrating everything that President Obama says and does.

Visit Fox News and comment after comment refers to Obama as a destructive narcissist, shameful individual, self-serving, dictator, clueless, stupid, liar, Marxist, coward… un-American, communist, Chicago thug, and even the antichrist.

It’s a mystery to me how these words could be applied to a man who has worked tirelessly to rectify the wrongs that occurred in the prior eight years, and, as far as I can tell, hasn’t made anything worse. The only conclusion that I can draw are that many America are opposed to President Obama because his skin color.

My belief is strengthened both by the pompous proclamations of Rush Limbaugh – whose vicious and racist tone does little to crimp his popularity – and the comments on Fox News (the ghastly grammar and spelling illustrates the intelligence of these individuals)…

  • “Barry is an abomination. Barry should go back to Kenya.”
  • “I feel that he has totaly and fully embarassed you people by being the first black American president that even white people was proud of, muchless the pride that you felt when he was elected, and then turn out to be a corrupt, self-centered criminal.”
  • “THE VERY DUMB FASCIST KENYAN IS IN NO POSITION TO GIVE ADVICE , THE 4TH REICH, BARELY LASTED 1 YEAR, AND THE BROWN SHIRT RATS ARE FLEEING THE SINKING TUB, NO NOT U MICHELLE”
  • “Pray for Obama, Psalms 109:8: May his days be few; may another take his office." (written 1/17/10)
  • “You will never own us obomo sambo!”
  • “i l ike your style here . keep up slayin the tards. I see them as naggers. – aka p[eople who annoy us.”
  • “Nappy is going down.”
  • “Once again Nappy lies to Americans. His lies are well documented. Why should anyone believe anything this whack-job says?”

Pasta Harvest

17 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by in Food and drink

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Yesterday afternoon, I was motivated to make some pasta. I decided to use the bread hook on the Kitchenaide to make the dough (two eggs, flour, salt, water). The resulting dough was nicely mixed so it didn’t need to be run through my pasta maker as many times.

Because I have a super easy and effective ravioli maker that makes twelve at a time, I searched through my refrigerator and freezer for "something" that could be made into the filling. Two weeks ago, I had purchased a sweet potato after seeing the White House edition of Iron Chef America. Four chefs competed on two teams using the "secret" ingredient — produce from the White House organic garden.

Michelle Obama commented that she loved sweet potatoes. Yam. Sweet potato. At the time, I wondered, "weren’t they the same?"

Nope. After microwaving my lone sweet potato for ten minutes, I quickly realized what all the "ruckus" is over sweet potatoes. First, they’re not as dark as a yam and super sweet. Ah, now I understand how sweet potatoes can be turned into pie!

Wanting a more robust ravioli, I browned some onions and garlic then added two chopped chicken sausages. I buy various flavors of chicken or turkey sausages and divide them into packages of two, which I then freeze. The problem is that I don’t label the sausages so I don’t know whether I’m using a sausage that consists of chicken and apples or turkey with poblanos!

Happily, I must have selected chicken and apple sausage. The concoction looked rather… gross (right)…with competing flavors so I added Cajun seasoning. If you’re going to blow a dish, you might as well aim for total failure.

Nevertheless, I proceeded with making three dozen raviolis. Even  though I had more filling, I decided to turn the rest of the dough into wide and thin spaghetti.

After cleaning up my mess, I brought a pot of water to a boil and cooked 18 of the ravioli, which I served with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of seasoning. They were SURPRISINGLY yummy! The sweet potato was a nice base for sausage.

In fact, they were so good that on Sunday morning, I made a small batch of dough and made two dozen more ravioli with the rest of the filling. I then placed the ravioli on plates in the freezer. When they were hard, I bagged them for a future dinner or two!

The spaghetti we’ll eat in the coming weeks. After it’s dry, I seal it up in bags and place in the pantry. The two bags of spaghetti are in the back. A freezer bag of frozen ravioli is in the front.

Tile Over Bathtub!

17 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by in Home Improvement

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This weekend, Rich charged ahead with adding the last bit of tile to our middle bathroom. Happily the white tile above the bathtub was in good shape so all he had to do was add three strips of tiny square tiles that match the tiles on the floor and back splash then fill in the rest of the space with white tiles that match the original white tiles.

Of course, I’m greatly simplifying the effort, which required lots of measuring and cutting to make the tiles fit. Rich, however, is a tile wizard and enjoys tiling (especially with his tile saw) so the job goes rather quickly.

After the tiles firmly adhere to the wall, he’ll do the grout. In addition, he needs to hang the towel bars, toilet paper holder, and matching glass shelf over the toilet. He also needs to add the glass doors on the tub so it can used as a shower. Rich doesn’t like shower curtains.  

Everyone is pleased with the new bathroom, especially Jujube who explains that the sink is the perfect size for lounging.

Water Faucet Passes Inspection

03 Sunday Jan 2010

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Yesterday, Rich installed that new sink and cascading water faucet in the bathroom he’s remodeling. In spite of the strange design of the faucet, Jujube gives it two thumbs up!

Jujube reports that instead of having to crank his head under the faucet and lap at droplets of water, he can comfortably lap water from the glass circle or drink the water as it cascades off the glass.

The faucet is adjusted by pushing the handle forward to turn on the water or back to turn it off. Pushing the handle to the right provides colds water. Hot water cascades out when the handle is pushed to the left.

We’ll probably install a similar sink and faucet in our master bathroom when Rich starts to remodel it in a few months. The vessels sink is not only dramatic, but takes up significantly less space on the counter. Very cool!

Cookies are Safely Frozen!

03 Sunday Jan 2010

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If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that Rich and I made twelve different types of cookies and five types of candies to give away this year. What you may not know is that we keep around a third of them.

In late December/early January I package the remaining cookies in freezer bags then toss them in the freezer to be consumed throughout the year. This year, we ended up with six bags — one every other month!

I didn’t freeze the candies… but you’ve got to have some temptation to tug at one’s New Year’s resolution to lose weight.

Popcorn Ball Experiment: Part II

03 Sunday Jan 2010

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After making popcorn balls for the wild birds at Birch Bay State Park and finding no trees on which to hang them, I brought them home for the deserving birds and squirrels in the backyard of our Kirkland house.

I also placed one of the balls in the cage with Rich’s cockatiels and Ringneck parakeet. He reported that the birds not only like the seeds, but enjoyed playing with the balls.

I decided to continue experimenting with the recipe and this morning made balls for the outside critters (squirrel and wild bird seeds) and inside birds (parakeet birdseed mix).

It took around an hour and will be a welcome treat by all recipients.

Bathroom Nearing Completion!

03 Sunday Jan 2010

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For the past few months, Rich has been working on completing the remodle of our middle bathroom… using quality materials, yet trying to keep the cost down. I think he succeeded. The bathroom is starting to look amazing.

The ONLY components that he kept was the white bathtub and white tiles surrounding the tub. He’ll be adding a stripe of glass tile to the top of these tiles then adding additional white titles up to the ceiling.

The horrible wallpaper was removed, the walls smoothed and paintable wallpaper hung. He then choose a seafoam green that complemented the glass tiles that we chose for the floor, backsplash, and stripe above the bathtub. The tiles are three colors: Teal, seafoam green, and marine blue.

He used hexagon and square tiles on the floor then popped out some of the squares to create a multi-colored stripe. The baseboards of the bathroom are white tiles.

The biggest splurges were the maple cabinet and mirror, which were made locally in Woodinville. Unlike less expensive cabinets, the one we chose has four drawers and a small cupboard. Rich not only extended the countertop, but chose a basin sink so they counter looks huge compared to the original sink/cabinet.

The sink and faucet was purchased months ago via the Internet. I think Rich chose it because the water cascades out like a waterfall, which is very appealing to Jujube, who prefers to drink out of sinks. 

The light bar was super cheap from Lowe’s. I looked for lights online, but was intrigued by the abstract lines and frosted glass of this fixture.

The new toilet is smaller, once again, making the bathroom look larger.

There are still a few weeks of work to be done, primarily doing the tiles over the tub and adding glass doors on the tub so it can be used as a shower.

I’m thrilled with my new bathroom!

Rich’s and My New Year’s Recap

02 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in Travel

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New Year’s Eve
I’m writing on Sputnik, my new Lenovo netbook running Windows 7 and Office 2007, while Rich’s reads the newspaper and perpetually comments on articles. He’s ranting about how terrorists are missing an opportunity to blow themselves up inside airports. Why sew explosive filled maxi-pads in your underwear when you can skip the lines and nail everyone waiting to check in?

We’re both suffering from cabin fever.

It’s New Year’s Eve and we’re in our motor home at Larrabee State Park near Bellingham, more precisely, near Chuckanut Bay. Joining us in our isolation, for there is only one other camper in sight, is Jujube the Brat and Zephyra the Sweetheart. Rich explaining something

It hasn’t stopped raining since we’ve arrived. So instead of taking a long walk along the beach and exhausting ourselves, we’ve been cooped up for hours listening to the rain hitting the top of our aluminum penitentiary. It sounds like water popping in a pan of hot fat. Pop. Pop. POP!

We’ve completed several courses… starting with roast beef sandwiches from Arby’s around noon then coffee and German chocolate cake as we waited for the rain to cease. It never did. We then eased into dinner, starting with hunks of multi-grain baguette dipped in chopped garlic, fresh ground pepper, and seasoned olive oil.

Dinner was tikka masala (Indian curry) over rice. Last night, I boiled cubed red potatoes and carrots and placed them in a storage container with slightly cooked fresh string beans. I then poured chunks of chicken that had been cooked in masala sauce (from Costco) over the vegetables. Half an hour ago, I plopped some rice on a Chinete paper plate, plunked the vegetables, chicken and sauce over it and tossed it into the microwave. Angry Puget Sound.2

We complemented this “elegant” meal, served on “fine china,” with Fetzer Gewurztraminer (vintage $6.99) in crystal wine glasses from our wedding. You occasionally gotta’ splurge!

Dessert, so far, has been Halloween-colored M&Ms along with a Reese’s peanut butter Christmas tree (purchased by Rich, a few days after Halloween and Christmas at 50% off).

Pop. Pop. POP! The rain continues.

At least, the cats are happily sleeping.

Since there are a few hours remaining before the end of this decade, we thought it would be fun to document a few remembrances from the past ten years, actually nine years because Rich and I didn’t meet until February 1, 2001.

  • Sold three houses: Sherwood and Tualatin, Oregon and Round Rock, Texas
  • Bought three houses and piece of property: Round Rock, Texas, Mount Vernon and Kirkland, Washington, and Anacortes, Washington (property)
  • I had four jobs: Bernhardt Agency, Intel (Ace Communications), Dell, and Microsoft
  • Rich had two jobs: BIOS Engineer and Linux Advisory Engineer at IBM
  • Three of my six cats – Pu’Yi, Goldakevtch and Ariel Anne – moved from Oregon to Texas then back to the Pacific Northwest. Micheko, Calamity Jane, and Mongojerrie moved to Texas, but were put to sleep over the course of four years because of age-related issues. Zephyra and Lunetta were deposited at our house in Texas when they were kittens, and Jujube who was plucked from a box of eight kittens at a block party in Texas. All three moved to Washington. Finally, Scoundrel was a feral tortoiseshell that showed up at our Texas house when she was a kitten and mysteriously disappeared two years later when we were on vacation.
  • We’ve had several cars: Gold Plymouth Voyager and red Toyota Corolla (both sold in Oregon), red Honda CRV (still have), red Honda FIT (bought in 2007), red Honda Insight (bought in 2009), teal Dodge Dakota truck (still have), silver KIA Sephia (demolished in a car accident)
  • I was in a major car accident and fractured my pelvis in four places and cracked ribs; outside of this challenge, I’ve remained healthy, except for seemingly perpetual dental challenges from cracked teeth to removal of impacted wisdom teeth
  • Rich managed to remain healthy except for declining hearing, vision, and receding gums
  • My eyesight has barely changed
  • Rich now wears bifocals after years of denial… “Is that a stop or yield sign ahead?”
  • Rich saw the light and went from being non-political to making CNN Politics his home browser page
  • Rich continues to do home improvement projects to justify buying more tools, which now include a spray painter, power washer, table saw, router, tile saw, battery-powered saws, pole saw, nail guns, chipper/shredder, riding lawn mower, utility trailer, and innumerable hand tools
  • I’ve bought a sewing machine and taken up beading, which has been an excuse to buy bins of beads and tools

New Year’s Day
Rich and I really whooped it up for the New Years and managed to stay awake until 10 p.m. We fell asleep with the rain noisily falling on the motor home, but were cozy warm with flannel sheets, two blankets, a bedspread, an unzipped 1950’s era sleeping bag, and two cats at our feet. I dreamed that several drunks in a hopped up truck crashed into our motor home, but it was only the wind. Angry Puget Sound

In the wee hours of the morning, Jujube decided to start whining. Rich claimed that he could smell predators outside and was reacting accordingly. Jujube continued to howl and whine throughout the rest of the night and morning! 

Happily, the rain stopped on New Year’s Day and we were able to walk around Larrabee State Park along with hike to Fragrance Lake. The only thing fragrant about the lake was that it was two miles straight up hill (1,000-foot climb) and my pits were odoriferous afterwards! Plus, we started late in the day and made it back to the motor home, half an hour before the sunset and the rain started to fall again.

Self portrait Continuing our traditional of “fine dining” when camping, we had spaghetti sauce that I’d made earlier in the week over pasta along with the rest of a baguette dipped in olive oil, garlic and fresh ground pepper. We also had salad, the rest of the Gewurztraminer, and some more German chocolate cake. As I finish writing this article, it just occurred to me that we left the German chocolate cake in the motor home. I had put it in the oven so it won’t slide around while we we’re driving. Damn!

The pictures above were taken during our New Year’s trip. I took the one above by holding the camera in front of my face… pretty impressive self-portrait! Yes! It was cold, damp, and drippy! Welcome to Washington in the winter.