Just put up the tree - my 20th Christmas tree! We still have a few ornaments from the first one that we got from the Goodwill. I always just love unpacking the ornaments and remembering when we got them, and especially the ones that were from friends. These from Gi and Carol, this bell from Lorrie, this gingerbread house from Eric.

Oh, so before this, we went to Ferndale to watch the lighting of the world's largest living Christmas tree. The downtown is all Victorian style buildings, and walking down Main Street, man, do these folks take Christmas seriously! There must have been a thousand of us, singing carols, praying for the troops, and then the local boy scout troop marched over and flipped the switch.

Final notes - still no word from the director...annoying. Had the first dungeness crab of the season, only $3.40/lb, insanely good! Also probably the last oysters for the season. A Humboldt dozen means they give you 16, and they were perfect little kumomotos - jewels of the sea......and that plus a bottle of local microbrew stout equals the PERFECT lunch.

We are having some folks over for dinner tonight, which is a great reason to clean the house top to bottom. Where do dust bunnies come from? So the front of the house looks amazing, and all ready for us to put up the tree tomorrow. The office and guest room still need some work, but we are presentable for now, and will get to the back of the house before over-night guests arrive.

Dinner is a simple salad, cous-cous with toasted almonds and currents, and my Spanish slow-cooked duck legs in a kind of mole sauce with pears and shallots, and then chocolate/honey cake for dessert.

Update: we are taking the house off the market and will rent it for a few years. Who knew I'd grow up to be a landlord?

Update: no word on the results of the audition, keep those fingers crossed!

Last day of class at College of the Redwoods: students brought me flowers and baklava plus a super nice thank you card. I am still wavering at teaching at this level, but on the other hand, nobody else really is and it means so much to those who seriously want to change their lives. I have signed on for one more semester and then we'll see.

Theater! Call backs went well. I think I might get offered a small role.....but since I don't want to jinx it, will say nothing more. All the rest...is silence (until I hear back and then I will post right away!)

I don't want to jinx it at all by talking about it, but I will say that I got a call back for tomorrow night. I also forgot how totally hyper I get after an audition, good rehersal, or a show. It's like I took speed or something. During the audition, I am stoic, saving my energy for when I'm called up, and then breathing through it....but afterwards, the dissecting, reconstructing, planning to do better on the call back. Man, I need to go meditate or something.

Geoff signed up for the novel-in-a-month project....and as of 6:27 p.m. today, almost 30-hours before the deadline - he FINISHED! "The Forger's Notebook" is an amusing, yet complicated mystery story that starts in San Francisco and ends in Vienna/Paris. It is obsessive, it is erudite, it is very, very good - and maybe marketable....maybe?

The next several months will be devoted to editing... and more editing...and more editing. I just want to throw out there that I cannot believe that one man can do a huge inter-state move, job change, and have a fairly shocking medical incident, and then spin around and write a novel, much less a *good* novel.

We joke around how Henry Miller (and others) didn't figure out how to write a novel until they were in there 50's. I feel like a miracle is just about to be born.

Long weekend - every day included a gorgeous hike and a movie. In between those events were work, Geoff's novel writing, and my slow cooking experiments. You already got those details from previous entries, so here are the reviews of what I watched!

The 3 Penny Opera: Very good - a bit odd adjusting to everyone in London speaking German. 1931 film, B&W, banned by the Nazis, and that should be enough for anyone else to want to watch it. It is also a musical, great photography and acting, and you really won't guess where it is going until you get there.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Odd film based on a story by Oscar Wilde. It won a bunch of awards, including a Golden Globe for Angela Lansbury and an Oscar for Cinematography. More terrifying than Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll, because you never know what horrors Mr. Gray actually did! Thumbs up!

Every Little Step: A documentary about the casting of the revival of "A Chorus Line." Talk about post-modern pastiche! Anyway, it works, and you root for them the way you root for the cast in the show. You might need to be a theatre geek to appreciate this one.....but hey, I have an audition on Wednesday....so the timing works for me.

Die Zauberflote: Per Paul C's recommendation, this is THE staged production captured on film. At 3+ hours, we had to split it over two nights, but it was electric, and totally changed my opinion of the opera. Granted, that opinion was based on a very so-so staging in SF a while back. Seriously, Diana Damrau is 100% diva, and you love every second she owns the stage.

Dollhouse: Season 1: I really wanted to catch Josh Whedon's new show, but it was just never on when I was at home. Now that it has been canceled I get to discover what all the fuss was about. Four episodes in - it is good - not brilliant - not BUFFY good, but I did put disc #2 at the top of the queue, cause I want more.

I don't think I mentioned that about 6 weeks ago a light fixture fell down in our living room. It landed on the ottoman. Geoff repaired it and got it back up it, but it was a lot of work and he said that some parts were missing so he had to get some stuff from our toolbox.. Two weeks ago, the second fixture fell down so I took it into the property manager and showed them that the pole was bent, the fixture was now cracked, and asked that someone come to replace this one, and inspect all of the other fixtures in the house to see if any more were likely to fall on us.

They came on Friday, and it turns out that all of the lighting fixtures are missing some kind of part, but always a different part. It is as if the person didn't have enough mounting assemblies, and so tried to stretch them out and gerryrig them together with random clamps and bolts, but not the right ones. Problem is of course, over time, the mounts will fail. They repairmen made a list of parts, and are going return on Wednesday to fix all of the lights. I seriously hope the property manager sues whoever installed these to recover the cost of the replacement parts and all the labor.....sheesh!

B - the coworker/hunter friend of Geoff, is the only one in his household who really likes venison and he doesn't cook all that well. We traded him a bunch for several pounds of homemade ravioli, and when G returned with reports of the best meatballs on the planet and playing around with medieval stews, B hatched a new plan. He would lay more venison on us, more than we could really use - and I would cook up big batches and give him a cut. Great idea right? I just spent the last 2-hours+ making meatballs - I have never seen so many meatballs! Almost more than would fit in my oven! Okay, there are 65, but they are big ones (you can't eat more than two, you want to, but you will regret it if you do, lol!). I think we are going to give him 25, and keep 40, but they freeze well so that is all good for everyone.

G is in the homestretch of his novel-writing project, so I am going to take a break and watch a few episodes of The Dollhouse I Netflixed.

After a wonderful brunch of french toast, we went for a hike down at the wildlife refuge. It was low tide.



Seriously, great hike: deer, hawks, a ton of seabirds. G is working on his novel, I was cooking, and if it stops raining we'll grab a hot tub before digging into the pie.

I worked my butt off and got ahead on my grading/lectures/class prep, so I essentially get tomorrow off. Off of paid-work that is....I have to make a batch of chocolate gingerbread for my students and coworkers, and the pumpkin pie - always make that a day ahead or it won't be set right!

Two things made me happy today. First, I saw the International Space Station, with shuttle docked, do a fly over. We had a crystal clear night and it was fantastic! It is going over two more times this week, and I will have binoculars ready for the next one. Second, I have decided to audition for a local theater who is staging "Antigone" sometime this Spring. It has been a long time, but I enjoy the heck out of theater - front stage, back stage, whatever. And I may not get cast, but I think just trying out and meeting some other local theater folk will be fun. Plus I'm a big Sophocles fan (go figure). Anyway, that will be next week, and I'll let you all know how it goes.

Oh, and third, last night we went and heard Packard Jennings at a local gallery. He is a fluxus, culture-jamming artist who likes to change billboards and put stickers in motel Bibles and make fake lottery tickets. Now I want to make fake prayer cards to distribute - what would be a good name for the patron saint of drag queens?

I just read tlv100 's post about shopping pre-Thanksgiving weekend, and I got nothing on that. Totally hysterical - in a "better you than me" kind of way. Marin is completely nuts, god bless each and every one of them. I spent Saturday afternoon hitting Safeway because they were seriously just giving away a bunch of food. I spend $128, and the receipt said I saved $65 - that is 50% of the total bill. I stocked up on everything and I think I have enough for all gift-giving baking from now through New Year's. Yes, if you are reading this, there may be chocolate gingerbread in your future.

My goal was not to have to return to the grocery store until next Saturday, but you know I will never make it. There is always - ALWAYS - one key ingredient that I don't realize that I am out of until Wednesday afternoon....and then I'll be right where tlv100 was, in line, with half of Eureka, trying to get a small packet of ginger, or whipping cream, or whatever it is that I will surely have forgotten.

We are following our Thanksgiving tradition and are eating pretty much the same thing we have eaten every year for the past 15 or so years: tofurky with wild rice stuffing, faux giblet/mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, roasted winter vegetables, and pumpkin pie. I did actually consider getting a local, organic, hand-lovingly raised turkey (named Mr. Peanut) who was compassionately bored to death by green-farmers reading from their Jr. High school diaries - but they wanted - no lie - $25 for a turkey breast. Seriously, and I don't even really like real turkey, and tofurky - which I love - was on sale at the Co-Op in Arcata - a place run by real hippies who are trying to save some turkeys by practically giving away tofurkys.

And speaking of Jr. High School, last week one of my nieces got suspended for beating up two girls in the girl's restroom; both of whom were larger and older. The first girl totally deserved it, but the second one made the unfortunate decision to try and stop my niece from beating up the first girl. Not cool....not cool, I admit. My older sis and I are having a real hard time getting worked up about this, cause you know, I sort of remember Jr. High, and I wish I could have beaten up a few girls when I had the chance. But my older sis and I aren't moms. The "moms," meaning my younger sister and my real mom (grandma to the niece), are none too happy. On the bright side, apparently the niece is getting asked to go to more parties......which I'm sure is infuriating to her mom (my younger sis, who, by the way, was known for beating up a few BOYS in high school! Because they were boys, she didn't get suspended, and we were all ever so proud of her for it.)

Today was all walks on stormy beaches and clam chowder - and now some lentil stew is on the stove, and I really should be reading a very boring book for my grad school class, and so I have to sign off, really....I must.

The punk-goth chick who works the meat counter at the natural food store told me that they get fresh fish on Tuesday and Fridays - so today I wander in, find her, and say, so what is the freshest thing 'ya got. Without a doubt, she says, the ling cod Bob brought in at 5 this morning. Hook me up, I reply!

Now I've had ling cod, but I have never had what is essentially sushi grade ling cod, and wow, I will never look at ling cod the same way again.



Tonight is the last 2-hour chunk of the new "The Prisoner." I am a huge fan of the old 1960's version, and was stoked they remade it especially as Ian McKellen plays #2. It is on AMC, but I am sure that it will be on Netflix shortly.

Had a very productive day - finished a paper for my grad program, worked on some supplements to help translate Hamlet for my students, made pounds and pounds of fresh ravioli (roasted acorn squash, goat cheese + sage) to eat and to trade, and started migrating some online courses over for next quarter. And yet, it is cold, and drizzly, and I felt stuck in the house and was most grumpy and tuckered when G got home.

G, being the genius that he is, whisked me away to split a dozen oysters on the shell and have a glass of white wine downtown, and here we are, 100 minutes later, and I feel almost human again. Water is on for the ravioli, and I'm going to put the Daily Show on the TV. Weekend? Combination of reading for fun and reading for school. If the weather clears up then I'll revisit the wildlife sanctuary.

Oh, saw a documentary, A Man Named Pearl, about a sharecropper from the South who got interested in gardening, took throw-away plants and created topiary masterworks -- ended up with a show in New York and lecturing at colleges. Very inspiring, and I highly recommend it.

The place is called Mekong Cafe, South-East Asian food - looks okay from the outside, but it was never open when we wanted to try it. Not so today, and I must say I was VERY impressed with the food, the cleanliness (see early blog about Chinese in Arcata), and just the whole experience. Put a huge smile on my face just knowing I don't have to drive to Ashland to pick up some tom yum soup, a red curry, or a fresh spring roll.  Eureka is looking better every day.

Today we busted out some elbow grease, and we now really have a 2-car garage - very important as the weather seems to be turning for the worse. We also did some serious cleaning, hung up more art so the walls aren't so bare and overall the place is looking more and more like home.  This afternoon I did a huge grading session: 10 essays on Emily Dickinson. Geoff worked on his novel for the 30-day novel writing contest. He's a bit behind, but what he has is pure gold.

Tonight we are using the last of the venison meatballs to make old-fashioned meatball sandwiches. Got rolls, cheese, left over marinara and a bottle of Zin (the cure to the dish).

Oh - shoot I can't believe I almost forgot to mention it, I had my formal evaluation review yesterday with the Chair and Veep for the department.  It went great and I am approved for 6 semesters before I have to do it again - this is good news as I think I mentioned some student evaluations were unkind, but we walked through them and I presented a strategy to improve classroom management, and everyone thought that for my first time teaching this level I am just doing brilliantly.  Again, huge yay, and a sigh of relief, not that I was worried, but still.

Okay, food now!

Today we found the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, where thousands and thousands (100 thousand last year) Aleutian Cackling Geese are hanging out on their way South.  Here's one:


This place is amazing!  We saw a peregrine falcon eat a snake, a bald eagle, huge egrets, flocks of plovers and sandpipers, and fuzzy caterpillars. We were only there for about an hour and a half - and it's free!  The volunteer worker told me that in March they have this special day where they open the naturalist center at 6 a.m., and at dawn, all the geese take off at once (5,000+) and she says it is one of the most breathtaking things you could ever see.  So yeah, I am bookmarking their website so I can be sure and catch that.

Did some slow cooking, watched some movies. The Chorus, which is a French "To Sir with Love" set in boys school; and Scarecrow, which is more like a brilliant acting exercise - Gene Hackman and Al Pacino from 1973.  Both aren't quite good enough to recommend, but they weren't bad either.

I did some reflection on the student evaluations, and I realized that the #1 issue that came through was that the students are frustrated by the other student's behaviors in the class. Specifically, that the class is getting dragged down by disruptions and when a lot of students haven't done their homework. So I did some research, and it turns out that the #1 complaint of all college students about their classroom experience is the other students!  Also, psychologists have done studies and have determined that, yes, we are correct, the students are getting ruder. They don't put it like that, they say the level of civility has gone way down.

I spend some time looking up strategies for better classroom management, and read through much of a book G got, "Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness," which had some terrific exercises for creating a respectful learning space, and also helping the students stay focused and reduce anxiety.   I learned something really valuable that will hopefully make me a better teacher, so yay.

The week ahead is going to be fine - lots of essays to grade, but it is a short week cause of Veteran's Day.  Thinking about checking out the Redwood Jazz Alliance on Monday night over at HSU -- we'll see what happens, I do have a sassy fuzzy beret after all.

So yesterday I did research to find "the best Chinese food" in the area, and we went there for dinner last night. Hunan Village. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear. I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice it to say we were in the "Yosemite" booth (WTF?), everything was totally under seasoned, and the place was filthy.  Don't look under the table filthy.  Use a paper towel to open the door to the bathroom filthy. It was actually kind of funny....and  I'm guessing students from HSU don't care, what with them all being so stoned all the time, but as for me, I am going to buy a wok and learn to make the stuff myself.

Better news - John Cleese was AMAZING!  He spoke for 2.5 hours, shared stories, and film clips never before seen. Like his first TV show was called Finally the 1948 Show, and was with Marty Feldman.  Yeah, the guy with the buggy eyes actually wrote the famous "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch, where everyone tries to outdo each other with how poor they were.  The BBC wiped all the tapes but they found a set in Sweden and so we got to see some - when  Cleese was like 16 years old!  Great stuff.....

We got home and then were up for hours talking, having a glass of wine or two, and just enjoying the hell out of ourselves. Now I have an irresistible craving for cranberries....must be a vitamin deficiency, and so I'm off to make some baked good that will fill that niche.

Got my evaluations back - rave reviews from mentors who observed, and some great feedback from students. Naturally, all I can focus on is the two nasty comments from my "kids."  One especially hurts because I know who wrote it and I just can't believe she'd say that. It's all good now. Geoff talked me down, I had a  beer, and I'm over it already.  These students (low level DevEd) are very needy, project much, and don't really understand how teaching works. I have a meeting with my Veep and Department Chair where we can go over it, and I know they'll have some useful suggestions and it will just keep getting better.

Okay, so now I need to accessorize (scarves, hats, jewels) so we can go grab some Chinese food in Arcata and then see John Cleese's show at HSU.  I predict there will be much laughter in my immediate future!

I found an online source of real treacle, as well as other ingredients that make up Christmas.  Everyone is so use to molasses that when they taste gingerbread made with old-fashioned treacle their eyes pop out, it is just so much better.  Anyway, I ordered three tins, plus a few other bits and bobs. I have to do it up right cause this will be Rita's first "real" Christmas.  By real, I mean getting the tree and decorating it, eating dinner not pre-made from Safeway's deli....it is all too depressing when you think about it, that she spent years with other host families and nobody made any kind of effort.

Not much to do here in Eureka, but I can stuff her with mincemeat and gingerbreads and make her listen to "A Child's Christmas in Wales" as read by Dylan Thomas.  We have enough deer in the neighborhood so maybe we'll get some tiny hoof-prints around too, :D

Today:       Get up, grade grade grade, lecture lecture lecture, dinner, Netflix, read, hot tub, sleep.
Tomorrow: Repeat.
Thursday:  Repeat.
Friday:       Write a paper for Grad-School and then.......JOHN CLEESE!  Yes, we scored tix to his one-man show. Poor thing somehow got Humboldt State University on the tour. But yaaaaaay lucky us!