For years I kept journals -- in composition, spiral bound, and French graph paper books. This blog is an attempt to get back to writing and documenting the world around me using photos, newspaper headlines, and other articles.

Friday, April 27, 2012

My first 5K

Not thousands, but a distance run (if you can count 3.1 miles as a distance run).  But I had never gone over 3 miles and today I did.  According to the on-line map routing thing I used, I ran 3.17 miles.  And at some points during the run, I felt like I was really getting a stride going and not just plodding along.  I went in a big loop around the cemetery instead of my usual neighborhood laps.  I liked covering new ground and the long down hill towards the end.

I've had a stellar day; a much needed recharging of my introvert battery.  Nedim and I went out for breakfast and then parted ways.  He went to do boat chores and I came home and sewed.  I made significant progress on my place mats.  I went for a run.  I planted the kale, spinach and parsley that I bought yesterday.  I went to the fabric store for more thread and batting.  And then I got take out for dinner.   I was able to be quiet and enjoy the solitude.  As I had my hands in the dirt, with each plant I placed in the raised bed, I was thanking Mom and Robert for having Selim these few days -- for their willingness to spend their vacation giving me one.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

My monkey

I'm thinking Selim's middle name should be monkey.  He has taken to tree climbing with a passion.  When he gets next to a tree, he is looking for a way to get up.  He can climb the small Japanese maple in our front yard now. 





Our lilacs are blooming, as are these small purple bulb flowers that I planted and can't remember what they are called.





Yesterday Nedim was involved in organizing the inaugural Turkish / NH cultural day.  There is a group of Turkish business men who have been organizing events with politicians in New England and this was part of their endeavor.  Nedim left early yesterday morning to help set up and Selim and I drove over later on.  We got to the State House just as the event started.  There were speeches, music, tables with tourist information and examples of tile work. They had food to feed the legislators and it was delicious.






It was so fun to see Nedim in his element.  He was helping with the food, making introductions and just doing his thing.  I love seeing him happy and involved.  Selim got in to the act by helping hand out plates and trying to keep the wind from blowing around the napkins and utensils.







Selim and I walked around the Capitol building and Selim told me to take a picture of the eagle, a detail of the entrance arch, and the bell.





And then I took a few more, just because.





When that was done, Selim and I headed up to the Ashram.  Selim is staying for a few days but I was there just for the overnight.  I had to get back home today because I had a interview for the Supervisor position at work.  On the drive east today, I stopped at a small garden center that Mom had mentioned and picked up kale, spinach and parsley 6-pack flats.  I figure these will be my insurance in case the seeds I planted don't come up.  I need to get out in my garden to weed.  I take inspiration from Mom's Buddha garden under the apple tree.  It is so pretty.





But to the interview, I think it went well.  I met with an Adjudication Manager and an Assistant Director.  I've been there long enough to know them by sight and make small talk, but I have not worked for or with either of them.  The interview felt conversational and my answered flowed from one topic to the next.  They seemed happy with my answers and I felt like I conveyed what I wanted to.  I should know by the end of next week or the beginning of the following if I made it to the second round of interviews. 

I'm so grateful that I had the experience of the interview for the Customer Service Manager earlier this year.  I knew the general process and the types of questions that they would ask.  What was nice about today was the fact that they referenced my resume and what the thought were my strengths.  So I could reference past work experience and know that they had an idea of what I was talking about.  Interesting that both of them picked up on the HR in my past and pointed out how they thought that was beneficial.

I went into the interview wearing a suit that Selim had helped me pick out, that had been too snug to wear when initially purchased.  But it felt fine today and it gave my a physical confidence that I hadn't expected.  I was happy wearing it and that was a bonus.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Cupcakes and garden

The first part of the week was dominated by cupcakes.  I had volunteered to bake for Selim's class on Thursday for the going away party for their teacher's assistant.  I knew that one of the kids had an egg allergy, so how hard could that be?  Then the parent coordinator wrote back that there were peanut/tree nut and dairy allergies in the class as well.  OK.  I can still do that.  Except that I skipped over the tree nut part and baked two batches of sour milk cake using coconut.  Good thing I reviewed the email before I put away all the supplies for the night.  I baked another batch using the orange juice version and then called it a night.  I got out of work early on Thursday and baked one more batch of chocolate and frosted them.  I bought store frosting because I I haven't figured out how to make good frosting without butter.  (I've put the recipes for the cupcakes at the end of this blog.)



The party went off well.  It was a surprise and the kids did not give it away.  The teacher asked if we could give a present that had a class room theme.  Selim gave a pencil box filled with paper clips, erasers, pencils, a stapler and stickers.  Other kids gave crayons, glue sticks, note pads, and other stuff.  It was very sweet.

My daffodils have not been spectacular this year.  I'm getting lots of green and only a few flowers.  Only one of my favorite peach color flowered. 





The tulips in front of the house aren't doing much, but two in the rock garden area bloomed yesterday.  I want to turn that area into a patio and put a chair and some big pots of flowers.  I hope that Nedim and I can get to that sooner rather than later.




My mother's day quince bush is flowering.  I love it.  This is its second year and the blossoms are spectacular.





Last night Selim decorated the front step with "nature" to make it pretty and help guide my way. 





Today Selim and I made a trip to Agway to get tomato seeds and a couple bags of garden soil.  We came home and took the flats out of the shed that we bought a few weeks ago but couldn't find the seeds.  Sigh.  Back to Agway to get kale, spinach, parsley, basil, cuke and zukes.  It didn't take long to fill up the two trays with our seeds.  Last year we had success so there is hope for this year.  I turned over the raised beds with the garden soil.  The first two beds are ready and the third one needs a bit more work.  I haven't gotten to the fourth yet.  I still have to weed that one and all compost and soil.





We are supposed to get some rain tonight.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  It is so dry.  Without snow this winter and no rain this spring -- the earth is in need of moisture.  If we do get the rain, it will be easier to weed the herb garden and clean out the strawberry beds.

This is school vacation week.  I'm ready for a week with out the homework grind.  May be we can get to a couple of karate classes since we skipped today.  Last week I had two great classes.  I did an actual running start front roll on Tuesday and Thursday's class was all about forms.  But today we slept in until 7:30 and Selim seemed to need a lazy morning of cuddle time.  So I didn't push to get up and out for class.  Some days I'm not sure that I am making the right decisions.  Oh well.  I've gotten a lot done today.

Cupcake recipes are adapted from Cooking With Light: Favorite Vegetarian Recipes.

Wacky Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cider vinegar.

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a 12 muffin tin with paper liners.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Add the oil, vanilla, and 1 cup warm water (if you aren't making for kids try adding 1 cup warm black coffee instead).  Whisk/stir.  Add the vinegar and mix gently.  Some stripes are OK.  Pour the batter into the muffin tin 3/4 full or so.  There might be a little batter left in the bowl.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Sour Milk Cake

Preheat oven to 375

Sift together:
1 2/3 cups flower
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine and beat in:
1 cup milk (or 1 cup orange juice)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Once that is incorporated, add
1 tablespoon cider vinegar (1 teaspoon if using the orange juice)

Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full or so.  This should use all the batter.  Bake 20-23 minutes, until tester comes out clean.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

One definition of bliss

Is to spend three hours at the ocean with Selim when he is happy to be there and we don't have to worry about sunburn.  I worked four hours of overtime this morning and when I came home, my guys were playing street tennis.  As I got out of the car, Selim was ready to go to the beach.  I had told him the day before that we could take the golf clubs and tennis rackets and have play time at the ocean if it was warm enough.  Since the sun had come out and the temperature was in the 60s, I loaded up the car with our sports equipment, the snacks, towels, a book and a collection of clothes in case it was cooler at the coast -- and then we headed out.

When we started driving, he invited his imaginary friends to come along:

     "Hey Tink, Mist, and Autumn, what are you doing?"
     And I reply in my best pretend faerie voice, "Not much Selim, what are you doing?"
     "We are heading to the beach.  Do you want to come?"
     "We would love to."
     "Hey Osprey, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon?"
     "Yes Selim?"
     "Where are you guys today?"
     "We are just flying around,  hanging out in the sky.  Where are you?"
     "We are on our way to the beach.  Do you want to follow us?  When you see the jeep, just keep an eye on us."
     "Okay.  We will.  See you there."

We had such a great time.  As Selim would say later, "This was the best day ever." We got there before noon and there were about twenty cars at Wallis Sands.  But there were only four or so other groups of people.  Plenty of space for us to play tennis and golf and not have to worry about hitting anybody else.  Saying we were playing tennis is sort of a euphemism.  It is more like running wind sprints after the ball as it went sailing over or past me interspersed with an occasional rally.  But we had a good time.  When I was pooped, he played by himself -- throwing the ball up high and seeing if it would come down on his racket.

He played a bit of golf while I got my legs in the sun and read. 




We went over to the rocks to look for shells.  We didn't find much, but he had fun scampering over the barnacle encrusted rocks.






After a change of clothes, it was back to more tennis.  He wanted to be Roger Federer and then he told me that I had to be a girl player.  I chose Venus Williams.  Once we had established who was who, we were able to resume play.







Before we left, I made him take a picture with me.  We have spent so many days at that beach and have a collection of mother/son photos to mark the years.  I think these ones are particularly sweet.





After three hours it was time to head home.  But what a perfect few hours we enjoyed.  When we got home we added compost to the raised beds from our compost pile.  It has taken three years, but finally, I was able to dig out some great, dark, soil.  I hope that tomorrow we can plant some seeds in the trays we got last weekend at Agway.  We need to get them started before we can put them out next month.

And speaking of garden, Mom discovered that the primrose that we planted last year came up!  On Wednesday, she instructed Selim in pruning some of the dead raspberry stalks. The daffodils are a disappointment, but the one yellow bloom is beautiful.  And one tulip in front of the mail box opened today. 







This has been tough week for my exercise program.  I was tired, not sleeping very well and didn't have the best time management.  That resulted in only three good workouts.  Since Nedim wasn't home when I was ready to run, I couldn't do the usual long block laps.  I decided to try interval run/walk on the short block loop.  Eight times around would be a two mile work out.  Selim came with me on the first lap and then he bailed and played in the street on the next few.  By the time I was on my third lap, Nedim had come home.  So I ran with as long a stride as I could manage, as fast as I could go, from the driveway to the first stop sign.  I walked the straight stretch to the next stop. Ran up the hill to the corner and then walked to the driveway.  I carried quarters in my hand and dropped one after each lap.  It took me longer than a usual two mile run, but I felt the longer strides and breathed harder.  I was sweating by the end of my 26.26 minute work out.