since the recipe for candied orange peel that i'm following is trying to coerce me to be patient (the peels are supposed to become translucent-looking after about an hour of soaking in syrup, and it's been two hours and then some), it seems as though i have a few minutes to write, even though the house is in disarray due to the marathon gift wrapping anne and i just did.
our bamboo and eucalyptus trees are stretched to the ground, poor things. 
the house. we brought a stack of books with us and left with chocolate mustaches. 
spent some time outside today (as much as we could-- the wind was about to remove skin from our face), then warmed up by the fire and had friends over for soup, bread, and tissue paper snowflake making. adding to this loveliness was the portland public school closure notice, which i received at 5:45. that gives me the whole night to bask in the glory of getting to "sleep in" in the morning. i might even jolt myself with some homemade chai, sit in the dark with my christmas tree, and write some cards. happy. 
want to meet the new members of our household? introducing chelsea and ezra...
this little tree is entirely bogged down with ornaments from my childhood. every year my godfather bought me a new ornament that reflected my interests for that year. investigating each one was one of adah's favorite parts of the day. we were all a little perplexed by the skiing hot dog one. 
involves bullet points. i'm bumping from one thing to the next with incredible speed, and my body is waiting to catch up with my mind. things will officially slow down after i get through the next few days. i will have written my last bunch of report card narratives, finished a slightly ridiculous paper that compares bread baking to educational action research, attended my last class, entertained 20 parents at an open house, and chaperoned a "girl power" festival at portland state, in addition to all the other stuff of daily life, like folding laundry in ways that drives anne nuts, and stashing raisins in spinach leaves for bug.
sorry it's been so long--the keyboard had laryngitis. happy thanksgiving, everyone. this morning, when adding leaves to our gratitude tree, these are the things adah said she was thankful for: "apples and leaves, books, trains, blocks, grandmuhs, and my moms." thinking of abundance. love to all of you out there!
anne and adah, the inseparable love birds, are upstairs camped out in a tent that we dragged up from the basement, while i am at war with the APA style guide. which looks like more fun? 
spent the afternoon nursing a friend's broken heart, and playing all sorts of things with kiddo. anne, specifically, as i was trying to get through the swamp of a lengthy literature review.
first off, the election. holy shit, people. i know people have been saying this for days, but i really didn't see it happening in my lifetime, this electing a black president business. as my friend jonathan said, i didn't think it was in our country's DNA to let that happen, so i was quite wow-ed by the reality of it. whether or not we have hope that members of the government can exact the kind of radical changes we need in this country, it was indeed a monumental moment.
i thought i'd post this to get a little rise out of my anarchist friends, and to also proclaim a little bit of excitement for this historic and nerve-wracking election. :) adah spent the morning at the obama headquarters with her grandma bonnie, doing who the hell knows what. i asked her what she did there, and all she said was, "i was eatin' some lollipops!" anyway, this ordinary cynic (me) is both hopeful and biting my nails tonight.
we spent the afternoon celebrating a 2 year old friend's birthday, hunting down a new bread machine from craigslist, looking at nests of homemade pasta at pastaworks, drooling around the cookbook section at powells, and finally, having lots of lap time in the kid's section. bug picked out halloween books solely.
on the walk back to the car, she saw this streetlight in the fred meyer parking lot and said, "look at that funny streetlight!" i said, "yep-- it has three lights..."
to which adah replied, "it must be two moms and their baby!"
well, of course. what else would it be?
for consistently sending the most fabulous mail. the envelopes themselves are a treat, not to mention the reams of stickers and books and cloth seahorse pins. amazing. turns out the kid is a mail devotee just like one of her mothers. 
no, this is not a post about how i almost swallowed a few ounces of toxic mercury from my amalgam filling a couple breakfasts ago, and how i'm convinced that my daughter and i both have serious neurological damage as a result.
so... we spent the past weekend in port angeles and it was lovely. nothing like getting out of your own place so you can forget about your OCD tendencies and realize how much you love your home, even after only being gone for 32 hours. we had a great time, despite the fact that i made the mistake of ordering a prime rib sandwich on some really bad sourdough at a seafood restaurant. the foodie had to rear its pretty little head and make a scene. but just a little one, and it was much later in the day.
the next morning, as we went out to the backyard in search of slugs to befriend, we discovered a goldmine: apples! gorgeous yellow plums that were so ripe they were translucent in parts! crimsonly pears! holy crap. out came the luggage to pack the pounds of fruit into. anne had to proclaim the word "enough" many times. she knows what the kitchen becomes when i go picking-crazy and then have to deal with the aftermath.
(mama mia trattoria 10/19/08)
(at fir point farms in canby, oregon)
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happy autumn, everyone.