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Printed prominently on the box of Jewel 100% Pure Baking Soda: 0 Grams Trans Fat Per Serving And this is news because…?

In September (yes, breaking news, I know), I attended a ‘listening session” presented by the US Park Service about Public Law 109-441: Preservation of Japanese American Confinement Sites. The session was held at the Japanese-American Service Committee (JASC) building, which also happens to be where my Quaker meeting has its weekly Meetings for Worship. I arrived a half hour late, having misremembered the start time, and found 50-60 people already present and listening to the end of the US Park Service’s presentation. Luckily, I hadn’t missed the most important part, as this session was only partly informational. The main focus was getting the community’s input about selection criteria for the grant proposals: for what, to whom, etc. We divided into two groups of participants with a facilitator and a note-taker each, and away we went! ...

We have, as usual, eaten very well this weekend. Our summers and falls are spent on the “vegetable treadmill” (C’s term) as we cook and eat our way thru weekly deliveries from Angelic Organics box”, a CSA farm near the Illinois/Wisconsin border. In addition to a 24-week “vegetable share”, all of which is produce grown on the farm, we get a bi-weekly “fruit share”: organic fruit from the US (mostly). We’re not vegetarians, but from late June to the beginning of December, we very nearly could be! ...

Finally, the pictures from our August trip to Norway are up. They’re also on picasaweb, not far from the Ecuador pix, if you know what I mean. (I like the picasaweb slideshow feature even if the rest of the site is not ideal.)

We spent eleven days in Norway this past August. The impetus for our visit was the first wedding amongst Christian’s Norwegian cousins. We decided to take a five-day road trip as well so as to make it a proper summer vacation. For the days we weren’t on the road, we were in Hamar, staying with C’s ever-hospitable aunt and uncle. The pictures that C posted speak a thousand words, so I’ll try not to say much—just enough to give a flavor of where we were, especially for those who aren’t as into the Norway “scene”. ...

Note to those who just want the visuals: the link to the pictures is at the end. Mom and I decided that traveling together in Ecuador in 2006 was so successful that we would do it again this year – but this time, to Ireland. The impetus came from an article I saw in the Irish times about a Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. During a phone conversation in March, I threw the idea out there: “Hey Mom, wanna go see Georgia O’Keeffe in Dublin?” Mom, bless her, didn’t discount the idea immediately. Rather, she thought for a moment, and replied, “Honey, that sounds like a nice idea.” ...

The wind chill is – 30°F (-34°C). No wonder it felt like ice cubes were being stuffed into my sinuses as I walked to the train this morning! I can’t even imagine what it must be like for my parents, who still live in my hometown. It’s -15°F (-26°C) up there, and that’s before the wind chill effect. Chicago was eerily quiet last night. Part of it was that no one, but no one wanted to be out in the cold. The other part was that a large percentage of the city was glued to the TV, watching the Superbowl. ...

Several months ago, our friend Sabine had the idea of making Mexican-style tamales from scratch. I was intrigued: most tamales contain lard, and it would be cool to make some that were healthier, i.e. lower-cholesterol/saturated fat and lower-salt; and it would be a challenge! However, I knew it would take mucho, mucho time (almost any made-from-scratch Mexican food that’s really authentic, like mole poblano, does), so we put it off until the holidays. The postponement gave our activities an added authenticity: making tamales is a Mexican holiday tradition. So a week ago, on New Year’s Eve, Sabine and I were in my kitchen, assembling tamale ingredients, tools and recipes. ...

The former is what Christian and I are, unfortunately. I got hit just before Thanksgiving and have gone from sore throat to cough to congestion and cough and exhaustion. I just now seem to be coming out of it (I hope). C, who had hoped he was the Typhoid Mary, says his throat is starting to get sore. Ha! As for the latter, last night the first major winter storm of 2006/07 hit Chicago. Most flights are cancelled, the city’s trucks are spewing salt and scraping snow, the roads are ice rinks, Metra and other public transportation is running late, and it will continue to blow and bluster all day long. Isn’t winter fun? ...

The background: Meg and Jonathan got married in late September 2003. Christian and I got married in mid-September 2004. Miriam, who came to both weddings, put the pieces together when she told the four of us, excitedly, that we shared a wedding anniversary according to the Jewish calendar. Thus we always will know that we all were married on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. None of us being Jewish, we use it as a reason to get together to celebrate our weddings. (That our anniversary is a Jewish holiday makes it a lot easier to figure out when to celebrate.) ...