Unusual things all in a day

The day began with breakfast with the Juneau School District teachers and staff in the long-awaited new high school, well over 15 years in the making, and a beautiful facility it is. My role was to host a table, on behalf of the arts groups for six teachers or staff members, providing table decorations and a little gift folder full of tickets, CDs, information, and such.

En route, the news that our governor had been selected as running mate for the Republican candidate, John McCain. (Alan and Didi, we'll definitely be your guests should the remarkable happen.) She is, as Martha put it, an "interesting" choice.

Working on grant applications all day, with a mouse, the small brown scurry kind not the white plastic kind, providing a regular distraction in my office. A smart mouse, it avoided the live traps all day.

For dinner, a white coho salmon. I don't believe I have ever seen white coho....white king is not unusual and quite my preferred salmon. John grilled the coho and served it with caper berries, and a big tossed salad, and a plate of voluptuously delicious nectarines and black grapes. The salmon was fine, but does not match the richness and elegance of its cousin.

International cuisine

Last night, John was in Ketchikan, Ren at James's, Henry in San Francisco, and we had Servas guests from Italy and New Zealand.
I worked until 6:30 (invited the guests to join the meeting I was at, the Arts Roundtable) and then we came home to have dinner.
The travelers had been suffering from Fast Food Fatigue, so I made a big romaine salad with a little Gorgaonzola dressing and sauteed breaded chicken breasts on top. Added a fresh fruit salad, Dona Paula (The Italian guest's name is Paula!) Malbec, and we had a lovely evening chatting about our various countries, jobs, concerns, and life.

Growing

Early this summer that never happened, Henry had wanted to have our long-time, known them since before babies, raised the kids together, friends over once all the kids were home from college. Somehow the summer slithered past, and it is already time for the kids to go back to college, so we rallied a back-to-school gathering. Pretended it was summer, had a big stack of oven-fried chicken, potato salad, a big green salad, Joan brought a rhubarb crisp, Greg brought corn bread, Sarah made wonderful couscous salad, and I looked around the table at these big handsome/charmingly beautiful young people and remembered my grandmother saying what she was proudest of was that she had raised seven kids to adulthood. Amen!

It is amazing to think that we have been having dinner with these folks (the parents anyway) for close to 25 years or so.

PS, the young man in blond is "the" young man in Ren's life.

Home Alone

Last night, for the first time since mid-May, it was just John and I for dinner. As much as we enjoy and love the kids, it was pretty pleasant just the two of us. It was actually a lovely evening, so John grilled a flank steak, made me a baked potato, tossed a salad, and cut up a sublime melon.
Los Cardos Malbec.
Did the dishes and read Margery Allingham.
Pretty relaxing.

Lamb enchanted evening

Long overdue, a dinner with our friends Tony & Lori, and the Andy of Wednesday Nights Party in My Pants Party at the Viking fame, where last week they had a Big Lebowski party.

I was on house-cleaning, dessert, bread, and dressing the salad. John was on flying back from Ketchikan, lamb, green beans, and wild rice.

I got the house clean, a monumental accomplishment given the house fly infestation (apparently they are nesting in our ferns, which now live outside until I have time to repot them), made plum sorbet, a little tarter than hoped, and baked off some of the current cookies, a little darker than hoped, but still acceptable. I resurrected the sourdough starter the other day, and so made some nice fluffy sourdough bread.

John griledl the lamb roast (perfectly), made a wild rice/quinoa mix, steamed the green beans, and assembled a salad, which I tossed with the fresh olive oil our guests from Provence made, balsamic vinegar, some basil and salt and pepper.

Conversation remained mostly inbounds, at some point the gentlemen and Ren retired to the rumpus room to watch Big Lebowski, which Tony had not yet seen, and Lori and I discussed life, the universe and technology.

Tony planned to stop at the video store on the way home and procure his own copy of the movie.