Childhood food

I was amazed to see an article in the New York Times food section about peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.  I thought my mom invented them and served them Susan came home with me for lunch.  I was also amazed because the article encouraged the use of bread and butter pickles, which I had never eaten until I moved out of my parents' house.  I thought everyone ate kosher half sour pickles.  Maybe Don Hermann and Sons?

Mmm - too bad Mom and Dad can't bring these from Cleveland!

Can you tell which store is close to our house?

 I decided to break from tradition and try sweet pickles.

The sandwich was good, but not as good as good as Mom's!  R. tried one, too, and she liked it.  A tradition lives on.

Food in the neighborhood, part three

This tree is next to the house where Maggie, our sabbatical dog, lives.  We had borrowed her for the day
and when I returned her I was given permission to pick a couple pomegranates.

If you look carefully on the left side of the tree you can see the pomegranates.  The squirrels get some of them, but there are usually more than a family can eat, which is why I was given a couple of them.

We usually break them open underwater and separate the seeds from the flesh.  It is fun to eat them for a while, but two will probably be enough for the season.

A full day

It was a full day for the youngest member of the family.  After a bit of school work he got ready for the first game of a soccer tournament, the League Cup.

What an enormous complex!  We found the field, found the teammates, and earned the first win of the season!  The boys were happy, but mostly I felt relieved!  Technically the team had earned their first win earlier in the day when the their afternoon opponent forfeited the game, which counted as a 1-0 win for the Stars.  More importantly to one family member, it meant he wasn't missing the game because of the previously scheduled cello recital.  Onto the Sweet 16, which will be played December 1.

A. missed the last recital because of a broken thumb, so it had been a year between performances.  Even though I had heard him practice the piece many times, I thought A. was fabulous.  Onto Suzuki Book Three.

The afternoon was spent cooking for company.  We enjoyed crudites, chowder, buttermilk biscuits, roasted carrots, and Tollhouse Pie.  A call came just before dessert and A. had an invitation for his second sleepover of the weekend.  What a way to top off a great day.

Chowder recipe from NPR

Time flies

What do I do all day?  Sometimes I read the morning paper in the morning, but not usually.  I go to the grocery store, do the laundry, pay bills, and do things many other people do on the weekends.  The other thing I do is volunteer.  

Recent tasks have included:

• setting up books for a sale at the public library
• selling books at a the elementary school book fair
• volunteering in the classroom (administering math quizzes)
• making brownies for the bake sale outside the elementary school polling place
• helping with the high school's mock election
• selling scrip at the elementary school (see more below)
• sitting on the committee that develops, reviews, and updates the Single Plan for Student Achievement (a state-mandated process)
• baking and running the raffle room for the family dance fund raiser
• observing the school board meetings a member of the League of Women Voters
• helped a two international students as part of I-Place, including airport shuttles and taking a student to the Social Security office so she could get a number to get paid for grading

This is the set up for selling scrip, which is a fancy way of saying gift certificates.  We have some for grocery stores, bagel store, restaurant, book store, bakery, and the movie theater.  The school buys them at less than face value but sell them at face value.  The parents can pay with cash or check, so may lose airline points or other benefits of using a credit card, but in my opinion it is still better than selling cookie dough, magazines, and wrapping paper.

I took a picture of this poster in the Social Security Administration building and was reprimanded.

This was the other poster, but I took this picture of the web.

Here I am volunteering at the high school mock election.  

Yes, it is November 7 and I am wearing a sleeveless dress.

I hope this isn't against the rules, but I took a picture of the students' voting booth and the ballot box. 

Election Day

I think my favorite part of election day was knowing the results before turning in.  Avoiding weeks or months of court cases was a relief.

photo credit  Brian van der Brug of LA Times

Before moving to LA I had always voted in schools or community centers and assumed everyone else did, too.  Here people vote in wedding chapels, garages, and laundromats.

International visitors

For the second time Claremont Graduate University has been chosen as one of four colleges to host 21 high school English teachers from around the world as part of a program with the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and IREX.  The other 60+ teachers go to Logan, UT, Reno, NV, and Boone, NC.  I wonder how much the programs differ based on location.

The teachers in Claremont stay at a hotel near campus (other sites have teachers stay on campus), take classes, work with a partner teacher at local high schools, and are paired up with a friendship family, which is supposed to open their homes and show the teachers something about American life.

Last year we were a friendship family for two women, one from Ukraine and one from Kazakhstan.  They said their highlight was riding the quad bicycle to Village Venture.  You can read more here.

This year we were paired up with two men, one from Haiti and the other from Morocco.  Unfortunately for all, the wife of the fellow from Morocco was ill and he had to cancel.

I think Michelet would say his highlight was playing music.  He borrowed a guitar and went to jam sessions, used it in his lessons, and played with the other teachers at their final event.

Here are the teachers from Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Panama, Romania, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

What a fabulous opportunity to learn about the details of life in other countries - class size, teacher credential requirements (none in Haiti), transportation, and life without electricity.  It was hard to say goodbye, especially since I am not sure when we will meet again.  I wish I could visit each teacher in his or her hometown.

Halloween

What a great holiday!  On Tuesday we carved the pumpkin pi, as inspired by Foxtrot, and received many compliments (and a share of confused people, too).

Before sending out the trick-or-treaters I tried to feed them a bit of dinner, including a new soup recipe made in a pumpkin shell.

A. and his friends all had homemade costumes and are pictured here as Luigi, Mario, Alien, and Gandalf.

R. risked her life and dressed as a Star Trek red shirt (non-Trekkies can learn more here).

We handed out about 150 mini bags of M&Ms.  A. received a nice selection of candy, but kept only 30 (that's a lot, he said) and swapped the rest for some soccer cards.  David took the rest to work, along with the 20 pieces we didn't hand out.  Everyone was happy!