Da Bears

This afternoon we went to the Bears-Seahawks game at Qwest Stadium in Seattle.

First we got a giant hot dog with all sorts of stuff on top and we met one of my students and his dad before heading to our seats.

We were in section 104 and about 9 rows up from as close as we could get! We were right on the sideline on the side of the end zone. They were very cool seats. We were super close, and we were hit by intense amounts of sunshine. I got my first sunburn in months! Both teams played somewhat crappy, but in the end DA BEARS took home the win. We happened to be sitting in an area with lots of Bears fans, so that was nice. Not to mention that we had very nice Seahawks fans around us too who were NOT trying to kill us or swear at us.

Italian Plum Jam

Tom and I have had a very interesting time making (we'll we're not sure if we have succeeded) plum jam.
It was easy enough chopping the plums. It was easy enough boiling them with water. It was easy adding the sugar and then AAAAH we suddenly realized we had to boil the jam in a water-canner. What is a water-canner you ask? It's a large pot with a wire rack inside to keep the jars from touching the bottom. Do we have a water-canner? Of course not. So we ran to Fred Meyer (strange faux Wal-Mart) to buy one, but alas they didn't have one.

We decided we would pot a pot top in the bottom of a big pot. We tried that but didn't have enough room. We searched through our boxes and found our GIGANTIC lobster pot (thanks Liane). I found the perfect top to put in the bottom, and we are on our way to "processing" our jam.

Mixed with the death-plum farts coming out of Harper it is somewhat amazing that we are still alive. Pictures soon to come.

Italian Plum or Italian Prune....or both?

http://www.produceoasis.com/Items_folder/Fruits/ItalianPrune.html

This is the type of tree growing in our yard.
This is what Harper ate about 30 of yesterday.
This is what continue to make him fart uncontrollably.

Plum or prune? You be the judge!

This is the last piece of plum crisp that I made. It was delicious!

Salty / Savory / Sweet: The great bageling

Salty / Savory / Sweet: The great bageling

Tom and I have decided that since there is NO bagel store in the Ballard/Greenwood/Phinney Ridge neighborhood, but plenty of storefronts for rent.....we should open a Bagel Store. We'll see if this idea ever pans out...but you never know Seattle, Harper's Bagels might be right around the corner. Or Tom's idea of Hodgman's Bagels - he's convinced people will think Hodgman is jewish. How about Harper's Bagel Bazaar?

I am going to make my first batch this weekend, and this blog has TOTALLY encouraged me.

Relaxing Do-Nothing Weekend

This weekend was amazingly relaxing. I was even too lazy to bring Harper to the dog contest that entered him into. Two days of sleeping late. A breakfast out (smoked salmon eggs benedict), homemade waffles in, a long nap, walks with the dog in the sunshine. Honestly I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Now if I could just figured out what to do with the 9 million plums falling off of our tree. I am going to make Liane's famous chicken with plum salsa (or salza as she likes to call it) tonight. Is there such a thing as a plum crisp? We might find out.

Nothing much new on the house hunting front. We are still waiting for the house of our dreams to pop up on redfin for an affordable price.

School has gone incredibly smoothly for two weeks. I hope it continues in the same fashion.

I feel like I should keep updating the blog for any of you that read it, but other than waiting to see what happens after Harper eats about 20 plums in one day (so far gas and gross poops) there might not be anything super interesting that I post for a bit.

We went to a sports bar 2 seconds from our house called Bleachers today for the Bears game. It was PACKED with really intense SeaHawks fans who were drinking like there was no tomorrow. We had some nachos and chicken tenders. It was a gut-busting Sunday meal.

And that's the latest update. We are supposedly going to see 80 degree sunny days next week, so that is exciting.

Janet's Obit

In case anyone wants to read the obituary of Janet Rose - beloved piano teacher and friend.

Oregon Trail

So I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Oregon almost cost-free thanks to Tom's wonderful company Equator. We drove down Friday evening and arrived around 10pm. We grabbed a bite to eat and a beer. I had a delicious blueberry beer - although it was from Maine and not Oregon.

Saturday morning Tom and I walked to a place called Mother's for a delicious breakfast - although in our opinion, the hollandaise sauce was WAY too thick. The lox and imported bagel from New York City was delicious though. Then we drove out to Dundee to see one of Tom's coworker's houses. He was situated just outside the city limits, and had about 9 acres. There was a llama, two sheep, a bunch of goats (one was a hermaphrodite!), a mummified cat that they had found while redoing the house, and three pigs (which have since been slaughtered). The house was really cool, and they were RIGHT next to vineyards. From there we got some snacks and headed for some wine tastings of Oregon's famous pinot noirs.

We tasted at one place, then headed to another and ate our lunch of bread and cheese and salami. Then one more place in a small town advertising next weekend's Rocky Mountain Oyster Fest. The non-Americans in the group had no idea what they were! We stopped at a local brewery called McMenamins in a small town which was adorable and we sat on the roof. It was 90 degrees outside which made me very happy.

Eventually we wound our way back to Portland and had an ok dinner at a place called Higgins which was right near our hotel.

Sunday we got up early and ate at the hotel (Heathman Hotel). The breakfast was actually quite fantastic. Then we drove on 26 to the coast. We stopped a few times to see giant trees and forestry machines of old. Then we got to Ecola State Park and walked a bit, but it was rainy and windy and cold. We at lunch at a D- type of restaurant called Lumberyard and then I headed on my long drive back home.

Oregon was BEAUTIFUL! I can't wait to go back and explore more.

Pictures can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amyhodgman/OregonTripWineCountryAndTheCoast?feat=directlink

Suzuki and so much more...

My mom's best friend (along with apparently a gazillion other people's best friend) passed away this weekend. It is totally surreal and earth shattering to me at the same time. Unfortunately I do not have my mom's way with words to be able to beautifully express how Janet's death is making me feel, but I'm going to try anyway because something has got to cure this crying.

It makes me think of sitting in her house (the old one....near West Hartford Center) with my looooong braid hanging down my back and playing the piano. We'd sit together on the bench and the dogs would be snuffling around in the living room. My mom would be pretending to read, but she would be quietly humming the correct notes for the wrong ones that I played. Janet would be smiling and redirecting my fingers to the right position. She always gave me a candy after I was done, and she let you me tons of stickers onto my Suzuki Method Books. My parents still have them (stickers and all) and I have taken to playing them when I'm at home. It's embarrassing that I was a better piano player at age 6 than I am now at 27, but it still makes me smile to play and see the hilarious notes she made on the pages. Sometimes she gave songs lyrics (always funny ones), and sometimes she would just write you a note like, "Beautiful." I remember thinking how hilarious it would be to cross out her one direction for a song, I think it said something like "smooth and pretty" and write in "UGLY." She laughed when she came across my change.

I remember some Jewish holiday - the one with the meat and the delicious onions. Is that the same one where you find the matzah? We used to go to Janet's house and there would be people and dogs and when I say dogs, I mean her two white fluffy bichons and then her friend Bob's golden mix and then the Irish Wolfhounds which were enormous. I remember the wolfhound puppy eating some food off the table (it was so tall, can you blame it?), and I remember always sitting at the children's table. Sometimes I think even Janet's daughters had to sit there with us even though they were a fair bit older than us. Such amazing food, and yes, as my mom pointed out - inevitably a dessert with maple syrup or chocolate or some god-awful amount of sugar.

She would screen her calls on the answering machine, but sometimes if it sounded important she would run to pick it up. I think that's how my mom learned to loudly identify herself when calling so that Janet wouldn't just let it ring. She always had random foreign students renting rooms in the house. There was just always a warm, buzzing feeling in there. She knew how to make everyone feel welcome.

I'm not sure how my mom is going to get by without her sarcastic and just as foul-mouthed and witty counterpart to blab to nonstop on the telephone. Who will forward us emails about dogs and jokes and music? Who will share my love of dog kisses to the same level? Sometimes I think it's hard to comprehend what a big void someone can leave when they aren't around any more. Janet has left a black hole.

Camping and Bellingham

So we decided to "get away" on this Labor Day weekend.
We drove about an hour north to the only place we had been able to book in advance. Wenberg State (now County) Park. We were at campsite 10 and it SUCKED. It was surrounded by RVs (hence the picture) and there were no trees, and we could barely get the stakes in the ground!






Tom made a sad face about our campsite.

Things started looking up when we decided to go for a stroll down to the lake. That's when we discovered ALL of the other campsites that were WAY better. We moved our tent and stuff and set up at a much more tree-lined area. Tom and Harper also went for a swim.

Then our friends showed up and we ate and drank (surreptitiously because it wasn't allowed) and played cards.

We slept fitfully in our tents except for the kids down the way screaming and yelling. There was definitely rain over night and in the morning, but we manged to make delicious pancakes and breakfast foods in just a light drizzle. Then we headed off toward Bellingham for a hike to Cedar Lake.
We saw some HUGE trees. Yeah THAT big.

The view we came to looked beautiful, of some islands (I don't know which ones).

 

Then we all posed for a group shot with the amazing bendable tripod-thingie.

And there you have the story of our 5 mile hike in what was supposed to be rain, but was NO rain at all. People out here really seem to complain about this imminent rain - and then it never shows up! It's kind of funny.

After the hike we drove to Bellingham and had a late lunch at the Boundary Bay Brewery. It was pretty good, but they made us wait a while even though there were A LOT of empty tables. They said they were keeping them empty outside because supposedly it was going to rain. Once again, for a place that supposedly sees a lot of rain, people are sure freaked out by the chance of it happening. Of course it did NOT rain, and we sat inside among many empty tables. It was strange, we never figured out why we couldn't sit right away. We strolled around and I tried to buy bagels, but they were moving so slowly I wanted to die (apparently you can't take the East Coast completely out of me). Everyone got some ice cream, and then we headed on our way home.

Tom got some serious road-rage because people were either going exactly the speed limit, or below the speed limit - and this was in the left lane. What a strange bunch of driver out here! I know people warned us, but still, it's odd. If the speed limit is 60 in CT, then people drive between 65-75 I would say. Here if it's 60, people drive about 50-58. Very odd.

NPR and Growing Old

Have I become my mother?
Have enough years really passed that I now listen to NPR?

I think other people I know (Becca) have loved NPR for years now, but I still cringe when I think about Faith Middleton (who I don't even think is on the air) and "All Things Considered". Those things remind me of my mom picking me up from soccer practice and not letting me listen to 95.7 or 96.5 to hear the "hits." Of course it also reminds me of my mom saying, "Let me just run into Wild Oats. I need a lemon and an onion, it will be a minute, stop complaining." Then 1 hour later after I had pouted up and down every aisle we would leave, only to hear MORE NPR. (Mom, I love you!!!)
I do however have fond memories of "Car Talk," but I think "Prairie Home Companion" was lost on me.

I suppose it's about time that I actually listen to educated people talk about current events and news (along with really random things from small towns in the US). So, the point of this is that now I thoroughly enjoy listening to NPR while driving in my car, and I'm not sure if that makes me a mature 27, or if that makes me 45.