verbatim

Miscellany

I have a half-dozen posts waiting to be finished and uploaded, but this, that, and the other thing have gotten in the way. To wit:

THIS = Taking care of a family of 5 humans and 3 felines, along with the house and all that goes with that. And "all that goes with that" has happened to mean, lately, scheduling more than our share of repairs and maintenance work, from resealing the garage roof to cutting back some dangerously overhanging tree branches to having our oil burner replaced with a gas burner, which also requires a liner being dropped down the chimney, etc. Then there are all the soccer games/practices and school volunteer obligations and Hebrew school and on and on and on.... But meanwhile, I'm loving my new Honda Pilot, although I haven't had a chance to figure out most of the cool things it can do! I have three months free of XM Radio, and I haven't even once pressed that XM button. One thing I've noticed is that I'm just a teensy bit too short to get in and out of it without giving myself a little boost. I decided not to spring for the optional step, which means that I keep whacking my left leg in the exact same spot every time I hop in. I have a big bruise there and am working on an alternative means of getting up into the seat. Otherwise everything seems dandy. 

THAT = Work. Which, you know, takes up a fair amount of time. I'm not doing anything particularly interesting right now but will let you know when something fun comes up.

THE OTHER THING = Mom fell and broke her hip last week! It was a freak accident, as accidents often are—one minute she was hurrying home from a neighbor's house and the next she was trying to get up off the ground with what she thought was just a terribly banged-up hip. She ended up having a "hemi" hip replacement and was transferred from the hospital to rehab on Friday. She is in great shape and also a very cooperative patient, so hopefully she can go home at the end of this week. Dad, meanwhile, is "batching it" for the first time in, like, 59 years.

And that is what is going on here, but stay tuned for at least two book reviews, two recipes, and various other fascinating bits and pieces of life Chez Verbatim.

*A New Car!

*Cue Don Pardo voice, or reasonable facsimile.

It's true, after all these years, I finally have a new car! The last time I had a new car, Julie was still in my tummy, so yeah, it's been a while.

We ended up with a 2012 Honda Pilot, an SUV that is in fact a bit smaller than the Honda Odyssey minivan that I traded in (for a paltry $1000—if only I'd thought to do this a week before the transmission went kaplooey!). It is very fancy-shmancy and has lots of features I've yet to figure out in the 24 hours or so that I've had it. What I have figured out is that I can "pair" my iPhone to it and make hands-free calls or listen to my iTunes via Bluetooth or USB (without the plug-in radio doohickey). Way cool. There's a built-in GPS, which will reduce both the number of times I get lost and the number of amusing blog posts I write about getting lost (hey, technology is a double-edged sword).

The only problem is that the passenger-side window goes all the way down when you press AUTO, but then when you press AUTO again, it goes all the way up—and then back down a few inches. They couldn't figure out why this was happening, so I'm bringing it back in this week and they'll replace the whole thing. 

I feel much higher up in the Pilot than I did in the Odyssey, but it's a foot shorter and almost an inch narrower, so parallel parking ought to be a bit easier. A near deal-breaker was that there's nowhere to put coins! What were they thinking?

I will not miss all the scratches and dings and ground-in Goldfish cracker crumbs in my old Odyssey, but I will miss the sliding doors and the best bumper sticker ever.

Crisp Apple Strudels

A belated compendium of my most recent favorite things:

- Check out these awe-inspiring photos from the 2012 Paralymics.

- If I ever drop my camera into a body of water, I sure hope Andy Ihnatko is the one who finds it two years later!

- Read Philip Roth's open letter to Wikipedia about his own book.

- My editorial pal Copy Curmudgeon has launched a blog in which she answers your questions on grammar.

- No, I'm not getting the new iPhone. I'm thinking of one of these instead.

Sweetness

A sweet and happy New Year to all of those on the Interwebs who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah today! As usual, we went to Lauren's house for a mid-day feast. I brought the apple cake and cookies, both of which Julie helped with. For the former, we tried again with this recipe from a few years back, this time reversing the order of the ingredients. It came out fine, except that some of the apples and cinnamon stuck to the inside of the Bundt pan, which ended up being the top of the cake. The flavor and texture were fine, though, so everyone just ignored the patched-together top. I think the only solution would be to buy a regular tube pan that isn't meant to be inverted. The cookies were from a Jim Lahey recipe; they came out thin and chewy:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup (packed) light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Arrange racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 425°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and both sugars in a large bowl until well combined, 2–3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat on medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, 2–3 minutes. Add dry ingredients, reduce speed to low, and mix just to blend. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 1½" apart. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until edges are golden brown, 6–8 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.

 

Roses Are Love, Violets Are Modest Worth

Last night my book group met here to discuss The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I was unenthusiastic about the choice of this book—something about the description turned me off—but I ended up loving it.

Because it seems that modern novels are never told in linear fashion anymore, this one's chapters alternate between our protagonist, Victoria, at age 9 and at age 18, the two major turning points in her life. Victoria has gone from one bad foster home experience to the next her whole life, until finally she is taken in by Elizabeth. Elizabeth loves her and teaches her and finally makes her begin to feel worthy and wanted. She also teaches Victoria the "language of flowers," a Victorian-era belief that all flowers have meanings—turns out that my favorite, alstroemeria, signifies devotion.

At 18, Victoria is just getting sprung from the latest in a series of group homes for teens—she has aged out of the system and is on her own. The intervening chapters tell what happened between the time she met Elizabeth and now, and then go on from there. I won't give away anymore, but I will say that Victoria's character was well drawn and believable, as were several others in the story. You really could imagine what it was like for Victoria to have always believed (rightly, for the most part) that she was the only one who could care about and for herself, and how hard it was for her to put her trust in anyone else. There were a couple of plot moments (one major one in particular) that didn't quite ring true to me, but I was able to forgive them because the overall story was wonderful and rewarding, and because the writing flowed so gracefully throughout.

All of us loved the book; one member of the group felt that it was a little too predictable—which it was, but for me that didn't detract from its overall power. Next month we're reading The Submission by Amy Waldman, highly recommended by Nancy.

So, I took the easy way out for hosting and, along with wine (and lots of pretty flowers, 'natch), simply bought every single snacky-type thing Trader Joe's sells and put it all out for us to nosh on—mixed nuts, dark chocolate–covered acai berries, cheese and grapes, you name it. I tried their new Raisin-Rosemary Crisps, which are delicious and unusual—very nice topped with goat milk brie. And I made an easy and yummy dip for the Veggie & Flaxseed Tortilla Chips, Crunchy Curls (made of potatoes and lentils and positively addictive), 12-Grain Mini Snack Crackers, and crudités:

Pesto Dip

1 container (7 ounces) pesto
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup sour cream (I substituted Fage Greek-style yogurt.)
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

Whizzzzz it all together in a food processor. 

Car News, and a Party

So I brought my Odyssey to the dealer to tell me why the "check engine" light was on. He hooked it up to the computer and said, "You're probably OK unless it's the transmission." Then he said, "Uh oh. It's the transmission." I think his exact words were "That's a bullet to the heart." He said it would be at least $3500 and he couldn't recommend I put that much money into an 11-year-old car. Farewell, Loyal Odyssey!

I picked up brochures (translation for young people: printouts of website information) for the new Odyssey as well as the Pilot, and I have an appointment to test-drive each this week. I'm leaning toward the Pilot, which is only a teensy bit worse in mileage than the Odyssey but has 4WD and does not have motorized sliding doors, which I know from experience are very expensive to replace once the motors go. The dealer is eager to get rid of the 2012 models in order to make room for the 2013s, so I hope I can get a decent trade-in for my old one and make a deal on a new one. Meanwhile I'm driving around with illuminated alert lights on my dash and a REJECTED inspection sticker. Classy.

Today Lauren hosted a party to celebrate Mom's upcoming 80th birthday! There was plenty to eat, plus poems and songs to celebrate her 80-ness. Here's Mom with my kids:

80?! No way.

I brought cut-up fruit, these cookies, and a pasta salad based on this one, but even better—it was not only tasty but also very pretty (dang, forgot to take a photo!). Specifically:

Tortellini Salad

1 lb. cheese-filled tortellini (I used half egg, half spinach for color.)
½ lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
½ lb. frozen peas, thawed
½ lb. red bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces (about 1 large or 2 small)
½ lb. cherry or grape tomatoes, halved and lightly salted
Creamy Vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until just tender, adding the asparagus for the last 1 minute of cooking. Drain in a colander, then spread the pasta and asparagus out in a shallow baking pan, and let cool to room temperature. (Don't try to rush things by running cold water over it or your pasta salad will be waterlogged and yucky.)

Transfer pasta, asparagus, peas, bell pepper, and tomatoes to a large bowl. (At this point, you can cover and refrigerate it for up to 2 hours.) When ready to serve, add dressing, toss to coat, and let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Creamy Vinaigrette

¼ cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 large garlic clove, minced
⅔ cup olive oil

Put vinegar, mayonnaise, and garlic in in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Add a big pinch of salt and a couple grinds of pepper. With a small whisk, slowly whisk in oil in a slow, steady stream to make an emulsified vinaigrette. (Vinaigrette can be made and refrigerated 1 day in advance.)

You could obviously make all kinds of veggie substitutions to great effect.

#DNC2012

If you were reading Verbatim back in 2008, you've probably been wondering if I'm the same blogger I was then. Back then most of my posts were political in nature, and now I act like I live in a political vacuum. What gives? Well, to tell you the truth, part of it is just that I've gotten awfully emotional about politics. I can barely blink back the tears whenever I have a conversation about the things that worry me in the world—and there are lots of them, let me tell you. The other thing is that I seem to have lost my will to argue and debate endlessly with people who don't see things the way I do. It's not the case that I believe they're "wrong" and I'm "right" (well, not always the case), just that we view the world in a completely different way, and I no longer have the energy to hash it all out.

If you were here in 2008 and/or if you know me at all, you are aware that I am very much representative of the Democratic "base" in this country. I support a woman's right to choose the health care that is right for her. I believe in marriage equality. I want universal health care. I'm anti-gun and anti-war. I'm pro-education and pro-environment. And so on—you get it.

I was out of my mind with pride and joy and excitement and hope when Barack Obama was elected to his first term, and my enthusiasm hasn't wavered. I've been watching the Democratic National Convention all week and am filled with all these same emotions. I loved Michelle's speech, I loved my governor Deval Patrick's speech, I loved my future senator Elizabeth Warren's speech (yes, of course I went to my polling place to vote for her in today's primary even though she's running uncontested!), I loved everything. But the pinnacle for me, as for most of us, was Bill Clinton's barn burner last night. I had the best time with my Twitter pals; we were all reveling in Bill Being Bill. And by that I mean that he was as brilliant as ever, he explained complex issues in simple terms, he made boring topics relevant and interesting, he was funny and warm and tough, he had me cheering in my seat. As you've probably heard by now, he strayed way off his prepared speech (go here to see the original transcript marked up with his masterfully ad-libbed insertions and deletions and changes) and totally hit it out of the park. I have never heard a better public speaker, on any topic. He knows how to respond and relate and unite. It was thrilling. As James Fallows so accurately pointed out, the reason Bill's speeches succeed is because "he treats listeners as if they are smart.... He is showing that he understands the many layers of logic and evidence and positioning and emotion that go into political discussion—and, more important, he takes for granted that listeners can too.... It's the difference between clarifying, and over-simplifying." Stupid 22nd amendment.

So I just took a break from writing this post so I could watch our President, and now I'm going to bed happy and proud and hopeful, just as I was 4 years ago. 

To reiterate: I no longer feel up to political debates on this blog. If you are an Obama hater, let's just agree to disagree. Thanks.

Cream-Colored Ponies

The latest edition of My Favorite Things:

1. John McIntyre on why his class on editing is not a gut course.

2. Also re editing: Read the last third of Anne Lamott's FB post.

3. The new CD from Avett Brothers won't be out for another week, but you can listen to the whole thing here.

4. How to say LOL in 14 different languages.

5. I loved reading this letter from Flannery O'Connor.

6. The dirty etymology of 9 everyday words.

7. I took the kids to Fenway last week for a day game. The Red Sox are no longer the recognizable crew I'm used to, but they did put on a good win for us. Plus it was Tickets for Troops Day, which always brings a tear to my eye. And there's always next year....

I'm Chevy Chase, and You're Not*

* aka "Weekend Update"

Usually we go up to New Hampshire for a few days over July 4, but we didn't this year. Then usually we go up again for a few days in August when Andy takes a week off, but we didn't this year. But we always go up for Labor Day weekend, and this year was no exception.

Friday the girls and I packed up and headed out. Pete was invited to a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, and Andy had to work, so they planned to come up a day late. About an hour or so into the ride, my Odyssey's "check engine" and "traction control system" lights came on. I had Steph look in the manual, but it didn't give a definitive answer. When we arrived in Tilton (for our planned back-to-school shopping spree at the outlet mall), I got gas. When I started back up again, the TCS light went out, the engine light stayed on, and then the "maintenance required" light came on too. At that point Steph pointed out that it was funny how my inspection sticker had expired. Back in April. (Go read this and then you can all laugh your asses off, it's OK.) We were already out of state, so I knew I couldn't get inspected—but I also knew I couldn't get pulled over.

There was nothing to do but go shopping.

Afterward, the temperature gauge was OK and the handling seemed fine, so onward we pressed. By the time we got up to Franconia, Barbara and Jerry were already there–and it was already cocktail hour! After a nervous ride and too much shopping, I was ready.

Saturday morning Jerry checked my oil and said I had none. Which is weird because I never go through oil between changes and because my oil light hadn't come on. He put in 3 quarts. Afterward we visited Chutters, and I'm sorry to report that we bought all the candy, so there isn't any left for you (yes, we picked up bags for Pete and Andy too). We also stopped in to the lovely Village Book Store, which I like to support whenever I'm up there. 

Later on the guys showed up, and the next day we had to cram a lot of fun in. First, a friend had given us free passes to Whale's Tale, so off we went. Every year I tell you how skeevy I feel at a water park, and this year was no different, so I'll spare you the details. For the first time ever, though, this time I just refused to budge from my lounge chair, where I was happy to read while the kids frollicked. It's nice when your kids are old enough to do stuff on their own, huh? Then we sped home and changed, because it was time to pick up Barbara and Jerry and head off to the main attraction, the Lancaster Fair! Again, because the kids are getting older, we have more flexibility, so we went in the late afternoon and stayed into the evening. We ate all manner of fried food, from fried dough to French fries to deep-fried Twinkies, and then of course devoured our beloved Robillard's apple crisp.

Maybe I was feeling bad that I hadn't gone on any of the rides at the water park, I don't know, but the next thing I knew I agreed to go on an icky spinning flying ride with the girls. I had to keep my eyes shut and still felt nauseated the whole time, and then I was miserable for a long time afterward. That'll learn me. I revived as soon as I spied the quarters machines, though. Honestly, if I had one in my basement you would never see me again. In go the quarters, back and forth slides the little platform, out fall a few quarters (sometimes, anyhow). I play Coin Dozer on my iPhone sometimes, but there's nothing like the real thing. The kids, meanwhile, got their respective fixes playing games and getting robbed by carnies. And then we admired the draft horses and patted the lambs and explored the RVs and people-watched.

And then the final event of the weekend was, you guessed it, a major pig-out this morning at Polly's Pancake Parlor, which is always the same and always perfect. Then back into the car to head home. The dashboard lights still glared at me, as did the expired inspection sticker—particularly as soon as we crossed back into Massachusetts. When we got home Andy took it to the station, and the jerk there took our $29 and then said, "You know it's going to fail, right? Because of the check engine light?" Um, no, we in fact didn't know, or else we wouldn't have gone. Grrr. 

Meanwhile, about a week or so ago, purely by coincidence, Andy had suggested that maybe it's time to replace the Odyssey, since it is 11 years old and expensive stuff is likely to start going wrong with it. So tomorrow I will call the dealer and see if I can bring it over so they can diagnose the problem(s), but I might not get it fixed, depending on the cost. Now I'm busy researching new cars. Should I get another Odyssey? Or go the SUV route and look at a Honda Pilot? Maybe the hybrid Toyota Highlander? The Mazda CX-9? Any thoughts? I still want to be able to seat 6 fairly comfortably for carpooling and such, and I don't want a gas guzzler and I don't want to feel like I'm driving a truck. (And what I really want is a Mini Cooper.)