Sunday wound down with an evening meal in town with friends over elk steak. We sat in the backyard and watched quail, sparrows, and flickers flit around.\u00a0 It was overcast and yet quite nice, with a few drops of rain, very few.\u00a0 What a lovely way to end the weekend.<\/p>\n
There were only 5 of us, and it was comfortable and casual.\u00a0 We took a bottle of rose’ wine, a plate of cut up Jarlsberg cheese, and multi-grain crackers with black sesame seeds \u2013 that look quite odd.\u00a0 VERY yummy.\u00a0 Also carried along some raisin cookies.\u00a0 There was a Pecan Pie store-bought that was all right, but doesn’t compare with John’s.\u00a0 I will be ready to go to bed soon, and won’t need any more dessert.<\/p>\n
When we first found the crackers with black sesame seeds John investigated. Who knew sesame seeds were so interesting?\u00a0 Not us!\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing what one learns when you come down out of the hills. \u00a0There are other colors too.\u00a0 A basic link is:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sesame<\/a><\/p>\n The following has good photos of the plants, flowers, seed pods and more:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.uni-graz.at\/~katzer\/engl\/Sesa_ind.html<\/a><\/p>\n . . . and you can learn the name in 84 languages.\u00a0 Follow the link at the end to \u201cPerilla\u201d and the \u201ccrispate foliage\u201d \u2013 an issue also mentioned in the wikipedia link.<\/p>\n Monday is a Geography Dept. waffle\/pancake feed and the recipe is made with a sour dough starter.\u00a0 John had a dental cleaning appointment and missed most of it and the award ceremony.\u00a0 I was there for all, enjoyed a nice waffle with fruit, company of the Emeriti Profs, and also became the photographer of the event.\u00a0 Several awards were given to Geography and Resource Management grad students along with our donated one for the Hultquist distinguished service award.\u00a0 The money was split and presented to two students, one an undergrad and the other a grad.<\/p>\n Tuesday we didn\u2019t need to go to town, and just fought the wind all day.\u00a0 It was blowing hard since yesterday evening.\u00a0 The last reading was the highest today, 47 mph gusts and sustained 38 mph winds.\u00a0 Poor John has had to put up with it for two days.\u00a0 Today for lunch he fixed a great BBQ, made from a longtime-cooked piece of beef and mixed with spices we recently bought (non salt spice).\u00a0 He mixed in BBQ original sauce and cooked it down until it rivaled the open-pit southern variety of my recent Atlanta trip.<\/p>\n Wednesday.\u00a0 Finally the wind quieted some, but then it rained.\u00a0 John added the word quieted \u2013 he thinks it would make sense to report wind in decibels and, in fact, he often wears ear protectors (from the old Herter\u2019s company).\u00a0 See this link; answers #4 and #5:\u00a0 http:\/\/thefiringline.com\/forums\/showthread.php?t=300215<\/a><\/p>\n We both went to town, for my exercise class; John stopped at the airport and the waste management station seeking information about the history of Ellensburg weather station sites.\u00a0 Afterwards he took me by the hospital for a ProTime blood draw (turned out neat because we saw my friend there at the hospital.\u00a0 She was my first roommate at the Rehab center over a year ago, and was my inspiration to get back on my feet).\u00a0 We also dropped off one of his newsletters for the vet who will be speaking on the Horse Equine virus at Thursday night\u2019s meeting.\u00a0 While I was in class, John went to the grocery for cat food and litter, grabbed some chicken breasts and English muffin bread.\u00a0 When we came home, however, I was hungry and we had some Jarlsberg cheese and multi-grain crackers.\u00a0 Late afternoon call came from my family physician\u2019s nurse that my INR is 2.3 and I can stay on my same Coumadin dosage. \u00a0Now I\u2019m tired, but do not plan to take a nap because bedtime will be here soon enough.<\/p>\n Thursday – I have music at the Rehab center at 2:00 and then in the evening I will join John and go to the KV trail riders meeting.\u00a0 It was neat because the friend we met yesterday came with her husband and daughter to hear us play music at the old nursing home where we spent so much time.\u00a0 On the way home we stopped at a yard sale and I found a western shirt like I have one of in a smaller size that I can now wear and give away the other.\u00a0 The veterinarian\u2019s talk was very well done and interesting.\u00a0 She is an excellent speaker.\u00a0 It was good to see everyone now that I\u2019m in better shape than the last time they saw me.<\/p>\n Friday is playing music and eating at the Food Bank Soup Kitchen.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful day today, and I\u2019m going to exercise class.\u00a0 Stopped by my neighbors to pick up a book to deliver to someone in town, and she has lost weight (I have gained) and she gave me several really nice blouses.\u00a0 I took her two that I have outgrown.\u00a0 Stopped at a yard sale and bought a blanket for a buck.\u00a0 We have one dog (11 years old) who STILL chews holes in blankets.\u00a0 You\u2019d think! \u00a0But no, she keeps doing it.\u00a0 Today at the Food Bank, 3 of us played instruments and we had an extra singer.\u00a0 We had a nice time and were appreciated.\u00a0 Food was good too.\u00a0 It was a chicken\/rice\/barley\/veggie soup, with whole wheat and multi-grain bread, a pasta salad (that I\u2019m not big on), and a nice piece of cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese filling (I guess), along with \u00a0blueberry\/pomegranate juice.<\/p>\n Off from there to exercise class and there were only 6 of us there, with no leader, so I did the honors of leading for the hour.\u00a0 We enjoyed ourselves, and I got a good workout.\u00a0 Came home and found a present in the mail, from the local Classic Hits radio station we listen to.<\/p>\n We frequently enter the monthly contest and respond to the survey of listeners as to which songs we want to hear and how often.\u00a0 Several months ago we got an album of the Beatles, and then later one of the Doobie Bros.\u00a0 Today\u2019s is an old re-recording of two live 1974 performances, in Iowa and in Kentucky, of the Grateful Dead; I\u2019ve enjoyed listening to them as background music this afternoon.\u00a0 John\u2019s outside working with the horses and on his fence around the garden.\u00a0 I walked out to get the paper and was able to assist him by holding one of his crosspieces.<\/p>\n We still haven\u2019t seen anything in the paper about the fire .6 mile down the road from us a couple of nights ago (during the high winds).\u00a0 The fire department fought it from 11: 00 p.m. and all through the night to keep it from spreading into one nearby house and adjacent woods.\u00a0 Turns out it was a Meth Lab.\u00a0 That\u2019s the word from a friend of a friend, but not even a fire report has been posted in the newspaper.\u00a0 It was a complete loss of the mobile home house and adjacent buildings, and an RV, and camper, plus who knows what else.\u00a0 No one was home at the time.<\/p>\n Saturday.\u00a0 In the morning, alone, while John worked on getting out two plum trees and all their roots, I went to yard sales.\u00a0 Nothing too exciting was purchased, but a couple of blankets for 50 cents, and some freebies: \u00a0a footstool, wooden things, & a large cotton spread.\u00a0 Also got an almost new dish drain for a buck that we really have needed but didn\u2019t want to pay $35 at Costco.\u00a0 Also, I got some nice sunglasses for me and some long-bladed clippers for John for a buck each.<\/p>\n Then I went back in another musical performance at Briarwood retirement community and today\u2019s food was interesting.\u00a0 Little wiener dogs (cocktail type) barbequed and cooked in a Crock-pot.\u00a0 Nice salad and tomatoes and cukes (I don\u2019t like), and some pasta salads I don\u2019t like either.\u00a0 A table full of great desserts (no complaints there): Molasses cookies, chocolate cake with choc frosting, brownies, and pinwheels.<\/p>\n The nicest thing that happened occurred after the performance, when a man came up to me and said, \u201cI was your student in a couple of classes back in the early 1990s, and you were a wonderful professor who influenced me incredibly.”\u00a0 Boy that was nice to hear.\u00a0 Never hurts to hear compliments, especially 20 years later!!\u00a0 He even reminisced about things he remembered from the classes he took from me.\u00a0 He took GIS and Economic Geography.\u00a0 He knew John too, and had a class from him (Physical Geog).\u00a0 Before he told me that, when he first came up, he asked how John was.\u00a0 I remembered him once he said his name, but he does look a lot different from when he was my student.\u00a0 He still has the same expressive eyes and pretty smile, however.\u00a0 He was there with his wife (both from Moses Lake), and they were there with his mom who lives down the street on our road, a few miles.\u00a0 She is going to move into the retirement home where we were today.\u00a0 We talked a little afterward when I asked him what he had been doing in his career.\u00a0 He said he had been a development planner in several cities in WA and OR, but just retired from the Moses Lake job.\u00a0 Pretty cool.<\/p>\n All our best regards<\/p>\n Nancy and John<\/p>\n in Washington State<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday wound down with an evening meal in town with friends over elk steak. We sat in the backyard and watched quail, sparrows, and flickers flit around.\u00a0 It was overcast and yet quite nice, with a few drops of rain, very few.\u00a0 What a lovely way to end the weekend. 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