Week 4

Sometimes all we need is to hop on the freeway for 40 minutes and stay for a night in Coeur d'Alene. When I received some unexpected money in December from a canceled flight during our Italy trip (in 2018!), I decided I needed to apply it immediately to travel. I searched for rooms at the Coeur d'Alene Resort and found a package that involved two hours in a heated infinity pool overlooking the lake. Sold.

We were two of six people at the pool, at sunset. Sunsets have been rare lately, so it was especially nice to see this one in its entirety, while sipping wine in a heated pool, in the fresh winter air.

The rest of the week was rainy but had fun moments, like playing pickle ball with my coworkers, reading old cookbooks over wine at Wanderlust, and seeing a salsa band (and trying out newly learned dance steps) on Saturday night.

Making

The cowl is almost finished! I'm probably a couple Frasier episodes away from reaching the end of my final skein. I should probably call it my Frasier cowl.

Reading

The important thing is to start, even if it's ugly, even if it's hard. Even (especially) if you are the sort of person who is used to having everything exactly the way you want it, who worries that the world will end if one stitch is out of place. The nice thing about the world is that it rarely ends, and even when it does, you can always rip your stitches back and start from the beginning.

I finished How to Behave in a Crowd (loved it) and started right away on The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting by Alanna Okun, quoted above from the first essay, "Casting On," at which point I knew the author and I are kindred spirits. Most of the essays have something to do with knitting, sometimes embroidery or other crafts, but crafting is mostly just a way to frame her life, one that has aged about as long as mine. I wonder if she's an Enneagram 6.

Recipes

A sweet one this week: cranberry streusel bars, from The Oregonian Cookbook. If I get my act together this week, I'll post the recipe. I enjoyed these.

Joel made a fregola dish, which is round little toasted pastas, kind of like pearl couscous. The dish was deceptively filling, and a beautiful set of flavors from pancetta, herbs and sliced almonds in broth, topped with pecorino Romano and a squeeze of lemon juice. It looked just like the picture in the magazine. I didn't take one of my own.

And I made a chickpea and chard stew, which I didn't take a picture of, either. But the recipe came from Milk Street Magazine (as did the fregola recipe) and was delicious.

Watching

Curb Your Enthusiasm is back for another season and as we have HBO now, we are able to watch it in real time. It's more uncomfortable than ever.  

We also enjoyed Two Popes on Netflix. 

And we are now on season 3 of Frasier. Heaven help us.

Listening

I've been jamming to Kamasi Washington's "Fists of Fury" this week, the first track on the Heaven and Earth album.