Week 8

This was a bit of a somber week with news of the deaths of friends' parents, one mother and one father (different families), one very unexpected, the other perhaps more expected. It puts a different perspective on everything.

The sun shone most days this week, which was a relief. I took long walks at work and didn't always bring along my earbuds and let my mind wander.

We are getting ready for our trip so it was nice to think about that, too, and what shoes I will wear.

It's Restaurant Week in Spokane right now, so Joel and I went to Central Food and felt fancy with our three-course meals. They also let us take home a whole loaf of bread for free.

Our friend James is here for a couple nights from New Jersey, and it's been good to catch up between his record-shopping outings.

Watching

Randomly I turned on an HBO documentary called Well Groomed about competitive dog grooming, and my mind was blown.

We're also loving Travel Man: 48 Hours In..., a hilarious BBC series that is a fun way to prepare for and relive our travels.

Fun with shadows

Reading

Sally Rooney's Normal People was a disappointment for me, but at least I got through it quickly.

I started on Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit, a long essay which was written and published online after Bush's re-election in 2004. This edition was published in 2015 with notes on what has happened since. I appreciate her description of darkness as not a place of depression and despair, but a place of uncertainty where we simply can't see where we are going, and a place of finding our way. It feels more realistic than merely optimistic and draws on many examples to show how quickly things seem to change when it's really due to individual acts happening on the fringes over the course of years.

People have always been good at imagining the end of the world, which is much easier to picture than the strange sidelong paths of change in a world without end.

I'm also listening to an audiobook version of Why Religion? A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels. Talk about death and darkness. This woman has a Job-like story and it's interesting to hear her reflections as a religious scholar.

Recipes

Joel and I made Melissa Clark's recipe for sumac chicken, which calls for plums but offers grapes as an alternative, which we used. I posted this picture on Instagram and tagged her in it...

And this happened...

(@clarkbar = Melissa Clark herself, in case you don't know)

...and I was starstruck for like half a day. This is the best part of social media, that I can tag my favorite recipe writers and they can affirm our culinary skills.

The chicken was superb.

Listening

Boring category this week. Mostly background music and the aforementioned audiobook.

Making

Socks. Forever.