Week 38

This was one of the hardest weeks of the year. Spokane, along with many other areas in the West, dealt with the unhealthiest air quality in the world. During the first two days of it, I only went outside to take the dog out for very short walks. We kept all the windows closed and recirculated very stale air with fans and our swamp cooler. I had a headache and sinus pain for several days, and my lungs felt ticklish. 

We ordered an air purifier that arrived on Friday, though by that time our air quality was vastly improved. It's wonderful to have, though, and its gentle fan is music to my ears. Still, my body has been out of whack for lack of movement. On Friday and Saturday I was a cleaning machine as I tried to remove all the dust and cobwebs around the house, dusted the blinds and vacuumed the walls and used every attachment provided with my vacuum cleaner. It was good to move and feel the general state of things improving. It rained on Friday night and on Saturday morning, we got outside with Luna and inhaled deeply for the first time in a week. 

And of course we learned of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Friday, and a whole new set of worries began to sink in.

As a result of all of this, I didn't take a lot of pictures. I do have a lot of pictures of tomatoes, because I feel buried in them between the goods from my CSA and my backyard plants. I was still somehow productive this week - I took my car in to the shop (again) for a recall, and took myself in to the dermatologist for my annual skin check (all good - keep wearing sunscreen, everyone). And then there's my day job.

Ooh, and I also ordered a new couch blanket since Luna destroyed our other one last year. The cooler nights have me preparing for a cozy winter.

Reading

The Poisonwood Bible. I love the different voices, and am especially savoring Orleanna's sections. As well as Adah's. I am impressed by the way Kingsolver develops these characters so distinctly. I'm still only a quarter of the way through.

Recipes

Joel, after a too-long hiatus, made his magnificent chicken burritos this week. I contributed the cooked beans (Rancho Gordo's King City Pinks) and salsa, and he cooked up the chicken with a homemade spice blend, all of which got folded into a tortilla with cilantro rice. We ate this for a couple of nights and I requested that we not wait so long again before having another round.

And during another busy day when I couldn't tear myself away from my computer or figure out what I wanted to do for dinner, he picked up the ingredients to make one of our favorite pork tenderloin dinners with rice.

On my Friday lunch hour I made the pastry dough for a tomato galette (a Bon Appetit recipe), making for an unusual Friday night dinner. I've always wanted to make one of these, and it was tasty with these beautiful heirloom tomatoes. It was also a great way to use up the ends of a bunch of cheese we had in the fridge (a smoked, a cajun-spiced, and a regular cheddar). I adjusted the pastry dough recipe to include some whole wheat flour. We ate a cucumber and carrot salad on the side, as I ran out of salad greens.

Watching

If you love musical theatre and documentaries and are in the mood for a good cry, I highly recommend The Best Worst Thing That Could Have Happened (Netflix). It's about the promising 1981 Steven Sondheim/Hal Prince show Merrily We Roll Along which flopped when it debuted. Its cast was comprised of young, aspiring actors (including Jason Alexander), and the director of the documentary, Lonny Price, was one of them. He interviews his friends and former cast members as they remember that time, and what happened in their lives since. The way the documentary is assembled, though, is one of the most moving elements of it.

We finally watched Crazy Rich Asians and Where'd You Go, Bernadette. Fun watches, both. But the oddest and most challenging thing we watched all week was The Lighthouse, starring Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson. Not for the faint of heart. It helps to know some mythology when you watch it, which I learned later. 

Making

That damned sweater. I think I've gained a couple inches on it since last week. Who knows.

Listening

Two songs have been in my head this week: "Old Friends" (from Merrily We Roll Along) and Miriam Makeba's "Pata Pata," a misplaced association in reading Poisonwood, which takes place in Africa in the 1960s...the book is set in the Congo, not South Africa. Still, it's nice to have some upbeat refrains in my head these days.