Archived Notes from 2007 are Here.
August 1, 2007
At last I have had a chance to put together a site for sharing some
fun ideas and images. It's August 2007, and I have been away from
Publishers Group West for over six months! In a way, PGW is The
Hotel California, and six months after checking out, am still trying to
leave. This site is a milestone that may help me reach that goal.
Last weekend I was in a
tule boat
building class, taught through the East Bay Regional Park District
by Dino Labiste. We harvested the tules, then worked together to build
the five main tule bundles, finally lashing all the bundles together for
the boat. It was such a blast to then launch the boat and paddle around
Quarry Lake! So rewarding to construct a useful tool from found
materials. Next Sunday I will learn how to make obsidian
arrowheads. Sure, I'm likely to lose an eye, but it will be worth it.
This is toward my goal of being an informed and learned museum educator.
While I'm on the topic of museum education, the Fall 2007 issue of Journal of Museum Education is full of great information on critical thinking in the museum. And that's the title of the issue, too. Some of the tools and practices in the articles will definitely find their way into my volunteer work!
And since I'm referencing songs, how about Stayin' Alive? For people like me who can't take gluten, every day is a game of hide and seek from it. No! It's hide and hide. Gluten can wreck us, and it's very sneaky, so we have to make our own foods (or pray a lot). My favorite gluten-free bread is made with a French-Italian bread recipe from the book Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts. Mmmmm, the bread is airy, chewy, and crunchy. And I just bought The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen, full of vgf recipes, for my g.f. cookbook collection.
I just (today, 8-8-2007) baked a gluten-free apple pie, using a packaged g.f. pie crust mix from Authentic Foods, and my own apples from a little Granny Smith apple tree that I started from a naked, 8-inch-long bare stick about ten years ago (a stick that I discarded at first, thinking that it was just a stick). What I like about Authentic Foods is that they make their product in a dedicated, gluten-free facility. That thought puts the gluten-paranoia to rest for awhile.
Sept 2007
Below is a photo from late August in 2007. The OK Corral is a dining
area along the Rogue River, where the Hellgate jetboats stop for awhile,
so that the boat riders can eat, drink, and be merry. Here's Ben Mulkey,
Jane Hagle, and Hanne Ziehl awaiting the chicken and ribs.
September 1, 2007
We had a fabulous time in hot and laid-back Medford last week, including
the famous Hellgate jetboat adventure, where we got very very wet.
One photo here
shows a jetboat that had just executed a sudden stop,
spraying the Rogue River more than 40 feet around the boat. Our vessel did similar
maneuvers, as well as several 360s, and the
tricky "let's get Kat soaked, since she's sitting in the
get-the-wettest seat on the boat" move. Ben gave our driver/guide Trevor
a nice tip for drenching his wife.
It's amazing how quickly your clothes will dry in 100°
Southern Oregon heat.
Sept 11, 2007
This cactus flower was in a cactus hedge at Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's
Adobe in Petaluma. Vallejo ran his 66,000-acre working rancho from 1836
to 1846, employing (and housing) up to 600 workers there.
I photographed the adobe inside and out, but it was the cactus that I
found most beautiful.
Sept 24, 2007
On Saturday Sept 22, we hiked on a volcano! Lake County's Mt Konocti
last erupted about 10,000 years ago. We were happy to be able to drive
up part way, because at 4300 feet in elevation, Konocti is an imposing
landmark. If driving was not an option, we'd still be struggling
up that mountain.
There's a walnut orchard near where we parked the car. In the
background of the photo below--behind Ben Mulkey and Jennifer Griffin--is Clear Lake.
Here's more
information about hiking on Konocti.
Sept 28, 2007
For her birthday, Jennifer Griffin wanted us to visit
Apple Hill in the Sierra Nevada
foothills. Besides many apple orchards, Apple Hill boasts wineries,
hayrides, ongoing craft fair in the Fall, pumpkin patches, and lots of
great photo opportunities. For a gluten-free vegetarian lunch,
Cozmic Cafe in nearby
Placerville
was just the ticket. Jennifer had the nachos, I ordered the Mmmmediterranean salad and a side of hummus (which was crawling with
basil, yum). I'll be returning to the Cozmic in future, it was fabulous.
October 5, 2007
Ben and I just returned from a driving trip to three National Parks:
Sequoia & Kings Canyon in California,
Grand
Canyon in Arizona, and
Zion
in Utah. Ben's highlights were seeing a large
bear up a tree in Sequoia
National Park, and viewing the clear and star-filled night
sky--including the rarely-seen-in-SF-Bay-Area
Milky Way--at
Grand Canyon.
My highlights were watching the sun set while enjoying a glass
of wine at the edge of Grand Canyon North Rim, then experiencing the
next day's
sunrise from a nearby location.
But my very favorite moment was arriving back at home!
October 16, 2007
Today I learned how to use the cataloging system at Oakland Museum of
California, to help patrons with research and perhaps in future to help
the registration folks at the museum. You know you're getting old when
you can't keep up with technology. So here's my strategy: keep up with
technology, and never get old. Or at least, you won't know it!
October 25, 2007
In 2005 I went to an educational conference to hawk math books from Key
Curriculum Press. One of the fun conference events was a demonstration
of hula-hooping as an after-school activity. Accompanied by hoppin'
hoopin' music, group hooping was available for anyone who wandered
by. I wandered by! After the conference, the hooping folks sold some of
their hoops, and that's how I got my first real hula hoop (these are not
your childhood five-ounce plastic things!)
A hooping workout can be a light aerobic warmup before a bike ride, or in
itself a calorie-burning, middle-massaging, whole-body sweatfest. It's a
peppy wake-me-up in the morning, and a great un-winding activity after a
stressful day at the office. For almost three years now, hooping has
enriched my health routines and my life. This little post is a plug for
hooping. Check out more on my Links page. Happy Hooping!
Nov 5, 2007
On a recent outing I rode the ferry with Rosalie Robertson, from the
Port of Oakland to the Ferry Building in San Francisco for the Saturday
morning
farmers market.
Hold onto your hat when you're speeding through the Oakland Inner
Harbor.
October 28, 2007
Every year, we three Griffin sisters try to assemble for our "Sisters
Weekend" of sharing, singing, exploring, photography, hiking, and
general sisterly fun.
Our 2007 weekend found us starting in Sacramento for our colorful drive
up Highways 50, 89, and 88 to
Sorensen's Resort, at 7000 feet high in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
We were very pleased with Sorensen's for their warm welcome, great food,
and relaxing atmosphere. I highly recommend this great mountain retreat
for any getaway or reunion, or as a home base for the South Lake Tahoe
area and beyond.
In the photo below, Jennifer Griffin and Jane Hagle are sandwiching me
in sisterly love, on the Sorensen grounds.
On Saturday of Sisters Weekend we said goodbye to Sorensen's and drove
east and south, to the Eastern side of the mountains, where the high
desert (8300 feet) ghost town of Bodie awaited our cameras. As we
studied the crumbling homes, leaning outhouses, and abandoned
gold-mining equipment scattered around the
Bodie State
Park, it was hard to see that at one time this place was home to
10,000 people and was a very "happening" Wild West place.
For all my Bodie and other Sisters Weekend photos,
go here.
December 3, 2007
We can cross another fun field trip off our List--sister Jennifer and I
went to Santa Cruz on December 1 for the Monarch butterfly migration. We
didn't see millions of active butterflies, but we did experience
hundreds of them, at Natural Bridges State Beach. Go to the Photography
section of my website, to
Natural Bridges State Beach.
See a few photos
here.
