Do Something Good Today: kiva.org

In January I made a promise to myself - no more gifts. I mean, we have a house full of stuff, we can barely fit already, and I'm really at a place in my life where I want less stuff. Less stuff means less waste, it means less cleaning, and more importantly, less junk. And for my friends, I'm going to try to follow the same rule and give you something you can use for the benefit of someone else.

This is what I sent to all of my friends on January 2:

Are you looking for an excuse to do good this year? Got some resolutions to give more? Well, rather than wait until the end of the year to send out a bunch of money, I've decided to start my year with a bang (and a plan) to lend money through Kiva.org. And I'm going to keep doing this all year long, and try to get more folks involved. Why? Because we have so much, and this is such a simple gesture.

Kiva.org is a non-profit that allows you to make a small 0% loan to low income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). We can help provide affordable working capital for the poor -- money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc. -- and empower them to earn their way out of poverty.

You know what's amazing about Kiva? It's how fast it's growing. At the end of last year I heard a speech by one of Kiva's founders about microfinance. I decided to take a look at their site to learn more. When you log in to Kiva, you can see the folks who have applied for loans - what they want to use the money for, where they are, their payment history - everything. They ask for so little, it's completely humbling to read. But the coolest thing is that after a few minutes, you can literally see the applicants loan requests filled and they move from the 'Need' column to the 'Active' column. I've sat for hours watching people come on to the list of applicants and roll off faster than I can loan them funds. It's thrilling and makes my skin tingle to think that there are enough people logging on and loaning money that sometimes you'll catch the system saying 'Congratulations, we've raised enough money to fill every application that's been submitted!' I've seen it once and nearly cried at what a beautiful thought that is.

Here are some stats from last week (New Year's week), for the skeptics:

• $794,525 loaned (over the holiday week, I saw this number at ~$950k - in a WEEK!)
• 786 businesses finished paying back loans (incidentally, the delinquency and default rates hover around 0. That's ZERO percent. Check it.)
• 1160 businesses were funded
• 11921 new lenders joined (NEW! NEW people loaning money, all at a minimum of $25 = ~$300000 last week alone from brand new people!)
• 3.5 hours to fully fund a business

Okay, this is enough from me. I'm done with my soapbox. Please, if you can and you're interested look at this. It's nifty cool, it's easy, and will make great presents this year (no waste, no junk, no 'giftrocity'). Good karma, you know?

Happy new year, everyone. Thanks for reading, and pass the word.

So far, I've made 6 loans and I've given 3 friends gift certificates on Kiva to get them started too. I've watched with excitement when my first loan was distributed and I proudly showed off my borrower's first payment back into the system. I can't tell you how amazing it makes me feel knowing that I can have this sort of impact.

There is a drawback, something quite unexpected I saw and felt in January - and I have to warn you about it because it's always a possibility. I had gone to the site to check on some stats when I saw a large number of journal recommendations for borrowers in Kenya. This was in the middle of the fighting there - chaos had descended on Nairobi and we were getting our first reports on kiva as to the impact. By the time I finished reading, I was exhausted and angry and crying. So many people who had asked for so little had everything taken - sometimes their houses were burned down, sometimes their businesses looted and burned, and on many, many occasions, the people were butchered, killed, or missing. The money had nothing to do with my anger. It was like I'd been present when we planted a tiny seedling, and now I saw that someone had come in and practically poisoned the earth so nothing would grow back. Everything these people had worked for was gone, and I felt as touched by it as I could a million miles away.

Check out my kiva page, and join in. Make a difference.

Dinner at Lampreia

Lampreia, Scott Carsberg's joint on 1st Ave in Belltown, has been beckoning for a while. I'd been there once long ago, but Todd hadn't been so we made reservations for Saturday night and got all dressed up for it.

I'm here to blow the lid off the Lampreia experience. So many people I know have opinions about the place - the chef's a tyrant (I'm told), the food inspired but expensive, it's dated, the waiters skitter around like they're walking on eggshells...

And when you walk by the place or try to get more information, you know why. The windows are completely covered and lit from the outside so you can't see in. No menu is posted on their door or their website. In fact, it's not really a website as much as it is a full-color business card with no links to anything. All you hear about is the chef's rep and how magical the food is. So here goes...

The interior looks like an old hotel restaurant. Creamy walls, muted lighting, quiet service. The window to the kitchen is open to the dining room (but slightly obscured), but it is absolutely silent in that place. White tablecloths, maybe 13 tables total - and when we walked in there was only 1 other table there. We saw only 25 covers (diners) the whole evening, and most of the tables stood bare all night. It was Saturday night.

When we arrived at our table, our waiter brought over the evening's first foray - an albacore tuna tartare on savory biscuit with a little pureed avocado. When I reached for my plate, he said, 'no, you should take it with your hands.' When I started to move it toward my mouth, he said, 'the chef would like you to enjoy this in a single bite.' Uh-huh. So this was how it started.

A quick overview on the menu: in the bottom-left corner of the page, it told diners that they were to remove any papers, pens, pencils, writing instruments - anything that could document the experience - from the table. Phones were to be off. On the right side of the menu was a list of course choices. On the left was a short note that said, 'many of my customers asked me for the pleasure of cooking for them. To do this, please close your menu and let me cook' or something like that. It was the offer for a tasting menu. Todd and I picked that, 8 courses. We had already each ordered a glass of wine (bad, we should have asked what sort of wine would be suggested before we committed to the tasting menu).

Here's the menu:
1. Burrata with pureed mango
2. Locally caught Dungeness crab stuffed in a shaved Fuji apple cigar. Served with apple gelee and smoked salt
3. Celeriac veloute with smoked cream and celery leaves
4. Poached foie gras enrobed in hazlenut cocoa ganache, served with candied red pepper and kumquat puree
5. Steamed artichoke bottom stuffed with lightly smoked cow's milk cream-type cheese, served with pureed tomato, pureed Kalamata olive paste, and a tomato wafer
6. Cedar-smoked duck breast ham with date puree and a bitter endive pesto
7. Pacific bass seared (pan fried, really) with smoked paprika, served with 'carrots' made of yukon gold potatoes and pequillo peppers and a wilted scallion
*** At this point, we inserted a cheese course that wasn't part of the menu, but made the meal for me:
Todd's - shaved Parmagiano Reggiano with 25 yo Balsamic vinegar
Mine - Broiled Pecorino on an Alder plank rubbed with white truffle honey and served with a candied chestnut and shaved black truffle
8. Dessert (also different, I guess based on the feedback we'd given all night about each course)
Todd's - Buffalo milk yogurt mixed with blueberries, served with blackberries and raspberries sandwiched between vanilla wafers
Mine - Watsonville strawberries cored and stuffed with white chocolate mousse, served on a strawberry coulis with a strawberry wafer

We finished the meal with a selection of petit fours: a 65% cocoa truffle, coconut macaroon, peanut butter cookie, lemon cookie and cinnamon cookie.

The whole meal took 3 hours, and cost about the same as the Herbfarm. I'd come back here again.

And how did we remember all of the details? I wrote it all quickly on the only piece of paper I was allowed. My credit card receipt.

Favorite Things: Sottocenere al Tartufo

OMG. I don't know where this has been my whole life - but I found it after getting into truffle popcorn, which we got in Dallas the last time we visited Jessica (that will be another post). Something struck when I went to Whole Foods recently - and I grabbed a block of Sottocenere al Tartufo, a cow's milk cheese spotted with black truffles. You can smell it in the fridge even when it's all wrapped up. Todd couldn't eat much of it, but I could cut chunks off and just chow down.

Here's a link for more information...

Lucy's First Hike: Twin Falls

We took Lucy out for her first hike recently - and I bought her a nice, big pack from REI so she could get used to carrying her own load. The night before the hike we filled up 2 Nalgene bottles and I took Lucy for a walk in her new pack. She complained all the way to Third Place Books and back, but she was a good sport when I made her jump on ledges and sit down fully loaded. I figured it would help her get used to it, because that following morning we were going to load her down even more when we got to the trail.

In the end we only walked a couple of miles to the falls, but Lucy carried her pack with our water and snacks the whole way. In fact, neither Todd nor I carried a thing - but we had to hang on to Lucy, and she was still mighty strong. On our way back from the end of the trail we unharnessed her - we thought she might be tired - and realized immediately that was a bad idea. She was so excited to get the pack off that she nearly took off over a ledge with Todd at the other end of her leash. That lasted about 20 feet, and we saddled her back up again.

We'll keep working on her, and maybe by the summer she'll be ready for a night of camping at Goat Rocks!

Grendel 1994 - 2006

Not too long ago I read a book about the dead. It said that as long as there was someone alive to remember them, they went to another place, living out a happy life waiting for their friends and loved ones to join them.

This weekend, my little man joined them.

Whether the days were light or dark, he was always by my side and in my heart, and I would not be the person I am today without him. I only hope to one day be as good a person as he thought I was.

Remember him well.
Grendel 1994 – 2008

Favorite Things: Texas Pecans

I sat at the dinner table one afternoon and cracked pecans from Jessica's yard - we had brought them back with us after our visit in October, and they'd been sitting quietly in the cabinet just aging. They taste different than pecans from California, and cracking them out of the shell and trying to keep the meat intact proved to be a very meditative activity.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Seckel Pears

Mmmm. I love this time of year because I get my favorite fruit of the year: Seckel Pears. They're small and juicy, reminiscent of D'Anjou Pears, but they're beautiful and tiny, smaller than a mandarin orange. I like them almost overripe, when they're ruby in color and they drip from your chin when you bite in. I can eat a bag in a sitting, they're like candy. Here, I've pictured them with another favorite thing: Vella Bear Dry Jack Cheese.

NYC Weekend

I had a short visit to New York before we left for Missouri for Thanksgiving, and I got good time in with friends (and plenty of good food!). Photos as follows...

Grendel-hol!

I found this kind of fun toy called the Warholizer...Check out this picture of Grendel!

Best Chinese Ever!

When we arrived in Waco for a visit with my family, we were greeted with a spread so unexpected that I had to write about it. My grandmother (mom's mom) had been prepping a Chinese meal for the previous few days, and she was pulling out all the stops for our arrival. Because it's so infrequent that we're in Texas for a visit, she made sure that plenty of people were there and all had something special to eat.
While she was cooking the last dish, we managed to get the entire episode on video and let me tell you, my grandmother would make a great cooking show host. I'm going to try to get more videos of her doing things like this.
Mom and Dad had gotten there a few minutes after we arrived, and Mark and Uncle showed up shortly thereafter too. Including Popo, there were 7 of us who sat down to the following meal:
Beef and broccoli (Mark's dish)
Chicken in lettuce cups (Uncle's dish)
Chicken in black bean sauce (Mom's dish)
Piccadillo (a Cuban alternative, just in case Mark didn't have enough to eat)
Chinese soup
Lobster Cantonese (sort of Dad's dish, sort of just special)

All of it was outstanding!

Tillman's Roadhouse

On a visit to Waco recently, we got to spend the night with Jessica and Jay, and they took us to a fun place in Dallas called Tillman’s Roadhouse. Imagine a fancified Shady Grove, if you know the place in Austin. It had a swanky bar with equally swanky cocktails (from the cocktail mistress Lucy Brennan), but it was really just an upscale hunting cabin, complete with animal heads hanging from the walls. The animal heads were wooden, and the room lighted with shabby-chic chandeliers, but you get the idea.
When we were seated, the waiter brought two different snacks – fresh roasted Spanish peanuts and truffle popcorn. I think it was kettle cooked with white truffle oil and then topped with a little shaved black truffle. It was the best popcorn I’d ever eaten and completely original.
For appetizers, we shared a round of deep-fried pickles – they were closer to sweet pickles, not dill pickles – and they were served with homemade ketchup and horseradish mayo. To continue the fried theme, we had a trio of French fries: Peruvian purple potato, sweet potato and Yukon golds topped with a chile spice, smoked salt, and a rosemary garlic mixture respectively. Dinner was equally creative - the guys had chicken fried hanger steaks, Jessica had a supreme hamburger (with foie gras) and I had Frito pie, made with venison chili.
But dessert was where it was at. We four shared a little sterno-hibachi grill and made fresh s'mores from homemade marshmallows, homemade graham crackers and a nice, dark chocolate. Yum!

Give Thanks

Over the last two weeks, I've ben witness to a couple of remarkable transformations. One was very public, the other a little more private. But both were moving and gave me pause to think about the big things - family, friends, life, love and happiness.
The first was the death of a little girl from the Seattle area. Her name was Gloria Strauss. She'd been battling a particularly nasty form of cancer for four of her short twelve years - and the last six months her family allowed a reporter in to chronicle her battle. I picked up the thread in August when she'd fallen into a coma - and somehow I managed to read his blog entry every day since. I quietly asked around - others were reading about her too. It sounds voyeuristic, but she had such grace in the face of it all that it was a salve to all who peered in.
The second was the end of a friend's marriage. The last several months had been painful - I'd seen him bitterly angry, flippant, and mean-spirited. All at once within a few short weeks, his wife left. Left him and his two small kids. All of it. She had her reasons, as did he. And somehow, he's come out of it a little more thoughtful, not quite regretful, and full of wisdom one has only when living in that state. The further I get from that place, the more of that wisdom I fear I lose. But it turns out that it's not a momentary grace (there's that word again), but becomes part of you, it's in your bones and lives in every choice you make thereafter - even if you don't smart from the source anymore. And today when I spoke with him, I heard it in his voice - and it came back to me too. I came home, hugged the dogs, made sure Todd knew that I love him, and made dinner. And tomorrow I'll not be so earnest.

Lucy Bland at Nectar

Lucy Bland played at Nectar tonight - and their show was a smash. They played for the first time since finishing their album (Down from Sea Level), and they used this show to introduce fans to their new drummer, Chris.
Their next show is at the Sunset Tavern - they headline on a Thursday night at the end of October, and I'm encouraging everyone to come out. Making the Sunset's a big deal for them, and it would be great for them to get a good show of support! Hope to see you there!

Painin' and Gainin', I suppose

Well, I've now been to the gym a couple of times and at yoga regularly - and although it's only been a week I can tell things are starting to shift. My eating patterns are changing a bit, but my muscles are where I feel the most change. Everything's achey after I do my workout - and I didn't even see the personal trainer this week. I'll see him next week and for a few weeks more, and after a month we'll have a weigh-in and progress check.
So do I have a goal for this whole thing? Well, I had to put numbers down, if just to give something the trainer to measure progress by (and my measurement of his abilities as a trainer). The bigger goal is 20lbs - not too much, actually - and the short-term goal (3 month goal) is 12lbs. He took measurements of my waist, thighs, calves, hips, bust - everything you can imagine - and gave me my fat percentage (not pretty). So for all those things, he gave me a goal too. I won't say what it is, but making it would be an accomplishment.

Jenny Improvement Plan

A long time ago when I was in Weight Watchers, I remember standing in line waiting for my weekly weigh-in. This older woman standing next to me was telling me about her goals - and how the only thing she wanted was the body she'd had at 20. I told her that I wanted to be great at 40. Screw 20, I'd never be that again.
So last week I hit 37 - while I don't obsess over a cut, lean body, I'd still like to look great at 40. Not a bad goal.
I'm pretty active - yoga weekly, heavy gardening, and a good amount of walking. And I don't eat all that bad - almost no soft drinks, rarely coffee, and lots of fruits and vegetables.
Yet my weight doesn't ever shift, and my clothes always fit the same way. I figured I'd plateaued, and it was time to shake things up a bit.
This week, I rejoined a gym and hired a personal trainer. Thursday I'm in for a haircut, and Saturday I'm off to the spa for a refresher.
I'll keep you posted on my progress!

The Story of Lucy

We got notice yesterday that we are finally, officially Lucy's guardians. The application process was a long one, and it included reference letters, changing of homeowners insurance companies - all of that. I have to thank our refs for this process - they were critical in helping us bring Lucy home permanently! Cheers go out to Jessica, Cherish, and Eric for their kind words and never-ending support!
I wanted to give you the background that we got on Lucy just the other day - it really starts in a shelter in Pasco, WA because before the shelter, we don't know where Lucy was. In early May 2007, the shelter in Pasco found itself in a very bad spot: 150 dogs were being housed in the shelter, and they couldn't get them adopted fast enough before another group came in. The did not have a license to euthanize, so they put a call out to area shelters and rescue organizations to take dogs - free of charge - to alleviate the overcrowding. Puppies, elderly dogs, and special needs were really suffering because of this; their shelter wasn't built to hold nearly this many dogs, and even though they were refusing owner abandonments, they still had to accept dogs brought in by animal control.
Carina from Animals First Foundation called and said she had room for 2 dogs - and the woman in Pasco was given the task of picking out two dogs for rescue. She was giving as many dogs away as possible, but she would not send out pit bulls because they are so difficult to place. Carina urged her to pick out a pit bull - there must be one in there that can be saved - and after a bit of searching and temperment testing, she pulled out Lucy. Here are the pictures of little Lucy at Pasco before AFF picked her up.
She's grown an awful lot in the last 4 months. Since we picked her up in mid-July, she's put on 5 - 7 pounds already, and she's starting to bulk up in her shoulders and her head. Her legs are already incredibly muscular and although she doesn't have a classic pit bull body, she's still got a wicked looking mouth if you're on the receiving end of a nip. She graduated from her first obedience class yesterday, and maybe once she's really mastered all of these things, she can go back for some more advanced work.
But for now, I try to never turn my back on her in the yard - anywhere that she can pick up speed, really - she's got a leap of a frisbee dog and can knock me over in a flash. We're hoping she'll be great at frisbee one day (if she doesn't eat it first), if we can ever let her off-leash. That said, I think we're resigned to the fact that she will probably never go to the off-leash park to play. I can't remember ever seeing a pit bull of any kind at the park, and now that I know the breed a little better, I know why. You can't leave them alone, because they can't be allowed to make their own decisions. They are too smart and too strong, and other dogs just love to pick fights (pits stare, and that's class-A provocation for just about any dog). So we're happy to take her to the lake and maybe one day to the beach or hiking in the mountains. And who knows, maybe one day it'll be different. She and Grendel are getting along just fine, and they seem to be sharing things quite well, from the occasional shared snack to their chew toys. Grendel, despite being covered with allergy breakouts (and a severe loss of hair) is more energetic than he's been in a long time. I have to think some of that is the new girl in town.

Mystery Spot!

Okay, I wouldn't normally put this on a blog post, but it's been around so long that I figured it will some day make a big scar and someone will ask me about it. It's the thing on the back of my leg, recently acquired (like, end of July perhaps) and it won't go away. NOTE: There's a picture of it down at the bottom of this post - don't scroll to see if it you think you'll be grossed out. It's about the size of a silver dollar, looks like a lyme disease bullseye, and sometimes itches and sometimes doesn't. We've had a nasty infestation of spiders this summer, but when I went to the doctor the other day, he told me he didn't think it was a spider bite (I have more of those on my body already and they don't look like this!). The only thing the doctor could say for sure is that it isn't cancer (whew!), it isn't flesh-eating bacteria, and it's not lyme disease. He didn't think it was a spider bite because by now it would be necrotic if it was a bad spider bite, or it would have gone away. It's perfectly round with a red raised center and a middle field that is bare, and then a nice, red outer ring. Next step - to the dermatologist! Stay posted...

The mystery spot...

Back to School

I went back to work this week, and I’m happy to be back. I started on Monday and it’s been a pretty low-key week, so far. I expect it will pick up at some point, but right now I’ve had the luxury of trying to get up to speed without a million things coming at me. Lucy’s starting to fall into a nice rhythm too. Before bed I get hers and Grendel’s food ready, Grendel’s seaweed glucosamine snack, and fresh water out. In the morning, Todd gets up and takes her out while I get Grendel out and fed and then I run to work. I take care of both of them when I get home until Todd comes home. Lucy’s getting better every day. She’s been a little troublesome in the crate over the last couple of days and I suspect it’s because of the stress of change so we loaded her up with a nice bully stick and she’s a little better. She was great on the walk last night, so I think she’s getting better still.

Mark spent some time here last weekend and it was good to see him. He was here for Microsoft Gamefest, a conference designed for game studios to learn best practices around submission of their games to MS. He’s been at it a couple of times and came for the networking opportunity and for fun. We got some tasty eats at the Kingfish Café before he left, and Saturday night we took him to the Palace Kitchen.

Sometime over the last couple of weeks we’ve had an infestation of spiders here in Seattle, and I had a nasty bite on my arm that finally cleared up this week. Oddly enough though, I have a bite on the back of my leg. It’s been there since the end of July and is getting larger, so I’m heading to the doctor tomorrow. It’s a couple of inches large and looks frighteningly like a bulls eye, the hallmark of lyme disease. But I don’t have any of the other symptoms so I’m hoping it’s just a nasty spider bite that never cleared up!

Things I Did Between Jobs

I tried to keep track of everything I wanted to do (and managed to accomplish) while taking time off this summer.

Have lunch with Ernie - Cancelled!
Make Hoegaarden - DONE!
Make all-crust potato gratin
Make fried pies
Make Michel Richard's Apple Icebox Terrine
Make pate sucree
Re-pot the Napentheses - On HOLD until FALL
Learn some Javascript and make a cool timewaster
Pick up the Pig! - DONE!
Make fruit syrup bases for spritzers
Have lunch with Cam - DONE!
Fill out living will - DONE!
Beers with Sam at the Bierstube - DONE!
Go to the dentist - DONE!
Return to work plans - DONE!
Make plans to visit Texas - DONE!
Make plans for Tofino, BC - CANCELLED!
Go see Harry Potter - DONE (YAY!)
Make Rigatoni w/ tomatoes, eggplant & mozz - DONE!
Freeze Jamie Oliver's Tomato Mac & Cheese - DONE!
Pre-make & freeze mini pies - Change of plans!
Start Dog Obedience Classes for Lucy - DONE!
Call Nancy Hall - DONE!
Go to the spa - SAVED FOR LATER!
Practice Tart Dough (Carlo's Cookie dough) - DONE!
Kayak Lake Washington - DONE!
Make angel food cake in my new silicon pan - DONE!
Lunch with Dave & Amy - DONE!
Recycle scrap metal at Pacific Iron & Metal - DONE!
Lunch with Huy - DONE!
Lunch with Ev, Kim, Jacqueline & Summer - DONE!
Dinner plans with Andrea & Sean - DONE!
Have freezer hauled away - DONE!
Get Rx filled - DONE!
Make cookie dough to store in the freezer - DONE!
Voter registration in WA - DONE!
Renew my passport - DONE!
See Love in the Afternoon at the SAM - CANCELLED!
Renew my driver's license - DONE!
Wash the dog - DONE!
Make ice cream - DONE!
Go see Rion at Deep Roots - DONE!
Change Metro purchase properties - DONE!
Buy a Chest Freezer - DONE!
Buy books at Third Place - DONE!
Buy Mom's BD present - DONE!
Finalize 401(k) rollover - DONE!
Buy Star Wars stamps - DONE!
Buy Jeffrey's grad present - DONE!
Take stuff to storage - ALREADY DONE!
Put in more wine racks - ALREADY DONE!
Reorganize the Pantry - ALREADY DONE!

Going Back...

Well, the date's picked - and I'm going back to work. After taking a little more than a month off, I'm ready to go back to the (an) office and get back into a regular routine. I've loved having the time off and I spent a lot of time baking, cooking, and taking care of those little things I had not done for a while. But at the same time, I'd started to feel aimless, spending the day cooking randomly and snacking, not playing as much tennis as I wanted to, and showering intermittently! It's time to get back to making some cash, enjoying the challenges of work, and learning to budget time in our regular lives for those little things I've spent a month doing.
Yes, I'm going back to Redmond. But I'm going back on my terms, and with a long-term plan.