Sandy Davenport

Make-up work

Michael is taking Ella out of school for a couple of days to visit his family in Colorado, so she went to all her teachers and got the work she'll be missing. This morning she polished off two days of classwork and homework, including recording heart rates for science class (Michael, resting  = 65). They dissected cow hearts yesterday, and Ella has announced her newest career goal: Equine Biologist. Go for it, honey. 

Oh, and for me this means four days of the house All To Myself On A Long Weekend. After a rather stressful week at work, I am so ready. 

The Universe

Last night we went to a talk on All The Ways The Universe is Trying To Kill You by superawesome astrophysist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. "We" means the whole family, because Ella is something of a Tyson fan. She started watching him on Nova ScienceNow, and was terribly excited at the idea of seeing him speak. It was on campus, sponsored by the Student Association, so it was us, 2000 geeked out college students, and several 8 year old boys with their dads. Tyson was an energetic, funny, smart, and inspiring talker, although one of the 8-year olds nearly stole the show with his patter.  Contemplating the end of the universe always freaks me out slightly. Ella is fine with it - she very sensibly says she won't be around to see it. 

The coolest part, however, was that one of Michael's crossword buddies went to college with Tyson, so we got to go back stage ever so briefly afterwards (Michael wrote a great account of the whole story at the end of his blog write up from this morning, here).
 Ella is usually a pretty articulate kid, but she lost it in front of Tyson and could barely speak! Then afterwards all she could talk about was showing her science teacher the photo and autographed copy of the book. She was so worked up, she couldn't even eat. Damn it, she better be a scientist when all this is over. Or an artist. Or a designer. Or any damn thing she wants, I guess. 

The Magicians

Its been maybe a year since I did a reading round up. Mainly because I don't find My Library Thing widget as easy and fun to use as the old book sidebar I used to have.

Maybe I'll get back to it on a regular basis. In the meantime, let me just tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed Lev Grossman's  The Magicians.  Full disclosure, I've spend a lot of time in the Narnia-verse,  and maybe this book was written with a reader like me in mind. Or an angsty-young-man-with-ennui-and-a-drinking-problem version of me. 

Whatever the case, I spent my alone-in-the-house day of Spring Break lying in bed eating Ella's ginger snaps and reading. It was a day well spent. 

Local Food: The Fish Fry

OK, Fish Fries aren't local at all. But they're very American. I'd never heard the term until I got here. I know, there are plenty of cuisines that fry fish. But here it becomes an event. With Capital Letters. Often it is a fund raiser for your church or soccer team. And you don't just do it by yourself in your kitchen, you go to it.

Now remember,  it is Lent, so there are lots of Friday Fish Fries going on. We are quite partial to Wegmans. Yes, our supermarket, without which we could not survive in this town and which probably deserves an entry of its own, produces a reasonable battered cod. 

What we also have is Dougs. Headquartered a bit north of us, they drive around a several county range offering their services. You'll see signs stapled to posts announcing that Dougs is coming to a parking lot near by. This one was in support of the MacArthur Elementary PTA. MacArthur got destroyed in the flood and while the district decides what to do about it, they're leasing space from the Catholic Schools. 
I have to say, I wasn't that impressed with the fish. We were, however, blown away by how many cupcakes the PTA was willing to sell us for $5.  So Michael gave them $10. 

Also, this is all kind of moot for now. Michael described his Brooklyn blowout as religious in intensity, and it is going to take some special kind of animal for him to want to eat it. Even a New Zealand lamb might not cut it. 

 

Brooklyn. And bust.

So, Brooklyn, and the 2012 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Michael went down early to see some of his non-crossword friends before the weekend took off. For several days he ate pretty much everything he saw, and about the only vegan food he touched was the doughnuts. Then his body rebelled, and on Friday night, after a spectacular dinner involving many different kinds of animals at a New Zealand restaurant called Kiwiana, I woke at 4 am to find him on the floor of the hotel bathroom, you know, sick. Michael would rather tie a knot in his neck than vomit, so I knew it was serious. He skipped the competition altogether, and I had to puzzle and hang with our friends without him. He's feeling a lot better now, but we ended up catching the earliest bus possible back to Binghamton today, missing the finals, and now we are going back to a diet of miso, oatmeal, apples, rice, and collard greens. 

This is me and Doug at Lunetta, a nice little Italian restaurant we've been to a few years in a row now. I want a t-shirt that says "if there's one thing I learned from the Princess Bride...." because it was that kind of a night. 

ps. I don't think it was Kiwiana's fault. I ate the mussels, the lamb, the scallops, the oysters, the beetroot, the pavlova, and the lamingtons, and the only consequences were having to undo the top button of my pants. Oh, and a word about the mussels. They tasted like home. Does anyone remember Bill's mussels, in some sort of vinegar solution with tomatoes and things? Yes. They tasted like that. 

Local Food: The Lenten Edition

Now that the Greater Binghamton Diner Project is done, I'm embarking on an occasional series on Broome County Cuisine. I just made that title up now, so I might end up changing it to something snappier.  Basically I just want to try out our regional specialties.

We're starting with perogies.  These dumplings aren't exclusive to here, but the good people of the Binghamton Eastern-European-American community lobbied hard, and successfully, to get our town declared Perogy Capital of the United States. 

There are lots and lots of Catholics around here- Italian, Russian Orthodox, Polish, etc etc. They came in the big wave of southern European immigration at the turn of the 20th century , attracted to new industrial jobs. Back then the area where the Susquehanna and the Chenango meet was billed as The Valley of Opportunity.

What I'm trying to say is that what to eat during Lent is a Big Deal in Binghamton and there are Friday Fish Fries aplenty. Every week from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday the volunteers at St Michaels' Greek Catholic Church produce and serve thousands of dumplings (which they spell p-i-r-o-h-i ). Here I am going to pick up our order after work this afternoon. 

How did they taste? Just as delicious as dough filled with potato and cheese and slathered in butter and fried onions sounds. Warming and satisfying on a blustery snowy day. Next time we have to try the cabbage ones. 

Archer

Laurie and Dave got a new dog, so we went over to play and socialize. 

Ella baked dogs treats for everyone. 
Yes, she is reduced to making cookies for the dogs to get her baking fix, because Michael and I have given up sugar  for Lent. No, we're not Catholic or anything even close, we just like the idea of mindful sacrifice once in a while.

Orchestra #2

The Broome County Music Educators Association (BCMEA) does a complicated series of concerts during the spring, and here is Ella at the end of the 5-6 grade orchestra portion. William Tell Overture! No idea who that kid is in front, but he's got great posture. 
I was not a joiner myself as a child, and I used to think that it was all about pushy parents over-scheduling their children. But since working with all my students, and seeing Ella want to do everything, I'm interpreting the pattern somewhat differently. She's excited about so much stuff and loving participating and learning. I've had to limit her involvement in things, to teach her to do fewer things better, instead of half-assing more things. 

Also, do you see she has glasses now. Finally she can see the board again in school. 

News Update

I'm not a big one for videos. Unless they're 30 seconds of cute kitten awesomeness, I rarely click through. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because I can't skim through a video and I'm just too lazy to site there and watch the whole thing. Maybe I like the visual impact of a still photo. Maybe the cringe potential is too high. That said, here's a video of Michael solving a puzzle. Zero cringing, I promise. 

The Binghamton University glossy show-offy research spotlight magazine produced this as a supplement to a forthcoming article (which will include a puzzle constructed by Michael.) The zany music really makes it special.

 

 

The Evening News

Even though we aren't farmers, Michael and I live a rather seasonally predictable life. In the winter we walk the dogs in the snowy woods. In the Spring we plant vegetables. In the Summer we ride our bikes and take vacations. In the Fall we go back to school. Which is why I don't post as often as I might - how many times do you need to see a photo of Ella helping me shovel the sidewalk, after all?

So, when stuff like this happens, it is tremendously exciting. One of the major network weekend evening national news shows came to the house last night to film Michael talking about crosswords for an end-of-the-hour human interest story. This morning they went to the University to see him teach. We'll let you know when it airs, but given how many times they delayed coming to Binghamton in the first place (as you do), it might be a while.
I wish I'd been bold enough to move in closer and taken the time to get a better photo, but it felt kind of intrusive. Yes, I see the irony, given that they're pointing two giant cameras at Michael.