May 2007 Archives

Stuck in traffic on the 152. I got cherries at a farm stand. :o)

;o)

Words/Phrases of the Week:

genus loci : Reading Charles de Lint's "Spirits in the Wires" which mentions genus loci (spirit of a place). This leads to thinking about how I moved to Seal Beach this month, which comes full circle of my 9th summer when I would take the bus to Seal Beach, without my mom's knowledge to go to the beach and read in peace. Or how Orange's Old Town was my favorite place in college, then I moved there for the first five years of the 2000s. Circles. Keep coming back to a place that is special. Genus loci.

blowhard : the across the path neighbor who has not been quiet all day. He hates immigrants as they are bankrupting his job, votes for the Red/White/Blue, drives big old rusting truck that costs $20 to go 50 miles, drinks a 24 pack of Bud Light every day or two, listens to Led Zeppelin while watching his TV (usually a slasher film), etc.

1986 - If born in this year, then 21 this year. If graduated from high school this year, then feel good and old this year. Also, the number of this post to this weblog. Near on 2000.

WTF! - Cousin born 1982 is getting married this weekend in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Will go to San Francisco afterwards to hang out with friends.

Memorial Day Weekend - Usually a quiet time to putt around the house while others go out of town. Also a time to take flowers to the McCallum side of the family the Orange County Cemetery in old Anaheim. Also a great weekend to go to the Scottish Games at the OC Fairgrounds. This weekend up in NorCal. Hmph. Must find time to put flowers on Grandma Marlyce's grave. Hope cousin appreciates how much I am giving up (MEN IN KILTS!!!!) to go to her wedding.

Will she have a bagpiper at the ceremony to make up for it?

Tues. 05.22.07 - I walked into Salon Pop at 2pm for my hair color appointment with Beth Leheahy Martinez and walked out at 6:30pm with a fabulous new 'do and eyebrows. I love Salon Pop.

Sat. 05.19.07 - My first party at my new place.

Scruffy all wrapped up.

Everyone has small or large assumptions that they make about life that they are unaware of until it is right in front of them. Yesterday, I was hit upside the head, lightly, with one of my un-thought through assumptions.

Since 1999, when I met a nice swing dancer who was also a Pilates instructor, I have said to myself that I would like to go takes some Pilates classes. Over the years since, I have met some very nice dance / pilates / yoga folk who are all in some sort of subculture or another, usually of the hippie / vegan variety. These folks have been very calm and encouraging.

Mon. 05.14.07 - A Monday afternoon on the front lawn of the new apartment building with Scruffy, Belle, Earl and Ryan. My first real day off in over a month. Or Ryan's first day off after graduation from his M.F.A. program.

Sun. 05.13.07 - After a lovely Mother's Day lunch at Grandma Grace's with my Mom, Allison, Aunt Anne, Aunt Dana, and Grandma, I met up with Erika for a hike around the Bolsa Chica Wetlands to clear out the brain and tummy. Lovely day, lovely walk, until I had a gravity storm on a levy when some gravel slipped, I slipped, I tumbled end over end and luckily did not end up in the muck of the lagoon. I do have lots of scrapes.

Quite a few bird photographers were out and about at the bird bridge with outrageously large lenses. I have one small Nokia N80 camera phone and it did a fine job of snapping the birds and wetlands. Makes one wonder what the gianormous lenses for? PEL, anyone?

Photo from morning walk with the dogs.

Wed. 05.09.07 - View of a drainage ditch on the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Base from the Bolsa Chica and Edison intersection.

Today I am at Erika's waiting with her. As we wait, we are working on our laptops. I thought I would repost photos that I moblogged yesterday but did not go through due to the LA/OC Cingular network does not like Flickr thing.

Yesterday. 05.08.07. After many errands, a doctor's appointment (migraine & IBS management), and picking the dogs up from the groomer's, I went home in the 98 degree heat and met up with my Mom as evening approached. We took the dogs for a walk around Seal Beach and enjoyed the breeze that picked up and brought the temps down into the 80s. Here are the photos of our walk.

Hi folks,

I still have boxes piled up and am trying to get through them one by one. Sorry I have been a bit absent here, even with the photos, but there has been much to do. Once again there seems to be a problem between Cingular's LA/OC area network and Flickr, so photos I have sent this week are not posting here.

Anywhoooo... I will be having a housewarming / open house on Sat. May 19th at the new place so that I will be forced to get the place up to snuff within the week. And be back online...

:o)

Made in West Germany.

In January of 1990, I returned from a month long study tour of Israel to find myself in need of pots and pans. In typical Jenifer fashion, but non-college student fashion, I bit the bullet, went to Williams and Sonoma at Satan Coast Plaza and bought a good set of pots and pans. When I got back to my Mom's house after the shopping expedition, she was astounded and got quite mad at me for spending $299 on a pan set when I could have gone to Kmart or the like and spent under $20 for some cheap aluminum.

I said, "I bought a Chantal enameled set that will last a lifetime."

The folks at my dormitory back at school were even more astounded. Really, why would I buy a WHOLE set of pots and pans when the Caf was just around the corner?

Today, 17 years and 3 months and some weeks later, I unpacked my lovely blue Chantal enameled pots and pans from their boxes (I kept the original packaging & reuse it every time I move), washed the dust off and put them away. As I was unwrapping the boxes, I noticed that each one of them said, "Made in West Germany".

Several thoughts popped into my head in rapid succession:
1 - "Hey, I really did buy a good set of pots. They are still here and I still like them.
2 - "Wow, the mark Roommate K. made on the bottom of the saucepan from steaming broccoli with no water is still there."
3 - "Made in West Germany?"
4 - "West Germany?"
5 - "Wait... when did West Germany ... oh yeah... 1989. Wow. West. Germany. West Germany."
6 - "God Bless the Germans and their good quality products."
7 - "Shit, has it really been 17 years? AGH!"
8 - "I wonder if Chantal enamel ware is still manufactured in Germany or if the new sets from Williams and Sonoma or Macy's say 'Made in China' on the bottom?"

According to their website, Chantal is now manufacturing the enameled parts in Germany, the lids in Japan, and assembling them in Houston, TX.

But West Germany!

Sometime in the 1940s, my great-grandma - Evelyn McCallum Jennings - opened an antique store in Anaheim, Calif. She regularly returned home to Iowa to search farmer's barns for antique furniture that could be sold at much higher prices in SoCal.

She found this corner cabinet in a barn in Iowa and that has come down to me via my grandmother Marlyce and my dad Cam, is the American Federalist mahogany corner cabinet dating from 1790 - 1810. Family lore has it that multiple coats of lavender and green paint had to be stripped off my Great-Grandma Evelyn to get to the original lovely mahogany wood.

Two weekends ago, when Mom and I were in North Carolina, we saw two corner cabinets that looked just like mine, one dated in the 1790s and one in the 1810s.

Big gigantic thanks to brother Joe and Alex for getting my cabinet into my new apartment today with no new bruises! Yeah!

Fountain at the Denver Intl Airport

On my last night in Denver, I went downtown to the area near Union Station. I had a very expensive and mediocre dinner at Venice Ristorante and Wine Bar (avoid this place if you can, $56 for risotto and 2 glasses of wine! Yikes. The risotto was not nice, with muddied flavors.) But as I walked out of the restaurant, Union Station in all of her glory was before me. I could not resist taking a picture.