Chapter forty-two

Thursday was a pretty normal November day to begin with. It was rainy. The kids went off to school. I went to work. Nicole and I talked about walking to the library to drop off some books and pick up some others, but in the end she drove there after dropping the kids off at Spanish in the afternoon. I ate the last of the pumpkin bread for lunch. By the end, Eric didn't appreciate it anymore. I remembered to mix up a new loaf of bread, sans squash, but not until after my morning meetings.

Rachel's pre-order book that was supposed to come on Tuesday, but had arrived damaged, was available, so she went with Nicole to pick up the kids from Spanish, and stopped to get her book. Then, Nicole and I drove to Almanqal in Wallingford to get Mediterranean food for dinner. This is the place with the silky smooth hummus, pickled eggplant, and grape leaves that we really like. We also got kebabs with rice, falafel, and fried cauliflower. There were jalapeños and a spicy red sauce similar to tamarind chutney, neither of which I remember from previous trips. Oh, and pita. The boys like that.

I opened some gifts after dinner. Tanya sent a book in French about traveling around Madagascar, plus a water bottle from Mon Chat Pitre. (She also later sent a note that the bookstore would love a photo of their merchandise in Seattle.) Mom sent another installment of Harvard Classics. Rachel snatched up the volume with the Arabian Nights because she's recently read a YA retelling. Rachel also got me a book: Gods of Jade and Shadow, which combines Mayan mythology with the Jazz Era. The Taylors sent a bag of peanut M&Ms and two Hydroflask mugs. And Nicole and the kids gave me a hori-hori garden knife and a set of copper plant labels for our native plant collection. (Blank labels, but soft copper, so that writing on them leaves a permanent imprint.)

Rachel made honey cake again, as requested, and we enjoyed it with plums and honey topping, and vanilla ice cream. I successfully blew out one candle in the center of the cake. Then, I got to read for just a few minutes, put my bread loaf in the oven, and went upstairs with the boys. Colin and I finished Taran Wanderer. Taran finally found what he had set out looking for, though it was altogether different from what he had expected. Only book five, The High King, remains. Eric was very slow to calm down, so I ended up falling asleep in the sleeping bag next to him, which he had helpfully pulled out, which is why I'm writing this post Friday morning, instead of before bed as usual. I woke up right before midnight and moved to my own bed, after covering Eric with his blanket. The bread stayed in the oven all night. (I always set the oven to turn itself off after the baking interval.) I considered pulling it out, but it seemed that, if anything, it would dry out less inside. This would probably be true if not for the extra heat it was exposed to as the oven cooled down. I'm not sure it was really a win given that.

Before going to bed I looked over photos from my 42nd trip around the sun, but they weren't as compelling as in some years past. However, this one I especially liked, and it doesn't seem to have featured on the blog before. This is me under the "Tree of Life" at Kalaloch, on the coast, after our visit to Olympic National Park at the end of June.