New Orleans

I spent the past week in New Orleans at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Wendy and Erin (two librarians from Utah State University) and I did a panel presentation on information literacy instruction in the composition/writing classroom. The presentation went really well, but that wasn't the best part of the trip. My favorite part of New Orleans is the food.

I ate beignets at Cafe du Monde, fried catfish at a little diner, and had two outstanding and enormous dinners: one at Nola (one of Emeril's restaurants) and one at August (contemporary French). Nola and August are the two fanciest restaurants in which this small-town Idaho girl has ever eaten. At Nola we had an amazing four-course meal: an unreal cheese plate, rare tuna, steak, asparagus, (and more) with a banana pudding layer cake for dessert. I could barely walk back to the hotel. The cheese plate was, perhaps, the best part: french bread, goat cheese, apple slices, honey, grapes, and walnuts. Simple ingredients, but when put all together I had a moment like the one on Ratatouille where Remy (the rat) tastes different foods together, the background fades out, and swirls of color circle around his head. The combination of tastes was almost overwhelming. August was equally amazing, but I couldn't handle four whole courses two nights in a row. The highlight of the dining experience at August was an appetizer of gnocchi with blue crab and truffles. It was delicious.

Here are a few of the sights in warm and tropical New Orleans:


They have lilacs in New Orleans in the first week of April! It's a beautiful and exciting city. Things are still being rebuilt -- Erin and I walked all over the French Quarter and saw construction and repairs happening everywhere we looked. I'd love to go there again -- and this time I'd take Michael with me. :)

The Producers

For those of you who don't know me well, let me explain: I love musicals. I grew up watching The Sound of Music, Camelot, Fiddler on the Roof, and Cinderella (the Rodgers and Hammerstein version, not Disney). Some of my best childhood memories are times that I went to high school musicals at PHS with my mom. As a preteen and a teenager I lived to be on-stage and I was in The Sound of Music, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Annie, The Music Man, and The King and I (among others) in community and high school theatre productions. Mike is learning to appreciate the wide variety of show tunes that I sing to him in the shower, in the car, and in the kitchen. We've seen quite a few musicals together, both live and on film, and he's really coming around. Last night, however, his budding enthusiasm for the genre may have been dampered as we saw a so-so touring production of a not-very-interesting musical, The Producers. (See here for a plot synopsis.) Wikipedia explains the popularity of the musical (of which there are two film versions) like this: "The humor of the show is accessible to a wide range of audiences, and draws on ridiculous accents, caricatures of homosexuals and Nazis, and many show business in-jokes." That pretty much says it all. Basically, this musical appeals to the lowest-common-denominator humor-wise and made both Michael and me roll our eyes repeatedly. I'll avoid total snobbery and admit that we both laughed several times, as well, so the show was not a total bust.

We saw the show at the Assembly Hall on campus, where the Fighting Illini play basketball. They do a lot of shows (both concerts and plays) there as well, but it's not a totally successful musical venue. Basketball court acoustics are not so good. The Assembly Hall is a pretty cool building, though. I always think it looks like a giant UFO.

Praise to the Man

This is a photograph of the statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in front of Carthage Jail, Carthage, Illinois, where the two brothers were shot and killed in June 1844. Melissa and I took a road trip to visit Carthage and Nauvoo, IL on Friday this week. Now, I know that many members of the LDS Church tend to have very spiritual experiences visiting the site where the Church's founder was killed. Melissa and I witnessed a group of people having such a special experience this week.

Our tour guide in Carthage informed us that an extended family of 30 people was touring the jail just then. Members of this family had flown from California to New York, purchased an old white school bus, and were traveling across the country retracing the steps of the early Mormons. I thought to myself, "Wow, they bought a big bus. That's commitment." For the next little while, I didn't think too much else about this family. Melissa and I took the tour and thought about what the conditions were like at the time Joseph and Hyrum were killed, contemplating how people reacted to the event.

After finishing the tour, we walked outside to behold a strange sight. About two dozen people were gathered around the above-pictured statue, arms linked, singing the hymn "Praise to the Man." Oh yes, that family was committed.

The Whirly Pop

Every Sunday night we have popcorn for dinner -- it's become a tradition. We use the Whirly Pop (a bridal shower gift from one R.T.L.) and I love it!

1. The Whirly Pop makes healthy popcorn -- just 1 tsp of oil and you can pop as much corn as you like. (Then, of course we add butter and salt.)
2. Cheap popcorn. We have this bag of popcorn in the fridge that's been there since we moved. We use a quarter of a cup each time we pop. That bag (a year's supply) cost about as much as a 3-pack of microwave popcorn.
3. No unpopped kernels! Or at least very few. In tonight's batch -- just six left unpopped! And the rest was perfect. Yummy. What a great dinner.
   

What I've been reading: One of my professors has recommended several books that I've tried. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson was an awesome sci-fi flavored novel about a marketing consultant obsessed with tracking down the story behind some "footage" released on the web. The other novel by Gibson that the professor recommended, Neuromancer, I couldn't get into at all and quit after the first 60 pages -- too sci-fi techie for me. Also, The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century -- kind of a dry read. Now I'm finishing Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, a cultural biography of Mormonism's founder and a very interesting read, and I just started on Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and I'm very enthused by the first bit of The Golden Compass, which I started last night.

Unofficial St. Patrick's Day

One of the biggest University of Illinois events of the year took place on Friday and Saturday: Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. This event was started by a bar owner in town many years ago. Somehow he got permission from the city council to open his bars at 11:00 a.m. for two days and invite students to "Drink 'til you're Irish." Now, students come from many other campuses, students skip class on Friday, and lines at bars on campus stretch down the street (yes, my Utah friends, there are bars on campus).

Some of the green t-shirts that I saw this weekend express the sentiment of the holiday: "Irish I were drunk," "Unofficially Wasted," etc.

From the school newspaper, The Daily Illini:

• Forty-seven citations have been issued as of 7:30 p.m. Friday for underage drinking or possession of alcohol
• 150 vehicles have been taken into possession

I'm not a big fan of this so-called "holiday."

What I've been reading: Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott. These books charmed me when I read them as a 10-year-old; this month my book club read Eight Cousins and I understand why I loved them so much as a kid. There's a definite feminist sensibility in the story of Rose Campbell -- the main thrust of the story is that she is transformed from an ultra-feminine, sickly little girl into a tomboyish, strong, healthy young woman. Even though it's a bit dated (1874) and a bit moralistic, I'd recommend it to any 10-15 year old girl.

Homemaking Edition

Last Monday, knowing that we had a heinously busy week ahead of us, Michael and I made a giant pot of clam chowder and a full batch of Mom's famous rolls. And we ate this food ALL week: Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday lunch. We didn't even get sick of it, so I'm sharing the recipes here.

Christmas Eve Clam Chowder
2 6.5 oz cans minced clams
1 cup finely diced onions
1 cup finely diced celery
2 cups diced potatoes
1/2 cup butter (that's why this chowder is SO good!)
3/4 cup flour mixed with water (for thickening)
1 quart half and half (the other reason this chowder is delicious)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
Drain juice from clams and pour over vegetables. Add enough water to cover vegetables. Simmer covered over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add cream and butter and heat thoroughly. Add thickening and cook until thick. Add clams.

2 hour butter rolls (makes 3 dozen)
Sift into mixing bowl: 4 cups flour (I like half white/half wheat), 1 tsp salt, 4 Tbsp sugar
Soak 4 tsp yeast in 1/4 cup warm water
Beat slightly 2 eggs
Scald 1 1/2 cups of milk (heat to 150 degrees F) add 1/3 cup butter. Cool.
Add all ingredients together. Beat until smooth. Cover and let rise until double. Roll out to desired rolls, let rise again. Bake at 375-400 degrees for 20 minutes.

This week was heinous because of my work schedule. I was giving library instruction sessions to graduate students: how to use library databases, how to keep track of your resources, how to conduct online searches, etc. I really enjoy teaching and the classes went well. These were evening workshops (6-8 pm), plus I worked at the reference desk one evening, so on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Mike and I were on campus from 8 am to 8 pm. We survived, and the week ahead should be easier.

Friday night we babysat for some friends in the branch while they went out on their first date since . . . they're not sure when. We had a good time with their three little kids.

Speaking of kids, some other friends of ours are expecting a baby. This is the cute little project I've been working on for that little one:

This picture is sort of dark, but you can get the idea. It's for a 3-6 month old -- a yellow cabled jumper. I'm going to get a little white top and tights to go with it. There's just a little more finishing I have to do: neckband, armbands, and buttons.

Lest you think that all we do around here is cook, knit, and babysit -- last night we went to a performance on campus of the Vagina Monologues. We saw the Vagina Monologues last February in Salt Lake City and decided it needed to be a family tradition for us. Last night's performance was great -- very moving, very entertaining. It almost made me think I ought to audition for the show next year. We'll see.

Tonight we're staying in, checking on the Oscars webcast occasionally, and praying for spring to come soon.

Yes We Can

This is a music video by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas inspired by Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. I think it's inspiring and I know we're all hoping for great things for the U.S.



It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.



Celebrities featured include: Jesse Dylan, Will.i.am, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon