Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

cattitude and I went to the Bellevue Farmers' Market this morning. One of the vendors sells salmon: fresh, Indian-style smoked, or lox, and they identify the kind of salmon they started with. We were chatting with them in the course of buying some sockeye lox, and cattitude observed that a lot of people around here don't know what lox is.

Woman standing nearby: How can people not know what lox is?
Me: A lot of people think lox just means smoked salmon.
Her: Doesn't it?

I told her that lox is brine-cured, and what she's thinking of is smoked salmon, sometimes called Nova Scotia salmon or novy. Then, looking at her expression, assured her that "smoked salmon" would get her what she wanted. She then said that the Union Square market* is overwhelming, and I agreed that it can be, adding that I like it, but that when we lived in New York I mostly used the smaller Greenmarket in my neighborhood, though I have schlepped apples home on the subway.

*The market in Union Square is the oldest and largest of the New York City Greenmarkets**, which get New Yorkers fresh produce and other good things, and help people keep farming in the NYC area. Wednesday and Saturday are particularly good.

**Greenmarket is a trademark, created because "farmers market" was being used to just mean any greengrocer, and they wanted to identify that these stands were actually run by the farmers—and, later, fishers and bakers. There's really good salmon here in the Seattle area, but I miss the variety of fish, and the fresh blue crabs. (And I still have to work to not say "greenmarket" for the market here in Bellevue, or the one in Harvard Square, which are the same kind of market but not through the same organization.)

adrian_turtle is visiting for a few days. Yesterday she, cattitude and I went to the Chihuly Glass Garden in Seattle Center, and had a nice time looking at Chihuly's glass sculptures. Much of the display is indoors, including a very colorful ceiling; the garden part is very well done, with the plantings well matched to the glass sculpture.

Adrian has also discovered that our cats actually understand and will obey a firm "no!" I suspect this is because (according to their paperwork) they used to live in the same household as a dog. Whatever the reason, it is already making our lives easier, because we're spending significantly less energy keeping them out of closets.

alanro and his partner Jeanne are in town for the weekend, staying with Loren and Lauryn. Alan suggested that cattitude and I could take the bus down to Burien and we could all go for a walk along Puget Sound. That sounded like a good idea, so we went down there yesterday afternoon.

It was a nice spring day (I know, but this has been the warmest winter on record here), with lots of cherry blossoms visible along the way. We went to a park near Lauryn and Loren's home, looked at the waves rolling in, and picked up rocks and shells. Mostly we looked at them, and got Jeanne to identify some, then put them back. I put three small stones and one shell (with a barnacle living on it) in my pocket.

Visiting Lauryn and Loren meant we got to spend some time with their cats, which was good. There was also assorted conversation, tea, and eventually dinner at a good Greek restaurant near their home. Unfortunately, I seem to have discovered a food allergy, fsvo "food": my hosts don't keep regular sugar in their house, and Lauryn offered me an artificial sweetener, Truvia, which is a mixture of sugar, stevia, and erythritol. I noticed shortly after finishing my tea that my tongue was itching; I asked for a Benadryl, which took care of the problem. At the time I thought "I haven't eaten anything new today," thinking of the tea as black tea, ginger, and cinnamon, forgetting the sweetener. Both Lauryn and I thought of the sweetener as the likely suspect a while later. I'm not sure the erythritol was the problem, but it seems probable (I've eaten actual stevia leaf without a problem); fortunately, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid (I took yesterday's last cup of tea black, which was fine).

cattitude made a big batch of split pea soup a few days ago, and we asked Scraps if he'd like some, since he'd previously mentioned liking split pea soup. He sent back an enthusiastic yes, so today Cattitude and I took him a quart container of soup.

We stopped off in Chinatown for lunch first, at Ping's Dumpling House, because I wanted Cattitude to try it and he hadn't had soup dumplings since we left New York. Those were good, and the pot stickers were unusual and quite tasty: ten fried dumplings, with an unexpected crisp pancake on top, connecting them all. (When the waiter brought them over, I thought he'd gotten confused and brought us someone else's order.)

We spent about three hours with Scraps, talking; he seemed quite a bit more cheerful than on my previous visit, which is good. I think he'd have been happy for us to stay longer, but I was getting a bit tired, and wanted to get home with enough energy to make dinner. About half an hour ago, Scraps sent us email thanking us for "lovely, thick, tasty pea soup."

ETA: If anyond is looking for soup dumplings in Minneapolis, cakmpls recommends Szechuan Spice, just south of Lake on Lyndale.

I went to hand out with some people in Seattle yesterday afternoon; that was fine but not exciting, though I was amused by how many people looked at my drink and asked what it was (a raspberry Italian soda, with cream, which was deep pink and opaque).

The bus trip home was annoying. First, I had a long wait for a bus (based on the posted schedule, I think one bus was canceled, so I waited 40 minutes for a bus that should have been there five minutes after I got to the bus tunnel). That was irritating mostly because I wanted to get home and start working on dinner; my role was to dismantle the crab, so cattitude could then make crabcakes. I talked a bit with a group of tourists, who'd started by asking whether this was the right place for the 550, and mostly chatted with each other, and played a game on my phone.

So, the bus eventually came, I sat down, and as we went through the tunnel it filled up. The man who'd sat down next to me started by asking "are you Jewish?" I said "no" on the grounds that I didn't want to discuss that, or anything, with him. He then asked the tourists to keep their voices down, which they did, after a bit of "what's your issue?" between him and someone sitting in the row in front of us.

Then we got outdoors, and I called Cattitude to let him know that I was finally on a bus (I had expected to be home by then). Man next to me said "was that English?" which I ignored completely. Having had one maybe-plausible and one iffy attempt to start a conversation fail, he then asked me about the area code of my cell phone. That got me to say "I don't want to chat, just like you don't want to listen to those people."

PSA that nobody who needs it will listen to: when a stranger says she doesn't want to talk to you, that isn't an invitation to discuss why she doesn't want to talk to you. I repeated "I don't want to chat" and when that didn't quiet him, a louder "I said I don't want to chat, that includes about why I don't want to chat."

He persevered. I said, again loudly, "Either be quiet or let me up" (since he had the aisle seat). He said something like "OK, get up" but made no immediate move to let me up. The person behind me told him to respect me. I got up and walked backward on the bus, figuring I would much rather stand than be near this rude, possibly drunk man. To my surprise, someone offered me a seat, which I accepted. Meanwhile, the man behind me called to the driver "Driver, we have a harasser back here!" which led the man who had been hassling me to say something like "no, you're harassing me." After a minute, the driver basically told him to behave or he would be off at the next stop. (We were on the I-90 bridge over Lake Washington, not a place the driver can pull over and kick someone off.)

Mr. Rude had moved to the window seat after I got up; to my surprise, another woman sat down and started talking to him, and they had a quiet conversation.

Then we got to the next stop, started to pull away, and Drunk Number 2, at the back of the bus, demanded that the driver let him off. So the driver stopped the bus again and said "get out" and Drunk No. 2 stopped to shout something like "Do you think I don't want to fucking get off?" and took his time getting up and out of the bus.

Someone who'd been sitting near him called forward "you don't get paid enough!" The driver said "What?" and I said "She said you don't get paid enough." The driver told us he'd already had two incidents today, and that if we were pleased with him, please tell Sound Transit. I took down the bus number so I can do that. He said a few cheerful things about the Seahawks, which got laughter, and the rest of the ride was basically quiet.

I got home, asked Cattitude for a hug, washed my hands, and proceeded to bash a cooked Dungeness crab with a rock. This is my normal process—I have a round probable-geode that is just the right size for my hand—but I don't usually take as much satisfaction in the smashing.

Follow-up 12/23: I sent the bus company a comment on the driver the day after I posted this. This morning, I got email from King County Metro Transit this morning, saying "A commendation has been generated in your name and sent to the Driver’s Supervisor. Your commendation will become a part of the driver’s permanent record."

cattitude went to the Woodland Park Zoo this afternoon. After getting our new membership cards (he'd renewed online, but the cards are distributed in person, not mailed), we wandered around a bit. This visit we looked at two kinds of otters, both playing outside, though the North American otters were napping on our first stop; we checked again on our way out and they were very active and playful, in the water, and on land.

Other cool things included the two-toed sloth (which, unlike the three-toed sloth at the Montreal Biodome, is in a small enclosure and not at all difficult to find), an anteater (in a hole in a tree in the same exhibit), and the Komodo dragons. The zoo has one large dragon and two young (born in another zoo in spring 2013), which are being kept in a separate enclosure, possibly to protect them from the adult.

Quite a few of the animals were napping, because it was a warm, sunny afternoon; not too hot for my comfort, though I agreed about the appeal of the shade. We made this a relatively short trip, because my foot started to hurt after a while. One advantage of a membership is that it's easier not to mind the things I don't see on a given visit.

I was supposed to have lunch with wild_irises. She never showed, and I was a little annoyed and a little worried, but calmer than I would have expected; I eventually came home to an email asking where I was, and saying she was worried but not annoyed. It seems as though the location she sent me in email and the location she put in her calendar were different, so we each spent a while waiting in a different place.

After I'd waited for about half an hour I ordered and ate some lunch, at that point still hoping wild_irises was just running late. (It was edible, but not good enough that I'll be going back, though the staff were nice.) After lunch I went to the University Bookstore to look at their stationery section, which someone had recommended. (Books later.) I got a few pens and a bright green eraser; they have the kind of pens I like, in individual bins so I can get my choice of colors, and in multiple thicknesses. (The selection is actually better than at the store I used to buy them at in New York.)

I got some tea, and then a bus downtown to Pike Place Market. The woman sitting across from me on the bus hesitantly asked me if I knew how to get to… and then showed me her phone, with "Pike Place Market" in the roman alphabet above an entire page of what I think was Chinese. I told her "that's where I'm going, I'll show you." So, we got out at Westlake Center tunnel station, which I think looked vaguely familiar to her: she asked where to get the "subway" to the airport. I explained that she would get it on the platform we were standing on right then, and then showed her where to get a ticket for the light rail. We went upstairs and walked down Pine Street together, and when we got to where we could see Puget Sound, she asked me to take her picture. I tried, but the images came out shaky, so she asked someone else to take a picture of both of us standing with the "Pike Place Market" sign visible behind us, and then one of just her.

I then wished her a good day and walked happily downhill to the market. I'm not sure quite why a friendly tourist in need of directions was so good for my mood, but she was. (The sunlight and caffeine also helped, of course.)

I came home with the chocolate covered cherries that I went to Pike Place Market for, and an unexpected pound and a half of fresh peas, the first I've seen this season.

( I also worked out this morning )

I went to the University District Farmers' Market today, getting there around noon. I came home with cherries, radishes, tomatoes, and apple strudel, and bought and ate a salmon slider for (part of) lunch. I saw another shopper carrying strawberries, and asked where he'd gotten them; he told me, but warned that they might be all gone, which they were. Still, the cherries were more than I'd been hoping for. (There were lots of other vegetables, and a lot of meat and fish, but I didn't want to risk carrying the meat and fish around for an hour and a half or more on such a nice warm day.)

The bus from here to the U District was rerouted because the 520 bridge is closed (again) this weekend. On the way over, that made little difference to me, though a couple of passengers jumped off suddenly when the driver announced that the next stop after the Bellevue Transit Center was going to be in the U District. By the time I was coming back east, there was a lot of traffic (closing one of two bridges across the lake will do that) and a slow trip.

I looked out the bus window while we were headed south on I-5 and saw a swath of cloud in gorgeous green and red. The color shifted toward the orange, faded, then came back again. I think this was a circumhorizontal arc, though not as complete as the one shown on the Astronomy Picture of the Day a week ago. (I looked at that day's APOD, read the copy, and guessed that I'd be unlikely to see one this far north; sometimes it's pleasant to have been mistaken.)

Here's a cell phone photo of the cloud and a tree, cropped but not otherwise altered:

I went into the city today to buy Jo Walton's new book, My Real Children, at my not-quite-local independent bookstore, Elliott Bay Books. (If I have a genuinely local one, I haven't found it.) But first I went to the library to return a book.

( cut for length, description of cheerful semi-random wandering )

cattitude and I went to the Burke Museum of Natural History today. It's a nice little museum, with some pretty fossils, a good exhibit on the geology of the area and how it developed over time (which includes some of those fossils), and some nice anthropological and cultural material, old and recent. I was surprised and pleased by some Clovis points that were found in Washington state in the 1980s, and a little disappointed by the display of a baleen whale fossil: the description makes it sound like the type specimen for its species, but doesn't actually give the species name.

I hadn't expected to be able to see almost everything in a couple of hours (with more energy I'd have taken a more thorough look at the temporary exhibit on Pacific cultures); we'll likely go back at some point, when there's a special exhibit that seems worth it, but won't be joining the museum.

We walked back to the bus through another bit of the UW campus; lots of things are in bloom right now, including what we think was a kind of violet, along with lots of cherries, daffodils, etc. We also saw a patch of shamrock, which I wasn't expecting.

Lunch before the museum was at an Indian restaurant called Shalimar on University Way, selected semi-randomly as we walked past because the posted menu looked interesting and I appreciated that they have a menu posted outside. My goat biryani was excellent roast goat in a bed of caramelized onions and rice that was about as spicy as I can handle (which, admittedly, isn't very, but when she asked about spice levels I said "I need it mild"). Cattitude's fish kurma struck me as overly sweet, and the chai was only okay, but he quite liked the pickle, and I may go back if I'm in the U District and in the mood for goat.