And the Fun Just Keeps On Comin’

Blast it! Okay, so I am actually reading one of those books I wrote about. Well, mostly reading. One of the books is done in last year's style and layout and I can't send it out to our freelancers because last year's style had no clear style so I can't give them a checklist of things they should look for. So yea, I get to do this one myself.

Which all in all wouldn't be that terrible except I still have all those other books crossing my desk regularly, and all the other stuff I have to do as part of my regular job. So I've only been finding an hour or so a day to look at this one manuscript. So, diligent worker bee that I am, I brought it home with me this weekend.

But before I get back to doing that, I felt the need to relive vacation days. Here are some pictures from my trip to Idaho.

Along with dad and mom, Bungee was my travel companion.

Can I drive?

Dolly's coloring changed quite a bit since last year.

This was the only time the dogs would hold still for a group picture.
Think they're trying to say something?

All of grandma's hollyhocks were light yellow this year.
I like the way this picture turned out.

We made several stops on the leg between Sandpoint, ID and Anacortes, WA—along the Wenatchee River, at fruit stands, parks, and most importantly, at great-grandma's grave. I don't know that I ever knew great-grandma, but dad lived with her and great-grandpa for several years while growing up. It's not often I see dad so somber, but his deep love and respect for his grandma are clear.

It took me a few minutes to see why this place is called Lincoln Rock State Park.

Along the banks of the Wenatchee River. A very calm and peaceful spot, and other than the smell of rotting salmon from the recent salmon run, completely enjoyable.

I'd forgotten to change the light setting on my camera for outdoors,
but I kind of like the blue tint it gave this twisted stump.

I call this my Bigfoot shot, but it's really dad.
Looks just like Bigfoot, dontcha think? But a lot less hairy.
On the up side, I've gotten better at taking pictures of people in motion.
At least you can tell this is a person!

I really like the way the trees in the shadows framed this shot.

We only stayed a couple nights in Anacortes and spent most of our time at the house visiting with grandpa. I hadn't seen him since my sister's high school graduation 10 years ago. I was seriously impressed by his woodworking shop he has set up in his garage. I didn't know it, but apparently he was a master carpenter before he retired.

Grandpa likes to make birdhouses to keep himself busy.

And the birds think this is swell.

The morning sunshine created some dramatic back lighting on these nasturtiums.

We did head out to the Anacortes Farmers Market one morning.
I liked this crazy, colorful arrangement of flowers.

And I thought this vegetable stand photo turned out nicely.
Though, I may need to photoshop that woman's face out of the frame.

White Rabbit

Things have been pretty hectic around here for the last several weeks and I know I've been neglecting my blogging duties. Most of the time I'm feeling about as harried as the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland; constantly second guessing myself and certain that I'm forgetting something of the utmost importance.

I've been working on print projects at work for the last couple of weeks and my website work has fallen to the wayside. That's just the order of priorities lately. We have a partnership arrangement with another travel guide series and I've taken over managing the series while one of my co-workers is out on maternity leave through the end of the year. And of course all these books started arriving the minute I got back from my trip to Idaho.

Unfortunately, I can't be much more specific than that, partly because—you know—that would be unprofessional and I like my job and would hate to have this blog come back and bite me in the ass, and partly because I pulled a really bone-headed move a couple months back that made it just that much more likely someone I know in publishing might actually end up reading this blog, and that much more likely it could bite me in the ass.

You see, someone submitted a question to a publishing email list I'm on about linking protocols when blogging, and when I saw no one was answering him I decided to reply. I get asked questions about blogging fairly regularly, and I thought this was the email list from my editing class. The one with only 25 or so recipients, so I hit reply all, thinking other people from class might have similar questions.

Oh, but was that what actually happened? Of course not.

Instead of going out to 25 people I at least marginally know and may have exchanged pleasantries with, it turns out this was the Bay Area-wide publishing email list I'm on and my reply went out to over 1,000 people. I not only linked to this blog in my reply, but I also linked to the staff blog at work, which I post to with my real name. Oy. So yeah, anonymity out the window there. Not only that, but because it went out to such a large group, most of whom I've never met or heard of, I'm sure I came off as some supreme know-it-all. Which, of course, I am—but I try to keep it under wraps most of the time.

The moment I realized what I'd done, about 18 hours after the fact, I immediately went through all my posts since I first started blogging 2 years ago and either re-wrote or deleted anything the slightest bit negative about work. Granted there wasn't much (remember, I like my job), but still, that whole bite-me-in-the-ass thing. So anyhow, that's also part of the reason I've been keeping a low profile.

Anyhow, back to what I was saying… So yeah, I've been neck deep in a print project for the last few weeks  and oh my lord, I can't remember the last time I handled this much paper. I've got the papercuts to prove it, too! I'd give you a picture of all my bandages, but the camera battery is dead. (I'll let you image my whimpers of pain when I unthinkingly reached into jar of pickles over the weekend.) Today, alone, I went through 1st and 2nd pages of one manuscript (that'd be 2 copies of the same book), and 1st pages of 4 additional books.

Our publishing partner works with the authors and does most of the developmental and copy editing, handles layout, and is supposed to proof each book before it gets to us. Turns out, they didn't have a clear understanding of what proofing was until 2 weeks ago, so that's been part of the headache with this series.

Once the manuscript comes to us, I go through 1st pages once before sending out to the proofreader. I go through 1st pages again when they come back from the proofreader and check everything they've marked for correction. 1st pages then go to cartography for map updates and then to production. Production makes all the approved changes on 1st pages, then sends the 1st pages back to me with a set of 2nd pages. At that point I go through each set page-by-page and make sure all the marked corrections were made, flag anything that still needs to be addressed, then route the pages back to cartography for them to check. Then back to production they go.

Then 3rd pages come around. Hopefully that's the last set before the manuscript goes off to the printer (we're not at that stage yet, and since I've never been this involved in the process, I have no idea). The printer then runs a set of pages, bluelines, and sends them to us, which lets us see exactly how the book will appear in print. The pages make one more pass by me, cartography, and production. The only changes we make at this point are egregious factual errors that have somehow made it into the book—like the writers consistently misspelling the name of the travel guide series. Ahem. Did I say that? Then thousands of copies of the book are printed.

So how many times do I see each book? At least 6 or 7 times, and it's seen by at least 2 other people 3 to 4 times. Do I ever read it? No, I do not. Because I've got about 16 different books to do this with. Reading the book happens with copyediting, and the publishing partner is supposed to be handling that. That doesn't mean we don't still catch copyediting errors, but we're certainly not looking for them at the proofing stage.

It used to really annoy me when I'd find grammar and punctuation errors when reading for pleasure—and it still does. But now that I've worked in publishing for several years, I totally understand how they slip through. Though I still don't understand how that one book was missing the first 19 or so pages. You'd think someone would notice that.

Anyhow, that's what I've been up to.

In other news, I got my roo's in the mail! Grandma saves the day! They arrived with a hoody knit shirt, a tank top, and the one-and-only sweatshirt that I own. Yea, grandma! In return I sent her money for the postage and a copy of the recipe she had asked for. I made Orzo Zucchini Pasta Salad during our visit and it was a big hit. Though next year I'm stealing a page from my friend Becca's family gathering playbook and making my kalua pig. It never occurred to me to make it for a big group, but it's so super easy. Duh.

I may have pictures to share from vacation, but I don't know yet. (See note regarding dead battery above.)

Scoob and I spent the Labor Day holiday weekend apartment hunting and I've realized the budget I'd set for rent is not realistic and I'm going to have to come up with more money for rent. What really sucks is that our rent will be more than our mortgage. But we have to get out of here. We're trying to think of creative solutions, and we may have found one, but I can't discuss it here because of the bone-headed move mentioned earlier.

At any rate, I think we're going to try and stick it out here until March or so since the housing market typically slows through fall and winter—I do not want to be stuck holding rent and mortgage any longer than absolutely necessary. And it feels like listing the house now is just inviting unnecessary stress.

Also noteworthy, I did some serious shoe shopping over the holiday weekend. I've been told I need to post some pictures… Yeah, dead battery. I know, people. It's on the charger now.

Mysteriously Disappearing Underpants

Dudes. Okay, I'm home again and back to work. And I'm ready to leave again. Except I can't, because I lost nearly all my underoos on this vacation!

I swear I just bought 10 new pairs a few weeks before I left. I was gone for 10 days and packed 7 pairs knowing we'd do laundry somewhere along the way. I came home with 2 pairs.

Dad did a load of laundry while we were at grandma's house in Idaho. And while he thoughtfully folded my clothes, he left them sitting on top of the washer and didn't say anything. And that's where they stayed as we pulled away for our Washington leg of the trip.

I know there are at least 2 pairs in that folded stack, and grandma is mailing them to me along with the shirts that were left behind. But I have no idea what's become of the other 3 pairs.

Honestly, it's like they jumped out of the car during one of our stops along US-2 between Sandpoint, ID and Anacortes, WA. I suspect Bungee was throwing them out the window.

Bungee-boy, trying look all innocent.

Inevitable

I had a nasty surprise the other morning. And living with Madame Barf-O-Matic, it was bound to happen. Inevitable, really. When I climb into bed at night, I usually leave my nightclothes beside the bed, and the first thing I do when I wake up is to put them back on.

I don't think clearly on the best of mornings when I wake up, so imagine my confusion when I pulled on my shorts and discovered they were stiff. I did the "where did I put my keys" pocket-pat dance trying to figure out what was going on. Finally I took them off again to discover that someone had barfed in my shorts.

Thankfully, it had dried. The gross factor was already pretty high, but it would have been really gross if it were still moist. Either way, it was just rude.

I bought a new nail polish color the other day. What do you think?

It amazes me how many people actually pay attention to my feet and commented on the paint job. Unfortunately, I've also been sporting that bandage you see there. When they ask what happened I tell them I slipped and cut myself shaving my hairy troll toes, which is a bald-faced lie because, as you can clearly see, my toes are still hairy.

Scoob got me a present (after some not so subtle hints):

The Black Crowes is my all-time favorite band and unfortunately they're going on hiatus (again) at the end of this tour. Actually my hints to Scoob have been more along the lines of "If you want to get me anything for my 40th birthday, tickets to one of the Black Crowes' San Francisco shows in December would be good. In fact, that's exactly what I want."

Since I began dropping these delicate hints he's rented the Freak n' Roll: Into the Fog DVD of one of their San Francisco concerts, he's purchased the CD from that concert, and now he's purchased the Croweology CD. I know I got rid of about 150 CDs earlier this year, but I kept all my Black Crowes CDs (and a few other choice selections) because I knew if I ever, for some reason, lost the digital copies in iTunes, I would absolutely repurchase this music.

I'm so spoiled. I'm totally blissed out over here listening to my new ear candy and seriously geeking out on the cover art. And now I've got cool new tunes to jam to on my road trip to Idaho!

Leaving on Friday morning, BTW. I can tell you ahead of time because Scoob'll be staying home for this trip. Ten days is just too much time for him to take off from work right now, and we can't leave the furry beasties alone that long and we certainly can't afford to board them for that long. Looks like I'll meet up with my dad and step-mom in Oregon and we'll take one vehicle from there.

Anyhow, things will be extra quiet around here while I'm gone.

White Bean and Artichoke Salad

I've been having a difficult time trying to carve out some time this week to write up the second recipe I tried over the weekend, but it's so worth the wait. I thought for sure Scoob would be beaned-out by now what with the 2 attempts at Green Bean Pesto Salad and this White Bean Salad, but he actually requested some of the leftovers with dinner last night.

White Bean and Artichoke Salad

White Bean and Artichoke Salad

Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups white beans (2–15oz cans, drained and rinsed)

1–14oz can quartered artichoke hearts (I sliced them once more for eighths.)

⅓ cup red bell pepper, diced

⅓ cup yellow bell pepper, diced

¼ cup onion, diced

½ cup celery, diced (1 stalk)

½ cup kalamata olives, sliced (15 or so whole olives)

⅓ cup packed parsley leaves, finely chopped

1 Tbsp finely chopped mint

1 cup packed basil leaves, finely chopped

⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil

⅓ cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine beans, artichoke hearts, red and yellow bell peppers, onion, celery, olives, and herbs in a large bowl. Place olive oil, vinegar, and garlic in a small sealable jar and shake to combine, then pour over the content of the bowl and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.
2. Refrigerate for several hours, or overnight, to let the flavors meld.

I used a combination of a couple recipes I found online as a jumping off point, but knew it wasn't going to be as good as what I got at the Pasta Shop. So I made a couple substitutions and additions and I really like how this turned out just as it is. I don't think I'll change a thing when I make this again.

Speaking of which, now that I've tasted it, I think I'll take this to tomorrow's barbeque instead of the Green Bean Salad. Though both are yummy. Actually, Scoob is a little resentful that I'll be taking the next batch to work. Maybe I'll have to make a double so we'll have some at home too. Either way, I'll need to stop at the store on my way home from work tonight.

Green Bean Pesto Salad

Yum. And I do mean YUM! I made this twice this past week and I still want more. Then again, I may be biased seeing as how green beans are my all-time favorite veggie. But even Scoob, who has repeatedly declared he does not like pesto, has given this the Scoob Seal of Approval.

I found I was able to make the pesto without busting out the food processor by using an immersion blender, which means not only is this painless to make, but clean up is a breeze as well. And other than bringing a pot of water to boil for blanching the beans, there's no cooking involved, so I'm filing this in the "It's Too Damn Hot to Cook" file.

I'm debating making this for a company barbeque on Thursday. What do you think?

Green Bean Pesto Salad

Green Bean Pesto Salad

Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 pound of fresh green beans, stem ends trimmed

1 small clove of garlic, peeled

1½ cups packed basil leaves

½ cup packed flat parsley leaves

juice and zest from 1 lemon

6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

¼–½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

⅓ cup sliced, toasted almonds

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. While bringing water to boil in a stockpot or large sauce pan, fill a large bowl with ice and cold water, trim the green beans, and place garlic, basil, parsley, lemon juice and zest, and olive oil in a food processor and blend for about 1 minute, or until pesto is smooth but slightly thick.
2. Add Parmesan cheese and blend another 15–30 seconds. The pesto should be thick, but not stiff. If needed, add olive oil to thin it out
3. Add green beans to boiling water and cook until bright green and crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and transfer immediately to the ice bath for about 2 minutes, then drain again.
4. Place green beans, pesto, and almonds in a large bowl and toss to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Can be served at room temperature or chilled.

Mad Libs

I spotted this sign while walking to my car after work:

 It makes an odd sort of sense just as it is, I mean of course any vehicle is going to be at the vehicle owner's expense. But it seems like something's missing.

My vote is for tickled. Unauthorized vehicles should be tickled at vehicle owners expense.