Raspbarb crisp

We had Mom's group last night. I bring the dessert. I mulled my options: a Swedish cream cheese coffeecake that Kris had posted the recipe for yesterday? A Mont Blanc? This is riced  sweetened chestnut puree heaped over a mound of whipped cream. I used to eat this tasty dish at a Hungarian restaurant on the Upper East side (alas closed). I also had it in Bern, Switzerland of all places where they called it Vermicelli (Italian for little worms). I just had to hydrate some dried chestnuts and whip some cream but...my energy level was low. Plus where is that ricer anyway.

So I bought a raspberry-rhubarb crisp and ice cream. Am I lazy or what? But it was an interesting combination.

The hosting mom lives out in the country on a dirt road. We are in the middle of the big thaw. To avoid a mile or so on  a badly pitted road, I ended up going 3 miles on the road from hell full of tire deep mud pots ( I was lost). If we resume our house hunting, paved roads will be a top priority. But it was fun. Our friend recently returned from a trip to Morocco and Spain. She is a gifted photographer. Alas, no photos to share but she had some very elaborate Spanish Christmas light displays, much different than seen in the US.
From the web:

Miracle Babies

These little girls were born yesterday weighing 4#10oz and 4#9oz. They were due April first  but twins generally come 3 weeks early  Their mom, my fellow yogi, has Stage 4 breast cancer. Not long after I met her, she shared that she was expecting twins. Seeing my shocked face (I knew about thee BC) she added that a surrogate was carrying them. When she was first diagnosed, she was told that chemo would probably destroy the baby making so she was able to 'harvest' some embryos before it began.

They do look precious.

Why are kids getting more allergies?

To avoid allergies, parents (up to now) have been told not to introduce highly allergenic foods such as peanuts, eggs soy and fish until 3 (eggs can be introduced at 2). But has this advice been working? Are less kids developing allergies? No!!!
A group finally tested whether this advice was sound. Jewish babies in Israel eat peanut products commonly before 6 months of age compared to Jewish babies in England who aren't exposed until much later. Which group exhibited the most peanut allergies? The group who wasn't exposed until later.
Suddenly the thinking is that maybe if a kids is exposed early, the body won't react as if it is a foreign substance when they are exposed to it later. Other factors may be in play. For instance the increased number of immunizations a child gets now might super sensitize his immune system.

Still the authors caution avoidance of potential allergens to high risk groups. Who would those be? Siblings of super sensitive kids and/or kids with eczema.

As a child, I knew no  one with a peanut allergy. I live with a woman with a severe sesame allergy though.
These are the allergies I have: sulfonamides, super sensitivity to poison ivy, nickel (contact) and a mild cat allergy.
What Steve has: none
What Shanna has: sulfonamides,  rabbit, cat and guinea pig dander and  probably dust
What Josh has: cat dander and spring pollen
What Naomi has: none
What Ramy has: none
What Oliver has: Pistachios
What Daniel has: All nuts, peanuts, soy, dog spit, egg whites. Excepting for the dog spit, it is hard to avoid a lot of this though fortunately his reactions are mild. He had fairly bad eczema as a baby
What Tess has: Nothing so far but she has not been exposed to much. Fortunately she does not have the scaly skin patches.
What Maya has: No allergies.

Growing backwards

Today would have been my mom's 86th birthday if she hadn't died of Alzheimer's disease (AD) more than 5 years ago. AD is known as the Long  Goodbye. Abilities slowly fade away until the person can not do anything. It is childhood in reverse. Instead of gaining new skills, one loses them. I always tried to figure what level my mom was at. When she came to live with me in 2003 while I was trying to place her in a nursing home, she spoke as a 3 year old. She could no longer do puzzles, not even ones designed for 3 year olds. She could identify letters but could not read or sign her name. The most advanced skill she had was that she could tie her shoes.A year later, she could not speak at all except to say yes. Ultimately, she lost the ability to swallow. Even a 7 month  preemie could do that. Or maybe she just refused to swallow. It was not clear.

Recently my older aunt sent me a packet of my mom's letters dating from 1999. The ones from that year and the next year seemed like my old mom. Starting in 2001, she is forgetting words and grammar.

There are a lot of cars. I had a problem to make a left. The cars kept coming. I had my foot stopped and tried to move. I am still bumpy.


Sept 2002
 should tell you for the shoes and the powder. HR won't let me to anything. (HR is my father)

May 2002
I do a lot of working on the lawn. Always doing something. Its the best I can to do maybe. I'll get out of the JAIL.

Feb 2003
How are things going. Not much. I do all the work. I spent the days. HR didn't like what I would do. You have very nice and I have all the ones have.

April 2003
We had ICE and it a lot lost there for a home It had to get it back . I am confusing. I have put the dishwasher in 4 times.

Her later letters were written on scraps of paper like on the backs of flyers she received in the mail. Maybe she couldn't find her stationery. She stopped writing in April 2003. She could no longer take money out of the bank because her signature would not match the one on file. Around April, she could no longer balance her checkbook. In September of 2003, my father needed to hospitalized and I took her to my house as she could not be by herself. I had taken her out for a day in August and she still seemed like she could be left alone but in a month's time, she went downhill fast. I was working at the time. I found out I couldn't leave her for a minute. She'd turn on the stove after putting paper on it. She'd wander around at night. Very stressful. My father didn't want her in a home because he didn't want to pay for it. I eventually convinced him that she'd burn the house down. With his mobility issues, he would be burnt alive.

Glory be! The big snowstorm missed us! Poor Maya is sick throwing up and is lethargic. Finally she is getting better.

Life in the Fly- over Zone

There seems to be an attitude that intellectual life only exists on the coasts; the middle of the country is just one big wasteland. I read reviews of promising movies in national publications but somehow these movies just don't make it here to the heartland. Steve previously worked in NJ. When he and his co-workers were told that they would be transferred here (gasp!), some reacted as if they were being exiled to the ends of the earth.

During the recession of 2008, our governor proposed a deal: if film producers would shoot their movies in Michigan, the state would pick up half of the production costs. In return, hopefully Michigan would have a new industry. New jobs ( though temporary) would be created and there would be a trickle down effect to help our flagging economy recover. I suppose the positive effects were impossible to measure but the negative effects were not. The new governor said this was a money losing scheme and ended it.

But the upshot was that many movies were filmed in Michigan, a lot in Ann Arbor alone. Some even in my neighborhood. Of course Ann Arbor was the most insulated from the recession: other parts of the state would have benefited more from our new industry yet they had to pay for Ann Arbor's windfall (how ever big that was). In chemistry we had something called the Markownikoff Rule when determining how HX adds across a terminal double bond. It is this (also known as St. Matthew's rule) Them that has the most, gits. In chemistry, the carbon with the most Hs, gets the additional H. Yet another example that life is unfair.

So I imagine the thinking behind the movie producers. It would make sense to go to Michigan but Yuck! What part of the state would be the least painful to tolerate for the few months' duration? Ann Arbor of course. Our little island of enlightenment  An island of brie eaters surrounded by Velveeta (liquid gold?)eaters. The Harvard of the MidWest!

During our blizzard of last week, I watched one of the products of this experiment: The Five Year Engagement.  A promising San Francisco chef sends himself into exile to Ann Arbor to appease his fiancee. Of course, no one would pay more than $8/ hour for his skills since in this wasteland, that is what we pay fry cooks. No concept of gourmet eating here! To get along with his new friends, he finds he has to embrace deer hunting because that is all we do in the MidWest. Lots of scenes of deer slaughter (fake thankfully), in the spring no less! (we do have a season for this, no leaves are on the trees then). Nevermind that his character is Jewish (observant Jews leave hunting to the blood thirsty goyim) but maybe that was part of the big sacrifice he had to make finding himself in God-forsaken Ann Arbor. Lots of snow shots! He makes his escape back to San Francisco where all is great! His fiancee finally realizes just how awful soul sucking Ann Arbor is, and joins him for a happy ending in Alamo Park (the last part of San Francisco I visited on our recent trip. It is pretty).

Where would you rather live? Our street last week.

Or around Alamo Park. This was taken in Novemeber

Well they are right about the winter. Not fun. I read something today that we had one of the snowiest Februarys on record. Need to plan an escape....

My grandbaby is the size of a kumquat

S/he has gone from poppyseed to apple seed to olive. I really don't think s/he is as big as a kumquat but that's the yardstick I found online. Last week the baby measured in at an inch at 9.5 weeks.

Painting in class

Josh's house. Since I've been there, they put up siding, floors, lighting, the granite. Should be done in a few weeks

Shanna's house now has most of a roof

I've not been on this blog much lately. Too busy celebrating Triple Negative Breast Cancer day (yesterday)?
No just been busy with grandbabies. I took Maya to class today  as her mother has a task early in the morning to perform for the next week and a half. Maya is making good progress. She sings along now to the songs they have. Still a year behind in language though.

We did have a 'family dinner' here last night. Once those houses pictured above are finished, maybe I won't be the only one cooking.. One of the dishes I made was with shaved brussel sprouts. Fry them up with some bacon, shallots, garlic and add some balsamic vinegar...Yum. But it was nice having all the kids and grandkids together though we were missing Ramy who seems to be working around the clock.
Julie is very excited about her baby-to-be.

Off to Happy Hour with a friend!

The Draw-a-Man test

This is a picture that Shanna drew of a person not long after her 4th birthday and a full year before she entered kindergarten

I had a friend whose job was to screen children for kindergarten readiness. A quick screening tool is to ask  them to draw themselves or a man. The drawing should have a body, head, arms and legs. All other body parts are optional. This is not a test of artistic ability but rather that of perception. Shanna drew the elbows as lumps on the arms. She has the correct number of fingers. I am not sure what the lumps in the neck are. Shoulders? If the kid draws legs coming out of the head, maybe they are just not mature enough.

Shanna seemed to pass all these tests with flying colors more than a year before school started. One of the tests is seeing if a child could correctly identify 6 colors. Sounds easy right? Josh could not do it. He knew the names of colors but could not match them up. No he was not colorblind, just totally uninterested in color. I am not sure if he could draw a person because he would not sit still enough to do it. He signed things with a backward "J'.

Naomi had lots of artistic talent and her pictures were  quite elaborate. She seemed ready for kindergarten. She could even read. But as it turns out, she had a well hidden disability which did not surface until second grade. After much testing, it was decided that she had some sort of language processing disorder. She has an inability to make inferences. This has very much negatively impacted her life. How do you treat it? The 'experts' didn't know.

February is finally gone though March right now isn't much warmer. I am so ready for spring!