Snapshots from the Week

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On Saturday morning,  I took five green bags of food down to the Berkeley Food Pantry to be weighed and checked in as part of the Berkeley Neighborhood Food Project.

My group--only four of us--gave 51 pounds, mostly cans of tuna, cereal, peanut butter, and macaroni and cheese.  Thank you!

Our next "harvest day" is December 9. 

Good news:  Bill, the director who recently had a heart attack, will be able to return to work.



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Delicious (and easy)

Tried out another friend-contributed recipe.  This one was tangy and tender chicken that paired well with cous cous.  Three nights of dinners! Thank you, Judy!

Bainbridge Island Vineyard Greek Garlic Chicken

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3 heads garlic, minced
1/4 c olive oil
1-2 T black pepper
5 pounds chicken legs (I used 2.5 pounds of boneless chicken thighs and cut other ingredients by half)
1/4 c parsley
1/2 c lemon juice
2-1/2 T dried oregano
3/4-1 T salt

Combine everything but the chicken and parsley; stir well.  Coat the chicken pieces on all sides and arrange single layer cut-side down.  Bake for about 55 min until skin is nicely browned.  For remaining 15 minutes, baste and cover with foil. Baste once more before chicken is done.  (With boneless thighs, it took about 35 minutes) Sprinkle parsley as garnish.

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Thursday was dank, dreary, and drizzling, but about 50 of us showed up at Alumni House at UC Berkeley for a retirement party for Judi Sui, a co-worker of mine 20+ years ago.  God knows how many Graduate Division deans she's worked for, but they'll never find a replacement who's as smart and has such depth and breadth of institutional memory.  Saw people I hadn't seen for years.  We looked older.

Here we are in 1988, at a Graduate Division party for students:




Judi's in the back row, far left. I'm next to her.  Black and red were the theme colors, get it?

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TripAdvisor sent me a luggage tag as a reward for writing 20 reviews.  If I flash this at hotel check-in will I get a better room? (Doubt it.)

                                     







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Alarming new daily habit:  Mint chocolate ice cream at 11:30 am.  I'm getting fatter, and Jerry's getting cranky at the pace with which we're going through a half-gallon. Note small bowl--but sometimes I fill it twice.

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Excellent night reading.  Psychological intrigue at a Catholic girls school in North Carolina. 











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Nerves are shot reading about the presidential race.  Jittery.  Hate Romney.  Shouted three times at the TV last night when he came on.  Don't want to hear any more about Biden being rude.  Romney interrupted Jim Lehrer and Obama many times!

I don't know about change--let's keep him!