Sleeping Dragons and Bike Race

Here are some pictures from Saturday's Galisteo road race. Galisteo is sortof between here and Santa Fe, but a bit to the east.

I biked out a few miles into the stiff headwind, and chose my picnic/picture taking spot for the topography.

Sleeping dragons south of Galisteo.

Chad's the goodlooking, smiley guy in the middle with the yellow cap under his helmet.

What Saul failed to mention

Thanks, everybody, for the comments and prayers! More injections today (Wednesday). They made me sick for a couple of days last time, so I'll likely be mostly out of the game for a little while.

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"Saul's uncle said, 'Please tell me what Samuel said to you.' So Saul said to his uncle, 'He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found.' But he did not tell him about the matter of the kingdom which Samuel had mentioned."

--I Samuel 10: 15-16

So as not to be guilty of failing to say what's been most on our minds recently, I'll just mention that Chad and I are recovering now from an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. Almost from when I first found out that I was pregnant, the doctor didn't like the way my hormone levels were behaving, and a week ago Monday we found out for sure that it was ectopic. A baby implanted in the fallopian tube can't survive, and eventually it will cause the tube to rupture, so I had to get injections to make me miscarry. This was sad for us, but we're thanking God that it was caught early, and also that Chad's mom and dad and his sister and her two girls were all here last week to help us through. They took care of me and distracted me, and it was very good.

Here are a few pictures from their visit:

Blowing big bubbles at Explora in downtown Albuquerque.

Milkshakes and green-chile-bleu-cheesburgers at the Route 66 Malt Shop.

Kickin' it at home.

Coming soon: Chad's blog debut. He's got lots to say if you can get him talking.

History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides' history of the war between Athens and the Peloponnesians (led by Sparta) really picked up in the middle part (when I started figuring out which cities were on what side) and kept my interest to the end. Well, not the end exactly because the translator/editor of the edition I checked out, Sir Richard Livingstone (1880-1960), cuts off the last book with a note that it's unrevised and the "least interesting part." I'm grateful to Sir Richard, since this way I could put down the book still liking Thucydides.

Th sets up the major decisions made by each side during the war (431–404 BC) by pitting two orators against each other -- one honest and reasonable and pretty obviously right, and the other some combination of self-serving politician/ hardened pragmatist/clever villain. Th is reconstructing these speeches from memory or from hearsay, so he can make the side he agrees with sound right; but he does it so well that I don't blame him for it.

One of my favorite villains is Alcibades. When we first meet him, he tells the assembly at Athens that he's worthy of a command in the army and his advice should be taken seriously because he represented Athens in the Olympic games with seven chariots, "a number never before entered by any private person," and won 1st, 2nd and 4th (VI:16). He then proceeds to talk Athens into attempting to invade Sicily, with himself as one of the generals. While he's in Sicily with the army, public opinion turns against Alcibades, and he's sent for to stand trial for sacrilege (probably a trumped-up charge, Thucydides admits). Al and some fellow-accused escape while their ship is stopped at a port and make their way to Lacedaemon (leading city of Sparta). Al ingratiates himself to the anti-democratic Spartans by telling them that among "men of sense" like himself in Athens democracy was "an acknowledged folly" but of course they didn't think it wise to try to change the system of government during the war (VI:89). (This rings pretty true since Al's enemies in Athens did accuse him of wanting to overthrow the democracy, but they thought the sacrilege charge would be easier to make stick.) Al encourages the Spartans to send reinforcements to help the Sicilians fight the Athenian invaders, and he gives specific advice as to where a fortification might be set up to most hurt the flow of food and revenue into Athens. This works quite well and leads to the defeat of the Athenian army, the capture and execution of the other Athenian generals, and the eventual downfall of the Athenian empire.

Besides the speeches, there are false informers, daring escapes by night, sad stories of the innocent doomed, and a lot of building of siege-walls.

Cabbage with Caraway

I like lots of cookbooks, but if I'm ever marooned on a desert island (with plenty of high quality ingredients), I'll want to have this one with me. Not that anyone would actually carry it along on any kind of a trip. It's five pounds of recipes and no pictures. But despite small print and pretentious name, a lot of the recipes are simple. And anything that Los Poblanos throws into my box is bound to have several listings in the index. Here's something delicious we did with cabbage the other day:

• 2 T butter
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 2 onions, chopped (I left them out and cut down oil)
• 1 T caraway seeds (this is the magic ingredient)
• 1 small head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
• 3/4 t salt
• 1/4 t pepper
• 2 t lemon juice

Melt butter with oil in skillet over med-low heat. Cook onions until soft. Add everything else except lemon juice. Cook until cabbage is crisp-tender (5-7 min). Sprinkle with lemon juice.

from: Reichl, Ruth, ed. The Gourmet Cookbook. NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

Leyla -- I think I may have first discovered this cookbook at the Urbana Library.

The Not So Big Duplex

Mom's been wanting to see pictures of the inside of our place for a while. It was painted in dark colors when we first moved in (even the ceilings), So I painted everything brighter: white ceilings, chartreuse and yellow and white walls. Plus a big piece of corrugated metal on the living room wall to reflect more light.

A couple of years ago I checked out The Not So Big House from the Urbana library. In the book, an architect called Sarah Susanka describes houses that are more efficient and livable rather than bigger. Chad and I like efficient things (the bicycle, for instance; the public library, for instance). I don't remember a lot from that book except that Susanka wasn't a fan of high ceilings. Browsing the shelves at our local library a couple of weeks ago, I came across a sequel called Creating the Not So Big House. I read it from cover to cover (there are a lot of pictures). I learned that, as I'd suspected, our not so big duplex is pretty great. The one thing I'd change about it would be that I'd make the half-wall that divides the dining and living rooms shorter. That way, even when sitting down, one would have a "long sight line"--which makes small spaces feel roomier. I wouldn't get rid of the wall completely, because Susanka taught me that, if I did, I'd have to put the couch farther away from the table in order not to feel like the living area was crowding the dining area.

I can't tear out walls since we're renting this place. But our very kind landlord likes the new, bright colors.

The blanket that we're using as a headboard was given to me in Korea. And if you look closely at the second view of our bedroom -- doorbeads!

The guest room (as yet unimproved) doubles as a laundry-drying room. No reason to use a clothes-dryer when you live in the desert.

Scenic City Riding

On my free Friday, when Chad's not off work, I often go adventuring. Last Friday's trip was a city ride to the Rio Grande (known in Spanish as the Rio Bravo, probably because "big river" is kindof a dumb name).

One new-to-me challenge of Big City riding is getting over or under freeways. I-40, by running diagonally, tries to trick bikers into pointlessly crossing and re-crossing it. But I was able to outwit the interstate with the help of the city of Albuquerque's excellent bicycle map. The city also provides, in some places, these super-cool pedestrian/bike overpasses. The approach to this one is through a golf course.

I always take along a book or two and stop for a long lunch-and-reading break. On Friday, it was a burrito and The History of the Peloponnesian War. I'm reading through the St. John's College reading list, and right now I'm going back and forth between Thucydides (the war book) and Plato. War is pretty boring compared with philosophy.

When I came out of the burrito shop, I interrupted two sweet rides exchanging pleasantries.

One of the reasons I went to the river was to check out a farm called Los Poblanos Organics, headquarters of a food co-op we just joined (thank you to our new friends, Summer and Oliver, who recommended it!). They bring us treasure boxes full of produce every other week.

Their driveway's very pretty, and that's as far as I got since I hadn't made an appointment. But when I volunteer for their work-on-the-farm-and-get-a-discount program, I bet they'll let me in then.

So instead I visited the Rio Grand Nature Preserve, a good place for bird and turtle watching.