This month’s job openings at SHN Consulting Engineers & Geologists, Inc.:
Good positions, good benefits, fun company to work for, great co-workers, wonderful area to live in.
Posted in employment, local, work | Tagged activism, california, Career, ceqa, engineering, humboldt, jobs, lab, mendocino, natural resources, shasta | Leave a Comment »
My husband gave me a local cookbook for Christmas, “Locally Delicious”, which was just published about a month ago. I’ve been talking about cooking more often (he does most of the cooking)and we’re both partisans of the idea of eating locally grown or produced food, in season. I was raised that way — my mom always goes into cooking overdrive during the successive harvests of strawberries, string beans, corn, tomatoes, raspberries, etc., and still buys locally produced beef, chicken, bread, cheese, etc.
This weekend I tried three recipes from Locally Delicious: the cross rib roast (Humboldt grass-fed beef cross rib was on sale!), spicy roasted beets, and oven rosemary potatoes. Everything but the rosemary, salt and pepper was locally produced. (OK, the olive oil was regional, from Sonoma County.) All three recipes were keepers and quite easy. I liked that I was able to prepare everything in advance in the morning and leave it in the fridge until I was ready to pop the dishes in the oven.
I like “slow food” and I detest most instant, frozen, highly prepared foods (with some exceptions for brands like Casbah, Newman, and Oetker). I like a seasonal menu that reflects the changes around us. I like restaurants where the dishes taste a little different every time you go because they’re made in small batches by a cook, not an industrial assembly line. I like planning a menu based on what looks fresh. I like the rich flavours of produce and meat that have not had to travel more than a few hours to reach my kitchen. I like encouraging our local producers.
There are resources online for people trying to find out more about their local food chain. A good, food-lover’s book explaining our alimentary systems is Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
Posted in Personal, family, local | Tagged california, food, humboldt, local, Personal, society | Leave a Comment »
This month’s job openings at SHN Consulting Engineers & Geologists, Inc.:
If you or someone you know is interested in applying on one of SHN’s open positions, or wants additional information, please visit www.shn-engr.com or speak with Taylor Marie Baker, HR Manager.
Help us continue to provide quality-driven services to northern California and southern Oregon!
Posted in employment, local, work | Tagged california, Career, engineering, humboldt, jobs, local, mendocino, shasta | Leave a Comment »
Recent news for a couple of good eating places in Humboldt:
(1) Curley’s Grill, formerly in Ferndale and chased out last fall by sky-rocketing rent costs, just re-opened at 320 Main Street, Fortuna last week.
(2) Cafe Nooner in Eureka just started this week will start in a few days offering breakfast items in addition to its customary lunch. I can’t wait to try it this Sunday.
These are two quintessential “comfort food” places in the area, quality served with pride but without pretention.
(3) In addition, I’m awaiting with curiosity the re-opening of Go Fish, the fish & chips cafe on 1st Avenue in Eureka, at the corner of Commercial Street. A sign was recently posted, announcing the upcoming opening, but giving no date.
(Edited 12/20/2009.)
Posted in current events, local | Tagged food, humboldt, local | Leave a Comment »
Montreal, where I come from, looks like this today:
The office courtyard here looks like this:
The temperature here is about 7 C (45 F), while it’s -2 C in Montreal (28 F).
Posted in Personal, current events, environment | Tagged california, canada, Personal, weather | Leave a Comment »
I don’t believe that it’s Jesus’ birthday, but I do like Christmas nonetheless.
I don’t believe that a baby was born to a virgin travelling to Bethlehem. Moreover, even if Matthew (or more likely a later compiler and translator of Matthew’s work) had not added this bit to tie Jesus to messianic traditions but instead had been reported a true (or true-ish) story, it would still have taken place in the spring, not at winter solstice.
I don’t believe that fir trees, chubby white-bearded men in red costumes, flying reindeer, or hard-working elves, have anything to do with Jesus either.
But I like that just about every culture and tradition has created some way of celebrating hope in darkness, the time when nights are at their longest but start getting shorter again (which in the southern hemisphere happens in June, not December, of course). I like that we can celebrate during the same period Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, Rohatsu, Bodhi Day, a slew of other “Christian” holidays that used to be more important until the 20th century (St. Sylvester, Epiphany, etc.), and nowadays Kwanzaa (and Muslim holidays when they roll around to a convenient date along the lunar cycle).
I wish we took more advantage of this to celebrate together rather than fight, but we’re not so good at sharing, least of all sharing peace and good will. But every year those of us paying attention can get a glimmer of it, “if only in our dreams” as Bing Crosby would croon.
I like giving presents, especially those I can make myself. I like putting thought into something I hope will make a loved one happy. I like the symbolic light in the middle of the night. I like people genuinely bringing good cheer and children genuinely marvelling at the season. Yes, I hate the fakery, the commercialism, the too-worldly and mercenary children, the feverish hope that people will spend “enough”, but I’m not willing to let these dictate how I should feel about the holidays.
Happy holidays! I’ll be thinking of you.
Posted in Personal, society | Tagged holidays, peace, Personal, religion | Leave a Comment »
Under the 101 Bridge, copyright Ruth Moon 2009
This month, Ruth Moon takes us to visit “the unknown Waterfront” as part of her Eureka Discovery Walks. She says:
Called the ‘Unknown’ Waterfront, because this stretch of the bay’s waterfront is actually not visible or accessible along much of the way, this walk features several stunning views and some interesting back trails. We’ll visit the only official section, other than the Boardwalk, of the Waterfront Walk that is envisioned to eventually span Eureka’s waterfront from north to south. We’ll see what are some of the obstacles to making that vision a reality.
The walk starts at 9:30 AM this Saturday, November 21, in front of the Adorni Center (1011 Waterfront Drive, near the corner of L Street).
I really like Ruth’s tours. They are free and very informative, and you get a bit of not-too-strenuous exercise. Whether I can attend will depend on the weather, as I’m recovering from a cold and strep throat, but I hope to be there.
Posted in local, nature | Tagged california, humboldt, landscape, local | Leave a Comment »
I really love Cafe Nooner in Eureka. I think of all the comfort food available for puchase in town, theirs may be the comfortingest! I stopped there yesterday — it has become a Sunday tradition for my husband and I — and had their cream of porcini mushroom (mmm, with green onions and garlic) and their Rueben-style patty melt. Nothing pretentious, nothing extravagant, but hearty, delicious and plentiful food with friendly service.
Some day I must try their decadent-looking desserts…
Posted in Personal, local | Tagged food, humboldt, local | 1 Comment »
This month’s job openings at SHN Consulting Engineers & Geologists, Inc.:
Willits office:
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Sigh. I’m sorry, I don’t actually want to be a cynic and suspect scams everywhere, but I think last Thursday’s “Courage Night” may have been one. Ostensibly, the event was about gathering money and attention for the fight against breast cancer; however, I have serious reservations about the tenor of the event.
Key guests were Berny Dohrmann and Susie Carder, best known (and actually not that widely) for writing about, and pushing, “The Secret”. The central tenet of this pseudo self-help book and the movement it generated is that “positive thinking” is all it takes to change your life, to ward off the bad things and instead receive wealth, health, and happiness.
While it seems fair to say that, all else being equal, strong morale is usually beneficial and helps sustain one through challenges, this is not sufficient. I really hate philosophies that ultimately place the blame for ill fortune on the victim: if you are not wealthy, healthy, and happy, it must be because you don’t want it badly enough, right? Big comfort and help for someone who, after a goodly dose of The Secret, or certain New Agey versions of the concept of karma, or firm belief in the power of prayer alone, is still wrestling with cancer, unemployment, or depression.
I’m very, very fortunate, and I have always been. Sure, there have been times of sadness and struggle, but in the end I’ve had a wonderful family, husband, and friends, good health, a career I love, and many other interests to keep me in love with life. However, I am acutely conscious that all of this is a result of great luck.
I also know, and we all do, much worthier people with fantastic attitudes who have suffered the outrageous slings and arrow of fortune, who can’t seem to get an even break, and who die early of disease or accident. I do not believe that lack of a positive attitude explains that.
Let’s face it: sickness, ruptures, and reversals of fortune happen because ours is a stochastic universe — in other words, shit happens. Not because you’re a bad person or because you had a negative attitude, but because it’s random bad stuff.
The way to act against this is to develop compassion for one another, to install social and personal safety nets, to help one another, to fund research into medicine and beneficial technologies, to pick ourselves up and try again. Magical thinking, the idea that if we wish hard enough everything will be all right, is not only silly, it’s downright dangerous and callous.
Posted in books, current events, local | Tagged activism, cynicism, health, humboldt, local, science, society, women | Leave a Comment »
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