MonteCristo Cafe. Decided to try the new cafe on the block, near my office. Had a Cesar with chicken, pretty display but fairly unremarkable. I wouldn't intentionally go back a second time.

What was remarkable was my 90 minute deep tissue massage with Sara. That was my evening and then zzzland.

Monday & Tuesday. I have to admit that I am writing this the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, as with posts that will follow this one above. Mostly I got caught up in editing and posting Katrina news on the ECTV site. Shocking. I might spend a whole post on it later. I was also surprised to find out how many friends and friends of friends are following my blog... heard that September was missing! So here I am.

So my 'cool' find of the day is the 'tasty soymilk and corn stew mix' by S&B that I picked up in Japantown earlier. It has English directions on back, so it's quite easy to make without a lot of my directions should any of you be interested. I made mine with wild coho salmon, purple potatoes, carrots, Italian sweet onion, and crisp niblets corn. I tend to make mine chunkier than the directions so it's more of a stew than chowder. This could probably be made from scratch, but the packaged sauce brick makes it really easy to make some delicious corn-chowder-like stew without fuss. The problem with being single, and cooking at home is some things don't downportion very well for one, and you end up eating the same thing for days... so this was dinner both Monday and Tuesday.

Let's see... Saturday was a woman's workshop in the morning, and creativity group in the afternoon. It got so creative, the last guest left at 11:30 p.m! Sunday I cleaned up after the party, cleaned up in general (wow - how exciting to blog ;P), visited my Dad and took him to a new place, The Ranch House, (a Mexican/Yucatan diner) for dinner. I brought along a gift that came in the mail from Kaoru last week, and he was SO delighted!

Two days. Thursday and Friday were pretty nose-to-the-grindstone days, but I did have Caren & Emil over for dinner on Friday night. It was fun to grill fresh wild salmon on the BBQ and serve it with Japanese-inspired dishes -- cucumber and pineapple infused tofu, unique mushroom mix rice, nimono winter squash/potatoes/carrots, and a big fruit salad w/chocolate filled cookies for dessert. Accompanied by our favorite Ridge Merlot. And some Arabic drum music!

The sun. Hold on to your hats! NOAA Space Weather Advisory said today:

"Extreme geomagnetic storms could cause problems with power systems, spacecraft operations and other high and low frequency systems like satellite navigation and communications," said Bill Murtagh, a space weather forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center. Aviation groups have reported moderate to severe impacts to operations over the past two days due to degraded communications."

"Although NOAA predicted a major storm, this storm was unusually strong," added Murtagh. "The coupling between the solar wind interplanetary magnetic field and Earth's magnetic field was very strong. In fact, we've only observed this intense level of coupling a handful of times over the past 10 years."

Lots of flooding, earthquakes, and disturbances today! I note patterns as the Chief Editor of the Earthchanges TV Breaking News sections. There has been a huge spike in unusual earth/weather activity in the last couple days.

Poke. My southern mother was crazy about "Poke weed"... she even talked her younger sister Nell into sending her some seeds when I was 7 or 8 years old. My mother eagerly planted them in the Pacific Northwest soil, and voila! Overnight the poke weed had grown into a tree sized shade 'tree' passing the roofline of our house along the way! Bear in mind that this green is supposed to be picked and eaten when the plant is a foot or less tall! No family in Kentucky had ever heard of one growing so high, and Mom's 'alien' plant created quite a stir in our little neighborhood. My mother tried to school me in the medicinal properties as this was one of the herbs in my great-grandmother's herbal arsenal. I found an article that sums up so well what my mother said, I'm going to copy it in whole here.

Poke-ing around in the garden
by Corinna Wood

[Editor's note: Pokeweed is a potentially toxic plant; taken in large doses, it can cause severe side effects, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Try these recipes at your own risk.]

Growing up in the Northeast, I loved playing with the purple pokeberries, painting designs on my skin. My parents allowed this, though they made it clear that I shouldn't eat the berries of this "poisonous, invasive weed." The huge poke plants were such a bane in their garden that they would actually tie a rope around the roots and use a Jeep to pull them out!

So when I moved to the South, I was surprised to hear a number of people report that their grandmothers always ate poke as a spring green. Intrigued, I discovered that poke root has traditionally been used in tiny doses as an immune stimulant. And swallowing one berry a day is an old treatment for arthritis. This powerful plant actually has a wide range of medicinal uses – but you have to treat it with respect or risk unpleasant side effects (see below).

As it turns out, there's a long history here in the mountains of using this common "weed" as a potherb. But don't make the all-too-common mistake of confusing "poke sallit" (the English word for cooked greens) with "poke salad." DON'T EAT POKE IN A SALAD! It's considered safe ONLY when boiled in three changes of water (traditionally with some pork or "fatback"). And it should be harvested for cooking greens ONLY when the plant is less than a foot tall.

I've cooked poke this way a few times. It was certainly tasty (especially with the fatback!), but I was still a bit mystified. Why all the focus on poke? This is a time of year when many wild greens are abundant – dandelion, chickweed and nettles are among my favorites. And with these, you don't need to toss out the cooking water (and a lot of nutrients with it). But I do know folks who say they feel a powerful energy from eating the poke greens.

My favorite way to use poke is to make a tincture from the root for stimulating the immune system. Herbs can rival the effectiveness of antibiotics, and they're generally much gentler on the body. Many herbalists turn to goldenseal for this purpose, but it's an endangered species. Poke, on the other hand, is a weed – the problem is not having too little of it, but too much. And for most purposes, poke is at least as good, if not better.

Pokeroot is best dug up in the fall, after the plant has died back for the winter. This is when the plant is the most medicinal and the least toxic. The next best time to dig the roots is in the early spring, when the leaves are just coming out (as long as you're sure what you're picking!).

As anyone who's ever tried to pull up a poke plant knows, getting anything but the smallest roots out of the ground is a project. They range in size from a large carrot to a construction cone. Fortunately, just one small root will make enough medicine to last you and your loved ones for years – proving once again that there's no lack of good medicine all around us.

Once you've dug up the root (and parked the Jeep), the next step – if you've decided to give pokeweed a try – is drawing out those medicinal properties. The best way to do that is to make a tincture (alcohol extract). Wash the root, chop it into small pieces, fill a jar with the plant material, and then add enough 100-proof alcohol to cover the roots. Leave it on your counter for six weeks, then strain out the roots. The resulting milky liquid is remarkably mild-looking and -tasting, considering the punch it packs.

Poke is so powerful that it's taken by the drop. Begin with one to three drops (using a dropper, of course). Wait 24 hours. If that doesn't seem to help, add one drop per day to the dosage (and that's drops, not droppersful!).

Individuals show widely varying tolerance for poke. Some people can't handle more than three or five drops per day, while others can take 25 or 50 drops with no adverse effects. The side effects of poke include mental unclarity, spaciness and out-of-body feelings. If you notice such feelings, it means you've found your tolerance level, so back off to a lower dosage. If you take way too much (such as mistaking droppersful for drops, which some people have done!), you may encounter more severe side effects, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

When I was using poke to treat Lyme disease a number of years ago, I found that after taking 10 drops per day for several weeks, I started feeling unclear, spacy and disconnected, as if I weren't really in my body. I cut the dosage back to five drops and the side effects vanished, but the tincture was still very effective in helping resolve the Lyme disease. Remember, everyone's tolerance and needs are different.

Over the years, I've found poke to be invaluable as an herbal alternative to antibiotics when immune or lymphatic stimulation is needed. For many generations, this plant has helped people with immune issues ranging from sore throat to breast cancer. And of course, there are times when antibiotics are called for – so when in doubt, consult your doctor or herbalist.

In my community, poke tincture is a favorite for sore throats, strep throat, severe colds and respiratory infections. It's also used for infected gums, swollen lymph glands and breast cysts. Studies in Germany and the United States are even finding positive results with HIV, cancer and lymphoma. In addition, it's very effective in treating genital herpes – taking just a few drops when the tingling begins usually prevents the blister phase entirely and reduces the frequency of outbreaks.

Poke root can also be made into an oil simply by substituting oil for alcohol. Any cooking oil will work, but olive oil is my favorite because of its high resistance to rancidity. And by melting in some beeswax (which gives it a creamy consistency), the oil can be made into a balm or salve. Both the salve and the oil are also used externally to dissolve lumps, bumps, growths and tumors. And many people find them helpful when applied externally to swollen lymph glands, sore throats or breast lumps.

Pokeberries are useful, too – and not just for body paint. (This paint, by the way, is quite safe; it's only the seeds inside that are toxic, and then only when chewed.) In Appalachian folk medicine, the berries are swallowed as a treatment for arthritis and for immune stimulation – one berry (either fresh or dried) is the equivalent of one drop of root tincture.

Since the seeds are the toxic part, you just spit them out. And even if you swallow some seeds, don't worry – they're extremely difficult to break open with your teeth and will come out the other end intact. (That's how poke spreads, in fact – birds love to eat the berries, and then the seeds spread through their droppings.) Although poke proliferates by seed, the plants are perennial, and the roots will grow larger every year.

So if you find yourself cursing this "dangerous, noxious weed" in your yard or garden this spring, just remember that if you let a few plants thrive until fall, they can reward you with some very powerful medicine – not to mention beautiful purple berries that make a delightful body paint!

[Corinna Wood, the director of Red Moon Herbs, has been teaching herbal medicine for more than 10 years. She can be reached at 669-1310 or via her Web site (redmoonherbs.com).]

Focus. This morning I went to a "Focus" seminar with Jo-Ann and we enjoyed lunch at Paradise Vegetarian in San Rafael, an place Jo-Ann has had her eye on for awhile. Nice buffet with fresh food. Meat items as well.

Then I drove off into the sun to take Dad for his hearing aid check/adjustment and enjoyed catching up with his activities. We got some flour on the way home so he could make cake for the 'sing-along' activity tonight. I then continued on to pick up some of my favorite olive oil at The Olive Press, and meet Linda for dinner. We enjoyed lasagne at Cafe Citti, a consistently good place both on all counts, food, service and ambiance. Chatted with Michael on the way home to catch him up on the creative loop since Saturday night, and now am logging the day!

Creativity rules! I so enjoyed prepping for my friends arrival on Saturday, and the event was great! The creative juices were flowing and the possibility for bringing our dreams into material form was physically palpable. People left in shifts, there was a desire to continue our creativity salon, the last person leaving at 11:30 p.m. (the event was designed for 4-6 p.m.). There was a strong desire to keep the momentum going, so we're meeting every week! Whee!

Sunday I did clean up and catch up on household chores. Visited a new restaurant for lunch, the Bombay Garden. Quite nice Indian style buffet in San Rafael. Cheerful staff, very pleasant surroundings and good, although on the spicy side food. Warm yellow and magenta interior with intricately inlaid wooden chairs.

E & O Trading Company. Helen and I met at the E&O Trading Company for dinner. It was nice to catch up with her. Her description of the marketing world was fascinating.

Home and more prep for tomorrow! Another guest popped up, friend Michele is visitng from Yuba City.

Tomorrow should be busy!

Wednesday, Thursday. Well, work comes to mind, but I did enjoy getting together with Paul, Julianne and Jaison & friends on Wednesday evening. Thursday evening I prepped for my Saturday creativity group.... no notable restaurants -- called Anna's leftovers for mid-week.

I Spy! the first sign of fall! I looked outside from my living room this evening, and what did I see? Turning leaves! Had to snap a quick pic - left. See that? Where did our summer go!

Inspired by my favorite time of night, when the colors become vivid in the light, I snapped this one -above right - from my deck looking down the shoreline path. I should insert a photo of me walking on it :-).

I enjoyed talking with my Uncle Pat in Nebraska using my Skype phone this evening. Now THAT's a cool find. Talk all you want with others so connected by internet, all over the world for free! I've had it a few months now and it's great. He reminded my my twin Aunts - Nancy & Betty - have a birthday on the 18th! Gotta call them...

Starting the dance of another week. Nothing remarkable about the workday. On the way home, however, I called Jo-Ann and invited her family over to dinner & swimming. In one hour from shopping to table, managed the following menu: Lemon & herb steamed shrimp in shell; dungeness crab w/melted butter and/or garlic-ponzu; baby organic lettuces-sunflower sprouts and spiced pecan salad with choice of cranberry orange dressing, traditional French vinegarette, or olive oil and balsamic vinegar; sun-ripened heirloom red and yellow tomatoes with fresh baby mozerella and fresh organic basil; rustic roasted garlic French bread; and for dessert, fresh farmer's market raspberries made into a kind of upside down cake -- gluten free! All accompanied by Gewürztraminer white for the adults, and organic pear juice for the kids. Six of us having fun... afterwards, even though rather late and cold, Jonathon took the kids into my pool!

OReilly's. After a long sleep, Jo-Ann and I went to North Beach and tried a "Celitic Brunch" at an awesome Irish place. It has to be authenitic when the chef has a distinct Irish accent, and a waitress too! I had the Gammon (Canadian bacon-like Irish sweet cured ham) with poached eggs over Irish potato pancake. It came with some chopped cabbage on the side, and this freshly baked brown bread on the side that tasted very much like one of my Mom's recipes. Jo-Ann had the same thing but with Irish Smoked Salmon Boxty. The waiter thought I was Irish, when finding out that although my heritage did not include any Irish, but that it included a good dose of Norwegian, started chatting away in that language! Apparently he'd spent a couple years living there and picked up the Norse language. Fabulous place, and what atmosphere! Definitely a place to return.

We walked along Columbus Avenue enjoying the Sunday morning atmosphere, hearing old men smoking at tables speak Italian. I introduced Jo-Ann to the City Lights Bookstore, and then we went to Black Oak books across the street.

It was very foggy and chilly, so we headed off to San Jose to enjoy Santana Row, since Jo-Ann hadn't been there either. It was beautiful weather, and the right choice. We were inspired by all the creativity in the shops, but were not impressed by the pillow at Tommy Bahama's on sale for $59, reduced from $225, nothing exceptional! Provided fuel for discussion about relative values though. Found out the 1-bedroom 700sq ft condos were selling for just short of $500K...

Jonathon was cooking some fabulous Copper River Salmon as Jo-Ann and I headed back to their home for the end of 'girls' time, and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and conversation over some delish Ridge red. And, Jo-Ann's mother is going to be just fine, needs some observation time for a couple days though.

Now I'm home, blogging away! Savored this weekend!

Gravenstein Apple Fair. Today was packed with activities! First, after staying up quite late, I leapt out of bed to go for an early hair appointment. Followed immediately by picking up some things that my Dad needed, and going to his place. He was enthused about the idea of meeting our friend, Daniel, for a couple hours at the Gravenstein Apple Fair in Sebastopol. So we headed off there, stopping at our favorite Cafe Citti on the way. He enjoyed his first 'raw' food since he began treatment, one of their fresh crisp salads.

We enjoyed the fair, music and chatting with people. Daniel, the reigning juggling champion, did not repeat the feat, although he got wild applause again. I bought some East/West ceramic goblets from someone who I found lived only 5 blocks away from me on Capitol Hill in Seattle. I love happy coincidences.

I ran Dad back home then on to pick up Jo-Ann for 'girl's weekend' out. There was quite the flurry of activity, an emergency ambulance ride to the hospital for her Mom just a few minutes before I arrived, but everyone thought it was a good idea for us to continue our plans. We had planned to go to La Tabla, but found it was closed on Saturday nights (go figure), so we tried another new place, Pacific Cafe instead. It is a seafood restaurant across from the College of Marin in Kentfield, and it was really good. We'll go back again.

Perseids. I made dinner (chicken lasagne, organic baby greens with spiced pecans salad, and fresh organic strawberry shortcake) for a friend and we waited for the annual Perseid show in the sky from midnight to 3 a.m. west coast time. My house usually has a dark and clear enough sky to enjoy these from my deck. Realizing there was a lot of time between dinner and nature's skyshow, we went to see Junebug.

The sky was partly obscured by clouds, but sitting in my swiveling deck chairs with pillows and blankets, we could still enjoy a few streaking across the sky. Didn't look like the picture here, but a one-by-one effect.

Life as Usual. Two day post again... besides busy days at work, I enjoyed a new restaurant "Christopher's Cafe" in Novato on my way yesterday evening to visit with friends including Jaison. Christoper's Cafe billed itself as having home cooked meals, and they did do a very nice job with the food, and were prompt and friendly. My trip to Japan planned for September cancelled as suddenly as it showed up on the schedule. Oh well.

Today I missed seeing a friend for dinner, but I went up to the San Rafael farmers market and enjoyed a lovely walk through the various stalls with enticing wares. I sucumbed to some organic stawberries and raspberries... ended up having a quick dinner at Akira's where Takeshi make me some off-menu specials such as hosokiri and a veggie crunchy salmon skin roll.

Now that my outside house painting is complete, took a photo a few days ago of its freshly painted look with my zoom lens across the water from it. Thought the blog was ready for another photo, and not having one of Chrisopher's, this was my answer for today.

Work, work, work. That was today's adventure. Busy from the early start to late finish at the office. Got home checked in with Dad, did some paperwork for him, chatted with friends, and now, I'm blogging. I made myself a pizza from scratch, have leftovers for tomorrow. Wheee!

Back to Normal. My first normal day at work! Was nice to feel back in my routine again. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that I received an acknowledgment in my friend's newly published book, "Solar Rain". I also made a new connection in Marin in the nuclear abolition movement through my efforts to connect my friend Haruko to Dr. Caldicott. Her policy non-profit NPRI (Nuclear Policy Research Institute) has a board member residing in West Marin, and he, in the blink of an eye, sent me out a CD "Nuclear Deception" which I'll be watching soon. I just have to be in a certain mood to see those kind of things as they are too heartbreaking otherwise. The other surprise of the day was finding out I'll be going to Japan on a business trip towards the end of September to meet about global training initiatives for my company. I decided to pay my friends at Akira a visit for dinner this evening, and have been editing the ECTV site and catching up with friends on the phone otherwise.

A Day to Myself. Thinking I could sleep in, I turned off the alarm function on my clock. Never mind. There was dense fog this morning, and I was awakened by the low bellow of the fog horns at sometime a bit after 5 a.m. Pt. Bonita lighthouse near the Golden Gate is the culprit. I looked out my window, and although the bay in front of my house was perfectly clear, you could see thick billowy clouds of fog all over the skyline touching the hilltops towards the open bay.

I did LOTS of laundry and straightened things up thinking of the active things some of my friends had mentioned doing today, like kayaking around Angel Island, or doing the Chicago half-marathon. I got very tired of knocking around the walls of the house by myself by about 1 p.m. and called Linda. She suggested a movie that she thought would be right up my alley - Fear and Trembling - a Japanese and French film with English subtitles about a Belgian woman's experience of corporate Japan.

It was playing at the Balboa, in the Richmond district, according to my car, just 14 minutes away. So I decided to have lunch somewhere in the Richmond and take in the film.

The Superior Palace advertised "Grand Opening" proudly on a red banner under its green canopy, so I decided to give it a try. It was superior considering a lovely prawn and tender greens rice plate was priced at $3.50, and simply delicious. It was packed with, apparently, Chinese, no caucasians in sight and no English was heard around me.

Fear and Trembling was quite hysterical and quite recommendable.

I came back over the bridge and decided to go to Whole Foods to pick up something to cook this evening, but the parking situation was hopeless, so I took it as a sign that I need to go out... I did then stop at Sloat Garden Center and picked up a pot of beautiful Melissa for my front doorstep.

Uva Trattoria & Bar. Last evening, after dropping Dad off, I connected with Linda who previously had suggested dinner in Napa since she was without Olivia and I ready to have a little celebration too. Discussing the several good places we could go, we decided on Uva since Yalda had mentioned one of Linda's former students was now managing it. Her student at St. Francis his 7 & 8th grade years, he's now the Maitre d'Harmonica at Uva, and has his own radio show. A very artistic man. We neither had been to Uva before, and it was the perfect pick. Joe is a very gregarious host to all in the restaurant, no wonder it was packed by 7! We enjoyed his suggestion, the Rib-eye beef with green peppercorns in white wine reduction. We enjoyed it, and have definitely met our meat quota for awhile with the generous serving. He introduced us to a new drink, Limoncello - wow. Served in a shot glass it was a mix of fresh lemon and rind with sugar water which had been steeped in Everclear for 3 days. I shocked Linda by copying Joe's one-gulp style. Luckily, it was not necessary to stand up for awhile, that one packs a punch! Linda said I turned red in the face soon thereafter. Well, I'm not used to drinking much beyond an occasional single glass of chardonnay with dinner, so I'm not surprised my body registered it's surprise.


Smokin' Joe Herrschaft. Linda's student is quite a versatile talent. He plays harmonica in a band, does voice-overs and has his own Radio Show on KSVY 98.3 FM "Wakin'Up w/the Blues". If you are not in the broadcast area, it can be picked up streaming off the net at the KSVY website.

He did a little Sicilian impression for us, it was great. Doesn't hurt that he's 1/4 Sicilian. I snapped a photo of the reunion at the right.

He invited us to stay for the jazz from 9:00 and we wished we could, but Miss Olivia was joining us at 7:45 and so any lingering in the bar was out.