>> My entire apartment smells like almond cookies. The holiday baking has begun and I estimate that I’ll be making cookies for the next three days. Though I have already received requests for my famous chocolate chip cookies, I elected to go the almond cookie route to expand my baking repertoire. Food preparation is an enlightening activity; I often don’t realize how one ingredient or how the quantity of one ingredient can greatly impact the end result. Consider almond extract. I imagined that, like vanilla extract, it would be brown in color. Not so. (It is clear.) Furthermore, I would have never guessed that one teaspoon could permeate so strongly throughout nearly three cups of flour. This reminds me of Jesus’s parable about a small amount of yeast that leavens the entire batch of dough. The making of bread arguably sounds more holy than the making of cookies.

>> The Lamy Safari fountain pen provides an excellent writing experience. Shortly after ogling fountain pens, I acquired a yellow Lamy Safari pen along with an ink converter (through the wonder that is eBay). Pilot G-2 gel ink pens are still my writing instruments of choice when at work, but the Lamy, in addition to providing a different mechanical sensation when in use, does help transform writing into a sacred activity. (Yes, my romantic notions are flaring up again. And, to further indulge my proclivities for office supplies, the Marvy Le Pen is also a nice pen. The color diversity adds to its appeal. Lastly, Pen & Ink now produces a Moleskine notebook knockoff that includes the archival paper, the bookmark, and the inside pocket… for half the price of a Moleskine. The cover is thicker, the paper is not as smooth, and I believe the lined version is lined wider than a Moleskine, but the size and structural integrity are the same.)

>> Yang Liu makes great art. She produced a series of poster art that compares Chinese (Asian) culture with German (Western) culture that succinctly and humorously captures some societal differences. I was particularly struck with how much the Chinese/Asian representations (which reflect Confucian values) resonate with me—though born and raised in the United States, my immigrant parents had successfully inculcated these ideals in me, despite the forces of cultural assimilation.

>> The CoolRunning running logs are no more. The Active Trainer log (which has overtaken CoolRunning) is not as user-friendly; I find it more difficult to navigate through both the site and through my own training (read: slogging) statistics. I have thus followed the suggestion of Mister Bean misterbeans (Brock’s wife… despite the moniker) and am now using RunningAhead. (I actually fell off the running wagon (?) for a couple of weeks due to good intentions to run after work. Good intentions, however, do not translate into desired behavior. A early morning runner I remain… because, that way, I actually run.)

>> I eagerly await the arrival of December 23rd. The sun rose today in Seattle at 7:51am and will set at 4:18pm! Once the winter solstice passes, we can all look forward to longer days. (Like many other citizens of beautiful Seattle, I feel more distress with the winter darkness than with the rain.)