I made this quiche again today, and the warm, salty taste on this wintry day brought to mind the very first time I had quiche.

I was in my last semester of college I think, a fall because I had taken off one semester in the middle of my junior year. It was not yet a year since my my mom had died, and I was now a bit adrift, keeping odd hours, drinking and smoking a lot, and in the last dregs of a relationship that should have ended a year prior – or come to think of it, two such relationships. And both of the men involved were fellow philosophy majors. (I want to say I don’t recommend dating philosophy majors, but I am one, and it may be overdoing it to issue a general warning.)

But there were many bright spots in my life. I lived in a co-op dorm named Lazrus House (aka Laz) with lots of artsy/hippie types and a big, communal kitchen. I had a car for the first time which I’d inherited from mom, that would soon take me to a new post-grad life in Chicago. And I was in a small philosophy seminar with one of my favorite professors, Kristin Pfefferkorn. She taught philosophy of art, film, and language, as well as Chinese philosophy and Nietzsche – probably more but those were the 5 I took. She had a Bavarian accent and light reddish hair that reminded me of my mom, and wore scarves with sweaters and sensible shoes and pants.

As fall progressed she asked if anyone was interested in a raking leaves for a few hours on Sunday afternoons, for a small fee. I jumped at the opportunity, despite the fact that I think she had one of my 9 classmates (all male) in mind. I drove my little Ford Escort up the hill from campus to a beautiful neighboring village on the river. My job was to rake all of the leaves in her yard into a dry ravine at the back of the property. I believe she intended to do this for several years and slowly build up that area to be a little more usable, at least to walk in without falling. I think I did this 1 or 2 weeks and came a third time to hang fresh garlands of pine and laurel on the porch and the beams of the dining room in preparation for Christmas. And on at least one occasion, we had lunch together of a simple quiche and white wine.

Planning this blog post today, I decided to write Professor Pfefferkorn and try to reconnect with someone I really liked and admired. I often worried after leaving Conn that I was a disappointment to my professors. I excelled in some classes but failed others or received an incomplete. I was late on a lot of papers. I was in therapy because of my mom’s suicide, but I wasn’t getting too far and was barely hanging in there academically. When I walked down the chapel aisle in December with the mid-year graduates and my sister looking on, I was technically 12 credits shy of graduating.

But I did get to a better place. I spent the next decade-plus in Chicago doing graphic design and studying photography. I finished my BA degree in 2004 and went back to Conn with some friends to graduate for real. I met the love of my life and had my wonderful, brilliant son.

Yep, I turned out alright but I am not looking for a pat on the head or to hear I was Prof Pf’s favorite fuck-up. It’s just nice to reconnect sometimes and say I remember, and it is good, and I can still taste my first quiche.

Four Seasons, originally uploaded by Hawk3ye.

This photo collage of Simon is one of my holiday gift projects of which I’m most proud.

In recent years at work we’ve had two gift exchanges – one “Dirty Santa” with real gifts up to $10 that you can steal from each other in the typical manner, and one “White Elephant” exchange with jokey or unwanted gifts which you can also steal from each other.  Traditionally, I would already regift unwanted but nice items for the Dirty Santa exchange, so when they added the White Elephant exchange, I had to either break down and buy something for Dirty Santa, or make sure my regift was a truly classy item, in addition to the more obvious White Elephant regift.  This was partly fed by guilt that I had received some pretty high-value gifts in those exchanges, such as a bottle of wine or a Starbucks gift card. On the other hand, in the first White Elephant gift exchange I received a used mousepad.

But in the past few years I’ve actually scored some pretty cool stuff in the White Elephant exchange too. One year my friend Patty had picked up a set of two Ozzy Osbourne double-shot glasses at Goodwill.  I actually stole them from someone else because I thought they were kind of awesome, and I was right – Jim LOVES them!!  He’s hardly drunk from any other shot glass since.  The Ozzys are sort of scribbly little cartoons – like the picture at right (from eBay) but taller, 1.75 ounces.  Another year I got an awesome “toast” wallet which I use for all my store and hotel membership cards.

Last year I scored again with a set of photo coasters.  This was already a regift… our EVP of Operations had received the coasters in the previous year’s Dirty Santa exchange.  Now he had downgraded the item to the White Elephant exchange.  I guess people usually already have a set or two of coasters they like, and I do have several myself. I took them off someone’s hands because there is really no reason these coasters should be so neglected — they were frosted glass with little silicone feet, and came in a black wooden tray.  They were packed in the original box and Styrofoam, and resell online for up to $15.  I set them in the dining room for possible use and forgot about them until recently, when my “thrifted & regifted” holiday brain began to churn.

Fast forward through a little search of the year’s photos of Simon, a little typographic design, and waking to the first snowfall of the year, et voilá!  The Four Seasons of Simon from the Benoit Collection, exclusively designed for Antoinette Brucker, Grandma of the Year. When she’s not resting a drink, they can be displayed in their little holder, whatever season she likes in front. If the words are too restrictive to a specific quarter, I have also slipped in wordless versions of the same photos.

Other gifts to be given in a similar vein this year:

• Caldecott award–winning picture book, “One Fine Day”, resale from O Joy Kid’s Consignment, for my 3-year-old nephew
• Cloth picture book of colors, from OP town-wide garage sale, used for 2 years by Simon & now regifted to 6-month-old nephew
• Paris graphic collage on canvas, resale from OP Animal Care League, for 6-year-old Francophile Annalee
• Regifted merlot-scented candle, which my boss received free from a hotel, to step-mother
• Photo books of Simon’s second year, printed at Snapfish, but still “hand”-made
• Two necklaces, made of new & vintage beads I had purchased a long time ago and not done anything with yet, so counts as “existing materials on hand” in my mind, for my sister and friend Kathy
• Lego play table, purchase on Craigslist yesterday and cleaned up, to Simon from Dad & Mom

I did not manage to go 100% thrifted & regifted this holiday, buying a few things at local shops like Ten Thousand Villages, Gepetto’s Toy Box, and the Book Table (Hunger Games for my oldest newphew), and I even did a little cyber shopping for new books, artsy t-shirts, and top-secret husband presents I am not at liberty to disclose.   But in all I think I made progress on my goal of reducing my consumer footprint this year and turning otherwise neglected trash into treasure.

I was just browsing my blog and noticed the photos of the front yard from last year. I’m happy to be able to show off our new color scheme, with the reduction in number of colors, and removal of the old chunky white paint on the porch windows. It makes the garden look more green & lush too! I’d still rather see some taller, horizontally spreading evergreens in place of those yews, but I think they are at least looking a little better since I pruned them heavily a year ago.

Has it been more than a year since my last post? So wrong… I see that I began drafting a post titled “Lost Farms” almost a year ago, and that is indeed still kicking around in my head (and my dreams), waiting to come out.

In the meantime, my aunt Pam and I have recently been renewing our genealogical sleuthing. I also undertook a photo restoration project for her, which took me two weeks to complete, but the result was quite nice. You can see a few stages of the project on my flickr account.

Anna Jane Devine was born May 11, 1900 in Indiana. Her father, Thomas Maple Devine, was a coal miner as was her husband, Joseph Uknavage. We really know very little about her ancestors beyond 2 or 3 generations, or their ethnic background before coming to the US. The surnames include DAVISON, JOHNSON, BRIGHT, BLACK, and GRISSOM.

It is one of many mysterious branches of our family tree. I hope to have a little time to focus on it soon.

Front yard, originally uploaded by Hawk3ye.

Thanks to Mr. Brown Thumb for prodding me to make a front garden update! Although now that I have run outside with my camera, edited and uploaded my photos, answered a few emails, and generally goofed around, it is almost time to pick up the Little Guy from daycare. So I will be brief:

First of all, I am very thankful for the grass that was planted on the corner. It looks different in any season, and always a spot of light in the garden! I’m not really sure of the variety.

My least favorite feature – the yews that flank the steps.  I’m fairly sure that I want to keep them to have some evergreens through the winter, but the shaping is not going so well.  I have been looking at some online photos and blogs trying to get ideas for how to tackle them.

The spiraea looked really cute in June, but now are looking quite wild and wooly again. The front burning bush is lovely and graceful, and the favorite napping place of Orange Cat (our neighbors’). The back burning bush has suffered a little in the heat, and you can see some leaves near the bottom have turned red. I wonder if I should take off all the small, bare lower spindles or leave them?

You can’t see it right now, but I have planted a lilac just over the fence. I hope that it will grow up to that horizontal dining room window and add yet another level to the landscape.

Finally, there’s our yellow maple tree in the backyard, down the brick path. I really don’t know what kind it is, but the color is always unusual in any season.

Today is my first day of full-time telecommuting. I don’t have the extra 40 minutes in the car each day listening to Kurt Vonnegut stories on audiobook, but I do potentially have a more interesting lunch environment than the suburban office park (although, minus the goose poop, that can be quite pretty).

Today I spent my 30-minute lunch cutting down last year’s decorative grasses from the front yard. Lo and behold, there were daffodils and Siberian squill and possibly tulips underneath!

I can’t wait to see what the blooms look like.

Seka Meets Lynch, originally uploaded by leznek.

I just spent a little time looking at my husband Jim’s photos on flickr. He tends to be selective about what he posts, including choice shots from his digital collection and others that were scans of school days, but every one seems to encapsulate a wonderful facet of his personality. They just hang together well as a collection. So just in case you haven’t before, click on “leznek” and browse around.

Cermak Plaza, originally uploaded by Hawk3ye.

I updated the tags on my Chicago set on flickr, and added a new photo of the cool Cermak Plaza sign from this weekend. I’ll have to try to get a better one of that sometime.

I really enjoy photographing these signs and buildings and will continue to expand this collection over the years. I think I have a lot more old photos in my files that should be in this set, including some black and white film photos that have not yet been scanned.

There are a ton of wonderful blogs about Chicago architecture and signage out there. To name a few that I read:

Uknavages at Wellpinit, 1955, originally uploaded by Hawk3ye.

I am just crazy for babies lately, and can’t stop cuddling my little baby Simon each night when I pick him up from daycare. I am really enjoying this photo of my mom & family. She was born in January 1955 in Tuscola, IL, but the family traveled to the Pacific Northwest that year to find mining work. They moved back to Illinois by the end of the year.

Here’s info from Aunt Pam:

Yes, that’s snow back there. We only lived in Wellpinit about five or six months, from about June of 1955 until November – moved out before the worst of winter hit. As I recall we are all dressed up in this photo because we were headed out on one of our rare excursions. This might have been the time we went to Seattle. I can’t remember. Mike remembers the chronology better than I do. This must have been an early snow that fell. Thanks for the compliment on the hair. I’m sure Mom did her best to make up presentable and not like a bunch of wild indians on the reservation At least your mom seems to be wearing a sweater.

More of Aunt Pam’s photo scans from Wellpinit: flickr.com/rdpamrussell

James William “Will” Webster Smith, aka “Smokey Bill,” was born Sept 10, 1890 in Providence, Webster county, Kentucky. He married Verla Leona Doss and had 9 children, 7 of whom lived to adulthood, including my grandmother, Mary Mildred Smith. His youngest daughter Barbara is the only one living currently. The family lived in Harco and several other coal towns in Saline county Illinois and Clay county Kentucky. Smokey Bill died in Harrisburg, Illinois in June 1970.

Below is a picture of great-Grandpa Smith (right) and a man identified on the back as Clarence Johnson. The photo postcard was probably taken between 1910 and 1920.

I always thought that, while handsome, Smokey Bill looked like a troublemaker or black sheep of some type in this photo — but I imagined it to be the slightly more glamorous life of a Shawneetown gangster, ladies man, gambler, or since he was born in the hills of Kentucky, maybe a moonshiner. But apparently his was the ignominious career of Chicken Thief. Below is some more detail from my aunt about her grandfather:

“[Cousin] Johnny confirmed that Grandpa Smith was an accomplished chicken thief. In fact, she said that Grandpa and a sister of Grandma’s (don’t know which one – must have occurred in Kentucky where the sisters lived) could go into a chicken house and steal chickens without any of them making a peep. I asked Bob about this and he told me there is a real knack to stealthily grabbing a chicken and putting it down into a bag without making it or the others erupt in loud clucks and squawks.

“By the way, in November of 1934 Grandpa was 44 – old enough to know better. But the thirties were tough times. Aunt Barbara was only two years old, Betty, five, Mildred, seven, Todge, nine, Toots, fourteen, Lou, seventeen, and J. G, twenty-one. I’ll bet J.G. was away in the Army. I have a feeling there are a lot of things about Smokey Bill we’ll never know. Cool things, like this .”

I absolutely love my family!