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I hate picking up books in the middle of a series. When i went to Vegas in 1999 I spent more money in the bookstore at the airport then I did gambling. I spent my time scoping out books in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section, wanting to get two stand alone books. I didn’t want to mistakenly pick up the last book of a trilogy, and with Sci-Fi/Fantasy thats easy to do.

The books I picked up? Terry Brooks “A Knight of the Word” and Martha Wells “Death of a Necromancer”.

I finished Knight of the Word, satisfied by the story flow, flipped tot he last page and find an advertisement for the next book in the series. Whoops. But it was ok, the story stood on its own well enough that I felt no loss for having read it first.

The second book, Death of a Necromancer introduced me to this complex french/Victorian inspired world. The characters had depth, the storyline was complex and the while the mainline plot line was resolved, the ending was… unsatisfying. The characters came into the novel with such complex backstories that i was sure I must have missed something.

I left the book be, sold it off and forgot about it, until now. So we’re halfway through the summer at this point and I’ve been able to shake the urgency of the school year and settle into watching movies and reading for pleasure. I’ve been to more movies out in the past 2 months then I have in the past year.

I searched back to the Martha Wells book to see if more in the series had been put out, if perhaps my ifnormation had been wrong. I wasn’t. Death of a Necromancer is a stand alone, but she’s put out another series in the world, and I fell into The Fall of Ile-Rien Series.

If you pick it up, start with The Wizard Hunters, finish the series, then go back to Death of a Necromancer. The novel feels more complete when you have a better understanding of the characters.

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I  picked up Blood Engines By TA Pratt when I first got my Kindle for Ipod  software. I dove deeper into his series more recently, reading Dead Reign and Poison Sleep.

Pratt has created this immersive world just a degree off from our own,  where magic still lurks in the corners, unbeknownst to the “muggles’. Oh with a fantastic protagonist who’s magic skill is … kicking ass.  Want a taste of the series?

Check out the BoneShop. It’s a donations accepted web serial. Give it a read, and if you like it pick up the other books and toss a little cash into the donation jar.

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I’m also  on a musicals streak. From South Pacific to the Music Man.  I’m refining my tastes. I’ve decided the ones I like best are romps. Great songs, great dance numbers, just plain fun.  My least favorite so far has been Carousel, which they are in the proccess of remaking. Camelot has great music, but its a little long overall, and while i like the story, the storytelling isn’t compelling.

What are your favorite musicals? So far I have seen:

Showboat
Mamma Mia
South Pacific
Camelot
Bride and Prejudice
Music Man
The King and I

On my list are
My Fair Lady
Oliver
State Fair
The Sound of Music

Oh, and don’t forget about the 29th of August, I’m hoping that at least  a couple of people will show up for Mamma Mia at  Seattle Center.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to represent the Seattle Free School at the “Strengthening Local Economies Everywhere” event held by the Community Alliance for Global Justice. They had contacted the Free School for tabling and asked if anyone would be up for teaching a workshop or two. I volunteered my meal planning workshop and a new one I’ve created on coffee certification. They accepted and in return  I was a guest at their dinner afterward

I arrived at St Demtrios Church early, and picked out a spot in the shade for our table. Waiting for Jessica and Dani, the other Free School folks, to arrive I wandered around helping out a bit. I helped one of the  event volunteers, Molly , rearrange tables and just kind of hung out helping as needed.

The other Free School folks showed up and  We set up our booth. I had a list of current classes, they brought signs to show who we were.

Between workshops I was able to talk to people to explain what the Free School is and encourage them to attend and teach. My coffee certification talk was a little nerve wracking because it was the first one I had been to and 2 of the people who came were pretty near experts on the issue, but they were supportive and in the end it was well received. (I have an idea of what I need to remake in the material so I can offer it again)

I hemmed and hawed about attending the dinner. Dani the other Free School person wasn’t going to, and I felt a little bit like the odd man out since I didn’t know anyone.
I’ve felt this push lately to do stuff, you know get out participate, experience whats going on. I spend a lot of time thinking of stuff, planning stuff, and writing about stuff, but I spend a disproportionate amount of time doing stuff. I’m trying to fix that

So I went into the dinner, not sure what to expect. I arrived the first at my table and sat, apprehensive. Very shortly  a very nice woman came over and asked if she could join me. I agreed and we began to chatter. Turns out she was Molly, the volunteers, grandma. She didnt know anyone else there so we spent our time chattering.

The keynote speeches &  dinner reminded me a bit of a socialist potluck I went to once. Lots of “We’re in this together” complete with singing, and a side of great food.   My beliefs are  not necessarily aligned with everything the organization stands for, but they’ve got some ideas on food sustainability that I support and I’ll keep an eye on their progress.

Great food? Oh yeah, here is one example.  As Joan and I sat talking appetizers started arriving. One woman went around the room with a big metal tray. She reached in with a gloved hand and piled a bunch of greens in the center of the tableclot. Without a plate.

What in the world ? I asked  what it was.
“Oh it’s Kale, eat it, it’s soo good. ”
Joan and I looked at each other skeptically then dug in.

Turns out it was roasted kale, and it was one  of the best things for dinner that night. (Competing with rum cake, and salmon.) Anyway, here is a recipe for it, do try this at home and tell me what you think.

Roasted Kale

1 bunch of kale
olive oil
coarse sea salt

Warm oven to 350

Wash Kale and pull the leaves off the thick center stems. Toss with olive oil.

Spread on a tray and roast for 5 minutes.
Flip, then roast another 10-15.

Salt as it comes out, and eat.

Some will be soft and cooked, some will be crunchy and crisp. In the end, its all good.

A sign popped up in my neighborhood Wednesday night. “Free Community Dinner” It featured a big bowl of pasta,  and had a url. I neglected to take down the URl, but did a little googling found some information and made a post on the Greenwood Blog.

While the sign had been pretty shy on details, the website I found provided a little more information. It was run by a church up in Shoreline, the Westminster Community Church, and was branded as a “Late Communion” event.   So the community dinner has  now gone from a “Community dinner” to a “religiously sponsored community dinner” I emailed the organizer for more information.  I also began looking for information on the church. The organizer emailed me back, assuring their purpose was to bring the community together and share a meal.  There would be a small spiritual “pep talk” but that would be it.  In fact, there would be a chance to duck out before that If I wanted to, no hard feelings.

If its no big deal , and  isnt intended as an evangalism event, why aren’t they up front? A community dinner sounds nice, a spiritual ambush? Not so much.  Knowing that it was a religious organization I pushed harder for information, looking for the affiliation trying to figure out who the hosts really are and what they stand for.  Their domain is gone,  web archive provided some visibility there, but not enough.  It was similar to my experience with Greenwood Christian Church, bare bones information.

What does the church have to hide?

In the end, the organizer let me know they were affiliated with Assembly of God. Which is a “God hates Shrimp” church, as Aron put it nicely last night.  Any consideration I had of attending the event went out the window. I don’t expect every organization to be Open and Afirming like my church is, we all hav different beliefs. I do not choose to support organizations that would not welcome me as I am.

In the end I was pissed off. The deliberate vagueness with which this event was presented is  another example of why people dislike christians. If you want to provide a community dinner, provide a community dinner. Wipe the spiritual pep talk off of the agenda and talk to your neighbors. You’re still fufilling your mission, even if you aren’t getting the evangalism brownie points.

If you are  hosting a spiritual dinner mean to refresh the soul, tell people who you are. Let them know you are a church and what you and your church stand for. Give them enough information to make an informed decision about attending, or not.  I wonder how they would feel if they came to a pancake breakfast  that turned into a LGBT fundraiser, with show tunes singalong. Or a picnic in the part that turned into a pagan mother earth celebration.  Uncomfortable, don’t you think?

Am I overreacting? Was this event presented appropriately?

The summer is rolling along. I’m getting into the swing of things work wise, and scheduling almost every free moment I can with social activity.
(Seriously next tuesday we’re celebrating Bastille day with a French dinner and a watching of the Scarlet Pimpernel, then I’m going to a midnight showing of Harry Potter, working Wednesday, then going to a Yelp Elite event to see Othello. )

And it’s good. I’m enjoying the time to see friends. Coffee, lunches dinners. I’m planing a potluck picnic party for late August, and have the Portland Pirate Festival on  my calendar as well. I’ve been able to schedule a couple of dates with my sweeties, join a book discussion group at church and  take down time as needed.

It’s not all just fun and games of course. We’ve got some household maintainence to do, I’ve got  summer reading to finish and some analysis of the last quarter/year of school so that I’m prepared for next year. It’s also about helping people move, as I’m able to. My schedule doesn’t always work out for that, as much as I would like.

Anyway, life here just keeps rolling along.  How are you?