Last week, we took a tour of the Theo Chocolate factory that’s a few blocks from our house. They have a little factory store where you can buy big bags of scraps and they have free samples. It’s a problem. They have a few weird bars, like coconut curry, cherry and chile, bread, and sea salt. The sea salt is just what it sounds like; it’s salty chocolate. It’s pretty good. It’s a dark chocolate bar and even Will likes it and Will doesn’t really like dark chocolate. So we had a bunch of samples and Will got a salty chocolate bar. We also got a little can of roasted cocoa bean chunks. I would describe them as chocolate flavored nut pieces. They’re supposed to be good for you and Will’s been trying to put them in everything. Speaking of Will, we had to wear hairnets in the factory. In addition, Will had to wear a beardnet:
This is the only picture we took at the factory. The machines themselves weren’t really that interesting. They weren’t running because it was a Saturday. But we did see some videos and the tour guide was very informative and witty. She was also from Minnesota. A lot of the people I’ve met here are from Minnesota.
The chocolate is organic and fair trade. For readers who don’t know what fair trade is, it means they ensure that everyone involved in the supply chain and in the production is fairly compensated and enjoys decent working conditions. I guess many places that produce cocoa beans use child and slave labor, just like many clothing manufacturers run sweatshops. So you can feel good about eating your Theo chocolate.
After the factory, we went to the library. I picked up a German movie called The Counterfeiters. I haven’t watched it yet. I also got the first volume of The Hunger Games. I’m curious about what all the kids were raving about. I can also borrow ebooks from the library and view them on our nook. It’s pretty cool. I got a German cookbook and Freakonomics. I think when an ebook is “due back” at the library, the book just disappears automatically from the nook or it becomes unviewable. Or, there’s something I have to do to “return” it. We’ll see.
This weekend we went to Woodland Park and walked around Green Lake a little bit. It’s pretty nice. They have tons of baseball and soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts, a skatepark, and boat rentals. You can also swim in the lake and they have a big floating platform with diving boards on it. We really wore ourselves out walking around though. It was hot by Seattle standards; the high was 87 today. So we walked around and then on the way home we stopped at Uneeda Burger. We had burgers.
One other thing is that there are tons of edible plants in public spaces along the lake and along the sidewalks in our neighborhood. The big one is blackberries. There are also a few plum trees and a big bunch of dill plants near our building. I’ve also seen what I think might be blueberries and we found some patches of what looked like some kind of bean. Mmmm, urban foraging. I hope I don’t poison myself. I’ll be sure to quit eating things from the sidewalks when I have a bun in the oven.
Work has been good. The students and the coworkers are nice and the curriculum is straight forward. I’m pleased to be meeting some people around here. The commute is a bit of a killer after work so hopefully the transfer to UW happens. I certainly don’t plan to have such a long way home for the long term.
Will looks so pleased in his beard mask.