Are we related?

I received a strange email today. But the story started a few days ago.

I wanted to find something about myself, quickly, so I googled my name. That search provided a link for this book, written by a Russ Klettke. It took me a minute to realize that it was not the Russ that I know. I have been meaning to email about it, but hadn’t had the time.

Then I got an email today from the very same Russ Klettke. He found me via my “professional” blog. He wrote:
Are we related? I too am a writer – for businesses, more or less a recovering PR flack with one published book on nutrition. There aren’t that many of us Klettkes out there. Our tribe is based in Niagara Falls, N.Y., descendants of my great grandfather Rev. Wilhelm Klettke, who emigrated from Warsaw in the 1870s before becoming a Lutheran minister here. I think he had a brother, also in the U.S., but they didn’t seem to keep in touch with each other (religious issues, perhaps – we hear the brother was a Jehovah’s Witness).

My dad's family is very not religious, so I have no idea if we're related or not. But the last name is not so popular, so perhaps we are. I have emailed some relatives to see what they know. As I said in my email to this guy, this could be interesting...

Mountained

I'm still too tired and sore from trying to save myself from Rita. She tried to lead me, and my friend Anner-Marie, through the clouds and into another dimension this weekend when we went hiking, in the fog, against my inner voice, on Mt. Baker. Here are some photos.

You get the idea.

Week-old Crumble

Last weekend, my uncle stopped by with a large pineapple for my mother. She likes fresh pineapple. He buys them at Costco. It doesn't exactly follow the rules of the 100 Mile Diet, but we do what we can. Besides, we have found that the Costco pineapples are delicious.

Because the pineapple was so large, I decided to make a crumble. We had some ripe rhubarb in the garden. There is a bag of frozen strawberries in the deep freeze waiting to be whizzed up into a protein shake. It was a cool day, perfect for baking.

I had never made a crumble before, so I found a recipe. My mother mocked me. "It's crumble, not rocket science." So I cast the recipe aside, and assembled my gingered pineapple, rhubarb, and strawberry crumble with slivered almonds and nutmeg in the crumble. It was delicious, especially warm with ice cream.