My grandpa Wells is pretty much gone. He sort of surprised all of us by singing along to "Happy Birthday to You" with his eyes still closed at his own birthday party, and he clapped dutifully along with us as it was over. One aunt, already a wreck, was beside herself at this time and continued to try to explain to him who he was and why we were all here.
He's forgotten me, but he was glad to hear I'm a grandson and that I love him. His memory is useless, but his capacity to love has not left him. He's had a great life. I doubt it'll last much longer, but I can't complain about the life he had.
Yesterday was our monthly singing at one of the local nursing homes, and we had to snag one of our alternates because one gal had a conflict and the other is spending the summer with Engineers Without Borders fixing wells in drought-stricken Ethiopia (a good excuse!). Our set list this time around was:
"Runaway" by Del Shannon
"A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles
"Day After Day" by Badfinger
"The Boxer" by Simon & Garfunkel
"Happy Together" by the Turtles
"Please Please Me" by the Beatles
"You Lost that Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers
"The Letter" by the Box Tops
"Bad Moon Rising" by CCR
"Ticket to Ride" by the Beatles
"I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash
Nice set list!
I for one welcome our robot overlords.
CH, you might enjoy Adam Driver's recent TED talk
I was Department of the Navy, but no Marine.
Still ... that was close to home.
Aye. Thanks for sharing this, Rhu_Ru.
I'll be downtown Minneapolis at Loring Park all afternoon for Pride. We have an exhibition rugby match from 3-4 if you're interested.
the lemon curd turned out delicious, but a tiny bit grainy. Not sure why. The mouthfeel is as though some of the sugar re-crystalized. It quickly smooths out on the tongue, however.
I used the zest from two lemons, grated with a microplane then processed in my food processor with the sugar to grind it pretty fine, two eggs, the juice from 4 lemons (about a cup of juice), and a half-cup of melted, unsalted butter. I mixed the eggs and sugar, then added the lemon juice, then the melted butter, mixing thoroughly with a whisk each step. Into a large (6-cup) pyrex measuring cup and into the microwave on high for one-minute increments, mixing between each increment. It took about 10-11 minutes to get thoroughly to the coat-back-of-spoon stage (run finger through it on the spoon and the edges stay pretty distinct). Finished with a 30-second increment, then cooled in the fridge overnight.
I think I'm gonna have to try that.
Got the process started on my boochery today. I bought a bottle of raw kombucha the other day to get my SCOBY started, made some sweet tea and put a couple of quarts in a good spot. Here's to hoping I only see slimy, stringy bits and no fuzzy blue ones.
Also, after drinking the rest of the bottle I bought, which was the first time I've ever had the stuff, I'm happy to say that I liked it a whole lot.
My mother-in-law used to make some NA cocktail with apple cider vinegar. I didn't like it.
Kombucha tastes identical to me.
Tindori Thoran
NBBW placed first in her age group in a Lowell, MA Oly-triathlon this morning. I did another 3 mi clippet of my Red Trail (CT: MA to Sound). Lunch was crab cakes/fish cakes/shrimp-scallop-cakes with friends, along with Tindori Thoran:
1lb of tindori (cucumber-like vegetable at your Indian grocer)
1 tsp turmeric
oil
Raw cashew nuts
mustard seeds
curry leaves
red chilis
onion, chopped
desiccated coconut
salt
Quarter the Tindori (they are like Indian cucumbers, smallish and flavorless on their own)
Boil in saucepan with 1/2 tsp turmeric, some salt for 5 min).
Stir-fry the cashews until golden.
Heat oil on med. heat, add mustard seeds - once they are popping, add curry leaves, chilis, and onion. Cook until the onion is ready.
Add more turmeric, some salt, and the Tindori and cashews. Whilst hot, add a liberal amount of desiccated coconut.
Awesome.
I love any recipe that calls for desiccated coconut. I've never actually made anything with it, I just think it sounds hilariously gross (though I'm sure it's delicious.)
Adventures in delegation.
So, I went to the office today, and delegated cooking/oversight functions to The Boy. Pork butt went on at 9:15 or so this morning. I figured the snake would last until 2:30 or 3:00. Turns out it went the distance and we pulled the butt off at 5:30. It is now resting. Cool.
But. But. But I also asked him to start a pot of pinto beans, which I'd soaked overnight. Sure he says. I walk in the house, and it smells like burned plastic. Nobody seems to be put off by this odor. I walk into the kitchen. And look at the stove. And notice there's an electrical cord underneath the pot of beans, burned through. Oh, great. Way to pay attention, numb nuts.
At least the cord wasn't plugged in (it was the cord for an electric kettle).
I don't have young adults in the house, so it's probably just a lack of experience, but I'm really having a hard time seeing how it's remotely possible to do that without noticing.
Because 21.
I think I could probably still manage to do something akin to this.
It has to be on a gas stove, right? I've got a glass top and I think it would be impossible to not notice there is a cord under the pot.
But, 21.
Yes, gas.
It takes very little awareness to notice a loop of black cord lying across white tile and a white stove.
Awareness comes in many flavors. Not saying it's not ridiculous, but I could absolutely see myself doing something like what you described.
Awareness comes in many flavors.
I will frequently see something and think, "Now, is that new, or has it been there for a long time and I just never noticed?"
Smart people can do dumb things.
My wife had a kombucha bomb go off in our house this morning. Broken glass and vinegary tea everywhere. Luckily, no injuries.
I don't even know if it's "dumb" things, though they certainly appear as such to others, but I've done things that absolutely boggle my wife's mind. Usually, it can be boiled down to "huh. That never even crossed my mind".
i keep mine in a cabinet for that reason. if it does ever go off, the door should take most of the shrapnel.
as a young teenager, I once pulled what was probably a quart bottle of what I thought was coca-cola from our fridge and began to open it. Turns out it was homebrew that my dad had put into a Coke bottle. Stuff went off like Old Faithful, and I lacked the wherewithal to quickly screw the cap back on. The kitchen was malty and sticky for some time.
so, yea, I know about stupid.
A puzzling scandal from back in March. News to me, however.