Category: Food

i’ve been sitting in the sun

but not at Vantan, one thing, another, the whole Dinsdale stale trail of when plans go awry. I shall be crispy tonight. Jeff said I looked a trifle sunned. I heard stunned but you know how siblings are. (That did not, in fact, happen.)

However Mike came over and cooked supper outside on a campstove and it was nom nommity yes indeedy. Gai lan and beef&onions, over rice, mochi balls to finish. For whatever reason Buster who has in past been his devoted fan, wouldn’t go near him. He’s been fine but weird lately.

Knoweth how to party, Mike, in any event. Jeff had two whole beers. (I am drinking de-alcoholized, as is Mike. The cannabis was stylishly abundant I will leave it at that.)

He is now cleaning up, the Mobile 8th Wonder of the World.

We’ll reconvene over John Wick 4.

not a peep

Didn’t hear a peep out of anyone at the Junction yesterday. Fine, I was probably not in good enough shape to be useful and they had other plans.

Somebody was busy last night; fewer stories because these are the long ones.

Brain is adequate this morning but nothing better. SO MANY FOOD WORDS on the NY Times Wordle these days, it’s been food words for a week now, bagel and ramen etc. I’m out of some Rx in a few days and as usual don’t have a Doc appt until after I run out. I don’t imagine it will be a problem, pharmacists have been known to save the day.

SCHNITZEL last night, also this morning. I left a tiny little piece as a snack for later. The greek salad was very good too. I’m finding the ‘not eating anything solid after about 5 pm’ diet is working fine.

I think I made very fine coffee this am. I am enjoying it.

errands

Accompanied Paul for a meal and errands yesterday. It was a beautiful day again and I kept my temper for most of it, but learning that he had received a new bank card and just thrown out the last one without calling the number and getting it authorized meant that we now had another errand, meaning going to the bank and stooging around for half an hour while the world’s most patient bank clerk dealt with Paul not being able to enter the same pin number twice running and not being able to remember his own home phone number that he’s had since 1996 and laughing about it. Then we learned his credit cards were buggered up too, and the clerk squared what he could away. Two children from a five child family screamed and moaned right next to us the entire time this was going on, just to give you the true, “If it’s Thursday this must be the third level of hell” feel to the occasion. Anyway, I paid for the banker boxes he bought and he paid me back at the bank.

I got him lunch at Nando’s at Market Crossing and realized that Paul is having more and more and more trouble handling food and I should have gotten him something less knife and fork to eat. The meal took almost an hour and he had a beer too. I was shrugging it off so I asked him to sit in the car while I got more babby plant pots and some embroidery hoops while I poked my head into Michaels.

While we were picking up banker boxes, something funny happened. We miss Jim, of course we do, and in Paul’s case the missing him comes out in song; it was Jim who told us about Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers and gave us our first few cassette tapes, which we listened to constantly. One of them, a traditional song, is called Sarah, and has the following chorus:

Sarah, Sarah won’t you come out tonight,
Sarah, Sarah the moon is shining bright,
Put your hat and jacket on, tell your mother you won’t be long,
And I’ll be waiting for you round the corner

Except that when Paul sang it, it came out, “The moon is brining shite,” at which point I laughed helplessly for about a minute.

BRAINz working okay today, tiny amount of writing, but the real big cognitive news is that I got eight hours of sleep.

Plane crashes and setting the mixture lean

So there was a plane crash in Langley yesterday. I heard about it on the radio. Then I read on line that the airplane – a small private craft – CLIPPED A TRUCK on the highway before coming in for a crash. Ya know friends and neighbours that is most likely to mean that HE DIDN’T SET FUEL TO RICH MIXTURE so he had ZERO OOMPH when he needed it. Since this is exactly like the plane crash I was in I’m of course predicting that’s what happened. Everyone including the poor bastid in the truck got conveyed to the hospital and in true Canadian fashion, lived to complain about it all.

I picked Keith up in his own car from the Ferry Terminal at Tsawassen yesterday. It was a STINKING HOT DAY, much hotter in Burnaby than the records might indicate. I had to drive in traffic. People who drive from east Burnaby to the southern terminal know well that there are a couple of choke points. One is the bridge access southbound on 20th; queued there for 20 minutes or so, cursing most immoderately the entire fucking time. One is the ‘curve’ on highway 91A where the traffic ALWAYS slows down even though there are no on-ramps? Like- what the hell, people. There is no earthly reason for this to happen, so I unscrambled my brains and gave it some consideration and I guess it’s because trucks have to slow down because it isn’t banked properly or something and that has a standing wave effect on the rest of the traffic. And of course another is the run up to the Massey Tunnel, but that was barely a blip because they had the counterflow set in favour of the traffic direction I was on.

After all that, got there in plenty of time to greet him for the ride home, and he thank god did the rest of the driving because I was once again pretty crispy toast from driving with due care and attention in that relentless traffic and heat. I didn’t want to put the air con on because we had less than a quarter tank of gas and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get stuck behind an accident with no gas.

All was well, Keith efficiently gave me back the stuff I’d left in his car after the trip, and discovered ANOTHER BAG OF BISCOTTI – I told you I made a lot of that – which is going over to Peggy today because she is awesome and could use a break. With coffee, and biscotti. I won’t stay, I’ll just biscotti fairy it over to her when Jeff and I go to errandry later this morning.

Right now, I must dress, brush teeth and watch Endeavour, and then we’re going out. The downstairs toilet needs a part, and I want to get the Marvin the Martian watch I got from John’s stash running again. Curiously, I found the identical watch (right down to the watchband, which is an unusual leather and colour) for sale, secondhand since it was made in 94, in Europa for 339´€ and in the US for $39, so someone’s getting hosed and it’s not me.

Embarrassing as it is to relate, it is entirely possible that I will purchase another cell phone. Spending time with a dementia sufferer and being out of touch while I’m driving him around (he often forgets his phone) has made me understand the value of access. As I was driving to the ferry I kept thinking if I’m in an accident I’ll have no way to contact Keith and it made me unduly fretful.

we were expecting lunch

Jeff and I have been expecting lunch and the Keith who was going to make it, but I can only assume he’ll breeze in late or call in apology. In the meantime we had pastries delivered.  NYA HA HA HA HA HA HA

LATER: He’s fine, no huhu, and I’ve got a very nice lentil soup going so I didn’t miss much and I made cinnamon buns. That’s sort of Keith’s favourite thing that I make. Oh well he missed it, Jeff will be fine. Paul had a gerontology appointment this morning and something else happened and that cleaned Keith out for the day. I know how he feels. On the positive side there’s movement on a rental possibility.

Off to Paul’s today

Going to help with packing and take us for a walk.

Wordle in 5, 1646 words on ‘The Instructor’ yesterday, with none expected today because of my errands. Lumosity one top score the rest abysmal dreck. I made myself coffee and toasted a sourdough muffin. I’m pretty well used to not keeping cream in the house any more, sigh; my liver has thanked me.

Bakhmut’s still under siege. Putin visited military headquarters in Kherson and Zelenskyy visited the front in Avdiivka.

China’s mediated the first progress in the Yemen war in years; Saudi Arabia and Iran may reopen embassies. Given that 60% of Yemeni deaths since 2015 are directly attributable to the war (via food insecurity and zero health care) and that a million people there have been affected by the cholera epidemic the faster peace comes the better and I don’t care who brokers it.

There’s a yummy beef and tomato and onions mix for wraps in the fridge and also a very nice lentil tofu stew. Sounds bland, but with turmeric, ginger, half a lime, cumin, black pepper, cayenne and plenty garlic it’s anything but. The tofu got cooked in a spice mix but it all ended up incorporated in the stew and it is quite yummy. A bit salty for the diet because for all the veggie ingredients leading one to think it’s vegan, I cooked it in chicken stock (I didn’t want it going bad in the fridge).

Twitter is being really weird and gross and they just took the bans off dead-naming trans people (using what they were named at birth rather than their chosen name for transition) and it’s OPEN SEASON on trans people in a way that was obvious enough before but is now a tidal wave of bigoted speech. Trust trans people to know their own gender enough that you do not need to question them about it.

seven percent of parents regret having children.

one percent of trans people regret transitioning.

IT’S A VERY SUCCESSFUL SOCIO-MEDICAL PROCEDURE, quit second guessing trans people and spending all your chocolate coin attention on the ‘poor parents’ who have been ‘cheated’ of the ‘child they were meant to have’ BLEUCH I hate people who think like that NONE OF US FUCKING GET THE KID WE WANT we get the kid we get and whining about it is rude to everyone and makes you look like a gurning nithing. (gur-ning nye-ðing aka a facepulling poltroon)

I slept GREAT but not ENOUGH so I imagine I’ll be napping this afternoon.

So tempted to write Elizabeth Holmes in jail and mock the living shit out of her but better people have more claim to my time LOL. She honestly believed that people like her can’t go to jail well just ask Martha Stewart she did five months and is still proclaiming her innocence.

apology accepted

Jeez I could have gotten this over days ago. C. has been kind enough to hear and accept my apology and did not consider my considerable display of ill temper enough to make her hate me…

Don’t know what I did to deserve this life.

Shipped off 1450 words to mOm this morning after an 850 word day, thank you very much.

The brilliant sunshine is so wonderful. I just popped the back door to let the late afternoon sun and air flush the house.

Paul took me to lunch after we took EIGHT BAGS of mostly clothes (I did a quick peruse to ensure it’s stuff he can lose) to Value Village. Next time per his specific request they’ll go to the Sally Ann at the bottom of the hill. I can’t talk him out of it, that’s fine, he’s entitled to his preferences.

busy day yesterday

I did my normal morning stuff and then communicated a bunch with Katie. I got a couple of rental applications queried and took what I’d printed out over to her to fill it out (I checked her work) and provided all the stamps and envelopes and put it in the mailbox for her. It was lovely to interact with her because she was un-surrounded by children and could complete a thought. It was sad to interact with her because she once again has to pack up her entire life and move on and can look forward to a lot of domestic strife in the meantime. Anyway I was helping her look for coops inside a three km radius, so that kept me busy part of the day.

Continue reading busy day yesterday

pleasant times

Lovely indoor walk with Paul yesterday at Lougheed. He seems very beaten down and oppressed by his illness but cheered up for the walk. It always cheers folks up to eat, so we got some lo mai gai, which was particularly fine in comparison with previous outings, and there was a lone har gaw in there because they were out of enough lo mai gai to fulfil my order, and the hot and sour soup was as good as I ever remember it being there. We went to Cobb’s but I didn’t buy treats, just spongy crusty white bread which is my kryptonite for stuff I’m s’posed to lay off for my liver.

Continue reading pleasant times

another day of grey

Wordle in 4, Lumosity is indicating that my brain has fallen out of my ass, 22841 words.

mOm recommended Wong & Winchester and Jeff and I are liking it. We’re working our way through season three of Sinner (Matt Bomer is the villain) and it’s the usual freaky psychological stuff, but intensely interesting. Season 2 Zone Blanche rewatch yields continuing gems. Finished Last of Us season one; a really fine entertainment. Finding out that the giraffe (a local Canadian zoo provided it) was real instead of CGI was a trip… that was Bella Ramsey actually putting something in its gob, lol.

Peggy showed up with cake and soda bread, she got the last of the biscotti in exchange. Absolutely no one complaining. Love all around.

I am still feeling very small and useless.

 

Errands and Paul and biscotti fae

got a call midmorning from Katie saying that what with Paul being alone in the house while Keith and Alex are off in Saamich and Dax and Katie being at work he might be lonely.

So I used the opportunity to drop off his household’s biscotti portion, get a meal into him at Pho Edmonds, ran biscotti over to Sue and to Peggy, walked in Fraser Foreshore (JEEEBUS it was cold and Paul was definitely having mobility issues, although he perked up after a few hundred metres), and picked up a bag of walkway salt for his household after I noticed they were almost out of it (paid a swingeing great price for it too but it’s 20 kilos and who knows how long the salt will last in the stores, so I’m glad I did it, glad, I tell you), and then a couple of party favours from the Bohemian.

Once again he greeted me by asking me whose idea it was to take away his licence. I told him his license is in his wallet, same as always, and now that he’s had symptoms like chatting with people who aren’t there it’s too dangerous for him to drive. If he wants to book and pass a drivers test in BC he can drive again no matter what his doctor says, and he objected most strenuously to this and asserted that I couldn’t pass a drivers test either and my driving was terrible. As best as I can make out, he wants me to get a dementia diagnosis as well, but as long as my LPI on Lumosity is over 1400 I’m not doing any such goddamned thing. My performance stats are above 80th percentile for every game for people my age and over 95th percentile for 5 out of the 7 categories (I do worst in math but still better than 4/5 people my age). I do not have dementia. Has driving in Vancouver, recently rated the 2nd worst city in NA for traffic, RUINED my driving??? POSSIBLY. But I don’t need to surrender my licence yet.

Since Paul says this to me every time we get together in an attempt to get me to admit it’s my fault, I stopped inserting myself in the picture and told him what to do to fix it.  Thirty seconds later he tells me he keeps missing appointments and he’s anxious about his skull scan. The lack of insight which characterizes his ailment is a sore trial, but he has not stopped being loveable good company when he’s not grumping about the shitty hand he’s been dealt.

Peggy’s biscotti response:

No one seems to know where the bag of biscotti came from. I tested them for poison and survived. It was necessary to have a second test to be sure.

I am suspicious that they came from you and just wanted to say thank you

My response to this:

It was hilarious. I tried the door and came in. I said, Hello this house. Then I said Hello this house, louder, and Kali ran up barking and I assumed the sniff hand position and said in a jolly voice, relax Kali you know me. I could hear voices (?) coming from the downstairs bathroom, the door of which was closed, and not wanting to linger and loving the idea that I could just manifest biscotti in your house, I put the biscotti on the counter, ensured that the dog did not escape and the door was in fact latched, and departed, to Paul, who was waiting in the car.

Sue’s response:

I was out getting a mani/pedi and when I came home, love was at my door. ????????

Sue

That was so sweet of you. I’m sorry I wasn’t home but not sorry cause it was such a wonderful surprise. I shall have biscotti with hot sweet tea this very evening.

Alex is coming

Alex will be here for a sleepover tonight.

Two loads of laundry. 19336 words.

I made split pea with ham soup yesterday. I’d bought the ingredients but hadn’t got my shit together to make it. The soup filled the house with a heavenly aroma; then the flatus begins.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

posted these yesterday on social media

I would rather adjust my life to your absence, than adjust my boundaries to accommodate your disrespect.

graffiti from Esquimalt, FART ON COPS

REASONS TO LIVE BOOKSHOP ADVERTISING STICKER my other car suddenly has its alarm going off onboard the queen of surrey while en route to Reasons to Live books and records

 

 

bathtub dive and Alex pickup

I just found out you can sing into the extra soundhole on this Riversong ukulele and get absolutely wild harmonic effects. Also, yesterday I learned THE ORIGINAL LYRICS to the ‘2 & 20 Blues’ and they completely change the tone of the song. I shall herewith demonstrate: The very first line is “There’s evil men in this DOGGONE town” but the way my ex (and Dr Filk) taught it was ‘GODDAMN’ and that really changes things. First is worldweary, second is angry, and the song is resigned, not angry. The very last line is “You may say that I’m wrong but you know I FEEL all right.” I was taught ‘I’LL BE’. The singer is OKAY IN THE PRESENT, not sometime in the future. But right now! The song’s about grabbing life where and when you can, not hoping you’ll be happy sometime.

Thank you for attending this bathtub dive into 2 & 20 Blues by Linda Morrison, pressed 1981.

Continue reading bathtub dive and Alex pickup