Weekend snippets

[magid]

Too much listening to NPR means I keep having to remind myself whether it's a social gathering or dental implants when I see references to BiCon.

Two pounds of ripe peaches + almost one bag of cranberries + 1.25 cups of sugar = just over four half-pints of cran-peach jam.
That's my third canning this month, and I keep thinking of more things to try: peach and hot pepper, just hot pepper, ginger-peach, cran-ginger. There were lots of peaches available at the farmers' market this week, inspiring all this peachy keen stuff. Maybe I should drift into some chutneys, too. Peach chutney sounds good, with ginger and walnuts...

There were butterflies in the air this weekend: I think I saw monarchs twice this weekend, one flying down the street, the other exploring the space above my yard. I don't remember the last time I saw their orange-and-blackness live, rather than in a photo.

I played the role of an authentic U.S. consumer yesterday, driving way too far looking for 'bargains' at outlet malls. I'd forgotten just how exhausting it is, in a way similar to museum fatigue, but without having seen anything near so interesting or pretty. On the other hand, I got a lot of time with a friend I don't always see so much. On the third hand, there were at least four major mammal roadkills on the drive, 2 skunks, one fawn (I could see the white spots), and what might've been a huge raccoon. That was depressing. On the fourth hand, I got to check out a condo for sale, since my friend is home-hunting, and I was the one to find the tiny door leading from the back porch into the kitchen, insulated now with a dusty bag of cotton balls. I still wonder why someone would put a pet door into the wall of the building, rather than the door, which makes a lot more sense to me. Anyone?

License plate of the weekend: NH plate ALLRICE. I kept wondering if that's a culinary statement or an author preference...
(And while I'm at it, some other recent entertaining plates, all MA: MY HERO (on an SUV; I don't think so); BLKADR; and ANGST.)

Does anyone have suggestions for what to do with sweet pickles, other than put on hamburgers, hot dogs, etc?

Comments

[cnoocy]

Turn them into didactic children's books and leave them in your dentist's office.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Pet doors or sweet pickles?

[cnoocy]

The latter.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Wow! Sounds like these were right up (?) to waiting room standards.

Neither my dentist nor my doctor had any of these in their waiting rooms, though. I remember the magazine with the Goofus and Gallant cartoons (wait! wasn't that Highlights? never liked it), and a hardcover book of pretty horrible moral tales (the kid who ate more than his mom thought he should being tricked into eating an empty pie crust, for instance, though nutritionally I wonder at this), and a Christian Bible stories for kids, and that was about it.

I made sure to bring my own reading material, especially because there always seemed to be emergencies at the doctor's office, so it would take the whole afternoon.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Argh! I remember those! And I think I liked them about as well as actual sweet pickles.

BLKADR

[geeyodi.livejournal.com]

This is too funny! I know the guy who owns the BLKADR car!! (I think it's a truck or SUV actually.) Did you happen to see him? He has long reddish hair and a thin beard, possibly a goatee.

Re: BLKADR

[magid.livejournal.com]

I was driving behind the car (or whatever vehicle), so I didn't see more than a vague outline of a driver.
Very small world!

It's a cool plate, just short enough that people without a clue aren't as likely to know why someone would choose that....

Re: BLKADR

[geeyodi.livejournal.com]

Even funnier, is this: It's not for the TV show! It's because he played a character called Corpus Blackadder in a D&D game that I was in during college!

Re: BLKADR

[magid.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, put me in with the clueless group, then.
Corpus Blackadder makes me think of a dead snake. Was the character human?

I wonder if he likes the TV show...

Re: BLKADR

[geeyodi.livejournal.com]

Nope, the character was a halfling (hobbit-like). I would take a guess that he does like the show. It's his type of humour.

[cellio]

Ooh, ginger and peaches together in just about any medium (jam, chutney, something else) sounds wonderful!

Pickles: is eating them straight, rather than in combination with other foods, out of the question?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely have to get more peaches at the farmer's market this week. I haven't tried shipping home-canned goods, so I'll put this down as 'another little reason to visit MA.' :-)

Eating them straight is not out of the question; I've sometimes eaten jars of sweet pickles in far too few sittings... I was just wondering if someone had another use for them, since I don't often want to eat pickles straight.

I think some of it is that I now have a mild association between eating lots of vinegary foods (which, despite the sweetness, this definitely is) with coming down with a cold, since that's when I seem to want them most (hot and sour soup, chutney, pickles). So ideally I'd have alternate uses that wouldn't say 'getting sick' to me...

[cellio]

I'll put this down as 'another little reason to visit MA.' :-)

Oh believe me -- if I ever do visit MA again, you'll be on the itinerary! :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

There's always Arisia, and WorldCon next August....
*dangles con carrots*

[cellio]

If I were to try to come to a Boston con, would there be people who could pick me up at the airport and (optionally) take me to some local source of kosher food when I get in? (Optional because I could presumably bring from home if I don't mind checking luggage. But otherwise I could do a con with only carry-on.) Does the Arisia hotel have refrigerators? (I assume that some hotel connected with Worldcon does.)

I've been to Arisia once. Fun con; not such a fun drive. Next time I fly.

And y'know -- I didn't go to worldcon this year because even though Toronto is close I felt I'd get lost in the sea of people I don't know (I find cons that size intimidating)... but in Boston, I probably know some people. :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

As to being picked up at Logan and a trip for kosher food: it depends, mostly on flight time. I haven't decided this year if I'll finally bite the bullet and take the Friday off, rather than my usual work half a day then rush home, rush to the hotel, etc. If I do, it becomes a lot easier to say a ride is pretty probable. Also, depending on timing, it might be easier to get stuff for you in advance from the kosher market and bring it along to Logan and thence to the hotel.

(Related side note: I don't drive to the con, but take the T, since I don't really want to deal with the hassle/expense of letting my car sit close by when I know I won't be using it. I could see doing an early drop off/check in if I knew I'd have time to bring the car home and return.)

The Arisia hotel rooms have fridges if you request a fridge. Last year I got the fridge, and was told there would be a charge for it, something that struck me as large, though I don't remember what ($20/night, maybe?), but it never showed up on my bill, so I don't know if they decided not to charge, or there were special arrangements with the con, or what.

I have no idea which hotels Worldcon is going to be in; I keep debating going, or maybe going to Burning Man for the first time, or...

[cellio]

You gave me an idea. If I can make food arrangements so food meets me at the con, then I don't need someone to shuttle me around an unfamiliar city while I go shopping -- which means I could take the T or some such to the hotel. (Does the T connect to the airport, or do you have to take a cab?) That's much less disruptive.

Of course, somewhere along the line I should look at a calendar and stuff like that. :-) When's Arisia this year? (January, I know, but which weekend?)

Thanks for the hotel info.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

January 16-18. With luck, it won't snow. :-)

(it's my birthday weekend; as a child, I had many snowed-out birthday parties)

[magid.livejournal.com]

The T goes to the airport and is reasonably close to the hotel, though there are changes in lines, and I'm not sure about the construction on the Airport T stop. There's at least one bus that runs to the airport, too. More info at the MBTA web site.
Caveat: the bus really goes to the airport, but the T is only close by, so you have to take a free shuttle bus from the terminals to the T.

Depending on quantities of luggage, a cab might be worth it, but they're not so cheap. I don't know how expensive they are in other places; it's just that it always feels pricey to take a cab. A cab means no changes, either.

Arisia is always MLK weekend, the long weekend in January , and the con officially only runs through Sunday, so it gives you a day to recover...

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

How many hands do you have? ;)

BTW, the ALLRICE could also be referring to a famous athlete, or a member of the current regime....

[magid.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm talented, ok? *grin*

Another, incredibly improbable RICE possibility: general approach for many injuries. Maybe a paramedic's car...

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's someone who is fond of certain wedding traditions?

[magid.livejournal.com]

*So* not PC these days, with the potential for doing damage to so many birds.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Or someone on a low-gluten diet?
Or a paddy farmer?

Sweet pickle idea

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Launch into orbit. I think they're disgusting (at least if you are talking about the sweet pickles made from cucumbers; I've not had any other variety).

Re: Sweet pickle idea

[magid.livejournal.com]

Sweet pickles made from watermelon rind, actually.
I think these are much more vinegary than the commercial (cucumber) sweet pickles I've had, closer to a chutney flavor minus the spice than unrelieved sweetness.

Re: Sweet pickle idea

[cnoocy]

Would they be tasty as a sandwich ingredient? Like a ploughman's?

Re: Sweet pickle idea

[magid.livejournal.com]

Probably; I just never think of pickles in sandwiches, other than very infrequently putting dill ones with tuna.

The pieces are chopped up, so they'd do better mixed with something in a sandwich. Otherwise I could imagine them falling all over the place. And then people would accuse them of drinking on the job or something. Just awful.