misc.

[magid]

Just noticed that there's a place in Roxbury to get surplus or used building supplies. It's cool to find more places reusing, though the hours aren't great for someone on a 9 to 5 schedule.

There's a new art installation at the Charlestown Navy Yard, the Secret Ark of Icon Park. There are going to be a number of free workshops by the artist, and a poetry reading, unfortunately for me all on Saturdays.

Some Worcester highlights:

• Seeing my aunt and uncle (the only intact pair of these I have left). She and I got to talk education and kid books and math, which is always fun.
  
• Seeing a variety of cousins, including the local first cousin who never seems to get in touch. I hadn't known he's also interested in theater, so perhaps there will be more time shared. Also the first cousins once removed (up the generation ladder).
  
• Getting more caught up on family news, this one's health issues (ok, many people's health issues) (also, see below), that one moving (selling the gorgeous octagonal house in Cape May I've loved for decades; I really hope there will be photos before it's sold), another on sabbatical (I should email and invite him to visit), stories about my grandmother and her sister, looking at old photos (some I'd not seen before), and so on.
  
• Flourless chocolate cake
  
• Family meals
  
• Appreciation for the marvelously improved zucchini breads, which seemed to lose the bitterness after aging for a day. Everyone seemed to like it :-)
  
• A bounty of sour pickles from the Worcester pickle factory
  
• A barbeque with enormous quantities of meat (there were at least nine different kinds, too). The best of these were sine curves of marinated beef on a stick. Yum.

Hm. In other words, the best part of the weekend was about getting caught up with people I don't see enough, and about food.

On the downside, I didn't get nearly enough sleep, had too much sun, didn't have any down time, and ate far too much. Perhaps next time the balance will be better.

Confirmed: a young cousin of mine (another first cousin once removed, for kinship group geeks) has Stargardt's disease. I'm trying to think of something fun to send her (a game or puzzle (hopefully something interesting enough to do more than once, though) or something) that would be easy to ship and not relying much on visual cues. Any suggestions?

Best game rename: Peace-Keeping Mission, aka War

Found in Worcester: matching red sports cars, MA plates GRNPA and GRNMA

Possible purchase: 32 ounces of Madagascar vanilla. The King Arthur catalogue has it for under $40 (plus S&H), which is a pretty good price. Not that I need that much vanilla (would anyone want to go in on it?), but it's still tempting. Plus a lot of other things in their catalog, of course, but for some reason, that one sticks out.

Comments

[bitty.livejournal.com]

muahahahahahahahahahahaha!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Subverting me to the vanilla side?

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of something fun to send her (a game or puzzle (hopefully something interesting enough to do more than once, though) or something) that would be easy to ship and not relying much on visual cues.

Maybe interlocking (wooden or plastic) assembly puzzles? Games People Play near Harvard sells lots of these, but looks like they don't have a web presence to link to (!). I'm thinking of ones like these (http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld/toc.asp?t=_cat/il001.htm&m=cat/il000.htm), but they come in all ranges of complexity (and materials (and price)).

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, pretty! Something like that would work (sending two, so there'd be one for her older sister, would be optimal, I think). I'll have a look around to see where they have things like that; I avoid using Games People Play if I can avoid it.

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

Yes, I usually avoid GPP also. They are the only place I know of around here that has the Arjeu wooden puzzles -- in fact they're one of the few US retailers at all. In the past I've mail-ordered them from Arabesk (http://www.arabesk.nl/english.html) in the Netherlands. (From that home page, go to Catalog -> Puzzles -> Interlocking.)

Some items with similar flavor can be found at The Construction Site (http://constructiontoys.com/) in Waltham, but you're probably familiar with them already...

[magid.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, I never have made it out to The Construction Site; it's been on my list of places to go "sometime" for ages. And thanks for the Arabesk link, too.

I hadn't realized that GPP had made more people than me try to avoid them. (Total aside: abbreviating them to GPP makes me think of Hitchhiker's.)