Busy holiday weekend
Jul. 6th, 2008 08:16 pmIt felt like the weekend started Wednesday when we went out to a kaiseki restaurant with ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spikeiowa and voidampersand to celebrate the latter's birthday. Due to some odd pauses in the service, it ended up being an unusually long meal, ending well after 10:30 (from a 6:45 start). We were having fun, so it wasn't a problem, except I woke up the next morning and realized that I couldn't go in Friday for the fasting blood test for my check up next week, because Friday was a holiday. Normally a 12-hour fasting period is no problem, but with the late dinner....
So I felt out of whack all day Thursday due to the odd beginning, but in the afternoon I managed to talk myself into going through two sections of one of my file cabinets and tossing out about 80% of the contents. I have a goal of combining the two file cabinets in my office into one, and I do think it will be possible with appropriate pruning. This was certainly a great start!
Friday morning we went to our newly revived neighborhood parade, a very home town affair with lots of kids on bicycles, as well as some dignitaries in classic cars, scout troops, the Sharkmobile fire truck, our neighborhood calliope (resides just down the block from us), etc. Here's a link to more of![[info]](https://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
magscanner's pictures.
It seemed like the right day to try out the Spanek vertical roaster I had just bought, so I invitedspikeiowa and voidampersand over for a last-minute Fourth of July barbecue. The chicken really did turn out beautifully, with deliciously crispy skin all the way around and moist, tasty meat. The Galena Street spice mix from Penzey's that I liberally sprinkled inside and out didn't hurt either. Afterwards we headed downtown for the fireworks display, managing to effect a fairly easy entry and exit from the area, traffic-wise.
Saturday morningmagscanner was reading an article about declining agriculture in Morgan Hill which quoted Andy Mariani, our local national treasure fruit grower. I suddenly remembered that he was having a tasting and tour that morning, one of only two this summer. So we managed to hustle out of the house and get there in time for the last of the orchard tours. The big treat of the tours is being able to taste and pick fruit as you go. My hope, which was realized, was that the last of the cherries would still be hanging in the some of the trees. Black Tartarians and Black Republicans, in particular, have this lovely trick of drying and shriveling on the tree, sort of like tree-ripened dried cherries. What a treat! We picked over 10 lbs of cherries. I spent much of today pitting large bowls of them and freezing them for future treats.
Then there was a Master Gardener picnic Saturday afternoon, a brunch party on Sunday, picking up some free Adirondack chairs from a friend, and a little light gardening. Saturday night I was suddenly taken by the urge to organize my huge stack of unfiled recipes -- and I did it! It didn't even take that long. I was ruthless too, with many clipped pages going into recycling instead of the files. I could probably stand to go through the files and toss stuff too, but hey, it's a start.
Time to go finish my Colin Cotterill book, The Coroner's Lunch. Someone at Fourth Street recommended him, and it's marvelous! Have you read it?
And how was your holiday weekend?
spikeiowa and voidampersand to celebrate the latter's birthday. Due to some odd pauses in the service, it ended up being an unusually long meal, ending well after 10:30 (from a 6:45 start). We were having fun, so it wasn't a problem, except I woke up the next morning and realized that I couldn't go in Friday for the fasting blood test for my check up next week, because Friday was a holiday. Normally a 12-hour fasting period is no problem, but with the late dinner....So I felt out of whack all day Thursday due to the odd beginning, but in the afternoon I managed to talk myself into going through two sections of one of my file cabinets and tossing out about 80% of the contents. I have a goal of combining the two file cabinets in my office into one, and I do think it will be possible with appropriate pruning. This was certainly a great start!
Friday morning we went to our newly revived neighborhood parade, a very home town affair with lots of kids on bicycles, as well as some dignitaries in classic cars, scout troops, the Sharkmobile fire truck, our neighborhood calliope (resides just down the block from us), etc. Here's a link to more of
magscanner's pictures.It seemed like the right day to try out the Spanek vertical roaster I had just bought, so I invited
spikeiowa and voidampersand over for a last-minute Fourth of July barbecue. The chicken really did turn out beautifully, with deliciously crispy skin all the way around and moist, tasty meat. The Galena Street spice mix from Penzey's that I liberally sprinkled inside and out didn't hurt either. Afterwards we headed downtown for the fireworks display, managing to effect a fairly easy entry and exit from the area, traffic-wise.Saturday morning
magscanner was reading an article about declining agriculture in Morgan Hill which quoted Andy Mariani, our local national treasure fruit grower. I suddenly remembered that he was having a tasting and tour that morning, one of only two this summer. So we managed to hustle out of the house and get there in time for the last of the orchard tours. The big treat of the tours is being able to taste and pick fruit as you go. My hope, which was realized, was that the last of the cherries would still be hanging in the some of the trees. Black Tartarians and Black Republicans, in particular, have this lovely trick of drying and shriveling on the tree, sort of like tree-ripened dried cherries. What a treat! We picked over 10 lbs of cherries. I spent much of today pitting large bowls of them and freezing them for future treats.Then there was a Master Gardener picnic Saturday afternoon, a brunch party on Sunday, picking up some free Adirondack chairs from a friend, and a little light gardening. Saturday night I was suddenly taken by the urge to organize my huge stack of unfiled recipes -- and I did it! It didn't even take that long. I was ruthless too, with many clipped pages going into recycling instead of the files. I could probably stand to go through the files and toss stuff too, but hey, it's a start.
Time to go finish my Colin Cotterill book, The Coroner's Lunch. Someone at Fourth Street recommended him, and it's marvelous! Have you read it?
And how was your holiday weekend?
