G+ Migration Blog

After finally reaching my sister (sigh), I am definitely going to try to be in MI next week. I will not know until I speak with her Sat eve more precise details because. So, tentative yay. Maybe I will even be able to come peruse all the Foamy things.

Contender for best opening line of a broadcast: "It's 11 o'clock Eastern, so somebody, somewhere is announcing they are running for President."

The summer garden is in full swing, so lots of pics and playing with macro lenses.

For some weird reason, g+ is telling me this never shared. Coulda sworn I posted it. Anyway, from the rainy not the PNW of MI.

I am sad to see the abuse of pride parades around the world.

Ion, my new band name is Synoptic Barocline.

Our weather, let me describe you it: Fugue for Amphibians It's really rainin' here the sky is gray and drear and there's a guy who says that it just won't clear. Flood watch, flood watch, this guy says there's a flood watch; if he says there's a flood watch, flood watch, flood watch. Synoptic baroclines in mid-latitude climes drive low depressing weather at inopportune times. More rain, more rain, this system is producing more rain; if it keeps producing more rain, more rain, more rain. The wind is blowin' hard it's messin' up the yard and there's a gale force warning on the weather card. High winds, high winds, this storm's whippin' up high winds; if it keeps whippin' up high winds, high winds, high winds. Gale force winds, Baroclines, Flood watches! I got your storm right here!

TIL http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/26/national-cathedral-confed_n_7671030.html?cps=gravity_2677_-7485701257894749662 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/26/national-cathedral-confed_n_7671030.html?cps=gravity_2677_-7485701257894749662

Perhaps we should start planning updated productions of The Gay Divorcee .

Unless CNN got it wrong - Congratulations wedding industry people everywhere. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/26/supreme-court-gay-marriage_n_7470036.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/26/supreme-court-gay-marriage_n_7470036.html

I live with a mentally ill person. But nevermind that. Have a nauseatingly cute picture of my nephew! #almostasgoodasapuppy

I got to explain side-eye and humorless aunty face to my Dad today (he managed to combine both into one awesome look). His reply was, "Oh, you mean looking askance?"

I blame you people. Foot long, wood charcoal grilled, with almost everything.

Anybody seen the Aurora last night or tonight? I'm not in a great place to see it and am too tired to try and stay up just in case.

This is a terrible picture of it, but there was this big, fat, relentlessly gay rainbow at the end of our street due to the rain and stuff. It was quite impressive.

I kinda want one for a social. Maybe a little more goat-like. Originally shared by Make: Part puppet, part transportation...Meet Miss Tickle the unclassifiable but interesting creature we saw at Bay Area Maker Faire. http://makezine.com/2015/06/22/miss-tickle-whimsical-puppet-can-ride/

Buckwheat pasta with a fresh asparagus and morel cream sauce. P.S. Morels are a pain in the butt to get clean. Got the idea from a restaurant that served this. Don't really know details of how they did theirs. I used olive oil, shallots, cognac, fresh morels, chicken broth, cream, small grind of black pepper, little bit of dried thyme and dried marjoram, fresh asparagus. And some 100% buckwheat noodles (kind of like spaghetti). Also, morels are really expensive by the pound, but it turns out they weigh next to nothing, so I got 8 for $4.40. At $40/lb., that would've been around 70 some mushrooms in a lb., and you would have to be serving a lot of people to use that many mushrooms. Conclusion: morels are delicious and you should eat them.

Happy Solstice, all.

Had steak and eggs for breakfast this morning. A highly unusual occurrence for me, but I can completely see why people would do this. Recommend.

Getting to the last of spring's goodies. Poached Copper River sockeye with a strawberry tarragon topping, and asparagus for dinner. The poaching liquid was white wine, shallots, fresh tarragon, black peppercorns, one bay leaf. The strawberry stuff was fresh strawberries, fresh tarragon, shallots, fresh lemon juice and zest. I don't know if there's an official culinary term for this sort of thing, but would do again.

Halloo, Bethany Willick . Might I enquire as to what was the name of that site you recommended I read? My brain is not even- ing.

The Father's Day doodle is cute.

Another song I currently like - there's an English version, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urpjInmrnrM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urpjInmrnrM

Don't know why, I like this particular cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK59QzUN1kk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK59QzUN1kk

Augh, just found this out. Another piece of my childhood has died. DiscDrive was a great radio program on CBC and I will never hear Rameau's Fanfarinette without thinking of it as the theme song to this program. Goodbye, Jurgen Gothe, you will be missed. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/former-cbc-radio-host-jurgen-gothe-dead-1.3027822 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/former-cbc-radio-host-jurgen-gothe-dead-1.3027822

You know, English fails spectacularly to communicate sufficiently shaded meanings in all sorts of interpersonal relationships. Like, people often need things, but that is not being needy, so called. Then there are the people who are clearly not simply in need, but boy, do they cross over into that needy thing being a potentially appropriate label. The thing is, I hate that label, because so many people use it not because someone they interact with is in genuine need, but because they only want the happy fun time double plus good good parts of a relationship. Therefore, if you are needy, you are abusing and overtaxing the bounds of the interaction and they are justified in pretty much any behavior to get away from your soul-sucking existence to save themselves. Which is almost always excrement. You guys as a group are generally much more precise with meaning than the vast majority of humanity, many of you in multiple languages. The average use, though, is a way to neg someone, or contro...

My cute brings all the treats to the yard.

The many faces of fur.

I had the weirdest dream last night about missing a flight to Portland. I had a job interview there, and I forgot my suit. Then for some reason I was flying through a connecting city where I somehow ended up at an airport that was like a giant hotel complex, had a very long layover, got lunch or dinner, then couldn't find my way back to the gate. Finally found a ticket desk and asked for help where they first said I'd missed the flight, then said it hadn't left and they called the gate and said it was waiting for me but I lost my seat reservation so had to sit wherever they could squeeze me in, even though I paid extra for some particular seating or other. After asking me a bunch of questions, they said I had to figure out how to get there. Finally, headed generally in the right direction and got stopped at security and asked a lot of questions. Got closer to the gate and got stopped at another security check where they also asked those questions you get asked if you're...

For various Reasons, we did not go to Traverse City today. Eventually, I determined to go to Eastern Market on a hunting expedition (successful, fwiw).  I knew enough to check construction and closures before I went, but it turns out nothing, not the DOT, not Google, not nothing was fully informative. Thus the discovery that the following were under construction or closed, in large part or in whole: 1. I-75 2. I-96 3. I-94 4. M-14 5. M-10 6. Woodward 7. Some other fairly major through street Downtown-ish Oh, and there was a baseball game. How, exactly, do they manage to run this region, again? What I went hunting for was the longish variety of eggplant plants, rather than the more common globe-like ones. After exhaustively searching every single vendor that had plants, I succeeded. Which only tells you I should have started at that end of the Market in the first place. So that was successful and I had a lovely time playing Hopscotch Detroit (not). Also, I now have time to plan alternat...

Pretty, pretty princess cat.

My life is so haaaard .

A selection of cute.

You must check out #distractinglysexy  on twitter. That is all.

I can haz awesomed.

Starting to see some summer flowers.

Plans to be in MI tomorrow through next Wed.

There are times, now, when my mother reminds me of Hyacinth Bucket. #publictvreruns   #oldBBConPBS

Farmer's Market this morning - first strawberries of the season! Bought strawberries, bought rhubarb, pie currently in oven.

Dinner the past two nights -- Tonight: Copper River sockeye with herb coating, asparagus with rhubarb sauce Last night: Wood grilled chicken with zaatar and roasted garlic, levantine cucumber tomato salad I need to work on my food photography. The rhubarb sauce was pink, and the salmon was this really orange salmon color. Oh, well. I tried this new thing I read about where you cook at a low temp in the oven with pans of water at the bottom. It worked super well, and even faster than they said it would. The rhubarb sauce came from my weird brain and my current thing about using fresh, seasonal whatever. My brain thought it's traditional to serve a lemon sauce with asparagus, but rhubarb is tangy, too, why not that? So I simmered some fresh cut up rhubarb with a little sugar and when it got a little soft I let it sit off the heat until it thickened up. Then I thinned it a little with a squeeze of fresh lemon. I suppose I could have gotten fancy and strained it and thickened it with e...

Happy National Donut Day! http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/05/national-doughnut-day-multimedia/28500383/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/05/national-doughnut-day-multimedia/28500383

One of you has left me ear-wormed with Vera Lynn singing "We'll meet again" since this morning. Hers was famouser, even though it was not in the game in question.

Two slightly different but not much articles covering interesting comments by the new first female vice-chancellor of Oxford. Firstly, I'd really like to have a better sense of what she thinks she means. She might have something really insightful to say. WIthout that, my response to this is that if it's a contest, feel free to win. I am beyond grateful that I have never had to live somewhere that was afaik in any respect that matters a war zone. If it is a question of getting used to people essentially fighting a war right where you live, feel free to win that contest. We're fortunate; that hasn't happened since the Civil War, which is probably more analogous to the Troubles than 9/11, anyway.   After trying to look up some concrete information, I found some numbers, which are difficult to compare. The most obvious thing is that the official period of the fighting in Northern Ireland is about 30 years, as opposed to essentially a few hours for 9/11. That said, 3,530 peo...

Crap. A combination of neglect due to illness and stupid gardening magazines* has led to a very bad peachtree borer infestation in the apricot trees. I think I am going to have to call the tree people who trimmed it and see if they are in a position to do anything. What I am reading is a little conflicting, except for the part where they all look at you sadly and shake their heads. This can kill the trees.  These are a type of moth and their larvae. They burrow under the bark and eat the cambium, which is the living part of the bark under the outer protective dead layer. They are apparently very hard to kill, even with nasty chemicals, which is a lot of what I am seeing recommended. Nasty enough that you cannot buy them for home use; they are only available to licensed commercial folks. There are some variably listed things about stuff you can do yourself without the super-nasty chemicals, but I can't get a clear picture of what to do, so I'm going to have to call around. Maybe...