G+ Migration Blog

So, yeah, didn't get around to posting these until today. I really need a proper camera if I am going to try to take pictures of things like this. #SuperHarvestBloodMoon

That chiles rellenos casserole thing I made last year? I made it again. I got lots of poblano peppers at the farmer's market and grilled 'em over hardwood and then made this, with black beans, and lots of mexican cheeses, and tomato sauce. I also had more eggplants from my plants and grilled those and made melizanosalata and baba ganoush (one has tahini, one doesn't). I love food that tastes like a camp fire.

Hobbies. P.S. Should you feel such endeavours require a screw loose, well, spoiler, he literally had a screw loose. It's reportedly been removed. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/jasper-sean-prockter-climb-peak-mountain-1.3247719 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/jasper-sean-prockter-climb-peak-mountain-1.3247719

Well, it is officially and suddenly fall. Temperature's dropping and I had to get out my fleece.

You know how people sometimes insist on telling you something, because they just have to? Something you're not interested in, has no impact on you, and you just don't care about? Sometimes, it's something somebody else told them, that they have made no effort to verify, whatsoever, and gee, what could possibly be the reason for the person to have told them anyway? And now they are all worked up, and we should all feel righteous indignation, and you are trying to walk away from them and they keep following you? So you quietly try to offer some reasonable, rational points for their consideration, if only to dial down the agitation they are broadcasting. Like, the kind that would upset any animals in the vicinity, it's being broadcast so strongly. But they aren't really interested, because Righteous Indignation! And they finally stop and you run away and try to disperse the agitation they've been projecting at you by talking about it on g+? Their behavior is sympto...

Watched second episode of The Muppets, because hope and don't judge on scant data, etc. In a nutshell, this will never be for me because a) Kermit is too mean, and b) The insensitivity, it burns, and is the antithesis of "muppet". Other observations: 1. It will find an audience, at least for a while. The same people who would watch The Office or similar, as per some of your comments.  2. It apes the form but lacks the substance. It's probably good for the people doing the show that even if vengeful spirits were a thing, Jim Henson isn't the type. 3. Yet another moment that I would have not even noticed, never mind remarked, never mind found inappropriate prior to exposure to the wider world. The set-up is using sushi as a metaphor for something being good or bad, where (I think I have this right) gas station sushi is bad, and convenience store sushi is good. You can count the comedy beats, 1, 2, 3. The first two comments are made by band members, muppets that have...

Interesting. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/detroit/detroit-s-best-food-50-things-to-eat-before-you-die

Today's family edition: The good - video clip of nephew bashing drum and tambourine. Although he clearly had the wrong end of the stick. Which would be funny if you saw the video. I swear. The bad - Asked do I want to spend one more day with mumblemumble persons at a family thing to which I have been hogtied. Don't get me wrong. I like the people having the shindig, but it's in Allentown, PA. And I have to be in a room with immediate family in a temporary domiciling arrangement, also known as a hotel. For many days. And the people involved in the gee, we're gonna be there longer and wouldn't it be great if, etc. request are the same people/persons involved in the oh, gosh, we just never get to spend any time alone with each other debacle of 1 month ago. What I really want to say is well, gee, here's your opportunity to spend more time alone together. The ugly - oh, mom and her brother and her behavior because of her stress because of her choosing to be involved...

This is awesome. I just wish instead of her theme song mentioning she was nice and cleaned her room and ate her veggies (and apparently had to call Spider-Man for help), it was just: Spider-Mable, Spider-Mable Does whatever a spider's able Spins a web, any size Catches villains*, just like flies Look out! Here comes the Spider-Mable! *because in this caper, it's a villain, not a thief, per se http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/spider-mable-why-a-6-year-old-cancer-survivor-s-battling-villains-in-edmonton-1.2584811 http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/spider-mable-why-a-6-year-old-cancer-survivor-s-battling-villains-in-edmonton-1.2584811

Freaking out, a lot. Failure, trapped, screw-up. It's pretty bad.

I got to pet an alpaca.

Surprise. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/09/25/boehner-resigns/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/09/25/boehner-resigns

The torte lives. Gave up, used old standard french techniques. Voila. Measured ounces for everything, liquid or solid; ground walnuts with some sugar, hand grated dark chocolate, separated many eggs and whipped the little suckers yolks and whites separately, cognac; so. much. folding. More chocolate and cream and orange oil = ganache. Cooling, and chilling, and fussing. Next day carefully transferring and splitting and transferring layers, whipping of ganache, layering of things. Chilling. Whipping of more cream with cognac and vanilla. Crumb coating top. Chilling. Crumb coating sides. Chilling. Next day final layer of whipped cream "frosting". Chilling. Placement of laboriously selected perfect walnut halves. Chilling. But, you know, it totally works. I might even get cocky and split it into three layers next time. Or get really out of control and try making an Esterhazy torte. Or something. P.S. This is totally low carb. And gluten free. Maybe I shall call it the Ironic To...

This was pretty amazing.  http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-wednesday-september-23-2015-1.3239842/meet-the-hardcore-punk-rocker-preserving-sacred-syrian-chants-1.3239843 http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-wednesday-september-23-2015-1.3239842/meet-the-hardcore-punk-rocker-preserving-sacred-syrian-chants-1.3239843

Hahahaha ... http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/09/23/universal_new_yorker_cartoon_captions_hi_i_d_like_to_add_you_to_my_professional.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/09/23/universal_new_yorker_cartoon_captions_hi_i_d_like_to_add_you_to_my_professional.html

Because that's terribly christian, to accuse someone of being a fake christian. "I'm disappointed if someone says, 'I'm a Christian,' but you invite the pope into your home and then you invite a whole bunch of people who are at odds with the Catholic Church policy. I think there's something very unseemly about that," Isn't there something, somewhere about Jesus supposedly welcoming all sorts of people, metaphorically, into his home? http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/23/politics/mike-huckabee-barack-obama-christian/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/23/politics/mike-huckabee-barack-obama-christian

I probably really shouldn't find this funny. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/selfie-deaths-shark-attacks_5602c0c5e4b0fde8b0d09cbe http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/selfie-deaths-shark-attacks_5602c0c5e4b0fde8b0d09cbe

This has been getting a lot of coverage recently, and there are articles coming out now that the price of this drug will be lowered, although who knows what that means. In any case, this person is a symptom, the problem is much wider. Witness the attempt to have Congressional hearings on why generic drugs, the savior of medication costs, have suddenly been rising exponentially in price now that they've established themselves as the standard (which only happened because of their supposed advantage of cheaper price). Why is the retail price on epi-pens, a life-saving medicine, as much as over $500 (without insurance) when the device has existed for many decades, and the drug itself (epinephrine/adrenalin) is over 100 years old? This is a critical discussion that needs to happen. If he's the flashpoint, so be it. Let's just hope the discussion doesn't go away or get brushed off as if it's just him. P.S. I am torn about feeling that at least he's such an egotist tha...

Sad. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/baseball-legend-yogi-berra-dead-90-mlb-article-1.2370848 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/baseball-legend-yogi-berra-dead-90-mlb-article-1.2370848

I could list all of the things wrong with the new Muppets tv show, and few that were right *. Summary: Nope. Big old Nope.  Egregious thing that tore it pour moi - casual offhand reference to at least verbal child abuse, coupled with definite lead into cut off reference to associated violence.  These Are The F@#!    Muppets , What The H#%^ Are You Doing?!?! * Basically, several of the human actors were waaaay better than the rest of the show. Tom Bergeron had one line and he was better than most of the show. P.S. Child abuse is not funny. In fact, no genuinely abusive behavior is funny. Clearly, no one working on this show understands the difference between comic violence/abuse and the real thing. This makes them idiots.

It has definitely equinoxed. You can tell we are on the downslide of daylight.

Had lots of eggplant from my eggplant plants, so made moussaka. Wow, is that a pain in the neck. So Many Steps. Meanwhile, used lamb instead of beef, 'cuz that's what I had, iz tasty, and the bechamel came out all fluffy and creamy on top, so yay for that. Delicious but an awful lot of work.

Almost forgot. TIL a new word: pleonasm . (Yes, you could probably make suggestive sounding jokes about tautologies, but I'm not feeling up to it.) http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/18/441408533/please-dont-have-a-temper-tantrum-about-the-pleonasm-in-this-headline http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/18/441408533/please-dont-have-a-temper-tantrum-about-the-pleonasm-in-this-headline

BBC America has a Dr Who personality quiz - which Master are you? I am totally ok with this result. The classic, original, metaphorically mustache twirling Master. muahaha

All of these came from my cherry tomato plants. All of them. I think one of them was confused. (The splitting is because we all of a sudden got a lot of rain after a long dry spell.)

Happy Ethiopian New Year. It was really last weekend, but they had the buffet and stuff this weekend. That's Ethiopian honey wine in the one picture, and I don't know how much alcohol is in it, but it's sweet and probably deceptive in how schnockered you might get, so I only had a little. There was also Ethiopian coffee and cake, in the little tiny porcelain cups and all. It doesn't seem too visible in the picture of the sign, so for clarity it says enkutatash means "gift of jewels".

A confluence of postings from yesterday and today led me to this (muppets, spiders): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_xO2aN_IA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_xO2aN_IA

I guess the new Dr. Who episode is on tomorrow night. I only know that because BBC America has been constantly playing through the David Tennant and Matt Smith episodes. They might have played the Capaldi ones, but I haven't been watching constantly, so who knows. It does confirm for me that I cannot find much redeeming about most of the episodes after Rory and Amy. **  The only thing I'm really looking forward to is that BBCA has announced they will be showing old/classic episodes every morning for a while, starting Sunday at 9am with Genesis of the Daleks , followed by The Seeds of Doom at noon (Ah, Krynoids). Then more Tom Baker at 10am each day. We're gonna need a bigger DVR. And possibly a really, really long scarf. And a hat. And some jelly babies. ** Whining about my inability to find redemption in the post-Rory/Amy episodes. I suppose I should say spoiler space here, although everything's been out for so long, it's kind of silly. Anyway, the Clara/Oswin cha...

I really want trashy food for some reason. Tuna casserole, mac and cheese, baked artichoke dip, queso, etc. What is up with that?

This week's productivity includes making an appt to get the washer and dryer fixed and in fact getting the washer and dryer fixed. Yay. Also, I had an interview this morning that went very well. It's not for a job, it's an attempt to get things jump-started for moving my life and career into a direction that is better suited. Of course, fifteen minutes after I left I was all questioning myself and maybe it didn't go well and they were just the kind of people who are nice, etc. Confidence, see: needs work. Seriously, so much of this is mental.

After what a lot of you have heard from me over the past year, I am going to skip details and just say - mom. That's all. She's doing it, again.

For those of you to whom this would be of interest, there's a proposed rules change for the federal regs about human research (iow IRB rules). This is the 131 page Federal Register with that proposal in it. (It's the government; of course it's ridiculously long.) The comment period is open until, I think, just after thanksgiving (Dec 5?). So, if you wanna know what they're changing, and have an opportunity to tell them what you think, here it is. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-08/pdf/2015-21756.pdf http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-09-08/pdf/2015-21756.pdf

Today was kind of almost productive. Will I jinx myself by saying so?

Well, it looks like that recipe I thought was not exactly right was not exactly right.   tl;dr TV thing on French cooking does walnut torte, posts recipe. Sounds tasty. Looks suspicious, but I give it a try. Nope. Tastes great, less risen.  Flatter than a flattened flat thing.  For those who might care: They didn't call it this, but it's a foam cake, something between a genoise and a biscuit (the French cake, not the McDonald's bfast item). However, I think it is using way too few eggs, and the whole mix of separating the eggs and using heat to facilitate the sugar/yolk mixing is complicating and confusing multiple techniques without a payoff. I think I will ribbon those yolks cold next time, use 2-3x more eggs, and a bunch of other little tweaks that Rose Levy Beranbaum would probably approve of. Still using cognac though. Because cognac.

So cool. http://geekdad.com/2015/08/ultimate-portal-bedroom/ http://geekdad.com/2015/08/ultimate-portal-bedroom

Well, it's definitely been acting like fall the last couple of days, but that is going to switch back over by Tuesday. So confusion.

Attending peach festival, which is essentially a peach themed mini-state fair deal, and happened to be there during the official opening. What that means is the whole clergy-blessing, lots of uniforms, stereotype of a "singer" national anthem business, etc. Because it is on the border and includes people from both countries, they have both national anthems sung. It's over at the Official Stage, but broadcast over loudspeakers so you hear it everywhere. We're sitting in the big tent with the tables and chairs where they serve the fresh peach shortcake, eating as are many others, when all of this starts. During the Canadian national anthem, hardly anybody around us notices. When the US national anthem starts, gradually people notice and a number of them stand up. A few salute. Most of the people who stand up are older. After it's done, they sit down, and I hear an older man near me say, "No respect. They've got no respect." So I was thinking about this...

Oh, Serena. The only person who could beat you was you. #sadcakes

Really? People are trying to ride the beluga whale? What is wrong with people? http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/dfo-says-don-t-try-to-harness-the-beluga-in-grates-cove-1.3223909 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/dfo-says-don-t-try-to-harness-the-beluga-in-grates-cove-1.3223909

Car has been assessed. Awaiting the outcome of the haggling.

Home and only forgot one thing!

Woodstock, ON, I am in you.

Port Huron. So far, ok.

I was tired of hearing about Kim Davis, but this was not necessarily the sort of thing I was hoping would knock it out of the lead spot on the news. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/plane-catches-fire-on-las-vegas-runway/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/plane-catches-fire-on-las-vegas-runway

The car has been declared driveable, so I shall do that tomorrow morning. I will still be unaccountably nervous the whole time, because you never know when a bumper might fall off reasons.  #fenderbenderfriday

Thank you so much, Bethany Willick, and all the DDFS for putting on an excellent event, as ever. Miss you already.

I mentioned we ate dessert here: http://www.blankslatecreamery.com/ The ice cream is good. It tends toward the sweeter, milder side, but the base is very good so it is tasty. They have terrible parking, but lots of seating inside. The tables, the "bar", and the walls are all "blank slates", ar, ar, with buckets of different colored chalk. And people take advantage of this with some pretty artistic results. As evidenced by my photo of our favorite one below.

Last night, my sister and I ate here: http://www.isalita.com/ and had dessert here: http://www.blankslatecreamery.com/ Isalita It's not inauthentic. #doublenegativesftw What it really is is a so-called small plates place. At least they don't try to call it tapas. Pet peeve: everything on a small plate is not a tapa, ok? Anyway, we had the traditional guacamole, the duck flautas, the cauliflower tacos, and the barbacoa tacos. I also had an horchata. The guacamole is delicious, gets an A. The chips were fresh, not greasy, and just enough salt so you knew it was there. They were very, very good flour tortilla chips. The flautas were ok, unless you got some of the green sauce that was minimally drizzled on the plate; then they were amazing. Presumably this is the "poblano avocado sauce", although it neither looked, nor tasted like either of those things. WIthout that sauce, they were a B-, with it, an A. In fact, we both would have just eaten that sauce by itself. There...

The furry people, let me show you them. (Princess Thunderpaws is off doing her usual model poses and was unavailable for this post.)

Soooo tiiiiiiired. Ran around attempting to accomplish something today. Which led to the following discoveries: 1) Busch's - completely inconsistent, always under construction, and seriously? You have the display up for something that you can't sell because the farm it comes from only comes in every 2 weeks to make sure the machine works? WHY IS THE DISPLAY UP. Ugh. Waste of time. 2) IKEA - has weird ways in which it is consistent for years with some things while being totally random about changing other things. - Does not ensure compatibility between Canada and US inventory. o.O   P.S. Does not between Europe and North America, either, but, really? Not within NA? - Narrowly escaped without eating all the cinnamon rolls. Only bought one hazelnut chocolate bar, instead. Do not go hungry. - Did serendipitously find something useful in addition to the tiny thing had planned to buy. 3) REI - constantly changing their inventory, not always for the better. That last phrase is a quote...

The Beagle has landed. Adventures in asphalt posted later, as soon as I can detach the furry people.

Lol'ing so much, they are playing Rock me, Amadeus at the rest stop.

Icky brown haze, low-lying, all across Southern Ontario so far. Air tastes like metal and it's making me cough. I don't know how much of it is from the wildfires, how much is the weather, and how much is smog, but it's nasty.

Otra in about an hour - donuts first, then on to the rendezvous. See you all soonish.

Ugh. New google logo typeface. Make it go away.