Blurt!Sben

Today’s kitchen victories: blueberry scones with clotted cream, fettuccine Alfredo with roasted mushrooms, steamed artichokes, and scout mint ice cream.

Apr. 1, 2023, 8:36pm (edited)

Quick run to the Children’s ER this morning, but all is well, and the kid was discharged in record time (about two hours).

Mar. 28, 2023, 11:13am (edited)

Yesterday, we applied for a new passport for the bambina.

Mar. 24, 2023, 7:02am (edited)

In our ongoing game last weekend, my character lost a battle of wills with a corrupt runesword— extremely unlikely by the odds on the dice, but it fits perfectly into the overall story.

Mar. 24, 2023, 7:01am (edited)

Had Mom and Greg and Jocelyn and the kids over for dinner (corned beef, roasted vegetables, and Irish soda bread).

Mar. 18, 2023, 7:25pm (edited)

Finished reading Dead Country by Max Gladstone, book seven or one in a series, depending how you count. (It’s seven, I think.) Anyway, interestingly, this book sort of rhymed with Gladstone’s previous, Last Exit, sharing some motifs, but I think this was the better book: tighter and with less clumsy preaching.

Mar. 16, 2023, 11:19pm (edited)

My pile.org redesign for 2023 is changing the botanical iconography from black pepper to coffee. Still a little wonkiness with how the coffee beans are centered, but it’s acceptable for now.

Mar. 15, 2023, 9:34pm (edited)

Added a bit of nuance (?) to last night’s screedlet.

Mar. 15, 2023, 8:36am (edited)

Simultaneous self-deprecation and skepticism.

Mar. 14, 2023, 9:46pm (edited)

This weekend’s kitchen victory: butter chicken for us and the kids’ friends.

Mar. 13, 2023, 9:45am

Finished reading The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. I almost put this one down unfinished: The setting and story are incredibly inventive, and the characters’ portrayal and motivations very one-dimensional and clumsy. I actually found myself skimming parts, which I almost never do with fiction.

Mar. 12, 2023, 10:32am

Current earworm: “Change of the Guard” by Kamasi Washington.

Mar. 10, 2023, 6:37am

Finished reading Babel by R.F. Kuang, about the translators’ college at Oxford in the 1830s that worked magic based on the tension between imperfectly-translated terms, and thus fueled the British Empire. About empire of course, and appropriation and systemic racism and such. I enjoyed this.

Mar. 6, 2023, 8:08pm

Tonight’s kitchen victory: carbonnade à la flamande with homemade fries! (I used Joël Robuchon’s cold fry technique, which worked great.)

Mar. 4, 2023, 7:06pm

Tonight’s kitchen victory: roast chicken, skillet-roasted potatoes, and charred green beans. Lots of rosemary and garlic. The house smells pretty good.

Feb. 26, 2023, 6:43pm