Time for coffee….

Lofty bye, sentimental alternative other

Hence, the title.

The last two days have been gorgeous. Sunny. 70s. Still haven’t put the tomato and basil plants in the ground, though. Waiting for 1) a stretch of 70-degree days with no nighttime dips into the 40s, and 2) the special red plastic mulch I ordered that is supposed to be so good for tomato plants. I need to use some kind of mulch anyway in order to keep any blight spores that happen to be in the ground from splashing up onto the plants. It will be interesting to see whether this stuff works as advertised. In the meantime, I’ve moved the best of the sprouts to large plastic cups. The St Pierre tomato “seedlings” are damn near 10 inches tall and close to outgrowing the cups, so I hope that mulch arrives soon.

In preparation for planting, I emptied two years’ worth of stuff from the compost bin and spread it around the raised bed. My gosh, what lovely compost. Rich, earthy scent. Hard to believe that it used to be vegetable peels and coffee grounds. Maybe I’m easily impressed, but it is a pretty neat process.

Treated myself to a Peet’s Mothers Day Box again this year–Major Dickason’s Blend coffee plus Recchiuti fudge brownies. I figure being a dogmom counts. Best brownies I have ever had.

Happy Mothers Day to all Moms out there. I hope you get coffee and brownies. Or flowers and candy. Or love and thanks and something to make you sniffle.

“We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.”

Spam name of the day:

“Andromache McGuire”

It has a ring to it.

But creating a time cloak—something that could hide not just an object but an event—is even more ambitious. Rather than just rerouting the rays of light striking an object, a time cloak would have to deflect all the light beams influenced by the object as it moves through space. The time cloak would, in essence, create an interval during which all information about what an object is doing disappears.

Big Idea: Physicists Carve a Niche in Time.

Recipes of the weekend #1: Cheap cornbread mix, the small box that fills one 8×8-inch pan. Added one tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, two tablespoons chopped fresh chives, and a few twists of pepper from the mill. Sprinkled a spice blend on top–chili powder, ground rosemary, etc. Subtle. Thyme works well in cornbread.

Recipes of the weekend #2: grilled salmon that I marinated using the following:

For 2 4-6 oz steaks:

1/8 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 scallions, chopped (2 green onions)
1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

Except…I didn’t have scallions, so I used a small shallot instead. And I didn’t have fresh ginger, so I used a half-teaspoon of the ground stuff. The trick to this was mounting the chopped garlic and shallot atop the salmon when it was on the grill, so that when I turned the salmon over for the last 4 minutes of cooking, the garlic and shallot cooked through until they became brown and crispy. The garlic was actually borderline burnt but still good, but the shallot tasted great. Went really well with the salmon.

Thunderstorms are moving through now, which means restless King which means not much else getting done. For various reasons, the Sunday afternoon crankies have struck early. A bottle of wine may be opened soon. And Season 2 of Sherlock begins on WTTW tonight, so I’ve that to look forward to. Ben Cumberbatch. My Favorite High-Functioning Sociopath.

I’m sick of the cold and the rain. We had that taste of early summer in March, and it’s been crap ever since. I do think I spotted birds I’d never seen before. Gray catbirds–slate gray with black caps. I didn’t see the red patches under their tails, but in other respects they looked just like the pictures.

Oh well, back to whatever else the day holds. Grumpgrumpgrump….

Came home after work to find a bit of a fraught situation–King edgy and clingy, drinking lots of water. Water splattered all over the dining room floor. In addition, when I went into the living room I found the television pulled away from the wall and the cable box unplugged. Meanwhile, in the dining room, I found the grow light unplugged and the power strip into which it had been plugged yanked out of the wall and lying on the floor.

I was understandably upset by this. I am already concerned about King’s old-agedness, and at first I thought he’d had some sort of fit. I wiped up the splatters and gave him time to settle down. After an hour or so, I fed him. He ate normally. Meanwhile, I pondered.

Then I remembered the fly.

When I came home at lunchtime, I left the back door open a little too long and let in a honking big fly. I tried to swat it and failed, and since I had to get back to work I left it in the house with the pups. I should have known better because King goes after flies. What I think happened is that he tried to catch it in the living room, chased it behind the TV, and got tangled in the cable box cord thus yanking it out of the wall. Same thing in the dining room with the power strip and the grow light. King got tangled in the power strip cord–the strip was atop a small table–yanked it out of the wall and pulled the strip down on his head. At the same time, he managed to pull the grow light cord out of the power strip. Luckily, that didn’t topple on him as well, although it was resting a mite crooked on its shelf.

After all that, King still didn’t get the fly until a few minutes after I got home. He was pacing back and forth, spotted Fly bouncing off the backdoor glass, and snapped it out of the air, nervy nerves and all.

The TV still works. So do the power strip and grow light. King is currently lying on the living room rug, looking as though he has finally settled down.

Gaby was completely unaffected by all of this. Just thought you’d like to know.

Later….

Keep warm/dry/cool/insert preferred condition here.

Later….

I used Smart Choice spread, but mayo would of course work; Miracle Whip might be too spicy.

1/4 cup mayo
1-1.5 teaspoons dried basil (or to taste)
a little lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice

I also added a teaspoon of a Penzey’s blend called “Forward,” which contains hotter black pepper and rosemary, among other things.

Stirred it all together. When fresh, the lemon overwhelms–it needs to sit overnight for the basil to come through.

Someday I may try to make mayo from scratch, but for now I don’t use it enough to make it worth the ingredients.

Well, another update has been released, and Clark is doing great. His weight is steady, and his labs are more normal. He’s sleeping on the bed–human or kitty, not sure which–and runs through the house with his sisters–kitty, I assume.

Good news on a dreary day. Long may you wave, CK!

When I came home Monday, I found that the St Pierre seedlings (Seeds From Italy) had taken over the seedling tray. So yesterday I transplanted two of the largest plants (over 4 inches tall and branching) to 16-oz cups. I also moved a Red Pear Sel. Franchi (another Italian seed), an Arkansas Traveler and a Black Cherry (more for encouragement as their size doesn’t compare), and two Italian Sweet Basil (also from Italy). The earliest I have ever planted seedlings is, iirc, the second week of May. At the rate they’re going, the St Pierres will need to be moved to larger quarters before that.

I had to have my lawn mowed while I was gone. The landscape folks are already getting calls. It’s unheard of for far NE Illinois lawns to need mowing in early April. Mine could already use a second pass. Hydrangeas are leafing. Crabapples are blooming. We were way behind on rain for the month, but made up for it in a few hours last night. 2.5 inches around here. Supposed to hit the 70s today. I can see the grass growing.

Gaby continues to eat normally, which helps reassure that if she goes on hunger strike again, she will likely recover quite well. Below is a photo of her in her little post-grooming neckerchief. Below that is a photo of King in his. It had a teddy bear printed on it, but I couldn’t photograph it so it showed up. So the photo is pretty much King following me around trying to see whether the camera is edible or at least bury-able.