Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

2018 in review

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 03:45:39 GMT

Digging out an old meme, a quick review of 2018 in the form of the first sentence of my first* post for each month of the year:

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but my basic plan for 2018 is to keep on keeping on, and my fervent hope is that this year will be better than last.
I am a bit stiff but don't think there's anything seriously wrong.
I mentioned to adrian_turtle that since the 2016 election I have emailed and/or called every elected official from alderman up to senators (repeatedly), including the county D.A. and state attorney general, except the mayor of Somerville, and that I felt like I ought to call or email him, out of some sense of completeness.
I decided I wanted one more PT session for the hip, partly so we could discuss what my long-term maintenance/homework is in terms of stretching and exercise at home.
I feel like I got a lot done today, some of it stuff I'd been putting off.
I have talked to the Senior Technical Editor at the client I mentioned a few days ago, then looked at the various documents she sent me, and emailed to say that I'm interested and this looks like work I can do.
I had a follow-up appointment with my nurse practitioner today, who as usual greeted me enthusiastically.
I got my hair cut today.
Nine Goblins is by Ursula Vernon, using the T. Kingfisher byline because it's not a children's book.
cattitude and I got back from Montreal a couple of hours ago; we were there for Scintillation, a small science fiction convention organized by Jo Walton.
Even if I don't do anything else political in the next few days, I have done quite a bit in the past week, and every bit counts.
Our electricity went out around 6:00 this evening, and was out for a bit over an hour.

*skipping past a quote of the day, and a few links to other people's posts.

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At least it was good exercise...

Tue, 16 Oct 2018 01:26:56 GMT

I was planning to go to a protest today (against the proposed change to the "public charge" rule). I wrote down the location, and looked up transit info; the MBTA suggested taking the red line to Downtown Crossing and walking from there.

I allowed lots of time, so I could grab a bite to eat at Pret a Manger. Then I tried following Google Maps directions. Which not only got me lost, but was sufficiently confusing that the "distance/time to destination" was increasing as often as decreasing. I finally got to the address I was looking for, and there was nothing there: not only no rally, but no park or other space one could have been held in.

By then it was well after the announced starting time, so I decided to cut my losses: I might not have known where I was going, but I knew where I was, and how to get to the Green Line from there. I thought "chalk it up to exercise," then remembered that two weeks ago (or any time in the year or so before that) I would have been in pain after doing what my phone thought was a little over two kilometers. Today, I got off the train at Lechmere and walked to Toscanini's for a restorative hot fudge sundae (adding about another kilometer to the total for the outing).

At Tosci's, the server commented that she liked my "I stand with immigrants, and I vote" pin, in a way that led me to ask if she'd like it. She said something like "if you're sure," and I told her I had two more at home, and then explained where I'd gotten them. (The last time I volunteered with MIRA to register voters, they had a bagful and were happy for me to grab a couple of extras to share.)

The ice cream was good, as always: I had raspberry and sweet cream in my sundae, and brought home pints of chocolate chip and raspberry. The rest of the afternoon involved a little bit of paid proofreading, and some (mostly PT) exercises.

Dinner tonight was ravioli and a roast koori squash, a variety we hadn't had before: small, bright orange, and based on one sample cattitude and I both prefer acorn squash, but I would be happy to eat this again, and it's a better size to serve as a side dish for two people. A roast acorn or butternut squash for two people is the centerpiece of the meal.

Tomorrow will be a rest day; more proofreading, but no long walks or exercises for the sake of exercise.

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New food: huitlacoche

Sun, 10 Jun 2018 23:52:25 GMT

This was both a new ingredient and a new dish: quesadilla de maíz con huitlacoche.

Huitlacoche was glossed on the menu board as "corn fungus," which is fair enough: it's parasitic on maize plants. What they brought me wasn't what I'm used to seeing under the name "quesadilla," but a large (12-inch) corn tortilla filled with sauteed fungus and a bit of onion, topped with a very mild white cheese (queso fresco) and swimming in a fairly bland salsa verde. And there was a lot of it.

I'm glad I tried this, but mostly because I'd been vaguely curious about huitlacoche for years. I enjoyed the first few bites more than I liked what was still on my plate after ten minutes; I think this dish needs to be eaten hot, and it's a lot of food for one middle-aged woman who isn't feeling ravenous. I might consider ordering this again, if I found myself at Tenoch with a couple of other people who can eat both mushrooms and dairy and wanted to share it and a sandwich. Since that describes neither cattitude nor adrian_turtle, I'm more likely to go back and get something else—I liked the bit of torta that Cattitude gave me—or a couple of tacos.

Both this and the tacos I've had at Taqueria Victoria in Arlington Center are not just within my spice tolerance, but actually mild; most things labeled "Tex-Mex" are too spicy for me since I had my gall bladder out, which was long enough ago that I am used to it, though there are foods I miss.

There's a Tenoch near Davis Square in Somerville, and one in Medford Square, and I believe they have a food truck.

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