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The pageant and pomp and parade
The bad things about yesterday:
1. My phone falling into the toilet. I was trying to coordinate with two different people about the only bus to catch to Lexington in time to spend the Fourth with my family, so I had it on the back of the toilet while I dressed; it received a message, buzzed, and catapulted itself into the drink. I had no time to pop the battery, drop it in a bowl of rice, etc.; I knotted it up in paper towels and a plastic bag and did not run screaming into the noonday sun, because it was murderously hot and I didn't want to move that fast, but walked at a reasonable pace to make the bus and hoped the phone would go into hibernation or something until someone could take a look at it.
2. Cutting my index finger open on a lobster claw. In the lobster's defense, as if it needed defending, I should point out that I wasn't actually using a cracker, I was just breaking the claw open with my hands because I can do that if it isn't the crusher claw. It was a deep cut at the first bend of the index finger and required a heavier-duty Band-Aid than we had in the house, so I cut a surgical pad in strips and used that. Then I ate the lobster, vindictively, and it was delicious.
3. The fact that it was was so damn hot that I had to go home and sleep in air conditioning because anywhere else I would have lain awake all night overheating.
The good things about yesterday:
1.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
derspatchel meeting me on the 80 to Arlington Center, where my mother had agreed to pick us up. I got on at School Street, he got on at Powderhouse. "Is this seat taken?" And all without recourse to cellphone—I'd called once from adrian_turtle's before I left the house to warn him, and then we just trusted in our mutual ability not to miss the bus and the MBTA's slightly less consistent ability to provide one.
2. The Fourth of July afternoon. We had to start early this year, because my brother and his wife were time-sharing the holiday between his family and hers, butschreibergasse came down from Portland, sharhaun came from wherever it is in Boston that he lives when I still haven't seen him in person for a year, we churned my family's traditional strawberry ice cream sitting on the front steps of the house and Rob took lots of pictures, including of the earthenware ducks at the base of one of the maple trees. gaudior and rushthatspeaks joined us for dinner, which is likewise by tradition my brother grilling all the things. My father contributed two different kinds of fruit-involved salad and little sugar cones for the ice cream, although it wasn't stiff enough this year to scoop rather than pour. (Possibly too much strawberry juice in the custard. There was a lot of pulp in the mix. It was delicious.) I'm totally taking the gjetost and the brigante with me when I leave again this afternoon. A great deal of ginger and root beer was drunk by all.
2a. Getting to say to someone, regarding my mother's new box garden she had asked us to cut some chives and small yellow tomatoes from, "It's right by the radio telescope."
2b. Being greeted by Rush-That-Speaks with a small package containing an official state-certified cast of a clay tablet with Linear A script from the Archaeological Museum of Chania. They brought it back for me from Kastelli and Knossos.
2c. Bitter lemon!
3. Watching 1776 (1972), as is also the tradition. Especially with people who like to talk about the history and occasionally sing along.
4. Watching the Esplanade fireworks from Prospect Hill. Schreiber' and Sharhaun peeled off back to their respective homes, but the rest of us staked out a blanket-patch of grass right at the edge of the terrace, on a level with the trees; we had a gorgeous view. The young couple next to me had to lean sideways to see past the leaves, so I bent my knees and the girl leaned her head on them so she wouldn't get a crick in her neck. (The guy talked about the chemistry of explosions.) We thought maybe the pale violet and the bright yellow colorings were new this year, and we couldn't remember ever seeing the spheres in four colors before. Someone was letting off flares only a few roofs away. The willow-gold horsetails are still my favorite, and the powdery firecracker lightenings, and just the traditional huge fallouts of white and blue at the end. This was the first Fourth in years I hadn't needed to put earplugs in for. That way I could hear the Talking Heads and Jimi Hendrix, playing from the iPod of the blanket behind us. Rob and I walked back to Davis afterward, which is a much shorter walk than from the Charles River.
5. My brother resurrected my phone.
And this morning my throat hurts worse than the last two days and my head is aching badly, so I haven't shaken last weekend's viral whatever, and I am so tired I slept through my alarm and three or four phone calls, and I have to go out and buy an air conditioner.
Yesterday was very fine.
1. My phone falling into the toilet. I was trying to coordinate with two different people about the only bus to catch to Lexington in time to spend the Fourth with my family, so I had it on the back of the toilet while I dressed; it received a message, buzzed, and catapulted itself into the drink. I had no time to pop the battery, drop it in a bowl of rice, etc.; I knotted it up in paper towels and a plastic bag and did not run screaming into the noonday sun, because it was murderously hot and I didn't want to move that fast, but walked at a reasonable pace to make the bus and hoped the phone would go into hibernation or something until someone could take a look at it.
2. Cutting my index finger open on a lobster claw. In the lobster's defense, as if it needed defending, I should point out that I wasn't actually using a cracker, I was just breaking the claw open with my hands because I can do that if it isn't the crusher claw. It was a deep cut at the first bend of the index finger and required a heavier-duty Band-Aid than we had in the house, so I cut a surgical pad in strips and used that. Then I ate the lobster, vindictively, and it was delicious.
3. The fact that it was was so damn hot that I had to go home and sleep in air conditioning because anywhere else I would have lain awake all night overheating.
The good things about yesterday:
1.
derspatchel meeting me on the 80 to Arlington Center, where my mother had agreed to pick us up. I got on at School Street, he got on at Powderhouse. "Is this seat taken?" And all without recourse to cellphone—I'd called once from adrian_turtle's before I left the house to warn him, and then we just trusted in our mutual ability not to miss the bus and the MBTA's slightly less consistent ability to provide one.2. The Fourth of July afternoon. We had to start early this year, because my brother and his wife were time-sharing the holiday between his family and hers, but
schreibergasse came down from Portland, sharhaun came from wherever it is in Boston that he lives when I still haven't seen him in person for a year, we churned my family's traditional strawberry ice cream sitting on the front steps of the house and Rob took lots of pictures, including of the earthenware ducks at the base of one of the maple trees. gaudior and rushthatspeaks joined us for dinner, which is likewise by tradition my brother grilling all the things. My father contributed two different kinds of fruit-involved salad and little sugar cones for the ice cream, although it wasn't stiff enough this year to scoop rather than pour. (Possibly too much strawberry juice in the custard. There was a lot of pulp in the mix. It was delicious.) I'm totally taking the gjetost and the brigante with me when I leave again this afternoon. A great deal of ginger and root beer was drunk by all.2a. Getting to say to someone, regarding my mother's new box garden she had asked us to cut some chives and small yellow tomatoes from, "It's right by the radio telescope."
2b. Being greeted by Rush-That-Speaks with a small package containing an official state-certified cast of a clay tablet with Linear A script from the Archaeological Museum of Chania. They brought it back for me from Kastelli and Knossos.
2c. Bitter lemon!
3. Watching 1776 (1972), as is also the tradition. Especially with people who like to talk about the history and occasionally sing along.
4. Watching the Esplanade fireworks from Prospect Hill. Schreiber' and Sharhaun peeled off back to their respective homes, but the rest of us staked out a blanket-patch of grass right at the edge of the terrace, on a level with the trees; we had a gorgeous view. The young couple next to me had to lean sideways to see past the leaves, so I bent my knees and the girl leaned her head on them so she wouldn't get a crick in her neck. (The guy talked about the chemistry of explosions.) We thought maybe the pale violet and the bright yellow colorings were new this year, and we couldn't remember ever seeing the spheres in four colors before. Someone was letting off flares only a few roofs away. The willow-gold horsetails are still my favorite, and the powdery firecracker lightenings, and just the traditional huge fallouts of white and blue at the end. This was the first Fourth in years I hadn't needed to put earplugs in for. That way I could hear the Talking Heads and Jimi Hendrix, playing from the iPod of the blanket behind us. Rob and I walked back to Davis afterward, which is a much shorter walk than from the Charles River.
5. My brother resurrected my phone.
And this morning my throat hurts worse than the last two days and my head is aching badly, so I haven't shaken last weekend's viral whatever, and I am so tired I slept through my alarm and three or four phone calls, and I have to go out and buy an air conditioner.
Yesterday was very fine.
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I am very glad that's how the visit worked out.
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Thank you. Physically, not so much. Otherwise, yes. Otherwise is all right.
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Nine
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Eh, I don't think there is such a thing—I have never felt happiness cloying, if it was real. But it was a good day.
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For science.
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You're quite right. As soon as I buy more bitter lemon. Science calls.
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Your Fourth of July sounds lovely.
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It's my natural prey. Or at least one of them. Most things that live in the sea kind of are.
Your Fourth of July sounds lovely.
It was great. I hope the same of yours!
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I think the angels were winning on your day, on the whole.
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Thank you! Points for metaphor!
I think the angels were winning on your day, on the whole.
Yeah. The Peter Falk kind.
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Thank you!
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I wish you a less sore throat, and airconditioning that does not falter.
We went for a bit of a picnic in Kent, CT, a short hike in Washington Depot cos the hiking in Kent didn't appeal to my parents, and came home for bratwurst and rhubarb cake.*
*One of my mother's gardening friends gave her rhubarb. Independently, another of her friends gave her a recipe for rhubarb cake. We even had the requisite buttermilk, cos I made cornbread to take to a party on Saturday.
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That sounds very nice. What else goes in the cake besides buttermilk and rhubarb?
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Sugar, butter, eggs, pecans, baking soda, and vanilla, I'm thinking. I'll copy it out and pass it on to you once I've taken the dog out and turned on the dishwasher. (I'd like to have my own copy, in any event.)
It tastes a little better on the second night, I think, once the flavours have had a chance to blend a bit. I'm thinking as well that we might've done better to have another stalk or so of rhubarb. Still, success.
ETA: What follows is a verbatim transcription of the recipe given my mother. I apologise for retaining the clunky phrasings, but I've not made it enough times to feel comfortable amending the recipe.
Rhubarb Cake
Ingrdients:
- 2 1/2 cup unbleached flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- **1 cup sour milk
- 2 1/2 cups rhubarb pieces, cut in 1/2 inch pieces (smaller if tough, larger if very tender). Buy 1 lb to yield correct amount.
- 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- topping: 1 tsp cinnamon mixed with 1/4 cup sugar
**can substitute:
1 cup milk with 1 TB lemon juice or vinegar added to curdle milk or 1 cup buttermilk, or 1 cup sour cream, or 1 cup plain yogurt
Directions
1. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla.
2. Sift together flour, soda, salt. (I place all in plastic bag, and then shake to aerate and blend.)
3. Add 1/3 dry ingredients to butter mixture alternating with 1/3 sour milk. Mix just enough to combine.
4. Fold in rhubarb and nut pieces.
5. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
6. Bake 50-60 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
It's wonderful served warm. For more elegant presentation, you could serve with rhubarb compote and whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
We had four reasonably sized stalks of rhubarb, which didn't get weighed. I suspect we'd have done better with another stalk or two, as the rhubarb flavour isn't quite as strong as I'd have liked. I cut them to 1/4 inch or smaller, as my mother simply said "cut up the rhubarb" without telling me that there were specifications in the recipe. We used pecans rather than walnuts, as that was what we had--my parents grew up in a pecan-growing region, as a result of which they're a household staple.
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That looks like a completely reasonable cake recipe. Thank you!
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I didn't know it was an option!
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Well, basically it's this one.
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We had a tempest on the 4th, and two of our number were very under that sort of weather, so we are only celebrating today. I wish we had a copy of 1776, since it never feels like the 4th without it. It is very much a fantasia on the theme of the Founding Fathers, true, but I grew up with it, and I still think it expresses the better ideals to which this country has aspired since its inception.
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Thank you. Yes. They are to be valued when they come around.
Not because I particularly like phones, but because it does what I need in a way that makes some allowance for my quirky issues with that sort of technology
Mine is flip-open! It has keys. It makes calls and sends texts and that's all it does (it takes very bad pictures). I do not want to have to replace it with an iPhone or a Blackberry or anything shinier; it is archaic and I love it. I am really hoping it keeps on.
I am very envious of you for the lobster, which clearly means it's time to acquire some of my own.
Except in cases of allergy, I always say it's time to acquire lobster.
but I grew up with it, and I still think it expresses the better ideals to which this country has aspired since its inception.
And no one was ever more idealistically cranky than William Daniels' John Adams.
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Food chain superiority represent!
I have not, but it features titans who eat the friends and family of the protagonists, or so the ninja girl and Little Springtime tell me.
I've never even heard of it! Whoa. Do they like the show?
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