Summer(?) 2023

The (?) is because it’s been super cold the last couple of days.

Here it is the 2nd weekend in June, and we had a lovely Memorial Day, by some miracle. We had a few really hot days, and some pretty hazy days from the Canadian wild fires, but we’ve had a lot of sunny afternoons and cool nights. And really dry. Good biking weather, but not good for local farmers & gardeners. My CSA farmers said they almost never have had to irrigate so much so early in the summer. Until today. It’s cold and rainy – I think the high isn’t even going to get up to 60°. It’s 55° now and it’s almost 3:00 in the afternoon. But the rain has stopped so I think I will head over to Waterfront Fest in a bit, in time to see one of the headliners, The Legendary Shack Shakers.

We got a better pic of Megan & Ethan’s new baby, Rowan James Beatty.

I finished Cleopatra and Frankenstein. It’s good, a love story, so of course heartbreaking too.

Steve & Heike came for dinner on Friday and I made a slow-cooked pork roast, in the oven all day while I was at work, and coleslaw and buns. And my white chocolate lime bars, with walnuts because I seem to have used up all the pecans leftover from holiday baking; probably as it should be since it IS June. I think a Costco run will happen this coming weekend.

The other thing that happened Friday was Dead & Co. were in Chicago at Wrigley Field. There’s been consternation amongst the deadheads that this “final” tour is more motivated by money than creativity. And one of the drummers pulled out at the last minute. But seems like my old deadhead friends had a good time. Initially John was going to go – some friends had an extra ticket – but they ended up giving it to someone else, a relative I think. But the friends stayed with John & Megan so he got to hang out with them, and I think that was OK.

Saturday night we went to Milwaukee to see Nickel Creek, stopping at Arlo Waisman’s graduation party on the way, out at their farm. We looked at baby goats because they’re not doing pigs at the moment, and talked to people and didn’t eat any of the nice looking food because we were going to grab something in Milwaukee before the show. Which was just OK – it was a restaurant in a hotel 5 minutes from the Riverside theater. I had a salad and Mark had a burger. All OK, but the place was way too loud.

The show was good, too, and our seats had great sight lines – but they were doing something with the ventilation such that I got a blast of cold air in my face every like 8 minutes or so – I guess it was some oscillating fan. When I couldn’t stand it anymore I went seeking merch, and opted for a $36 Riverside Theater hoodie over a $45 pink long sleeve Nickel Creek tee. We were two seats in from the end of our row, and the hoodies comfort was worth not only the money, but even the dirty look from the people in the end when I came back wearing it.

Sunday morning after I came back from biking in the (light) rain to meet Susan for coffee, I made Smitten Kitchen’s jam-bellied scones (by way of King Arthur) with quick rhubarb jam inside. I chopped up the bunch of rhubarb I bought at the Farmers’ Market Saturday, and it came to about 3 cups. I added 3/4 cup of sugar and cooked it down, and tried to smooth it out with my immersion blender, but I think the level in the pan was a bit too low for the blender to work, and it stayed a bit chunky. Not noticeable inside the scones, though.

I think the scones are a little too whole-wheat-y for Mark – white flour with bran added back. But I like them. Guess I’ll take them to the share with food pantry volunteers when I go Wednesday this week. We also had egg sammiches with the eggs baked in a flat square and bacon (sorta like this), and the extra thick Sparrow Hill bacon from the market, on the buns from Friday. Or I had mine on a bun; Mark used some of the Whole Foods bread Jane & Steve brought over last weekend.

It’s actually Tuesday as I’m writing this and I had MRI#3 Monday, that showed my knee fracture is not healing. It’s been feeling so much better that I was sure it’d be good news, but no. It’s not getting worse but not better either. So it makes me a little sad to review how I felt over the weekend when everything seemed more hopeful.

Monday night we had leftovers for dinner and I made a “deconstructed” wedge salad to go with that I thought might be one of my originals for CSA, mainly the two dressings and instructions for assembly & toppings, and we do get red romaine & green leaf lettuces this week. I was also planning a kale and rice bowl with ground pork, and bought a bunch of kale at last Saturday’s market, since the “next week’s box will probably contain…” note in last week’s newsletter said strawberries, greens, lettuce, radishes, and more. So I guessed on the kale as the greens and guessed wrong and will now have to stop at the coop on my way home from Jasper care today and get some Napa cabbage because that turns out to be the greens we are getting. Which will probably be even better in the rice bowls than the kale. Maybe I’ll freeze the kale …

Actually overall Monday was not a great day. I got the bad MRI results and then when I got home I found that the new KitchenAid mixer I bought with my work retirement gift money is not the same size as my old one – it’s bigger. Over the weekend I had this vision of my two mixers, the old blue one & new red one, side by side and swapping parts. Another no. I told the blue one I thought I was getting it a twin brother but I got it a big sister instead. Sigh. And it was a special cheap deal – just under $300 – so I can’t return it. With dinner I took my last Augementin for my sinus infection, and after dinner I ate too much chocolate.

I didn’t sleep much after 3:30 a.m. feeling stupid about the mixer and the kale, and worried about my knee. And my stomach hurt. Probably Augmentin and chocolate. Worries from the ridiculous to the truly scary. Like how will I be able to to go the library conference in a week with my knee and what about TIFF in September and what about visiting Rowan and Megan & Ethan in July? Will i ever be to go for long walks again. But I guess it will all work out. My mom broke her pelvis when she was my age and she made a full recovery. Fingers crossed.

And oh yea, this picture of Georgia O’Keefe beside a Calder mobile came up in my Instagram and I find it soothing. So I’ll finish with that instead of a baby pic.