For some of the regulars here, our hobbies come up in conversation. We got craft-nighters, chicken-raisers, bikers, there’s some sort of crazy-ass weight-lifting going on. What else do we have represented here for hobbies?
Lurkers, you must have some great hobbies going on, care to share? Continue reading
I don’t mean really sick, genuinely ill, that’s different. If someone is at my house and really ill they get A1 care. Bin there done that.
What I mean here is I’m-catching-a-cold, I-think-I’m-getting-the-flu, I-don’t-feel-good, I-have-the-sniffles sick. The sort of thing that you know perfectly well will be gone in a week or two. Continue reading
I love long-distance train travel. When I was a kid, we took an overnight train trip every Easter, with roomettes. I’d lie awake and listen to the rattle of the train, see the dimly-lit little stations that we stopped at at 2am, 3am, one or two people got on or off then rattle rattle off we went again. You could see the far-off yard lights of isolated farms, close to the track but far from any major road. Breakfast in the dining car!
We went from the wilds of northern Ontario to Toronto, to see the big department stores’ fancy Easter windows. Stayed at a reasonable hotel, with a big lobby the way old-fashioned hotels have, big sofas, an enormous crystal chandelier overhead. Ate at restaurants, of which my small town had none. The Grill didn’t count, it was just a diner. Whatever the opposite of glorified is, it was that kind of diner. So real city restaurants were a revelation, and an education.
Once upon a terrible time there were no helicopters. Then along came a lot of clever-clogs inventors, and now there are. Helicopters. Very useful, and a little romantic, too.
For a long time now I’ve wanted to start a website named pleaseinvent.com. I got a few things I’d like someone to invent. Continue reading
Greetings, fellow-members of the I Hate to Cook But I’m Stuck Doing It Club. Here is a recipe for excellent chili. I’ve been making chili for so long I can’t remember the last time I looked at a recipe for it, so what you’re getting is the distillation of many years experimentation (aka, using whatever’s in the house that is conceivably suitable for chili on the day the chili is being made). Continue reading
It’s your birthday! What would you like for supper? Someone else will lovingly do the shopping, and pay for all the ingredients, including a nice bottle of wine or two or three. They’ll do the cooking, and wash the dishes afterwards, leaving the kitchen spotless. (Why do so few people understand that washing the dishes automatically includes wiping down the counters? Hm. A question for another day.)
Shall I go first? Do please join me for a lovely meal. I’ll get out the good china. Continue reading
(Intro note for youngsters: back in Days of Long Ago, it was the custom, each Christmas, to send pretty cards to people you didn’t like well enough to write letters to, or talk to on the phone regularly.)
Ruth Rendell. Aka Baroness Rendell of Babergh. How many crime writers are there good enough they got a baronetcy for it? Not too damn many. She also writes under a pseudonym, Barbara Vine. She’s known for the Inspector Wexford series, and for many one-offs that feature crazy people. Psychopaths and sociopaths. She’s known for her sharp insight into human (and inhuman) nature, and writes crazy people really, really well. A Judgement in Stone? Brrr. A Demon in My View? Brrr. Tree of Hands? Very uncomfortable look at mothers and daughters. Continue reading
And what to do if it doesn’t?
I have a boatload of hands-on gardening experience in several climate zones, and will try hard to answer any questions you have. Continue reading
