kochleffel

Nice story from a friend who teaches public-school music out here in the middle of nowhere. Today he chaperoned a group from our school district to a music competition at Ithaca College, of which he's a graduate. Some of the ensembles competing were from the high school in Brooklyn of which he's also a graduate.

Sasha hated the topical medication! And I hated catching her to administer it. We used it only until she could get a place at Cornell for radioactive iodine treatment. The treatment worked, but she was traumatized by the stay in the Companion Animal Hospital. She was a small cat to begin with, scarcely more than six pounds, so losing even an ounce was worrisome.

They seem to have enough sense to know that I wouldn't be interested.

I support care for alternatively abled pets, don't support lumpy rugs or intentionally wearing different-colored shoes. I'd need Lactaid for the carrot cake, unless it were made with imitation cream cheese. Pass on the drink (pineapple juice). I'm running out of substitutes for Nebbiolo, but I'd suggest Dr. Frank's 2021 Amur, a variety from southern Siberia and northern China, if it weren't sold out. "Dark and rich red cherry, jammy blackberry, with meaty, savory notes and a touch of black pepper. The palate is rustic with strong tannins balanced with ripe red and black fruits, sweet spice, black pepper, and a touch herbal."

My dad was a life-insurance agent, although in later years most of his work was with group health insurance and retirement plans. I am aware of scurvy, although I don't think it's common in the U.S. now. It was a concern in the U.K. during World War II, and children received special rations of black currant syrup, black currants being one of the few natural sources of vitamin C--rose hips are another--to grow there. I grow black currants myself, but not for that reason. A sorrel story, although pesto doesn't figure into it. Around 1980, I went with friends in Berkeley to Chez Panisse, a restaurant that by then was rather famous. It served a set meal, and the night we were there, the main course was fish with two sauces: sorrel and pepper. We thought they would be served on the side, but we were wrong. Half the plate was lined with sorrel sauce and half with pepper sauce, making two precise half-circles, one bright green and the other bright orange, the fish in the center. The servers carried the plates high so that the diners did not see them before they were placed on the table. I may have been rather drunk, but since then I have considered it important that the way food is presented does not frighten the diner. No on the drink. I don't think that homemade pumpkin seltzer is in my future. For the wine, Salmon Run (second label of Dr. Frank's) Chardonnay Riesling, which I think would have a similar character although it's not totally dry, $13.99. Last night I got to sleep only with the help of B&B. Not Benedictine and brandy, but Benadryl and brandy. Acupuncture this afternoon, and then an Earth-to-Sky online meeting about a subject that I don't remember.

White matter is necessary and normal in the brain; it connects the neurons of the grey matter. However, damage to it can be serious. https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-white-matter-in-the-brain-98119

Registering for the conference and booking flights was a frustrating process, both because of the registration forms and because of the airline's superior--I mean horrible--IT (possibly acquired from a cruise line?). One of the first questions in the registration forms was the size for the conference T-shirt. It had to be answered and there was no option for "no T-shirt." The instructions for the date fields say to use the forms DD/MM/YYYY but the form actually requires MM/DD. For some parts, optional add-ons were combined with the basic options, but for others they had to be selected separately. You get the idea. Now, I needed to be booking flights while filling in the registration forms, because of having to specify whether I would need to arrive the day before or stay until the day after. Once I knew what flights I wanted, the airline's website offered no way to pay with e-credits and insisted on charging the entire amount to a credit card. I cancelled that booking (refund to the original form of payment allowed within 24 hours) and started again, this time from the e-credit page. When I had everything lined up, the website abruptly returned me to the home page. On the third attempt, I got it to use the e-credit but then it seemed to charge the balance to the number of one card with the expiration date and security code of another card, so I am not sure whether my "confirmed" booking might not be cancelled when they notice, if that's what actually happened.

Rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit. Also ribbet, ribbet, white frog, just in case. Today I need to deal with grocery shopping, laundry, and yard work. It's also time to plant lettuce seeds and peas. In theory it would have been better to plant them earlier, but I've found that when I do, they don't germinate until now, if at all. For those with doodler dogs:

The pesto chicken would be OK but I couldn't make it at home. I remember a bizarre train journey, Indianapolis to Washington, D.C., in the 1970s, that ran five hours late. My car had a group of Marines--looking too young to drink--returning to Camp Lejeune who guzzled so much rum and Coke that the bar ran out of rum. For the wine, Ravines Wine Cellers Le Petit Caporal 2020 even though it's $34.95. I spent several days in Juneau in 2021 during a non-cruise (Alaska Marine Highway System). It rained almost all the time so I have no pictures. The best part was an all-day trip to Tracy Arm Fjord with Adventure Bound that wouldn't fit into most port calls.

Not too long ago, police horses made a break for it on I-90 in Cleveland, unfortunately heading in the opposite direction to traffic. But they were domesticated, trained horses, and they just went back to their stable. A while ago on a show on Animal Planet, an equine veterinarian was called to treat a zebra, and compared it to treating a wild horse.

Meanwhile, there's a report about runaway zebras on I-90 in Washington. https://wapo.st/4bhvaeh

Just noticed that, in my haste to take the trash and recycling out, I skipped taking my blood-pressure medicine. I'm not awake enough in the morning to remember whether I took it or not, but I turn the bottles on their sides in the evening and turn them upright when I've taken it.

Definitely in favor of animal advocacy but troubled by the information that Beltane spans April 31-May 1. I didn't enjoy April enough to want an extra day of it. I would probably like the fried cauliflower but I don't agree that cauliflower tastes buttery. Pass on the drink; I might be under the table before I finished it. No old-vine Grenache or any Grenache in the FL, so I'll counter with Dr. Frank's old-vines Pinot Noir, planted in 1958 and the second-oldest Pinot Noir planting in the U.S.,$26.99. Today is the last day of Passover for the second day in a row, which is hard for me to cope with. Took out the trash and recycling, hoping that the rain doesn't resume before the pickup, because there are paper and cardboard in the recycling bin. My avatar photo is from my first cruise, on the Norwegian Epic, six years ago today.

As I remember it, in the 1950s just about everyone who grew roses at all had a specimen of 'Peace.' Francis Meilland developed it in France in the 1930s, and just before the German invasion he sent cuttings to growers in other countries. Supposedly the cuttings to the U.S. left on the last plane out of France. There was no communication during the war among the growers in various countries, with the result that it became known as Mme. Meilland in France, Gioia in Italy, Peace in North America (where the Conard Pyle company introduced it on the day that Berlin fell) and Scandinavia, and Gloria Dei in Germany. Speaking of Berlin, I haven't been back since the wall came down, but I passed through it many times before that, once to stay a week in East Germany. The German spoken there, and the food, were essentially pre-war: lots of cold cuts but almost no fresh fruit or vegetables. Not sure about the corn salad or the drink. For a Sauvignon Blanc, Hector Wine Company 2022, fermented with indigenous yeasts, unfined, unfiltered, $19.50.

The creamy pasta might be too high in lactose, but if that can be controlled, I'd consider it after Passover. No on the pseudotini. For a Riesling, there are too many good choices, but this time I'll choose Red Newt's 2018 Dry Riesling. I cancelled the Utah trip, which would have begun next week, and now I'm puzzling over a conference in San Diego in July. That I'll go is almost a foregone conclusion, with airline credits that have to be used. The question is whether I'll go for the pre-conference or just the main conference. I also have to determine whether I have to fly the day before (probably) to get there by the starting time, and whether I have to stay an extra day (probably, because the conference continues past noon on the last day).