kochleffel

I was thinking that it looked purple!

New York is not considered Bubba territory, but that doesn't mean that we don't have them. I agree that Rocky Road is better as ice cream than as a highway. I like but don't love my dentist. The meal would be OK but I'd rather have Roy's alternative. No on the drink, maybe yes on the wine. I haven't even been to Exmouth in Devon. I'm catering a picnic lunch for a dozen or so volunteers tomorrow, and spent part of the afternoon making vegan wraps. To be clear, vegan wraps are not made from real vegans. The filling is Chickpea of the Sea salad, which gets a slight fish flavor from seaweed. Some of the wraps also have to be gluten-free and I ended up with one that may or may not be. That is, the wrapper was gluten-free but it may have come into contact with one that wasn't.

Ooh! I don't use emojis but maybe I should start. Just think of how many young people I could amuse, or annoy.

In contrast to 89° here in the frozen north!

AA has flights to LHR from PHL, CLT, RDU, ORD, DFW.... Is the problem that they will only rebook you onto flights that have award availability, which is none at this point? You might post about this in the American Airlines forum on Flyertalk to get suggestions from people who know more about AA policies and loopholes.

Rabbit, rabbit. I have been waking too early and unable to get back to sleep, but last night I went to be a bit early, woke at 6:00 a.m. but only briefly, and slept until 8:00, so my outlook on life is better. Today I need to pick up prescriptions and, if possible, shop at Staples, be home for a webinar at noon, work in my office during the afternoon, and shop for groceries. In contrast to Say Something Nice Day, Alice Roosevelt Longworth is quoted as saying, "If you can't say anything nice about anyone, come sit next to me." For Dare Day: when I lived in a small town in Connecticut, I always attended the annual Town Meeting. I am from Ohio and didn't always understand the New England accent. One year, when the budget was being presented, someone questioned the police department figures, asking whether it accounted for deer officers. Now, the town was almost overrun with deer, but I had seen no sign that the police department had anything to do with them. It turned out to be DARE officers; DARE is an anti-drug education program. I'm not very fond of tilapia, but I'll be ready for a Tom Collins later. The wine might be OK. I haven't been to anywhere in Mexico.

I need to be sure whether we're talking about classic macaroons (French macaron) or Jewish macaroons, which are made of coconut and typical for Passover even though I'm not sure that anyone likes them. As for No Tobacco Day, news reported today is that Sweden is close to being smoke-free: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/sweden-close-becoming-smoke-free-country-europe-daily-99718289. It is difficult to make good falafel, because of the frying. In the hands of a non-expert, sometimes the outside is burned, sometimes the inside is raw, and sometimes both are the case. I could tolerate the drink but probably wouldn't order it. The wine would be OK, but I have no idea whether it's obtainable or affordable. I haven't been to Tenerife. Months ago I thoughtlessly submitted a conference proposal. Now it has been accepted and I have to figure out what to do in the session.

I'm imagining signs reading BE CREATIVE like the apocryphal THINK signs. I wouldn't mind a mint julep, but I'll pass on mint and strawberries with chicken. I'd rather have Roy's alternative. I might like the drink but will probably never find out. OK on the wine. I haven't been to Valdez.

Not a tour, but if I were on Bornholm I'd want to stop by Bornholm Snaps (view in Chrome for automatic translation). I brought a bottle back from Copenhagen and opened it on my birthday last year. At Visby there is a free walking tour every day in the summer. It's given by a slightly eccentric but very entertaining Scot. A caution: he doesn't take groups larger than 22-24 and doesn't give tours during Almedalen Week because of crowds. (However, I got him to do one for a group of about 24 during that week and then he booked a second group for the same day.) Free means tip what you want to at the end. If you can walk up a long hill, you may not need or want a tour at Tallinn. It's easy to see on your own.

The study program on Friday night went well, ending around 11:00 p.m., except that I can't sleep after doing something like that right before bedtime, so I was a mess yesterday. Today I taught Hebrew at 9:30. I need to mow grass but won't do it until the afternoon; unfortunately, I have to stay clean for a Zoom call at 2:30 to record a lobbying presentation for our member of Congress. My part in it is extremely minor. The meal suggestion would be fine with me and I would make it today if I had any couscous. I'd also like Roy's alternative, but maybe I'll have a hamburger in honor of the day. Another pseudotini. I might like the wine but will probably never know. I haven't been to Brazil. I'm scheduled as the main service officiant next Shabbat morning and I conceived the idea of singing a classic piece that is rather beyond my singing ability. It's written in F but I will sing it in A so that at least I can reach all the notes. I need not to be too anxious, because it's equally important to convey the meaning of the Hebrew text.

It's believed that King David had red hair, although the Biblical source for it is open to other interpretations. I would like the meal. Earlier this week I wanted to make a recipe that required dashi, but I could get neither dashi powder nor kombu. Dashi powder has probably never been available here; kombu usually is. I was perplexed by the drink but it seems that the kumquat is only a garnish. OK on the wine, if available. I haven't been to Aqaba or Petra. Years ago I attended a conference in Israel that had an option to add on a trip to Petra, but I was working in a state where school opens before the middle of August and I had to get home. Many thanks for the Shavuot greetings. I'm teaching tonight at a study session that begins sometime after 9:00 p.m. These are supposed to last all night but our community has never gone past 11:30 p.m., which is actually pretty good for people who usually go to bed at 9:00.

Do you remember the burial service last week, with military honors? The man next to me at the refreshment table after donating blood was wearing a Navy cap. It turned out that he was part of the honor guard.

Some people still say "Shavuos" instead of "Shavuot." According to Tom Lehrer, the proper thing is to make a pilgrimage to East St. Louis.

@RMLincoln asked whether it's the Feast of Booths. No, that's Sukkot, in the fall. This is the Feast of Weeks. Hebrew lesson: the Torah says to count seven weeks, 49 days, from the second night of Passover, then it's Shavuot. Seven in Hebrew is sheva, and shavua is a week, i.e., 7 days. The plural of shavua is shavuot, understood here to mean "a week of weeks" or seven weeks. The Torah instructs farmers to bring an offering of the spring grain harvest. In the ancient Near East that would have been barley, but winter rye or winter wheat would also work. Centuries later, rabbis calculated that it was seven weeks from leaving Egypt to receiving the Torah at Sinai, and that's the primary understanding of it today, except in agricultural communities. The rationale for eating dairy foods is that the Hebrews, upon receiving the Torah, realized that none of their meat was kosher, so could only eat dairy foods that day. That's fanciful, but it's a justification for celebrating with cheese blintzes, cheesecake, or ice cream. For a person who is lactose-intolerant this is not exactly a favorite holiday.

I have always brown-bagged most of the time when I worked in locations from which I couldn't go home for lunch. I had not planned to carry a towel today, but it seems that the Red Cross is going to give me a beach towel, which I don't need or want, at the blood drive. In November it was a frozen pie, which I didn't need or want, either; I gave it to a volunteer who was helping in the office. I could envision making the meal suggestion, probably the portobello version since those mushrooms are readily available. BTW, button, cremini, and portobello mushrooms are all the same species, at different stages of growth. However, today I'd prefer Roy's alternative. Yet another pseudotini. I'd like to try the wine if it were available and affordable. I haven't been to Gibraltar and won't be there this fall even though the route for the Spanish Farewell passes Gibraltar. Dinner last night was strange and I don't recommend it: daikon soup, supposed to relieve bronchitis, and a vegan substitute for chicken salad made with jackfruit. The soup was bland but seemed to have some of the desired effect. Jackfruit is in no way a substitute for chicken--it resembles and has the texture, but not the flavor, of chunks of beef pot roast. Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Originally it was a spring harvest festival (barley), but rabbinic tradition makes it the anniversary of receive the Torah at Sinai; the Scripture reading for it is the Ten Commandments. There is a custom to eat dairy foods, but that will apply to dinner tomorrow, since the holiday begins at sunset, well after dinner. Our community's main celebration, however, is tomorrow night, when I am teaching at a late-night study session (another custom), and Saturday.

I thought that was likely, if not specifically as a caution, because of pain medication by IV. When I was being discharged after surgery on my arm, the resident was trying to speed up the discharge, but the nurse was trying to slow it down, because I needed to receive one more dose of medication that could only be administered IV and it wasn't time for it yet.

Right after posting I dialed again, and held (on speakerphone) for 33 minutes. A live human then got the information, asked me to hold again, came back after 10+ minutes, and asked me to hold again. I expect that I'll eventually be asked to mail in a copy of my W-2, so why don't they just say that? Later: nope, they want me to take a copy of my W-2 to the local office.

I've found Social Security to be efficient once you can get through to them, but that doesn't seem to be possible for anything that can't be initiated through their website. The answering message warns that they have telecom problems resulting in poor connections, and that wait times can be extremely long. It says that one can deal with them in person at a local office, but it may be impossible to see anyone that day, so it might be necessary to make an appointment for another day. However, the only way to make an appointment is to go in person. There is also a "Request Call Back" button on the website, but it results in a message that call-back service is unavailable.

Sasha always wore her tiara for royal weddings and the like. I haven't eaten escargot and probably won't. I have a friend whom I think of as my brother although we aren't related. Roasted cabbage would be OK but is it supposed to be a main course? The drink would also be OK, not that I have the ingredients, and I might like the wine. I haven't been to Morocco but you could have guessed that. I've been sleeping better but I'm still a bit tired. Eventually I have to call the Social Security Administration because of an error in my earnings record. I think I can retrieve my form W-2 for that year if it's needed.

An AirTag has no capacity of its own to connect to the Internet. It piggybacks onto an iPhone, any iPhone, that is near it and is able to connect to the Internet.

A redneck limo would run on moonshine, wouldn't it? Are you sure that you're a redneck?

A friend of mine, a prosperous lawyer, picks up pennies from the sidewalk. When he has a bag full, he takes them to the bank to be counted and then donates the total to charity, Everyone in his family thinks he is crazy. No pork anything for me, even though I have mangoes. The cocktail is perfect for people who don't like Scotch, because the other ingredients will kill the taste of it. I'm not familiar with the wine and I haven't been to HMC, because the seas were too rough for tendering. Instead, the Nieuw Amsterdam diverted toward Grand Turk, where we had already called, for a medical evacuation. Today in History: 1949 Federal Republic of [West] Germany created out of the American, British and French occupation zones Last night I found myself unexpectedly teaching the first hour of a Talmud class because the person who was supposed to teach it had an emergency. It was a tractate that I don't know, but fortunately the questions that arose were about things that I did know. Usually I am only the Zoom host. One of the digressions--the class rarely sticks to the topic--was about the differences in attitudes between the former West Germany and the former East Germany. I happen to have spent a week in East Germany while it was still East Germany, if that makes sense. I'm still not firing on all cylinders. Bronchitis and sinusitis have improved; I've used only complementary treatment because neither was severe enough for antibiotics or for decongestants, which are contraindicated for me anyway. Exhaustion has not improved very much. It may be from the respiratory issues, but lack of sleep is also a factor.

I grow a few vegetables but not a great number or variety. Cod with celery salad would be OK. At least today's pseudotini doesn't quite try to call itself a martini. I don't know the wine and I haven't been to Loreto. The unveiling that I wanted to be a week ago took place this morning. It is a peculiar Jewish custom, after a burial, not to install a headstone for about a year, and when installed, a cover is placed on it that is removed in a brief ceremony. I know of no actual religious requirement for this, but it marks the formal end of mourning. I hadn't realized that today it would be a combined burial and unveiling: the marker had been installed when the man's wife died, and his name and dates had been added earlier this spring, but he died in California and was cremated (which is unusual). His children brought the remains here when they could all visit together. If I had thought about it I would have remembered that there had been no funeral or memorial service. It was a rather long ceremony, because three sons, a daughter, and two granddaughters spoke. I was close to him until he moved to California at the age of 96 to be nearer his children and grandchildren. He was over 100 when he died and mentally competent until just a short time before his death.

The Museum of Glass near here has an international following. I always have dirty dishes. I don't have many relatives, not even many relatives whom I don't want to visit. Flatbread pizza would be OK if I weren't avoiding so many of its ingredients right now (not permanently). Yet another pseudotini! I might like the wine. I've had New York as a destination for embarkation and disembarkation many times, but never as a port of call. It is a port of call for some cruises that neither begin nor end there, but there aren't a huge number of them. I was looking for a pre-dawn photo of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge taken from the Norwegian Breakaway, but I couldn't find it.

I come from a family of pack rats and seem to have inherited the gene for it. For my mother it was expressed in collecting things that would actually be useful in certain situations that were unlikely to arise. In my case it seems to be a form of selective ADD: attention surfeit for things that are interesting but attention deficit for things that are not. My father was a participant in a research program on hypertension in the 1950s and was the longest survivor of the original cohort. I can't really complain about telecommunications and information, although there are times when I think we have too much of the latter. I like gnocchi but this seems like a complicated and peculiar way to make them. I would probably like the drink, although tea is the only component of it that I have (I don't even have ice right now). The wine would probably be OK. It's not long since Falmouth in the UK was the destination of the day; I still haven't been to that one, or the one in Jamaica, or any Falmouth at all, not even the one in Massachusetts. It was cold when I got up and I'm postponing outdoor work until the afternoon when it will reach 51°. There is a freeze (not just frost) warning for tonight.