Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Interestingly all the literature that went out to the Hmong Farmer's CSA recipients was filled with reminders like, "Only take your box! Look for your label! Sign out!" So, perhaps my chaos was not unique?


Image: CSA bounty (though the jar of honey was not included, that is just on the table)

So, this time my CSA included a bunch of fun things: sugar snap peas (a favorite to just eat raw), garlic scapes, rhubarb, Thai basil, green onions, curly kale, zucchini (one yellow, one green), dill, and another (not pictured) HUGE bag of lettuce.

Most of this, my family and I will have no problem eating. Although, we were joking tonight, as I made an herbed spaghetti dish for dinner, there is possibly no way we can consume all of the lettuce we currently have in the fridge. I am personally giving it the old college try, one salad at a time. Hopefully, my digestive tract will thank me?

The one thing we got this time that I don't use often is Thai basil. I'm generally a big basil fan, but Thai basil is something I mostly think of going in pho? But, I did a little googling and discovered that there are some fun things you can do with basil, including their flowers, like this basil flower vinegar...


Image: there is condensation on the mason jar because the cool dark place I have decided to let this steep is the fridge. 

This is day two for the flowers steeping in white vinegar. I suspect this is going to end up a very lovely shade of purple when it is done. The place that suggested this also has a salad dressing recipe, so that once you have the basil vinegar, you will know what to do with THAT.

Someone on the internet also suggested basil ice cream, which I am having some trouble convincing my family is a good idea, but, man, do I want to try it.

We also finally had the mint syrup I made a couple of weeks ago in a drink Shawn basically invented. It has gin, club soda, and a lot of mint syrupy goodness in it. I don't drink very often, but I found this very delicious. (Technically, the verb tense here should be 'am finding," as I am enough of an alcohol lightweight that I am very slowly sipping this throughout the evening. Perhaps my typos will increase as the evening wears on....)  


Not super fancy as "mixed drinks" go, but surprisingly tasty... says the non-alcohol drinker.

It continues to be insanely hot and humid around these parts. I have been watering sections of my lawn and gardens pretty much every day, though honestly the entire experience of "air" is not unlike the sensation of being trapped inside a greenhouse.  So, I suspect it's pretty good for the plants.

I ordered myself a copy of an anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, Walking the Clouds (ed. Grace L. Dillon), as prep for my Loft reading class.  I have not been able to read a full novel since Trump was elected, I swear, so this will be a nice way for me to dip back into it. Apparently, the anthology is all novel excerpts.  In the meantime, I'll be catching up on some short stories by other BIPOC SF/F authors that we put on the to-read lists. 

At the same time as I ordered the anthology, I impulse bought copy of The Star Trek Adventures: Science Division RPG handbook. It was a bit pricey, but I'm hoping it will be worth it. I'm not gaming with my group again until early August so I have time to read it and see if, for once, I can actually contribute more than just drama. As it happens, things were SO DRAMATIC with my last character that I have rolled a new one for this next campaign... because no one I was playing (including, briefly, an NPC) is left on the ship. :-)

Did I mention that Mason got into PSEO at the U for next year? (PSEO = Post-Secondary Education Opportunities.) We are excited, even with COVID concerns, because he has chosen to go full time.  I think this will be good for the budding case of senioritis he already had brewing his junior year. He won't be required to do anything with Washington Tech that he doesn't want to (though I suspect robotics will still be on the list of "want to"), which could potentially be very nice for his schedule... depending on what he can get into.  He's still registered at St. Paul College, however, so that takes some of the pressure off. What he can't get into at the U, he could potentially pick up there.

But who knows what school will even look like in September?

I am concerned about my country right now. We are not handling "The Covids' very well. 

How's by you?

Do you ever have events on your calendar that you look at for a long time and then suddenly it's THAT day?

We've had PSEO Informational Meeting on our calendar since forever, it seems. I also scheduled Mason an campus tour for this morning, but that was more of an informational session for incoming freshmen and he was anxious about his gaming computer (the ROG--it's real name "The Republic of Gaming" ASUS stopped taking a charge,) so we skipped the tour part of the tour in favor of a rush to The Genius Squad. That's part of the reason I fee like I've run around all day, but I'll tell that story next.

The Informational meeting was uplifting, honestly. I kept leaning into Mason and excitedly whispering, "You are SO ready for this" and squeezing his knee with barely restrained excitement. PSEO at the University of Minnesota would basically give Mason access to a college education while still in high school. He can fulfill his remaining high school requirements, at a much higher level. And, because one college semester counts for a full high school year, he could take any number of electives, too. I can't even tell you how excited I am on his behalf. This is really an incredible program and he's such a good fit.

Now, we just need to get him in.

One step at a time, so... first is the on-line application. He's actually already got some other things ready to be sent in, so we're going to give it our best, as they say. Cross fingers for us, please. It's a competitive program.

Meanwhile, with the computer, we dashed out to Best Buy only to be told we needed to schedule an appointment. So, I made one for 8:20 pm, just because I did NOT want to be at all rushed coming back from the PSEO meeting (which was 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm, so I maybe was being a little paranoid). We went BACK out to Best Buy only to have to wait for the one guy on duty while he settled a bunch of people who all seemed to be walk-ins, which pissed off, honestly, because all we needed was for someone to be able to tell us if the problem Mason was having with his ROG was on the power cord end or the machine end. The Best Buy guy was pretty sure it's on the machine end, which was not the answer we wanted at all. Now the question is: is it the mother board or is it the power port. (Or the cord, because, honesty, the guy seemed a little frazzled and I don't entirely trust that he had a similar enough power cord to be certain.) So my job tomorrow is to take it to a local shop which might have the ability to check that power port quickly. If it turns out to be the motherboard... well, I'm not sure what we're going to do.

Mason has recently gotten into an amateur Overwatch League and his team plays competitively. Without the ROG, he's off the team. These are his friends, too. He has a very serious community he's developed with them. But, when we bought this computer we dropped a couple thousand dollars on it.

If we had a couple thousand dollars to spare, we'd have a working upstairs bathtub by now.

Mason is feeling really devastated. As he told me on the way home: it seems like every time we rush somewhere for a prognoses we hear, "it's time to say goodbye" and there's no hope. I can't blame him. Literally, with both cats, we barely even got, "we think we can fix this," but instead it was, "sorry, there's nothing we can do."

And now his beloved, irreplaceable computer seems to be suffering the same fate.

It was a day of highs and lows, that's for sure.

Speaking of other things that have been on my calendar forever, tomorrow is my erotica reading with The Not-So-Silent Plant folks. Check out the event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/347306035861095/

The details are: "The country's only recurring open mic dedicated to speculative fiction returns Feb 19 with a star-studded show devoted to the themes of love, lust, romance and passion, with invited guests Lyda Morehouse, author of the Garnet Lacy series (as Tate Hallaway) and winner of the Philip K. Dick Award's Special Citation of Excellence, Catherine Lundoff, two-time Goldie Awards winner for erotica whose stories have appeared in over 80 publications, and Twin Cities writer/performers Laura Packer and Tom S Tea!

Got some romantic or erotic speculative fiction you want to perform or know someone who's a fan of sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural horror, or tales of alternate realities? Sign up starts at 7:15 pm in the Poet's Corner of Kieran's Irish Pub. Stories, stand-up comedy routines, poems, and musical pieces are all welcome, just as long as the material is speculative fiction and under seven minutes. Sticking to the evening's theme of Love & Lust is strongly encouraged.

$5-$10 suggested donation. Hosted by Ben San Del

This is an adults-only show. "

See you there?