Still sad

I had to put Dusty to sleep last week after her back legs finally stopped working.  It was very cold and snowing and I figured that was coming on one of those types of days.  She did enjoy eating snow and patches of sun, but little else, in the last month or so.

She could not walk well in even five inches of snow, and this made her very sad as a snow-loving dog from Hibbing, MN.  Even when shivering, she refused to wear a coat to supplement her thick Shepherd mix fur.  But she kept up a good front to the end, worried more about failing me than her own pain, it seemed.  A great dog, and my first.

Fox sounds

The mystery I'm reading prompted me to look up just how a fox sounds.  Of course the search pulled up my niece's favorite video...  Tosch tosch tosch tosch tosch tosch tosch...

The hunting and dog interaction videos are cool too, but the scream, wow.  My dog was very upset when I played those...

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/what-sound-does-fox-make

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Turnips

I'm browsing recipes this morning, while listening to Teenage Kicks on The Current, of course.  David Bowie turns 67 on Wednesday, she tells me, which makes me feel very old.  I'm having flashbacks of staying up late to try and tape videos (DC did not get MTV or any cable til I was gone, so no going to friend's houses for that).

Turnip tart, with variations from Stilton to goat cheese to vegan cream to simple carameized turnips, is looking like the best bet.  I used Daikon radishes, cabbage, and turnips in a kim chi vermicelli bowl for breakfast.  Golden beets will go part to juice and likely borscht, but maybe I can find something

new on the internets...

Boiling diced turnips in a little water flavored with soy sauce and honey is surprisingly good.  The CSA is keeping things interesting this winter, though each biweekly box feels a bit overwhelming at first, even split between 2-3 households.

We're having one and a half days of 20 degrees between deep freezes, so I'm shopping and maintaining the car, then holing up to write and finish watching a bad British sitcom before it's due.  Went skiing (cross country) on New Year's Day and fought finger frostbite half the time, though it was stil fun.  Not as crowded...

I did indeed finish Reamde in 2013, and enjoyed it to the end.  Neil Stephenson's other books that I read have lost me before or at the 3/4 mark, but this stayed interesting.  I'm now working.on a Sarah Schulman reprint, After Delores, and a gory Icelandic mystery.  Then I think the Tapir book is next.  A little shot of science in mid-winter goes a long way...  Anyway, happy new year and stay warm and dry if you can...

Words

Nice coinage: "metrosketchual."  As in, "I saw the pix of Duck dynasty dudes with their families, posing for expensive portraits at a resort in khakis and highlighted hair.  It was fairly metrosketchual."  Or, "Who does Ryan Seacrest think he's fooling.  Totally metrosketchual."  Or something.

Interesting developments afoot

PC makers sidling away from Microsoft, incorporating Android apps, etc., makes for  interesting speculation about the near future for the older pieces in the wide array of gadgets now becoming must-haves.  Shaking things up would be nice.  I had to ditch Vista for Linux because it simply would not work on my machine, which is still purring on Ubuntu.  No love lost for Microsoft's monopoly game here.

This just reads like a shelf of 80s SF novels...

That's a Mpls St Paul airport Delta gate, apparently in a futuristic Bond wannabe phase.

Nice to have a day off

You can almost see our skyline, such as it is, over Lake Hiawatha there.  Lake Nokomis skaters and docks.  Flair's fountain in its usual winter state, frozen except for the burbling top, lit with colored lights.

That was not for a funeral or politics.  It's been a while.  Actually, it just feels like that, cos I went to NC for the GF's marathon in early November.  Oh yeah...  It's nice to lay around instead of traveling, tho. 

Of course, I shoveled twice and ran to the lake, in "laying around."  And helped make some dinner, lots of root vegetables thanks to the CSA I joined this winter.  The dog is slowing down a lot but had fun eating snow, still her favorite activity.

I finished The Shining Girls.  It was a good read, and meticulously researched.  In the end, it's all about a (time traveling) serial killer, though.   Somehow, that's less satisfying by the end than it was in the beginning.  I ended up feeling it was gross and sad but I hadn't really learned anything.  YMMV...  Now I'm on a rampage to finish Reamde by 12/31.  250 pages to go...

Happy holidays

I am too darn busy.  And still reading Reamde.  Along with Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls.  It's as good as everyone says.  I have so little to say these days.  I did a year end review for Aqueduct, no. 15 here.  In which I tried not to squee too much about Rick Bowes and get put next after his entry...

I had to put the old cat to sleep, afyer 22 years, 20 with me.  RIP, Hazy.  The brat misses you, he's actually being snuggly, for now.  Enjoying it while it lasts...

I'm being snowed on in a bus shelter.  Gotta love it.  Two feet or maybe 3 inches for Christmas, we'll see.

Carrie (2013)

I saw this a while ago but haven't had the time to rave about it like I want.  I will take a brief stab at it for now...

Chloe Moretz is very very good, which is to say creepy, then brutal, yet demanding sympathy.  Julianne Moore is terrifying, even when still and silent.  The script's a little creaky, as the reviews say, but Kim Pierce hits the spots of King's story De Palma did not, and critiques teen movies in the process.  My hope this would be a very queer version was not misplaced.  For instance, fundamentalism, the small town brand of erotophobia, and bullying are linked to claw at the underlying horror of Othering and smothering in concert.  I thought it was semi-subtle and well done.  Brought me back to 80s repression yet mined current trends, at the same time.  More later...

Breaking Glass

Hazel O'Connor stars in this story of a punk/new wave singer's rise to fame in 80s Britain.  The music will bring you back, if you remember.  Selling out, mass consumerism, and conformity as the themes make this a true punk movie.  The film is surprisingly fresh this many years later, due a lot to O'Connor's personality and stage performances.  The hit song will stay in your head for weeks, but it beats that Journey song you heard in the elevator...

Brrr

It's definitely winter.  I've been trying to keep up with a winter CSA share from Featherstone Farm, with a lot of help from my friends.  Today is cold enough for roasting a funky-looking kohlrabi of immense proportions and some golden beets.  Yesterday was squash tofu Thai curry soup in the crockpot, a nice end to a long day of work, running at the gym, and having to take a convoluted combination of bus and lightrail home.  Before that, turnip, daikon, parsnip, potato mash and fennel chicken worked well. 

I have to make an apple pie and vanilla ice cream to fulfill a fundraiser auction item for the Combined Federal Campaign, and then it's Thanksgiving stuffed squash and Quorn roast.  Then no more eating til January 1, or until the next CSA share pickup...

Luckily, I've also been busy trail running, tuning up for a food bank fundraiser 10k for Thanksgiving, and weight training a little, recovering from a botched half marathon in Mankato, MN.  I got off course and only did 10.5 miles, but I think it kept me from injuring myself, so theoretically I've accepted this as yet another failed half attempt.  Ready to cut off the bad muscles, except I need something to sit on...

The lack of much to say here stems from having started Neil Stephenson's 1,000+ page Reamde while furloughed, then being sent back to work within a week because I am, of course, essential.  The book is awesome, I can barely put it down, except I constantly have to...  It's sucking up all my free time, such as that is, but in a good way.  Classic cyberpunk subject matter, thriller style, and timely observations about technology, globalization, and practical economics.  Or something.  Highly recommended, if you can make the time or don't mind reading the same book for months.

Oh yeah, I also went to DC to see the folks, bro, niece and nephew, and Air and Space, of course.   Then to NC to watch the GF run the OBX (Outer Banks marathon to the uncool, apparently.)  Pix and more later.