TubaOrNotTuba

Smack in the middle of the week, a holiday. A Class One, close all the stores and reduce the city to a shadow of its activity level sort of holiday. In passing, due to the odd rules of government, we get another one in the middle of next week, albeit not so restrictive against commerce. For today, at least, the weather is superb. All warmed up and no place to go, although the pool is now clean; aseptic in comparison with a month ago.

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While wars rage and a brewery finally buys the Habs, I’ve got more important things to do. Like making chicken stew.

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I added a new gadget to the pile today. One that shows the depth of my archives, because my children have no need for such a device. After much thought, my gift from the social club went from simply much more music to something much bigger. I’ve purchased a phono preamp, RIAA rolloff specs, in order to review and explore the stacks of vinyl in the basement.

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What’s that got to do with the price of fish? One of those expressions that I remember from when I lived a bit closer to the shore, and Friday required a meal that had been caught with a hook (or a net). Nowadays, I don’t have any good reason to follow the auctions in Boston, and the local radio stations haven’t carried that sort of information in decades. Only when I come across some of the flash-frozen fillets that are available in the local foodstore does the question come up in conversation.

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A little warm weather, a few dandelions and the soul starts to remember summer. This afternoon, I had an odd craving for one of our favourite vacation foods; off to the kitchen, to try and mimic the taste of campground nourishment.

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Here we go. Another improved distribution of Linux to try (and buy, because the price is so affordable). I’m still a fan of Linux Mint, and this evening I burned an ISO of “Gloria” (version 7 Release candidate 1). Usually I’m patient enough to wait for beta and RC versions to pass, but there’s a confidence level with this distro that made the risk acceptable. The usual easy install, where only one of my partitions is erased and reformatted; the Vista stuff is untouched, and after about fifteen minutes and one reboot, bere we are with a newer, faster Linux ready to use. This time around, even my sound works without any tweaking or wondering what forum might hold a clue to a puzzle. Two thumbs up.

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We were late getting settled in for the evening, so I missed the early performances this week. Not to worry, because one can always play catch-up in a few hours, but still, Simon’s retort to one enthusiastic contestant bears repeating: “It’s fine being artistic; just not on this show.” Oh my! The real American Idol competition starts now, and the irony is that we have some true artists in the game. How much restraint should someone practice?

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With a full five months to go before vacation, the need for a real donair is increasing. I found myself trying to describe the form and texture and flavour to my seatmate on the bus this morning, but even my enthusiastic rambling doesn’t do justice to what should be marketed as the “real” cultural food of the Maritimes. Forget salt fish and blue potatoes.

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Today, driven by the gift of a half-kilo of good quality chocolate, I tried my hand at confectionary crafts for only the second time in my life. When I was very young, my mother used to spoil us with home made fudge, so the idea of a sugar overdose is familiar, but that’s from earlier times. Today, using one of those “it’s so easy even you can do it” recipes that abound on the Internet, I tried making chocolate truffles.

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Even someone as talented as me in the kitchen (false modesty is neither necessary nor virtuous) sometimes needs inspiration. When the opportunity to make a counter offer against a meal in a local chicken kitchen was offered, I was ready. One method for combatting the cold of winter is to eat something from a warmer climate. How about Mexico? We happen to have a small restaurant in the area, Senor Sombrero. Our previous visit was fun, so we bundled up and headed down to their site in an older city home.

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