BEHIND MY FRIDGE

I got a new fridge, and when I unplugged the broken one, I found an ungrounded plug , upside down, and half painted. A quick trip to the neighbourhood hardwood store, and a $5 upgrade made all the difference. 

The black wire went to the gold screw, and the white wire to the silver screw. 

I asked my neighbour electrical technician if I should use a circuit breaker, given the lack of grounding. He argued against it, because the fridge would be fine to withstand a surge, but a breaker that went off could lead to wasted food in a fridge that's not cooling. 

A call to my brother passed the time, and helped me figure out the new configuration of stiff old wires. 

The fridge is a great convenience, and matching plugs oriented in the same direction is a little pleasure.

 

MENU PLANNING FOR SUMMER PARTIES

Birthday Bash - Mom

High Tea - cucumber and cream cheese, egg

                - gazpacho soup

                - monochromatic fruit salad Martha No. 285 p. 23

Mango (1/2), pineapple(1), papaya( 1/2), peach, nectarine, apricot, oranges (2) - Use half an orange for juice to squeeze over, and sprinkle with salt and 5-spice powder

Plums(2), raspberries(1 pint), strawberries(1 cup), cherries (1/2 cup), red grapes (3/4 cup), pomegranate - reduce 1/4 c balsamic vinegar by half, add 1 tsp water, drizzle and sprinkle with pepper

Green apple (2), cucumber (1/2), honeydew melon (1/4), halved green grapes (3/4 cup), star fruits (2) - stir 2 T honey and 2 T lime juice. Dip apple, and drizzle. Top with mint and basil.

                - tofu, grape, celery salada

                - watermelon, corn, blueberry salad

Strawberry granita

Petit-fours

Individual cheesecakes

Birthday Bash - Teen

Dora cakes

VIP out-of-town visitor

Bagels, lox and cream cheese

Orange Julius

Coffee granita

Ice box cake

Friends theme - Spanish tapas - sangria, omelette, olives, patatas bravas

Block Party

PIGEONNIER NOT PIGER

I recently misused the verb piger that my princess pirate caught. I meant pigeon-holed, but I said, piger, which means to pick or choose, like a numbered ball at bingo night.

HIBERNATING ANIMALS

 Ten coolest hibernating animals

THE SENSES

 Grade nine science is very biology based, and I enjoyed revisiting human senses. Like Pluto, that was a planet when I was in secondary school, and now downgraded to a less prominent celestial body, my understanding of the senses have altered, with taste maps debunked, umami (savory) and  just the beginning, and our understanding of  5 evolving to many other senses (this article lists 18, but I suspect is not the final count, given our sense of time is much clearer than the author suggests even in 2019) still accumulating. The classic sweet, salty, sour, and bitter evolved to an understanding of taste receptors (I-IV) that were a further refinement from the taste buds we were taught. Now, taste receptors are known to be in the gut and not limited to the tongue, and the ability to taste still broken down into 4 subsets, but the receptors are clearly able to distinguish

There are many similar refinements that deepen my amazement of the magnificant human organism. Here is one example:

The retina sees colour  and shadow, but even in the absence of sight, the eye is capturing the circadian rhythm guided by the rotation of the earth with awareness of light and darkness. 

Other facts that I had forgotten: the iris dilates by a radial smooth muscle contracts, with constriction by a central sphincter.

Concomitant to my daughter's curriculum, I have reading Bill Bryson's The Body with a dear friend and colleague. It's been a fascinating review of the wonders of the body, and the horrors and wins of a long history of medicine. That anyone worships a health care worker shows how often we forget the past. Good thing for the most part. We've had a good run of it, with antibiotics, surgical advances, cardiovascular care,  cancer immunotherapy a successful last century. However, we need to remember that we were not successful very recently, and there is no time for hubris, but humility. No hero worship necessary. The historiens can tell you more.

VOLUN-TOLD

 The high school my kid goes to, like the one I went to, has a track to the International Baccalaureate program, or IB, that I liked for its goal of global citizenship and reflection.  

The kids in the program feel like they have extra work compared to their peers, and the community service not voluntary, but being volun-told!

FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF MY UNCLE'S DEATH

I may never know what this painting is about, but it feels like my uncle version of La Pietà. Although it seems like a statue that I could imagine in Amsterdam, which was one of his favourite cities, with the ferryboat on the river and the width of the water, I think it is actually set on the Parisian shore of the Seine. 

I talked about him with my Uncle Joe, who had sent me a package with family photos, and two red chinese motif decorated bags that were filled with his ashes. At the end of the day, under a waxing Strawberry moon, I sprinkled his ashes in my garden, wished him well under a sea of stars. 

I miss him, and the year without his emails and calls and a handpainted Christmas card was not the same. I have some of his paintings, and his Christmas cards, and a few photos from his friends around. Most days I am grateful to have these memories. Each work of art, and thing of beauty makes me think of him. 

NATURE IS ALWAYS TEACHING ME SOMETHING NEW

 Today we made time to go to a favourite local park with marshland, and hoped to find some tadpoles still, although we would have settled for frogs!

 We were starting mid-afternoon on a hot day, and the paths were looking dry. We were quickly reminded that it was Gypsy moth caterpillar season, and started to watch our feet so we didn't take any of the out by accident after we saw the first of several trees covered with them. 

We were walking the familiar trails where we started to hear what we both thought sounded like rain, which seemed pretty unlikely on a practically cloudless day. We stopped, and realized that we were in an Eric Carle book. It was the sound of caterpillars chewing!

If you have trouble believing me, here is what the forest floor was littered with, that we only appreciated on our way back home on the return path. Check out the rows of bite marks!

We had a great time with loads of birds, painted turtles, and lots and lots of tadpoles. The best surprise, other than a forest full of masticating caterpillars, was watching both a Kingfisher and a green frog hunt their prey.