A Saturday in April

It is a magnificent grey day here in the big brown box. We had a good coffee time convo this morning, with the brilliant mrguy realizing that if our insurance doesn't pay for the PET scan we want, we could totally pay for it ourselves and make it happen. This is exactly what money is for. For saving your life. Yay!

Yesterday we talked to the oncologist and our oncology nurse navigator. The onco doctor has referred mrguy to a radiologist, and now is suggesting that because we think there aren't any mets, radiation could just zap that little effer and get rid of it. Radiation is not a groovy time. He'd switch to carbo/taxol as his chemo, and for 5 weeks he'd get zapped 5 days a week. Both the carbo and the radiation are cumulatively awful. That's why we'd want to get a PET sooner than later. a) are there any metastases and b) is the kanjinti already beating the cancer back by itself? If b, why worry about radiation? It was doing so well before. Or can he have kanjinti instead of switching up his chemo while he's doing radiation? Our nurse navigator is hoping for kanjinti rather than radiation. Anyhoo, mrguy is doing his research.

Today's The Kentucky Derby. It's my sister's favorite thing, and it always reminds me of her. It used to fall on the same weekend as Norway Day, which was our sister thing we did together. But we'd always need to find a spot nearby to watch it. Apparently I wrote this up in mrsguy and don't have to retell that story! But today my sister reminded me of a different story that she was telling to some friends over coffee this morning:

My brother-in-law, her husband, used to go to the races on Fridays with his friend Junior. One of those Fridays was the day before the Derby, so my sister gave her husband a tenner and asked him to put it on Giacomo to win the Derby. She wanted Giacomo specifically because that was her husband's grandfather's name. Next day they were watching the Derby and Giacomo won!!! It was at this point that her husband confessed that he hadn't placed the bet because he thought it was such a bad bet. Yeah, he was wrong. It paid out 50-1. A $2 bet paid out $800, and her ten bucks would have been many times more than that. Sis told this story to her feisty 90-year-old friend this morning over coffee and her friend said "And he's still alive?!" Funny. And Giacomo the horse is still alive, apparently, living the stud life.

Because it is Derby day today I went to the Derby website to look at the horses. I don't believe in racing, but this was in solidarity with my sister. There was a grey horse who was sooo pretty. Then I remembered that my grandparents owned a grey race horse at one point. Her name was Eleanor Grey. Not sure what the nomenclature was, but she was a harness race horse, and a pacer. She did some racing in the early 1950s. So like my granny to want a race horse.

Before signing off, here are some of yesterdays colors.

Sugar

I'm still on my sorghum kick, so I ordered some sorghum syrup. It arrived today.

I dipped the end of a spoon into the bottle and was surprised by how sticky the syrup is. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it took forever for the thread of syrup to stop stretching and find its end. That was at room temperature but I'm guessing it'll be easier to use without a mess when it's colder.

More when I know it.

I got the syrup for its iron content and its general sorghumness. Then I did what you're not supposed to do and I put it in yogurt, with a few chopped pecans. It was super tasty, but I probably defeated the iron absorption with the dairy.

I love using different kinds of sugar. With my coffee it's always white. I didn't know until Mickey and Raylene told me that to make it that color they use animal bones. I care about too many things, and that one I just draw a veil of charity over, if you know what I mean.

Palm sugar (jaggery) is my favorite to use in savory foods and some sweets. So tasty with lime, and it proffers good funk. I first used some jaggery from mrguy's stash of brewing ingredients. When I ran through it I went to the Pakistani grocery and asked for jaggery and the nice lady pointed to a bag of C&H. Did I realize previously that the word just meant sugar?

No I did not. This is the same place where the lady got tired of my asking for Amul butter during the pandemic. I eventually found a different source because we are lucky enough to be *thick* with South Asian markets around here. Anyway, on that day I was the red-faced purchaser of palm sugar, and her store is still my go-to. I mostly use this sugar in my applesauce. Jaggery, some allspice leaves from the slowest-growing tree to ever be sold by fastgrowingtrees.com, a little lemon from the tree (if any are hiding within it) and I am good. I made a lot of applesauce during the pandemic because every day my mom took an apple from her diningroom to her apartment and she never ate them. When the elder hoard became too large, her caregiver brought them to me and I made applesauce.

Popping back up to the top -- yay sorghum. I look forward to finding things that you will make more tasty. 

Perhaps my next batch of greens. 

Flights of Scandinavian Fancy

A friend suggested that we apply for a residency to stay on Svalbard and make music with another person we know. That just took me down all kinds of roads. Mrguy is not down with this idea, given that if you go there and want to walk outside the city limits you are required to carry a rifle because of polar bears. Eek.

You know me and bears.

But mrguy was not invited by my friend, by the way.

The third person fronts a metal band. It isn't outside of the realm of possibility that we could make music in Spitsbergen. Efterklang did it and made a beautiful documentary. I heard about it on Fresh Air, and we asked for the digital file of the film. The deal was that in exchange you had to get a group of at least 5 people to watch. We tried, but couldn't really sell it to our friends. Finally, at least ten years later, we broke the rule and watched it in Guy Home Theater. 

So this Svalbard thing took me down many rabbit holes. What kind of music could I do? I haven't sung or touched an instrument in years. I was reminded of the artist Louise Hoffsten, who made the most beautiful album called Käre Du, which took Swedish folksongs and gave them a light, gorgeous, jazzy twist. The song  "Om dagen vid mitt arbete" just slays me. Could there be inspiring songs in Norwegian?

Reddit suggests "...the Norwegian band Folque". They're pretty cool. In a I-can-imagine-Jack-Black-shredding-this kinda way. Then I tried listening to some Danish 80s music by Danseorkestret. I know one of those guys and it would be funny to revamp / tweak one of their songs. I don't really know much about them -- yet.

That's what happens on a Sunday. I was feeling crappy in the mind this morning, and now I feel much better.

From me to you.

A Stray Dog

The prompt was that we were to write from the perspective of a stray dog in our home town. Instead I wrote about my mother's nemesis, the dog down the street.

There are no strays in my neighborhood. My name is Mei Ling, I am a Pekingese, and X Road in San X is my scene. Because I “wet” on Mrs. X’s lawn and leave brown spots, she does not like my father who walks me. I’ve heard her daydream out loud of planting pokey plants in her front yard to make me go elsewhere. I don’t care. I’m a proud lady Pekingese and I own this place.