StephanieL

They're repaving the streets everywhere, and of course there are signs stating the no parking dates and times. As I started my walk from home to BART, I saw one of those signs on my block laying on the ground and I foolishly thought to open it and prop it back up. Well, those things are METAL, and when I got it open it immediately closed right on my finger, and I couldn't pry it off for several seconds. My fingertip still feels funny, so I have a date with urgent care (out of network, natch) in an hour. Oh, and in a separate incident about 20 minutes later I took a hard fall near the station and scraped up my hands and knee. Sheesh.

I saw him on Broadway in You Can't Take it With You in 2014. It made me wish I'd gotten a chance to see him onstage in his prime.

Speaking of lentils....N made a salad with RG's French green lentils last night. She first cooked them with shallots carrot, and bay leaves and then mixed the cooked lentils with sliced radish and cucumber and a whole-grain mustard, white balsamic, and olive oil dressing. The lentil mixture was then combined with arugula, roasted beets, smoked salmon, and a topping of mascarpone cheese, fresh dill, and dried Meyer lemon zest. Shelf-stable smoked salmon in those flat cardboard boxes is a great staple to keep in the pantry.

From long COVID. My parents had albums from Brasil '66 and Brasil '77; the 1977 one got played a lot when I was growing up.

Do drinks books count? I just got a free copy of Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology.

Now that I know youth ice hockey starts in the fall, I'm not surprised that my nephew is starting fall baseball on Monday.

Fagioli alla Venezia, or Venetian sweet-and-sour beans, using RG Borlotti Lamons. It's usually a starter or side dish, but we turned it into a main dish with the addition of greens (spinach and lamb's quarters) cooked in the sweet-and-sour sauce and chicken Italian sausage from our butcher.

My condolences, @maison rustique.

John Lennon provided backing vocals on David Bowie's "Fame".

Went to Fenway years ago as part of an outing associated with my sister's graduation from Boston University. We were in the bleachers, it was so chilly that we were drinking hot chocolate, and I still managed to get badly burned on my face. The supreme irony is that it was Skin Cancer Awareness Day at the ballpark and they had given out packets of sunscreen to fans. At least the Sox lost to the Angels that day.

Reviewed in this week's New Yorker.

I love a good pasta salad.

Jumbo shrimp marinated in peri-peri sauce and grilled over gas. Yellow rice pilaf with spices and vegetables on the side.

Cheese grits with a poached egg on top.

It inspired me to watch the "Juke and Opal" playlet on YouTube.

The blurb in this week's Talk of the Town about the newspaper thieves reminded me of the time when I lived in Astoria and the New York Times deliveries regularly got stolen from my building's lobby (my own paper included). A number of fortuitous early-morning spottings, including the blue wrappers littered on the ground a block away (address labels intact), led me to discover that someone was taking the papers and selling them to at least one local bodega, where they were stashed in a cubby next to the newspaper shelves. The Times didn't seem too interested in my findings. I had to cancel my delivery and buy the paper at of all places a 7-Eleven that had just come into the neighborhood. I figured they probably wouldn't be trafficking in stolen newspapers.

I still don't know how I managed that first year in NYC without an AC, especially when the temps hit triple digits. And because the apartment was just above street level, in the front of the building, we couldn't really keep the windows open when we weren't home or when we were sleeping (no screens on the windows either).

We got the first fruits from our white nectarine and European plum trees. More to come next year, hopefully.

My mother has all of a sudden gotten quite sick. She still hasn't recovered from a bad case of poison ivy she got a couple of months back, and now she has edema with weight gain, is losing her hair, and is experiencing exacerbations of several longstanding conditions. Many of these I didn't know she had until just now--she keeps everything very close to the vest. So now she's undergoing a series of tests, and she and Dad had to cancel a river cruise they were going to take around Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. They've never had to cancel a vacation before. Not only do I feel like I'm replaying things my parents went through with their parents, but I'm seeing myself in about 25 years. For some of you, this will be like "cry me a river", but I'm not ready to be this middle-aged just yet.

Wise Sons do make excellent bialys. Sometimes As Kneaded Bakery in San Leandro has them (the owner is Jewish), but they're much larger than your average bialy.

No malasada? Gotta have the fried dough hit.

I have bad allergies and am very scent-sensitive, so I find that smell irritating.

At 88.

I was at a dinner in Oakland on Saturday and met a young woman who had lived in Astoria and had gone to Kabab Cafe on several occasions. What are the odds??

It was a great dinner, thanks, and we have plenty of leftovers. We did smell like smoke afterwards, though.