StephanieL

Austrian trip next June is a go! We received the invitation yesterday and have already RSVP'd. The happy couple's wedding website is very thorough, with information on travel details (including a reminder that US visitors will need a visa next year), the hotel where they've already reserved a block of rooms, links to the high-speed rail line that will get you from Vienna to Graz, and even what to wear (cocktail dress--an excuse to get a cute new outfit). We'll certainly stay a few extra days. We both want to see Vienna and N is dying to go to Salzburg for the day.

Mango daiquiri + Benadryl did the trick for me last night. RTBC today: someone at work brought in homemade French apple cake, and someone else brought in persimmons from their garden.

I didn't either. It's incredible how much he accomplished.

Reading what happened in the 5th made me grateful for needing to be at chorus rehearsal that night. I'd have broken something had I witnessed it in real time.

Ooh, I may add feta to my avocado toast tomorrow!

I made the Gigantes Plaki recipe from the new RG book, using the Royal Coronas; because I wanted it to be a main rather than a side dish, I added lots of feta on top before baking. I'm lucky enough to live near a store that sells several varieties of feta; I went with a creamy French sheep's milk variety.

Do they not have a reliable 4th starter?

At 79. She had multiple sclerosis for many years.

Fraudsters steal more than 22 tons of "high-value" Cheddar from Neal's Yard Dairy.

I still can't believe that Boone put in Nestor Cortes and not Tim Hill.

Is it a premonition of sorts that Fernando Valenzuela passed away this week?

The weather was quite lovely in Chicago over the past weekend. At least it looked that way out the windows of the convention center.

A lot of South African terms and expressions have crept into my speech over the last 17 years. Strangely, N hasn't picked up all that much Yiddish.

Dingbat of the day: my boss, for creating a Glassdoor account, complete with job alerts, using our department's shared Gmail address.

I have heard that it's a lovely weekend in Chicago. 🙄

I'll take 1977-1978. I'm working a meeting in Chicago, and I stayed up to watch Game 5 even though I was dead tired. I thought, "I'll just stay up to watch the 10th inning and will catch up tomorrow if they go longer."

Heartbreaker for the Yanks last night.

The Reblochon we currently have is so pungent that we're storing it in a glass container.

I have a picture of N riding the Cyclone, her face an expression of utter terror.

A kind of coronation chicken-type salad, with packaged sous vide chicken breast (from Roli Roti, a very popular rotisserie chicken truck here), barley, and RG Buckeyes.

I had to cheer for the Mets in the 1986 World Series, because there was no way I was going to cheer for the Red Sox.

Believe it or not, the banana tree did so well this year that we have an absolute surplus of fruit. N made a banana-chocolate sorbet (blend it all up and freeze), and for breakfast today I decided to make challah French toast with a side of bananas cooked in a brown sugar-butter sauce.

Another hot weekend, another salad: a variation on RG's recipe for Salade Nicoise, using Royal Coronas. No green beans, because we're long past that season, so I threw in an avocado for something green (besides the parsley).

Good lord, triple digits in October in my part of the East Bay.

Chicken in a piperade sauce over spaetzle. Simonsig 2019 Chenin Blanc to drink (which also had gone very well with the sardines & beans).