I haven't posted a spam scam for a while now. They are getting more sophisticated.

Confirmation of Interest – Global Business Financing Program

Ludwigstorff Georg<georg.ludwigstorff@dorotheum.at>

Dear Recipient,

We are pleased to inform you that your company has been shortlisted for participation in our current Global Business Financing Program.

Following our preliminary review, your organization meets the eligibility criteria, and we are considering the allocation of grant funding ranging between $2,000,000 and $10,000,000, subject to final evaluation and completion of the required procedures.

To proceed, we kindly request that you confirm your interest in this opportunity by replying to this email. Upon receiving your confirmation, we will provide detailed information regarding the funding structure, documentation requirements, and next steps in the process.

We look forward to the possibility of working together and supporting the continued growth and success of your company. email: rolf.gerling@financier.com

Kind regards,

Rolf Gerling

This message contains confidential and/or legally privileged information and is intended solely for the designated recipient. If you have received this message in error, please treat it as confidential, immediately inform the sender and then destroy the message. Unauthorized copying or use or unauthorized dissemination to third parties is prohibited.

Please note that it cannot be excluded that messages may be intercepted, altered or falsified by other persons.

Responsibility for integrity or completeness is excluded, nor shall we indemnify losses incurred on account of unauthorized manipulation.

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Auf alle Geschaeftsbeziehungen finden die oesterreichischen gesetzlichen Bestimmungen und die sachlich gueltigen ALLGEMEINEN GESCHAEFTSBEDINGUNGEN des Dorotheum ausschließliche Anwendung.

Each and every business relationship shall be based on austrian law and on the factually applicable GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS of Dorotheum solely.

http://www.dorotheum.com/footer/agb.html

http://www.dorotheum.com/en/footer/terms-and-conditions.html

http://www.dorotheum.com/it/footer/termine-e-condizioni.html

Susan choosing shoes and socks

 [please supply image]

Kimmel

Don't know why, after all the truly horrible stuff that's been done, don't know why Jimmy Kimmel's suspension pushed me over the edge.

Maybe because he is somewhat Establishment, a presumably protected rich white man. If he's a victim, then the country is truly crumbling before the loony evil greedy bullies. (Colbert? That was a slap on the wrist, giving him a year; a lot can happen in a year.)

Check my privilege? Yeah I was counting on it.

I'm close to retirement, hoping to keep my head down, wanting to continue on my nice little patch of finally-something-is-mine New Hampshire home. My yard. My garden. I need to continue working. I worry that some strange medical expense will destroy it all, all my saving and scrimping and not doing stuff (trips, theatres, restaurants, home improvements) so I could save money so I could be safe, despite layoffs, not ruined by emergencies.

I need to work, mainly for health insurance.

What drugs should I request from my shrink so that I can continue to function despite the current political situation? 

Prozac? More Prozac?

current status of social media

• Facebook is for finding a local business or for sharing pictures of your kids with faraway cousins.
• Instagram is also for sharing photos with cousins, and for making photos pretty with contrast and other editing features. And to see pretty pictures from around the world.
• Tumblr is for sharing love of different media and hobbies. 
• Threads is for weird personal stuff.
• BlueSky is for anti-Trump politics plus some disparate Twitter remnants.
• Now and then I'll log onto X to see Jonah Goldberg's dogs. 
• I hope Google doesn't delete Blogger like they did with Google Photos. My posts go back to 2006.

Berry Status - Casa Zeballos - Goffstown NH - 2025-07-11

Ate the first ripe blackberry this afternoon.

Still a few raspberries left.

Probably no more wild strawberries on the front lawn.
(On Tuesday, I gave up on them and mowed the wildly overgrown front lawn.)

The choke cherries are starting to turn red, but the birds usually get all of them.
Choke cherries aren't really worth human effort anyway.

What other word than Great?

It is ironic how the things Trump destroys are the things that made us great: science, arts, health, foreign aid, generosity, an adherance to ideals.

A Great Nation is a beacon for foreign students and scientists and intellectuals. They compete to find a place in a great and prospering nation. Citizens and foreigners learn from each other in a country open to diverse ideas and debate, in a country that promotes advancement. 

That beacon defines greatness, and has done so for millenia. The centers of greatness have shifted over the years, but we can recognize where they have been thoughout history.

I mourn our greatness. I'm angry at how it is being destroyed: by simple stupidity, not from natural disasters or war or invading barbarians.

Home-grown barbarians are destroying us--barbarians abetted by ignorance, greed, and the selfish fear of politicians who could oppose them.

I want America to be great again. I want us to Make America Great. But we can't use that slogan any more for what it ought to mean.

 

In the morass

"The graveyards are full of people who thought they were irreplaceable."1 2 

The sad truth is that many of them were.

That's not the point of the original sentiment.

The point is--

If people are remembered for their worst mistake, President Biden will be remembered for his failure to stick to one term.

During the New Hampshire primary, we were inundated with ads and emails urgently telling us that a write-in vote for Joe Biden was the only way to prevent Donald J Trump from regaining power and ruining our democracy. It didn't make logical sense at the time. In hindsight, the opposite may have been true.

Me? I've been saying since November: "Don't blame me. I voted for Dean Phillips."

1  2

cooked a proper French omelette

...with chopped leek, chives, and garlic sprouts--greens from our garden.

In the fancy French omelette pan. (ok, it's a crepe pan, but still fancy and French.) 

The eggs were best-by March, and now it is May. They were fine. 

I'd been practicing omelette making before we all got scared from the high price of eggs and stopped eating them as cavalierly as we had done before. 

But that was no reason to stop completely. I mean, we ate fish last night that was certainly more expensive.

McGuire's Wicked Oz

Listening to the audiobook version of Gregory McGuire's Wicked apparently did some serious harm to my psyche. I get an inward cringe when exposed to any references to it, though I'm told the play and the movie were much more enjoyable. 

My childhood was an Oz-infused world. There was the annual network broadcast of the movie and thus pilgrimage to my cousin's house to watch it on her color TV. But most important were the books: the classics by L.Frank Baum with illustrations by John R. Neil, and then the later ones by Ruth Plumly Thompson--and then a few also written by John R. Neil. (I loved John R. Neil, as only a little girl can love the man who draws her ideal fairy princesses.)

To be able to read the Oz books was my main motivation for learning to read.

Our eldest sister Melinda (rhymes with Glinda) was the keeper of these sacred tomes. We would approach her with a request to borrow one of them only when we were certain she was in a good mood. What if she was in a bad mood, and said no? Then we'd have to wait even longer before we could ask again. (For the record, this feared scenario never happened. She never did refuse to lend us a sacred Oz book, once we'd worked up the courage to ask her.)

Most of the Oz books were inherited from our cousins. There were a few books missing from the collection. Prior to a Hanukkah trip to the discount bookstore where books were sorted by publisher, we'd check and carefully memorize the publisher: Reilly and Lee. Reilly and Lee. "Reilly and Lee," we'd say, entering the car, then again while entering the bookstore.

I appreciated that McGuire had read all the books. That showed in his details, like Smith & Tinker being the manufacturer of mechanical men in both the original books and in McGuire Oz. These details added to the creepiness--as if the true evil had always lurked in Oz--as if any adult could have seen it, the way we all learn horrible truths about the real world as we grow up. To grow up in the real world is to replace one-by-one the simple ideal explanations that the grownups start us off with. Likewise, McGuire Oz is an unmasked evil that we hadn't noticed before only because we were children.

But my Oz, our Oz, was a child's paradise.There was no evil truth to learn about the world, no need to grow up. No one ever died there. You stayed the age you liked best. 

When Dorothy ate a ham sandwich from a lunchbox she'd picked from a lunchbox tree, we asked our Orthodox Jewish father if we could eat a ham sandwich if it grew on a tree and he said yes. We could even eat ham sandwiches in Oz. Freedom and fantasy. Oz was the Best Place, a Refuge. Escape.

Oz never left me, no matter how old I grew. After all, you're the age you liked best in Oz--and why would anybody choose to grow up?

I listened to the Wicked audiobook during my pre-Covid, pre-remote-work, hours-long stressful car commuting to and from my out-of-state job. So ok, maybe I was already vulnerable? And ram, stomp, onto my childhood paradise went the well-written riveting narrative--I couldn't escape McGuire Oz, not until its sad sad ending.

No.

Some time I'm sure I will see the movie. The bits of stills from it I've seen are pretty. But I haven't the courage yet.

white bean what's-left-in-the-fridge soup

Whisk in pot over low heat:

• leftover mashed potatoes (~ 1 cup)
• skim milk (~ 3/4 cup?)

Add:

• navy beans with some water (hydrated over the weekend) (~ 2/3 cup?)
• frozen broccoli florets (enough to make the soup nicely populated)
• crumbled hard-boiled egg yolk (1)

Spices:

• dill
• basil
• Trader Joe mushroom umami
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• smoked paprika
• small packet of probably Teriyaki left over from a Trader Joe frozen something.

Today I learned that it is important to crumble the egg yolk completely before adding it to the soup. It won't dissolve on its own. (Instead I had to chase it with spoon and mini-whisk to crumble it in the soup.)

I tried some and thought it was pretty good.

I told my younger daughter "There's soup!"  

She knew enough not to ask "What kind?" 

She took a small bowlful. 

I asked her opinion: Thumbs up. 

Yay. 

Anyone else married to a Chilean?

Can we tell he's Chilean by the number of cans of corn he thinks necessary to keep in the cupboard?

Or is it only his love for mayonnaise?

begrudging respect for the battery-powered wristwatch

I liked the automatic watch I got from Poshmark because I didn't have to worry about the battery dying or my overwinding it. Then I bought another watch I thought was a wind-up but turned out to run on a battery. I must admit I am finding it rather convenient to reach for a watch and not have to set the time, as I usually needed to do with the automatic watch.

I also had a lost Swatch with a disintegrating strap. I found the Swatch but the battery is dead.

to make caramel: melt sugar, then quickly add salt + rum + cream.

Not butter. Not water.

After it melts, there isn't time to use a candy thermometer. 

I used a small All-Clad sauce pan. Make sure the sugar is under 1/4 the height of the pan, because there will be a dramatic bubbling up when you add rum and then cream to the melted sugar.

To make caramel sauce:

• Melt sugar (~ 1.5 cup) without stirring.* 
• Turn off heat
• Sprinkle in kosher salt (1 Tablespoon?)
• Stir in rum (3 Tablespoons? Really, as much as you might pour in cautious speed ready to stir it in immediately.)
• Stir in light cream (~ 1/2 cup?? I needed to use up the pint.)
• Once you can stir smooth, pour it into a jar.

*Today (5th of January) I learned from Milk Street Radio that stirring during the melting step leads to crystalization. But do have something like a long wooden fork that is good for quickly incorporating ingredients ready for the stirring steps, which are dramatically bubbly and best completed ASAP.

January 2025

• 2nd: Don't buy a crocheted hat for someone who crochets hats. Unless it's so amazing they'll want it to copy or use as an inspiration.
• 7th: Yesterday was the first day this whole year that I didn't play the lute.
• 7th: Got a new PC yesterday. For work. Why do work computers come pre-loaded with the Windows "Feed" of overwhelming stuff that isn't related to work?
• 8th: Diabetes exploded due to soda drinking, but: Are they drinking soda because they can't trust the tap water?
• January 20th, 2025: A day that will live in Infamy. I don't know if I can hibernate for 4 years.
• 21st: I tried, last night, but doomscrolling definitely happened.
• 
  

December 2024

Current Events:

• The problem isn't insurance executives. The problem is voters not insisting on National Healthcare.

Business/Product Idea(s)

• A Halloween Advent Calendar

Crochet/Knit advice:

• For fingerless gloves, make the finger end and the wrist end more distinct.

Rich People

• Use Puff's Plus all the time.

Hanukkah lesson:

• Even if you spend 2 hours making latkes and applesauce, you will still need something else for supper.
• Rice with packaged Spinach & Paneer to which we added a can of chick peas went well.
• Bonus: A dollop of plain yogurt goes with both the Indian food and the latkes!

November 2024

Is it better for the environment: 

to buy an electric kettle that breaks and has to be thrown away, or

to use a less-efficient stovetop kettle?

Would anyone who sews want to buy a "raw-hemmed" garment?

Given that the Electoral College and popular vote were not in conflict this past election, would this be a good year to get started on a Constitutional Amendment to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote? (reminder to email my congressman.)

"The Salt Mines of Mars" - Salineras de Maras: Peru's Ancient Salt Pans - IncaRail Blog

Tiny bit of fresh ginger grated onto maple walnut ice cream - not bad.

Who were the pallbearers at Superman's funeral? (Superman's Song)

Yes, you can hand-wash that dry-clean-only dress. If not, you've got plenty of time before the next event to buy a new dress.

In the category of compulsive phone habits

 I keep clicking on the "Play Store" icon though I don't want anything from there. I guess my brain sees the word "Play" and thinks "Fun" so tells me to click it.

I understand why he had to go, but I still miss him

Woke too early this morning. Gave up on trying to go back to sleep. Boiled water. Got out the blue bowl to make Cream of Wheat. (Blue, vs. white, is important for detecting the difference between the Cream of Wheat and the bowl.) 

We buy the store-brand generic cream of wheat when it's available, but when it's not we get the original brand. Generic comes in a bag. Today it was the box, thus the brand-name version. On which I expected to see the black chef in the puffy hat but of course he's gone. 

The Cream of Wheat man and the Quaker Oats man who reminded me of Captain Kangaroo were the companions of my childhood breakfasts. Along with my dad, who cooked the cereal and served it to me.

As an adult, now, I understand the historical reasons why the black chef was problematic--though if he were introduced now, when chefs are idolized, wouldn't he just be a Betty Crocker type of personification of the brand? It seems less trustworthy now that no one is on the box to vouch for it.

Acorns are nuts, therefore...

It's amazing how many of the sites telling you how to make acorns edible first give complex instructions involving hammers or advising caution in the use of serrated knives. Such clever and resourceful people, apparently ignorant of the existence of a nutcracker--in spite of the very famous eponymous ballet that is well-publicized every Christmas season.

coda: I found that tannin leached out effectively from the broken acorns that I threw into the still-warm leftover pasta water. Was it the starch? The salt?

Ground some up with flax seeds in the blender and added it to bread-machine bread this morning. Though honestly, I don't think I had enough acorn to affect the taste.

Spurred on by success, I have extracted perhaps a dozen more acorns into pieces. They are now soaking in cold water, awaiting the next time we cook pasta.

I did make acorn flour a few years ago, enough to add a quarter cup at a time to whole-wheat bread. It did add a nice flavor to the bread.

Different years yield different quantities of acorns. This fall is a mega-acorn season. We joked about needing to wear hard hats while walking to avoid being bonked.

Acorns are all over the place.

Starting to dwindle with approaching winter though.

 

fast yogurt dip

One last carrot remained in the fridge. I sliced it into long ovals then looked for humus. No dice. So, poured some yogurt into a ramekin and added:

• onion powder
• garlic powder
• cumin
• chopped chives (since they were in the garden and it's not winter)
• salt
• DILL

With a small amount of:

• smoked paprika
• crushed dried lemon balm
• tiny bit mustard powder
• splash of tabasco (may not have been enough of a splash to be noticed.)

Not bad.

The kid says it tastes like Ranch. 

Possibly.