Weekend plans 11/12/13 October 2019
ConversesThe Green Dragon
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1haydninvienna
We haven’t had a weekend plans topic for a while. I’m starting one now from Doha Airport on my way back to England. I have tickets to a public appearance by Randall Munroe promoting his new book, How to: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems.
He is to appear at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, which is conceivably the world’s most uncomfortable concert venue even if it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Of course the University also uses it quite a bit.
He is to appear at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, which is conceivably the world’s most uncomfortable concert venue even if it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Of course the University also uses it quite a bit.
2Bookmarque
We haven't have we?
Unfortunately the weather looks bad for the next 4-5 days so I'll be home at the bench gearing up for gift-giving season. Some chores, too. Husband will be in Texas for a pistol class so I'm going to have an Agatha Christie weekend - Poirot episodes w/David Suchet and the Crooked House recent movie. Woo hoo!
Unfortunately the weather looks bad for the next 4-5 days so I'll be home at the bench gearing up for gift-giving season. Some chores, too. Husband will be in Texas for a pistol class so I'm going to have an Agatha Christie weekend - Poirot episodes w/David Suchet and the Crooked House recent movie. Woo hoo!
3tardis
This is Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada. NorthernStar and I (and my husband) are in Nova Scotia, visiting with our dad and stepmother and enjoying as much seafood chowder as possible. Also other kinds of seafood and other local cuisine for which the Annapolis Valley is known. We've already visited the local used book store. I bought only one book, A Handbook of Ornament, but it's very interesting. Many illustrations of different kinds of ornamentation for print and objects. My husband got himself a book on automotive sheet metal work.
Tomorrow (Friday) we're hoping to rent bicycles and pedal the trail that was constructed on the old railbed after the trains stopped coming. Saturday will be the market.
On Sunday NS and I are running the Valley Harvest Marathon 10K, my husband is running the full marathon, and stepmother is walking/running the 5K. Dad will stay home and relax :)
Holiday Monday will be a recovery day for my husband, so not sure what we'll do. He won't want to walk too much. Tuesday is as yet undecided. Lots of possibilities.
We'll be flying home on Wednesday.
Tomorrow (Friday) we're hoping to rent bicycles and pedal the trail that was constructed on the old railbed after the trains stopped coming. Saturday will be the market.
On Sunday NS and I are running the Valley Harvest Marathon 10K, my husband is running the full marathon, and stepmother is walking/running the 5K. Dad will stay home and relax :)
Holiday Monday will be a recovery day for my husband, so not sure what we'll do. He won't want to walk too much. Tuesday is as yet undecided. Lots of possibilities.
We'll be flying home on Wednesday.
4catzteach
>3 tardis: happy Thanksgiving!
It’s a home football game weekend so I’ll be over the mountains enjoying the game. I need to somehow find time for a long run, too. I’m supposed to be up tp 9 miles to be ready for a half in November. So I need to find time for a long run, too.
It’s a home football game weekend so I’ll be over the mountains enjoying the game. I need to somehow find time for a long run, too. I’m supposed to be up tp 9 miles to be ready for a half in November. So I need to find time for a long run, too.
5Busifer
>3 tardis: Happy thanksgiving!
Nothing special planned for this weekend. I hope the weather holds up, and if so I expect to be out a lot. Soon the winter rains and the sleeting will begin, which means burrowing in front of the fireplace. That is nice, too, but a bit too sedentary for me. And I want to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.
Nothing special planned for this weekend. I hope the weather holds up, and if so I expect to be out a lot. Soon the winter rains and the sleeting will begin, which means burrowing in front of the fireplace. That is nice, too, but a bit too sedentary for me. And I want to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.
6Maddz
We're on a duty visit to Paul's mum, so we'll be doing a lot of shopping for her and not much else (although I need to collect an order from TK Maxx and look out for some new smart ankle boots - I can't really cope with heels anymore). We need to do as much shopping as possible for Margaret - she's getting her second cataract operation on the 23rd, and Paul will be staying with her that week. I won't be down until the weekend and Paul will only be able to do minimal shopping on foot.
7hfglen
>3 tardis: and NorthernStar and any other Canadians: Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
I understand that friends of Melissa's are coming to visit on Sunday.
The taxman paid out a refund this morning, so there's much activity today, mostly paying bills.
I understand that friends of Melissa's are coming to visit on Sunday.
The taxman paid out a refund this morning, so there's much activity today, mostly paying bills.
8pgmcc
>3 tardis: Happy Thingaversary! Yay! Congratulations!
I hope you are keeping that self-confessed enforcer sister of yours well supplied with cheese.
On Sunday my older son will be 31 years old. He and his girlfriend are staying with us tonight and we will order in some food and celebrate his entering his 32nd year on this ball of solid matter. That should be a bit of fun.
Tomorrow my wife is going into town to support a friend who is promoting transport plans for the city that he has been working on for years. I will get my hair cut from my head and then catch a bus into town, assuming it is not lashing rain, browse a few bookshops, and meet my wife for lunch.
Apart from that I am not sure we have any plans.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and that our Canadian friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving long-weekend.
I hope you are keeping that self-confessed enforcer sister of yours well supplied with cheese.
On Sunday my older son will be 31 years old. He and his girlfriend are staying with us tonight and we will order in some food and celebrate his entering his 32nd year on this ball of solid matter. That should be a bit of fun.
Tomorrow my wife is going into town to support a friend who is promoting transport plans for the city that he has been working on for years. I will get my hair cut from my head and then catch a bus into town, assuming it is not lashing rain, browse a few bookshops, and meet my wife for lunch.
Apart from that I am not sure we have any plans.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and that our Canadian friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving long-weekend.
9reading_fox
>1 haydninvienna: enjoy the talk! I've no idea how Randell comes across in person but his website's been a favourite for years.
Cleaning tidying - moving things about the kitchen, and fighting off the lurgy will be my lot. Probably watching rain-effected sport both F1 and rugby, if any of it avoids the weather.
Cleaning tidying - moving things about the kitchen, and fighting off the lurgy will be my lot. Probably watching rain-effected sport both F1 and rugby, if any of it avoids the weather.
10haydninvienna
And another Happy Canadian Thanksgiving from me.
I’ve now been to Randall M’s personal appearance, so am able to answer >9 reading_fox: ‘s question. It was an absolute hoot. He came across as very funny in a thoughtful, intelligent way—very much like the embodiment of one of the xkcd characters, in fact. If anyone has a chance to see him live, don’t miss it. Just to put some icing on the cake, we got Tim Harford as emcee. Tim, despite being an economist, has a certain dry wit, as anyone who has read any of his books will know. He is also a big xkcd fan. They were fun together.
As I mentioned above, it was held in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. I’ll post a couple of pics when I get round to uploading them. I've got the book that it was promoting, and will probably read it on the flight home, despite competition from Imagined Lives, a BB from Nickelini, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, and Modern Legal Drafting by Professor Peter Butt (who I met in London the week before last).
I’ve now been to Randall M’s personal appearance, so am able to answer >9 reading_fox: ‘s question. It was an absolute hoot. He came across as very funny in a thoughtful, intelligent way—very much like the embodiment of one of the xkcd characters, in fact. If anyone has a chance to see him live, don’t miss it. Just to put some icing on the cake, we got Tim Harford as emcee. Tim, despite being an economist, has a certain dry wit, as anyone who has read any of his books will know. He is also a big xkcd fan. They were fun together.
As I mentioned above, it was held in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. I’ll post a couple of pics when I get round to uploading them. I've got the book that it was promoting, and will probably read it on the flight home, despite competition from Imagined Lives, a BB from Nickelini, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, and Modern Legal Drafting by Professor Peter Butt (who I met in London the week before last).
11NorthernStar
Thanks for all the Thanksgiving wishes, and happy Thanksgiving to any other Canadians out there.
>8 pgmcc: sadly I was so tired by the time I got to Edmonton after a 12 hour drive through snow and nasty weather that I forgot to demand cheese from tardis. She assures me that it will be there when we get back. I am consoling myself with seafood (especially chowder) and excellent microbrew beers.
We (tardis, Mr. tardis, and I) went for a long bike ride today along the old rail bed; about a 40km round trip. It was a great day for it: cool, with some sun, and beautiful fall colours. I haven't biked enough lately, so my knees and seat were very sore by the time we finished!
Tomorrow is the local farmer's market, race package pickup, and possibly live music at the pub. Sunday is the race. Either Sunday or Monday will be Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure what we will be doing Monday and Tuesday.
>8 pgmcc: sadly I was so tired by the time I got to Edmonton after a 12 hour drive through snow and nasty weather that I forgot to demand cheese from tardis. She assures me that it will be there when we get back. I am consoling myself with seafood (especially chowder) and excellent microbrew beers.
We (tardis, Mr. tardis, and I) went for a long bike ride today along the old rail bed; about a 40km round trip. It was a great day for it: cool, with some sun, and beautiful fall colours. I haven't biked enough lately, so my knees and seat were very sore by the time we finished!
Tomorrow is the local farmer's market, race package pickup, and possibly live music at the pub. Sunday is the race. Either Sunday or Monday will be Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure what we will be doing Monday and Tuesday.
12pgmcc
>10 haydninvienna:
I have attended a session given by Tim Harford and if he was only the MC then the main event must have been great.
Harford's Undercover Economist books are good fun.
I have attended a session given by Tim Harford and if he was only the MC then the main event must have been great.
Harford's Undercover Economist books are good fun.
13pgmcc
>11 NorthernStar:
Now where do I start?
An enforcer on the premises and no cheese taken or books acquired in Thingaversary quantities.
It sounds like The Enforcer Committee will have to hold an enquiry into a possible case of nepotism. Has an enforcer been swayed into turning a blind eye while a family member evades Thingaversary duties?
The only way I can think of this not going to The Committee is if the enforcer in question can demonstrate that there was at least wine taken.
Now where do I start?
An enforcer on the premises and no cheese taken or books acquired in Thingaversary quantities.
It sounds like The Enforcer Committee will have to hold an enquiry into a possible case of nepotism. Has an enforcer been swayed into turning a blind eye while a family member evades Thingaversary duties?
The only way I can think of this not going to The Committee is if the enforcer in question can demonstrate that there was at least wine taken.
14hfglen
>10 haydninvienna: Tim Harford presents the BBC4 series More or Less, one of my favourite podcasts. It must have been a fantastic evening.
16pgmcc
>15 suitable1: Never underestimate the power of an enforcer.
18pgmcc
>17 suitable1: Enforcers can take many forms.
19NorthernStar
>13 pgmcc:, >15 suitable1: in my defence, the 6 or 7 hours I spent at tardis's place I was mostly attempting to sleep before our flight. Also, I recently lured her to a second-hand bookstore, where she purchased two volumes, AND I am still planning to collect on the cheese fine (bribe) on returning to her abode. I am just learning the enforcer's job, but doing my best!
21haydninvienna
Footnotes to the visit to the Munroe event: the Sheldonian, according to Wikipedia, holds 800 to 1,000 people, and they went decently close to filling it. Munroe commented that it was certainly the most impressive venue that had done a personal appearance in. Blackwell's Bookshop (just across Broad Street) of course had the book for sale, and must have shifted a good few. I didn't stay for the book signing, since I was interested in getting to bed at some sort of reasonable hour.
How to:— I did indeed read the book on the flight home. I don't really need to describe it—if you're an xkcd fan, the subtitle (Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems) tells you all you need to know, and if you're not an xkcd fan you probably wouldn't understand why I had bothered. But Munroe's point in writing it is partly that working out exactly why an absurd answer is absurd is often quite useful in itself. He gives the example of how to land the Curiosity rover on Mars—methods previously used won't work because the rover is too heavy, other obvious suggestions don't work for various specific reasons (one interesting one: letting it down on rocket thrust won't work because the whole process has to be automatic, and using rocket thrust would kick up too much dust and blind the sensors) and some genius at some point must have said something like "Wouldn't it be great if we could just lower it from a crane". And essentially that's what they did, and it worked perfectly.
One story in the book is of his hour-long telephone interview with Cmdr Chris Hadfield, the astronaut. (Being a well-known internet cartoonist has its advantages: people like Chris Hadfield and Serena Williams talk to you more readily.) The interview was all about increasingly absurd and dangerous methods of landing an aeroplane. Munroe says that his subplot was to keep proposing weirder and weirder things until Hadfield hung up, but Hadfield never did. What isn't in the book is that (according to Munroe at the event) the interview took place during a layover while Hadfield was flying on a commercial service from somewhere to somewhere else, and the last bit of the interview had a short break while Hadfield scanned his boarding pass to board the second flight. He then completed the conversation actually walking down the aisle of the airliner, and Munroe felt obliged to apologise to anyone who had overheard the last part of Hadfield's side of the conversation.
How to:— I did indeed read the book on the flight home. I don't really need to describe it—if you're an xkcd fan, the subtitle (Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems) tells you all you need to know, and if you're not an xkcd fan you probably wouldn't understand why I had bothered. But Munroe's point in writing it is partly that working out exactly why an absurd answer is absurd is often quite useful in itself. He gives the example of how to land the Curiosity rover on Mars—methods previously used won't work because the rover is too heavy, other obvious suggestions don't work for various specific reasons (one interesting one: letting it down on rocket thrust won't work because the whole process has to be automatic, and using rocket thrust would kick up too much dust and blind the sensors) and some genius at some point must have said something like "Wouldn't it be great if we could just lower it from a crane". And essentially that's what they did, and it worked perfectly.
One story in the book is of his hour-long telephone interview with Cmdr Chris Hadfield, the astronaut. (Being a well-known internet cartoonist has its advantages: people like Chris Hadfield and Serena Williams talk to you more readily.) The interview was all about increasingly absurd and dangerous methods of landing an aeroplane. Munroe says that his subplot was to keep proposing weirder and weirder things until Hadfield hung up, but Hadfield never did. What isn't in the book is that (according to Munroe at the event) the interview took place during a layover while Hadfield was flying on a commercial service from somewhere to somewhere else, and the last bit of the interview had a short break while Hadfield scanned his boarding pass to board the second flight. He then completed the conversation actually walking down the aisle of the airliner, and Munroe felt obliged to apologise to anyone who had overheard the last part of Hadfield's side of the conversation.
22-pilgrim-
Now I feel embarrassed, because I had not realised that Canadians also celebrate Thanksgiving. Holiday greetings to tardis, NorthernStar and all other Canadians!
23pgmcc
>8 pgmcc: My weekend expanded in terms of activities. I did go into town to meet my wife for lunch. I browsed a bookshop and bought two books on the way (Flights and Melmoth). We had lunch in Chez Max, our favourite French restaurant.
Three lady tourists were sitting beside us. One of them read the menu to the others. She was describing the delicious French dishes and my mouth was watering.
One of her friends asked, “Do they have any sandwiches?”
Merde!
On Saturday evening we ended up going to the annual President's dinner for my wife's political party. There were over 1,200 people at it. The "President" in question is not the President of Ireland but the president of the party. The food was so-so, the speeches long, but the music from the band was great. We ended up sitting at our table to 1:30am listening to the music. The performance was great and the band played for about three hours without taking a break. They play music from the 60s to the present and it all sounded great. They did some Bowie tracks (e.g. "Let's Dance") and they were superb.
My wife really enjoyed herself and when it came for the compulsory table photograph with the President she was delighted that he spoke to her by name and said a few things that indicated he was well aware of what she has been experiencing over the past few weeks.
Three lady tourists were sitting beside us. One of them read the menu to the others. She was describing the delicious French dishes and my mouth was watering.
One of her friends asked, “Do they have any sandwiches?”
Merde!
On Saturday evening we ended up going to the annual President's dinner for my wife's political party. There were over 1,200 people at it. The "President" in question is not the President of Ireland but the president of the party. The food was so-so, the speeches long, but the music from the band was great. We ended up sitting at our table to 1:30am listening to the music. The performance was great and the band played for about three hours without taking a break. They play music from the 60s to the present and it all sounded great. They did some Bowie tracks (e.g. "Let's Dance") and they were superb.
My wife really enjoyed herself and when it came for the compulsory table photograph with the President she was delighted that he spoke to her by name and said a few things that indicated he was well aware of what she has been experiencing over the past few weeks.
24tardis
NorthernStar and I completed our 10K race this morning in 1:10:26 (me) and 1:10:27 (her). An improvement on my last couple of races. My husband's marathon was slightly slower than he hoped - 4:19:56, because he got a cramp that slowed him down, but at least he was still able to finish.
I discovered a new-to-me mystery author on Dad and Susan's shelves - Iona Whishaw, who writes the Lane Winslow series. Just finished the first book and will go up and grab the second shortly.
I discovered a new-to-me mystery author on Dad and Susan's shelves - Iona Whishaw, who writes the Lane Winslow series. Just finished the first book and will go up and grab the second shortly.
25MrsLee
I'm catching up here still after our power outage, but as I posted in the Cookbooker group, this has been my weekend.
Been too busy in the kitchen to post!
After our power outage, I wanted to save the fruits, veggies, eggs, etc. The frozen ones hadn't thawed all the way, or I would have tossed them, but since they had softened, I thought I had better do something with them fast. Here is the list, if I can remember it all.
Peach crumb cake
Strawberry cobbler
7 pints of peach chutney canned
18 half pints of wild plum jam
1 gallon of rhubarb wine started
2 gallons of Concord grape wine begun
1 gallon of minced fruit with brandy
1 chili relleno casserole
Roasted chicken over vegetables
Egg, bread and chili casserole (I found some chilies I had missed)
Egg foo young casserole
Sourdough bread
Sourdough waffles
Pot of mystery beans
Some of those recipes are from books, some I used the books as a reference/inspiration only and others are from my imagination and the necessity.
Been too busy in the kitchen to post!
After our power outage, I wanted to save the fruits, veggies, eggs, etc. The frozen ones hadn't thawed all the way, or I would have tossed them, but since they had softened, I thought I had better do something with them fast. Here is the list, if I can remember it all.
Peach crumb cake
Strawberry cobbler
7 pints of peach chutney canned
18 half pints of wild plum jam
1 gallon of rhubarb wine started
2 gallons of Concord grape wine begun
1 gallon of minced fruit with brandy
1 chili relleno casserole
Roasted chicken over vegetables
Egg, bread and chili casserole (I found some chilies I had missed)
Egg foo young casserole
Sourdough bread
Sourdough waffles
Pot of mystery beans
Some of those recipes are from books, some I used the books as a reference/inspiration only and others are from my imagination and the necessity.
