h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Jazz. I thought we could use this conversation to leave messages for each other.

I have a busy evening and a super busy day tomorrow. Besides my regular Saturday work shift, I have a meeting of the dedication committee, have to set up the food tent for the block party, then have the block party from 7-10. I'll be bushed.

[Personal details removed by Moderator]

H

Hi Hyp,

Thanks for opening this conversation.

Saturday is not a good day for me as I'm on call to A all day but I'll keep in touch.

We have friends coming tonight for a meal - no party games but we play Solo after eating.

Hope your busy day goes well

Jazz

runs in .....waves..... runs out

Catch you tomrrow morning love

Not if I run fast enough.

We were rained out. Now I have the silly thing to set up or all over again.

Today I'm putting up beans and blackberries out of my garden and making bread and butter pickles and salsa. F has been sleeping most of the day. I don't know what to think. He's sleeping a lot lately. And his appetite has fallen off. However, he did eat a normal amount at lunch. Of course I fixed one of his favorite dishes - a Creole fricassee (chicken) and rice. And lots of fresh veggies from the garden. For dessert he had an ice cream sundae.

I have to get back to slicing cucumbers for pickles.

H

I bet you don't run fast enough !!! Girls like to be caught, don't they?

Sorry you party was washed out - we lost at solo - both of us. We play for five pence pieces and it's really amazing how the same coins just circulate between the four of us so in the long run no one loses.

Next time you have chicken and rice I'll pop over - my kind of meal.
And ice cream is my choice of dessert. Mind, I would be very likely to doze off when my tum was full - but I will wash the dishes.

Jazz

F's father was an accomplished chef. He owned two or three restaurants in Connecticut. When we were first married he would tell me he was hungry for some dish or another I had never heard of - usually Portuguese. The problem was that his father had already died when I met F, and he didn't use written recipes so I couldn't just get those from someone in the family.

Do you know how hard it is to find Portuguese cookbooks in the middle of the North American Continent? Go into any bookstore or library and you will find the shelves filled with cookbooks. French, Italian, German, Mexican, Chinese, Greek, Spanish. No one ever has Portuguese. And this was before the internet exsisted except in some geeks imagination. So I couldn't pop onto Amazon and order one up.

F would tell me what ingredients he thought were in things and how he thought the dish was supposed to be cooked. What a mess. I finally, in desperation, called the public library in Fall River, Massachusetts which has a large Portuguese population. I talked to an extremely nice woman who mailed me a list of Portuguese cookbooks and the publishers with a recommendation of the one she would buy if she were me. She also gave me the name of a shop that mail orders Portuguese sausages and seasonings. I have ordered from them periodically all these years.

I've turned into a fair Portuguese cook. The Creole recipes I use I learned from a neighbor I had when we lived in Beaumont, Texas. Let's see. That was from '74-'77. She was from Louisiana and had deep Cajun roots. Referred to herself as a Coonass. Then years later, when we lived in San Antonio, we lived next door to a man who was an absolutely marvellous cook. He was Mexican-American and made a combination of authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes. So I picked up some recipes from him. And of course the plain old country American cooking I learned from my mother.

It's going to be another glorious day here. Below normal temperatures again. I'm going to try to get my transplanting done. I need to move some bearded iris to the front, move some hostas to the back and set out the chrysanthemums I started in pots earlier in the year. And it's time to get the beds ready for teh fall veggies. I have another busy day on tap.

I'm always glad to go back to work on Tuesday to rest up.

H

You've certainly been around the States haven't you? New England to Texas indeed. I've only been to the North East states - as far South as the original Vancouver before we withdrew to the 49th parallel.

We get more Indian, Chinese and Italian pizzas here. A is a good cook though, having done CordonBleu cookery on top of being a good cook anyhow.

The decorators are away for the day now - coming back tomorrow and it's a lovely day here too fortunately as all our windows are open.

When we were visiting my Cousin Lucy in Moses Lake (inland from Seattle) we met a full blooded Sioux girl who lived with Lucy's son. And she had a grand daughter who lived on the Indian reservation (born to a different son). Lucy had three boys in Vietnam at the same time.
We drove past the reservation but didn't enter there. Boeing aircraft have a big set-up thereabouts - Lucy's father-in-law was friendly with Chief Moses.

Will chat some more tonight hopefully

Hi Hyp,

On my own again except for one painter finishing off shortly.

A is out having coffee and shopping - its another lovely day here.

We had a horrific day yesterday on the project. The general contractor is mad at the architect; the architect is mad at the library board; the library board president picked an argument with the mayor; the city administrator is mad at both the architect and the library board; the stone still hasn't arrived; the paving is taking longer than expected because we have to remove our nonextrusive (fat) clay and replace it with extrusive (lean) clay; the president of the genealogical society is upset over the lighting in the genealogy room; and the architect showed up with a color board with the exact color I said I didn't want.


I have to get the quarterly taxes done today and crunch some numbers for next year's budget. How do I know how much it will cost to operate a building we haven't even moved into yet? And I can't get a figure from [Personal details removed by Moderator] about the income from our endowment for next year. So I have to submit a budget by Sept. 1 not knowing how much money I'll have or how much it will cost to operate the building.

I am going to be a raving lunatic before Christmas. I will have to e-mail you from the rest home.

H

Hyp - don't you have a Contract Manager or Supervisor? Strikes me you are doing everyone's job.

My son is Contract Manager on a school refurbishment job in Canada and he settles almost all of the problems you are facing.

Otherwise the Architect is in charge and he should be managing things.

So far as the budget is concerned just ask for 5 times what you spent last year and the financial wizards will tell you how much of it you can have.

I'll bring you a Christmas box to the rest home !!!

Jazz

Thinking of you

love Jazz

I have been too forthcoming online about my real job and location. I need to remedy that situation. I am changing my PS to eliminate any mention about being a librarian or where I live. And I'm changing my nickname. Strictly a CYA move.

H

What does CYA stand for my mysterious one?

Cover Your A**

Seriously, I would hate for a certain person to find me on this website. It's unlikely, but you never know.

I need to go to my journal entries and delete the ones that have personal information. Chances are that old conversations wouldn't be looked at if no one knew which PS to go to in the first place. So, I need to disguise my PS sufficiently so that it isn't easy to figure out where I live or what I do.

Ok. You're right. I'm being paranoid. But I'll be more comfortable if I do this. My actual friends online will know who I am anyway.

I always wanted to be a woman of mystery.

H

You are not being paranoid love - you are recognising why I chose for us to go to email for the personal bits.

I give too much of myself on H2G2 and I'm sure no one wants to check up on me except A - and my password is mine alone.

She's just been at the door wondering what I'm doing !!!

Nothing like someone looking over your shoulder all the time.

Hope your weekend is going great and that your decorators have finished.

My third ex-wife spend a lot of time looking over my shoulder. Hang in there Jazzme.

Jazzme, I really liked meeting you on the bus the other day. If there's room for a beautiful blond bombshell in your life, I could.....uhm......

I'm still on the bus Lola - when you can get away from James Bond !