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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Monday, June 20, 2005

Poor Gracie tried to make coffee today while I was at work, even though I had switched her off after my last slap failed to get her started about 6:00am. I stopped by the apartment offices to pick up my new coffee maker (and a very promising book). I also had kitty litter for Twyla and a 10-pound box of fresh cukes I’d purchased from a co-worker whose family has a 15-acre vegetable farm, so it took me three trips from the car and a can of cat food for the girls before I even looked at Gracie.   She had made something like coffee, bless her heart. It wasn’t even lukewarm and it was incredibly weak, like it was her final desperate gasp. Still, not bad for having the power switched off. I can only guess what strange law of physics she might have invoked to cause sufficient H2O make contact with the grounds and produce this undrinkable coffee, but she certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli. Ot maybe it was verbal. Maybe she heard me tell Liz yesterday that she had one more pot of coffee to make before she became an artifact for future landfill archeologists. Whatever, she got me thinking. This intermittent connection that I can establish with those friendly slaps, that’s just an electrical problem. A loose contact. I studied her circuitry, visible through her bottom. All flag connectors, all looked solid. Then I looked at the electrodes that make contact with the base. Aha! They’re dirty. Maybe I can save Gracie with a little contact cleaner and a new filter. Vacuum brewed coffee is still mighty good.   The cucumbers produced another problem. I really don’t want to start a batch of kosher dills tonight – I’m not even sure I have enough pickling spice to get the ferment started. It occurred to me that I could lime them tonight and start the pickling tomorrow, but the grocery store across the street did not have pickling lime. I’d run out at home. It’s been so long since I made pickles. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to make them all kosher dills. Some senf gherkins, maybe some bread and butters, maybe something completely new. Whatever, buying lime would buy me time since this all came up so quickly.   Second grocery store also failed on pickling lime. That made me determined. I drove out to Cole Park Plaza in rush hour traffic to an old-fashioned hardware store that rarely lets me down. It let me down. Same for the Lowes’ Foods at the same mini-mall. Into the worst of traffic, I drove back to Carrboro for my last shot – Southern States hardware, the place where I once bought mushroom kits. On the way, I made Plan B: Cut off the cukes’ blossom ends to they don’t go soft, pack them in ice, and look for the lime on another day. Well, Southern States, which I’d earlier avoided because of the difficulty exiting the place at rush hour, came through for me. Let the pickles begin!     6:41:10 PM    comment []

Lots of color in this simple presentation. The Rock Cornish hen marinated in olive oil, lime juice, Tabasco™, salt and pepper overnight. A similar mixture was used for the grilled asparagus. The recipe for corn maque choux calls for green bell pepper, but I had part of a red one wrapped up in the fridge, so I used that. I bought 4 ears of sweet corn, believing they all were silver queen, but one of them turned out to be yellow. No problem, the color mix is even better! Oh, and the foil did do a wonderful job of getting the hen cooked all the way through. Everything was a little on the hot side, but a few pints of Yuengling cooled things off.   Gracie is balking at making her last pot of coffee this morning. Multiple slaps and no brew. Oh well, there will be a new coffee maker tomorrow morning.     5:23:53 AM    comment []