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It's been a busy ten days -- hard to know where to start with everything, but I'll do my best to summarize.
We're hosting an old, dear friend from Paris at the moment -- let's call him Quarky. Quarky is an English particle physicist currently teaching at the Sorbonne; he is both one of the coolest and sweetest people I know, and I'm so grateful to call him friend. His teaching schedule, very broad social network, and well...distance...means he doesn't get to visit us that often. It's a big deal when he does!
This year he split his CA trip in two, so we hosted him for a week in late July and again last week for his birthday (and mine!). In between, he took a road trip around the Great Lakes with his mentor and colleague for two weeks. At the very end of their trip, their car was struck by a vehicle running a Stop sign and his colleague was killed instantly. He managed to get away with a few cuts and bruises, but also an intensely traumatic experience in a foreign country. Having to navigate our medical system as a foreign national while also dealing with the shock and grief of losing such a close friend so suddenly sounds like a complete nightmare.
For a while it was touch and go; we didn't know if he would be able to leave on his scheduled flight due to the police and insurance investigations, any potential medical issues, and funeral services for his colleague. Eventually that was sorted and he was able to spend time with us after all, and I'm very glad he did.
This leg of the trip had been ear-marked for socialization, when all the folks around the home warren would come out and see him. We've been playing it by ear, though, and it's turned out to be a bit more chill. Quarky needed time to absorb what had happened, I think, in a supportive and relatively quiet environment. So that's what we gave him.
I spent my birthday last Tuesday just chilling, and we picked him up from the airport on Wednesday. I took him to a local emergency room that day for one last check-up, then came home to cook pan-seared duck in blueberry-bourbon sauce and crisp-fried potatoes for their dinner. He loved it, and the duck came out near-perfectly cooked, so I was quite happy about that! After that, folks came over to play Tomb of Annihilation, which I sat out since the table was a bit crowded and I could have used the breather.
Thursday was Quarky's birthday! I met up with another visiting European for brunch with him, and then we made a lemon drizzle cake before heading off to see Deadpool & Wolverine with Sneppers and Ratty. It...actually holds up the second time, and I got to appreciate the supporting performances a bit more. Hugh Jackman is having a great time getting to curse, and Emma Corrin was a pitch-perfect Cassandra Nova. If they adapt the "E Is For Extinction" storyline in the MCU, I sincerely hope they give her another shot at the character. Given they just destroyed Genosha in X-Men '97, I doubt that though.
The lemon drizzle cake turned out *really* good. I have to admit, I'm usually skeptical of lemon cakes; there's usually not enough lemon flavoring to earn the name. But this one is just about perfect! Lemon zest infuses the batter, which is kept moist with a drizzle of caster sugar and lemon juice, well-mixed, and the whole thing is topped with a lemon zest icing. The cake is nice and lemony, supported by the sweet punch of the drizzle, and lifted with the even sweeter, sharper cut of the icing. I'll definitely have to ask Quarky for this recipe.
Friday we had lunch with the boys at Casa de Canidae and played in Sneppers' Kobold game. Lunch was takeout from Demiya, which was good enough to let us put in a very late order before they closed to prepare for the dinner service, and I'm quite grateful for that. I had the chicken katsu curry, which was just as good as I remembered; everyone else went for udon, it turns out. We talked about whatever pop culture shows had taken our fancy, furry conventions, the usual. The kobolds met Ratty's new character, Garu, and saw off Gaychester and Eks on the next leg of their journey.
Saturday we played in Antlerfox's Firstdawn campaign, where Quarky guested as another kobold named Pragma. This kobold, however, appears to be a warrior-angel servant of Ares, guiding us through a facsimile of Mount Olympus. My character, jackalope noble fighter Liyonil Brightbriar, was cursed by a formorian and then cured after praying to Athena for taking her Oathbow. All in all, a really fun session that saw a lot of character payoff. :)
We had planned to have our big dinner on Saturday night, but things didn't quite work out. A lot of folks had run-ins with COVID and didn't want to risk contaminating friends, and others had finally run out of social batteries. Ultimately, we invited a local friend over for pizza and Guardians 3 in the evening. That movie held up well overall, and it felt like a wonderful closure to that trilogy before Gunn moves on to head the DCU.
Yesterday was relatively lazy. We finished up the second series of Good Omens, showed Quarky the delightful movie Booksmart, and then went to bed. Today both Sneppers and I are back to work, but we're planning to have one last home-cooked meal in the evening before he heads back to Paris tomorrow.
Coming right out of this week, I've got a week to settle before Ratty heads back for his annual trip back home. Then, once he gets back, Sneppers heads to Canada for Feral! and a trip to Niagara Falls. The second half of August will be a little quieter, so there'll be more time for self-directed activities. I have big plans for all of that, but it will take some discipline to actually follow through. We'll see how that goes.
We're hosting an old, dear friend from Paris at the moment -- let's call him Quarky. Quarky is an English particle physicist currently teaching at the Sorbonne; he is both one of the coolest and sweetest people I know, and I'm so grateful to call him friend. His teaching schedule, very broad social network, and well...distance...means he doesn't get to visit us that often. It's a big deal when he does!
This year he split his CA trip in two, so we hosted him for a week in late July and again last week for his birthday (and mine!). In between, he took a road trip around the Great Lakes with his mentor and colleague for two weeks. At the very end of their trip, their car was struck by a vehicle running a Stop sign and his colleague was killed instantly. He managed to get away with a few cuts and bruises, but also an intensely traumatic experience in a foreign country. Having to navigate our medical system as a foreign national while also dealing with the shock and grief of losing such a close friend so suddenly sounds like a complete nightmare.
For a while it was touch and go; we didn't know if he would be able to leave on his scheduled flight due to the police and insurance investigations, any potential medical issues, and funeral services for his colleague. Eventually that was sorted and he was able to spend time with us after all, and I'm very glad he did.
This leg of the trip had been ear-marked for socialization, when all the folks around the home warren would come out and see him. We've been playing it by ear, though, and it's turned out to be a bit more chill. Quarky needed time to absorb what had happened, I think, in a supportive and relatively quiet environment. So that's what we gave him.
I spent my birthday last Tuesday just chilling, and we picked him up from the airport on Wednesday. I took him to a local emergency room that day for one last check-up, then came home to cook pan-seared duck in blueberry-bourbon sauce and crisp-fried potatoes for their dinner. He loved it, and the duck came out near-perfectly cooked, so I was quite happy about that! After that, folks came over to play Tomb of Annihilation, which I sat out since the table was a bit crowded and I could have used the breather.
Thursday was Quarky's birthday! I met up with another visiting European for brunch with him, and then we made a lemon drizzle cake before heading off to see Deadpool & Wolverine with Sneppers and Ratty. It...actually holds up the second time, and I got to appreciate the supporting performances a bit more. Hugh Jackman is having a great time getting to curse, and Emma Corrin was a pitch-perfect Cassandra Nova. If they adapt the "E Is For Extinction" storyline in the MCU, I sincerely hope they give her another shot at the character. Given they just destroyed Genosha in X-Men '97, I doubt that though.
The lemon drizzle cake turned out *really* good. I have to admit, I'm usually skeptical of lemon cakes; there's usually not enough lemon flavoring to earn the name. But this one is just about perfect! Lemon zest infuses the batter, which is kept moist with a drizzle of caster sugar and lemon juice, well-mixed, and the whole thing is topped with a lemon zest icing. The cake is nice and lemony, supported by the sweet punch of the drizzle, and lifted with the even sweeter, sharper cut of the icing. I'll definitely have to ask Quarky for this recipe.
Friday we had lunch with the boys at Casa de Canidae and played in Sneppers' Kobold game. Lunch was takeout from Demiya, which was good enough to let us put in a very late order before they closed to prepare for the dinner service, and I'm quite grateful for that. I had the chicken katsu curry, which was just as good as I remembered; everyone else went for udon, it turns out. We talked about whatever pop culture shows had taken our fancy, furry conventions, the usual. The kobolds met Ratty's new character, Garu, and saw off Gaychester and Eks on the next leg of their journey.
Saturday we played in Antlerfox's Firstdawn campaign, where Quarky guested as another kobold named Pragma. This kobold, however, appears to be a warrior-angel servant of Ares, guiding us through a facsimile of Mount Olympus. My character, jackalope noble fighter Liyonil Brightbriar, was cursed by a formorian and then cured after praying to Athena for taking her Oathbow. All in all, a really fun session that saw a lot of character payoff. :)
We had planned to have our big dinner on Saturday night, but things didn't quite work out. A lot of folks had run-ins with COVID and didn't want to risk contaminating friends, and others had finally run out of social batteries. Ultimately, we invited a local friend over for pizza and Guardians 3 in the evening. That movie held up well overall, and it felt like a wonderful closure to that trilogy before Gunn moves on to head the DCU.
Yesterday was relatively lazy. We finished up the second series of Good Omens, showed Quarky the delightful movie Booksmart, and then went to bed. Today both Sneppers and I are back to work, but we're planning to have one last home-cooked meal in the evening before he heads back to Paris tomorrow.
Coming right out of this week, I've got a week to settle before Ratty heads back for his annual trip back home. Then, once he gets back, Sneppers heads to Canada for Feral! and a trip to Niagara Falls. The second half of August will be a little quieter, so there'll be more time for self-directed activities. I have big plans for all of that, but it will take some discipline to actually follow through. We'll see how that goes.
