P.S.

The butter carving was just as amazing as I hoped it would be.

Sugar

While cutting watermelon the other day, my sister mentioned something about pickled rind. It set off a lightbulb. I meant to look into what you could do with watermelon rind! I did a quick search.

The result is this:

It's candied watermelon rind, made over a day and a half.

I don't know that it's worth the effort to make it again -- the texture is good, but it's a little salty from brining and the candied ginger I have has lasted years -- but it's exciting to have remembered to look something up and to create something I haven't before. The taste is growing on me! And I snuck some lemon peel in there, too, so there's a little variety.

If you want to try it yourself, let me know how it goes.

Princess Kay

The New York Times had a story a couple weeks ago about Princess Kay of the Milky Way, the annual competition for dairy promotion at the Minnesota State Fair. 

Each year, the competition is capped by a sculptor carving a 90-pound butter bust of each contestant. The show must go on, so even though the fair os off, the carving must continue. They'll do it via Facebook Live starting tomorrow. You can bet I marked my calendar. 

I went on the Facebook page tonight to see the details and ended up watching the coronation. It was otherworldly. College students in gowns, wearing masks, talking about their love for dairy farming. There were videos with family members wearing matching shirts, terrible puns and beauty-pageant-like questions related to farms.

It made my night. I can't wait for a week's worth of butter carving. 

Scavenger hunt

As part of a friend's birthday celebration, I was a clue in a scavenger hunt (and directed him to another person who would direct him to another who would, eventually, lead him to a birthday present).

I thought it was such a neat idea and the long text conversation was so nice to have.

Calendar

Not that I am counting down the days until vacation... but I am definitely counting down the days until vacation. (Work days: four.)

'He is and he does'

This story about vanity license plates in California is funny in and of itself. You should read it and giggle.

My favorite one is someone who requested the plate "TUNAFSH" with the explanation that he is a fisherman who travels to fish for tuna, and would like people to know that via his vehicle.

"I Googled him," the DMV says. "He is and he does."

Still, they rejected it. Poor fisherman!

'Please scream inside your heart'

The Wall Street Journal has this most amazing article on Tokyo Disney reopening. In it, we learn that people who ride the roller coasters... are not allowed to scream.

Because screaming spreads droplets, which spread disease.

But what's a roller coaster without a shriek? The CEO and another top exec rode stone-faced, to prove it could be done.

And they urged patrons to "Please scream inside your heart."

So ridiculous and so very good.

Foofaraw

I learned a new word yesterday: foofaraw, which means "frills and flashy finery" or "a disturbance or to-do over a trifle."

It's fun! And came about after I didn't succeed in finding it in the spelling bee game.

Out the window

What a neat pandemic creation.

http://window-swap.com/window

Look and see what people are looking at from their little parts of the world.

In the oven

A blackberry pound cake, from blackberries I picked and using a recipe I printed out years ago, aspirationally, and am finally making use of.

(It smells great.)

Book exchange

I've been in the same book club for nearly a decade, and one of the highlights is the twice-annual white elephant book exchange where people steal and steal and steal books and it takes forever to know what you're going home with.

That's hard in a pandemic.

While we've been able to keep having meetings on Zoom, the exchange was a different story. But tonight, we figured it out! And so if all goes to plan, I should be getting a book in the mail in the not-too-distant future.

That's pretty wonderful, as are the successes in normalcy, such as it is now.

Bounty

I swear I have never had this much food in my refrigerator ever, at any point. It's absurd. And there are so many choices! How grand.

Obits

I always hate having to write an obituary, because it means there are people who are mourning. But there's something so powerful about writing them, too. You are often the last word on someone's life.

I'm glad, today, that I was able to write one to memorialize someone who touched so many people. And I was glad to help people process grief, remember a loved one and smile while they recalled certain memories. It's lousy, but it's good.

Company

After an appropriate amount of quarantining and social distancing, I have company this week. And I'm so very grateful for it.

Fruit picking, and the results

Dairy princess

Everything about this story, regarding the butter-carved busts of decades of Dairy Princesses at the Minnesota State Fair, delights me more than I can begin to tell you.

So let me call out just one part.

“I think any time you can see a butter princess sculpted out of butter is a good day,” said Karal Ann Marling, the author of “Blue Ribbon: A Social and Pictorial History of the Minnesota State Fair.”

Ms. Marling said she had always been mesmerized by the skill required to turn a block of butter into a realistic bust in front of a crowd of curious onlookers.

“The hard part of it for me is you won’t be able to eat any of the tailings that come off when you’re sculpting,” Ms. Marling said. “That was always my favorite part.”

How can you not want to read more?

Better yet -- this year, you can watch from home! I plan to.

Sharing is caring

Glad to be able to help a few friends who have needed a lift these past few days, each in some small way.

Tomatoes

They're getting there!

Ring ring

How nice to get phone calls today from two friends I've known since I was in the single digits. Fourth grade was a good grade, even all these years later.

Mail

I haven't checked the mail (or, uh, been outside) since the weekend, so I thought it would be nice to take a quick jaunt to the mailbox. (It turns out it's hot as blazes out there -- even after 10 p.m.) It was heartening that my one piece of mail -- just one! -- was a handwritten letter. I'm glad I went to look.

But now I can probably give it a few days again.