Home safe from MarCon

I had a lovely time at Marcon.

I didn't play as well as I would have liked on my sets, but it went reasonably well, and people seemed to enjoy the performance. It was great seeing everybody, too and I really enjoyed the concerts and circles I went to.

Driving up and back with Alice was great--it's lovely to have someone to share gas and driving with and we had some great conversation. I wrote a couple of songs on the way up, and at least one of them is a potential Alice Day post (yes, I owe an Alice Day post--yes, it will be up in a day or two.)

The two hallway concerts had a small audience, but a good one--braider even played along on some things, and I made a new friend there.

The amp turned out to be unnecessary for this particular performance--the excellent sound crew had a dohickey and a cord for the iPod. But I'm still glad I have the amp, because one can't expect all cons to have such skilled personnel and such advanced equipment. Plus that cord draped over your wrist makes a difference, so I need to practice with it.

The afternoon before I had to leave for the con I came up with a new idea (love that stroke of inspiration) and threw together a "backer board"--a piece of plywood with wheels on the bottom, a handle on the top, and various ropes attached, on which to tie 1) all my instruments (except the iPod because it's fine in a pocket) 2) my instrument stands and music stand 3)the amp and 4) the music books. The plan was to be able to roll everything down the halls (like those rolling suitcases they make for flying) with one hand, leaving the other free to open doors or whatever.

It worked tolerably well, but requires some redesign. The nice thing about the way I did it is I can just drill new holes, rethread the ropes, and tie things on in a different configuration. The amp ended up pretty high on the board, and since it's heavy, it should be lower. Also the handle should be lower down--the handles on rolling luggage are always too low for me, but I overcompensated, besides I needed the room on the board, because I didn't want to make it too wide. I may be able to drill and cut a new handle on the side of the board that will work better.

Also I need to do something about the corners, which keep poking me.

But it's still easier than carrying everything in various hands and tucked under various arms. I don't have enough arms for that anymore. Price of playing more than one instrument, I guess.

And the folks in the green room were wonderful about letting me roll the loaded board under a table, so I could go off and do things without worrying about my instruments, or having to drag them everywhere with me.

And MarCon is just amazing for costumes. I saw great costumes everywhere. I bet the Masquerade must be something to see.

Vegetables and Challenge Vegetables.

Kip has been away for a while (he's coming back Thursday, actually--yay!) and so I've been having more vegetables with dinner.  It's not so much that he insists on no vegetables or anything, but there are a lot of them that he just doesn't eat, or munches his way stolidly through a small serving but plainly doesn't enjoy.

So I went through a couple of weeks where dinner was a starch, like rice or corn or a small potato, plus three vegetables (squash, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, and onions all took turns) plus a little bit of meat on top, boiled/steamed in a small pot for 20 minutes.

And it occurred to me that I should challenge myself by trying some new things.  It might be interesting some day to work my way through the produce department and try everything in turn, but frankly, some of those veggies are kind of expensive.  However I figured I'd try a "challenge vegetable" once a week.

Last week my challenge vegetable was a green pepper.  Now I thought I didn't like green peppers, but it would be interesting to eat one anyway, just to see if they were like onions (which I hated as a child but now quite like, at least when they're cooked.  A little raw onion goes a long way, still.) 

The challenge vegetable languished in the fridge for several days as I put off eating it.  Not tonight, I'm tired.  Not tonight, it probably won't go with dinner.  Not tonight; I'm at Marcon and six hours drive from the fridge anyway.

Tonight I cut slices off it and started munching.  And you know, it still has that starting flavor (if it were a perfume I think it would be called the "high note") that I don't like, and that is very penetrating and transfers itself to anything cooked with or touching it.  But, interestingly enough, as I keep chewing, that high note goes away and the pepper tastes very green and fresh, with a crisp texture that is also juicy.  Kind of like celery, but not as salty.

I like that part of the flavor.  I wasn't expecting that.

This week my challenge vegetable is a turnip.  I have no idea if I will like it or not; I have never had one.

How about you--are there any vegetables that you thought you disliked but came to like, or at least to partially like?