First Annual Bryceland Wild Plum Festival

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Harvest time is winding down for the wild plum tree that is the centerpiece of our front yard. You can’t take a step under the tree without crushing at least six plums underfoot. We’ve had a bumper crop this year. It peaked over a week ago, when I collected this many plums from it in two sessions of halfhearted gathering:

There are still loads on the tree that continue to ripen, but the majority of plums were pretty concurrent. I wish they were more evenly distributed; it’s basically impossible to use them all before they spoil. So I made some jam with them, which turned out great. I hadn’t done any home canning before, it’s kind of fun. Dicing the plums was pretty time-consuming, but other than that it was easy. We’re also contemplating a wild plum sauce for pork, which will be more of an improvisation. We’ll see how that goes.

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My trip to Arizona was so much fun! It was like old times having everybody together again. Well, nearly everybody; we were three shy of the complete roll call. That’s the only way the trip could have been better.

Most everyone stayed at a resort together for the first couple of days. I shared a room with my Grandpa, whose snoring and sleeptalking are the stuff of legend. But I’m a very skilled sleeper, so I barely even noticed. We all spent most of the daytime in and around the resort’s excellent swimming pool, sipping drinks, staying cool, and catching up. And more of the same at night, for that matter, just not around the pool. In the mornings we brunched en masse, basically taking over the resort’s restaurant.

My cousin Amy’s wedding was grood. She seems very happy. She deserves it, she’s a total sweetheart.

Some of us stayed in Tempe for a day or two more. I’m finding it hard to describe how much fun I had, even just hanging around eating and playing cards. My family jokes around a lot, and has all kinds of good stories. We love to laugh together, I guess it’s that simple.

Solar orbit completed. Continuing on present course.

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This has been the best year of my life so far. I am so fortunate to have the life I have. I wish I could box it up and share it.

We had what we call “birthday spaghetti” last night, and it was the best ever. It’s basically a homemade bolognese, with pancetta. Spaghetti’s been my favorite food since before I could say it. We watched Amélie. I had somehow forgotten how amazing it is. I need to start collecting Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films.

No big plans for today, just working. I’m going to Arizona this weekend, though, for my cousin Amy’s wedding. The whole family will be there, it should be lots of fun. I only wish Laura could come too, but she’s studying for her third round of board exams.

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My wireless network here at home has a whole twelve feet to cross. Granted, there is a wall to traverse, but still, the various nodes of my network have much more trouble staying in contact than they should. This morning it was especially bad, nothing was coming through from the internet at all. Ping tests revealed that the wireless connection was extremely intermittent. It was fine last night, and it’s been fine for a while, so I figure it must be interference from either some neighbor’s newly acquired electronics, or some atmospheric condition combined with solar flares and government conspiracy to create subspace anomalies and warp my CDs.

So, naturally I turned to the paranoid-delusional’s headwear of choice, aluminum foil. I put a wall of foil alongside each wireless device, on the side facing away from the rest of the network. Et voilà, the connection has been going great guns ever since.

And speaking of foil, it’s time for fencing. Huzzah!

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We’re cat-sitting for a friend this week. Our guest, Maddie, is cute but hostile, with a surplus of kitten bravery drowning out the affectionate behavior that might be buried down in there somewhere. Our cat Roxie finds her very entertaining. They chase each other around all night, and then sleep all day. They’re pretty cute together. Having to deal with a litter box again is a hassle, but in a way it’s good to be reminded. It makes me appreciate Roxie all the more.