Another delightful Capricon

What makes a delightful convention? Seeing as how I’m not on staff for Capricon, it’s mostly about seeing friends, making some new friends, and since 2019, helping to host a Box Fort-themed party.

An archway made of shipping boxes as the entrance to a hotel suite.

The Box Fort parties are always hosted at Capricon; our first two were at a hotel in Wheeling. I built a box fort in my living room in 2021, when the convention went virtual because of the pandemic, and we built our box forts in a downtown Chicago hotel this year and last. Our space this year was humongous: a Presidential Suite, which has about 2,400 square feet (almost twice the size of my house!). We didn’t use all that space, the bedroom and master bathroom were reserved for the group members staying in the room. That still left us with four distinct areas: the entry from the hall (which is where the arch appeared), the bar area (placed by the attached kitchen), the center area (with a low table, perfect for coloring or drawing), and the lounge side where we ran movies.

Assorted boxes and cat cutouts along the walk and window. In the distance, the Ferris wheel at Chicago's Navy Pier is just visible.

The convention theme was the afterlife, so our party theme was Schrödinger’s Box Fort, which meant there were cat cutouts (paper and cardboard) spread throughout the boxes. By the end of the weekend, some of them had been colored by attendees.

In addition to the parties, I volunteered to be on some panels, managed to attend a couple panels and a concert, and did a little bit of shopping. And a decent amount of walking – only about 3 miles a day, down from the Chicon average of 5 miles a day. (To be fair, the hotel layouts were different.)

I have made myself a mental note to take the Monday after Capricon off next year to recover. We estimate it took about 9 hours to build the box fort; disassembling all of the boxes on Sunday morning took about 3. (That doesn’t even include the other clean-up.) All in all, I had a great time and look forward to next year’s Box Fort, when we celebrate our 5th anniversary. (We’re not counting the virtual one, OK?)

Exploring something new through Restaurant Week

First, let me explain what Restaurant Week is: a joint marketing effort between a city and several local restaurants, presenting a fixed price menu – typically lower than regular prices – to attract new customers. I learned of this winter’s Restaurant Week from the Facebook page of nearby Geneva, and thought it would be a fine opportunity to explore something new. We were originally going to try a different restaurant on a different day, but postponed due to incoming snow. When I checked the next day, as we were getting ready to leave, our original choice was completely booked, we decided to wing it by driving to a part of Geneva that featured several restaurants, hoping that our first choice there would have space.

They did have space, so we ended up having a lovely lunch at Barrel + Rye. You’ll be shocked, I’m sure, that a restaurant with an extensive whiskey menu was already on my radar. I had walked past it one morning, over a year ago, after shopping at Geneva’s farmers’ market.

What appears to be a bland white soup garnished with snippets of something green was a delightfully tasty celery root and coconut soup.

Their Restaurant Week lunch menu had two courses with two choices to choose from: Celery Root + Coconut Milk Soup or Citrus Salad, then Italian Roasted Pork Sandwich or Chicken Shawarma. (Dinner had different entree options, plus a dessert course.) We both selected the soup. (This was also their Soup of the Day, so it’s not listed on the normal menu.)

Cheese curds are a Midwest staple. Brie cheese curds, however, are something I had never encountered before. They were tasty with the raspberry jalapeño jam.

But wait! The Shareables section of their normal menu has Brie cheese curds with a raspberry habanero jam. Since we both love cheese curds, and had never tried brie ones, we opted to include an appetizer as well. (There are also white cheddar cheese curds available as part of another appetizer.)

Italian Roasted Pork Sandwich (including broccoli) with a dipping sauce and a side of tasty seasoned fries.
Chicken shawarma and vegetables tucked into naan bread, with a side of tasty seasoned fries

After all that deliciousness, we made it to our entrees: an Italian Roasted Pork Sandwich (listed as Philly Italian Pork on the normal menu, which explains the dipping sauce) and Chicken Shawarma, both with sides of tasty seasons fries. And yes, I tried a new (to me) whiskey: Rabbit Hole Dareringer.

Given the tasty food and fabulous service, I suspect we’ll be returning to Barrel + Rye before the next Restaurant Week.

What’s your recipe’s secret ingredient?

One of the fun things about cooking is learning a recipe and then adding just a touch of something to make it uniquely your own. Your secret ingredient, per se. It’s the crunch of celery in the family potato salad recipe and swapping homegrown chives in for the green onions.

Why am I thinking of secret ingredients? I made guacamole the other day. The traditional guacamole recipe is mashed avocado with lime juice (both for flavor and to slow down the browning), salt and perhaps cilantro, often including onion and tomato. I may have included cilantro when it’s in season (it’s snowing at the moment, so definitely not in season), though I’m more likely to put the cilantro into a homemade salsa. I also tend to skip the tomato. What I do include without fail – my secret ingredient – is curry powder.

Similarly, I add Italian seasoning to my pizza dough. It’s a minor addition to the recipe, so it doesn’t change the consistency of the dough, just adds a little spike of flavor that can be smelled as the dough starts rising and even more when it bakes.

What “secret” ingredient have you added to a recipe?

A busy week brings cat photos

Despite being a short work, it’s been crazily busy, so I’m sharing some cat photos.

Zuko, our youngest cat, perched on the fridge with his paws solidly resting on the door, with a look that says "Don't you dare open it, peasant."

Don’t you just love Zuko’s look, like he’ll be outraged if I open the fridge door? (Why no, he’s not supposed to sit on the fridge, but the new fridge is taller and I’d have to grab a step stool if he sits anywhere other than the very front.)

Zuko and Diane on an unmade bed with a combination of Doctor Who sheets, comforter, and a snow leopard blanket. Zuko has his front paws stretched out to the edge of the bed.

You can’t tell in most of the photos of him, but Zuko is super long and he likes stretching out… though not usually on the sofa. (He also likes chewing on the leopard print blanket in this photo while pawing at it and purring.)

From left to right: Diane, a black and white cat, curled up on a Princess Bridge blanket, leaning against a crocheted Totoro pillow with a crocheted Settlers of Catan pillow above it; June, a tortoiseshell cat and Arwen, a white and black cat, curled up together on one side of a crocheted Captain America shield blank with a TARDIS pillow behind them; Zuko curled up on the other side of the same blanket and partially resting on a fluffy whitish blanket.

In the mornings, the cats tend to spread out across the house to different napping spots. In the afternoons though, they gradually make their way to the sofa with careful placement. Diane will growl at Arwen if she’s not fully settled yet, and Arwen is careful not to curl up by Zuko unless that’s the only remaining spot.

Inventing Spanglish terminology

We have a strangely multilingual household, since Cassandra and I both speak English (obviously) and Spanish (at different levels) and are both using Duolingo to pick up at least tidbits of other languages. When she tells a cat to get off the counter, she usually says it in Hawaiian; I frequently say it in Spanish. If I’m trying to say something in German (which is not the language I’m currently focused on) and don’t know a word, I’m more likely to fill in with the Spanish equivalent instead of the English.

It’s probably not surprising that sometimes we invent words to fill in some of the gaps. Having spent a decent amount of time in fandom, I’ve been familiar with the term “glomp” for well over a decade, but Dictionary.com and Google Translate don’t recognize the word. Since cats are frequently glomped (carefully) in this house, knowing the Spanish equivalent seemed useful. So Cassandra invented one when she said “estoy glompeando a Zuko.” Or was it “estoy glompando a Zuko“?

After some consideration, I believe the root verb should be glompear, and it’s treated as a regular verb for conjugation: yo glompeo, tu glompeas, nosotros glompeamos, etc. But it could also be a root verb of glompar, conjugated to yo glompo, tu glompas, nosotros glompamos, etc. Which do you think is the most appropriate translation?

If you don’t like it, que-ever, don’t use it. For my part, necesito glompear un gato antes de trabajar.

Normalize discussing health with your family

Earlier this year, I reached out to my mother asking her to document any health issues she or my father had experienced over the years. I probably should have asked for that information half a lifetime ago, when I moved out on my own, but as I age, it seems more relevant to know what I might be dealing with in the future. We already knew that my maternal grandmother had Alzheimer’s and my father had multiple strokes near the end of his life, but I wanted to know if there were other things we should watch out for (or should have, in some cases).

For example, my parents both developed different shellfish allergies as they aged, with different effects; I knew that already when I reacted badly to crayfish a couple years ago. I didn’t realize that my mother has high cholesterol, though I’m sure my doctor would have liked to know that. (Those medical office intake questionnaires need to add “not that anybody’s told me” as an answer on the family history questions.)

I didn’t learn until this year that my mother had “very heavy long periods” before having a hysterectomy when I was rather young. I did point out that it would have been useful to know that before we hit puberty, or before our girls did. Then I found out she defined “long” as a week, which prompted a discussion with some female friends as to what is considered normal, since before perimenopause, when I wasn’t on birth control, my periods ran a full seven days like clockwork.

Of greater concern is the question of whether my father had memory issues as he aged, or whether he was just not listening. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to have been documented or addressed with a doctor, so I’m not sure whether it’s something I have to watch out for. Or have somebody else watch out for, since I’d likely forget in that case.

A tale of Christmas Adam

Twas the day before the night before Christmas (also known as “Christmas Adam”), when all through the house, not a creature was stirring… probably because the furnace wasn’t keeping up with the sudden temperature drop, so all the cats were curled up with me on my bed. I would love to have called our HVAC company that morning, but we had tickets to see Dear Evan Hansen in downtown Chicago, and I was rapidly adjusting our plan because of the weather.

Typically, when we see a show in Chicago, we take the Metra in and walk from the train station to the theatre. It’s usually a comfortable walk of about a mile, though the last show we saw (The Twenty-Sided Tavern) was just over two. But that temperature drop had the forecasted high of 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind chills were pushing it into the negative thirties.

We had already tentatively selected a sushi restaurant a couple blocks away from the theatre, and Google showed a parking option in the same block, so I decided we would drive into Chicago instead. If you’ve ever driven in downtown Chicago, you understand that this is not a decision I made lightly: the roads tend to be crowded with drivers who have no objection to darting across multiple lanes to turn at the next light or stop suddenly to let their passengers out. The Chicago taxi drivers mock the Uber drivers as poor drivers, and I suspect the reverse is also true.

Nevertheless, the roads near me looked almost clear of the snow that had fallen the previous afternoon and overnight, so we bundled up with multiple layers and ventured into the city. Between the weather and the holidays, the Chicago roads were the emptiest I have ever seen them. Though we couldn’t spot it at the time, Google’s directions to the sushi restaurant were accurate; it was buried in a food court with just a sign on the window along with several other restaurants. Unfortunately, there was nothing even vaguely resembling the entrance to a parking garage that we could see. We looped the block a couple of times, then headed towards the theatre to find their parking lot instead.

Successfully parked, we trudged through the slushy sidewalks and bitter winds to find that the sushi restaurant – and the rest of the food court – had a sign on the door saying they were closed through the weekend because of the winter storm and holidays. We huddled in their doorway briefly scoping out other nearby restaurants, deciding that the Mediterranean place we had just passed was our top choice… mainly because having walked past it already, we knew it was open.

After a tasty lunch and entrancing show, we reached home to find out that the house was still cold, and cold water was not running from our kitchen sink. After a brief panic, I realized that only the kitchen sink had an issue, and we directed a space heater towards its pipes, which sit against an exterior wall. On Christmas Eve, targeted space heater use brought the house up to a reasonable temperature until our HVAC company could come out.

All’s well that ends well.

Happy Holidays!

We’re in the midst of Chanukah, the Winter Solstice has passed, and Christmas is right around the corner. Whatever you choose to celebrate – or not, as the case may be – have a safe and enjoyable time.

Here in the Chicago area, we’re experiencing our first winter storm, topping off the bare sprinkles of snow with the potential for several inches, followed by a temperature drop that will make clearing the snow unpleasant. It’s the price we pay for wanting a white Christmas, I suppose.

What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

Advent calendars, Christmas crackers, chocolate coins for Chanukah, that delicious pork skin at the Noche Buena celebration after the whole pig has been cooking all day… there’s are so many delightful (and delicious!) traditions around the winter holidays. Last year, we learned about an Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve, and pairing that with hot chocolate to curl up and read. In a house of bookworms, that was an easy tradition to adopt. In fact, we’ve expanded on the idea by exchanging book recommendations throughout the year, though Christmas Eve is the only one that’s expected to be acquired specifically for each person. (Book recommendations so far have either been already owned or available through the library.)

What favorite – or new – tradition are you looking forward to this year?

2022 is going out with a bang!

This year has certainly had its ups and downs. I had my first short story published in an anthology (and my second one, which I’ll tell you about soon), we returned to attending Capricon in person (though I apparently didn’t blog about it), we’ve continued attending live shows, and we even went to Florida where we stayed in neat places, did some touristy stuff, ate amazing food, and most importantly, saw friends.

We went to our first WorldCon! But caught Covid. And to DorkStock and WindyCon (sorry, didn’t blog about those either… suffice to say, they were fun). But WindyCon coincided with finding out the old fridge was dying, and the day the new fridge was delivered coincided with discovering that the slow decline of my tires was accelerated by a nail in one of them. (Oddly, this is the second nail in a tire I’ve had this year, since our rental car in Florida picked one up.) Not, fortunately, the type that causes a bang and sudden accident… the “bang” in this title is metaphorical.

With other stuff going on, we’ve been a bit busy, so I apologize… my holiday cards are going to be late.