WTF-Beta

32 degree wind chill today. Quite a dip from 65-70 a couple of days ago. Yes, I did go biking then.

OK, I took a dry leaf out of the jar and just bit a piece off directly, and chewed it a little. Definitely a camphor flavor. And bitter. FWIW, it is from Penzey’s, and they claim it is of high quality.

No idea what to say. Best get all necessary tests.

But a dangerous clown show.

I tried an informal tasting some time ago. It was subtle but it was there. You might get more flavor by biting into a dry leaf. My recall is that it was kind of camphor-like. Or maybe I’m remembering California bay laurel, plucking leaves off the plant and tasting.

Sending good wishes for Mr. wtg’s recovery!

Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato! Even Schumann recommended that pianists do some organ study to improve legato and learn finger substitutions.

Basically have 2 Henckels, 6 and 8 inch, stainless, received as gifts. They’re OK but I can never seem to keep them as sharp as I’d like. I don’t sharpen on my own; I take them to people who supposedly know what they’re doing. And I touch up on an old steel which ain’t that great either. I have 2 or 3 others that languish in a drawer that maybe could be made useful again.

Also a big Cutco that is anything but sharp and a Cutco serrated, used for bread. Supposedly Cutco will sharpen them for free forever if you send them in. I haven’t tried.

@Piano-Dad Interesting. I thought all katydids were green.

Just realized I should have posted this here. Yesterday was an unexpectedly warm day. This guy was out, and another just like him.

Saw this little guy resting on a wall yesterday. It’s a warm spell, in the 40s yesterday and 50s to 60s today.

Thanks for your comments! By the way, the object partly seen on the left is the grand piano, still covered with moving blankets.

The window recesses may be too shallow to accept Roman blinds. I will try to post a pic.

Formerly we had light curtains suspended from cheap lightweight rods mounted on the side moldings. Never looked good, and the curtains themselves are torn and ratty.

So, I figured out how to add the 2 photos! A rather convoluted process, but it worked. See two above photos.

The walls were originally gray, so we decided that was now old-fashioned and we picked this blue. The ceiling had to be repaired (sagging and cracks in places, especially around the fireplace. Our guy did a good job on that.

We still need to figure out curtains/drapes. The problem with the bay window is that the window moldings are right up against the ceiling. May have to suspend the curtain rod from the ceiling. Or enclose the entire bay with a straight curtain behind the couch. But curtains at the windows would be far more elegant, no?

Your ideas are welcome.

Thank you for reposting this memory of Apple.

@Daniel It’s a question of posting the photos. I’m trying to use the procedure given in the Pinned Topic but it’s not working this time. I’ll try again.

We had the living room repainted. It was gray for 20-some years, now it’s blue. The ceiling was the worst. It had cracks and seams and stains, and a very uneven surface by the fireplace. The adjacent walls also had cracks. But the new color works great!

The next question is what to do about the bay window and curtains. It’s weird that the moldings are next to the ceiling. Our handyman doesn’t trust mounting rods on the ceiling because he can’t tell where the supports are. So we are researching all of this on the weekend.

Pics to follow.

This discussion is helping me clarify things. We have Spectrum cable and internet, a Verizon landline with our decades-old number, and two cellular lines. Keeping the landline is way expensive, $115/mo., but it’s the number our friends and family use, and we use it on Panasonic handsets. And we get endless spam calls all day! If we just used the cell numbers on the handsets, we could jettison the landline! If voice quality is good.

Beautiful watch. I had never heard of IWC. Looked them up. A bit beyond my budget.