New Necklace

090117newnecklace
Originally uploaded by lb_philly.

I treated myself to this inexpensive piece of gaudiness yesterday, purchased from a stall at the Reading Terminal Market.

It's probably pot metal and plastic, but that's okay. At that pricepoint, I can't imagine it containing enamel and fused glass -- more likely the "enamel" is that Shrinky-Dink stuff. The stall ladies claimed it was made by "an artist in Boise, Idaho," and it may well have been, but the components look mass-produced to me.

The metal isn't as yellow as the flatbed scan would indicate. It's a kind of weird not-pewter not-bronze color that changes with the light, but I like it. EDIT: Hey, maybe it's Rearden Metal!

When I hesitated and appeared to be about to leave the stall, the price dropped 15%. Imagine that. I guess business is really bad.

Nice day to buy tamarinds

It's much warmer here today (low 30s) and the sun came out for a bit. With a little snow and ice on the ground, though, I didn't want to take my bike out, so I took my shopping cart to the Asian grocery -- a nice twelve-block round trip to get me in training for Flower Show tour-guiding.

I was feeling a little (but not too) venturesome, so I bought a container of pork fu, and two kinds of sesame oil, and some ginger oil, and some madras curry power. Oh, and things I recognized and had on my list -- two dozen eggs, four blocks of tofu, bok choy, broccoli, tangerines. And then I found that chicken hearts were available and way cheap, so I bought those, and more low-sodium crackers from Singapore, and cookies from Singapore, and the biggest tin of Ovaltine I've ever seen -- must hold a gallon of the powder, maybe more.

The totally new food for me, though, was a package of tamarinds. It was marked "seedless" but they are lying knaves. Boy that fruit is tart. I will need to play with it.

[Wow, there's a black cat on the rooftop, four houses over. It saw me staring at it and is staring back. Ferko hasn't noticed it, good thing too or she'd probably faint of fright even at this distance.]

I made "leftover soup" for Roy and me for lunch -- turkey broth from the Christmas turkey, thinned a bit, into which I threw onion and mushroom slices, coarsely chopped baby bok choi from last week's shopping expedition, the remains of a package of frozen edamame, and the last of last week's tofu, cubed. Seasoned with galingale, toasted sesame oil, and a lot of cayenne, it made a tasty soup.

Those tamarinds tasted like chutney to me. I will make inquiries of Teh Internets.

EDITED NEXT DAY TO ADD NON-SEQUITUR: On this day, I observed a bud from a fourth seedling hippeastrum.