Various Updates

First, the cut on my hand is healing. There seems to be no infection. It no longer hurts, even when I apply some pressure in the area. I still keep it loosely covered much of the time because the stitches tend to hook and snag on things if I don’t have them covered.

Next, tomorrow is Pastor Brown’s (from Wrangell) last time in Petersburg. He is being replaced around the end of July or beginning of August. We will hold a little farewell service tomorrow.

Next up, an update on my strawberry preservation experiment. On Wednesday I purchased some strawberries intending to use them this weekend (i.e., today and tomorrow). With the bit of anecdotal past positive experience in regards to washing and drying each strawberry, Elise and I washed (in a light vinegar solution), trimmed, dried, and stored (in paper lined container) each berry. This afternoon I took out one of the containers to put together two cakes for tomorrow. The strawberries were still in good condition. This runs contrary to conventional advice that says no water should touch the strawberries until you’re ready to use them. Perhaps the advice doesn’t hold in every case…?

The weather has been cool and showery for much of the week. We’re back to normal Petersburg weather.

City politics and government are in a self-inflicted storm. (The city council terminated the city manager, and some citizens and city employees are angry, in spite of the fact that there is no full disclosure from either side.) I think everyone involved and every voter should read Jeanne DuPrau’s The Prophet of Yonwood. After hearing and listening to some of the juvenile reactions, I think this novel, classified as juvenile fiction, is probably at the right comprehension level. When a person hurts other people trying to do something he or she thinks is right, maybe right is wrong… Maybe there are some things more important than being “right” and defending “rightness.” Maybe one person’s perception of right can turn into wrong when more data becomes available.

This evening, Shelley and Amy went to a party at the Lighthouse Assembly of God church. There were games and ice cream… apparently. One of them was something like musical pies (my visualization from what Amy was describing). The person with the pie can smash the cream into a neighbor (and the pie smasher is out), or smash it into his/her own face (the pie smasher gets to choose who goes out). Shelley got plastered with cream pie in her face. (I saw a photo.) Multiple times, she said. It was fun, according to the reports.

Elise invited her coworkers to a party tomorrow evening. That’s what the two pies are for. I should have photos tomorrow, assuming they remain in good condition. One was a peach-yogurt cake. I used several fresh peaches, microwaved them with a bit of orange juice concentrate and sugar, then mashed them, added some gelatin and poured it over the cake. I poured a yogurt-cream mixture on top of that and arranged a few peach slices and some strawberries on top. The second cake is a strawberry cream cake, two layers, strawberry filling in the middle, strawberries and mandarin oranges arranged on top. I also cooked a number of sushi fillings that I will use to make maki sushi.

So that’s the brief rundown of news as this week comes to a close.