I read a lot about people having "the touch" for mayo -- I think getting it to emulsify can be a bit of a trick. I've always been a little scared to try it.

But I will probably make it, or at least aoili one day. Are they the same? A friend made some delicious aoili and served it with pommes frites, and it was oh, so good.

I was amazed at how easy it was the first time I tried it. Not this time, though switching appliances no doubt did not help.

Aioli is just mayo+garlic, I think? Not sure.

I've made it using an immersion blender.

and I got mail from an insurance co I had 3 or 4 months ago, about a claim from 14 months ago asking about my coverage and possible doctors visits 18 months /21 months ago

Seriously , does this explain the f'ed up nature of insurance or what. I don't even know what to do with this.

I'm feeling lonely. Most of my grad school friends have graduated and moved to other places, and none of my high school or college friends really live near here, and I haven't really been too social lately.

I'm sorry, Hil. That's not a pleasant feeling.

Mayo firmed up to a nice consistency in the fridge, fwtw.

{{{Hil}}} I'm sorry.

The soap opera that is life decided to go odd on me today.

Early afternoon, sitting in the house, thinking it's hot, wondering what to do with the rest of the day. Phone rings.

Hubby's daughter, who a few years back loudly declared that she wanted nothing to do with her father ever, ever again. She's in town, she wants to visit, she thought it would be a lovely surprise to call us up for the first time in years when she's half a mile from the house and inbound.

Being the pessimistic sort when it comes to people who loudly declare their sweeping dislike of you, I expected the worst: she and her two children are homeless and are looking to move in or some such variant.

Happily, she appears to have grown up in the intervening years, and has enough mental wherewithal to sort out her mother's stories from her own experiences with her father and to come to the conclusion that she might want to make her own relationship with her father on new terms. She's in town to visit friends and family, but her home is in Washington state, where her husband is stationed at Bremerton. Her kids, Hubby's grandchildren, aren't too much the holy terrors, other than kids who are seven and five and being introduced to a new grandparent would be.

I'm very happy that Hubby can have a relationship with his daughter. For myself, I am in no way ready to be a significant influence in the life of descendants. I don't think kids are wonderful and the idea of being responsible for grandchildren makes me nauseous with dread. If it had looked like Hubby's daughter was going to be a significant part of his life, I wouldn't have married him. At the time, all signs pointed to "If you see her once a year for a couple of hours, count yourself lucky, bucko" on his ex's part. I understand that a reconciliation counts as a happy ending in the great screenplay of life, and the fact of a child is something I should have taken better consideration of. But I'm very, very grateful that she's happy in another state.

Wow.

Thanks, guys.

My sister had offered to come down to DC for the day of my dissertation defense, and while it would be great to see her (haven't seen her in way too long), and it would be nice to have her there to hang out with after the defense, I know that having her stay over the night before would just be too stressful for me -- I need my space, and there's really no way to have a guest in a studio apartment without tripping over each other.

{{Hil}}