short takes

[cellio]

Seasonal food question: What goes well with latkes? I don't mean the sour-cream-vs-applesauce question; I mean: what (dinner) main courses work well with potato pancakes? Suggestions for dairy (or parve) options are especially welcome, but meat is fine too.

We pretty much completed our holiday shopping (for my relatives) last night. Not only did we go to some actual physical stores, but we even ventured into a mall. Haven't done that in years, but the only local instance of a certain store was in the mall, so off we went. It was surprisingly uncrowded. I wonder if that's because shopping is moving online, because we're between waves of shoppers (the ones who were done in October and the ones who will start on December 23), or because people just aren't shopping as much. As a bonus, yesterday featured the good weather for this week.

We did a chunk of our shopping online, of course (we rarely go that long between instances of giving Amazon our money). But sometimes you've just got to see the item in person.

The release of Blake's 7 on DVD has been delayed yet again. Amazon.uk sends the most polite apologies for things beyond their control, in contrast to most US companies. And it's not like they have my money (only my credit-card info), so I couldn't possibly have any complaint against them. I wonder if the BBC's plan to put all their old stuff online will preclude DVD releases. I don't want to watch TV while sitting at my desk; I want to watch it while sitting in the comfy chair in front of the 32" TV.

I've been doing a lot of D&D catch-up in ralph_dnd. One more major missive to go, and then I'll be caught up to where the characters are. I don't usually write fiction, and this is only semi-fiction because it's reaction to events that have occurred in a shared game -- which is probably why I can write it at all. I've never been very good with fiction, but I seem to do ok when I've got hooks into a set of characters.

I've been meaning to write a proper review of The Kiruv Files for a couple weeks now, but I probably won't get to it this week either. Next week, maybe. If I keep saying that, it'll be true eventually. :-)

Tonight's commute featured ugly traffic snarls. There was an accident on 376 that closed the road in both directions for a while; I don't use that highway, but there was spillover. What surprised me was where the spillover was; after sailing through what I thought would be the worst part, I spent 15 minutes going about two blocks near my house. Unfortunately, those two blocks were right after the point where I could have made a better decision. Oops. :-) (Mind, the accident was around 4:00, and I was doing this after 6:30...)

Comments

[ironangel]

given that the only data point I have is "squirrel hill" for your house, that makes sense - the published detour was to take the squirrel hill exit, up murray, down forbes, down braddock to the edgewood/swissvale exit.

that accident is the only reason I am glad I am working 3-11 this week. yuck!

[cellio]

I live at Beechwood and Beacon. The real jam was on Beacon between Shady and Beechwood. Beacon closer to Murray was not crowded, and I fell for it. Since I needed to do grocery shopping, I ducked down to Commercial at the first opportunity and headed for Edgewood. If I'd seen the backup from Beacon and Shady, I could have saved 15 minutes by heading down Shady to Commercial.

(Err, when does it stop being Forward and start being Commercial? Anyway, that street. It's a back way to Edgewood Town Center that only involves being on Braddock for about 50-100 feet.)

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

According to maps.yahoo.com, the intersection of "Forward Ave and Commercial" is the really sharp right turn by Irish Center, with the latter on your right and a trail head into Frick Park on your left, which seems plausible both because it's about halfway between Squirrel Hill and Edgewood/Swissvale, and because it's such a sharp turn it's like an intersection that lost two of its four directions.

[cellio]

Oh, that sharp turn is officially an intersection? Ok, I guess I can see that...