busy (SCA-filled) day

This morning I learned that the Strip District (source of food, not porn) pretty much closes on Sunday. Fortunately, I had called the alleged Mecca of pickles, olives, grape leaves, and the like before going there. And fortunately, Dani -- who loves olives and therefore has a vested interest -- is willing to pick a few things up for me since he works nearby.

After brunch I picked up the pots, platters, untensils, and miscelleanous supplies I'll need. Oof. My car is full of stuff. If this were a 200- or 300-person feast instead of a 100-person one, I don't know if I'd be able to fit all the stuff in my car. (And that's not counting food!) Fortunately, I can take some stuff to the site on Wednesday, including much of the food (which I'll have just bought). The autocrat has a membership at Sam's Club, so she's going to take me shopping for the good prices.

Next I went to pick up the smoked salmon from someone who volunteered his smoking services. Mmm, it looks and smells great! It might be more than we need, but I doubt it'll go to waste.

Then, it was home to do some pre-cooking. I tried two desserts, one successful and one not so much. Once again, dough is my undoing. We'll be fine, though; I knew that was an experiment, so I didn't count on it. (Hmm. All of the desserts have nuts in them. I should come up with something that doesn't. I can't document hamentashen, or I'd do that.)

I also made 15 meat pies and all the kosher meatballs. I had planned to do more meatballs, but I ran out of steam. I'll do the rest Tuesday.

(I don't have the budget to buy all kosher meat, and I wouldn't be able to justify it for the small number of people who care. So instead, I bought a smaller amount of kosher meat and will prepare that separately. Everything at the feast is kosher by ingredients, but most of the meat won't come from a kosher butcher.)

Tomorrow night I have class. Tuesday night I make chicken soup, meatballs, and probably the white beans (which are served cold and are best after a few days). Wednesday is shopping (and delivery of all the food cooked thus far). Thursday I prep some vegetables, hard-boil a gross of eggs, and make a couple other things. All week, I use the bread machine to make dough for fish pies. With luck, Saturday night I relax before getting started Sunday morning. I think I'm going to take next Monday off from work. :-)

good pharmacy

Kudos to Franck's Avalon Community Pharmacy, recommended to me by my vet.

I have never actually been to this pharmacy. Truth be told, without consulting a map I couldn't tell you where Avalon is. (It's, um, a suburb, somewhere.) I have never met my pharmacist. However, even though they are not especially local, they deliver. One of my cats is on a maintenance drug that has to be compounded; I call them, they use the credit-card number I have on file with them, and two days later the drug fairies being a bag to my door.

The same cat was recently diagnosed with a new malaise. My vet told me that it's best if he gets half a tablet twice a day, but if that's too hard for me I can just give him one tablet once a day. (Breaking pills can be hard.) However, when the drug fairies did their thing, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had sliced all the tablets neatly in half for me. I asked my vet about it; she did not ask them to do that. They looked at the prescription and did something to help me out.

I currently get my own maintenance drugs through a mail-order program through my insurance. I'm guessing that a regular pharmacy won't be able to give me the discount the mail-order place gives (two months' co-pay gets three months' medicine), but I should ask. And while I don't often need other medicines, I know where I'll call when I do. These guys are great!