The Fire This Time

PART I - FIRE SUPPRESSION

On Wednesday night, I got to fulfill a childhood fantasy of saving my home with a fire extinguisher.

Fenya had questions about the cinnamon bun recipe she was using right from the get-go, and she clearly should have listened to her instincts. 

But like a trooper, she pressed on, not realizing that the sugary doughy mixture spilled over the confines of the tiny baking sheet she had used and on to the foil she had tried to line the element with and then created a small fire under the foil.

She yelled "fire!" and called for help, and I raced upstairs as quickly as a man with four to five large glasses of wine in him after supper could manage. The flames were small; three, perhaps four inches tall, so initially I tried to combat them with a spray bottle from under the bathroom sink. But Fenya saw that there were still flames under the foil so I grabbed a pair of tongs to shift the foil and combat them at their source. 

This turned out to be a grievous error in judgment on my part, as flames lept up past the stovetop, and Fenya shrieked, "please use the fire extinguisher!" Which I did.

Two and a half squirts of monoammonium phosphate later, the fire was out, and we finished opening all the windows and fanning the smoke detector until it stopped shrieking.

We all had a good laugh about it afterward, and I thanked her for making that time my bacon-wrapped scallops caught fire into such a trivial matter by comparison.

PART II - DAMAGE CONTROL

I should clarify that my reluctance to use the extinguisher was a product of fear or cheapness, the knowledge that the clean-up could be extensive, and that supposition turned out to be spot-on.

It turns out that all dry chemical extinguisher material should be cleaned up right away because they are caustic. And because their causticity can be due to them being either an acid or a base, you need to know what chemicals you are dealing with so you know the proper cleaning solution. 

Literally - the solution in our case was a mixture of baking soda and water, whereas a more acidic compound would have required mixing isopropyl alcohol and water. But then the baking soda residue needed to be rinsed or washed away. As a result, we ended up cleaning almost the entire kitchen, and thankfully vinegar water seemed to do the trick, despite being acidic.

Everyone pitched in, and while my reach let me get to the back of the wall behind the cupboards, Fenya's ability to stand on the counter was a valuable asset to get into the corner.

On the plus side, the kitchen hasn't been this clean since we moved in...well, until I used Audrey's gift basket from the Italian Centre to make dinner tonight.

¡Muy Caliente! - Vernal Geekquinox 2023

Pete, an experienced kitchener who wears his boots desert-style, and Ellen, The Shortener of the Ways, held their first Geekquinox dinner as a married couple yesterday, and it was, as always, delightful.

Pete created an assortment of spicy (but tasty!) dishes, centered around the proverb from Frank Herbert's Dune, "the spice must flow."

We gathered earlier in the afternoon than usual and kicked things off with a delightful ancholoma cocktail. This brilliant libation combined spicy ancho reyes liqueur for heat, mezcal for smokiness and Grand Marnier to bring a beat of zesty fruit and cognac aromatics to the party, centered around an immense block of ice and topped with grapefruit juice. Probably not a great mimosa replacement for brunch but dang tasty and very popular, based on the number served over the day.

Next up we had a chance to sample six hot sauces from the popular web series "Hot Ones," in which celebrities answer questions while simultaneously eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. To preserve our appetites, we sampled them on tortilla chips accompanied by the most guacamole I have ever seen outside an industrial or catered setting.

I have never been one for confections or condiments that are "I dare you" hot, but tried all six. We all agreed that the second-last sauce, Da Bomb, felt the hottest while providing the least flavour, and most people preferred the Loc Calientes and Ginger Goat. Luckily a shot of creamy mango liqueur was on hand to rescue my palate afterwards - thank you Scott and Margaret!

After that we dove into some of Pete's rightfully famous chili verde, made with chicken this time instead of pork, but still tremendously flavourful and nourishing.

Then, the welcome return of the hamachi shot! This delicious sushi shot, featuring hydroponically grown radish sprouts, tuna, toasted ginger and ponzu sauce, made its debut a decade ago at Pete's first Star Trek Geekquinox, and has lost none of its appeal among his delighted guests.

But if it is 4:00, it must be time for another cocktail, this one coffee-based! A simple cup of joe transformed by a jigger of spiced rum and topped with a generous dollop of thick, rich, butterscotch-infused whip cream.

After some minor assembly assistance from Scott and I (and my trusty pineapple corer that I had brought at Pete's request), our host trundled off to the patio to grill up some al pastor pkr and pineapple skewers that were just astonishingly good. The smoky heat of the marinade was complemented perfectly by the zesty sweetness of the pineapple.

And the pineapple hull was put to good use as well - waste not, want not!

Pete had actually planned to follow this up with another chicken dish, but we talked him out of it since everyone was already pretty full, and visiting with him is more difficult when he is tethered to his many cooking devices. So the main course was a delicious bowl of aromatic black beans and Mexican street corn on the cob, slathered with a feta, sour cream and garlic/chili dressing!

We rounded out the evening with a scrumptious cayenne and chocolate custard, topped with leftover butterscotch whipped cream. Reminiscent of Mexican hot chocolate (or the many delightful items inspired by this Meso-American treat, such as the Heartstopper hot chocolate stout that Sherbrooke used to sell), this was the perfect capstone to a spicy (but not too spicy!) meal.

After that, there were a few more ancholomas, a few beers, lots of laughs, and some great conversation among the long-time friends who have gathered under Pete's Geekquinox banner since 2010 - and hopefully will do so for many years to come!

Oscars 2023 - Random Thoughts

It's been a long night because immediately following the Oscars telecast we cleaned up a few dishes and eight of us stayed up to watch the brilliant finale of The Last of Us.

* Jimmy Kimmel's monologue was fantastic, maybe the equal of some of the greats by Billy Crystal back in the day. And by my count, he limited himself to five jokes about last year's infamous 

* This Oscars may have raised the expectations for acceptance speeches; so many emotional and meaningful speeches (Ke Huy Quan nearly made me weep!) as well as what may be the most  widely-seen rendition of Happy Birthday ever. Too many good ones to list them all (I was also trying to keep track of all the winners on 16 ballots here).

* I was pulling for Everything EveryWhere All At Once, but was happy to see Naatu Naatu from Bollywood flick "RRR" take the statue, despite only having seen the song on YouTube for the first time this afternoon. The live dance version was clearly a crowd pleaser in the auditorium!

https://youtu.be/sAzlWScHTc4

* Seeing Michelle Yeoh become the first Asian woman EVER take home the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once was only surpassed by having such a delightfully weird film take Best Picture (and 5 other Oscars too). 

* EEAAO winning means we can look forward to more boundary-pushing movies that challenge our ideas about sentiment expressed within a movie that embraces so many ideas that are unheard of by themselves with  mass public but old hat to those of us familiar with comic-books.

The 95th Oscars had heart and soul and technical merit, and I only took four shots for March of the Dead (Ray Liotta, who I knew but forgot, Irene Cara, Wolfgang Peterson and Vangelis).

Slaying The Dragon is Not As Important As Choosing to Fight It In The First Place

About a year ago, Jeff asked if I wanted to join in his Thursday night D&D campaign with some other fellows I knew, even though I would be the only one not related to another player or the DM, which I found amusing. I agreed and rolled up a Paladin who was also a legitimate knight - Sir Gabriel Griffonheart. Thus began my association with Sword Coast Solutions, the name for our merry band. 

Yesterday we all got together to game in person for the first and last time in the campaign for a knock-down, drag-out tabletop session with real dice and miniatures in a basement, the way it was always intended, as Jeff's son quipped.

It was a great time, and through a stroke of luck, Sir Gabriel was able to deal the killing blow to Iymrith, the blue dragon who was the villain of the entire campaign. This was not due to good planning so much as sheer bloody-mindedness, and my reluctance to spend a turn healing when I could step up and keep rolling hit and praying to Tyr for a neutral 20 and a devastating smite.  It turned out our cleric had left the beast with only a single hit point, which he was quite devastated to discover.

But it wasn't my favourite moment.

That had come one encounter earlier, when one if Iymrith's spawn, Cyzuran the Hungry, stood before the entrance to her matron's lair. For our aid in uncovering the draconic conspiracy, we had all been given powerful magic potions that increased our stature to that of giants, with additional damage, reach, and twice as many hit points. Two of my comrades drank theirs immediately and suggested I do the same. 

"For sure I will," I said, but with my Boots of Speed and Charger skill, I can get in there right now and strike the first blow before the wyrm takes to the air."

"But then what?" they countered. "You aren't going to end the fight in one turn." And I was truly conflicted.

I looked at my sheet, then at the wonderful expanse of miniatures and scenery set before us and made my decision. 

"It is simpler than I thought," I said. "Sir Gabriel is a knight, and that is a dragon. And that's that."

And charged in.

Sir Gabriel got his licks in, but then got beat up pretty good, but the group prevailed.

And for a moment, I felt close to that Jeff Dee illustration in the old D&D Rogue's Gallery of a paladin, and let me tell you: it was pretty good.