It's all in the timing

[howeird]

Was out and about in plenty of time to not be at my favorite produce stand before they opened, partly because I forgot where it was. Had I remembered it used to be called Sunnymount, I would have known it was not too far from the Mountain View border. Instead I went a few freeway exits too far into Sunnyvale. They had some good looking Persian cukes, and small fat domestic pickling cukes, and I needed 7x4 (four per jar, 7 jars) but instead of being logical and buying in groups of 4, I bought 14 of each.  Once home I needed to chop the tops off most of the Persians because they did not fit in the jars. And a couple of the jars were a very tight squeeze, but that was okay because the cukes shrink when they are put into the canning boiler.

Or that's how it had been my last 4 tries. This time two mason jars cracked - one in two places, one in three - which ruined those cukes. I'm left with 5 survivors, and a kitchen which smells like vinegar.

Cleaned up everything and was done in plenty of time to visit my friend in Fremont. Got there early, so went to the Starbucks across the street for half an hour. Found her apartment, we had years of catching up to do so an hour turned into 2, and it was going to be iffy if I could make it to the movies to see the part of Captain America which was interrupted by yesterday's (false) fire alarm. Made more iffy by looking up the show times and seeing it was 20 minutes earlier today.

It was no hassle getting the ticket stub exchanged, except it had to be done at the Guest Services counter inside not at the ticket booth, so that delayed me a couple of minutes. Walked into the theater exactly at the point where the screen had gone blank yesterday. Amazing.

The plot was uneven, there wasn't much acting except for Tommy Lee Jones, and they found one special effect and stuck with it over and over again. Cinematography, costumes and stunts were brilliant. Pretty good score, too. The closing credits were worth staying for, all 40's style art. Then came the white on black obligatory list of everyone who as much as breathed in the vicinity of the production companies (two screens' worth of finance departments, a line of trainees for nearly every function, etc.) but after that was over and the musical numbers credits whizzed by too fast to read, they showed what would have been the next scene, which segued into a promo for the sequel. Well, not really a sequel but the next movie in which Captain America is a major player.

Again had half an hour free, so I just sat on one of the benches and enjoyed the mild summer weather and the occasional people-watching.

BASFA was fun, light turn-out, though. Lots of auction items did not sell. People liked the pickles I brought to sample, but not enough to take the unfinished jars home with them, so when I got home I shared them and all the other jars of similar flavor with the disposal. Took today's batch off the granite countertop and put them on the knick knack shelf which is a good place to cool. All of them seemed to have sealed well.

Gave the cats their dose of Advantage, only 5 days late. I can't remember if I gave them their dose last month. :-(

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Nothing planned for the evening.