Vinegar base has been more bad than good for me. Mustard base pulled pork has been a big winner though
Bacon burnt ends and smoked pulled pork tend to be the best Arkansas items
Smoked chicken in Georgia has been pretty great
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I used to go to kc a lot for work. My coworker was a huge barbecue fan, and went to a different place every dinner he was in town. I would go once a trip, to what he thought would be the best one. Generally very good, sometimes a miss.
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Mustard based is definitely another great option!
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Smoke Stak in Shoreditch does incredible brisket
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My partner’s immediate reaction to me mentioning KC barbecue:
And yeah, I’d seen a lot about brisket in particular so decided to find a Texas place nearby first, but authentic KC is next. And N’awlins cajun.
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Oooh makes notes
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Not accurate, where’s the cremated sausage?
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And underdone, plain chicken? 
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I BBQ’d two whole chickens yesterday for my nibling’s first visit in 10 years.
One with lemon-oregano, the other heavy on the paprika and chili. Both butterflied for ease of proper cooking.
I still tend to overcook my chicken due to an abundance of caution (minimum 175F, most chefs will recommend 160 or 165F), but the results were very pleasing.
And I made a third chicken (olive oil, salt and pepper) which I didn’t butterfly but did pan fry for 10 minutes (to cook the dark meat) and then into the convection oven for 45 minutes along with roast veggies.
The three birds, plus copious smashed garlic potatoes, roast veg, and brandy-fried mushrooms fed 6 of us before an evening of light board games (Ali isn’t a board gamer, so I stuck to stuff like Ito, The Gang, Dro Polter, The Fuzzies, and Pictomania… which despite Ali being a professional, published comic book artist, they lost by a landslide while laughing their butt off).
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I have instant onset muscle soreness.
I was in my garage working on one of my bikes and saw my Nordic curl bench. I’ve been going to my actual gym, so I haven’t used it in several months. The gym doesn’t have a good set up for Nordics, so I haven’t been training the exercise. I blew the cobwebs off it (literally, with a leaf blower) and just did one. Full range, good form. When I was training them, I was using the 30degree setting.
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We have returned from our 2 week trip to Denmark and Sweden. I’ve posted some photos already. This is more or less the epic tale of our return home. I feel like we should have had a ring to toss into a volcano at the end.
We stayed with friends in Lund the night before returning because I had planned the trip so late that it was impossible to find a hotel close to the Kopenhagen Central station due to it being Mittsommer which is a huge holiday in all of Scandinavia. But it is only 40 minutes with public transport from Lund to Kopenhagen Central Station. We left early with 50 minutes to spare to reach our train in Kopenhagen. The train was leaving at 10:22 am and we had a connection in Hamburg that would get us to Karlsruhe Hbf bei 9pm. Sure there was only 30 minutes to catch the connection but on the way up north our train arrived completely on time and we had 90 minutes to spend in Hamburg Hbf (Hauptbahnhof - Main Station). And even if 30 minutes weren’t enough, we could simply catch the next train. In Germany if you “booked through” and miss a train due to the previous one being late, your ticket turns into a “flex ticket” allowing you to take any “equivalent” train in the right direction.
So we get on the bus in Lund, get on the train … and in Malmö there was a lengthy announcement first in Swedish then even in English (not normal on regional trains)… that sadly no trains were going to go across the Oresund bridge that day and that we would have to take provided busses aka Schienenersatzverkehr (rail replacement service). But we had to change trains before getting to the place where the busses were waiting. We dragged our heavy suitcases across the station got on the super-full train and arrived at Hylie quickly. We were directed to the place where the busses were supposed to be. There were numbered lines already forming. We got into line 5. Everything seemed quite orderly except for the fact that there was nobody from the train company there to give out information when busses were coming.
It was hot, there was no shade. We couldn’t leave because the busses could come any minute. We were waiting. I started checking how long the we had before missint our train. My partner checked what a taxi would cost. We send messages to our friends (which they didn’t see, they later said they would have recommended a taxi immediately). A taxi would be 160€ from where we were to Kopenhagen Central Station. That seemed like a lot. Almost as much as I paid for the train tickets for that trip. Due to our large suitcases we wouldn’t even be able to share with anyone. So we waited some more.
More and more people left by taxi. We had almost convinced ourselves to get on one… when 2 busses arrived and parked in slots 6 and 7. Civilization broke down immediately as people left the orderly queues to get on those busses. We had already missed our train so it didn’t really matter.
While the busses were still being swarmed some person in an orange vest appeared and told people who asked them that train services would resume shortly and we should return to the station. The first train barely cleared half the people 20 minutes later. We caught the 2nd train out of Hylie only to be told we had to get out at the airport because no trains were running between airport and central station and we would have to take the metro.
We bought metro tickets and found the metro. It was packed and we had been standing almost since 8am constantly dragging around our luggage. The only time we could sit was one station between Lund and Malmö. It was 8 stations of metro. We arrived at Kopenhagen central station just before noon more than an hour after our train had left.
Because we didn’t have a single ticket booked through from Lund but had organized that travel to Kopenhagen Central separately our tickets were basically void. Still we had been told by the Swedish train people from Skanetrafiken that the Danish people in Kopenhagen knew about the chaos and would help us. As we stood in line for the travel assistance we checked what new train tickets would cost us. 450€ just to get home. We had paid about 300€ for the roundtrip. My partner was getting angrier by the minute and I was quite stressed out and wasn’t sure I could do the talking.
We had half an hour until the next train to Hamburg was leaving when our number was called. Surprisingly, I could do the talking and I put on my best helpless, sad traveler act and asked if there was anything she could do to help us get home. My partner said nothing and she got us new tickets for 0€. However… the train was leaving at 4:22pm. 6 hours later than our original train. I asked if there was a rest area where we could spend the remaining 4 hours… there wasn’t.
Luckily we found a café in the middle of the station that wasn’t packed and had air conditioning and a corner near 2 windows where we could stay and didn’t have to watch our luggage too closely. There were even power outlets for our old phones weak batteries… we got some expensive Kopenhagen food, some espresso (Yay!) and just stayed there.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful except for the fact that the train we took from Hamburg was a night train with quite uncomfortable seats and we arrived at home at 6:15am. My dad picked us up at the station getting up 3 hours earlier for us than his usual time.
Now for the punch-paragraph (sorry not a line). At the Kopenhagen café we met a woman who was traveling with her mother. They had taken a taxi from Hylie and still misserd the train. We were both somewhat relieved that no matter what you did, the outcome had been the same. She then decided to take a train that left earlier, so they would arrive in Hamburg much earlier and have more choices to go south (they were traveling to a city not far from here). They had a lot of train changes though and I was hoping to sleep on the trains.
Funny enough we met them again on the night train. One of the regional trains they were on in Denmark broke down and they got to Hamburg around the same time we did. Once again… no matter what you did, you ended up on the night train.
We were also following the travel information from our original trip: we would have missed the Hamburg connection in any case because the Danish train was more than 30 minutes late. The train we could have caught in Hamburg instead also had a 90 minute delay… so we would never have arrived home before midnight.
So this is what I learned: On public transport free will is an illusion. You will arrive at the fated time no matter what you do.
I am not sure I can convince my partner to take another train trip anytime soon
Also I want to note with all the badmouthing we do about Deutsche Bahn here at home our northern neighbors are just as chaotic.
Anyway, I am off to spend the day lying under the Walnut tree resting… because tomorrow it’s back to work.
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There is a posture called the “kindly brontosaurus” which is shown to get better outcomes when asking for help or favors. We of course have no control group but have found it generally helpful.
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it always helps to try to be kind to the people I want to help me. no matter how angry or stressed out I am about the situation. in the moment it is not easy to remember that though. i think this time I managed. all of this is much easier when traveling by train anyway. if this had happened with flights I would have broken down for sure. I’m too scared of flying as it is. there are far more trains and far more options to get home…
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On this day in 2022, my wife Maryse got her diagnosis. Breast cancer, stage 4. She was told in Gatineau that that they wouldn’t do anything to try and treat her, that she was a goner. They cancelled tests. Important tests. They put her at the bottom of the list. It didn’t matter, she was gonna be dead in 3 months even with treatments.
That was three years ago. She’s still here. Still alive and kicking. Stronger every day.
Please join me in raising a glass to her and a hearty middle finger to the “doctor” who just gave up without even trying at the Gatineau hospital oncology department and cancer in general.
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I am so very happy for you.
Hearing from you makes my own family history with breast cancer a little less scary 
Cancer is an asshole. And sadly in my family experience you have to advocate for yourself forcefully at a time in your life when you are anything but strong enough to do that.
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Very happy our story helps others.
You’re so right about the need to advocate for ourselves. Fortunately, Maryse is a fighter who’s never even heard of quitting.
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My ceiling looked like this when the plumber left after fixing the slow leak from the upstairs bathroom that has appeared over 2 weeks.
My ceiling looked like this approximately an hour later.
Sigh
The water to the bathroom has now been turned off and the plumber will be back on Wednesday.
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Once my husband got home and I told him what the plumber said about the initial problem, he was able to identify what likely went wrong in the “fix.” After $40 at the home repair store and an hour or so of work, we think maybe there’s no leak. 
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At the gym this afternoon after missing a few sessions because of an amazingly timed bout of cold/flu over a planned long weekend.
Ended up chatting to a guy who I’ve seen around but never really spoken too. He was telling me a bit about how long he’s been coming to the gym and what his aims are, then stunned me with, “I want to look as good as you do.”
Pretty sure I visibly blushed.
I’m going to ride the good vibes of that compliment for as long as I can but it was really useful for a bit of perspective. As much as I’m striving to be fitter or in better shape, it’s not a binary state. Journey before destination.
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