Titles still elude me...

[shadowkat]

Which makes it tough on archiving, but oh well. (I'm almost done with 2006. I'm basically snatching my book reviews and throwing them into Good Reads, and snatching movie reviews, fanfic, meta, television essays, and book review/essays and throwing them into Archive of Our Own. Right now, an old fanfic that didn't get much attention in lj or dw, is getting attention in Ao3, which is interesting. You should post your fanfic over there.)

I'm behind on my journal correspondence. I'm not ignoring you - I've read your responses at work - I just don't know how to respond to them yet?
Brain fog. Partly.

More on Ice Cream

All this ice cream talk got me thinking about buying more - but "ice cream" in of itself tends to make me gassy and plays havoc over time with the digestive track. (I may be slightly lactose intolerant now.) So I bought yogurt ice cream (Noso - honey vanilla frozen yogurt with probiotics), and Oatley Coffee Ice Cream (which is made with Oat milk.) So far, I've not noticed much difference. Should have stuck with the Breyers - it's cheaper.
Oh well - that may or may not have been due to what I ate for dinner - which was Cappelio's almond flour spinach cheese ravillio with tomato and basil sauce.

When I was a kid, the Good Humor or Mister Softee used to travel around our neighborhood. Back East or in West Chester, PA (we always referred to it as Back East when we living in Kansas), it would stop in front of our house. We lived at the tail end of a long series of streets, with woods behind and across the street. Houses were on either side - there was a row of houses on that bottom street and the very bottom of the hill. About six in total.
So the Good Humor truck would pull up next to our driveway, just before the street sign that bordered it, which I climbed as a kid ( when I was three feet tall, not six foot). With that sing-song tune that always hailed its arrival - warning parents everywhere to be prepared to either pull out their pocketbooks or deal with gloomy faces peering up at them asking why?
Hearing that tune now - still brings back memories of those by-gone days of youth. I remember getting the strawberry shortcake ice cream bar, although sometimes I'd get a sundae or a cone dipped in chocolate. It was a great treat on hot summer days, in between quick runs through the sprinklers.

If you were to ask what my favorite ice cream flavor was - I'd most likely surprise you. No one else shares it. I've yet to meet one person with the same favorite. It's so rare in fact that I rarely find it - and when I do, I automatically buy it no matter where I am at the time - to the utter confusion, frustration, and exasperation of whomever I'm with at the time. My parents have gotten used to it. My friends haven't. MD didn't get it at all. That's because her favorite was easy to find.

It's Peppermint. I can find it in speciality grocery stores or pricey ones around Christmas time. Cheap varities do not exist. Hagen Diaz, Ben & Jerry, Breyers, Blue Bunny, Turnkey Hill, etc do not carry it. And I prefer the variety that has peppermint swirls in it, not pieces of the candy or just the minty taste. It should have swirls of pink peppermint in white ice fluffy ice cream.

I like weird flavors of ice cream.

Another favorite ice cream - which I can no longer find is "Coco Bliss's Coconut Milk Cappucino Ice Cream" - which is by far the best on the planet, but apparently gone from NYC. I can no longer find it anywhere. I settled on Oatly's Coffee - which is not the same.


Family

Mother figured out why niece wants to go to Milan - apparently, there's a hip hop concert she has gotten tickets to - and really wants to see. It's a hip hop performer who rarely tours. I think its Kendrick Lamar. (Her parents love live concerts and love hip hop. Her mother adores it and has the biography of the Beastie Boys. They introduced me to hip hop with the Fugees, and others. I have a lot of hip hop because of them - it's not my favorite music though, a lot of it is angry, and it gives me a headache.)

Also, mother's physical therapist is a huge theater buff - she's been to NYC this year and seen four musicals, and is traveling to Houston to see another one, and then to Atlanta to see several more. She sees 13 productions a year. (I consider myself a theater buff but she has me beat. I'm a bit more leery though of going to the theater right now, and from what I heard on the news, I'm not alone in that. They said fewer people were going to the theater this year - and a lot of empty seats for plays and other productions.)

She recommends "Six". So in between her attempts to kill my poor mother (sorry rehabilitate her), she discusses theater.

I'm most interested in that one. Wales may go with me for that one.

On the movie front, mother and I agreed that we both wouldn't mind seeing the Elvis movie. Although mother thinks from the trailers that they kind of went overboard with the "Wiggle of hips" - the real Elvis didn't "Wiggle" that much. I'm wondering if I can interest Wales in seeing it with me. Mother thinks I'll have better luck with Wales than cjl, but I don't know, cjl can surprise me in regards to movies.

We also agreed that Top Gun film doesn't intrigue us at all - because we're both over Tom Cruise. And well, my favorite characters in the first one aren't in the second - Kelly McGillis, Tom Skerrit, and Goose (Anthony Andrews or Edwards). Cruise's character kind of annoyed me.

***

Covid

Crazy workplace has decided COVID is pretty much over. OR as long as there aren't massive hospitalizations or deaths - there's nothing to worry about. Although it is spraying again. Every so often, everyone vacates our floor so they can spray our cubicles with disinfectant. Today, everyone left for thirty minutes - they congregated outside and chatted in small groups for thirty minutes. While Breaking Bad sat on the sidewalk in his mask alone and stared into space. I decided to go upstairs to the Deli and get something to drink, and a kind energy bar and nuts.

Then I came back, went outside, chatted awkwardly for five minutes, retreated back upstairs to my cubicle to do work. They'd finished my area - and really 30 minutes was a bit long. Jay was being silly.

They are discontinuing the testing twice a week for folks who didn't get vaccinated. (I think they got tired of monitoring it and found the testing to be expensive. It was through Mt. Sinai hospital and saliva PCR tests.)
That was discontinued today.

Last day to get boosters and vaccines is June 28 at the Brooklyn Site (the only one still doing it.)

Sci-Fi Coworker got it finally. He caught COVID right before he left, gave it to his family, and was mildly sick with it. His wife's case was a bit less mild. And his daughter's was severe. It was not a happy vacation.

About 70% of our work place got COVID in May, with varying results. Some worse than others. We keep exchanging stories about it. No one's was the same. Funky disease. 90% has had it, some got it in 2021, some in 2020, most got it this year. And we got it from our workplace. So much for keeping us safe.



***

Tired. Signing off.

Comments

[days_unfolding]

I love peppermint ice cream.

[shadowkat]

Ah someone else who does! Yay!

[cactuswatcher]

Cheap varieties do not exist.

Actually they do. Not that you, personally, might want them. Kroger stores which you may have had in Kansas City has a house brand peppermint at Christmas time. So does Walmart.

I've had it more than once, but don't remember what brands. Maybe one was Dreyers (which is the same as Edy's only west of the Mississippi), but I'm not sure. Some I've had was just peppermint flavor and some had bits of candy cane.

[mtbc]

Ah, interesting that the Kroger brand is decent, I do like their salsa.

[cactuswatcher]

To be clear, I just that know Kroger has peppermint ice cream. I don't know if it's any good.

[mtbc]

I should read more carefully, thank you for clarifying!

[spiffikins]

My favourite ice cream flavour is banana fudge ripple. I don't particularly like "faux" banana flavoured anything - but for some reason, banana fudge ripple ice cream, is awesome.

One time Safeway had a "pineapple upside down cake" ice cream flavour - which was really good and was never to be found again :D

I like the green chocolate chip mint ice cream, although I don't particularly like the chocolate chips or chunks - they tend to be "sharp" when I have creamy smooth ice cream and disrupt things!

[mtbc]

I too like the mint chocolate chip, I think my father did also. Never had straight peppermint ice cream.

[shadowkat]

Feel the same way about the green chocolate chip mint ice cream. I like that on a cone.

[atpo_onm]

I find it interesting that over the last week, of the things you've posted, discussion of ice cream seems to have really brought out the responses.

Kind of makes me have hope for humanity after all. That and music, of course.

[lizzybuffy2008]

My favorite ice cream is from childhood. My grandmother and I used to go downtown once a month and visit a place called Hunt's. They had hot dogs and the most amazing lemon ice cream. It was real cream ice cream, not a sorbet and I have looked for and tried to make something similar for years. The closest I have had was in a gelato place and when I asked them what was different about their's, they said sassafras. Sadly, they never made it again and have since changed owners.

[shadowkat]

I think I've had something like that. Lemon ice cream is rather cool. Prefer it to lemon sherbet, but you are right - it's impossible to find, and gelato isn't necessarily the same. I like ice cream flavors that are a bit of an interesting combo of tastes.

[mtbc]

Always feel free to get around to my comments very late or never, goodness knows I'm the same, more good intentions than time, but I'm sure we all at least appreciate engagement even if we can fail to reciprocate.

I've certainly liked frozen yogurt and, despite low expectations, soy-based ice cream in vegan restaurants. In the US, occasionally I find malt ice cream, which can make a nice change for me. Coconut milk cappuccino sounds good. Thinking of coffee flavors, a nice thing about returning to Britain is more abundance of coffee walnut cake.

I have no love of Tom Cruise as a person or an actor but he does keep starring in movies I like, ha. Especially science fiction, things like the War of the Worlds remake or Oblivion (which had a nice twist). I'd completely forgotten that Anthony Edwards was in Top Gun, I wish I happened to watch more shows that he's in.

[shadowkat]

Edwards was good in ER (that's his claim to fame), he also did the Television miniseries In Cold Blood. Haven't seen much of him lately.

Cruise has aged well - and say what you will about Cruise, he is a good action actor. I'm not a fan of his - I don't dislike him, I'm just not really into him either. But he puts out good action films. Also the man can sing - I saw him in Rock of Ages, and weirdly, he was the best thing in it.

I don't often like frozen yogurt - but this stuff doesn't taste like yogurt - it's very weird.

[mtbc]

Ha, I had no idea he can sing too.

(I do like the taste of yogurt anyway, which probably helps.)

[iddewes]

I am not interested in seeing the new Top Gun either, but then I wasn't really that much into the original either.
And that is pretty crap that so many of you from your workplace got COVID there.

My favourite childhood ice cream was one you could only get in Canada as far as I know (I grew up there), and I don't think it's around anymore. It was called Rainbow, it was lime, raspberry and vanilla mixed together. I haven't been able to find anything about it online at all. Nowadays I am not that fussy about which ice cream it is, though I like lemon gelato.

[shadowkat]

I remember "Rainbow Sherbet" - I loved it. We got that when I was a kid. My father used to ask for it in restaurants. He liked Neopolitan and Rainbow Sherbet. Mainly he like Vanilla, Strawberry, and Sherbet. (My father liked fruit flavored ice cream.)

Agree on Top Gun - I was really only into Kelly McGillis' character and the romance, I didn't really care or remember the rest of it.

[yourlibrarian]

I'm fairly sure have seen peppermint as a seasonal option in the store during the holidays but I think it's a store brand flavor. What makes it peppermint though I'm afraid I don't remember as I'm not fond of mint anything.

Your report about the workplace discontinuing tests is something I think is being seen everywhere. Most places have stopped offering free tests locally, and a friend in California who works for local government said that their testing options have stopped, even though they deal directly with residents. You'd think they'd save money by eliminating the spraying and in-person work requirements as well.

[shadowkat]

It's usually just a seasonable option - titled Candy Cane or Peppermint Stick, and for Xmas or holiday. Kind of similar to Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream. I rarely see it outside of the holidays - unless I'm at a beach resort, or on occasion it might pop up in an ice cream shop. Most folks aren't into it - so its hard to find.

I don't understand my organization at all. Also some still believe we can get it off surfaces. I don't think so.