Busy busy busy, and a rancid coconut in seven acts

Another whole random pile of updates:

1) J deployed to Haiti today, so we've spent much of the last few days packing and preparing. She has already e-mailed, and arrived safely. She's staying on the embassy grounds, so safety isn't a big issue, but her food life is likely to suck for the next week to three weeks. Her luggage (pictures to come) included about 50 pounds of food, which is good, since the MREs can be pretty vile, especially the very limited vegetarian options.

2) We walked a chunk of the Beltline on Saturday through Piedmont Park and up to the Armour Yards: it was a pretty great walk. Only a few places required some, uhh, trailblazing. Yesterday to meet J at the Sweetwater Breweing Company for happy hour, I walked another chunk from Peachtree Street back over to Piedmont Ave, which was interesting, more industrial, almost all on railroad tracks. I scouted out some more areas today and worked on maps. Pictures to come!

3) I think I have finally given up up the laser printer: after spilling beverage into it, and despite multiple attempts at cleaning and trying a new toner cartridge, it just doesn't print right. This led me to try to resurrect the Epson CX5400 inkjet that hasn't printed for a long time, and which I've been using solely for the scanner. Much ink on my fingers and an hour or so later, I hereby declare it beyond help. I'll try freecycling it to see if someone wants it for just a scanner, but since I'll be replacing it with another multifunction, I won't need it.

4a) I bought a fresh coconut the other day at the utterly miserable Dekalb "Farmer's Market"*. Well, two coconuts, actually: I bought one fresh/mature coconut, and one Thai "young" coconut. We used the young coconut the other night in a recipe (photos may follow, if you're good) and this morning I noticed that the mature coconut had leaked a small drop of very sticky stuff out of one of the eyes. Rut-roh. Hoping to make the best of it, I found a couple recipes for fresh coconut, both of which would require a trip to the supermarket. So I decided to confirm first that the coconut was still good.

4b) *"Farmer's Market" is in quotes because it's not. It's a big warehouse like store that is almost always maddeningly, make you want to crap your pants crowded, and where Atlantans inability to identify acceptable flow of traffic patterns comes to a real head. Lest you think it's me being overly sensitive, just read some of the yelp reviews.

4c) And it's not even particularly cheap: notwithstanding the knuckleheads on yelp who don't actually know how to do price comparisons, any number of the produce items are the same or more expensive than at the average local supermarkets, Public and Kroger, and are only slightly less than similar items at Trader Joe's and Whole Paycheck. Seriously, with the exception of cheap spices, the ONLY reason to shop here is selection for obscure ingredients for ethnic cooking, especially Asian, since the nearest Asian markets are way the hell out in Doraville, Duluth, and Chamblee. To hell with that: as much as I love Asian cuisine, I'd sooner fly to Asia directly than drive out to those burbs regularly.

4d) Oh, and despite many people considering them one of the best Asian supermarkets in Atlanta, they don't sell sushi rice, pickled ginger, or real wasabi, and the nori is in a different place than the supermarket-grade fake wasabi. The nori, however, is the biggest cheapest damn package of organic nori ever. So that's something.

4e) But back to the damn coconut. So ANYWAAAAAY, I did some online research, which indicated that if there is a slight hiss when you pierce the soft eye, that's a good thing, since a little pressure should be built up. However, if there's a significant hiss, that's a bad thing, since it likely indicates a bacterial infection. What the web didn't cover is when you put your small screwdriver in the soft eye, it plunges right through, and rancid coconut water blasts you in the face like a malicious geyser, covering your glasses, face, and shirt, and spraying your 10' high ceilings.

4f) Friends, don't try this at home: if there's creepy sticky shit leaking out of your coconut, just trust me: assume it's rancid and turn it into either trash, or a party activity.

4g) BOO!, too, since I was going to try a Gin Coco, which is gin, coconut water, and ice. Sounded good. But somehow not worth scraping the rancid coconut water from the kitchen ceiling.

5) Upcoming travel: DC, Eugene, and the SF bay area. Woo hoo!