Category: Photography

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I made a shopping trip to Arthur, Illinois (a largely Amish community) last week. Among other things, I bought three pounds of chicken backs, which I roasted for an hour and then put in the Instant Pot with an onion and some celery tops and pressure cooked on the “broth” setting for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Then I strained the broth and put it in the fridge.

Today I spooned out about half a mug of (super gelatinous) broth, added 1/16 tsp of salt, and poured boiling water to top up the mug and behold: a nice mug of warm drinking broth. Delicious, warming, and very healthy!

A mug mostly full of chicken broth

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View of copy of Academie de l’Espée in a display case

This summer, while in Chicago for other reasons, we went to the Art Institute. I made a point of tracking down the room with the arms and armor, where I found, among many other things, a copy of Thibault’s Academie de l’Espée.

The picture above gives you and idea of the fabulous (and fabulously detailed) engravings, but look how big the book is! I mean, it’s half the length of a sword!

Display case with rapiers and a copy of Thibault's Academie de l’Espée

So, I was delighted to discover that HEMA Bookshelf has a plan to publish a book with these images, “the first time this art has been published at close to full size since 1668.”

Read about the project here: The Thibault Project. While you’re there, go ahead and pre-order a copy yourself. I mean, it’s only money. Oh, and way more bookshelf space than I have available. But I’ll fit it in somewhere.

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Ashley is just back from a walk, just ate a bowl of food and had that bowl refilled, just drank from her water bowl, and had that bowl refreshed, just went out on the patio and returned, and just got a greenie as a treat.

So, I assume this posture means, “All is right with the world and I want for nothing.”

A dog sitting and looking very hopeful

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Ashley seems to enjoy going for a run, and she’s a pretty good running companion. She does want to stop and sniff rather more often than I do, and she wants to stop and pee occasionally, which does make it tough for me to hit my best pace for any particular mile. But that’s okay. Enjoying some dog-companionship is a lot better than hitting my best pace.

I had virtually quit running a couple of years ago. I’d gotten a trifle tentative after a fall, and then Jackie was out of town (and therefore not on-hand to rescue me if necessary), and then the weather got cold and the running routes icy. And by the time the weather improved, I’d just fallen out of the habit. For a few months now I’ve been working to reestablish the habit. I haven’t accomplished that yet, but I am getting in an occasional run.

The Fitbit software in my Pixel watch estimates my VO2Max. My estimated VO2Max has long been excellent for my age, but it had gradually dropped some, which was part of the reason I wanted to start running again. These past few runs have produced a modest increase, so as of today it’s in the 95th percentile for people my age. (I think Peter Attia suggests that the minimum acceptable VO2Max is the 95 percentile for someone a decade younger than you, which I’m still a bit below, although it seems perhaps doable.)

I’m afraid I failed to get a photo of Ashley or myself running (or better, the two of us running together), but I did get a picture of a cool little snake friend who was crossing the sidewalk where I was running.

A small snake on the sidewalk, with stats from my run superimposed on top by Fitbit

I got in one writing session in the morning. Now that I’ve finished my run, I very much hope to get in some more writing (and most especially some more plotting) before the end of the day.