Late Sunday afternoon: A little bit of everything . . .

1. Welcome to baronernst. Life, as we know it here in the Liamverse is over.

2. You have seen me post about the Table Hopping restaurant blog on the Albany Times-Union site.

Imagine my horror when I saw this on the front page of the paper this morning

Times Union writer beaten

Steve Barnes and friend attacked after leaving Guilderland restaurant

GUILDERLAND — A Times Union writer and his friend were attacked Friday night after leaving a newly opened restaurant in Stuyvesant Plaza, police said.

Steve Barnes, a senior writer who writes restaurant reviews on his Table Hopping blog, said he was attacked in the parking lot around 9:30 p.m. when he was leaving Creo with a friend, Joshua Carr.

"My face is swollen and bloody," Barnes wrote in an account on his blog. "One of my knees, one elbow, one wrist and the back of my head are ailing. Josh hurts in a variety of places. We're grateful to the Guilderland cops and EMTs for their professionalism; regretful to the Creo crew that this happened so near them despite their responsibility being nil; and more than a little perplexed and angered by the seemingly random violence that befell us in a mall parking lot."

3. Ironically, I was in the Albany paper as well, on a jump page in the Sports section as part of a story about walk-a-thons and the like.

It's not on the web at this point:

Bill Toscano, 49, of Salem, takes part in several fundraisers a year, most notably a Polar Plunge, where he dives into a lake during the winer for charity. He has friends who have skydived and blogged on the Internet for 24 hours straight in order to raise money for a cause.

"A lot of people say, "Oh my God, you're going to jump into a lake during the winter,' " said Toscano, a teacher. "You're not just asking for money. You're saying, donate to my worthy cause, and I'll do this."

This year his goal is to raise $5,000 for the Polar Plunge this December on Lake George for the Special Olympics. The secret to an enjoyable cold water, by the way, is to wait until the last minute to take your clothes off and to have hot towels on hand to dry off with. He warms them in his dryer and keeps them in a dry beverage cooler.

The last bit was actually zarhooie's idea. My skydiver friend is shadesong, and there are a bunch of people, including her and zarhooie, who have done blog-a-thon. This year, jenphalian is diving with me.

4. There is a great pot of Portagee stew beef on the stove. Yee-ha. I am also working on at least one other dish for this week. I hit three farmers' markets and got some great stuff. What do I do with the half-pound of oxtail, by the way.

5. I got spam in German from an Italian address:

Guten Tag,

Auch wenn dieser Brief Sie sicherlich überraschen wird, nehmen Sie sich bitte einen Moment Zeit um ihn zu lesen. Es ist sehr wichtig. Ich bin Steve Morgen und ich arbeite bei einer Finanzhaus in den Niederlanden. Ich habe Ihre Adresse durch den International Web Directory Online gefunden.

Während unseres letzten Treffens und Überprüfung der Bankkontos hat meine Abteilung ein untätiges Konto mit einer riesigen Geldsumme, US$ 6,500,000.00(Sechs Million fünfhundert tausend US Dollar) gefunden, das einem unseren gestorbenen Kunden gehört: Herr Williams aus England. Er ist gestorben und hat keine Begünstigten hinterlassen. So dass die Fonds auf seinem Konto untätig geblieben sind, ohne jeden

Anspruch oder Aktivität für einige Zeit schon.

I got it figured out. ;)

6. What a gorgeous two days we have had. Yes, it got below freezing last, and there was still frost in sheltered spots about 10 a.m., but it was beautiful today! Yesterday, too. In passing alpaca farms and talking to farm owners, there's a bountiful crop of cria this year. Oh, please, I hope the weather holds for Saturday.

7. I was all ready to post the A. Bartlett Giamatti 's ode to baseball this morning, but thanks to Jason Varitek, summer has gone on for at least one more day.

It made me think of this quote from "For Love of the Game."

“Tonight, he will make the fateful walk to the loneliest spot in the world, the pitching mound at Yankee Stadium, to push the sun back into the sky and give us one more day of summer.”

– Vin Scully (himself)

The SCA, food pantries and building community . . .

This one is serious and merits an individual post.

This discussion started on the Barony of Concordia of the Snows (Albany, NY), and it really got me thinking.

What also got me thinking was the comment from a couple of friends that I am good at "building communities."

Here we go.

If your local group has extra food in its stores -- good, edible things that you probably won't get around to using -- why not donate it to a local food pantry?

Things are tight all over, and food pantries and soup kitchens need all the help they can get.

My secondary thought was: Why not put food donation baskets next to Gate at events and have someone in charge of collecting and delivering the food.

Another caring soul on the Concordia list said, "Maybe there are people in our SCA group who could use the food."

If your group does decide to do this, perhaps the folks who could use a hand could contact a designated person -- seneschal, baron/baroness, some guy who raised his hand again -- and folks could contact them privately. If the folks who needed help didn't know the person they need to contact very well and were uncomfortable, they could have a close friend do it.

Back to the soup kitchen . . . We're all Scadians. We know how to work a kitchen. Maybe you and some friends could work one night a week or a month at a local soup kitchen.

In service,

Liam

Sunday night: More stuff . . .

1. Congratulations to mare_in_flames for her well-deserved Silver Crescent (East Kingdom service awards). I wish I could have been there. And thanks to evilnicola for passing on the Chez Casa Villa Haus medallion.

2. The other meal I was making tonight was mutton chorizo (I love living in a farming area) with fired onions, potatoes, garlic and peppers. It's so good!

Most of the stuff in it was local. I have a whole chicken for later this week and some ground lamb, I think, too.

3. The New York Times has discovered Mail Goggles.

"A scourge that few knew existed?"

Sharc knew.

4. Here's a list of food suggestions from a New Hampshire Food Bank:

Protein items such as canned tuna or chicken and canned stews and pasta

Peanut butter

100% juice boxes (no glass please)

Canned fruits in light syrup, applesauce

Canned vegetables, tomatoes and tomato sauce

Soups

Healthy cereals

Pasta, rice

Dry beans

5. I just talked to my Mom!!!!

Yes, this is a big deal.

Knock on wood, she's healthy at 74 and living in Hartshorn-dale near my sister.

Of course, they think it's Douglassville, Pa.

6. alethea_eastrid just got home. She was at Warrior's Nadaam, then  at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival. Long weekend.

7. Like everyone else, I am looking forward to Crown Tournament. It should be a lot of fun.