So you may have noticed that nothing much has been happening around here for a while. There are a few reasons for that, not all of which I want to get into right now, but they can basically be boiled down to three categories:

1) The Downward Spiral Plummet of Western Civilization

This is all terribly stressful and distracting, but let's not dwell on that here, since there's fuck-all any of us can do about it other than hang on and wonder what will be left after the noise finally stops. :/

2) Family Medical Stuff

Parents are getting old. Old People Stuff is happening. That's all I want to say about that.

3) Do I Really Need All These Organs?

Here's the big one: a week from next Tuesday, I'm scheduled to undergo a sleeve gastrectomy procedure. This has actually been in the works for literally years, but it's been repeatedly complicated by long lead times, referral expirations, the retirement of the first surgeon my case was assigned to before anything could be accomplished, and the complete shutdown of one of the associated supporting medical practices Because COVID, Allegedly. It's been a tangled, uncertain mess, which is one of the reasons why I haven't mentioned it before, as far as I can remember.

But, well, I'm in the pipe now. I'm on day five of the 14-day pre-op liquid diet, and am low-key hoping to come out on the wrong side of a zombie apocalypse so I have a solid reason to kill strangers and eat them.

Anyway, all this is very preoccupying, so... yeah.

(Also, my main laptop has been broken since February and the manufacturers are presently on their fifth attempt to repair it, having tried to dodge the last three tries on the grounds that it went out of warranty in March. Which is also pissing me off, but in the grand scheme of things it's not really significant enough to rate being called reason 4.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Thanks for the update, and you have my sympathies in all respects. Best wishes and good luck to you.

That's rough. Good luck on the surgery and fingers crossed on the recovery.

>So you may have noticed that nothing much has been happening around
>here for a while. There are a few reasons for that, not all of which
>I want to get into right now, but they can basically be boiled down to
>three categories:
>
>1) The Downward Spiral Plummet of Western Civilization
>
>2) Family Medical Stuff
>

I feel you on both of these. 'Nuff said.

>
>3) Do I Really Need All These Organs?
>
>Here's the big one: a week from next Tuesday, I'm scheduled to undergo
>a sleeve gastrectomy
>procedure. This has actually been in the works for literally
>years, but it's been repeatedly complicated by long lead times,
>referral expirations, the retirement of the first surgeon my case was
>assigned to before anything could be accomplished, and the complete
>shutdown of one of the associated supporting medical practices Because
>COVID, Allegedly. It's been a tangled, uncertain mess, which is one
>of the reasons why I haven't mentioned it before, as far as I can
>remember.
>
>But, well, I'm in the pipe now. I'm on day five of the 14-day pre-op
>liquid diet, and am low-key hoping to come out on the wrong side of a
>zombie apocalypse so I have a solid reason to kill strangers and eat
>them.
>

Just in case we don't have an apocalypse, here's hoping that you're better off for the process.

Peter Eng
--
For what I pay you, I get excellent results.

I'm back home and getting rest. Haven't needed to resort to the provided pain medication today, which is good. The first two days were pretty rough, but the situation improves by the hour. Next up is a month of slow recovery and working back up through a phased dietary plan to ordinary food again (albeit rather less of it, of necessity).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Wishing you all the best!

Glad to hear you made it through. Hoping that your recovery goes well.

I see the assassins failed. I'll have to speak with their superiors about this. /jk

Glad to hear you're still with us.

>I see the assassins failed. I'll have to speak with their superiors
>about this. /jk

I must remember to give a bonus to the snipers that kept you safe from the assassins. Job well done.

McFortner
Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

Last Tuesday, Day 1 (I'm counting the day of the operation as day 1 of recovery, since the surgery itself was completed by 8:45 AM),
was horrible. Pain management was wildly inadequate and boy howdy, there was a lot of it that could have used management. When I came to I was in four different kinds of pain: burning at the incisions, intense acid reflex, a crushing sort of high ache in my chest, and a gnawing pressure in my... right shoulder? Oh, and my bad ankle (for those keeping score at home, that's on the opposite leg to my bad knee. convenience!) hurt for some unfathomable reason.

Anyway, that sucked a whole bunch, and they did eventually throw some pantoprazole in my IV to damp the acid down, but there was apparently nothing to do about the rest but wait it out. So I did. It was bad!

Day 2 was... better, but still pretty bad. The burning had died down unless I moved, the chest thing came and went in waves instead of being constant, and the shoulder was, if anything, worse. They told me that was because of the gas they inflate the abdominal cavity with during the operation; it does some kind of weirdass diffusion thing, picks a joint or two to settle in, and basically gives you a mild case of the bends. The doctor's explanation for the chest thing was that the stomach is right below the diaphragm, and in the process of cutting out most of the former they probably outraged the latter. "It'll settle down," he said.

They kicked me out of the hospital about midday. Guess how much I felt like getting into a car! If you guessed "not a whole bunch," you are correct! But I made it home, took one of my tiny supply of Legal Narcotics™ and went to bed.

Day 3 I woke up after 12 hours of sleep and felt...

... fine.

Seriously. Oh, where there are superglued holes in me was still kind of stiff and stung a bit when I moved, but the other stuff had completely resolved. Drinking anything made it twinge a little, like an echo, and there was so little room inside me that if I tried to drink like a normal person I would immediately cough it back up, but as long as I wasn't trying to... you know... hydrate or nourish myself... I felt basically normal.

This was the state of affairs for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Yesterday (Sunday), Day 6, I noticed my fluid capacity starting to creep back up, which I assume means the swelling is going down in the ol' steam plant.

Today, Day 7, my only complaint is completely unrelated to the operation, to wit, my bad knee buckled randomly and dropped me on the living room floor at one point in the afternoon. But I didn't furiously headbutt a bookcase or anything in the process this time, so the only lingering ill effect is a slightly stiff lower back. I sort of crumpled to the floor in something approaching slow motion, so neither the front of me where the holes are nor my head were involved in any way.

So, you know. I could've done without it, especially the getting-up part, but it doesn't seem to have done any real harm. Good thing it didn't happen Wednesday!

And so, here we are. One more week of liquids only, and then I meet with someone from the surgeon's office and the program dietitian to see if I'm cleared for diet phase 4, soft foods--meaning, for example, soup with stuff in it, as opposed to the plain broths and cream soups I'm limited to now.

You have no IDEA how much I'm looking forward to cracking that can of Chunky beef-and-veg soup that's sitting on my counter.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Certainly doing better than I was on D+3 of the implantable defib adventure. By that point, I'd finally managed to find a comfortable sleeping position that allowed me to ignore the pain from the incisions and the sensation of having an object the rough size and weight of a hockey puck jammed in my side. And lifting myself out of bed was such a joy with the simultaneous sensation of pulling on super-glued flesh from both my chest and my side.

And yes, I was foolish enough to tell my boss I'd be back in time to work the following week despite my doc offering to write me a permission slip.

Ouch, my PTSD from my last two cancer operations is flaring up. I've had more ops but if I don't get to stay at least overnight they don't count. Right now doing immunotherapy for cancer round three. So far that's a breeze. I even get free snacks and drinks while I'm there getting pumped full of drugs. Yay!

*******************************
I'm really here, but I'm not
here, really.

25.807 - The square root of
all evil.

Today, upon being cleared for diet phase 4 (limited solid food), I learned that my current solid food capacity is two chicken nuggets.

I learned this by eating three chicken nuggets.

Welp! It's a process.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-29-25 AT 03:55 AM (EDT)
 
chimken nuggit

Anyway yes, this too is part of the healing process. Keep on keepin' on, Gryph.

One might even call it a digestive process!

...

i'll see myself out.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

>i'll see myself out.

Please do. I can't stomach that pun.

McFortner
Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

>Please do. I can't stomach that pun.

Still, it was a gutsy move.

I can't help but to mentally ponder how much mastication might be required to turn a chicken nugget from solid to liquid.

>I can't help but to mentally ponder how much mastication might be
>required to turn a chicken nugget from solid to liquid.

A lot.

--G.
source: I'm supposed to be doing so, but WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>I can't help but to mentally ponder how much mastication might be
>>required to turn a chicken nugget from solid to liquid.
>
>A lot.
>
>--G.
>source: I'm supposed to be doing so, but WHO HAS TIME
>FOR THAT
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
>zgryphon at that email service Google has
>Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Is this not the job of a food processor?

C'mon, Kronii did it, it can't be that bad.

...

........

I can't help but remember the skit by John Pinette where he was supposed to be "juicing" for the first part of the new diet he was on. By the time he was done with the skit he had juiced a ham, Krispy Kremes...

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

LAST EDITED ON Oct-31-25 AT 02:17 PM (EDT)
 
If it helps in like, any way, due to the surge of interest in Touhou due to the release of Fantasy Maiden Wars, I have been pitching and selling Gallian Gothic / OWaW to literally anyone who is willing to listen, and the law of averages states that I at least got a few people interested in a wild new take on flying magical lesbians. So you might have new fans!

Incidentally, happened to just read an article about trials advancing for a pill that is a potential alternative for bariatric surgery.

>Incidentally, happened to just read
>an article about
>trials advancing for a pill that is a potential alternative for
>bariatric surgery.

... why would you do this to me?

--G.
mood DOWN
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Incidentally, happened to just read
>>an article about
>>trials advancing for a pill that is a potential alternative for
>>bariatric surgery.
>
>... why would you do this to me?
>
>--G.
>mood DOWN
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
>zgryphon at that email service Google has
>Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Phase 2 to market is still like 5-7 years away IF everything works out (and many do not). Unfortunately, it likely wouldn't have gotten here in time to make up for whatever hopeful improvement in health you're going to get from your surgery on the time scale that matters for you.

My recovery is going well. I'm still feeling out the new parameters, but it's coming along. I'm 12 days out from (hopefully) clearance for Phase 5, which is returning to a fully "normal" diet, with grains and starches allowed--which means pasta dishes, bread, and similar products go back on the menu. I plan to go straight from that appointment to Pat's Pizza, order a small, and see how far I get. I'm expecting maybe a third. Given the way most food is packaged and provisioned these days, even when you're NOT eating out, there are a LOT of leftovers in my future.

Another wrinkle that has developed over the last couple of weeks is that my mother, who was already suffering from Anemia of Unknown Origin and possibly impaired kidney function, somehow came down with Enterococcus faecalis blood sepsis. This is a bad, bad infection, with something like a 30% mortality rate. She's been hospitalized for two weeks while doctors first figured out what it was and what antibiotic to throw at it, then pumped her full of IV vancomycin for days on end.

The good news there is that she's feeling better every day, apart from the boredom and all the IVs and blood draws, and they're supposedly going to release her tomorrow. What happens then... remains to be seen. Given that this whole mess started with her going to bed one night feeling (her anemic version of) fine and woke up three days later in the hospital, after Vincent finally called an ambulance, she probably shouldn't sleep upstairs any more.

A one-legged man isn't going to be able to go up there and check on her, and she has a weird habit of leaving her phone downstairs. The only communication they had over those days was shouted remarks up and down the stairs, and Vincent says she sounded perfectly coherent to him--as she did when I stopped by an hour before he finally called an ambulance--but she remembers nothing of having any conversations with either of us during that time. The whole thing's been pretty scary. And they still haven't figured out where the iron that should be in her blood is going.

Oh, and while the first phase of that was going on, I had another UTI and felt like absolute shit for a week, because of course I did.

While all that was happening: On the plus side, Dad and I have been taking some time to reorganize my kitchen and hopefully convert it from its current slobular chaos into an environment in which I can actually explore my new culinary horizons. On the minus side, that's using up time we would otherwise be spending in the shop. We did get in there for a while this week, and it was nice to be back in the cool quiet and think about what the hell we were doing before we were so rudely interrupted by life.

Anyway, that's the State of the Gryphon address for now. I'm doing fine, Mom's... improving... and things may be returning to normal shop-wise later this month or in December.

Weather permitting. It is the beginning of winter in Maine, after all.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>My recovery is going well. I'm still feeling out the new parameters,
>but it's coming along. I'm 12 days out from (hopefully) clearance for
>Phase 5, which is returning to a fully "normal" diet, with grains and
>starches allowed--which means pasta dishes, bread, and similar
>products go back on the menu. I plan to go straight from that
>appointment to Pat's Pizza, order a small, and see how far I get. I'm
>expecting maybe a third. Given the way most food is packaged and
>provisioned these days, even when you're NOT eating out, there are a
>LOT of leftovers in my future.

I started cutting back at the start of the year as a result of my doctor wanting to get my A1C under control and putting me on Mounjaro. I decided to switch to a healthier diet to come in way under the goal she set and it worked...but now I find myself getting full quicker and trying to eat lighter meals as a result.

>Another wrinkle that has developed over the last couple of weeks is
>that my mother, who was already suffering from Anemia of Unknown
>Origin and possibly impaired kidney function, somehow came down with
>Enterococcus faecalis blood sepsis. This is a bad, bad
>infection, with something like a 30% mortality rate. She's been
>hospitalized for two weeks while doctors first figured out what it was
>and what antibiotic to throw at it, then pumped her full of IV
>vancomycin for days on end.
>
>The good news there is that she's feeling better every day, apart from
>the boredom and all the IVs and blood draws, and they're supposedly
>going to release her tomorrow. What happens then... remains to be
>seen. Given that this whole mess started with her going to bed one
>night feeling (her anemic version of) fine and woke up three days
>later in the hospital, after Vincent finally called an ambulance, she
>probably shouldn't sleep upstairs any more.
>
>A one-legged man isn't going to be able to go up there and check on
>her, and she has a weird habit of leaving her phone downstairs. The
>only communication they had over those days was shouted remarks up and
>down the stairs, and Vincent says she sounded perfectly coherent to
>him--as she did when I stopped by an hour before he finally called an
>ambulance--but she remembers nothing of having any conversations with
>either of us during that time. The whole thing's been pretty scary.
>And they still haven't figured out where the iron that should be in
>her blood is going.

We've been dealing with a similar situation since the beginning of the year, as what seemed like my mother fainting and hitting her head turned into a full-on stroke in less than 48 hours. The revelation that her blood sugar was out of control because she'd stopped taking her meds again as they gave her "gastrointestinal distress" (trans: regular bouts of diarrhea) came as no surprise since she'd had a heart attack a few years ago for the same reason.

Thankfully the stroke itself was mild and the only long-term effect (so far) is weakness in her left side that she's slowly working through is a blessing. What is not so much is the medical bureaucratic fuckery that's slow-walked the revelation that her aortic artery is almost 80% blocked and very likely the explanation for why circulation in her hips and legs is so poor. She's scheduled for surgery on Dec 4th to laproscopically remove as much of the blockage as possible and install a stent to restore full blood flow.

>Oh, and while the first phase of that was going on, I had another UTI
>and felt like absolute shit for a week, because of course I did.

Yeah, I'm due for my annual sinus infection any time now.

>While all that was happening: On the plus side, Dad and I have been
>taking some time to reorganize my kitchen and hopefully convert it
>from its current slobular chaos into an environment in which I can
>actually explore my new culinary horizons. On the minus side, that's
>using up time we would otherwise be spending in the shop. We did get
>in there for a while this week, and it was nice to be back in the cool
>quiet and think about what the hell we were doing before we were so
>rudely interrupted by life.

Always good to have a hobby when life decides to bend you over and labor at your posterior with a crowbar.

>Anyway, that's the State of the Gryphon address for now. I'm doing
>fine, Mom's... improving... and things may be returning to normal
>shop-wise later this month or in December.
>
>Weather permitting. It is the beginning of winter in Maine, after
>all.

We had snow flurries this past Tuesday that came as a complete shock considering the temp the day before was in the high 40s. It's shaping up to be an...interesting end to the year.

>I started cutting back at the start of the year as a result of my
>doctor wanting to get my A1C under control and putting me on Mounjaro.
> I decided to switch to a healthier diet to come in way under the goal
>she set and it worked...but now I find myself getting full quicker and
>trying to eat lighter meals as a result.

I've had a lot of people I've talked to about this say variations on that--"oh, (GLP-1 agonist of choice) works great for me!" And don't get me wrong, I'm not grudging anyone their success with that route--but Mainecare stubbornly refused to approve any of them for me, and believe me, my primary care physician tried prescribing every one he could think of. Including the one that's labeled for treating sleep apnea, WHICH I HAVE! They would rather I got cut than let me even attempt that alternative, and I am a trifle bitter about it. Mainecare (Maine's Medicaid agency) has been great to me overall, it's a very solid program, but they are fuckin' weird about bariatric matters and prescription drugs for same.

>She's scheduled for
>surgery on Dec 4th to laproscopically remove as much of the blockage
>as possible and install a stent to restore full blood flow.

I hope it goes well! My mother's had that done a couple of times, as well as an aortic valve replacement--she inherited a tendency toward arterial blockages and valve failures from her father, who eventually died from the latter. It's rough, but a lot less so than open-heart surgery, which she has so far dodged.

The good news on this end is that I just brought Mom home from the hospital and got her settled in her house. She's tired, but otherwise seems to be well. I hope yours recovers as well.

>Always good to have a hobby when life decides to bend you over and
>labor at your posterior with a crowbar.

Yeah, it's good to get away for a while. I've also been watching a lot of cooking videos on YouTube, which might seem like a weird thing to do in my current situation, but I find it oddly restful. I'm looking forward to trying tiny amounts of several of the dishes I now know how to make (including char siu pork, yum).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>I've had a lot of people I've talked to about this say variations on
>that--"oh, (GLP-1 agonist of choice) works great for me!" And don't
>get me wrong, I'm not grudging anyone their success with that
>route--but Mainecare stubbornly refused to approve any of them
>for me, and believe me, my primary care physician tried prescribing
>every one he could think of. Including the one that's labeled for
>treating sleep apnea, WHICH I HAVE! They would rather I got cut than
>let me even attempt that alternative, and I am a trifle bitter
>about it. Mainecare (Maine's Medicaid agency) has been great to me
>overall, it's a very solid program, but they are fuckin' weird
>about bariatric matters and prescription drugs for same.

Yeah, about the best I can say is my A1C did come down, but I can't say with absolute certainty that it was all due to the drug and not simply because I changed out most of the sugary foods in my diet and voluntarily cut back on the portions.

Oh, and I did manage to beat the odds and avoided the most common side-effect of constipation...by ending up with the second most-common one: diarrhea. Go me./s

>I hope it goes well! My mother's had that done a couple of times, as
>well as an aortic valve replacement--she inherited a tendency toward
>arterial blockages and valve failures from her father, who eventually
>died from the latter. It's rough, but a lot less so than open-heart
>surgery, which she has so far dodged.

Fun fact, when I was initially diagnosed with heart failure, there were plans to conduct bypass surgery and I was preparing myself for the reality of open-heart surgery and at least a month out of action. And then the surgeon put the kibosh on that, not because of any danger, but because the damage done was permanent and a bypass was pointless. The only positive is that the muscle still alive is in good enough shape that they've stopped talking transplant for the moment.

>The good news on this end is that I just brought Mom home from the
>hospital and got her settled in her house. She's tired, but otherwise
>seems to be well. I hope yours recovers as well.

I'm sure she will, if only to spite me.

That's a joke, son.

>Yeah, it's good to get away for a while. I've also been watching a
>lot of cooking videos on YouTube, which might seem like a weird thing
>to do in my current situation, but I find it oddly restful. I'm
>looking forward to trying tiny amounts of several of the dishes I now
>know how to make (including char siu pork, yum).

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but it's usually the same time when I start looking at cooking videos myself and going "Hmm..." Only issue is I live with three other people, and any time you cook anything more than a quick snack will result in at least one popping up to go "Can I have some?" So experimental cookery is hard unless I'm willing to waste 2-4x the ingredient disappointing more than just myself.

Hopefully Fate will stop throwing boots at your head soon!

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

>Hopefully Fate will stop throwing boots at your head soon!

Indeed. As I think I wrote as G's internal monologue in an Exile piece once, "Dear Zoner: Please ask Eris to back the fuck off a little. Love, G."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>"Dear Zoner: Please ask Eris to back the fuck off a little. Love, G."

It's in Star-Crossed Part II. (I was looking for something to read anyway, so I thought I'd search it up)

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

... unless something unexpected develops.

I had my six-week post-op follow-up appointment today, and was cleared through to diet stage 5, aka Normal Food But Not As Much, and Maybe Consider Making Better Choices. This basically means my recovery stage is complete (though it'll take six months to a year post-op before everything completely settles and arrives at the Permanent New Normal).

They're very pleased with my progress. By their calculations, I've lost nine percent of my excess weight since the process began, which is right on target for D plus 42. (For reference, at my two-week post-op appointment, that figure was five percent, and that counted weight lost during the two weeks before the operation when I was on the 100% liquid diet. So they're both four-week figures, since if you count those two pre-operative weeks, it's been eight since the start of the process.)

I'm also pleased with that, but more pleased at the fact that I am now cleared for

PIZZA

I'm almost certain this is the longest I've ever gone without eating pizza since I was old enough to eat pizza. So naturally, I went to Pat's in Orono to break that drought.

The missing bit is how much I was able to eat before getting the rest to go, btw. I didn't get my usual double crust or extra cheese because I'd have had even less leeway before hitting my current limit, which is about 3 US ounces (ca. 85 grams). And yes, I did use a tiny scale to make that determination. Which felt a little weird, but I don't think anyone noticed.

On the home front, I salvaged these two cast iron pans, ca. 6 inches, from a bunch of stuff my father had in his shed.

They obviously need a bit of work, but once they're reconditioned, I'm going to experiment with making smaller pizzas in them, since the one I've been using for that purpose for years is now WAY too big if I don't have company.

(If you're curious, the rusty one is a Lodge; the one that looks to have some kind of protective grease smeared on it is unmarked except for its size, and we think was part of the same set of my late grandmother's that my big pizza pan came from.)

I've been watching a lot of YouTube cooking videos, and I have lots of ideas of things to try small amounts of. I just need to conquer my acute Horizontal Surface Syndrome and actually get my kitchen into a fit state for making stuff again...

(And the "phase 5" guidebook they gave me today has some good-looking recipes in it, too. I'm already hankering to try the garlic ginger chicken...)

Maybe I should add a dedicated food board to the forum. We already have a food-related channel on the studio Slack instance...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Congrats on the successful surgery/recovery, being able to eat pizza again (albeit in small quantities), and on discovering recipes that tickle your fancy. Good luck with everything, and may you continue to have positive results!

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW &#pi;
#include <stdsig.h>

Hooray! Fantastic news! Congrats on the recovery!

Best of luck to you!

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

Awesome news!

(You had me going for a sec titling this 'last update'. Somehow, I blame vtubers.)

Gryph,

Glad to hear about some good news in your life. Congrats on the recovery from surgery, and here's hoping that things continue to progress upwardly for you.

On the topic of culinary interests, generational cast iron pans are GREAT because (once you get them up and running again) the used surface makes them forgiving on foods during high heat applications, and they have great heat retention for slow simmers and baked items.

Hang in there,
- T.Z.

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Friends... they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.
--Henry David Thoreau

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