Mastodawn

Oh heck. Here I am with 3 kg of chicken curry ready to reheat (made it yesterday - because always better the next day) and I put some of my fermented habanero pineapple hot sauce in a small cup and head over to the next street for the Bloody Mary kickoff for the annual block party and... it's tomorrow!! On Sunday! Like every year!
(No I'm not going to have a 3rd cup of coffee; I have hot sauce in my hands)

No block party no problem - I bloody mary-ed nonetheless. Some of my serrano+jalapeño, makrut lime leaf & lemongrass (1 week) infused vodka came in handy. No horseradish or celery - but made some celery seed salt to put on the rim along with chili powder on a tamarind rimmed glass. Texas pete, Franks, (Thai) sriracha and a sprinkle of garlic powder besides other ingredients.
This will do, this will do just fine.

Ok (and you can mute this thread)
The longest running Block party in the Pittsburgh area is on!
What a glorious day for it!

Oh wow - my kids are all grown up and so are a lots of the other kids on the block but wow so so many littles on the street. Guess a fair bit of turnover and new move ins. And seems like a lot of things for little kids this year. A petting zoo (rather than a fire truck or dunk tank).
Time for hot dog lunch!

Hmmm dinner (everybody gets something and sets it out) at 5:30 pm. Drizzle (30% chance) forecast at 3pm. Let's seeCome out come out whenever you are

Table tennis - or Ping Pong as it's still called here is ON!
Made it to the finals last year - we'll see how it goes this year. Horrible driftwood type wooden paddles - if I took my TT paddle (that I haven't opened bag in 3+yrs) I'd lose so quick against these, so just going with the flow.

Last year: https://mastodon.online/@SRDas/114571289164755613
#BlockParty

Made it to the finals.
Ok time to go finish making the chicken curry that I'm taking over. + Partner says to make rice - because well people in the street mostly will appreciate properly made/basic rice.

In the meantime enjoy this #BlockParty #StreetPhotography

Oooh I made it back (from tending to the cooking) - in time for the hmmm what are they calling it ? "Adult moonshine contest" (lol as opposed to the kid one?! Used to be the cocktail contest).
Tasted them - mostly all so sweet or just extra boozy
(Especially that solid/gel one!). One ("Get Shucked" has candy corn in it.
Voting at the end of the line by putting a ticket in.

It's a lush life! (Even if it's classic rock and 80s music blasting)

Oooh looks like that 👆🏽 (see previous) helped. I won the table tennis 😀. Same finalists as last year. Not close this year (21-14).
I can't remember when I won last - maybe 4 or 5 years ago. And also maybe 15 yrs ago or so when we first moved here - I was the outsider and it was a big upset over the usual kid (then just finished with high school) That's his (parents) house and table we play on.
For whatever reason I seem to get more people cheering me on

#BlockParty #CheapThrills

Time for the food! 1/2
Drizzle this year but not too much - just a mild sprinkling (was great earlier) - forecast is ½" total by midnight. Nothing that would stop the #BlockParty - great to see people banded together to put tents/roofs over the food tables

#BlockParty food 2/2
Lots of casserole types dishes and dips and as kids pointed out so many lasagnas. Lot of sausages (hey this is Pittsburgh - then again almost no 😳 pierogies!)
Lot of cop out cooking with hamburger helper or store bought or reheated orange chicken or whatever. But some made a seafood boil. Drizzly day so I had the sense to skip the fried chicken (kids learn the hard way it's not crispy).
CW #Food

Our chicken curry and almost all the rice got polished off
#BlockParty

Kids were a bit miffed with other food (yeah not so good this time around - but they also haven't figured out how to pick). Asked partner and me why we put so much effort into what we make.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk - I don't like to make bad food. (And this is relatively low effort)

It's raining quite a bit now. I'm back home - bit can hear the live music that's in now. I feel sorry for the young kid maybe mid 20s at most - playing a guitar and singing with a few chairs under the pop up tent in front
Was singing, playing quite well. If the drizzle hadn't increased I'd go back just to encourage her.
I'm guessing the usual teams trivia is not going to happen

Ok went back to the #BlockParty when the drizzle subsided a bit. Kid hired to sing is pretty good - and just a high school senior or just about grad. Sounds pretty good - I'll stay a few songs to lend support, encouragement.
Don't think there'll be trivia to wind up the party. Still a slow drizzle

😲😳😱 Apparently just 5 mins before we sauntered over, a huge branch - crack - came down bringing another branch from the next tree down too.
Thankfully no one was under that - would have been fatal. Usually would have been kids around and the spot was just after where the food was set up. If post dinner trivia was on - would have been peopled sitting on that driveway right underneath. Weird not really windy and tree doesn't seem unhealthy.
#BlockParty organizere rightly relieved!!

Kid finished up her set and some karaoke, and that's the end of the block party. I did see the big bocce trophy (apparently very competitive this year - strings were pulled out to measure distances even) and the table tennis paddle with the bow sad and wet on the street under the tent. But no team trivia and no prizes (usually right after trivia) tonight in this drizzle.
So that's it. Another memorial day #BlockParty Sunday behind us. Till next year!
/end

Ah ha ha #BlockParty lagniappe - Jordan's mom came by earlier today to deliver the Table Tennis trophy.
Apparently she was very happy I had won, and wrote my name in. 😀Anyways I get to keep this till next year

@SRDas sounds great. So sweet of you to go back to encourage! The rain and the acoustic picking is a wonderful vibe though.

Jude🇵🇸May 25

@SRDas Golly, what a feast! Also: very meaty... I always take a veg dish to these things, to counteract the inevitable meat fest (I'm not a vegetarian).

cultured nyc 🇺🇦May 24

@SRDas Woohoo!

noplasticshower May 24

@SRDas Rick on das!