The big event this weekend was "Hottoberfest," as I insist on calling it. Prettymuch everyone came over for German food, German beer and colaweizen, and — this is key — a subtitled showing of Germany's Next Top Model, hosted by Heidi Klum.

I went way overboard (my mom would be proud) and prettymuch everything came together only at the last minute: the files took forever to download and even with subtitled versions already on YouTube, it took even longer to create and encode hardsubbed versions that would play on the big screen downstairs.

I had fun, but if I ever, ever do that again, I'm giving myself three months of lead time.

But hey, I won't see any of these people for Halloween, and this is probably my last party here until February or something. I keep rationalizing this stuff on the grounds that I'll spend less and less money as more of my friends leave the state and/or country.

(My own future also looks increasingly unpredictable in the particulars, however optimistic I am about it in general.)

The rest of the weekend was sedate, too much so considering how nice the weather was. I read, ran errands, etc. I got some thinking done, but not enough. Ultimately, if Our Bold Hero were some character in an RPG that I was playing, I would not be satisfied with his progression lately.

Tonight I made ice cream. I guess I should say "today," because I was chopping up chocolate at 2 this afternoon and taking the finished ice cream from the freezer at 8:30 tonight. I haven't made ice cream in a year and a half, but somehow I've gotten way better at it. I can actually make a custard now.

The flavor was mint chip. At this point in the season my garden is half dying tomato plants, half rampaging mint, and I've been trying to use up as much of the mint as I can before the season is over. I had mint pesto last week; it's not bad, actually.