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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Male Eggplant Make Better Eats - A Pattern Review Weekend Recap


Pattern Review Weekend, 2013, in San Francisco has concluded.

This was my first PR weekend and, since the event traveled to me, I decided to attend. I was mostly looking forward to meeting folks I know through blogs and sewing forums, and to seeing folks I'd not seen in awhile. I was quite eager to meet Claudine, of Rolling in Cloth. I have been reading her blog since I started blogging, almost 4 years ago, and I really admire her creativity. She was flying in early-ish on Thursday, so we arranged to meet beforehand.

About 30 minutes before she landed, our gloomy, overcast day turned sunny, so we decided to take a quick visit up to Twin Peaks. (Where I took the windblown picture with my cell phone.) Though it was quite windy (or maybe because of the wind), the views were good and we could see both bridges, the capitol building, Alcatraz, and other downtown landmarks.

Claudine wanted to visit Dharma Trading in person, a business she has mail ordered from many times, so we crossed the Golden Gate bridge and braved commuter traffic deep into Marin. On returning to the city, we had a nice dinner, then drove to the hotel to register for the weekend. It was nice meeting other people at registration and I ended up hanging awhile to chat, before heading home to my own bed.

The main event of the weekend is held on Friday. Sandra Betzina spoke in the morning and afternoon, ending around 5pm. She is a delightful speaker - very amusing - and she covered a lot of ground. We re-convened an hour later for a group dinner. The day was so jam-packed with activities, that it was difficult to meet and talk with people.

Saturday (today) was a shopping day but I slept in and then sequestered myself in the sewing room. Jillian did such a nice writeup of the weekend, that I refer you there for a more detailed description of the event. (I am feeling a bit lazy!) She called me this morning from Stone Mountain & Daughter, one of my favorite fabric stores, and it sounded like many of the 85 attendees of PR weekend headed right over to scoop up fabric treasures and exercise their 20% PR weekend discount.

It was all over so quickly, but it was so nice to meet and talk with everyone! To the rest of you attendees, I hope your Saturday shopping was successful and, based on Facebook updates I've been seeing, I should say so. :)

P.S. One of the topics discussed at my table last night, is the fact that male eggplant is better tasting and less bitter than female eggplant. I refer you to this article for more information. And, yes, I do check the gender of my eggplants in the grocery store and buy only males. Though I buy eggplant so rarely that I usually have to look up the "belly button" code. :)

23 comments:

  1. I'm not really much of an eggplant fan (although I enjoyed the dish they served us last night) but maybe it's just because I haven't been looking at the...ummm....belly buttons before! I just love all the little asides you learn on sewing blogs lol!

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    1. I didn't have any of the Eggplant Parm at the dinner (having eaten too much manicotti, which was delicious) but it's what sparked the topic. :)

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  2. What a super day! Your smiles say it all and from the top of Twin Peaks...wow!

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  3. As a couple of people kindly explained in the comments, there is no such thing as a male or female fruit. A fruit is an ovary.

    Depending on the kind of plant there may be male or female individuals, in which case only the female plants bear fruit. Many people may be familiar with this phenomenon among gingkos. If you have a female tree it will bear fruit (which many people find unbearably stinky).

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  4. (Of course that doesn't mean that bellybuttons are irrelevant - it just means they have nothing to do with sex. See the very excellent comments by Manoj at your link.)

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    1. I am not schooled in this stuff, but there is definitely a correlation to belly button shape/bitterness and seeds.

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  5. It was great to see you in SF!

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    1. Same here, Jean! I wish we'd had time to chat. But Beth is talking about a summer-time meetup!

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  6. Glad you had a good time and isn't Claudine marvelous!

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    1. Yes, she is!!! You were missed, Carolyn. :)

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  7. PR weekend sounds like it was a blast!

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  8. What a great photo on top of twin Peaks -- and meeting your blogger friend, going to Marin and the meeting all sound really fun.

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  9. Thanks so much for meeting me and driving me around! It was great way to ease into the weekend. Till next time! Claudine

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    1. It was SO nice to meet you, Claudine! I trust you are back home, safe and sound!

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  10. Wish I had had more time to chat with you this past weekend! My friend and I were up at Twin Peaks on Thursday too!

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  11. I so wanted to be there and see you again as well as all the other wonderful sewers. Glad you had a good time.

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  12. Sounds like you had fun, despite not being able to chat with different people as much as you would have liked. I decided it would be better to travel out to see you and Jillian on my own sometime, as I would have you to myself!

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  13. Since I actually know Claudine in person (from when we both lived in London) I know feel I know you better. We are at but one remove. I await your visit to Sweden.

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  14. This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw. Thanks for posting this informative article.
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