Rachel Kadel

The Key to Transition

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 19:40:25 GMT

[for entertainment purposes only. not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. void where prohibited. no warrantee expressed or implied]

Dear followers, there are so many things trans men do to solidify their identities and presentations, but there are only two essential steps.

1. Meditation. Go out into the woods or deserts, the seaside cliffs, the mountaintops — to the highest, wildest place you can reach today. Sit down, compose yourself, and listen. Hear the breezes rustling the leaves, the whistle of the sirocco over the sand. Contemplate the roar of the tempest far out to sea. Gather the little tinkles of streams from amid the springtime zephyrs. Be still, fellow seekers, and gather what all these sounds tell you.

2. Exploration. Start out from your front door, and wander. Let you feet guide you. Go down every street, alley, or cul-de-sac that might show you something new. Get to know the corners and squares of your city, and the surrounding towns. Travel for miles. Stroll. Meander. There is no rush, comrades. Visit the cobbler to resole your shoes, and wear them through again.

This sounds like a long process, and it might be! It may take some men years, and others only days. I don’t have the solution; I don’t know how many roads you must walk down.

But you will know -- the sign comes to each of us in our meditations. The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.

comments

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 03:28:16 GMT

Somebody sent me a packet of extremely good toy mushrooms -- like very good toy dinosaurs, but mushroom. about an inch and a half across, plastic, very detailed, each representing a real species.

I showed @minoanmiss the most fanciful-looking one, and she said "that looks like a penis wearing a tutu". In this, she is in agreement with the academy. Scientific name Phallus indusiatus; among its common names "crinoline stinkhorn". In 18th- and 19th-century botanical latin, "indusiatus" meant something like "petticoat-wearing" or "undergarment-wearing", and it is a truth universally acknowledged that mushrooms in the genus Phallus look like dicks.

It seems that there's only one ancient source for the species name, in the form "indusiatam", and since it's in a list on the theme of "women keep making up so many ridiculous words for clothes", we don't really know what it meant or even whether it was a real clothing word or just Plautus playing around with goofy lists of tunics. But somewhere in there somebody decided it meant underwear.

comments

Chicken-of-the-woods-fest

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 19:52:05 GMT

Joined a local mushroom club recently. The chicken-of-the-woods mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus; some other similar Laetiporus species share the common name and culinary properties) is in season, and one of the club members offered up a beautiful specimen, something like three pounds of young tender shelves. She finds them often, but is allergic, so passes on the bounty.

I made three things with it:

Tuesday night I cut it up and sorted it into biggish tender pieces, smallish tender pieces, and woody bits. I breaded and fried a bunch of the biggish tender pieces according to this recipe: https://foragerchef.com/chicken-fried-chicken-of-the-woods/ and ate them with a white wine/butter/green-peppercorn pan sauce. (I meant it to be chicken piccata of the woods, but mistook green peppercorns for capers). Very tasty if I do say so myself, I think I'll reprise it tonight with the rest of the biggish pieces, esp. if I can coordinate with the housemates to feed it to them too. The breading helps to hold the moisture in to effectively steam the inside of the mushroom. Chicken of the woods, like almost all mushrooms, needs to be thoroughly cooked, and a dry sauté can wind up tough.

I roasted the woody bits in the oven with shallots and carrots, then simmered them and some herbs and bits of coral mushrooms in salted water for a couple hours to make stock https://foragerchef.com/roasted-chicken-or-hen-of-the-woods-stock/ It came out lovely and flavorful.

And I pickled the small tender pieces in an unsweetened, relatively mild vinegar brine -- tried a couple pieces, I'm pleased with the texture and the brine flavor is mild enough they could be incorporated into a dish later somewhat similarly to fresh mushrooms. Refrigerating them, didn't can them, but they'll last a lot longer this way than the fresh mushrooms would.
https://foragerchef.com/pickled-baby-chicken-of-the-woods/

comments

Froofy drink OTD:

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 02:43:14 GMT

Spoonful of Greek pine tree honey, dissolved in a little hot water. Seltzer. Piñon/juniper bitters. Ice.

I think a strawberry or maybe a couple raspberries would be a good addition.

comments

Goodbye, Cheese

Wed, 10 May 2023 03:25:22 GMT

[same thing posted on facebook]

You were best cat with warmest ears.

She'd had chronic kidney failure since 2020, managed with diet and regular subcutaneous fluids. Up until very recently she was a strong, adventurous cat. She took a very sharp turn for the worse starting Thursday. I was concerned about her weight loss/appetite and her trying to jump up on some things and missing. Friday with some medication change she was eating better but too weak for stairs. Saturday she was staying in one lavishly-cushioned spot except for trips to the litterbox. Sunday she was barely able to stand; I spent most of the day at an emergency vet office, which confirmed that what was going on was end-stage chronic kidney disease and that she was probably in her last few days, and gave some prescriptions and advice for palliative care. I went to Dave's funeral and am glad I did; took off back home as soon as I'd hugged Paolo, because Cheese needed me.

Monday morning she couldn't even hold her head up. I switched my picture of the day from "find a way to have someone tend Cheese hand and foot while we get Sam and his stuff home from college" to "get Sam home so he can be with Cheese for the end". Sam navigated the hurdles of departing during finals and finding places to stash his stuff, I found him a taxi home (farther than I'd ordinarily taxi, but in this kind of emergency it makes sense). His partner Ethan got here too, and the three of us spent some tender time together physically supporting and petting Cheese, moving her the ways she showed us she wanted to move. She had some lickable treats and some water during that, and was glad to have her best person snuggling her. Dr. C. of Animals First came to us and euthanized her while Sam held her; she did a great job of letting us continue supporting and comforting Cheese, causing her as little other-than-death disruption as possible.

Death is the worst. Yesterday was really hard for all of us. I'll do a tribute-to-Cheese type post later.

Picture, from late January: my cat Cheese looking very comfy in the center of a dog bed that would fit about a dozen cats her size.

comments

Sat, 06 May 2023 17:57:20 GMT

Check out this adorable woolly cooking animation!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoOzA16PLPl/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

comments

Circus!

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 02:05:27 GMT

Saturday night I performed on aerial sling at the Esh Circus Arts student show (video credit Beren Jones): https://youtu.be/Ws4LGjgcffY?t=46

And it was inutterably amazing.

comments

A measurement technique

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 06:52:28 GMT

For picking initial places to put things so my housemates and I can all reach them: if I stand about nine inches (three floorboard-widths) back from the cabinets, my reach is about the same as minoanmiss's when she's standing close. Our height difference isn't so large, but i'm also longer-limbed and have very mobile shoulders. My son's about mm's height, he's not on site right now to compare but i'm pretty sure his reach is in between the two of us.

comments