[conspire] Potato wedges, Kim Davalos, ... (Re: Michael Paoli @ CABAL (Re: CABAL (in-person + Jitsi Meet), Sat., July 11, 2026))

[Michael Paoli]

Wonderful gathering and always.
And of course delicious (alas, virtual mostly misses that part).

Potato wedges ... yeah, I estimated about right.
I'm pretty sure I brought those to CABAL twice before.
I think first time I underestimated some moderate bit - and they ran
out before meeting was over,
and I think second time had some moderate bit leftover.
Don't recall the exact quantities I did before, but guestimated
relevant amount for yesterday.
And worked out about right.
10 potatoes - 60 wedges (typically each potato cut in sixths),
47 consumed, 13 remained (made for part of yummy brunch,
along with leftover green onions and some other bits).

Kim (Davalos) - at least some asked a wee bit (she used to come
semi-regularly to CABAL).
She's in Ukraine, has been for almost 3 years now.
I think it was roughly year and a half ago or so, after she'd also
been looking for DevOps work for a fair while in, or from Ukraine,
she joined the Ukraine armed forces as a combat medic (does also have
quite the related background, as veterinary technician of many years -
was studying to be veterinarian too, and made it almost all the way
up to that).  Anyway, was asked if I'd heard from her.  Most all I
hear/see, for quite a while now, is on LinkedIn, what she
posts/comments/shares there ... mostly in Ukrainian.
For those that might be interested:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-davalos/
And, unsurprisingly, with active deployments,
her activity on LinkedIn will often have
relatively long gaps of inactivity.

On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 7:07 PM Michael Paoli
<michael.paoli at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
> I anticipate actually making it to CABAL (ah, long overdue - I think
> it's been about 2 years).
> I'll likely bring my "potato wedges".  I think I've brought those a
> time or two before.
> They're like a nice compromise mid-point between french fires, and baked potato.
> Baking potatoes, well scrubbed, generally cut length-wise sections in about 6ths
> (sometimes 4ths for smaller potatoes), bit of coating with vegetable
> oil, and oven roasted.
> And I'll also bring some bits one can add on one's wedges, as one may wish, e.g.
> sour cream, salt, pepper, ketchup, ...
> Also coordinating with one other person, who's not yet been to CABAL.