Journal of a Sabbatical

November 23, 2000

at least i'm enjoying the ride

Today's Bird Sightings:
Kevin's House
cardinal
black-capped chickadee
white-throated sparrow

Today's Reading: The Story of the Stone (a.k.a. Dream of the Red Chamber): Volume 3 by Cao Xueqin, Autumn from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake

Apropos yesterday's entry, in the immortal words of Jerry Garcia: "At least I'm enjoying the ride."

Who needs turkey when there's sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, mashed potatoes, vegetarian stuffing (a.k.a. wet croutons in Andrea-speak), and all that stuff. I told the kids I'd gotten a new recipe for ma po tofu and I'd make it for them sometime. Turns out nobody at the table likes tofu. I tease them that they'll never know when I sneak it onto their plates. Now Andrea is claiming she'll never eat anything I cook again as it might contain hidden tofu. Hmm, should've sneaked in some of that Tofurkey I see at the EarthFood Store. :-) :-) :-) Hey kids, I'm not really going to feed you tofu against your will. When you're ancient like me (mistaken for a shut-in elder by the Forever Young Club), you'll love the fiery taste of authentic Sichuan ma po tofu.

In other news there was a handsome white-throated sparrow in the backyard, BiB is in Kosovo (still abbreviated BiB but the second B stands for Balkans and not Bosnia now), the goat down the street is named Daphne, and nobody knows what they want for Christmas. Hmm, now there's an excuse to buy them all antiquated books from Olde Port Book Shop. I wonder if Domino can intuit their tastes without actually rubbing up against them and meowing. Enquiring gnomes want to mine or it's a terrible thing really to lose your mind. See what too much vegetarian stuffing does to one?

I am still separated from my Mavica, which I left at La Madre's on Sunday and she forgot to bring to Kevin's today. Since I also don't have my Pentax (I really hope whatever nation's customs officer stole it is enjoying the hell out of it), I feel like a body part is missing or I'm off balance or something. I actually thought about buying a disposable camera at the drugstore last night. This would perhaps be understandable if I had the slightest bit of talent, but since I don't, it's incomprehensible. At least I will fetch the camera from La Madre's house tomorrow. As for replacing the Pentax, I asked Santa Claus for a Nikon N80 but since I'm my own Santa and the NASDAQ is having conniption fits of late I might find one of those toy cameras with entertaining light leaks next to the coal in my stocking this Christmas.