Now that I have been home for a few days, I thought it would be interesting to see whether I was right about what I miss and don't miss.
What I miss about Florida:
Astonishingly, I miss the exercise! It's much easier to exercise when you absolutely have to.
I miss the incentive to blog, and the Feast of the Day. I know there will be more Feasts in future, but they're more likely to be Feasts of the Week, or Feasts of the Fortnight.
I was a lot more disciplined about not messing around on the Internet while I was gone, partly because I made a deal with myself and partly because in the last week or two, I was just too busy.
The friend I made there, though I was pleased to trade e-mails with her already.
I'm already feeling behind at work, so I miss the ability to check things off on a list and be done with them. That said, I feel more purpose here than in Florida, where I always had a secret fear that what I was doing wasn't worthwhile.
Sleeping in air-conditioning, which I will miss even more as the summer goes on.
What I thought I'd be happier about in California:
The more extensive wardrobe. Honestly, I don't much care.
What absolutely delights me about California:
The weather!
All the technology: a printer! (I didn't have access to one in Florida). The French press! The car, the hog, and the piglet to drive!
Curling, which delights me even more than I'd expected.
And I mean, I can't stress enough that I feel really lucky. I was just reminded that there are horrible situations to live in that I don't even think about most of the time.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Feast of the Day, 11 May
Today's Feast of the Day almost couldn't be more boring, but I'm just glad I found one at all! Before I go on with today's Feast, let me tell you why.
I looked at a book this morning that was so old there's no way to tell how old it was; the catalogue just says (1823-1852). It could have been published any time between then! Anyway, I looked at it because it had a story called "The Boarding-School Feast" in it. Except that the feast in question was wicked and wrong, according to the author. The food - pound cake and mince-pies and grapes and such - doesn't sound bad, but the feast ends in confusion and disaster: two girls ruin their dresses, two get food in their hair, two are sick all night, one cuts her foot. Oh, and money that should have been spent to buy a cloak for a poor woman is spent on the feast, so the poor woman gets rheumatism. Wicked, wicked greed!
(This is interesting because that very old book is British. Something I read earlier this week said that British girls read about the feasts in American books with huge amounts of envy - they got boiled mutton and bread and milk a lot. So this might be a cultural difference as well - at least for a while, until Enid Blyton wrote some very elaborate midnight feasts into her school stories in the 1940s).
The next book I looked at (Polly's Polly at Boarding School, 1928) mentioned “comsommé, jellied chicken, hot muffins and apple tapioca" as a "sumptuous feast"! Ugh.
But later in that same book, there was a boring, but slightly yummier, Christmas dinner, which by default is the Feast of the Day:
“The dinner was a huge success. With roast turkey stuffed with chestnuts at one end of the table, and boiled turkey stuffed with oysters at the other, cranberry sauce and apple sauce, mince pie and pumpkin pie, was it any wonder that the fruit and nuts were slighted?”
I looked at a book this morning that was so old there's no way to tell how old it was; the catalogue just says (1823-1852). It could have been published any time between then! Anyway, I looked at it because it had a story called "The Boarding-School Feast" in it. Except that the feast in question was wicked and wrong, according to the author. The food - pound cake and mince-pies and grapes and such - doesn't sound bad, but the feast ends in confusion and disaster: two girls ruin their dresses, two get food in their hair, two are sick all night, one cuts her foot. Oh, and money that should have been spent to buy a cloak for a poor woman is spent on the feast, so the poor woman gets rheumatism. Wicked, wicked greed!
(This is interesting because that very old book is British. Something I read earlier this week said that British girls read about the feasts in American books with huge amounts of envy - they got boiled mutton and bread and milk a lot. So this might be a cultural difference as well - at least for a while, until Enid Blyton wrote some very elaborate midnight feasts into her school stories in the 1940s).
The next book I looked at (Polly's Polly at Boarding School, 1928) mentioned “comsommé, jellied chicken, hot muffins and apple tapioca" as a "sumptuous feast"! Ugh.
But later in that same book, there was a boring, but slightly yummier, Christmas dinner, which by default is the Feast of the Day:
“The dinner was a huge success. With roast turkey stuffed with chestnuts at one end of the table, and boiled turkey stuffed with oysters at the other, cranberry sauce and apple sauce, mince pie and pumpkin pie, was it any wonder that the fruit and nuts were slighted?”
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Feast of the Day, 10 May
I quote my notes about Barbara Winthrop at Boarding School, 1925, pretty much verbatim:
Today’s been a bad one for Feast of the Day. This might have to do, pp. 278-279: “There was plenty of driftwood to make the cheerful fire over which the girls roasted their ‘Wienies’ and fried their bacon. After eating innumerable sandwiches, rolls with the big fat wienies between the halves, potato chips and all the things that go to make up a picnic lunch that girls always adore - not forgetting Betsy’s cheese crackers, of course - they buried potatoes in the ashes for later use, and lay back on their sweaters to bask in the sun.”
This is similar to a wienie roast I rejected yesterday as too boring, but for two things: they eat bacon with their hot dogs, and this character Betsy's nigh-obsession with cheese crackers matches mine for popcorn.
I can't believe there's only one more regularly-scheduled Feast of the Day! I'd like to continue them, though; my reading on this topic won't end tomorrow, just the reading of that collection of books.
Today’s been a bad one for Feast of the Day. This might have to do, pp. 278-279: “There was plenty of driftwood to make the cheerful fire over which the girls roasted their ‘Wienies’ and fried their bacon. After eating innumerable sandwiches, rolls with the big fat wienies between the halves, potato chips and all the things that go to make up a picnic lunch that girls always adore - not forgetting Betsy’s cheese crackers, of course - they buried potatoes in the ashes for later use, and lay back on their sweaters to bask in the sun.”
This is similar to a wienie roast I rejected yesterday as too boring, but for two things: they eat bacon with their hot dogs, and this character Betsy's nigh-obsession with cheese crackers matches mine for popcorn.
I can't believe there's only one more regularly-scheduled Feast of the Day! I'd like to continue them, though; my reading on this topic won't end tomorrow, just the reading of that collection of books.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
what I will and won't miss, part 2
In the last one, I found both a positive and a negative. Hmmm. Here goes: I was often cranky during the exercise, because I was hot, but the sheer inconvenience of not having a motorized vehicle of any kind (except on the weekends) meant that I walked more, or rode more, and now am more in shape than I was when I left.
Here's kind of a mixed one: I drank more Coke than usual when I was here, one almost every day. I've been trying to cut down, so this was tasty but unhealthful. But it's because I lacked a good substitute - I've had coffee only about half a dozen times since I was here. This whole post was started because I was thinking longingly about my French press. Oh, the French press! Aside from the car and the scooters, this might be the inanimate object I miss most.
I really try not to mention names here on this blog, so I won't. But I will say that the one friend I've made here will be a genuine loss. I find her conversation really interesting. But of course, however interesting she is, she is not the friend I sit across from, or the friend in Siberia, or the beloved sibling in New York, or the friend I like quite a bit in Tennessee, or the one I visited in Mississippi. Or, of course, the SO! The friend I leave here I will miss, but I will gain more time with three of those mentioned above.
Here's kind of a mixed one: I drank more Coke than usual when I was here, one almost every day. I've been trying to cut down, so this was tasty but unhealthful. But it's because I lacked a good substitute - I've had coffee only about half a dozen times since I was here. This whole post was started because I was thinking longingly about my French press. Oh, the French press! Aside from the car and the scooters, this might be the inanimate object I miss most.
I really try not to mention names here on this blog, so I won't. But I will say that the one friend I've made here will be a genuine loss. I find her conversation really interesting. But of course, however interesting she is, she is not the friend I sit across from, or the friend in Siberia, or the beloved sibling in New York, or the friend I like quite a bit in Tennessee, or the one I visited in Mississippi. Or, of course, the SO! The friend I leave here I will miss, but I will gain more time with three of those mentioned above.
Feast of the Day, 9 May
Not a great day for feasts, sadly. I read The Girls of Greycliff, 1923, for much of today. They don't eat much in here, but toward the end there's a skating party with boys! Two of the main characters meet their future husbands there - well, one certain future husband, one who will be if he survives World War I (I haven't finished the sequel yet).
Anyway, in a rare bit of normalcy, the girls sleep in and miss breakfast, so they have to scrounge around to find something tasty. They come up with eating peanut butter and crackers and oranges for breffa. You're wondering, perhaps, why this is a Feast of the Day? I liked how normal this was - people eighty years could have done this.
But then! One of their friends comes in with a very well-timed care package from her sister, containing an abundance of cake and bananas and grapes and doughnuts and cocoa! Total Feast of the Day.
Anyway, in a rare bit of normalcy, the girls sleep in and miss breakfast, so they have to scrounge around to find something tasty. They come up with eating peanut butter and crackers and oranges for breffa. You're wondering, perhaps, why this is a Feast of the Day? I liked how normal this was - people eighty years could have done this.
But then! One of their friends comes in with a very well-timed care package from her sister, containing an abundance of cake and bananas and grapes and doughnuts and cocoa! Total Feast of the Day.
what I will and won't miss, part 1
I don't usually live in Florida, of course, but I've been here for a month now. Crazy! I go back home on Saturday. People keep asking me whether I'm glad or not, and really I'm of two minds about it. Here are things I like about Florida: the ability to focus on one project for weeks on end; air-conditioning; my apartment; thunderstorms; traveling on the weekends; some of the people I have met; some of the yummy food I have eaten; reading all day.
But balanced against that is the heat! Oh, the heat. It makes me feel almost frantic. I spend considerable effort, in life, in general, trying never to be too warm, but here it's inescapable. The insects and other wildlife are alien, and I'm always a bit tense outdoors here. I'm worried that my friends are forgetting who I am in my absence. I miss the SO and the cats, I miss my friends, I miss the rest of my things. I miss certain foods. And oh, I miss having a motorized means of transportation!
When I go home there will be work dramas - there always, always are - and tasks I don't enjoy (going door-to-door about an upcoming election). There will be untidiness to deal with at home; I have so few possessions here that it is easy to keep everything tidy all the time. There will be frequent interruptions at work; the times here, when no one speaks to me while I'm in the library reading, will seem unimaginable within a fortnight.
But I will have the SO, and friends, and cats, and curling, and all my books, and a much more extensive wardrobe, and motorized transportation, and much much much better weather!
I suspect I will think of more to add to the list, which is why this is only part 1. These are reminders for myself, so that in ten days, when I wish I were in Florida, I can remember why I wanted to be home. Or if I love being home, I can remember there were good things about here, too.
But balanced against that is the heat! Oh, the heat. It makes me feel almost frantic. I spend considerable effort, in life, in general, trying never to be too warm, but here it's inescapable. The insects and other wildlife are alien, and I'm always a bit tense outdoors here. I'm worried that my friends are forgetting who I am in my absence. I miss the SO and the cats, I miss my friends, I miss the rest of my things. I miss certain foods. And oh, I miss having a motorized means of transportation!
When I go home there will be work dramas - there always, always are - and tasks I don't enjoy (going door-to-door about an upcoming election). There will be untidiness to deal with at home; I have so few possessions here that it is easy to keep everything tidy all the time. There will be frequent interruptions at work; the times here, when no one speaks to me while I'm in the library reading, will seem unimaginable within a fortnight.
But I will have the SO, and friends, and cats, and curling, and all my books, and a much more extensive wardrobe, and motorized transportation, and much much much better weather!
I suspect I will think of more to add to the list, which is why this is only part 1. These are reminders for myself, so that in ten days, when I wish I were in Florida, I can remember why I wanted to be home. Or if I love being home, I can remember there were good things about here, too.
Feast of the Day, 8 May
A picnic caught my attention yesterday, but I think that was mostly because it was on sand-dunes in northern Indiana. The unusual location caught my attention more than the food, which was standard hot dogs and pickles and cake.
So instead I've chosen one from The Orcutt Girls, written in about 1890, I think, but set in 1870. These two farm girls go off to school for a term, and have to do their own housekeeping and cooking. But their dad assures them: “I shall be up every few weeks with a good load of things from home. Your mother’ll find time to make you up a batch of pies and doughnuts now and then, I guess, and I’ll see that you don’t run out of ham and good corned beef.” All of this sounds very reassuring and yummy! The dad also makes sure the cellar is full of root vegetables and apples before he leaves them there.
So instead I've chosen one from The Orcutt Girls, written in about 1890, I think, but set in 1870. These two farm girls go off to school for a term, and have to do their own housekeeping and cooking. But their dad assures them: “I shall be up every few weeks with a good load of things from home. Your mother’ll find time to make you up a batch of pies and doughnuts now and then, I guess, and I’ll see that you don’t run out of ham and good corned beef.” All of this sounds very reassuring and yummy! The dad also makes sure the cellar is full of root vegetables and apples before he leaves them there.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Feast of the Day, 7 May
The first book I read had a long list of candies in it, but I've done one of those lately. This list of candies was only interesting because it mentions candies with cordial in them, and how this girl should give them up because of her family tendency to alcoholism. Has anyone, anywhere, anytime, ever gotten drunk on the liquor in chocolate? I have no idea, but it seems so unlikely.
So by default, I'm stuck with the one midnight spree in Frank Merriwell at Yale (1903). Frank and some friends steal a turkey (though because Frank Is Good, he leaves $5 to pay for it). Somehow, they roast it within two hours, and have a very late night feast of turkey and beer (except for Frank; Frank doesn't drink alcohol, because - yes - Frank Is Good). Here's the mouth-watering description of the turkey: “The turkey was white and tender, and it was certainly very well cooked. It had a most delicious flavor.”
So by default, I'm stuck with the one midnight spree in Frank Merriwell at Yale (1903). Frank and some friends steal a turkey (though because Frank Is Good, he leaves $5 to pay for it). Somehow, they roast it within two hours, and have a very late night feast of turkey and beer (except for Frank; Frank doesn't drink alcohol, because - yes - Frank Is Good). Here's the mouth-watering description of the turkey: “The turkey was white and tender, and it was certainly very well cooked. It had a most delicious flavor.”
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Feast of the Day, 4 May
I realized that tomorrow's almost here, and I haven't posted Friday's Feast of the Day yet. For a change, there were several to choose from, but since they were all from the same book (The William Henry Letters) they all blur together.
Eight people eat this feast, contributed by a sailor named Tom. I should also add that in addition to the quotation below, the hostesses serve tea and twisted doughnuts. The feast is described in a letter: “Tom brought a good deal of sugar, all in white lumps, and a can of milk. He bought pies and jumbles and turnovers and ginger-snaps and egg-crackers and cake and bread at the bake-house, and butter and cheese and Bologna sausage - I can’t bear Bologna sausage - and some oranges, that he brought home from sea. And the sweetest jelly you ever saw! Don’t know what ‘t is made of, but they call it guava jelly, and comes in little boxes.”
Eight people eat this feast, contributed by a sailor named Tom. I should also add that in addition to the quotation below, the hostesses serve tea and twisted doughnuts. The feast is described in a letter: “Tom brought a good deal of sugar, all in white lumps, and a can of milk. He bought pies and jumbles and turnovers and ginger-snaps and egg-crackers and cake and bread at the bake-house, and butter and cheese and Bologna sausage - I can’t bear Bologna sausage - and some oranges, that he brought home from sea. And the sweetest jelly you ever saw! Don’t know what ‘t is made of, but they call it guava jelly, and comes in little boxes.”
fiction, more accurate than - well, fiction
On Friday, I read a book called The William Henry Letters, from 1870 or thereabouts. Toward the end, William Henry writes to a friend that “I guess I should like to go to Kansas. But there are the Indians after your scalp, and fever and ague, and grasshoppers, and potato-bugs, and bean-bugs, and army-worms to eat up everything, and droughts to dry up everything, and floods to wash it away, and hurricanes to blow it down, and Uncle Jacob says if a man comes through all these alive, with a few grains of corn, the man that wants to buy ‘em is a hundred miles off!”
Srsly, that’s the whole Little House series, right there. I mean, I don't remember the potato-bugs, bean-bugs, or army-worms, and I do remember some leeches and maple syrup on snow, but aside from that, this author predicted a surprising number of events - even the fever and ague!
Srsly, that’s the whole Little House series, right there. I mean, I don't remember the potato-bugs, bean-bugs, or army-worms, and I do remember some leeches and maple syrup on snow, but aside from that, this author predicted a surprising number of events - even the fever and ague!
Friday, May 4, 2012
things I'll never learn
I was thinking this morning about some of the things I didn't understand or know or remember, but which I made an effort to learn (even-numbered interstates run east-west; when to use "whom", though I occasionally get that wrong; ways to start a book review that don't start with "This book").
But here are three that I don't know and have no intention of ever learning, because I just don't care:
- latitude and longitude
- the rules of light reflection and refraction, including the difference between concave and convex (though if pressed, I bet I could come up with an answer to that, at least)
- anything to do with time travel
And before you tell me, next time we talk, that whichever "l-itude" runs the long way, let me tell you: they span a globe! They're both long. Light refraction - for whatever reason, this makes no sense to me (and is there a difference between reflection and refraction? No idea). And oh, time travel! I know people who can explain why there's a time travel paradox in this book or that movie, and I just don't care. It'll make sense for that thirty seconds while I'm hearing it, sometimes, but then drift away. I'm reading Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card right now for a book club, and he not only goes into detail about time travel in the text, he writes a lengthy afterword explaining why he has broken the rules of time travel. Dude! If time travel ever happens, let's assume it's some sort of miracle of science, and not worry about why, 'kay?
Some might find this embrace of ignorance depressing, but really, I don't think everyone can know everything, so this is just a more overt declaration of some things I don't care to learn than most people make.
But here are three that I don't know and have no intention of ever learning, because I just don't care:
- latitude and longitude
- the rules of light reflection and refraction, including the difference between concave and convex (though if pressed, I bet I could come up with an answer to that, at least)
- anything to do with time travel
And before you tell me, next time we talk, that whichever "l-itude" runs the long way, let me tell you: they span a globe! They're both long. Light refraction - for whatever reason, this makes no sense to me (and is there a difference between reflection and refraction? No idea). And oh, time travel! I know people who can explain why there's a time travel paradox in this book or that movie, and I just don't care. It'll make sense for that thirty seconds while I'm hearing it, sometimes, but then drift away. I'm reading Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card right now for a book club, and he not only goes into detail about time travel in the text, he writes a lengthy afterword explaining why he has broken the rules of time travel. Dude! If time travel ever happens, let's assume it's some sort of miracle of science, and not worry about why, 'kay?
Some might find this embrace of ignorance depressing, but really, I don't think everyone can know everything, so this is just a more overt declaration of some things I don't care to learn than most people make.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
ads in the mail
I love it that I live close enough to a Steak 'n' Shake to get their ads in the mail! I want to bring these home to show people who, sadly, live without Steak 'n' Shake what they're missing. On the other hand, I could use the coupons. Hmmm.
Feast of the Day, 3 May
I've been sleepy today - I stayed up late last night to finish making a list of some journal articles I want to borrow - and so for the last 90 minutes it's been an epic struggle to keep sitting in my chair and reading. I'm so glad I did, because I didn't have a Feast of the Day yet. But now I do. It's from The William Henry Letters, 1870, and it's a nice one because although the five boys who share William Henry's room at school aren't particularly nice to him, he's such a nice kid that he wants to share his birthday box with them anyway.
So here it is: "a table all spread out with a table-cloth that he had borrowed, and in the middle was a frosted cake with 'W.H.' on top done in red sugar. And close to that were some oranges, and a dish full of nuts, and as much as a pound of candy, and more figs than that, and four great cakes of maple-sugar, made on his father's land, as big as small johnny-cakes, and another kind of cake. And doughnuts."
The boys feel guilty for having been unfriendly to William Henry up 'til now, so they have to be urged to eat, and even then, they don't eat as much as they would have liked. And then some of them become friends with William Henry.
So here it is: "a table all spread out with a table-cloth that he had borrowed, and in the middle was a frosted cake with 'W.H.' on top done in red sugar. And close to that were some oranges, and a dish full of nuts, and as much as a pound of candy, and more figs than that, and four great cakes of maple-sugar, made on his father's land, as big as small johnny-cakes, and another kind of cake. And doughnuts."
The boys feel guilty for having been unfriendly to William Henry up 'til now, so they have to be urged to eat, and even then, they don't eat as much as they would have liked. And then some of them become friends with William Henry.
limitations
I'm intrigued by the way that increasingly, my reading here is bound by limitations that are purely physical: can I make it to and from the Library without getting overheated? How much can I carry at one time without becoming overburdened? How many books can I carry at once for four or five blocks? Is it possible to read as much as I need to read in the next eight days?
The answers: yes, so far, but it's been close once or twice;
my bookbag today has my laptop, the power cable, a long-sleeved shirt for the air-conditioned archives, at least five issues of various children's lit journals, a paperback book, and a hardcover book I borrowed from my advisor today;
I need to go pick up a dozen at the library tomorrow, so hopefully at least that many!;
no idea! But I will try.
The answers: yes, so far, but it's been close once or twice;
my bookbag today has my laptop, the power cable, a long-sleeved shirt for the air-conditioned archives, at least five issues of various children's lit journals, a paperback book, and a hardcover book I borrowed from my advisor today;
I need to go pick up a dozen at the library tomorrow, so hopefully at least that many!;
no idea! But I will try.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Feast of the Day, 2 May
Gypsy, in Gypsy's Year at the Golden Crescent (1867) is invited to join a secret society called the "Evergreen Sisters", which is a fake name. The initials are right, but really, it stands for "Eating Society". These girls create a secret society just for the purpose of feasting every two weeks!
This is fascinating, because I've been tracking both the growth of secret societies in schools and the rise of material culture; Gypsy, in this book, is stressed out because her pledge pin for the society costs $5.00, and she's not well-off.
Most of the meetings of the E.S. aren't described, but the last one is - they're determined to make this one the best ever. I don't know exactly how many girls are here - but there are only twenty in the school, and not all belong, so I'd guess no more than eight or ten.
OK? Here goes with crazy late-night feasting: "Mellow ice-cream, daintily-shaped cream-cakes, pure white ladies' cakes, jelly-rolls that would melt in one's mouth, bananas from which the soft, green skin was bursting, strawberries wrapped in cool green leaves, rainbows of the "latest", candies in pretty painted boxes, and nobody there to say that they were poison, Dolly's delicate wafers, and rich, yellow whips beaten to solid froth - it was not a bill of fare to be despised." And then a girl brings out champagne, and another brings out cigarettes, and I was shocked! And so was the heroine, who leaves the feast - bumping into the headmistress who's on her way in. Eeep!
However, a girl runs away and tries to elope that night, and then another dies a few days later of illness, so with all the excitement the girls never really get in trouble.
This is fascinating, because I've been tracking both the growth of secret societies in schools and the rise of material culture; Gypsy, in this book, is stressed out because her pledge pin for the society costs $5.00, and she's not well-off.
Most of the meetings of the E.S. aren't described, but the last one is - they're determined to make this one the best ever. I don't know exactly how many girls are here - but there are only twenty in the school, and not all belong, so I'd guess no more than eight or ten.
OK? Here goes with crazy late-night feasting: "Mellow ice-cream, daintily-shaped cream-cakes, pure white ladies' cakes, jelly-rolls that would melt in one's mouth, bananas from which the soft, green skin was bursting, strawberries wrapped in cool green leaves, rainbows of the "latest", candies in pretty painted boxes, and nobody there to say that they were poison, Dolly's delicate wafers, and rich, yellow whips beaten to solid froth - it was not a bill of fare to be despised." And then a girl brings out champagne, and another brings out cigarettes, and I was shocked! And so was the heroine, who leaves the feast - bumping into the headmistress who's on her way in. Eeep!
However, a girl runs away and tries to elope that night, and then another dies a few days later of illness, so with all the excitement the girls never really get in trouble.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Feast of the Day, 1 May
Today's Feast of the Day doesn't sound very exceptional, but bear with me. There's a brunch at school, to which boys, with their huge manlike appetites, are invited. So they run out of food just as the last people get to the tables. Instead of going into the kitchen and asking the cook for more food, the heroine and her best friend go upstairs to their room and see what they've got; they keep a box outside the window (it's February in New England). They come down with scrambled eggs, bacon, rolls, coffee, potato salad, and chocolate cake, which are gratefully received.
No, seriously, seriously - these two roommates keep bacon and eggs in their cold-box, just on the off-chance someone might want some? No idea where they cooked these things so quickly, or brewed the coffee (the chocolate cake was sent from home). But wow - for a feast that was completely unplanned, that's pretty lavish.
No, seriously, seriously - these two roommates keep bacon and eggs in their cold-box, just on the off-chance someone might want some? No idea where they cooked these things so quickly, or brewed the coffee (the chocolate cake was sent from home). But wow - for a feast that was completely unplanned, that's pretty lavish.
Feast of the Day, 30 April
I find it interesting that my notes these days actually say things like, "Feast of the Day!" or, lately, "possible Feast of the Day, unless a better one comes". The notes are practically little blog posts in and of themselves, just on paper. The Feast of the Day for the 30th (sorry, I'm posting it a day late) is one of these:
"A dull, but possible, Feast of the Day, p. 166: 'there was soup, two vegetables, cream sauce and gravy, salad, salad-dressing, muffins, cocoa and dessert.' What's the gravy for?"
A day later, I still can't suss this out. No meat is mentioned. I think it's insanely old-fashioned (but then, so is this 20s book), but possible, that these girls put cream sauce on their vegetables. That still leaves the gravy, which is for - what, the muffins? If they were biscuits, I could almost see that; "biscuits and gravy" is an established pairing. But as is, it's an odd addition to the menu.
"A dull, but possible, Feast of the Day, p. 166: 'there was soup, two vegetables, cream sauce and gravy, salad, salad-dressing, muffins, cocoa and dessert.' What's the gravy for?"
A day later, I still can't suss this out. No meat is mentioned. I think it's insanely old-fashioned (but then, so is this 20s book), but possible, that these girls put cream sauce on their vegetables. That still leaves the gravy, which is for - what, the muffins? If they were biscuits, I could almost see that; "biscuits and gravy" is an established pairing. But as is, it's an odd addition to the menu.
Kenny Rogers, gamer
I'm listening to a country music playlist, and "The Gambler" was on. I love the line about "If you're gonna play the gameboy, you better learn to play it right" - and yes, I know, there's a space and a comma missing from that quotation!
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