DEAR

One of my students said in a post that when her students get unruly they declare DEAR time.

When I asked what that was, she replied:

"Drop Everything And Read.'

Entrained

Gainesville

Oh dear, I can already see this is going to be a lost weekend, no matter how I struggle against it. I am halfway through The Golden Compass, teetering on the slippery slope of non-stop no-sleep entrainment until it's done.

Guess I'm in pretty good shape for it-- got the bathrooms and towels done yesterday, bills written and meals planned tonight. Clothes are laid out for tomorrow. Sink doesn't need shining, as no cooking took place today. If I can just get out to shop tomorrow and cook tomorrow night, and somehow find half an hour for Blessings on Sunday, I should be okay. The Battlestar Galactica DVD's will just have to wait until this first book is finished, though. Tonight I noticed the ad for a book about the trilogy by John Gribbin -- if he's into this, I know it's very definitely right up my alley-- thanks, Sandy!

Three days after release and counting, and I still don't have the new Springsteen disk. Will pick it up tomorrow. Just so much input right now! Yesterday my copy of Walt & Skeezix came in the mail. It's so wonderful too, but I only spent about 15 minutes with it. I know I'll wolf it down in a couple of hours if I don't exercise some restraint.

Incredibly nice day here, but I didn't realize it until it was too late-- trapped inside that cubicle prison. Don't know why I can't get myself out of there anymore until it's time to leave-- probably because I know once I'm outside I won't be able to make myself go back in... I know I've said this before, but I have an extreme case of Senior-itis. Five months from Monday

The scanner in Special Collections has been busy the last few times I've gone down there. Finally managed to get 2.5 hours on it this pm, and now have all the 1948 Fireball Twigg episodes scanned. Only to realize that was too much to fit on my CD-RW, and to learn the hard way that you can't selectively delete off those suckers. Managed to find an old one of mine that I could erase so the new images would all fit. (Fireball Twigg?? Suzy, what ARE you thinking??)

Good luck with the white flies, Mom. And thanks for more baby book transcriptions. I never knew the date of Jack's death, but now I'll never forget it. I was kind of surprised that he lived that old-- 68. Older than I am, though not by much. I'm glad Cordie made the effort to save those obits, so they still exist.

Enough of this. There is a booooook calling my name...

Long Days, Short Nights

Gainesville

Midnight again. There is WAY too much day these days, and not nearly enough evening. Stuff continues to pile up that I'm dying to sit down and pour over. Today's mail brought me the long awaited back issues of Hogan's Alley, an impossibly wonderful 'zine that is right exactly up my alley, so to speak. I want to stop the world and do nothing but read all this (I figure at 8 hours a day I could have it done in a month or two, like that's going to happen...) but it is going to have to just sit there, a glittering pot o' gold at the foot of my retirement rainbow. My beautiful reward.

Still another day without the new Bruce disk.

And actually, it was just plain a terrible day. Little things just kept going wrong, not much in an of themselves, but cumulatively they all added up. And then there are all the things I put off til tomorrow, which casts a shadow over it as well. I've moved Anti-Procrastination Day to tomorrow-- let's hope that clears out some of this miasma.

Tonight things are better-- just wish that "tonight" wasn't so short. A brainlessly simple dinner (the postponsed Sloppy Joses) turned out wonderfully-- this is just browned ground beef, salsa and cheese served over whole romaine lettuce leaves. Roasted/broiled some zucchini spears to go with it.

A big box of Hogan's Alley back issues arrived today. (Wonderful!) I resisted the urge to just curl up with them, and also to crawl inside The Golden Compass and leave this silly world behind. Instead, did all my evening routines, and settled down with the cat at my side to watch Episode One of Battlestar Galactica. It was so relentlessly dark that I doubted I'd ever want to watch another, but in the very closing moments, not one, but two characters actually allowed the shadow of a smile to cross their faces. And the thing is so good, that's enough to make me come back for more.

Nice to hear news of a beautiful Northern Spring, Mom. How nice that you have that wonderful new space to enjoy it in. Alas, it's already Southern Summer here. On the plus side, Bill was much better today, and went on about life as usual.

Tomorrow is Thursday, so at least I can make good use of the inevitable downtime of my current job. It's like being a fireman, I guess-- no news is good news, but so bloody boring.

Thanks for more of Nelda's baby book-- and how fascinating that her wedding should be entered there! I always think of baby books as being for, well, BABIES, but apparently there was some overlap with the traditional family Bible as far as recording family events. For a good time, ask Thea about Grandpa Soares giving Nelda and Fran that furnished house... NOT! Nelda beating Thea to the altar was most unfortunate.

And do 'scuze the typos, but I'm headed for bed pre-proofing. Always interesting to read what I had to say the morning after, when brain had obviously disconnected from fingers. Or something.

True Confessions

Gainesville

Long day yesterday-- took a day of vacation to avoid having to go in very early with Bill. Changed & laundered sheets and towels, another load of wash, and worked some more on the comics ads project. Bill came home around three and we went Mall-crawling. He wanted to take advantage of a big sale at his favorite men's store, Jos. A. Banks, since he's lost so much weight since last buying serious work clothes. I picked up a few more undies (can now go for over a week without having to do a wash) and found a really nice little red suede-like blazer, perfect fit, and 75% off; how could I refuse? We also found new shower caddies (ours were both getting pretty rusty and grunch).

But alas, being in the neighborhood, could not resist a visit to Borders-- always my downfall. I came out with seven new books, just what I need, right? Especially since the snail mail had brought me another four earlier in the day. Wretched excess?

However, Sandy, you will be happy to learn that three of those four from Amazon were a boxed trade pb set of the His Dark Materials trilogy. And out of all of the books, that's the one I'm reading first. And hooked already.

We ended up eating dinner out at Mr Han's, where we hadn't been in at least 10 years-- the upscale Chinese place out near I-75 and Newberry Road. It was all but deserted at 6, when we arrived, but wonderful food and great atmosphere as always. Pleasant interlude. After dinner it was still light so we cruised some of the car lots in town. We've been thinking about a hybrid. The only one physically present in town is a Ford Escape (no Prius or the Honda one anywhere near here). We will probably go back and test drive it later this week.

Back to work today. I had a 9:30 meeting, Bill one at 10. But at 2:00, Bill called saying he needed to go home-- a killer sinus headache since early morning. This is a man who NEVER gets headaches-- this is his first experience with one that laid him low. One side of his face is a mess, poor baby. I took him home, then drove Blue back to work to finish out the day.

He felt well enough to eat, but a bit queesy, so instead of the spicy Sloppy Joses I'd planned, I used the ham I was going to do tomorrow and made a favorite of ours, Ham and Sour Cream Skillet-- usually made with onions and sliced mushrooms, but I substituted artichoke hearts for the latter-- served over cauli-rice. Took only about half an hour, and is very good indeed.

I hate to jinx it by mentioning it, but it seems the new habit I've been working on has taken hold, and has had an unexpected benefit. About a month ago I started sweeping the kitchen floor as part of the post-dinner counter and sink routine. After putting cleanser in the sink and scrubbing it around a bit, I leave it there while I give the floor a quick 5-minute lick at a snake sweep. Amazing how much stuff accumulates on the floor in just one day! Anyway, doing it this way has made the sink much whiter, and completely eliminated the coffee stain that always clung in a circle around the drain. I used to attack it occasionally with a toothbrush, not very effectively. At first I thought Bill had been working on it for me, but no-- just letting the Comet sit in there for the five minutes has done it. Woo Hoo! (I feel like Mary Hartmann!)

Mom, you mentioned covering up your plants on the porch-- does this mean you're still having freezing nights up there? And what ever happened with the white fly infestation?

Sandy, my email is once again delivering mail, but tonight I can't seem to send-- my thank-you message for the beautiful wine glasses is stuck in limbo somewhere. So: know that we received them, and of course, love them. Thanks!

Well, let the record show that I forgot that Bruce's new record was to be released today until the afternoon...! It didn't seem like Tuesday, and when I did remember, the Spec's across the street from campus, where I've bought them on Day One for the past 15 years, is no longer there. So, um... I don't have it yet [blushes]. I've heard 4-5 cuts from it online, and love what I've heard, and know the rest will be wonderful too, but... dag nabbit, I blew it!

Battlestarred Out

Gainesville

It's already tomorrow. I was feeling video-drama deprived, and so thought I'd watch something lightweight on my laptop-- the pilot to the new Battlestar Galactica. WRONG, in so many ways-- for one, anything but lightweight; for another, it wasn't a 40 minute or even an 80 minute pilot movie-- it was over three hours long! And for yet another, it was so good I couldn't stop watching it. And so here we are. At least I know that the regular episodes for Season One will be only a 40 minute committment.

Bill has an insanely early morning tomorrow, so I'm taking it off. He wants to shop at the mall tomorrow afternoon, so we'll do that. I did some work on the scans I did Friday this afternoon, and discvered I'll have to do some of them over-- wrong resolution. Musta been that thunderstorm that threw me off.

The thing I did for dinner tonight (Italian Chicken Skillet) was edible but not very good-- can't win 'em all.

Got the basic Blessings done this afternoon, a very good thing. Also finished up the Dylan book. Wonderful.

Unable to get into my Atlantic.net mail today, so if you sent anything there, don't expect an answer. Hope I can get that fixed tomorrow.

I would have sworn that Ward and Waldo were earlier than Sherwood, but just goes to show how memory can play tricks. I remember the Halo/Hello song perfectly well.

Thanks for continuing with the baby book, Mom. Very enjoyable, indeed.
------------
Morning now. Looks like this didn't post. Will try again.

sights of spring

Washed the first load last night, so all three loads were up by nine.

Also, we now have planted onions and a lot more spinach. I'll send on a garden photo in a while. After lunch. Steak is on the grill, potatoes baked, last of last year's spinach in the pot.

A gorgeous day.

addendum

It was Herb Kennedy, wasn't it? It came to me while I was hanging laundry prior to going to the garden.

W and W

Yeah, that was Wally King (Waldo), and Ward was someone Mom will remember, whose name was quite different from Ward. They took over from Sherwood in or after 1959. They began their first shows singing to the "Halo Shampoo" jingle: "Hello everybody, hello! I'm Ward! I'm Waldo . . . " then trailing off into "Who are you?" and being very silly. Later on they changed to singing to the tune of "Oh where oh where has my little dog gone:" "Hello everybody, how do you do? I'm Ward, I'm Waldo, and who are you? We've songs and stories until eight-ten. So why don't you stay with us! Till then!"

If I looked at the KSFO sites enough I'd figure out Ward (Herb something?).

Anyway, the only photo of Wally King seems to be the group one with "Man on the Street." Mom needs to dig hers out so we can scan it for those folks who are doing the site.

Gotta go. It's onion planting day.

Ward and Waldo

Gainesville

... and I feel like another deer... in the headlights: I never actually POSTED the blog that has been running through my head. D'oh! This will be brief

I did answer some email and post to a comic strip blog, which I guess counts for something, but is no excuse.

Nice Don Sherwood stuff. I had searched him recently, but didn't find anything this fine. It can only get better. I hadn't thought of him as a Howard Stern precourser, but it's true: the "Where's Sherwood?" for the early show title says it all. I'm glad to see someone is trying to get a history of Bay Area radio online. This is where the web is at its finest: small groups of people who remember things they love and can band together to save them.

Rainy Saturday here. Got caught out in it several time while doing my errands. Made a stir fry with remains of the Easter rib roast that worked out fine.

Thanks for more Baby Book, Mom. Interesting that Nelda did not walk until 15 months! She was slow to creep also. Wonder if Thea could identify the "suits" in those Marysville photos?

Very sleepy now. And can anyone tell me why I gave this post that title?!

Slowly Back Away

Gainesville

Yes, I can see where Ikea might be a fun place to shop, even without the bargain prices. Reconfiguring the upstairs as a guest suite is a really good idea.

Interesting and fun-- sounds like a great day. Wish I could say the same, but tedious and annoying would be more like it.

We're into summer regime here-- hot days, apocalyptic thunderstorm in the late afternoon. Glass plastered with frogs and moths, floor coming to life with various creepy-crawlies-- a caterpiller showed up in the hall tonight. And so it begins.

Yesterday was nice-- working at home, then dinner out. Hellova time getting home, as they had the 34th and Williston Road turn completely blocked off and impassible at 9:00 at night. We were stuck for 20 minutes. Never did make it through-- someone got out of their car and moved a couple of cones, which allowed them, and lot of the rest of us, to make a highly illegal U-turn and go all the way back to Archer Road and down 13th to get home. Maddening, and very time consuming.

I worked off some of that frustration by changing/laundering towels and cleaning both bathrooms, including floors. Also folded a couple of Bill's loads

Found time this afternoon to start the scanning of the 1947-48 comic ads. Friday afternoon is the perfect time for this, as the place is all but deserted-- and how splendid to experience a thunderstorm in that magnificent space, all alone! (Sandy, this is large reading room in the Library where that one session was held.) I got a good start on "Fireball Twigg," the Grape Nuts guy. If there is any paper at all to be had out of this, it will revolve around him.

Over dinner last night Bill floated the idea of me continuing to work half time in Systems for awhile after retirement. I was stunned! Such an idea had never occurred to me, and it seems to me like anyone could do the few things still considered my realm. I know my boss wanted to reassign my position to another department, but now that she's leaving, that is all up in the air. It's kind of nice to be asked, but my initial reaction is NO. At least, not unless I could work at home most of the time. Christ, I can't believe I'm waffling even that much!

Just had an email exchange with Lee. We will try to arrange a farmers market run within the next few weeks. He tells me that Nan and husband #3 will be moving to Seattle. Nan has never lived anywhere but Florida. I wonder how she'll adapt/!

Earthquakes

Gainesville

It's Little Friday-- or, TGIW. By Wednesday, three days of inadequate sleep have piled up to the point that without some on-fire crisis, desperate deadline or other galvanizing fear, I can hardly keep my eyes open during the long afternoon. My cube-mates were all elsewhere, so there wasn't even that minor annoyance to keep the brain alive. Problem is, this state leaves me stupid; I know perfectly well that if I could get even 15 minutes of sleep, my brain would kick-start again and I would know what needs to be done on the various projects. As it was, just low level torment.

It's getting hot again. No surprise there. We got home fairly late, and I HAD to have that 15 minutes of flat time before even thinking about dinner. Decided that instead of all that chopping required by stir fry, I'd just slice up the wonderful ribeye roast, steam some broccoli and make a very simple cole slaw. This, along with more of the kalamata bread from Albertsons, was a nice warm weather dinner. I must say, that roast was probably the best one I've done in the modern era. Kudos to the Albertsons' butchers for cutting and tying it so perfectly, and to Silver Palate Basics for the slow-method timing tips. There will be at least two more meals and change from this one, and maybe even the ribs themselves will get turned into some broth.

Dad's baby book continues to be so sweet. He was walking at 11 months! Talking early too. What a bright little tyke. And I love "Teedy" and "Nedy." (Where the heck did I get "Lala" from?!) His first earthquake?? Only in California would this be a casual notation. And let the record show, I never had a first earthquake, or any earthquake at all. Supposedly there was one when I'd just started highschool, but I never felt a thing. And how appropriate this is the 1906 centennial.

I love knowing the exact dates when Papa Jack was off to Portugal, and Mama moved family, including Mildred Fenwick, to 5482 Kales. I had a dream once about how it must have looked then-- everything in vivid technicolor, clear turquoise blue skies, other bright colors--- no smog.

I keep meaning to ask, Mom: what is this Schwan delivery you talk about? Some sort of frozen food delivery service? Didn't know these things still existed. I remember the Vegetable Man that used to come to Petersons, and when we first came to Gainesville, there was the Charles Chips delivery service (in returnable steel canisters). Is food delivery making a comeback?

Dispatch from Cubeville

Gainesville

Another day of moving piles of Stupid from one place to another (as Bill puts it), or in my case, also listening to other people over the cubicle walls discuss plans to move their piles, or their plans to appoint committees to discuss which piles to move first, or to plead that they have no time to move this pile right now, they're so busy with that pile...

A bad day in Cubeville.

I escaped to my Box in Special Collections for nearly an hour to fill in gaps in the data. I started some lists and categories for a paper on post war comic strip ads. I worked on instructions for things I do that I need to leave behind when I leave. I put my vacation plan into a spreadsheet. I sent pre-registrations off for the San Diego Comic-Con. I stayed awake all day. The latter was the hardest part, frankly. The Cubeville chatter is almost unbearably soporific.

Made the small thinly-sliced boneless pork chops into a wonderful schnitzel, using the large griddle-shaped electric skillet. Having that roomy fry-space made all the difference. They were crusty and golden, unlike my usual efforts which leave the crust stuck to the regular stovetop fry pan. Had this with a great batch of turnip fries and a salad.

Kitchen is clean, and I got a load of whites done, just in time to allow me to go to work tomorrow in decent undies. It's Wednesday. The day before Thursday. My favorite. One bad part about my vacation days plan is that I haven't scheduled any until mid-May. Can I last that long?

The baby book is great. I love thinking about Lala's first laugh (a hearty one!) and that Glenn was already cackling at five weeks. And cooing, too. And now we have "Uncle Erwin and Aunty Hortense," just as we always called them as kids. I guess this means Erwin and Hortense were married sometime between August 1909 and January 1912.

Damn.

Gainesville

Back to the Funny Farm today-- always such a shock after being away for any length of time. Mostly it was digging out from the piled-up email (about half done with that) and a few trouble tickets. And listening to my cube neighbors go about their strange business and social dealings.

I did do one fun thing today, though: sat down with calendar and calculator to figure out how to distribute the seven weeks of vacation I need to take before October 1. Not quite finished, and it will probably change, but looks like I'll be taking one week per month plus making all 3-day holiday weekends into four days. That leaves me about 7 more days to sprinkle at whim. How delightful.

Mom, you scooped me on the Bruce tour dates. The announcement from Bruce was in my mailbox tonight, but for some reason didn't get delivered to my work mail client-- I wonder if the spam filter there caught it? Of course, it bums me out to see that The South is the only part of the country he doesn't come anywhere near. I don't think a trip to MSP will be possible in June, though.

Suddenly I remember that last night I had The Dream again-- the one where I go to a show expecting the usual mob scene, find hardly anyone there, and I can go down and sit as close as I want, but it's all so weird that Bruce and his company are dispirited and not even sure they want to play... I've had this dream off and on, in various guises, since 1978. My first Bruce show should have been in La Crosse, second row seats. He cancelled at the last minute because less than half the little 3K gym was sold. It was probably set off again by the news that his rehearsal show for this tour, somewhere in Jersey, was not yet sold out. Damn.

The hotel in ATL was the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, a fantasia palace built in 1985. It has a unique spiraling sort of interior atrium that is hard to describe, but breath-taking to experience. The service was top notch too, and one of the best hotel beds I've ever slept in. Bill wants to do Marriotts whenever possible from now on. We like the one we stay at in Tampa, which is right across the street from the arena where Bruce plays when there. We also have one we liked in Ft. Lauderdale, pre-cruise.

Lessee, what else about the trip. We did not venture out into the city at all, as we weren't there that long, and pretty much did Conference stuff non-stop. We ate all our meals in the various hotel restaurants. Their top line one, a steak house, was pricey, of course, but was very fine-- not crowded, beautiful, great food and service. We ate there twice. Ate the first night in the sports bar, not so nice; not well-laid out, crowded, most of the TV's showing round ball (and with the Braves right there in town!) Food there was pretty good, though. Bill ate his breakfasts and the occasional lunch in the coffee shop type place; I was more into the Starbucks and fast food stand for such excursions.

Bill quite enjoyed himself and wants to come back sometime just to be there-- enjoy the hotel, do some touristy things, eat out adventurously, take in a Braves game. I hope we do it. Maybe after October I'll be more up for taking the lead and planning these things.

While Bill was bogarting the wire, I didn't mind because I was buried in a fabulous book: Bob Dylan's Chronicles, Volume One. One of the most enjoyable and mind-blowing books I've read in ages. I still have 20-30 pages to go, because I can't bear to have it end. I read a little bit each night. Just amazing, and so unlike anything I expected. It's like huge parts of my own inner and outer past have been recovered from some buried site and been illuminated in unexpected ways.

The conf went on through Saturday, but we needed to get back to pick up Blue and the cat. We left around 9:00 Saturday morning-- only to have GPS fail to operate! There we were, in the middle of downtown Atlanta, without a guide. We were just minutes from an exit when we arrived, after all. I had maps, but was depending on The Bitch to guide the way, so had done no prep. I mean, how hard can it be to find I-75, right? We fumbled around up and down a few streets (nice that the rental had a built in computer with compass and it was a quiet Saturday morning) until we found a sign to the Interstate. As soon as we got on the road, we realized it was just a bad connection to the power (cig lighter) that was easily fixed. From then on, literally a no brainer. Or, should have been: we managed to foul ourselves up by taking a short-cut from Alachua-- BOTH of us, after all these years, getting 441 confused with Waldo Road... D'oh!

Blue had his 30,000 checkup along with getting his electrical system completely replaced. (Unfortunately, the speedometer they replaced read 31,000 miles-- the new one reads 50,000! Need to get this fixed.) They did the whole nine yards, and said that other than very low tire pressure, he's in great shape. They didn't replace the muffler because it would be much cheaper and faster to do it at a muffler place. So he still sounds like an old tin can. Looks great, though.

Thanks for the recipe, Sandy. It sounds wonderful. I put in your red (R) Glad to hear that your Easter feast went so well. Thanks for the picture!

Good FL progress, Mom. And how interesting that you had to deal with a rotten potato too! Obviously, the problem is exponentially worse in Florida... I would never in a thousand years have tried to put my monstrosity down the garbage disposal, though!

And thanks for keeping on with the Soares Baby Book. I need to look into hand-held scanners. The technology should be just about there for being able to get digital copies of these fragile but priceless artifacts.

My own FL efforts maintain, if not progress... I changed the sheets before work this morning, and changed the towels after work (they are finally dinging at me from the dryer just now). We didn't get home til 7:30, so for the first time in ages, we summoned a pizza. I hope the thin-cut boneless pork chops, planned for schnitzel, survive in the fridge another day.

'Nuff, a'ready.

Salad (R)

Oh, hell. I forgot how to do font colors, though I've mastered italics and bold . Suze, would you add a red R to the title? Thanks!

Well, I've just had a student cancel a visit in St. Paul, just as I was getting ready to leave. Suddenly the day looms ahead of me. The dishes are done (between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m., yes, it took two hours), the house is clean. I've put in a load of laundry, mostly dishtowels and napkins. Charlie's gone to Hudson for lumber and won't be back for an hour or two. What to do? Think I'll read out on the deck. It's a beautiful day, and as soon as Charlie gets home and discovers me here, I'm sure we'll work in the garden.

Dinner went well yesterday. Great hors d'œuvres (thanks, Mom), the salad was fine, and the lamb came out just right. Charlie did a fine job with the green beans, but I way overcooked the canellinis. Too bad; they were good anyway, but texture is important (to me) in beans. Ruth brought a little egg-shaped cake. The weather turned fair just as everyone arrived (everyone being Ruth, Dave, Mom, and a couple that the Woods always have for holiday dinners, so we know them), so we were able to have cocktails and h d's on the deck. Anyway, it was a nice time. Dave had to take a few naps, but ate the most he's eaten since he became sick.




The two closest to the camera are Dave and Ruth.








Enjoyed the conference narration and hope it will continue. What hotel?

O.K., here's the recipe, verbatim. My comments will follow, though let me add first that I did not use blood oranges either time I made this.

Blood Orange & Fennel Salad

This light and refreshing salad makes a wonderful starter before a robust meal. Regular oranges work well, but don't look quite as dramatic. To turn this into a more substantial course, add 1 pound cooked shrimp and toss them with some of the dressing about 10 minutes before assembling the salad.

INGREDIENTS:

Citronette dressing

1/2 cup mild olive oil
Grated zest of one orange, about 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup blood orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
A few grindings of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar if needed for balance

Salad:

4 blood oranges or 3 navel oranges
2 small bulbs fennel
3 bunches watercress, stems removed, or 4 large handfuls of small arugula or 4 heads Belgian endive, leaves separated
1/2 cup torn mint leaves

INSTRUCTIONS: For the dressing: In a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, zest, juices, salt and pepper. Dip a leaf into it and taste to see if it is tart enough. Adjust seasonings. If the dressing is too tart, add sugar. Set aside.

For the salad: Working with 1 orange at a time, cut a thin slice off the top and bottom to reveal the flesh. Stand the orange upright and remove the peel in wide strips, cutting downward and following the contour of the fruit. If the oranges are small, cut them crosswise into 1/4-inch rounds. For larger oranges, hold the peeled orange over a bowl, cut along both sides of each segment, releasing the segments from the membrane and allowing them to drop into the bowl. Using the knife tip, pry out any seeds from the segments. Squeeze the membrane over the bowl to extract extra juice, which you can add to the dressing at serving time. Set the oranges and juice aside.
Trim the fennel bulbs, removing any tough outer leaves. Cut in half and cut out the tough center core. Slice very thin. Toss fennel slices in a bowl with a few tablespoons of dressing about 15 minutes before serving the salad. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine the salad greens and mint leaves. Stir any extra juice collected from the orange membrane into the vinaigrette. Toss the greens with enough dressing to moisten the leaves, reserving a few tablespoons for the final drizzle.
Distribute the greens among four salad plates. Top with the marinated fennel and the orange slices or segments. Drizzle with remaining dressing. Sprinkle with a little chopped mint if desired.
Serves 4.
PER SERVING: 345 calories, 5 g protein, 25 g carbohydrate, 27 g fat (4 g saturated), 0 cholesterol, 364 mg sodium, 8 g fiber.


The only potentially difficult part of this recipe is sectioning the oranges; I've been doing it for years, and with practice it's not too bad. I'd do that rather than slicing them, but it probably doesn't really matter. Julia probably remembers the big bowls of orange and grapefruit sections I used to make in RF when we got regular shipments of citrus.

I hoped both times I made this to find blood oranges, but the season has just ended. For yesterday's salad I had grabbed some oranges at Kowalski's a few days before and did not realize until I started cutting them up that there was something weird about them. Their flesh was dark pink, rather like a red grapefruit. I looked at the little label on an orange and it said Cara Cara. I looked that up on the 'net, and read about them. Interesting. Anyway, they were delicious, and the color was perfect for the salad. I had one normal orange in the mix, and that was a nice contrast. If I do this again for a special occasion I'll use half Cara Caras and half regular oranges (or blood oranges, if I can find them!).

I used half arugula and half "spring mix" as the greens. I didn't have any fresh mint the first time I made it; I put some dried mint into the dressing. Yesterday I lost my nerve and did not put mint leaves in with the salad, though I'd bought some mint. I just made a little chiffonade at the end and sprinkled some on each plate. I wish I'd been more aggressive with the mint.

Anyway, it's a good salad.

Time to hang up the laundry!

...Its Feas Were White as Snow

Gainesville

Thanks for the lamb advice, Sandy! That's exactly what I was going to try, were I not to hear from you and could find a boneless lamb leg. Alas, Albertsons was the only place open (and it was a madhouse-- no carts in or near the store, so one had to run around the parking lot to find one) and the only lamb they had were shanks and monstrous whole lamb legs. I lucked on a smallish (2 rib) rib-eye roast. It was nicely packaged, with the backbone part cut off and tied to the roast. The lines were so impossible to get out that I opted for a short one that was cash only; good thing I'd just come back from traveling so had the nearly $100 on me, and then some. (Let me clarify, this was for the week's shopping, not just the roast!)

The roast was lovely-- parts were medium, for Bill's taste, parts nearly raw, for mine. The cat loved it all. I've got the leftovers divided into the sliceable hunks, and the chunkable (rare) parts to use in a stir fry later in the week. Had cauli-rice fried with browned onions-- Bill had to ask what it was, so successful was the disguise! I found it a bit mushy, but it worked well as a carb substitute. Also had green peas, sliced cukes & onion (made last night before I realized they would NOT go well with kraut), and a very nice Albertson's artisinal bread, crusty stuff with Kalamata olives baked into it, that was still warm when I bought it. Not too bad for a last minute feast. Of course, a meal like this is fairly easy to throw together, but perfectly dreadful to clean up after. I did it all, though.

I second the call for Marty to post her recipes. Plus, Sandy, you MUST post the orange and fennel thing. I have a lot of oranges I need to use in a hurry, and we both love fennel. (I'm assuming this is fennel the veg and not the seed, which I do not love.)

Two "emergencies" forced this to be a FL-intensive day. First, I thought I smelled something off when I came in to get coffee, but found nothing. When I sat down to eat breakfast (grits, of course) it was worse. I'd been meaning to check the Yukon Golds (yes, the very ones we bought when you were here, Sandy), as I thought I'd use them for mashed potatoes and finally get rid of them. Too late. WAY too late. The (luckily airtight) bag was about half liquid! Is there ANYTHING that smells worse than liquified rotten potatoes this side of a decaying corpse? Bleeeaaahhh!!! I had to immediately take out the big garbage bag I'd dropped them into, then disinfect the indoor garbage can, then clean out and disinfect the whole produce caddy thing beside the door to the TV room. I had perfectly fresh and new apples and oranges in there. I'm not sure whether they have permanently picked up the foul reek, or if it's just my having olfactory hallucinations-- the stench seemed to follow me wherever I went for hours.

Then late this afternoon, as I was about to start the roast, Bill asked me where the Tax Forms were-- time to do that little chore. I had no idea. He's been doing the taxes since we got married, so I have not paid any attention, except for my own W-2 and interest statements, since then. He swears he saw me pick them up off the coffee table in a stash-and-dash prior to Sandy and Mom's visit. I did no such stash-and-dash from the coffee table. A bit from the library desk, a bit from the study, and I knew exactly where those boxes were. Spent an hour going through the boxes, knowing I wasn't going to find anything, but knowing that dealing with this horrible paper clutter was long overdue. I left piles of it on the desk and on the puzzle table to force myself to start doing some 15 minute stints on it. We never did find the forms, but it was no biggie-- we file the simple form, so Bill just downloaded it from the net. We had everything else we need, and we're all ready to go. As soon as I write the check.

[goes, writes check] Good, now that's done.

The trip went well. The rental car was comfortable, our GPS (nicknamed The Bitch because she is such a pain when you stop for gas or otherwise deviate from her pre-programmed route) worked perfectly and delivered us right to the entrance to the hotel right about 6:00 pm.

The hotel was a trip unto itself. I'd been there before, but not to stay. What a psychedelic experience! We were both dazzled by the ever-changing vistas in every direction. We had a wondrous room (for practically nothing, conference-rate) that was oddly shaped, but featured a huge angled wall of glass with a great view of the city-- Mom, you'd have loved it. We never tired of gawking at things every time we went anywhere.

The conference itself was fun. I'd registered Bill as a guest, and he attended quite a few programs on his own, and enjoyed them. A HUGE conference, just under 600 sessions. Everything I went to was enjoyable-- one on baseball in particular: papers on Wrigley Field as a religious place, Billy Martin and the 1952 World Series, and the history of women's baseball/softball -- all perfectly delightful! Another on movies (chick flicks) almost equally so. And (oh yes) a couple on comics too.

Mine went well enough, considering. 8:00 AM is not the most wonderful time slot either for speaker or audience. The AV set-up was a disaster-- I knew it was going to be just a video monitor, but had no idea it would be so... small. Most of my stuff was lost. If I'd only realized, I could have tailored the slides so they'd have made the points legibly. It was good being with the other people talking about the Davidson Collection, as it gave what I said some more context. (And what a treat that no one on the panel was talking about pornography, unlike the UF thing.) It was a small audience in a small room, maybe a dozen attendees, and 3-4 of them were the UF clack. Still, it was quite a lively discussion afterwards, and to my astonishment, one of the people there turned out to be the editor of THE scholarly comics journal, and the kind of person they already name awards after: John Lent. I'm so glad I didn't know before hand that's who he was, or I'd have been a basket case.

As it was, not one of my finer performances. Rita and Tof just read their papers, no visuals, so they could stand at the podium. Cathlena had a PowerPoint, but she just TALKED about it (lucky her, to be able to do that) and stood beside the monitor, poking at her laptop as needed. Alas, the cable was not long enough to reach from the podium to the monitor, so I was forced to read my paper sitting down. This was not, shall we say, optimal. I bulled my way through it, nonetheless. I managed. And of course, during the question period, I was fine. I really do KNOW this stuff, which is a nice feeling.

This will have to be continued. Didn't expect this to run so long.

Mary had a little

Well, I know I'm too late for the lamb question; just went to the computer now, because I've been cooking since a little before eight.

What I've done with the lamb (after agonizing, soul searching, web surfing, etc) is to make a mixture of rosemary, olive oil, salt, garlic and pepper. It's a boned leg, and I rubbed some of this stuff inside, then Charlie and I tied it up, then I rubbed the rest over the outside. It was 1/2 cup olive oil, 10 cloves garlic, a couple of tablespoons of fresh rosemary, 1 TB salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Whizzed it up in the tiny Cuisinart, but it'd work in a blender or big Cuis, too. I've also made hummus (for my one hors d'œuvre) and am cooking the last of last year's canellini beans (with sage, olive oil, and garlic). I'll also make a fennel and orange salad Mom spotted in the Chronicle when we were in S.F. Ruth is bringing dessert and some shrimp, Mom is bringing some h d's. Should be a nice meal. Also having green beans, which Charlie will cook.

Marty made us a wonderful meal on Friday night: a great pasta dish as a first course (please post recipe here, Marty!!), then grilled chicken and zucchini with a terrific basil sauce (I'd like that recipe, too). Charlie and Nate spent quite a lot of time talking about their proposed deck.

We spent yesterday doing work around the house. Charlie began washing windows (and he's at it again as we speak). I cleaned out all of the kitchen drawers and cabinets on the east wall and lined the pot shelves with bumpy plastic stuff that Charlie got at Ikea. Looks good.

Then I reamed out Julia's room, including purging my bulging clothing drawers. I have a huge goodwill bag filling up. Her room looks nice now. There's still a lot of stuff on the dresser, most of which needs to go to the attic. For example, I don't know if she'll have much time for Monopoly in the near future (though Chris, Wayne and I played a lot of it when Chris was in college), and Ben's not ready for it yet. I have a much better arrangement for Josefina, too, which Julia will appreciate. Ben is enamored of Josefina's food, and always brings it downstairs to play with it. I shudder, since the dishes were so expensive, but there's no good in a toy that kids are not allowed to play with.

We had a fine time dying eggs on Friday afternoon. Ben's pretty quick and casual about it, but it was fun. He ran around outside a lot. And we read the squirrel book (Julia will remember it) about a million times.

He amazed me in the car when we were talking about when birthdays are. I pointed out that he and I both had birthdays in January (his conception of this is still pretty hazy), and he asked me if I remembered when we were at the hockey game and it was Charlie's birthday. I'd forgotten, but he hadn't!

Gotta go back to cooking. I'll add a photo to this in a minute, so come back if you don't see it now.

Eggs, Bunnies, and All That

Gainesville

I'm back, but still strung out from the road. All is well-- the cat retrieved, Big Blue retrieved (muffler un-replaced, but over a grand worth of other stuff done), rental car returned to the airport. Plus, I am unpacked.

I fixed us a desperation dinner of Dogs 'n' Kraut plus a spinach salad. The fridge is bare, thanks to my pre-trip purge. Must go out tomorrow and find an open supermarket and get something to make for a desperation holiday meal. Sandy, you are fixing lamb? What are you doing to it? If I hear back from you tomorrow morning, I will try something with lamb, assuming I can find it. If not, it will be ham. Or maybe it'll be spam. I found the most wonderfully dreadful recipe for it (Treet, actually) in one of the 1948 comics ads: Pour a can of fruit cocktail over sliced Treet, add some mustard and horseradish, bake until bubbly. Gaaakk! Let's hope neither my research nor my desperation push me that far into the twilight zone...

We had a good trip, and I'll fill in details over the next few days. The hotel (Atlanta Marriott Marquis) is an awesome architectural extravaganza, definitely the highlight of the trip. However, there was no wireless in the room, and only one high speed data port-- for $12.95/day. If we'd had a cheap little hub with us we could have shared the wire. As it was, my beloved roommate was on the wire nearly every moment we were in the room. The one time I had some time online, I couldn't get to the blogger site at all. I know I coulda written some entries off-line for later posting, and I wish I had.

The baby book stuff is wonderful, Mom! Thanks so much for doing this. I hope you are getting a kick out of it too. Maybe Thea can help us with which of the people who gave baby Nelda presents were family? Can we assume that Hortense Smullin was Erwin's eventual wife? The name does sound familiar.

A heads up for Marty: something I ordered for Ben at Christmas has finally shipped! I hope it was worth the delay. And Jeezo-Flip, I hope I got the address right this time. It seems to be a permanently damaged byte in my brain.

More tomorrow. Happy Pagan-Rite-of-Spring, everyone! :-)

Dead House in the Middle of the Road

Gainesville

Wow, fabulous stuff in the margins of Lala's baby book-- details of Elizabeth Knorsa's birth and arrival in America. I wonder if the illegible words were her maiden name-- does anyone know it? That's just the kind of thing that make baby books and family bibles such treasures. Thanks for doing this, Mom, and I hope you continue with it. I understand about the difficulty of scanning such a fragile artifact, so don't worry about doing that.

White flies!! I feel your pain. They are the worst. I hope Ted has something that works for you.

Took the day off to get ready to travel, and a good thing, too. There were lots of things that needed doing. Most of them got done. I think I'm more or less packed. We will drive a rental car, as we still have not decided on what the next vehicle will be. Will need to coordinate picking it up with dropping the cat off at her B&B, The Cat's Pajamas, and dropping off my Big Blue Truck to get some long overdue muffler work. We will return Saturday afternoon.

When I went out to Publix this morning, I took the Rocky Point route because there looked like some sort of snarl to the north of 441. Did my shopping, then came back the usual way, via Willison Road. All was fine until suddenly, dead ahead and just before reaching our turn-off.....

A huge three story white HOUSE is in the middle of the freakin' road! All traffic stopped in both directions. Good thing I had Harry Potter tape on, as nobdy was going anywhere for about 10-15 minutes (seemed like hours on a day when there's a million things to do pre-departure). Finally it became apparent cops were on the scene and our turn came to snake around on the far lane of the wrong side of the road. Did this thing fall from the sky? Is Oz sending back stuff that lands there?

Made a perfectly dreadful crock pot soup, one of Leanne's major mistakes. Shoulda been suspicious when it called for 1/4 c spit peas and 4 c of broth. I know better. We ate it, and I will freeze the rest of it in batches to add stuff it for lunches. Can't win'em all.

I THINK I'm ready to go tomorrow. No idea if I'm ready to actually present something in two days and change.

Sheets, Towels, and Everything Else

Gainesville

Nice account of your Sunday festivities, Sandy. What fun to be cooking in your fireplace, hanging laundry outside, and finding so much viable stuff in your root cellar-- a quintessential early spring day on the farm. I'm envious of all of it. And of course I'd love your onions too. I console myself that Vidalias are just arount the corner now.

No, I don't have Walt and Skeezix yet. Was planning to buy it at the UF Comics Conf, but the last copy was snatched up before I could. Will send for it one of these days, but not until I've at least looked through all the stuff I did buy at ufcc. It is, like all of Ware's stuff, a masterpiece of book design, besides presenting wonderful, classic strips.

Good job transcribing the Baby Book, Mom. Have you considered scanning it also? The transcribing part is very important, because that gets the essential information in digital format, (making it searchable, etc.) but it's nice to have the image to go with it.

I know, just what you need, another project. I was telling some people at work today about the amazing things you do with your scanner. OF COURSE it takes a lot of time to do the beautiful handcrafted and personalized artifacts you send to people. That's part of what makes them so special. Consider it time well spent.

Went into work today with a single mission: get my bangs trimmed. Failed! The guy was not in the shop, which is near the post office, when I walked over. Was going to try again in the afternoon, but had a meeting then got busy. Meanwhile, Bill shows up tonight with a spiffy new haircut from the same place! We coulda gone together. I'm reminded of the old addage (Sandy, is this yours?): Need to improve communications? Try WORDS!

Not going in tomorrow, though. Need a day to get ready to travel and psych myself up for yet another little show-and-tell. A schedule of the rest of the Library & Archives Section presentations arrived today, and if I'd seen it even a few days ago, I probably would have arranged to stay til Sunday morning-- they're all on Friday and Saturday mornings. Oh well.

Got a lot done tonight. Dinner was somehow fabulous: Ragin' Cajun Chicken, nothing more than chicken breasts coated with Cajun seasoning and sauteed in butter. My contribution was to half the amount of chicken, cut each piece in half, and double the butter. Yum! Had baked butternut squash and steamed kale as sides-- the former overcooked, the latter rather sad after too long in the freezer. My kale skills need a lot more work.

Sheets changed in the morning, in the dryer now. Changed the towels tonight, and they're already laundered and put away. Got caught up with the bills, four of them in 15 minutes (usually I do three in that period of time). I give myself one Pat on the Head.

I have only one Magic Olive left. Maybe I will find some in ATL.

Sheets done. Time for sleep.

Spring flurry

Busy day yesterday. We were up at six (pretty normal, even on Sunday) and had a leisurely hour with coffee and the paper. I'd put in a load of laundry when we went to bed, so at seven I started another and hung the first load on the line. First time this year for hanging out clothes! Third load was up by 9:30, very satisfying. At 7:30 I started a double barbecue fire (two chimneys) and at 8 put on a huge chunk of pork I'd bought a few days before. It looked like a ham (shoulder), skin and all, and I had to buy it because it was only $13. Cooked it indirectly on our monster barbecue, adding charcoal every half hour or so.

In the meantime, we went to the basement and bearded the potatoes in their den. Very sprouty, time for them to go. I rescued about ten pounds of Yukons. This entailed a general basement cleanup, as well. Charlie is good at spearheading things I tend to put off. The potatoes live(d) on newspapers (under a sheet) on the sub-basement floor. I then went into the root cellar to purge onions. Amazingly, there were only 20 that had sprouted and needed to be tossed. This leaves a couple of hundred more, very rare to have them last this long. It's the first year the root cellar has been fully insulated, so I think that helped. And I made up a box of onions to send to Chris and Kay. Kay loves our onions.

Charlie vacuumed the upstairs (ladybugs), while I did some kitchen cleaning, and he took a bunch of stuff to recycle.

This was all interspersed with watching golf, of course.

Just before the meat was done we spent about an hour doing fence repairs, just the most critical. It tends to come apart some during the winter, and the March blizzard was very hard on the fence on the south side of the yard. Any day now the cattle will start to come, and then the fence becomes very important.

The meat was great, ready to eat at 1:30, making a late Sunday dinner. I usually use this method for a different cut, but this one worked fine. I sliced up some, then shredded the rest of it later. The crispy skin (of which I ate a few small pieces) will be passed on to Mom to do with what she will. Now we have pounds of shredded pork (good with barbecue sauce), most of which will go to the freezer.

Afternoon was spent lazing around watching golf and snoozing.

Anyway, it was good to get these things done, and it's wonderful to have line-dried laundry again!

On Saturday, after we'd cleaned up the tree debris in Mom's yard, we rushed back to SV before the post office window closed, since I was expecting books. Got them -- David McCullough's book about Panama, and Walt and Skeezix . What a delight!! Do you have it, Suze? It is very, very wonderful, particularly the 1921 auto trip from Wisconsin to Yellowstone. Chris Ware put it together (as you know, Suzy), and in the introductory material uses his typical tiny type and seems to think that no one minds turning a book sideways to read things. (I forgive Ware for everything, though. I positively love him.) The photos in the introduction are great. Frank King and his family were enthusiastic amateur photographers. The only trouble with the book is that I want more!

I'm eager to get the LaLa's baby book stuff, and delighted by the background info, Mom.

Hope your media woes are quickly resolved; I hadn't realized that everything was so interconnected!

Charlie is in the garage bringing down the golf clubs -- think we'll spend the morning playing our first round of the season!

Media Meltdown

Gainesville

Great progress, Mom. Flylady (and I) are so proud of you.

Very interesting stuff about Maud Humphrey and her illustrations. I didn't know any of that stuff. I do know that many women cartoonists of that era also did commercial art and illustrated childrens' books. I'll have to check our Baldwin Collection and see if we have any of her work.

I look forward to having Lala's baby book transcribed. It will make a fine addition to the Graham/Soares family archive we're building here.

I had another laid-back day-- up at 11:00 again. Finally figured out that this later hour is a hangover from the time change-- still waking up at what feels to the bod like 10:00, my preferred weekend wakeup.

Several times in the night I woke up in a panic, not knowing where I was, unable to remember where I was living or with whom, or... what my living room looked like! (When I joke that I begin each morning asking "What planet am I on," etc., this is not all that far from the truth.) It got me to thinking how many different places I've lived. This house is the seventh in Gainesville alone. There were three in Berkeley, two in Wisconsin and four in Maryland. We've now lived in this house in Malore Gardens for over 10 years-- longer than I've lived in ANY dwelling other than Berry Avenue. Strange that I have trouble remembering that!

Got the Big Three Blessings done. But most of the day was absorbed by finishing Swing. I had to put it down for awhile because there was something so upsetting in the middle of it, but once past that, it continued to be fascinating, especially all the lovely local details. Very clever and convoluted plot, though, and I never saw any of it coming.

Tonight's dinner, skirt steak marinated in an orange juice/ sherry/ soy/ garlic mixture then broiled, was excellent. The cat, in particular, was enraptured by it; her squeeks of pleasure were more in the grunt range as she scarfed up anything offered her. With it, cauli-rice (still learning the new mike, so it was a bit crispy in spots) and bok choy sauteed with some browned coarsely chopped onion, invented on the spot when it became obvious I didn't have enough viable bok choy to make a decent-sized side. Worked out very well.

Another of our machines suddenly died today: our "Black Box," the vital center of our media setup. It was fabulously expensive, worth more than all the rest of the stuff put together, and to have it fail is very traumatic. It's what allows all the other things to talk to each other and do stuff in the background. We will try to get it fixed. Meanwhile, we're back to plain ole TV and low-level cable: no TiVo, no Satellite, no DVD, no CD, no VCRs... ah the angst!

Not really. It's sad how little attention we pay to any of it these days. The only thing I'll really miss is baseball-on-demand, which I've been doing a lot of since the season started. We can always watch DVD's on our computers, and I have all the music I need on my iPod. I think we'll survive.

Rain, Beautiful Rain

Gainesville

We're in the middle of the most wonderful thunderstorm. It is very welcome, as it hasn't rained to speak of in many weeks. The yard has been looking brown and dry, the bushes all droopy, and there are wildfires near Lake Santa Fe. Been going on for half an hour or so, and no sign of stopping.

Good to hear from you, Sandy. I thought you were in that play, too, but don't remember what part you had. I'm glad to hear your cold is better. I didn't get the pork tenderloin that flat either. The ones we get are already in two pieces, so I butterflied each of them, pounded them as best I could, then just put the stuffing between them and tied them together. It worked okay that way. Didn't have shitakes either-- we can almost always get them, but I'd decided to do this at the last minute, and used the portabella's I had around.

Tonight I made a recipe called "Garlic Rosemary Fish." It was kind of non-descript. It wasn't until we'd finished dinner that I realized I'd left out the rosemary. D'oh!! I'm definitely ready for a several day break from cooking. We will get back Saturday afternoon, so I'll need to do a last minute scramble to put together some kind of holiday-ish meal for Easter Sunday.

After trying (and failing) to adjust our Atlanta hotel reservation on-line, I called, and talked to a very nice man who made the changes and sent me an email confirmation of them. I am greatly relieved-- I tend to worry myself silly over such details.

Sounds like you had a good day today, Mom. You are such a good sport to put up with my FL scolding-- well-intentioned though it be. I'm fascinated by the idea of adding mayo to eggs for omelets. Does that actually do something to them, or is it just a flavor enhancement? Your "explosive" thing sounds wonderful to me.

And about floating eggs: if they float, does that mean they're entirely unusable? Can you still hard boil them? I tend to do that with old eggs, but had forgotten that particular test.

I slept until 11 this morning. In the old days, I'd just consider the day a lost cause and not even try to do anything-- just go into Franny mode. Now I just start my morning routines whenever I get up, and things do get done, and the day is never a waste-- just a little less time to relax and read. This has to be one of the biggest differences that FL has made. No more lost days, that all too often turned into lost weekends.

"Home for good and all . . . ."

I remember your line too, Suze, as well as my own. I never had a crush on Lee Gentry, but I remember when Patty (and you) did. And of course Steve Flynn. I was still crushed on Dick Estill. Funny thing; a week ago today when Ma and I were at Rancho, we parked right at the corner where Dick always parked his bike if he was there. When I saw his bike there I'd always be thrilled, because it meant if I was lucky I'd see him and he'd say hi.

Thanks so much for the Diry, Suze. It's been wonderful!

Quick kitchen notes:

I made the creamed leeks from EdC, and they were quite good. I made half a recipe, and it lasted two meals and there's still some left. Our leeks are pretty wizened (in paper bags in downstairs fridge), but when the dry layers are peeled off, they're still good in the center. Getting pretty near the end.

Also have now made the stuffed pork tenderloin from the most recent FC. It was very good, too. I'd boil down the sherry vinegar some before adding the chicken broth to the sauce (otherwise the vinegar is a little sharp). The filling is very easy and quite good. Rolling up a pork tenderloin is not so easy, but it doesn't have to be perfect. I'd like to know how someone pounds one to 1/4 inch thick. I didn't have the patience, I guess. Anyway, it's worth looking for shitake mushrooms for it; Green Giant now has them in many stores.

Saturday, after a week of school visits and wood piling. My cold is pretty much gone; just a lingering cough, nothing serious.
Spring lurks on the horizon.

Last Dance (D)

Gainesville

Friday, beautiful Friday. That's one thing I know I'll miss post-DROP-- that wonderful TGIF feeling of impending freedom, brief though it is.

Meeting this afternoon with my boss, first in ages. She wants me and my two cohorts to report to the head of DLC (Digital Library Collection). If this indeed comes about, I will take most of my remaining six weeks of vacation thereafter. Let's just say that the idea does not thrill me, and if it were to go on for any length of time, I'd be campaigning for a transfer to Special Collections. But none of it really matters anymore.

Today I did my LAST EVER Annual Activity Report (aka "Brag Sheet") and Annual Assignment/Goals and Objectives. YAAAAAYY!! This is an exercise that I've always hated with a passion. I must admit, though, that I had so much to brag about this year, that part of it was almost fun.

Worked some more on entering data about the ads into my spreadsheet. Almost done with that.

Will only cook four days in the upcoming week. I picked out four of Leanne's that I don't even need to shop for-- can empty out some more stuff from the freezer. Will need to pick up bread and a few other things, though.

Need to check on the hotel in Atlanta. We will be arriving a day later than the reservation. I always hate this part, sure I'm going to somehow foul it up at the last minute.

"Dumb day," Mom? That's Stinkin' Thinkin', ya know. It was a relaxing day-- a low-key day-- a mellow day. (Get the idea?) Most of all, it was a Spring Day, and with your splendid remodel, you can truly enjoy the changing seasons without even having to leave the house. It's cool you can see a bird building a nest, and have the fun of bulbs coming up and blooming. That's something I really miss living in the swamp. I want a full report of each and every crocus, daffodil and tulip (and whatever else) that emerges this year.

Well, I can't put it off any longer. Here, then, is the last of the Diry entries. There's a little bit of stuff written in the post-calendar pages, which I'll transcribe later, but no more real entries.

Thanks for the memories, Li'l Suzz-Bucket.

[Nothing Dec 3-17]

Thursday, December 18, 1952
353rd Day--13 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning we rode bus 8. I tried to finish up my math homework but didn't have time. Our committee gave our report today. Mine went off o.k. Boy, was the turkey dinner in the Cafe. good today! In P.E., Lorea & I made up a game. We call it Cerry Ball. Will keep you in formed. I borrowed Joyce's Lilac shoes. Party at dramatics. Patty still as goofy as ever over Lee*. Suzy

* This would have been Lee Gentry, and the Dramatics Club was rehearsing A Christmas Carol. Lee was Scrooge, Patty was his love interest, I was Scrooge's younger sister, Fan. (I had exactly one line, which I can recite to this day.) What's unspoken here is that I too had a long-standing secret crush on Lee. In spring semester, when I became friends with Nancy, we both had crushes on tall and dreamy-eyed Steve Flynn.

Beetle and Lois

Gainesville

Another beautiful day here, conducive to having the windows open while I worked at home.

I finished the script for the PCA presentation and read it through once-- nailed it perfectly. Not too surprising, since I've read all of it in public before.

Yeah, the Walker/Browne connection is a little inbred. Mort Walker created "Beetle Bailey" Dik Brown was his assistant for awhile. (In fact, Dik was the inspiration for the character, Plato.) "Hi and Lois" was a spin-off from "Beetle Bailey" -- Lois is actually Beetle's sister. Mort drew it and Dik wrote it. Dik eventually started his own strip, "Hagar the Horrible." Brian and Greg are Mort's sons, while Chris and Chance are Dik's sons.

Early day tomorrow. Hope you weather your storms.

Several Yippee's

Gainesville

Yes, you're right, Mom, I'd have been more excited if it had been football, and indeed was when the Gators won it all in 1996. However, it is exciting just to be around it-- a contact excitement.

Like today. The secretary in the office is a wonderfully sweet and exuberant black woman of about 40, who's worked at the same job for 20 years (and I've known her for all of them). She's also a huge sports fan. Today around noon she burst into the office so excited she was about to explode. She'd heard that Joakim Noah, our quirky sparkplug superstar, was outside in the Plaza of the Americas. She'd gone down to see, and there he was, signing autographs. She grabbed a copy of today's Alligator and got him to sign it for her. Then she said, "Can I just give you a big hug?" Noah said, "Sure!" and threw his arms around her! She was so thrilled she was bouncing off the walls, and the rest of us who happened to be there were drawn to the energy. She's about my heighth; "I have no idea what part of his body my face was pressed against," she commented, which brought down the house.

We took our sweet time getting into work today-- Bill still strung out from the trip. He got home around 11:30 last night, and it was much later than that before we got to bed. It was a good conference, so at least he didn't waste his time.

This afternoon I FINISHED the 1947-48 Davidson box! I now know what is on every page in that box, which comics, which ads, whether they are at the top or bottom or take up the whole page. I still have most of 48 to enter into my little database, but that will just take a few hours. Yippee!! Now I have to make myself stop and have a long hard talk with a database expert before going further, much as I'm dying to charge ahead (to 1952) and back (to 1946) which has become my area of interest. If I need to redo things, better now than later.

I've about decided my San Diego project will be the ads. I've got a whole lot more of them than I do Smilin' Jack strips, and frankly, they're more interesting, and I have more of them. Especially since today I found something of a grail for the project: a signature of a well-known comics artist on an ad. "Browne" can only be Dik Browne, creator of Hi and Lois and Hagar the Horrible. All the other signatures have been of people who mainly became known for magazine cartoons. Matching up styles with artists has become a fascinating puzzle, and well, you know how I am about puzzles...

Which reminds me, I keep forgetting to brag about something. This week I actually finished a Sunday crossword... and in just two days! I don't think I've ever completely finished one before, and I seldom even try. And I only made one mistake (ok, it took up 4 boxes) -- better than I usually do with the dailies. I'm so proud of me.

But I'm going to be kicking my own butt if I don't get busy with the Atlanta presentation. It's a week from Friday. I've started the merge of UF-CC and the Library thing, but need to finish it and start reading practice. Countdown time. Tomorrow, working at home, should be good for that. Bill secured Carrot's reservation at her B&B, The Cat's Pajamas, and I will need to check on our ATL hotel in the next day or two.

Speaking of B&B's, Carolyn wrote tonight to say she's got hers in Gainesville set for May 19. It will be fun to see her again after nearly ... good god... fifty years. But I feel more like she's a new friend that I've only known for the past five years that we've been exchanging long emails. What an age of wonders we live in.

Perfectly glorious weather today-- wish I'd taken the time to go out into it. I could have given Noah a hug myself, he's made us all so happy.

So it's Spring in the frozen north too-- how rare that we get it at the same time. It's often already in the 90's here by now, and probably (certainly) will be soon. Oh well, at least the town's population will thin out a bit for the summer, and we'll have an easier time driving and parking.

It was fine coming home to a meal ready to go in the crock pot, needing only to cook another hour with the lid off to thicken it a bit. A Leanne take on Burgandy Beef. No kind of authentic, but we all liked it a lot and ate most of it. Bill likes most any kind of glotch, and I am becoming more fond of it all the time. Leftover glotch is the perfect comfort food for whatever ails ya', I've concluded. And so another week of cooking is concluded.

And so, to bed.
--
Sz Pepys

Aftermath

Gainesville

Waiting for Bill to arrive home. His plane doesn't get in til after 11:00. He did not want me to drive to the airport alone at night, although I'd have willingly done so. I'll go fetch him for some reason he can't get a cab.

Nice spring day here too, and of course, the aftermath of the Victory was very much in the air. I wore a gator shirt, as did many others in the Library. A group of them even went out to the racetrack for a celebration with the team. I didn't feel like I should do that, being such a fair weather fan, and no basketball fan at all. And of course, there wasn't a newspaper to be found anywhere.

Actually, it's Sandy's and Chris' team too-- they both genuine alumni. However, I guess the Gators count as my home town team.

Had the windows open tonight, as the air is cool and sweet. Definitely time to turn off the pilot lights on our gas area heaters.

Got all the blessings done this week for a change. And have the stuff all chopped and browned to toss in the crock pot in the morning. Clothes laid out. Sink shined.

Watching the Yanks at the A's for the second night in a row. Which teams do I like now? I've gotten kind of distanced from the Orioles-- they are a completely different team now. I like the Giants, the Cubs, the A's, the Marlins, and Boston. Oh and of course the hapless Devil Rays

April Madness

Gainesville

Man, I always hate this day-- the Monday after the spring time shift. And this year, no coffee to greet me when I woke, my automatic coffee maker being in D.C. I gave up trying to get there on time, and on making coffee. (Hit Starbucks again.) And I left an hour early-- taking two hours of vacation for the day.

Not much going on in the tank. I was able to get a start on

This blog is interrupted by current events:

*** GATORS WIN ROUNDBALL!! ***

Amazing. I was watching opening day baseball, talking on the phone to Bill, and he alerted me that they were actually going to do it. I watched the last 30 seconds-- not wanting to jinx them til I was sure it was in the bag, doncha know. Shortly after that, Sandy was there ( via call waiting) croaking "Rah Rah Rah"

Needless to say, the town has gone bonkers. Should be interesting tomorrow.

Gonna pack it in for the night. Too much TV.

Opening Night/Day

Gainesville

Glad to hear you both made it back safely and without incident. Sandy, please take care of yourself first. No heroics for your students until you feel better.

Bill is off, and has arrived safely. He didn't call until late because his travel companions (the Director and his former boss) wanted to go out to dinner immediately after arrival. They are staying right at the airport, where the meeting is too. Should be a relatively stress-free trip. Knock-knock.

I remembered today was Grandma's birthday, as I always do. That one got stuck in my head at an early age, and I always think about her on the date.

Forgot to mention yesterday that the microwave suddenly died yesterday morning. It was nearly 20 years old, and was a cheap one at that. I figured we'd deal with it when Bill got back, but when I got up this morning, he'd already been off shopping for a new one, and hooked it up. It's even cheaper, but the technology has come a long way-- it's bigger, half again as powerful, and has that spinning carousel inside. I'll have to completely recalibrate how to mike, going through a period of burning stuff.

Wonder if I'll have it in me to make coffee myself (!) tomorrow, or whether I'll reheat today's, then run to the nearest on-campus Starbucks site. Once the new Library opens, the Starbucks option will be next door instead of 10 minutes away.

Also forgot to mention that yesterday marked the six month point in the pre-retirement countdown. A date I've been eagerly awaiting. I need to take six weeks of vacation before then, and have yet to figure out how I want to do that. Such a delightful problem. Maybe I should take a few hours of it tomorrow and wallow in Opening Day.

The Opening Night baseball game was rain delayed for many hours, during which I left ESPN2 on. What a strange assortment of TV I saw-- including a loooong promo thing involving the Giants and one of the stars of The Benchwarmers. It was oddly compelling. I may now have to actually look at the silly movie. Halp-- I've been brainwashed!

And so, to bed. I hope.

Saving Daylight. Right. (D)

Gainesville

It's very late in REAL time, and even later in phony time ("daylight savings," what a joke). And what a day to have to fly-- not only Mom and Sandy but Bill too will be airborne tomorrow. The cat and I are happy to be grounded.

Thanks for the report on your surprise visit to A.D., Mom. Good work, both the report and the the visit itself. Even if she does not remember all the details of the visit, I'm sure the happy feeling of the time she spent with you and your conversation and pictures will linger at some level with her.

Sandy, I hope you are taking good care of yourself. It's probably good you did not go upstairs, all things considered. You know what they say about kids being the great disease-vectors, and in this context, you're the kid!

Lessee. I woke, I shopped, I cooked. What else is there to say about the day? The cooking was very successful-- Again, from FC #78, this time the Tilapia with Tomatillo, Black Bean & Mango Salad. Oh yes, many thumbs and claws up. It was great, and not at all hard. Besides some tomatillos, I had some Brussels sprouts I needed to use, and as luck would have it, Bill requested a half hour delay, so I was able to make the Balsamic-Bacon Vinaigrette Sauce from the same issue that was so good on broccolini a few weeks ago. Hey! He's going to DC, where the eating is splendiferous, and I want him to remember that he can get some good eats at home too...

My Saturday Movie Night habit continues-- tonight was Good Night and Good Luck. Bill wandered in as it was starting, and stayed to see the whole thing. We both agreed it was very well done-- who knew George Clooney had this kind of stuff in him? I'm always happy when someone I'd earlier dismissed proves me wrong.

Gators won tonight. I didn't watch. Instead, while cooking, I "watched" the last inning of the last Cubs pre-season game, then some women's golf, then a paint ball competition (I kid you not), then some drag racing. This was part disdain for round ball, and part not wanting to jinx them by actually... watching.

Opening Night tomorrow. I'm so ready.

Tuesday, December 2, 1952
337th Day--29 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning we got up & dressed & went to school riding Bus 8. The day went half rainy day scedual & half fair S " I got my report card. Four 1's in Spelling, Pennmanship, Language, & Reading. 2's in Social Studies & Science. 3 in Math. Above grade average too. At Choir Bonnie S. [Simrell] & [Carol] Ceremeli took over. Oh Brother! Sandy's grades were pretty good too. [A lot better than mine, I suspect]
Suzy