By the Sea

Gainesville

What an evil Monday-- at least for Bill. We had to stay til 7:30, and it still wasn't enough to resolve all the crazy stuff involved with getting the last finishing touches on that @#$%$ building. It is supposed to open to the public a week from tomorrow, and there are way more than a week's worth of niggles, big and small.

Good thing we'd been to lunch with Barbara, so there was no pressing need to cook. However, I'd brought in a lunch of the leftover duck from Sunday, which probably didn't survive a full day in my lunchbox with a small frozen bottle of water.

Speaking of the duck, the wine we had was a 2004 Syrah, not a 1994, as I erroneously posted. Somehow I lost a decade there-- a 2 year old bottle and a 12 year bottle are quite different animals! At any rate, a nice bold young wine that went well with duck.

Glad you took my nagging in the spirit in which it was intended, Mom. I'm really glad to hear you got back on NT and organ today, but especially that you started slowly. Baby steps. Jump in where you are. Very very good! I'm proud of you, and so is FL.

Interesting that you mention Grace Drayton in your transcribed letter. I know about her, of course-- she is a key figure in the history of women comics artists. In addition to the Dimples strip that ran in the 1910's, she also created the famous "Campbell Soup Kids" they used in the soup ads for so long. Ironic that her commercial art is better remembered than her comics. Do you still have the paper dolls? I hope you held onto them, because they are treasures.

Sandy, I said your icon was your own thing, but here's the model of a seascape icon I'd choose:

It just appeared on his blog today.

But, of course, that's just me.

Since I didn't have to cook tonight, I had time to finish up the L&R#8 graphic novel, Human Diastrophism. Talk about being emotionally slapped around-- I need to read all 100+ pages of it again to figure out the size and shape of the bus that hit me. But at least I could finally read another 2-3 pages of Hatfield's book, and know what he's talking about.

I also continue reading the Pullman critical works. I'm about halfway through The Magical Worlds of Philip Pullman: a Treasury of Fascinating Facts, by David Colbert. And it is indeed fascinating-- laid out in bite-sized chunks, lots of illustrations, notes in the margins-- a gentle introduction to Milton, Blake and other sources for the young and/or not- so-well- read reader. As part of the latter category, I find it fascinating indeed. I've already bought Paradise Lost, and am now intrigued enough to dig out the various editions of Blake we have around.

As of today, I have a little countdown program on my personal home page, telling me, to the second, how long it is until I'm officially retired. At the moment it is: 82 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes, 22 seconds. Or something close to that.