Fourth

Gainesville

Note to self: If you're going to sleep til noon, do it on a day when you aren't going to fix a holiday meal you haven't fully planned yet. A mere 10 hour sleep as it turned out, but still.

Made the previously-mentioned Plum-Pork Salad w/CousCous (from Atkins Summer Cookbook), Texas Two-Step Cole Slaw, our old favorite, and green beans with bacon. We must have been on the same wavelength, Mom, because I also made deviled eggs-- nothing special, just basic, generic ones. I used to like to get quite creative with them, but no time today. I also had rolls from those frozen blobs that you let thaw/rise for 3-4 hours. They're really quite good, even as long as they've been in the freezer past their sell-by date. It worked as a holiday meal-- Bill pronounced the plumb/pork salad to be weird but very good-- I call that a success.

Despite the 4-hour+ cookathon, the kitchen is ready for action tomorrow. Once again, the timer worked its magic. I was sure that it was going to take a long time to finish cleaning up after coffee, but turned out to just barely over 15 minutes.

I plunged into the freezer early in the process, hoping to find some brats to give the meal a more traditional note, but never found any. In the process I got rid of quite a lot of stuff that had obviously expired, and grouped into large plastic bags two categories that tend to collect-- tomato products and soup broth of various kinds. Should be easier to find and use these up in the future.

FBoFW: Sandy, I, too, have watched the Liz/Anthony reunion be prefigured-- but I have always hoped it would not happen because (a) Michael married his grade-school sweetheart. If Liz does the same? Boring! (b) Anthony is such a dork. His last sympathetic appearance was at the bus stop in winter when Liz's presence "kept him warm." Since then he's been merely pathetic. (c) Duddley DoWright, the Canadian cop, is such a sweetheart. If Liz throws him over for Anthony and the abandoned child of his first wife, well, maybe they both get what they deserve. I just had higher hopes for Elizabeth. Dudley can always console himself in the arms of his childhood sweetheart, but that's depressing, too. Doesn't anyone ever break out of the deadly embrace of the clan/family group? Feh.

Arles: I remember the hotel robbery very well. Chris and I stayed at a cheaper place, so I guess thieves never bothered with us. My other memory of Arles is having a terrible cold (actually came down with it on the train in Spain (where the rain stays mainly in the plain), on the way to Arles. And yes, the song was buzzing in my head as the cold descended. I learned in Arles that I loved Provencal design (the sheets you slept on, Sandy, date from that), that I did not like mackrel, and that Chris could speak French and be understood better than I ever would in this lifetime-- discovered in a small market.

Nice to have the letter from Marty-- I'd forgotten you had an ambition to be an architect at one point. Interesting that you rejected English as a major as "too easy;" I did the same thing-- but there was always the subtext of, how could I ever make a living with this? Of course, if you love something strongly enough, that question doesn't matter. I didn't love "English" in the abstract enough, or else, I didn't have the right teachers at the right time. And who knew the English and Comics could be combined? Anyway, Marty, I hope you'll give us some commentary about that letter, after Mom finishes transcribing it.

It's now past 1:00. Tomorrow is a school day, and I want to get a crockpot thing started before leaving.