Southern Biosphere

Gainesville

I can blame the blog hiatus on the atypical two nights in a row out... the usual Thursday at Outback, and an unusual cocktail party (if you can call beer and wine such) that ran for about three hours after work Friday-- another farewell to my boss, this one only library managers and boss's three direct reports, which includes me. I'd still have had to attend, in role of Mrs. Director, however. And it was a nice enough party, just outlasted my stamina.

At any rate, drinking early in the evening does not tend to favor blogging. It goes on in my head, just never makes it into digital form.

It rained substantially both Thursday and Friday, very good news for the local biosphere. Starting to look a bit more like a Florida summer, including a huge bloom of mosquitos and other fauna. Rather nice today, though-- very hot, but not steamy.

I've fallen head first into another book: Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I haven't finished it yet, but I'll have some to say about it when I do. Today, the Love & Rockets collection I'd been waiting for to be able to continue reading in order (#8, Blood of Palomar), FINALLY arrived. I picked it up just before starting this and was surprised to see how much I'd missed these characters and how much I care about them. Looking forward to a long string of these stories. And I'm going to order the rest of them now, so I get them in plenty of time to continue.

Glad you are having days you feel good about, doing your routines, etc. Very good! I also appreciate the letter from Sandy's Great Northern jaunt. Except for Iceland, I've never been in Nordic lands. I know quite a bit about Finland, though, thanks to corresponding with Marc Treib while he was on his Fulbright there in 1966-67. Now THERE would be some letters to transcribe!

Got a late start today, but at least I did make it out to shop. I fixed tilapia fillets in a simple tomato-scallion sauce topped with shredded Monterey Jack and Parmesan cheeses. We liked it, the cat adored it. Steamed asparagus and a fruit salad that included local blueberries and non-local Ranier cherries as sides.

One of Bill's fellow dirs brought him back a bottle of wine from his travels, so Bill asked for a meal appropriate to it so he can tell him how we liked it. Going to try a couple of those frozen duck halves -- we really liked the one we split a few months ago, but agreed it was not quite enough. That should go well enough with a 1994 Lafond Syrah, from the Santa Rita Hills near Santa Barbara (I hope).

Sandy, I decided I was out of line to even suggest what your comment-icon should be. It's a very personal thing. So if you like the anonymous Byronic image and feel it suits you, by all means, keep it! If you ever want a change, to Farmer Soares, or whatever, I'll be glad to help.

Marty, you are way too young to appreciate cruising-- the idea of a vacation without much adventure or stress other than exploring a self-contained world, the pleasure of reading as long as you want outside, the endless fascination and beauty of the open ocean in all times of day or night and all weathers, the relaxation of doing nothing and being waited on hand and foot. Makes me smile just to think about it. Oh, and inbetween all that, you get to explore a number of places like and including the Bahamas. And maybe even see the Southern Cross for the first time.