My Best Friend

Gainesville

I'm sorry you feel so bad, Mom. No one should have to be force-fed, even by themselves. And I never think of a drink as being "lonely" -- during the 15 years I lived alone, I often considered that solitary drink to be my best friend. I realize that is not politically correct, but it's the truth. A great pain killer (all kinds of pain) and clear proof that some diety, somewhere, loves us. I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

Hard to believe you are dealing with ice up there. We had our second straight day in the 90's. No, that's not a typo: 9-0+. And much worse than that out on the endless frying pan of asphalt parking lots where I shopped today.

I usually don't cook on Friday, but went ahead with my plan to try a recipe for shrimp cocktail with stuffed green olives, and a re-run of grilled eggplant from an old FC-Q&D. Too bad I forgot my rule of not doing more than one complicated recipe at any one meal: 2-1/2 hours for two relatively light dishes. Made some mistakes with the shrimp -- red onion instead of white, twice as much garlic, and the magic olives probably should have been rinsed, and maybe less of them, as they were overpowering -- but it was worth trying again. The eggplant was as wonderful as before.

I picked up some books at B&N. I've grown bored with The Mermaid's Chair (nice plot but clumsy writing), but need something easier than S/N for awhile. Remains of the Day seems about right, and finally the new P.D. James, The Lighthouse, is out in paperback. Happy to see the latest Complete Peanuts (61-62) is out too. At Best Buy I picked up Altman's Prairie Home Companion, and very much looking forward to it, plus new albums by Dylan, Lindsey Buckingham and a group I heard on XM-radio yesterday, The Concretes.

Managed to cajole TiVo into recording the new Battlestar Galactica episode tonight (a manual date/ time/ channel setting) but just to be sure, watched live while finishing up kitchen routines. What an amazingly good show! Someday it will get the respect it deserves.

All in all, it's been a good week.