Gainesville

Say goodbye to Two Flies-- we're in process of moving to our spiffy and more capable new site, Lotsa Flies: http://lotsaflies.blogspot.com/

This one will remain here for archival purposes, but new posts should go to Lotsa. Anyone can read it, but if you want to post, let me know so I can add you.

Gainesville

Was able to work most of the day on my project. Once I get into that XML stuff, I don't want to stop, because getting into it again is hard. I reached a huge milestone today, though. Not only did I finish a complete page of the Sunday comics section I'm using as a test, but the DTD (document type definition) that I wrote actually WORKED too. I never did get my sabbatical project to validate against the DTD I was working with. That's the problem with using what someone else has written-- you don't really understand it. This scheme is similar but a lot simpler-- and since I built it myself, I have a prayer of fixing it when things go wrong.

I kept working on it several more hours when I got home (crazy) and got a start on a second page.

Some of this is undoubtedly Christmas-avoidance, of course. Tomorrow I must get started... nothing can happen until I (a) break down and toss the heap of empty boxes in the big room and (b) reclaim the desk in the study so I can (c) get started on addressing cards and (d) have a staging area for setting up the snow scene. That's Part I.

Part II requires relocating several hundred books occupying the dining room table so I can get out stuff needed to decorate the (as yet non-existent) tree. Oh me oh my.

Presents? What presents?

Meanwhile, menu and food for the week has to happen. Bills have to be written. House needs Blessing (badly). YOW!!

[Vacation symbol]
Thursday, June 26, 1952
178th Day--188 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
What a Night! Suzy Sandy & Chris in that doublecouch bed. Wow.
Pa fixed us all Breakfast. Then he took San & I home. We took the kittens in to the Animal Shelter cause they all sick with infections. We rode most of the time at Horse B.R. Tomorrow is the Big Test. I'm Nervous. I got Hank today. Big C.O.H. Suzy

Friday, June 27, 1952
179th Day--187 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning we got back our little black kitten. It was over at the Petersons. Tonight was the Big Test. I got Hank with Thelma. Things went fine until I got on for my ride. Chicque bit Hank and Hank kicked Chicque & they bothe started bucking away. I held on for dear life [underlined] They stoped in a minute tho. Boy was I scared. Brr. I passed tho. C.O.H. better.

My comments: No earthly idea what C.O.H. stood for. I do vividly remember that riding test, though. I can't believe I wasn't thrown, and when I said I held on, I meant to the reins, not the saddle-- they'd drilled into us that we were never to grab the saddle no matter what. Hank (the horse) and I got along well, but we were missmatched-- he was huge, the biggest horse there, and as always, I was the tiniest kid. It was kind of comical.

Gainesville

Got strange new front teeth installed. They look great, but feel foreign. Guess I'll get used to them.

Bill is working on getting the snapshot we just took of us with the cat ready to send to Marty. Just under the deadline for your card, I hope, Mom.

I bought some cards for us today. And have just about decided to take next week off. There's just no pressing reason to be there, I need to use the vacation time, and if we're going to have any Christmas at all, I need to take some time to make it happen.

Got some work done on the Sunday funnies project. A loooong evening at Outback-- very crowded, and Mel was working hard behind the bar. Not quite so cold as it has been, and we had rain and even some thunder in the late afternoon. It's starting to look less like Christmas. But wait til next year...

[Vacation symbol]
Tuesday, June 24, 1052
176th Day--190 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning Mom gave us our usual list of Chores. Brenda's Mother and her baby are home. We went down and got to see "Billy" thru the window. (Ya cant go inside yet.). He is a [underlined] Doll! I took my riding lesson again. I rode Hank. He is BIG! The clan [illegible] ther before us. AHDVAHNCED No Less! Test is on Fri. Brr Suzy

[Vacation symbol]
Wednesday, June 25, 1952
177th Day--189 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
This morning we did our chores as usual and Sandy went to an eye apt. Aunt Dotty & the gang came over 'cause Mom is giving Aunt Dotty a Toni. At horseback we didn't ride at all. we just practiced for test. Mrs. Hillhouse drove me half way to Aunt Dotty's & she (A.D.) Drove rest. We ate dinner with them and are going to stay all night (I think) Suzy

Gainesville

I am once again street legal-- arriving at DMV before 7:30 did the trick. Almost no wait, the process was quick and painless, and the staff weren't yet tired and stressed out. I now have to officially wear glasses to drive for the first time, but that's okay, because I really do need them. (No problem passing the eye test with them on.) The new cards are very elaborate and colorful, and I was able to change my name on my voter registration (finally) at the same time.

We arrived at work shortly after 8:00, a rare occurance for us. It was therefore a very long day.

Spent a lot of time trying to get a box ready to send off to Michigan State. (Did I mention this foolishness before? I think so. The moral being NEVER buy one of those pre-paid postage boxes unless you are sure your stuff is big enough to fill it up.) My complete comics scholarship to date will be in there, plus display programs from the Library's comics exhibits, etc. And it still will not be full enough to get a Good Deal on the postage.

Tomorrow I work at home. It will be good to start picking up the pieces of that Sunday comics project I'd started before the California trip. I presumably have a dental appointment at 10:30 tomorrow to get my permananet caps; however, tonight I found an ominous message on the robot to call "concerning" the appointment. Who knows, maybe it will be changed again.

I'm hoping a good night's sleep will resolve some of my angst about work-related problems. Hope the same for you and your card project problems, Mom.

Thanks for the recipes, Sandy. I buy kale pre-chopped. In one of the cooking mags I saw a suggestion that the ONLY way to get kale really tender was to freeze it. I have two bags of it frozen, and have been waiting for a chance to try it. Next week for sure.

Meanwhile, tonight I did a small pork tenderloin with roasted vegetables. As usual, I destroyed the tenderloin by believing the meat thermometer and cooking it until I could see it was half past dead, even though the reading said it was still dangerously rare. Feh. The over-roasted veg combo (mushrooms, onions, turnips, red and green bell peppers, garlic), however, was outstanding.

Some rules I need to internalize:

• NEVER take a mouthful of gin, then forget it's in there while you type away at your blog.
• NEVER check your work email late at night, then try to consult about it with a local expert while drinking gin (and forgetting it's in your mouth)

Hmmm, I sense a recursive folk song of the old lady swallowing a fly-type coming on. Obviously time to pack it in.

[Vacation symbol]
Sunday, June 22, 1952
174th Day--192 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
I got up and got dressed today. I feel much better. The Telethon was still goin on! Beany was on this morning but I did not get to see him. Horse-back riding lessons will be about every day this week. Chris is much better. We can't keep him down. We bought him some crayolas and he just loves 'em. Suzy
[within a box at bottom, small letters:] *Telethon to send U.S. athletes to helsinki for Olimpics

[Vacation Symbol]
Monday, June 23, 1952
175th Day--191 Days to Follow

Dear Diary
We cleaned up the front room this morning. This afternoon I went to horse back riding lessons. We did nothing but ride!! I rode Toby, Lady Alice, Hank and Timmy. I didn't ride Chicque. Lady Alice and Hank were good but Toby & Timmy were b a d. Mr. Engman was there and I did simply awful. The horse wouldn't behave. We are still going on our house plan. Suzy

All Charlie did with the kale is cut it up a little and add it to stir-fried peppers and onions. Here's a recipe we both love (I'm sure I make half):

2 tsp ex virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 lb kale, tough stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 cup stock or broth
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 TB fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until lightly golden. Stir in the kale and stock. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the kale is wilted and some of the liquid has evaporated, about five minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and cook uncovered until the kale is tender, five to seven minutes longer. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve immediately. (I'm sure I've also made this with cut-up regular tomatoes.)

So here's the recipe:

Lentils with sausage

10 oz small dark lentils (such as French Puy lentils)
4 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery, diced
4 italian sausages or 2 italian sausages and 2 ounces pancetta, prosciutto, or guanciale, diced
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
3/4 c tomato passata or sauce
1 pinch red chile flakes
salt to taste
chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions: Place the lentils in a pan with about double their volume of salted water. Add half the garlic and half the celery to the pan, then place over high heat. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 35-40 minutes, or until the lentils are just tender but still firm.

Saute the remaining celery and garlic in a large frying pan with the olive oil and the sausage (and other meat if using), cooking until meat is lightly browned in places.

Add the tomato sauce and chile flakes and cook about ten minutes to blend flavors, then add the lentils and water, and cook over low heat for about ten minutes, adding more water if needed. If it's too soupy, raise the heat and cook down until thickened. Season with salt to taste and serve with chopped parsley, if desired.

That's the recipe as written. I used Puy lentils, but I'm sure any lentil will do. I had to add more water while cooking the lentils. I used half bulk hot italian sausage and half pancetta, but next time I'll use all sausage. I don't know if they mean you to keep sausage links together (most recipes have you take the sausages out of their casings anyway). It doesn't tell you how (or if) to cut up the garlic; I chopped it rather coarsely. Anyway, it was quite good. Remainder of it will be lunch today, since Charlie is not working.

The place he's working is out in the country, no one lives there, it's down a long private road that will probably not be plowed, and his cell phone doesn't work there. I discouraged him from going today, citing all these reasons, and he finally agreed that I was right. We have at least six inches of snow now, and it's still snowing steadily. He's blown it once with the big snowblower, but of course he'll have to do it again. At the present time he's put the blower in the garage and is fiddling with one of the belts. The endless joys of winter.

Anyway, the snow is beautiful. All those people who moan and groan and worry about having a white Christmas will just have to shut up this year. I don't think this snow will go away in ten days.

I've finally finished decorating the tree, and the boxes are ready to go back upstairs. It looks nice.

Today being a work-at-home day, I plan to do some housecleaning and laundry. We'll see how much I can get done. Must have at it, though I really just want to sit by the fire and watch the snow fall.

Gainesville

Sandy-- I need that recipe! Can you believe, I carried home two copies of the HOME section of that paper, and managed to toss the FOOD section?? D'oh! I shoulda gone ahead and memorized it. Also, I'd like to know what Charlie did with the kale-- I'm planning to use some tomorrow night.

What a brutal day. I was already making a list of everything that had gone wrong so far at 10:00 AM-- and that was before I realized I'd messed up my calendar and had a meeting across campus I thought was the next day, and went dashing out without putting on my winter coat. Nearly froze my TaTa's off, and was nearly 15 minutes late. As it turned out, it was a useless meeting-- I can't really do anything with retirement options for another six months.

At the same time, I started a list of things that went right today. It was a much shorter list. I was reduced to listing things like "smiled and spoke to a stranger in the elevator" and "pretty day (except for the cold)"

Bill couldn't get free for lunch until after 2:00, probably just as well, since we had to go to the Library's early evening social event, once again, across campus. By then my dogs weren't just barking, they were whining, howling, and threatening mayhem. We warmed our hands over chips and salsa, had small bowls of mushroom gravy (masquarading as soup) and that for starters at the Copper Monkey, a campus neighborhood eatery where they know us well.

As it turned out, the evening event featured quite a nice spread of real food, which would have done for dinner. What they called "libations," however, left something to be desired: Asti spumati was apparently whispered over one of the two bowls of punch, and of course that was the one that had to be constantly refilled (all from the same one bottle). Not the world's most festive party.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be equally fun-- 7:30 AM at the Highway Patrol, and no guarantee at all that it will be successful. If they want a driving test, it will have to wait until I have me own vehicle with me.

Bill seems to be coming down with a killer cold. He sneezed dozens of times when we got home, and is in the processing depleting a huge box of kleenex. No way I can talk him into posing for a card-picture tonight, I'm afraid.

We got our first ACTUAL (non-corporate) Christmas card today-- from Martin and Barbara Gundersen. And a very nice one, too-- trust the architects to do it up right.

I won't get back to the Diry tonight either--maybe tomorrow. Hope you all enjoy the Big Snow. All we have to look forward to is "colder and colder" until the weekend-- this is a very unusual forcast for us-- usually i't suddenly colder, then gradually warmer. What' s going on here?

Quick update since my return: Smooth and easy flight home. Huge difference in temperature! Single digits here, down from 50's in SFO. We stopped on the way home from the airport in a new restaurant in Prescott, called Confluence (where the Mississippi & St. Croix meet, ya know) that had been recommended to us by several friends. It was excellent! Charlie had crab cakes on Israeli couscous (big like tapioca) with a delicious goat-but-not-too-goaty-cheese sauce. I had pork tenderloin with an extraordinary based-on-blueberries-but-not-at-all-sweet sauce. Chunky mashed potatoes. Molten chocolate dessert. Excellent wine (a short, fancy, but reasonably priced wine list). Most satisfying experience! Drove home over back roads through sprinkles of snow. Tired!

Friday mostly rested and recovered. Dealing with a student teacher who's having problems (this has been going on for a while, has finally come to a head). I barbecued a steak for dinner, with baked potato and some vegetable. My classic not want to cook much meal. Good thing. Although Chas had had the dishwasher man here for the third time on Thursday, on Friday afternoon when we decided to run the DW it would not go. And of course too late in the week to get anyone here. The damnable thing about a dishwasher (once one is used to one) is that one can live without it, but one soon loses the will to live. (humor) Anyway, it finally got fixed today. Hope it runs tonight.

Saturday I made hamburger buns for the first time in a while, and we had hamburgers for dinner. Charlie stir-fried some bell peppers (little multi-colored ones), onions and kale, which was delicious. Must get that boy back into the kitchen more often. When he cooks for himself, he'll eat frozen commercial (or home made) stuff for a while, then he gets out the wok. My fantasy is to have him cook once a week. We'll see.

I can't remember what else we ate that day (oh yes, frozen but homemade Cincinnati chili with beans and pasta). On Sunday I roasted a chicken and made rissotto with dried morells that had been in the freezer for ages. This was very good indeed. I like rissotto more than Charlie does, alas, but he still praised it. Wish we had our own morells in the freezer, but we haven't found any for several years now.

Yesterday I spent the morning on the telephone resolving the student teacher problem, then went to Hudson to a middle school to observe a German class. Quick stop at Target to buy some stuff for the top of the tree.

Flashback to Saturday, when we cut and put up the tree and began to decorate it. Decoration is still not finished because it needs more lights. We have a good source now, since Mom will not be using any of the many strings they have. Now have two of her strings but they're not on yet, so the bottom of the tree is so far undecorated. Looks nice, though.

Anyway, last night I made the SFO lentil dish (this is a recipe from the Chronicle that both Suzy and I wanted, so we bought two papers on Wednesday). I used 1/4 pound (I think) of bulk hot Italian sausage and 2 ounces of pancetta. I think I'd like it better all sausage, since pancetta has such a distinctive flavor, but in any case, it was truly excellent. I love lentils, anyway. I just happened to have a pound of small dark French ones stashed in the basement. I'd ordered them some months ago from a catalogue. Wonder what it would be like to grow them.

So today was a tooth cleaning day, then I took Mom to Kowalski's for a big grocery shop. Before going we ate at the Worst (West) Wind, which was o.k. I had a pretty good French dip sandwich, which they make out of thin slices of leftover prime rib.

Dinner will be leftover chicken with gravy on mashed potatoes. Not even mushrooms. I'm going for the school lunchroom taste tonight. Therefore there will be peas, as well.

Looking forward to the resumption of the Diry. Let me put on the record how great it was to be in California with my seester!

Gainesville

It's very very cold here (for us). Everytime I sit down, I get a cat pasted to my lap. It makes it hard to move, let alone type.

Spent the day making manual corrections on a printout (!) for that article. What a horrible experience-- after ignoring the thing for 8 months, I HATE it! I'd like to start all over and translate it into something people could actually read. ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH. And wouldn't you know, for the first time ever, someone on the comics scholars list posted a question about FBoFW.

Drivers License now planned for early Wednesday am. Tomorrow morning Bill has a construction meeting, and tomorrow night we have to go to an evening event at the library-- it would have been way too long a day. Dentist stuff put off til Thurs. Will I ever dig out of this hole.

Tonight I made a stab at Steak Diane. We were able to eat it-- I call that a win.

John Madden asks: "Where are all the crooners?" Right where they always were-- haunting Christmas. I guess he meant, where are the LIVE ones?

At a long meeting this afternoon, I offered to give back my week of vacation in exchange for just cancelling Christmas altogether this year. No way I'm going to make the thing happen, but what a sweet dream.

If I had any sense, I'd press delete now. (Just say good night, Suzy.)

G'night, Suzy.

Gainesville

It's already after 1:00 AM, and tomorrow is a school day-- the first one in how long? Mostly football, interrupted by cooking. Just got out of the shower, and as soon as my hair dries, off to bed. This is going to be a difficult re-entry I can tell already. All those things that seemed so important before I left don't seem to matter much in the long run.

Trying to get back into the routines-- only about halfway there.

I told Bill tonight we need to get a picture of him for your card, Mom. We will try to get Carrot involved too, and get it to you tomorrow.

Seems my brain has already hit the hay. Will try to get an earlier start tomorrow night.

And so to bed.