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9 january 2002

there are two new updates on the nobel reading project! check them out--or take them as fair warning.

passing my favorite newspaper on I-95.

Info and a downloadable PDF for Girl Next Door Runs Amok

hey, the weather people got it right this time!

SOUTHERN SNOW UPDATE! Late Thursday afternoon: It's still coming down late this afternoon, and the city is telling people not to travel if it's not necessary. So why are we incapacitated with seven inches, while Buffalo is back to normal with seven feet? Probably because we have seven snow trucks for the entire city. Even though I've got plenty of experience driving in extreme weather, I avoid travel around here on days like this. It's not me, but the other guy you worry about--the cocky one in his new Suburban who thinks hitting the brakes on ice is a good idea.

Here's the other thing you don't hear about. In the south, day temperatures will likely melt some of this. Then, that slush re-freezes overnight to create icy sheets of road. Seven trucks can't handle that. So I worked some here at home, then kicked back to watch Hedwig and the Angry Itch. It's warm in here, and here I stay.

It is precisley 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday night. I am looking out of my den window, which overlooks the west side of town. In the streetlight beams is snow--big, whopping flakes of it. Wilma is on the windowsill, perplexed. I am prepared with books, movies, and leftover Indian food. Winter, come and get me!

Boy howdy, did I start this year off wrong. My first meal of the year was a resounding stinker. Bleck, ptooey, and down the disposal you go. (No, Phoebe, I'm not talking about your party favors. They were yummy.)

I'm a pretty decent cook, but certainly no gourmet diva. I am not interested in taking the time to experiment, concoct, and otherwise put together unusual combinations of food. You give me a recipe, and I'll follow it. Bonus points if I can throw enough for several meals into the crock pot. When it comes to home cooking, I'll take the time to do it, if only to avoid all that processed garbage in the supermarket freezer. One of these days, I'm just going to break down and hire myself a nanny. I need one.

This weekend, I pulled out one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks, and got all giddy over a curry stew. Sounds good, right? Throw a bunch of turnips, parsnips, carrots, tofu, and other vegetables into the crock pot with spices. See you in a few hours. Hooray!

Yuck!

Wow, did my memory fail me on this one. I hate root vegetables. The only time you'll catch me with a carrot is when I'm either shoving it through the juicer, or shredding one for salad. And until this slop in a pot, I hadn't had a turnip since I was about 11. I think Mom cooked some, got a resounding thumbs down from the anti-root contingent, and I never saw one again. As to the parsnips, I think this was my first time. Parsnippus grotesqui.

Oh, I cannot believe how gross this was. I followed the recipe exactly, too--not my usual double-the-garlic and random ingredient-tossing approach. I had to run a few errands after activating the crock pot, so when I returned home, everything smelled heavenly. I was on my way to one well-fed evening. Friends would clamor to taste curried rooty stuff stew.

The only clamoring I did was to the phone. Papa John's had a special this week, so I got the large thin-crust with extra onions. Oh, and a Sprite to rinse out the stew.

Tonight, dinner at the new Indian restaurant with friends. Perhaps I should resolve this year to stick with what I know.