Since Last We Spoke

I worked ten days in a row. I can now explain why God did not make a ten day week. It would require everyone another 3 or 4 days to rest up from the ten day week.

I also made banana bread for my Sunday school class, only to discover when I arrived that one of my students had brought in a cake to celebrate those who had summer birthdays. So I thought, "Let them eat cake." and sent the bread to the adult sunday school class.

I am doing the "Financial Peace University" through my church. Or "FPU" (pronounced fpoo) as Sam and I call it. It looks like it's going to be very good. I love the all the scripture in the lessons.

I found another spider in the house. And this time I asked Sam to catch the spider and release it somewhere near a pig, in memory of E.B.White. Sam smooshed it with a tissue and then set the tissue near some ham in the kitchen. I explained he had missed the point entirely as I was hoping both the spider and the pig would be alive.

I went to a Red's game. One of the batters chucked his bat all the way into the 4th row of fans along the third base-line. The lights on two of the towers went out briefly -which caused a twenty minute pause int the game. The Red's won- which they always do when I attend their games. It's very thoughtful of them. It was a close win too, they were tied at the bottom of the 9th when the Red's pulled ahead. After they won there were fireworks. And I ate cotton candy and ice cream. The junk food may be my favorite part ball games.

We parked a mile away from the stadium thinking to save the $10 by walking. So we started walking back to the car with a great multitude which gradually petered off to small streams of people on the sidewalk. And then there were just a few, and then it was just us. Which probably says something profound about life and death and the universe.

Chili and Bond and Kitten Wrangling

I'm very excited about lunch today. Chili made by Sam using Daddy's recipe. It's the most comforting of all comfort food. In the past, I've eaten this chili three days in a row and been very happy about it. I think I could eat it every day, but it's always gone after two or three.

I decided to read and Ian Fleming book, because I found one very cheap, and because I tend to like British authors, and because I was curious if the books were better or worse than the movies. Everyone should know, Ian Fleming is one of the most irritating authors of all times. He almost provokes me to become very involved in the feminist movement. He is not a very good writer, and his plot-crafting could use some work, and I despise every one of his characters, including James Bond. Fleming has a horribly warped view of women. After the first few pages I skimmed the rest, and it continues to be worthless the whole way through. Never read one of his books.
I feel better for getting that out of my system.

Sometimes, when I want my own puppy or kitten, I wish I had my own house. But I'm torn because I really like renting. It's very low maintenance. I don't have to get things fixed when they need it, and even when our air is down, the other apartments cool ours. We can use free wi-fi from the nearby Starbucks. Recently, a couple of un-tame kittens found their way into a cement window well outside our apartment building. One of them had trouble getting back out, and so Sam went to the rescue, armed with a towel, some thick rubber gloves and a piece of lunch meat. The kitten didn't seem to realize that we were trying to help, because neither Sam or I speak kitten. Pippa (the kitten) bit through the rubber gloves and also through Sam's thumbnail, before making her escape. The kitten is now free (and happy we hope), and Sam is healing nicely although his guitar and piano playing may not be at it's usual high standard. All of this has caused me to conclude that houses and pets are too high maintenance for this point in my life. Maybe in a couple years.

Hibernation has ended

I've been married for 2 months and 10 days and I highly recommend it. Maybe because we are perfect we have the perfect relationship. More likely because I married a great guy who makes a wonderful husband.

Another recent discovery: I've never liked Chicken Parmesan. It's so heavy that after eating four bites or so, I would want to avoid the dish for the rest of the meal. On Friday one of my friends (Megan) served us some homemade Chicken Parmesan, and I converted. It was perfect and yummy and not too heavy. If I were the poetic type I would compose an ode to that dinner.

When I was a kid, I would listen to audio recordings of books over and over again. My favorites were Peter Pan (not the Disney version, the J.M.Barry version), The Secret Garden, and also a recording or E.B.White reading Charlotte's Web. I listened to these so repetitively that Miriam would often get frustrated with me and insist that we listen to Adventures in Odyssey or something. You can ask her.

As I was listening to the radio in my car the other day I heard an interview with an author who wrote a book about E.B. White and Charlotte's Web. If you've studied any E.B. White essays you may know that there was a pig that died on White's farm in Maine, and although White had been raising him for food, he felt very bad when his pig died.

What I did not know was this: there was a spider who lived in White's barn , and this spider did lay an egg sac. Shortly after White saw the egg sac, he had to go to New York for a while. So he put the egg sac in a small box and took it with him. He left it on his dresser in New York for a while and then one day saw a bunch of little spiders crawling out of the box. They started flying around the room, which he found fascinating. He probably would have left them there, but his cleaning lady objected and he had to get rid of the baby spiders. These incidents apparently served as the inspiration for Charlotte's Web.

Just this morning I invoked the wrath of Sam on a largish spider in our apartment, so I'm sure I would have sympathized with the cleaning lady more than White if I had been there. But somehow the fact the White would try to keep pet spiders is just endearing. That is just how he was. When he was recording the scene were Charlotte dies he had to do 17 takes because he kept breaking down. Maybe he associated his feelings of grief and loss with the deaths of animals or even insects. Children tend to to this too - I remember Rosie, when five, being very upset over the death of a caterpillar. Maybe that's what makes Charlotte's Web such a great kids book. Or maybe it's the wonderful plot or the animal's animality or E.B.White's gorgeous writing style. For whatever reason, it's still on of my favorite books.