global warming, eh?

Where have I been?

We’re on the shore of another Wednesday and we're just watching the tide slowly begin to recede from another week.

The Metro-plex weather took a tumble into the (relative) freezer of winter this week. It’d been unseasonably warm the last two weeks and that made sleeping uncomfortably uncomfortable (I CAN be grumpy when it’s hot). Our circa 1940s water radiators (they’re on / they’re off and we have no control / it’s winter and they’re ON) kept blasting out the hot air that amalgamated via climatic chemistry with the sloughy stuff coming in the open windows. I don’t like hot. Fortunately, the laboratory is now closed since our highs only meander into the 40s and sleepy-time is in the 20s. By the way, with that change in temperature I’ve realized I’m not smart enough to learn that walking to Ballston Metro in 28 degree morning frost requires more then a light wool sweater…age does not increase the ability to learn and comprehend.

I’ve determined that I’m a literary half-wit. That insight means I’m now reading East of Eden as the opening salvo in my annus anorakish mirabilis. I don’t know how many literay-schmiteray books I’ll get through in 2007 - I’ve not list of requirements - but I’ve let Christine know she should offer a title a month for me to tackle. This has, of course, led to flashbacks of Literary Masterpieces and some other class I stumbled through in high school. At least now I’m doing most of the choosing and there will be no Hawthorne, Sinclair Lewis, or Melville (well, maybe Moby Dick). East of Eden is quite horrific through the first hundred pages. We’ve got parents dying of consumption; lying fathers with peg legs, two brothers that absolutely hate at each other; one daughter who through murder, thieving, and whoring fills her evil urges (she gets gruesomely beat to near death by her keeper); at least two sessions of the actual whipping of children to keep them in line; and one California immigrant family that can't seem to make any money no matter how smart or diligent they are. It’s a nice opening to an American tale. It’s all starting to roll into one big story so I’ll keep interested…I think.

I managed to get out to Iota for a live show on Sunday night. There must have been at least ten other people in the club for a fine evening’s set with roots rocker Jason Ringenberg.

Christine is back in ‘school’. I don’t know that getting up early TWO days a week really qualifies as anything other than a part-time rock n’ roller lifestyle but I’ll take her at her word. She did come home yesterday with two very impressive looking law books that have GOLD EMBOSSED lettering on the faux-leather covers. She also added an externship at the (Dame) Jane Goodall Institute here in Arlington to her spring learnin’ schedule.

Laurel came to D.C. for four days after the New Year and we managed to squeeze in a few items: a tour of the Capitol, the Supreme Court, Archives, Library of Congress, Natural History Museum, American Indian Museum, Air and Space Museum, Bureau of Engraving, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, an evening of Texas Hold ‘em Poker, The National Zoo, salmon and potatoes (dinner, not the Salmon and Potatoes Smithsonian Museum), our Christmas gift exchange, and a thousand miles on the Metro. Her feet were good and tired by the time she got on her plane back to Omaha. She’ll be back out over the long Presidents Day weekend in February.

We’re having some guests over for dinner on Saturday night and I’m trying to put together a menu that doesn’t include red meat, mushrooms, or seafood (not sure if that includes fish). Of course, the red meat isn’t much of any issue anyway…but mushrooms and seafood? What are the odds? I’m thinking maybe six bowls of Weetabix and a hallelujah.

Love to all.