Evening Tea

My sister-in-law has been cooking incredible food for us for the last week. She told us, though, that last night would be the show-stopper, and she was right. She made this incredible Tuscan Chicken recipe. The chicken is formed into crab-cake-like things and served on a bed of greens with a tomato relish. I'll try to get a recipe for you soon. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Also, every day we've been getting homemade rolls like this. Talk about getting spoiled!

Our nightly practice is to pile on the couch and floor and watch 24 after Olivia goes to bed. We are deep into Season 3. Last night our guest Jonathan prepared the tea and set out the fine china. We also ate a carton of Ben & Jerry's. Fun times.

Inflation...or Appreciation?

On Labor Day, I paid $5 for on old paperback of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. The price tag on the back from 2nd Look Books (a different bookstore) was $3.30. The price when it was published in 1976? $1.25. I don't feel very ripped off, though. It has a colorful 70s cover, and it's a book that's making me think about some things I'd never considered in that way before.

If you don't know, it's a story about some people who take a bus ride from the gray town of Hell to the outskirts of Heaven, where they meet various people from their past. Here's a conversation between a ghost from a bus and one of the very solid spirits who came to meet him (he was the ghost's old employee, and had murdered a man).

"...and I'm only a poor man. But I got my rights same as you, see?"
"Oh no. It's no so bad as that. I haven't got my rights, or I shouldn't be here. You will not get yours either. You'll get something far better. Never fear."
"That's just what I say. I haven't got my rights. I always done my best and I never done anything wrong. And what I don't see is why I should be put below a bloody murderer like you."
"Who know whether you will be? Only be happy and come with me."
"What do you keep on arguing for? I'm only telling you the sort of chap I am. I only want my rights. I'm not asking for some bleeding charity."
"Then do. At once. Ask for the Bleeding Charity. Everything is here for the asking and nothing can be bought."

A previous owner left some notes, such as "Only God can satisfy you completely," and rather cryptically, "Any significance in the Scotsman?" Someone who I assume to the be the last owner left a Chocolate Pecan Pie Luna bar wrapper between page 88 and 89, expiring on Aug 24, 2002.

Altogether, the book is so full of character that perhaps $5 was a bargain, after all. :)

"Portrait" of Rachel

portrait
Originally uploaded by alscalvin.

Melodee has the same camera as me (a Sony Cybershot). I've had mine since April, and taken it halfway around the world, but I never really read the manual. She has. So last weekend, while we were touring Virginia City and hanging out at the KOA, she showed me all kinds of cool stuff. Like how to turn the LCD display off, how to hook it up to a TV monitor, and how to change settings to b&w and sepia. (fun to use when taking pictures of a broken down haunted house in Virginia City!).

But I still like how my old experimental techniques (not "trial and error," of course!) turned out. I took this picture of Rachel using the iso setting in a dark car after Shakespeare in the Park. She didn't want me to take a picture, so wasn't holding very still...

Book Meme

Melodee tagged Brooke and me for this a while ago. Here goes my answers...

One book that changed my life:
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. This book might have had the most influence on my childhood. And I named my first cat, when I was five, after Caddie. (She was a stray and bit a lot.)

One book I've read more than once:
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I still have a crush on Almonzo and I've been reading it for 15 years. ;) (But this is a tricky question, because I've probably reread 80% of my favorite books.)

One book I'd want on a desert island:
It's cheating, but here's two: I'd want either Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers or else War & Rememberance by Herman Wouk. Both are long, and both have characters and a story that I love.

One book that made me laugh:
Picadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse

One book that made me cry:
Gone with the Wind, the second time around. I got to the part where Bonnie dies and Scarlett is about to miscarry, and saw very clearly my own need for a real, redeeming grace in Scarlett's - and hated that there was none for her.

One book I wish had been written:
Another book by Dickens as good as Our Mutual Friend.

One book I wish had never been written:
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Maybe it was just one stream-of-consciousness too many that semester, but I only read about 20 pages of this book (and I skipped class when we were supposed to discuss it).

One book that I am currently reading:
Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik: One Woman's Solo Misadventures Across Africa by Marie Javins.

One book I've been meaning to read:
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen