nice evening

I went down to Shilrington after work and metazbound. The plan was that we'd each have dinner beforehand then meet, have some coffee, and see "De-Lovely." Well, I left work late, got tied up at home feeding the kitties (and petting my upstairs charges to reassure them that all the people in the world had not disappered), and answering a few emails, only to realize that I had to leave *NOW* if I was going to meet Brooke. So we went to Toro Tapas and I had dinner while she had some tea and ice cream. We chatted about friends and what was going on with us, and then we went off and saw the movie, which I enjoyed tremendously. We agreed we'd both have to get the soundtrack (Brooke kindly clued-in elderly, uninformed old me as to who the singers were who I didn't recognize :-) Then we parted, with agreements to go stuff often now she's back on this side of the Potomac, and I trundled home to my kitties. :-) But 8.00 came much too early today...

Edit: I should mention that I had the lamb chops, salmon in saffron sauce, and sliced portobello mushroom simmered in some sort of wine sauce--delicious! de-lovely! :-)

questions from kevinrtaylor

1. How far ahead do you plan your next meal?

Not very far, if it's for me. I buy a whole load of things at the store, usually every few weeks, then pull out whatever takes my fancy (when I'm leaving for work, if it's lunch; when I come home, if it's dinner). If I'm cooking forsomeone else, I'll usually plan a couple of days in advance.

2. If you were offered kingship of any small country, which one would you choose?
Grand Fenwick! But that's a duchy, so maybe I can't be king of it...

3. How often do you wonder what happens next?
Not all that often. My natural inclination is just to watch and find out, but I've realized in recent years that I have to be a bit more proactive than that, so now I try to plan out at leasst what I *think* I'm going to do.

Of course, there are certainly times when I fervently hope a specific thing *is* going to happen next (or soon). But wishing doesn't seem to make it so. Not even if you burn incense to the Seven Fortunate Gods.

4. If the sky's the limit, what is the penalty for exceeding it?
I'm not exactly sure, but they must be high because I've heard them referred to as "astronomicial" and "out of this world"! It's a cluded subject, but if there are multiple counts, I think the fees are cumulus, I mean cumulative.

5. What is the password?
It's daytime; you only use password and countersign after dark! ;-)

Er, mellon? "open, sesame"? "mudblood"?

G.. Keillor on the election

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/979/

Invective, but well-written, entertaining invective. Mr Keillor wishes for Mark Twain, but I find his writing much better and more etnertaining than Mr Clemens lugubrious and heavy-handed irony.

two years old, but still news...

A man rolled about on the ground having sex with a traffic cone as stunned youths watched in disbelief, a court heard yesterday.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1145092002://