homesick

E and I hit the town on Friday night to find a painting of Beckett in Ballard. We didn't find it, but we found this one (or three) of Joyce, which was pretty cool. AND, as we walked in, we were charged a $5 cover. For what? One of my favorite bands, Anna Coogan and North 19, was playing. They were gracious enough to oblige my request for "Cold June" and it was a pretty darned fine night.

Hm. What else? We hit up World Merchants and I snagged some deliciousness: Northwest Teatime (my favorite lapsang blend of all time) and Sweet Chai teas, urfa biber (a smokey-sweet chili from Turkey), sumac, smoked paprika, and the best tumeric in the world. Seriously. I miss Seattle so very much.

When I got home, I discovered that the Yucatan soup with lime and crab that I wanted to make required smoked paprika (handy!), and today I used the northwest teatime and sweet chai teas to make a smokey-sweet pot of yumminess. I can't be there right now, but I take comfort in these familiar happy bags and flavours.

on the bright side, my skinny jeans fit

apologies. I was, as you know, in Mexico. Picked up a little cliche there that we like to call "food poisoning" on New Year's Eve. It took more than 20 hours and four Immodium pills before I got some relief - at which point, I was rather desperately dehydrated. Unfortunately, the treatment, though necessary at the time, was a bit too effective, and on Saturday night we had to rush to the ER. Why I try to live with things until I'm completely debilitated, I'll never understand. Anyhow. Things are moving again since Sunday, but the body's still not on track. I'm afraid I'm on a bit of a creative hiatus as I struggle to keep my head above water (my friend is teaching for me today, thank goodness), prepare to leave town on Wednesday, and get my body ready for this quarter. All I really want to do is go back to sleep some more.

On the bright side, my skinny jeans fit again. Actually, all of my skinny pants fit again. Nothing like being ill for two weeks for a crash diet. Blech.