Official spring break report for Friday, March 31

Sleep: Lots and lots! (Ah, but this will soon end….)

Weather: Blue sky one moment, black clouds and marble-sized rain drops the next. We call this ‘spring’ here in Ory-Gun.

Stupid Stories: Okay, so Bill and I decide to go to The Farm for dinner. No, that's not competely true-- but what happened was so stupid that I did some editing, James Frey-like. ACK! Here's the real story. We were invited to a party at a fellow GA's house, and I was really looking forward to it. Bill doesn't know everyone, but he's good at get-togethers, and he was going to go along to make me happy-- I figured we probably wouldn't make a late evening of it.

Anyway, I'm dressed and waiting for him when he calls and tells me that he’s at a downtown bank and has locked his keys in the Jeep. he asked me to come rescue him from this coffee shop a couple of blocks from the bank, where he’ll going to be waiting for me. Okay so far?

I jump into Xena (Warrior Car) and as I’m driving to get him, it occurs to me that I should have checked to make sure the spare Jeep key was in my purse (it always is, but recently he’d had to use it—yes, when he locked his keys in his car—and now I’m wondering whether he gave it back to me…. You can already see where this is going, can’t you?). Anyway, I get to the coffee shop--through rush-hour traffic--and we drive to the bank to see the Jeep (otherwise known as DV—derelict vehicle—1) alone in the parking lot. I open my purse and open the zipper pocket where I keep the spare key, and it isn’t there. (You knew it wouldn’t be, didn’t you?)

Now, we have to drive all the way back home, again through traffic (it's now 7:30-ish, and 'm wondering why everyone is driving home so late). After tearing the house apart we finally find the key on top of the secretary where he’d left it (instead of giving it back to me last time he needed it), and where it had promptly gotten covered with books and mail and other house detritus. (I was somehow supposed to just intuitively know that it was there. Are you sensing that there's a little tension here?)

We then drove back downtown to his car, now through Friday-night traffic. By then it was getting late, and we were both starved, and he was really tired (this is where our age difference starts to show up), having had a really tough week-- lots of foundry visits and a lot of actual physical labor with huge patterns, etc. Anyway, I didn't have the heart to drag him to the party and really didn't want to leave him home alone. So, we decided to just go to dinner, and went to The Farm. The dinner was lovely, although I was sad about missing the party. Whew. And that’s the stupid story.

Fun: The Dixie Chicks’ next album, Taking the Long Way, hits the stores on May 23. Here’s an interesting bit from Wednesday’s Seattle Post Intelligencer:

People in the News: Chicks are still mad as wet hens

It's been three years since the war in Iraq began and the war declared by country music stations and mainstream America on the Dixie Chicks for criticizing President Bush. But they're "still mad as hell" about it, reported the AP. In a new single, "Not Ready To Make Nice," lead singer Natalie Maines lets people know how the Chicks felt about the barrage of death threats and boycotts that pelted them after she told a London concert audience she was "ashamed" that Bush was from their home state of Texas.

The chorus: "I'm not ready to make nice. I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell, and I don't have time to go round and round and round."

Their new video debuted yesterday on aol’s website. See yesterday’s blog for the link! And note the top photo of their infamous EW cover.

Chores: More paperwork, and got caught up on correspondence that was—literally—months old.

Food Events: Dinner at The Farm…. This is a place that makes you wax poetic about food. For anyone who hasn’t been there, it’s primarily a vegetarian place that also serves seafood. The food is all local, fresh, and organic. And incredibly delicious! We started with an old favorite—their baked brie, topped with a simple sugar glaze, sliced pears, and chopped walnuts, then baked into a melting ooze and served with sliced baguette. For dinner, Bill had blackened salmon—cooked perfectly—with grits cakes and a delicious spinach sauté. I had crab and risotto cakes, parsnip fries (baked, not fried), and a wonderful raw cabbage and carrot slaw, dressed lightly with rice vinegar and dusted with crushed hazelnuts. Major, major YUM, and at least some small recompense for missing the party.

Dog: Pretty much back to normal, although not eating much. But he played heartily yesterday—a rousing game of pink pig.