Living Small

Hating Delta

Late last night, David and I returned from our third trip to New Jersey in the last year. My grandparents live there, so we went for Passover last April, then for my cousin's engagement party in July, and then again for the first night of Passover this year. My mom and aunt met us out there, and we had a wonderful time with them, and with my grandparents, and with my cousin who lives in Brooklyn. We mostly just hung out and prepared for the Seder and ate a lot, but we also had a day of rainy sightseeing, the highlights of which were Coney Island and the Brooklyn Museum. My mom and I played a flute concert for my grandparents and David and I managed to wheedle a few stories out of them.

It was a fantastic trip until we got the dreaded robo-call from Delta yeasterday morning, telling us that our flight home had been cancelled. We were supposed to have been on the same flight back as my aunt at 12:35, but she got bumped to the 4:20 Detroit flight and we were routed through Atlanta. When I called Delta to see if we could get on the 4:20 with my aunt, I was informed that Atlanta flight had been canceled as well and we were now on the 6:30 to Detroit. There were no more seats on the 4:20, and I declined her cheerful offer to put my aunt on the 6:30 so we could all go together. We had originally planned our flight to coordinate with my mom's return to Los Angeles, so we still had to return the rental car and get to the airport in time for her flight, which hadn't been canceled because she wasn't on Delta. So we settled in for a long afternoon at the airport. We tried to get on the standby list for my aunt's flight, but it was so oversold that they weren't even taking names. She finally got off the ground about forty minutes behind schedule, and then David and I sat and watched as our flight got delayed again and again. He was convinced until the moment we took off that we weren't going to get back to Detroit, but after a long sit on the runway we were in the air shortly after 9pm and home about eight hours later than we had planned. If we had left in a car when our original flight was supposed to have taken off, we would have been home sooner. One might blame it on the weather or just accept that things like this happen once in a while, except that we had a very similar experience the last time we tried to come home from Newark, and the weather then was perfectly clear. I never thought I would be nostalgic for Northwest Airlines, but it definitely seems that service has gotten worse since Delta took over.

Procrastinatory Cooking

Cooking is one of my super powers.  I cook dinner nearly every night, make ice cream about three times a week (yes, we eat THAT much ice cream), and bake bread every week for David's sandwiches.  Mostly I do this without recipes and kind of on auto-pilot, and it doesn't seem like it takes up that much time in my life.  But the important thing is that I enjoy being able to feed myself and David.  This semester I have been busier than ever and, for some reason, instead of cooking less, I find myself cooking more.  I'm trying to find creative things to do with the pork from our farmer, and I have also found myself procrastinating by reading cookbooks and cooking blogs, and when I come across an interesting-sounding recipe, I just have to try it.  My mother-in-law recently gave me this cookbook, and it is already food-splattered and well on its way to being well-worn.  My favorite food bloggers are currently Bridget and Molly, and I have been avidly testing their recipes.  In the last two weeks, I have made these three breads and a fantastic dip, and I made this salad at least three times.  Last night for dinner, we had Molly's polenta, Bridget's kale, and a thick slice of ham from Jerome.  It's little wonder that I have gained five pounds this semester!

Giant Ball of Ick (Photos Omitted)

For about a month now, I have had this huge constellation of pimples right under my nose. It started out as a red welt, then developed a white head, which turned into several white heads, and now they have merged into one really really big one. I know this isn't what you want to read, but it is about the only thing on my mind -- aside from class, prelim reading, and next month's conference paper, that is. I have tried all the tricks I can think of to make it (them?) go away: heat, ice, fingernails, and $50/tube prescription medicine. Nothing has worked. I really thought that I wouldn't have to worry about this kind of thing after I turned thirty! I'm even wondering if I should take it to a doctor to make sure it isn't some kind of malignancy. Any suggestions?

Springing

My trip to Colorado was a short one -- Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon; a day and a half of work in Fort Collins and two nights in Boulder -- but I seem to have brought the good weather back with me. It was fifty degrees and sunny when I landed in Detroit on Saturday, and yesterday I went for my first outdoor run (VERY slolwly) since November. It looks like we will have highs in the fifties for most of the week. It may be time to put away the long down coat. Is it too early to think that spring is springing?

What Happened To Bagels?

Bagels are an ideal food item -- crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, and a perfect vehicle for cream cheese and lox. But ONLY for cram cheese and lox! I just stopped into Einstein Bagels at the Denver airport (on my way home from a business trip to the Great Plains) and was mortified at what they sell there. The only things that belong in a bagel are sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion, garlic, egg, and salt. No raisins, no chocolate chips, no green chile, and no asiago cheese. And I'm not even going to begin with how wrong the bagel dog or egg-and-bacon bagel sandwish is! Somehow they have done away with all of the real bagel flavors and now just specialize in the totally unacceptable. Though as I walked away with my plain bagel and plain cream cheese, I started to wonder if I may have just gotten old and crochety.