I'm a gnu

so don't forget it. Mostly, I just travel in circles... the key word is travel, of course.

There's not a lot to tell and somehow I don't feel too inspired in the writing dept. It's a gray day but it has stopped raining. I need to run down to the center and talk to some hardware guys. Got a water filter (drinking water's been the issue lately)- got it home and noticed that most of the parts are missing. I shouldn't even confess to that but it's true, so what can I say. I'm disgusted- but mostly at myself. They opened it at the checkout to have me inspect it- but I suspect they already knew the state of it then because it was a very fast, very controlled inspection...and I didn't really think to wonder why. You'd think I'd know by now, but obviously not. Anyway, I think the local hardware nerds can save the day...I hope...




The last of the 110 loads of laundry is hanging on the balcony pretending to dry. Is this a potential cell phone shot of interest? Hmmm.... let's just see, shall we?






Lunch was garlic & ginger chicken stirfry. I love to do stirfry- it's so yummy and so easy and fast. This time, I tossed cashew halves in with the chicken about a min before shutting off the heat. Ala ate hers with ketchup. Food is such an interesting topic (right?!) of course, the way I do it is the 100% bona fide perfectly acceptable normal etc etc etc way to do it (this would apply to all things, of course... of course). A told me that it made her nervous to cook for me (I really don't feel that way, by the way- the way I said up there) because of course, we grew up eating totally different foods. Well, I assured her that there was no reason to feel inhibited about the food thing- I'm just happy to eat and happy not to do all the cooking. In fact, here's a tiny secret- I would have been a disaster as a homemaker- I would have rebelled at cooking all the time. My hat is on-the-floor-off to anyone whose lot it is to do all the cooking all the time. So, we agreed to eat whatever comes along. We both avoid fixing for the other what we know she doesn't like. I don't fix spinach for her (or cheesy lasagna) and she doesn't do salo (wikipedia link fyi) for me (nor does she do buckwheat more than once a month). I learned early on to omit dressing the salads- she douses hers with mayo every time and I do mine with whatever I'm in the mood for at the time. I also learned early on that all meat gets eaten with ketchup... well 'learned' isn't quite the right word. Because I forgot... anyway, she says she likes stirfry (I'm sure we've had it before, I just don't remember the ketchup) and she ate and seems happy.

We saw Marta (!!) last night- here I thought she'd vanished, been kidnapped, time-warped into another era- and then *voila* she pops back up and turns out she's been there the whole time. She gets overwhelmed with studies and just ignores her phone... for 2 months... See her again next week.

Marta made this statement last night: I don't think it's a good idea for Ukrn boys to marry Amer girls. I said, No, because if he gets homesick and needs comfort food, she won't have the first idea how to make varenyky or salo and then what is he going to do?

Well, there's always ketchup and mayo...