So, what's that Kate character been doing for the past two weeks?

1. My car decided to break out in a veritable Mardi Gras of cosmetic and mechanical maladies. I've had Red replace the battery cables, the front turn signal, and the interior door handle, and I had to have an outside source patch a nail hole in the left rear tire. Now Clark the Corolla is back in fine working order, which is a relief because I have a love/hate relationship with Red's Jeep Cherokee. I'm especially pleased with having a working door handle again; it's just too trashy to be forced to roll down a window in order to reach the exterior handle so that one can exit one's vehicle.

2. Bean was doing Daytona 500-style laps in the living room last Wednesday night and managed to trip over a toy right next to our coffee table. Forehead met table edge, and Red and I packed a bloody baby in the Jeep for a trip to the clinic. Poor Bean ended up with four stitches (and a mother who spent the whole night shaking her shoulder at two hour intervals in case of a delayed concussion). The stitches came out today, and now Bean is fine and determined to scale Red's favorite recliner, a la Sir Edmund Hillary with Mt. Everest. I need to drink rocket fuel so that I can keep up with her.

3. I just topped off one of my worst weeks in the kitchen ever. Well, some of the cooking was done out of the kitchen, but it was still awful. I managed to incinerate or ruin at least part of every meal I made for five days straight. I finally killed the slump a few days ago with Lolo's sweet and sour tofu. I also burned the shite out of two fingers in the process. I'd call it a draw.

4. I've become overcome with all these little puttering projects that obsess me from time to time. I'm currently working on a short story (oh, yes, I do fancy myself a writer), fiddling with a craft project that uses old neckties from Goodwill, and just tonight while I was washing rice for dinner I started to dream up an idea for a cheap rice-rinsing sleeve thingy. I've also been on a media blitz the past few days. I've spent countless hours on line or in front of the television, hungrily searching for news of the Iranian election fall-out or a post-mortem Sunday's episode of "True Blood." International politics and Sam Trammell, why do you both entrance me so?

So that's what I've been up to recently. How 'bout everyone else?


[P.S. - I've still got plans to do that greatest hits from my trip to Illinois. I'm hoping to have it up on Friday. I don't know whether to pretend that this can be a travel guide for an interested party en route to the Chicago suburbs, or just admit that it's my attempt to remember a time when the high temperature was below ninety degrees on any given day. Did I mention I was wearing a sweater three weeks ago? A sweater! In June!]

Post vacation beached whale syndrome

Hey, gang! I've foolishly left the land of 40% humidity and highs in the lower seventies to come home to the broiler-cum-rice-steamer climate that is Florida in the summer. While it's good to be home, I can't help but think wistfully of this time last week, when I was wearing a sweater during my morning walk.

First things first, though - I went for my checkup with Dr. CareBear yesterday, and he has declared me cancer free. My lump was a fibradenoma, which is harmless. I would apologize to it for all the mean thoughts and words I directed its way, but as the lump's gone I decided to just move on with life.

Our trip to visit the in-laws in Illinois was nice, and I have a special Friday Favorites planned to showcase all of the special points of the greater Chicago suburbs. So I won't get into too much detail about my vacation, except to complain that once again, I ate too friggin' much at my mother-in-law's house. Baba (Croatian nickname for Grandmas, which I will use here) is a great cook. She also makes enough food to feed a small army, but unfortunately most of it is meat based. Consequentially, I ate a lot of processed starch; noodles, potatoes, rice, and a delicious Yugoslavian cheese roll called pita that is surely the food of the angels. Now I am feeling bloated and grotesque, so I am currently undergoing a semi-purge that involves fruit, water, and lots of Mireille Guiliano's leek soup. If you've never had the leek soup, let me be the first to say that it's not a palate-pleaser, but that it does get the job done.

I should be back on my regular feed in a couple of days, which is exciting since I have some new cookbooks to try. So to whet your appetite, I'll leave you with a picture of some ingredients in waiting: Florida mangoes.


They're not pretty, but they're starting to smell like a cabana in tropical heaven. These babies have star quality, I tell you.

P.S. If you're in the U.S., and you have HBO, and you're reading this as I post it at quarter to ten on Tuesday, I have to ask one question - why aren't you getting ready to watch the director/creator interview about True Blood? Red and just finished the DVD collection of season one, and we're both hooked. If I wasn't too cheap for premium channels, I would definitely be enjoying some explanation of vampire mayhem right now. Oh, darn those addictive cliffhangers!