tuckova

get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter

Hearty chortled greetings. How was your weekend? But first let me tell you about mine. Friar had been having recurring nightmares about the cottage. When I have nightmares about the cottage, I do not want to go there in case they might be true. When he has nightmares about the cottage, he has to go to be sure they are not true, so we bundled up and went to the cottage this weekend.

I believe - no, I admit - that at some point Squire made a face about the trip, and I hissed in his ear that I did not want to go, that I was going in order to be kind to Friar, that periodically we do things we don't like in order to be kind, and that the kindness is removed by our bitching about it, and I am going so he's going and I don't want another word about it. I do understand that my saying to him that I don't want to go is fundamentally no different from his saying that he doesn't want to go. I'm balancing my hypocrisy with a little self awareness. That could totally be my epitaph.

To be fair, the person who volunteered to be in charge of preparing and packing the food failed to prepare anything for me other than boiled eggs, which was a large factor in my dampened enthusiasm. Yes okay also we brought bell peppers and tomatoes, but for protein: boiled eggs. Mmmm, really, boiled eggs for lunch dinner and breakfast? That causes brisk rubbing of the anticipatory hands! And heart attacks!

It was 20 degrees below. Celsius, but still: that is cold. Fortunately we were bundled and had many, many pairs of extra socks. Mostly the whole weekend I couldn't get warm. Even when the inside of the cottage was a perfectly reasonable temperature I was generally under a pile of sleeping bags and doing Inward Moaning. However, we also played in the snow, which was very fluffy and unsuitable for snowballs. It was, however, very nice to run in and also to fall down in, which I did quite a bit. Squire made snow angels for his grandmother, who had mentioned them (city snow is unsuitable, as it can contain Surprises), and I took pictures. And that part was a lot of fun, and coming back to the toasty cottage after that part was also a lot of fun. And breaking out the wine and cigarettes and sitting down to play games with a now-crackling fire at our backs, watching the thermostat inside rise while the one outside fell, that was also also fun.

We played every game in the cottage at least once, dried our socks over the stove, and Squire and I started reading "A String in the Harp" (1970s Newbery book), which is very promising. I have some ideas about the 70s and children's literature in the 70s in particular, and the contrast between what Newbery winners reflect and what bestsellers reflect... but I'm really not probably qualified to expound on it without at least a bottle of wine tucked under my belt.

Anyway. How was your weekend? I hope it was also good.

kids these days

A bunch of kids in Squire's class have facebook accounts. They're posting things that I, as a parent, would not want my child posting. Even if the account is locked, one can still see all the things of which they are "fans" and so on. So for example, I know that this 12 year old classmate of his, real first and last name, is interested in meeting men, long passionate kisses, and looking at men's asses in tight pants. What to think?

a. The parents know, and they don't care.
b. The parents don't know, and don't care.
c. The parents don't know, but would care.
d. other.

An American friend of mine suggested bringing this up at the school; that the school should have some kind of program to address it. To my knowledge, nothing along the lines of internet-savvy behavior is part of the curriculum. I don't know if kids are taught about it at all. Certainly Czech television doesn't have James Lipton telling them to give it a ponder. Is this a situation where one sticks one's head in, or not? I worry about these kids just putting more of themselves out there than they would if they were thinking straight; I worry about somebody getting hurt. Some pretty shitty things happened to me when I was a teenager that would not have happened if I had been prepared for them; there's stuff I would have avoided if I'd known how to. It is also true that I was warned very sternly not to do things that I went ahead and did. So maybe this risking of yourself is part of growing up?

What would you do?

front window

Dear Boys Across the Street,

Well, not boys. I assume that since you're living just two of you in those big rooms that you have incomes, and incomes usually mean jobs, and jobs mean some kind of grown-upedness, but now I am an old woman and any male this much younger than me is a boy. Anyway, dear boys:

Thank you so much for moving in. Thank you for being home pretty much whenever I am looking out the window in the evening. Thank you for dressing up to go out, or for staying home to have parties. Thank you for knowing that towels don't get you as dry as the air does. Thank you for having parties with beautiful girls, drunk already at 6 and everybody laughing to show all their teeth. Thank you for going out dancing. Thank you for dressing sharp. Thank you for not having curtains.

Love,
What I Am Becoming

what we disagree about when we disagree in the kitchen

COOKING:

Rice does not need to be washed or toasted before it is cooked.
Meat can be cooked in a tablespoon or less of oil.
Rinsing cooked pasta, especially in cold water, is a sin.
Toast should be brown but never black.
Sugar is not an appropriate second ingredient in any savory food.
Most vegetables taste better raw.
Potatoes do not count as "vegetables".
A meal should not take longer than 1 hour to prepare.

WASHING DISHES:
The person who cooks is ideally excused from doing dishes.
When washing dishes, it is important to wash at least all the tableware.
Sometimes this involves two loads, but it is part of "doing the dishes".
It is okay to soak pots overnight.
Dishes that are soaking should soak in the sink.
Emptying the dish drainer is part of washing the dishes.
Putting away the dishes is the last step in doing them.