12.26.97
I wish I could say I grazed all day, but I didn’t. Leisurely eating seems a lot more fun than just leisurely nothingness. I chatted with a sizable chunk of family this morning. They were grazing on traditional X-mas foods and I felt jealous even after the special dinner we made for ourselves yesterday.

Beans were cooked, Dave made salsa, and I made flour tortillas from scratch. I bought two avocados several days ago and let them soften to make guacamole. When I opened them up, however, I found that they were rotten. I think the problem is that the grocery store never removes the produce from the shelf. I mean, as long as they aren’t moldy or anything, they just assume the food is good. What happens - my own theory - is that the cold refrigeration keeps the avocados from softening, even while they rot. If they are removed from the cold then the spoilage is accelerated. Of course, I know this is intensely interesting to you. Understand that you didn’t pay $7 for two avocados on a special occasion only to find them rotten. One in this situation is bound to ponder exactly how the money was wasted.

Well, I was able to scavenge some of the good parts from one of the avocados and we had a smidgen of green goo to eat with the beans and tortillas, which were exceptionally good. Haven’t made tortillas in months, and it’s been almost that long since we ate beans that didn’t come from an overpriced can at a black market outlet. So good. Beans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot….

I guess I didn’t talk about our Christmas yet. Well, we opened our gifts, cleaned up all the wrapping, settled in to eating chocolate, and then lounged all day. The Sound of Music was on TV at some point and it seemed the right thing to watch. Remember how it was always on once a year? Is it still? We talked about how we both watched it and The Wizard of Oz each year. We knew all of the songs and made fun of the ones we hated. We pondered whether children now are growing up watching those two movies once a year.

As I mentioned above, I didn’t do anything today. I spent a lot of time on-line chatting or waiting for chat participants to show up. So I caught up on journals and played solitaire, which reminds me: The other night I got the urge to play solitaire. Dave was on the computer so I dug out a real deck of cards and dealt them out on the coffee table. Those cards were all over the place! They were impossible to keep track of and it took so long to make moves. Geez. Computers really can make life easier, or at least expire some skills in exchange for others. I’ve played solitaire all of my life. I could wrangle cards, manipulate them easily and certainly control them. No more. At least I can still shuffle. Heh.

Ok, so I did venture out to the Post Office to mail the last calendar and a postcard - you know who you are. BUT, it was totally packed in the PO and I wasn’t going to wait around this time. Now way; no how. Sorry, I’ll send them out Monday morning. We did get some cool mail. Seems Dr. Kim Byungkuk, whose house we stayed at in Chollanam-do, had copies of group photos made for everyone who went. What a nice, generous man. I was thinking he must be feeling very proud these days as the new President-elect is from the very same province. Cholla people have been, well, discriminated against for a long time. I don’t know if "discriminated" is the right word; maybe it’s better to say that people from there have traditionally been looked down upon. I mean, geez, people were sent there in exile! So, you get my drift.

I’m rambling, so I’m gonna drift right on outta here.
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