Rhode Island …here we come. Just got the tickets today.

Heading there again this year with the ever youthful ‘rangutan. Fun is sure to be had.
I wonder if there will be any good food?!?

(Also on the 2008 travel planner: San Francisco/June, Chicago/July, RI/August, Montana/September and (Varanasi, Dehli, and Rishikesh) India/December. More details to come.)

I often make a delicious toor dahl recipe that I got out of a Hare Krishna cookbook. In addition to recipes the book also offers suggestions on meal preparation, dining etiquette and general tips on living a Hare Krishna lifestyle. One of the suggestions is that before each meal is served, you offer a portion to Krishna and give Krishna thanks. This seemed to be a small thing to ask, and frequently, with a light-hearted grin, either Butterfly or I will pause in the midst of our enjoyment and utter, “Mmmmm, thank you Krishna.”

That was all well and good until one day when we were enjoying a rotisserie chicken. After a few succulent bites I offered a “thank you Krishna” and Butterfly rightfully noted that perhaps Krishna was not the best entity to give thanks to in this instance.

The next day I received this playful e-mail (no offense intended):

Subject: strategy for grace before meals

Indian food/lentil soup = thank you Krishna because we got the lovely recipe book from the Hare Krishna’s

Fish = thank you Jesus - for obvious reasons - feeding the masses with five fish or was it three? And of course that’s his sign - the fish symbol

Lamb= thank you (catholic) Jesus because Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Catholics are very serious about digesting the body of Christ

Veggies/fruit/whole grains=thank you pagan earth mother goddess for the fruits of her labour [sic - - butterfly is a bit on the British side linguistically, mind you]

For that almost hungry empty feeling = thank you Buddha

For that overstuffed angry feeling=thank you Mohammed

Chicken = unsure; thank the chicken

Last night a few of the bendy people were at the house. The discussion turned to “The Five Love Languages” (which are: acts of service, quality time, physical affection, words of praise and gifts)

When questioned about her language, one of the women replied, “Well, I don’t know. Receiving gifts and words of praise IS quality time to me. So I’m a bit confused.”

Perfect!

Oh shit, I guess this means I’m related to ‘rangutan!!

(oh…and I’m prolly Ukrainian too. Could this day get any worse? haha! )

when i stand on my head…you look 99. giggle…

A friend of mine took an excellent picture of butterfly last week.

My coworker is excited because Sue Miller has forecast 2008 as THE BEST year so far, in her whole life! I’m very happy for her, but…

I don’t have the heart to tell her that the last time Sue said such things I was erroneously evicted, Sparkler was excommunicated, Saltina’s life was thrust into the very belly of chaos and I’m sure some small African nation was struck with a 40-year’s plague.

I’m gonna try not to sit too close to her next year.

Note: some names and events have been changed or exaggerated to protect the entertainment value.

Happy B-day Blyss. You haven’t aged a bit!

Yesterday I went to a going away party for one of ‘the guys’ at ‘the office’. Being the perfect rowdy bunch that they are…they had the best going away cake I had ever seen. It was shaped like luggage and on the top it said, “Adios Asshole.”

Now THAT takes the cake!