Three Course Gonzo Dinner

The weather was superb today, cool but sunny and dry, so we decided to go for our first outdoor run - we chose this 5k loop as it starts in our neighbourhood (we're on the corner of Tyler and 21st), but then heads out to parts of Corvallis (a cemetary! A horse paddock!) that we hadn't yet explored. Apart from an easy 20 minutes on the treadmill at the gym yesterday, I haven't been running since our last week in Sydney, so to say that I ran today might be a little strong - staggered, dragged, coughed and wheezed are probably more appropriate terms. Still, I was feeling suitably exercised at the end of it and ready for a nice, homestyle dinner from Nearly Normal's Gonzo Cuisine, a vegetarian restaurant that has been providing big, sloppy lentil bowls to Corvallis since 1979.

 An Oregon Trail Witbier for me and a Ginseng Stout for Paul - witbiers seem to come with orange slices in them in this country. Is that a thing now, or what?

Spaghetti with red fennel sauce and tofu meatballs. I even ate the weird sweet American bread on the side.

Something strange happened here - at our table, we discussed dessert options (Yoghurt Extreme, Ben & Jerry's, take away brownie from the restaurant) and resolved not have anything, since dinner had been quite big. We walked downstairs, saw that they had homemade peanut butter pie on tonight's menu, and suddenly had the container in hand. Where does my mind GO at times like that? After momentarily becoming a pie-crazed pod person (and I wasn't alone there, I maintain that someone else may have helped to incite me to pie!), I couldn't not try it/eat all of it. And it was delicious.

Luke, I am your father

Our kettle looks like Darth Vader. Slow news day!

Sunday Dinner

Giant salad requires an appropriately scaled pizza slice

Neighbours

Today, some dreams came true. I patted these two cats, and finally, FINALLY, a squirrel deigned to spend his afternoon in the tree outside our lounge room window. His tail was impressively bushy.

First farmer's market of the season

Rhubarb and radishes

Mushrooms

This didn't happen at the farmer's market, but I felt it was worth documenting anyway. Chocolate peanut butter pretzels, anyone?

Totes Hectose Friday Night

We're both a little sick and Paul's busy with school work, so the evening has been spent at home amongst much nose blowing and tea drinking. I'm back with the Shelleys, although sadly I have reached the point in Mary's biography where Percy is no longer with us. From Mary's journal (excerpted by Muriel Spark):

For eight years I communicated, with unlimited freedom, with one whose genius, far transcending mine, awakened and guided my thoughts. I conversed with him; rectified my errors of judgement; obtained new lights from him; and my mind was satisfied. Now I am alone - oh, how alone! The stars may behold my tears, & the winds drink my sighs; but my thoughts are a sealed treasure, which I can confide to none (...) But can I express all I feel? Have I the talent to give words to thoughts and feelings that, as a tempest, hurry me along? Is this the sand that the ever-flowing sea of thought would impress indelibly? Alas! I am alone.

 Certainly appropriate reading for a rainy evening.

Inclement Weather

The weather is still not conducive to outdoor wanderings, so we've retreated with our books and laptops to the Memorial Union Commons on campus (which, henceforth, shall be referred to as the Gryffindor Common Room). Paul is writing a paper on Descartes and The Matrix, and I am "helping" by spouting crap about philosophers I've never read.