Tuesday

It was sunny and seventy-one in DC today, real surfing weather, yet I never left the house for longer than it took me to take out the recycling. I do feel like I have finally caught up on the sleep I missed this weekend, so that's a plus. Did I ever mention that our unit is positioned right over the complex's playground? I am not complaining too much since every unit is right over something annoying and loud (tennis courts, swimming pool, the lively Vietnamese Eden Center). Only the people facing away from the exercise yard, in the backside of our building, look out over something quiet: the adjacent Oakwood Cemetery. There it is, I assume, much quieter when the kids gather after school. Did I ever mention we live right beside a cemetery? What I did today: I cooked my first real meal in the unit. I would have imagined that the sheer smallness of our kitchen might make everything somehow handier--since everything is only a few steps away no matter where I stand. Still, with the lack of storage space, everything I need has somehow landed right behind things I don't need, and there's an awful lot of required rearranging to get anything done. Otherwise, except for some slow habituation with regard to these electric burners, the kitchen and I got along well. Today's menu was spiced black-eyed pea soup and a medley of stuffed pasta shells (some with herbed muenster and others with parmesan and rosemary cream cheese) in paprika sauce, accompanied by toasted pita. It all turned out pretty well. In between fussings with the strange range, I managed to upload the handful of pictures I took at the National Zoo when we were there Saturday afternoon. Start here if you are interested. [Cavin]