Don't Do What Your Big Sister Does

If it had been about 40 degrees cooler yesterday I could've used my favorite word in the English language: blustery. I don't know exactly why I love that word so much. Probably because it describes my favorite atmospheric condition. It more than describes it; you can just feel it by saying it. As it was we had a scirocco.

I'm not positive when I first fell in love with that word, but I'm sure my first encounter of it was in something related to Winnie the Pooh. I looked a few things up and the movie called The Blustery Day came out in 1968, so I'm sure I didn't see that in the theaters (pre-VHS days), so there was probably a book or some attendant marketing to the movie I was handed-down. One thing I do remember is listening to a Disney lp of Now We Are Six. It was a 33.3rpm vinyl with a booklet inside and it may have had the Blustery Day in it. It's weird -- I suddenly recall that being my earliest memory of melancholia. I remember the line goes something like "Now I am six and clever as ever; I think I shall remain six forever". I guess I figured out I was going to have to grow up someday. Maybe it was the songs. Who knows. I'm a sensitive guy, y'know.

If you felt the Earth quaking a little today it was not the bullsh*t refereeing at the OU-Oregon game. It was a visit from the Saint's sister. It was the first time I'd seen her since November and the first time she'd been in my home since 2002. She came to see her grandson, but I did wheedle a visit out of her on the grounds that the gaze of her visage had not fallen upon our domicile. We had a very nice visit and I learned my grandnephew's new home is proximate ours, so at least I will have some family nearby, even though it will likely be a net-loss in effort. And by the way, I myself am not that old. I have a grandnephew because my sister married waaaay too young and her eldest child likewise followed suit, resulting in the benefit to her of people saying in awe that she simply looks waaay too young to be a grandmother and the proportionate nuisance to me of people saying, "You have a grandnephew? How old are you?"
I loved seeing my sister. I really miss her.

Check out Purple Bunny next time you see her. She has the glow....

We ate at the freakishly named Qdoba this evening because we had heard it was good. Ehhh...can't recommend it. For one thing, when we walked in we were disoriented and owing to the design of the menu and fixtures, we weren't entirely sure if we were in Qdoba or Pei Wei or P.F. Chang's. We made a promise to each other to trace the corporate heritage in an effort to delineate the three. Anyway, Qdoba admittedly had to work hard to impress us because we adore Moe's and go there every weekend. Qdoba is essentially a soulless version of Moe's (and no, I don't know which one came first). My skepticism quickly became assured as the server (you go cafeteria style like at Subway and 'build' your burrito) and I faced a Tex-Mexican standoff. I simply refuse to initiate any retail transaction and so there was a panful silence of 30-45 seeconds while I looked her in the eye and waited to be asked if I wanted pinto or black, hard or soft, etc. They do that at Moe's, y'know. And then at the end of the line, I learn that I am expected to pay 1.79 for chips and salsa. A cash register ring for C&S may as well be a death knell for my entertainment dollar in any establishment no matter how good the food. I do not pay for C&S. The food tasted OK, though. But you pay the same price as Moe's for a burrito and don't get any chips. So I pity the fool who eats there. Are you not psyched about Mr. T's new reality show, "I Pity the Fool"? It's s'posed to be a Dr. Phil-type advice show.