There is nothing on my dining room table right now. Zero, nada, nil, zip. That state won't last for long, of course, but it is minorly miraculous and unusual enough to be worthy of mention. The scary thing is how long it took to get there, but I guess I can make my apartment presentable when pressed. I even vacuumed!
The reason for the flurry of cleaning is that I'd offered to host a meeting of my storytelling guild. The subject was scary stories and we discussed everything from what good sources for scary stories are to why people like scary stories. It was pleasant and reasonably valuable. And, as a side benefit, I have a clean apartment.
As for other news, the obvious celebrity death of the week is Tony Randall. Since his most famous role was as Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, my cleaning blitz seems even more apropos. Not quite a death, but Johnny Damon shaved off his beard for charity. One can only wait and see if that has any effect on his game.
Work continues hectic, with tomorrow involving a major program review that will determine our fate for a while. My guess is that the outcome will just be another review in a few months. The analysis of alternatives that's been going on seems to have reached the not horribly profound conclusion that two satellites cost less than five satellites, so is likely not to be a big threat.
Finally, I just got off the phone with Robert, who is just back from China. He noted that on one menu he saw "sauteed deer tendon," while another had "deer penis soup." Which led us to wonder who gets to eat the rest of the deer.
Copyright 2004 Miriam H. Nadel