Update

It just dawned on me that I've not posted anything in quite a while.  I'm going to avoid the post about why I've not posted and, instead, try to give a quick round-up of what's cookin' in my world.  At the moment, my linner, a spinich artichoke heart calzone, is cookin' thus limiting my post to about 15-minutes worth of ramble.  I feel like I've been working a lot, in a good way.  I've been preoccupied with things like Dante, Beowulf, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is a not-at-all bad combination.  I've also been reading quite a lot.  The week of 16 February, we had winter break, so I spent the week reading and watching DVDs and cooking, quite a lovely way to spend break.  Oh, I made this divine cheddar beer soup!  It's one of the best things I've ever tasted.  Seriously.  Yesterday, I had lunch at Cafe Provence, where I ate scallops wrapped in smoked salmon.  It's possibly the single most wonderful thing I've ever tasted.  I've read a couple of PD James novels lately; I'm in the middle of her Unsuitable Job for a Woman just now, and it's quite good.  I also read something--13 Stairs?  13 Steps?--by Ruth Rendell; it was quite disappointing.  I also read Rosalind Miles's Guenevere Queen of the Summer Country.  It was sorta too Mists of Avalon.  (Side Note:  I really want to like Marion Zimmer Bradley, but I just don't!).  More interesting are the DVDs I've been watching.  I watched the first two seasons / series of Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect--wonderful!  This is just the sort of British who-done-it that appeals to me.  And how can one not like Dame Helen?  Also, I've discovered Battlestar Galactica, thanks to A., a much appreciated colleague.  And it's totally kick-ass.  Seriously.  I probably watched a good 10 hours of it over the weekend.  Totally recommend.  The plot's interesting and not entirely predictable, and there's interesting character development.  I've also sprinkled in episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs, As Time Goes By, and *gasp* Gossip Girl.  I'm not sure if I can really do Gossip Girl or not.  I watched the first four episodes from Netflix and was entertained enough to order the next disk.  But really, there's a limit to how much disbelief I can suspend when it comes to NYC teens.  I mean, 90210 is soooooooooooo much more believable.  So that's pretty much it for me:  food, books, and DVDs.  I'm sparing you the narratives about students texting in class and not reading Beowulf. 

Oh yeah, on 15 February, P. and I saw Willie Nelson in Albany NY with Asleep at the Wheel.  I LOVE Willie.  Love him.