WhimsyLand

It turns out that when I'm away, Emily and Rimbaud get bored.  Ky dropped by to have lunch and pet them every couple of days, but it wasn't enough to keep them from scavenging for toys.  When I got home, the Great Room (I love that designation) was littered with an old comb, a new Schick 3-blade razor, a pink bottle of Pepto-Bismol gelcaps, 5 wine corks, half-eaten Halloween candy, and one of those novelties that you blow on and a tube whizzes out.  I didn't know that I possessed even half of these, but The Kittens found them.  I should be thankful because, coming back from long trips in the past, Dear Departed Kitty would usually greet me lovingly, knowing full well that there was a dead baby rabbit under the dining room table. 

Oh.  About the chicken.  I spent the weekend with Lin and Roy and Mom and Dad and My Sweet Niece Dana Whom I Used To Rock In My Arms To Sleep, and Her Husband at The Ranch which is just outside of Arroyo Grande.  AG has this small preserve in which they keep a small apartment complex for stray cats and a multi-story condo for exotic cocks.  No hens, no chicks, just cocks.  The one above is particularly sassy, though they ranged in size and plumage from the exotic to the bizarre.  So, about the ranch.  It's got horses and oodles of horse paraphernalia.  Chinese Tang Horse Statues.  Horse Benches.  Alabaster Horse Statues.  Here's a typical random shot of almost any room:

In case you're wondering, I did actually do some work on this trip.  I drove up from AG and slaved over a 25-point calibration algorithm while Dima did the heavy lifting on our new product bring-up.  I also spent my promised night helping Dave dispose of a brace of bottles from his fine wine cellar.  For the record, Dima and I ate at a good Vietnamese restaurant and spent another evening discussing engineering challenges while eating sushi and drinking Asahi Black Draft.  Oh, also a nice lunch with a client in Menlo Park at one of those fancy restaurants that feature (and, as Dave Barry likes to say, I'm not making this up) Macaroni and Cheese as the luncheon special at $14 (OK, it's hand made macaroni and 4 kinds of cheese, yada, yada).  Most of the rest of the tables were drinking microbrews or artsy Sangiovese, and luxuriating on Comfort Food.  Really.  Meat loaf and mashed potatoes for $15 with a little Bach in the background.  And don't get me started on the newest thing in Haute Cuisine, Sous Vide cookery, pitting top-end New York chefs against Alice Waters on the merits of Cryovac-entombed lamb shanks boiled slowly in hot water (also a feature in this month's Atlantic, but that's for the next blog entry).

Anyway, I'm back and there's an AQR on the table with an astounding number of poems by that other AG, Albert Goldbarth.  On first read, it doesn't look like his best work, but maybe he's turned a corner and I'm still in the backdraft.  I only read 10 pages of the Claudia-recommended The Possibility of an Island,  having decided to re-read Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor after lo these many years, so there's that to enjoy this week.  More tomorrow, OK?

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MovableType has pretty good comment-spam control, but the latest thing is to leave a single URL that has most of the information on how you can buy generic Cialis or leather thongs.  Apparently, the Nigerian Scam has also made it to blog comments.  This from yesterday:

My Dear,

I am Mrs.Veronica Toya Johnson. From Ivory Coast, I am a widow being that I lost my husband a couplle of some years ago.

My husband was a serving director of the Cocoa exporting board until his death, He was assassinated on january 2002 by the rebels following the political uprisng before his death, he had a foreign account here in CA'te d'Ivore up to the tune of $9.5 million dollars which he told the bank that it was for the importation of Cocoa processing machine.

I want you to do me a favour to receive this funds to a safe account in your country or any safer place as the beneficiary, so that I will come over to your country with my only son Kevin by name.

I have planes to do investment in your country, like real Estate and Industrial production, this is my reason for writing to you.

Please if you are willing to assist me and my only son, indicate your interest in replying soonest, I will ofer you 20% of the total money.

Thanks and best regards.
Madam Veronica Toya johnson. call 0022508424265

Even though this was addressed to me, feel free to give Veronica a call.  I'm personally just rolling in dough and can't imagine what I would do with another $1.9 million.