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Aare Bhaghwan! Mara matha ma ek kuladi chhe.

[Edited 1/24 to correct spelling error and elucidate.]

I bought Readerware last night, the client/server version with the bar-code scanner, because anything that means I don't have to type numbers is a Good Thing. We are one step closer to the library being organized and catalogued. Yay!

There's a comment in The South Beach Diet along the lines of "Don't stay on Phase 1 too long because it will get boring and the lack of carbohydrates will make you crazy." If you look at the recipes provided in the book, they're all Miami-friendly, i.e. they're all really aimed at warm climates. Nothing about the cooler climes at all. Chili, for instance, is pretty much Phase 1-friendly. So can be stew, if you cook it properly and don't do that icky flour-water thickening thing (blech!). French onion soup, without the bread (which is pretty much there to support the cheese, as far as I'm concerned. Right now I'm trying to figure out a good minimal-carb recipe for chiles rellenos, as there were poblano peppers at the store last night that were really gorgeous. And I bought an eggplant earlier. With that, ricotta cheese, eggs, some really lovely-looking Italian sausage, the leftover zucchini and grey squash (which really looks a lot like a mutant zucchini), and the leftover pasta sauce, I imagine something along the lines of Eggplant Roscoe*, with the addition of squash. Oh, and some chard, which must be cooked soon before it dies a horrid slimy death in the fridge.

*Eggplant Roscoe is something I came up with back in Ithaca when we had mhaithaca over for dinner, and I was being creative. It's not eggplant parmigiana, because that would invovle breaded and fried eggplant slabs. It's not lasagna, because that really presumes noodles in the strata. It's thin slices of eggplant, peeled and then sauteed until pretty much cooked, then used instead of pasta. Kind of like eggplant rollatini, but flat. Very tasty, and now MHA has a dish named in his honor.

My order of Splenda syrups came in last night. Yay! The chocolate apparently makes a reasonable egg cream, the lime makes a tasty lime soda. I just have to remember that I can't overdo it because of the food coloring (although the chocolate, for instance, has no additional color added). They are from Nature's Flavors, which has a web site that I don't remember the specific URL of at the moment, and the only fake sugars they contain are ones that don't give either me or Mikey a screaming headache, a nasty aftertaste, or neurological damage.

Reading saraidh's discussion of her weaving made me sad--I don't know that I have the physical stamina to actually handle weaving on a floor loom. I may be limited to an upright warp-weighted loom, which is a lot slower. But since I don't have either, I suppose I shouldn't worry about it just yet.

Poetry, part 3

1. Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

2. He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

3. By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.

4. Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

5. When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see
Did he who made the Lamb make thee!

6. 'E would dot an' carry one
Till the longest day was done,
An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear.
If we charged or broke or cut,
You could bet your bloomin' nut,
'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear.