Sunday, August 08, 2004

the salad chronicles

I discovered a new type of salad yesterday...this one is 'pea salad.' I didn't get the recipe, since I wasn't too fond of it, but I'm sure that it contained peas, mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip), bacon, and pecans. So, chalk up another victory for the Midwest for coming up with yet another salad that has nothing to do with lettuce. Yay!

The salad was one of the offerings from relatives at our family reunion yesterday. It was a beautiful day--it was surprisingly cool (under eighty) for August, and quite a few people came. We had barbecued pork, hamburgers, corn on the cob, baked beans, lots of salads and desserts, and of course homemade ice cream. Homemade ice cream! So tasty!

Anyway, other than eating, I've done very little since coming home. I don't really have any plans, either. The idea of taking a vacation where I actually do and see things is so foreign to me. I did go to New Orleans to see Katie in April, but even then we didn't really go out and *see* things--she was busy studying, I just wanted to relax, and so we confined ourselves to dinners, lunches, and a very nice day doing all that historical stuff with riverboats and the French Quarter. However, relaxing vacations are very very nice. Someday, though, perhaps I will have to start taking vacations where I go somewhere other than Iowa. I like it here, though, so I'm not planning on changing things up anytime soon.

In other news, I just read a CNN article about Koko the gorilla asking to see a dentist. I love news stories about 'talking' gorillas! I remember reading 'Koko's Kitten' when I was little, and so I was pleased to see that the file shot that they used of her was from 1985 and showed her holding her kitten. I had no idea she was still alive...so I'm glad that CNN had nothing better to do than talk about Koko's dental woes. You'll all be pleased to know that they gave her a full checkup (including tests by a Stanford cardiologists) and that she is in great health, other than the extracted tooth. You can read it all for yourself: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/08/08/koko.health.ap/index.html

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