Tuesday

Bright sun and a bit warmer -- 69 degrees (20.6 Celsius), with robins, woodpeckers, and doves in the backyard. A wren paid a brief visit inside the house, exploring the kitchen table and chairs, and then flew out again.

Here is another excerpt from The Lacuna, in which the narrator talks about the speech patterns of one of his neighbors in North Carolina in 1946 ...

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And here's something cool -- 700 ambrotypes and tintypes of Civil War soldiers donated to the Library of Congress. The LoC has managed to digitize 379 of the photos so far, and they are available for viewing here. Fascinating stuff.

Tuesday Night

Making this for dinner, in a sort of experimental way. Toasted the spices in a small skillet instead of the oven. We don't have a molcajete, so I tipped the toasted spices into a little freezer bag and whaled away at it with the flat side of a cleaver. Heh. No grapeseed oil, so used canola. And I'm going to add a can of white beans at the end. Mr. N is missing all this because he's at a business dinner.

Finished The Lacuna -- the only thing that's keeping me from giving it an A+ is that I never quite felt that I got a grip on the main character. He's a ghost in his own book, but maybe that's the way he's supposed to be -- an absence, just like the cave of the title. Still absolutely a terrific read and a definite recommendation. And thank god there were no "Dear Author" moments.