13 April 2020> To continue our play by play COVID cuisine food diary, this eve we had: shrimp + asparagus stir-fry w/ tamarind + TJ's thai spice mix over Jasmine rice. Text-wise we finished digesting My Year of Rest and Relaxation + regretted that we kept reading it. We knew from the beginning the book would end on 9/11 + sure enough it did, but in such a random + meaningless way. There was just nothing intresting about the plot OR the writing... u bedder bend it like Beckett if you're gonna attempt to write about nada.

14 April> Kale + mushroom gorgonzola quiche w/ roasted potatoes + Brussel sprouts (our bedder-½'s student souprized us w/ them, otherwise we avoid 'em like the plague... much as we hate 'em we ate a dozen so they wouldn't go to waste). Later that night while we were sleeping it was like a film where 2 legless bodies were trying to get away from this guy that was trying to hurt them. One of the amputees was played by Peter Dinklage. He climbed up one of those rope ladders to a crow’s nest + right when he got to the top the camera zoomed in while there was a dramatic pause + he lifted his finger to his mouth then threw his head back + cackled as if he was having a revelation of what trick to do next to fend of the evil pursuer (who had legs). It was terrible acting, but excusable since it was one of his early films. When he got up to the crow's nest platform he stretched into a down-dog + when he came out of it he had turned into a cat.

15 April> Black bean tacos w/ homemade tortillas + guacomole, scallions + arugula. Then we were at some event, maybe a memorial, but we don’t know who died + it wasn’t somber + Thom Yorke was speaking at it. We couldn’t believe our friend's (who weren't even familiar w/ his music) got Thom Yorke to speak at their event + we were thinking of what we could say to him after + all we could think of was to ask if they planned out their time signatures, or whether they just happened naturally. So we ended up not going up to him.
     The event was on this big outdoor lawn, seemed like our friend's (L+L) place in Kenya + there was this ferret that stole the flower off a bird of paradise. Earlier Leadbelly was wondering who was stealing her birds of paradise. So we chased the ferret into this hole next to the kitchen sink + a cat ran after the ferret. We heard a commotion + looked in there + all these animals were picking on a black duck. So we shooed them away + crawled in + got the duck out + took it out on the back lawn + set it down + tried to soothe it + bring it’s heart-rate down + see if it needed medical attention. Their German shepherd Tembo came up so we stayed hunkered over the duck (who at this point were very fond of), hugging it to protect it (here's Tembo + the ducks in real life, in Kenya, 2011... tho looking now, it appears Google is blocking our videos).

The other day we was thinking (like the rest of the world) that now would be a good time to have a dog + started running through our head the usual reasons of why we never have in the past... cuz we travel too much, cuz we would constantly worry the dog was bored, etc. Watching all these people out our window yanking leashes it occurred to us that u have to be on a sorta power trip to get a dog, to dominate this creature + want it to obey u. Same power trip that leads ppl to have kids, to discipline them + mold them into an image of how u want them to be + we would never want to be in that position of dominance over another being, having them rely on us + to obey.

16 April> We had a bunch of tomatos of diffrent varieties to use up so made a tomato sauce w/ loads of mushrooms + also some peppers + carrots. Had it w/ some weird shell pasta that was all that was left when we went to the store a month ago + also garlic bread + a salad.

Then there was some sort of social unrest (religious in nature + we'd become Buddhist so felt somewhat involved) that turned violent, people fighting in the streets. We got outside of the gates of the medieval city + there were mounted royal police on horseback, but they were waiting outside the gates, waiting for the fighting to die down until they went in, so they didn’t need to jeopardize themselves. Around the corner was another unit of military on horseback, also stalling for time before they had to get involved. We went back thru the gates to see what was going on. The 2 factions decided to solve this with hand-to-hand combat between 2 chosen men. They were in a sort of large ring, 1 guy was massive, the size of 2-story house, Germanic looking, but dressed sort of as Sumo wrestler + he had one of those blocks orthodox Jews wear (except it was triangular) strapped to his forehead. The other guy was this little puny guy, about the size of the guys toe. The large Germanic Sumo guy dove straight up into the air + came crashing down into the ground on his head, the block on his forehead being squashed down flat, in this thundering display of power. There was a glowing arrow on his back that measured his effectiveness. The little guy’s response was subtle but managed to shrink the guy’s arrow + also enlarge his just enough that it appeared he won. The judge was tallying up the results but not looking at the arrows + we were trying to argue the little guy’s case + they told us not to interfere. So we stepped back outside + told people what was going on inside.

17 April> Went to pick up our CSA this morning: milk, eggs, goat cheese, parsley, greens, oyster mushrooms, black beans, turnips, radishes + jerusalem artichokes (which we've never cooked with.... any ideas?).

Still haven't dipped much into our freezer or pantry, nor have we ordered takeout, but at some point we're gonna have to brave the lines at Trader Joes (it's back open, but now the Whole Foods near us is a COVID hotspot).