Music 1: Almost done with Joe Satriani … that’s a lot of Joe I had.
Bread: I made another loaf of the no-knead bread. Similar taste, similar density, etc. I let it sit in a warmer location this time, and this morning (after 8-10 hours) it had risen a lot more than the first batch, I think. But after dumping it from the bowl this afternoon/evening it did increase in volume, but not dramatically. The finished loaf is about the same size as the first. I used a bit more yeast this time.
Wine: Another bottle of HRM Rex-Goliath Giant 47 Pound Rooster this evening. Great opening bite to this bottle; I’ve enjoyed it a great deal. For $5.99 it’s hard to complain at this point. I got a bottle of Bull’s Blood; I haven’t had any in a long time. The Eastern European selection at Woodman’s is, unfortunately, mediocre at best. Scant, barely there, a couple bottles … that’s more like it.
Groceries: I took a bus ride to Woodman’s to pick up some flour, wine, salad, and similar necessities. Last Thursday when I rode out I was able to get $0.39 per half gallon containers of Morning Glory “Vanilla Shake” — vanilla milk and “stabilizers” basically. Alas, they had no more today. I am astounded by the volume, not of the store, but by the volume of goods through which they must go every day. A whole, long, huge aisle of mass-produced bread. A bakery section. The wall of milk is not massive, but if you ever look behind the racks of milk into the supply room you see row and column after row and column of gallon containers on rolling units, stacked five or so high. How many trucks must pull in and out of there every day so that a small percentage of Madison can eat.
The family in front of me in the checkout line consisted of a short pudgy woman and a scrawny short man in a baseball cap that hid much of his balding head. Their daughter was cute and probably three or four. Their bill was $546.96, which the wife paid in cash with five Benjamins and a bunch of smaller bills. That was after the stack of coupons. They had four carts and required drive-up service.
I got away with $30.01 in damage.
Books: Last night I finished Sabine by A. P. (London: Bloomsbury, 2005), a trashy neo-pulp or faux-pulp or something like that. Hints of vampires, schoolgirl love in the French countryside, a protagonist named Viola. It was less trashy than I was led to believe with but a page of not-suitable-for-kids material or so. Well, perhaps two or three. Or four. But not much out of 213 or however many pages there were. Tonight I’ll return to Jennifer Egan’s The Keep (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), which received uniformly good reviews in the press, I believe. It, too, is relatively short, clocking in at a meager 240 pages. If I start more or less now I’ll finish with time to spare for sleeping … so I can teach another exciting day of German 226!
Phone: Nate emailed last Friday asking for my number, he emailed three times yesterday or Sunday, and today he got around to calling. We chatted for an hour or so, which took me away from the bread and screwed up the rhythm there a bit, but not badly. It looks as if we’ll share a room down in Pomona for the reunion. We both want to get there a few days early. Hell, we could rent a car and drive around a bit, even. I haven’t seen Nate since the last reunion, I guess. Before that he was in Madison for a few days after 9/11, with Wilson and Christine.
Music 2: I’m on to the Johns — John Coltrane in particular. I have little knowledge of jazz and should get some recommendations. A former students (German 172) loved Thelonious Monk; a colleague, Tyler, knows his jazz. He’ll be my source.
