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Yearly Archives: 2002
Alpha’s birthday
Yesterday was Alpha’s birthday. We… Alpha is a beautiful person. I love her.
The evening went okay. By the evening, a lot of people had remembered her birthday and given her flowers. I even managed to give her flowers.
I’ve done better birthdays, I admit.
The restaurant was very good. You really missed something, Pat. The name of the restaurant is “Wrenkh”. There are 3 in Vienna. We went to the best one, in the first district (1010). Do you own google search for details. But it’s a funky little place in a designy way and we both had… risotto. With what is called “Baerlauch” (actually, the ae should be an umlaut “a” with those two little dots over it, but not everyone has umlauts on their computers and I forget the code) in German and for the life of me I can’t find the English translation (Joeri??). It is a plant that grows wild, smells like garlic (we were walking thru the woods by the Danube on the weekend and it was in full swing and the air smelled like garlic) and I suppose may be some sort of leek since “Lauch” means leek in German. Bear leek, I’ll call it. It looks a lot like lily of the valley, the leaves, which are the part you eat, with the difference that bear leek is edible, of coures, while lily of the valley is poisonous, a fact that causes the number of amateur bear leek harvesters to fall by a few every year.
Bear leek risotto is not the food of romance, unfortunately, for reasons I will not list here.
But it was very tasty. The wine was good, etc etc. Good service.
Oh, I just remembered the original gag I was going to do in this post. We met by the State Opera in Vienna – there’s an underground parking lot there. Then we ambled across the street and got a coffee to go at the new Star*uck’s there. Then we walked the length of the Kaerntnerstrasse, turned left by St. Stephen’s Cathedral at the Stock-im-Eisen-Platz and walked to the end of the Graben, where we had icecream to go at the Haagen Dazs. That’s what European dates are like nowadays.
Then Alpha got a foot rub. With lavender oil.
Posted in Feral Living
Thomas Pacheco
Thomas Pacheco is a bright and creative seven-year-old who was diagnosed on March 7, 2002 with a rare cancer. Thomas will lose his right eye and eye socket to this cancer, and will subsequently undergo at least six months of chemotherapy. This horrible course of treatment is Thomas’ best hope, but he is fighting a rare and tenacious cancer with long-term survival rates of less than thirty percent. The struggle of Thomas
Posted in Feral Living
Turning point
When my daughter was a little girl I was driving her somewhere in our old car. The day was rainy, she sat in the back seat. The windows were fogging up, the ventilation in the car wasn’t working so well. As I wiped the window, stopped at an intersection on a small road in a small village, she asked me, “dad, are you going to die someday?” and although I had of course thought about dying before, I had never before thought about my dying for her and what that meant, and I had to cry, realizing how much I love her and realizing, yes, this is it, right here, right now, this is all. I got my voice under control and admitted, “yes, I will someday.” “Will I ever see you again?” she asked, with her small voice. “I don’t know,” I said, “I hope so. But I promise, I will always be with you, I will always be part of you.” Because one way or another I know that to be true.
Posted in Feral Living
Posted in Feral Living
In which Alpha nails Miguel on April 1
Alpha wakes Miguel up early in the morning on 1 April:
Alpha: “Oh, I can’t stand it.”
Miguel: “Huh?”
Alpha: “I just did a pregnancy test.”
Miguel: “Eh?” [Uh-oh]
Alpha: “I’m… I’m pregnant again!”
Miguel: [Resigns self to prospect of a third child and being an old parent] “Aren’t you using that… that…?”
Alpha: “I guess it didn’t work! Wah.”
Miguel: [Finally remembers what day it is] “Oh, happy April fool’s day to you, too.” [Rolls over]
Posted in Feral Living
Cravings
Tomorrow is Alpha’s birthday. We have a date. We will go eat at the Wrenkh restaurant, the fine vegetarian restaurant that was closed when we tried to visit it with Pat on his fictional visit to Vienna.
The Wrenkh has classy waiters and waitresses, young and attractive and stylish and competent. The food is excellent. I am looking forward to going there and engaging in stimulating conversation with my wife.
I am also craving red meat.
A big, fat juicy aromatic grilled oversized gigantic hamburger on toasted sesame buns, dripping grease and cholesterol and ten different condiments down the front of my suit. Slices of tomato and avocado sliding out the sides when I bite in. Maybe some chili and fresh onions in there somewhere.
Posted in Feral Living