bluecastle | its later now...

Just got back from taking myself to dinner at my little town's Chinese buffet. Save for a bowl of honey cornflakes this morning, and a few bites of leftover cake, I hadn't eaten, so I took myself out for a feast.

Everytime I go there I think I should remember to take a pad and pencil along, as there is always fun stuff going on at other tables to write about.

For a while it was pretty much just me, and one other table handled by a guy with a better grasp of English than the waitstaff often have there. I wonder how they get their staff. Are they foreign cousins they bring in to work, or is there something more sinister in back of hiring these mysterious workers. Very solicitious was my waiter (almost a bit TOO solicitous), but after a while it got busier in there so he hovered less.

At the table next to me was an African-American woman and her little boy. Notable only in that we don't really see a lot of people of color around these parts. The little boy had a cast on one leg, and was making the eating of chicken nuggets into something more like performance art than a meal. Ketchup has never been so amusing.

Then I could just about hear a discussion at a table across the room which sounded familiar, as I've had the same discussion. A dissection of how the people who ran the town's movie theater (with attached restaurant and inn) managed themselves into bankruptcy. They made some truly baffling decisions in running their businesses. So our 350 seat theater sits empty.

Just as the couple with the four little kids arrived I was finishing up my ice cream and getting out of Dodge.

Fortune cookie report: "Success is a journey...not a destination."

OK then.

As to the theatrical part of my day. The actress managed to catch her foot on her hoop and plant her face on the stage at one point. With the hoop it's a bit like an armadillo rolling up. But in an attempt to recover, and deal with the adreneline and the anger over the mistake, she ended up breathing some extra life into the middle of act one. So in an odd way, it kind of improved the show. I wouldn't suggest she repeat the technique, but it didn't seem to have any long lasting detrimental effect on the audience.

They were actually quite a jolly crowd, for a Sunday afternoon. We sold 37 tickets. 34 people showed up. Which made for a nice sized house.

Everyone is always so amused by the fruitcake recipe. I'd love to know how much fruitcake it actually makes, but we haven't been brave enought to try making it.

2 pounds flour
2 pounds sugar
2 pounds butter
nineteen eggs
5 pounds raisins
1 1/2 pounds currants
1 1/2 pounds citron
one half pint brandy
one half pint molasses
two nutmegs, grated
5 teaspoons each -- clove, mace, and cinnamon
2 teaspoons of soda
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

cream the butter and sugar. add the eggs, gently one at a time. Beat the mixture, adding the brandy alternately with the flour, soda, spices, and salt that have been sifted together. Add the molasses. Sprinkle in the 8 pounds of raisins, currants, and citron, and stir gently.

bake anywhere from three to eight hours, depending.

So now I get to return to my regular life for four days. I might just go take a nap here before the new episode of Crimimal Intent runs on USA tonight. Eager to solve the mystery of the possibly reoccuring charcter from a previous case... except now played by a different actor. 'Sbeen hard to tell what's up from the preview clip...