catching up on last two weeks

Catching Up on the Last Two Weeks

For the first time since moving here, I didn't feel compelled to blog

over the last week and a half. I didn't talk about my life or give a

My Media update (and during a period where I saw about 8 movies, read

a book, watched more than my fair share of TV and had at least two or

three quips that, believe me, if I wrote them down, would have made

half of you chuckle half heartedly). Oh well.

I thought if I went sledding I'd have something worth writing. Didn't

happen. Snow fell almost every day the week before last, but it never

cooled down enough to stick. It was tantalizing to watch big, chunky

snowflakes fall all morning only to melt from the sidewalks and burn

off of the rooftops by late afternoon.

The weather's been incredibly nice the last few weeks. It's still

schizophrenic, the snow was proof of that, but temps are up and for

the most part, the sun is out. Enough so that Eloise and I have made a

couple trips to the banks of the Limmat to soak up the sun. The water

level was down very low during our first trip, giving off the scent of

detritus and clay, but things were back to normal the second time out.

As usual, I destroyed her in backgammon. I may have gotten too good,

however, as she won't bet me any more. She does great when we're not

betting actually, but as soon as a stop at a cafe, movie tickets or a

back rub is on the line, the gods shine on me. We've made maybe 20

backgammon bets over the last few months, and I've probably won 16 of

them. My favorite was a trip to McDonald's.

I made McDonalds a bet (I forget what she would have won) because she

despises it. Everytime we pass the golden arches I sing out "buh da

buh BAH bah" and she glares at me and makes some comment about how

unhealthy/crass/gross it is and what a bad singer I am. I do do her

the favor, however, of not singing "I'm loving it" to complete the

jingle. After losing the Mickey D's bet, she was begging me, pleading

with me to let her take me out to a nice French creperie, an Italian

restaurant anything, even though it would cost at least twice as much.

(A value meal costs about $10 by the way. And those are U.S. dollars

mind you.) Instead, for a full month, I kept singing half of the

jingle, feinting that maybe now is when I'll take her up on her bet.

Now? No. NOW. Was it annoying? Sure. Was it fun for me? Sure. Was the

meal as great as the lead up? No way. McDonald's sucks. But leading

her on for four weeks and making her emotionally frail with my

constant threats of a Big Mac were worth it. Watching her slowly

buckle under the weight of the house that Ronald built was like

watching Michael Douglas lose it in Falling Down. Fortunately, I had

her pay up before she went postal on me with a baseball bat.

Beyond that, I did decide to write a fictional account of my four days

alone, during Eloise's trip to the U.S. for a job interview. The story

running diary was fiction, but the trip was real, and the outcome...