duck-shaped pain

Originally, I was going to make gazpacho, but when I saw the sorry-looking tomatoes (what is this? January?) at the store (my penance for missing the farmer's market that morning), I decided to do something different. Almost at random, I grabbed a tiny white eggplant and about a quarter pound of baby spinach.

Using that and some other things I had laying about the house, I made polenta topped with tomato, roasted garlic, eggplant and spinach sauce. It was tasty, and best of all, there was enough for two meals. Eating the second today at lunch made everyone at work jealous -- they crowded around and looked at my plate jealously, but given my mood the last few days, these are the last people on Earth that I would share my food with.

The lesson here? A house just isn't a house without a handy tube o' polenta hanging around somewhere. Unless you're one of those super over-achievers who makes it from scratch or something.

Work has been dark and gray the last few days. Thunderstorms outside, piss and vinegar on the inside. People yelling. Much retreating to the far corners of the office. Plus, to top it all off -- a computer that randomly erases files.

These are the days when I'm glad I've been relegated to data entry duty. [1] Just me and the computer off in some forgotten room, away from everyone else. Not even a phone nearby. Peaceful.

My eggplant plant has grown a bunch in the last month. However, it has not grown to the point where it is bearing anything that resembles eggplants or even pre-eggplants. Hello, plant -- there's not a lot of growing season left. Get on the ball.

It does show more promise than the arugula I planted. Out of three plants, only one survived, and it has produced (drum roll) one leaf. Not much of a salad there.

The basil just grows and grows, though. I thinned out some leaves last night for the polenta, and today you can't even tell.

Still no trip report - I apologize. This week has been really rough, and sitting down to write about it hasn't felt appealing at all. In a nutshell, though, I ate a lot of food, I saw some art, a lot of other tourists, and "adobe" Jiffy Lubes and other unfortunate consequences of Santa Fe's building code.

Untypical souvenirs, though [2] - a magnet shaped like a rabbit, a green-tea-and-lemongrass flavored lip balm, a Weakerthans CD, and a Krispy Kreme doughnuts coffee mug.

[1] Why? Because the most important task going on at the moment is to enter the scads of data that come in every hour or so. Since I am a trained Data Entry Professional, I got the job. Which is a good thing, since I don't have to answer the phone or interact with anyone else while I do it. Just me, my coffee, and whatever I'm listening to at the time.

[2] Not untypical for me, just untypical for Santa Fe.

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