We've got a lady pilot; she's not afraid to die

It is suspiciously quiet at work today. But, as soon as I type this, I can hear the ladies in the row next to me crank up their daily unending yammering. If they would shut up, for even a few minutes at a time, I could have my morning quiet time, getting wildly caffeinated in peace.

Also, I have both a "Delicious," and a "Iguana" on my schedule today. That is all I will say about that. It writes itself, really.

When I came home from work, it was so hot outside and in our apt. that, it wasn't that I wanted to die, but I just didn't want to live anymore. I wanted to take a hiatus from life. I eventually mustered up the energy to got some clothes back on, since the first thing I do every day upon entering the house is take off all my clothes, and we ran errands, including our good deed of the week, which was taking a man from Walgreen's down to Ike's to get some gas. His woman had tricked him into taking the car out when she knew it didn't have any gas in it, apparently. Because I am a Crazy Mooney,* while he was pumping the gas I imagined that the whole thing was an elaborate ruse and, in fact, his plan was to immolate himself in my backseat while we both freaked out and I wrecked the car. This did not happen. Instead, we engaged in a completely boring, predictable conversation about high gas prices. Our friend predicted that prices may rise to as high as $12 per gallon by Christmas.

We watched The Last Picture Show last night.

This is a movie that I remember that my parents both used to talk about as a favorite, so I picked it out at Black Lodge. Also we both like Paper Moon a lot, and that is another Bogdanovich film from the same time. Anyway, Picture Show did not disappoint, it was really sexy and weird and depressing, all at the same time. Plus it had a young Cybil Sheperd (a Memphian, how 'bout that?) in it, and she is super easy on the eyes:


So, put this on your "Movies To Watch List." It's in B&W, which also scratches my current constant desire to watch old movies. Larry McMurtry wrote it, and he is also responsible for, in no particular order: Terms of Endearment (which is playing at the Orpheum this evening, in an odd coincidence. I will not be seeing it, I don't think; I don't want to invite the whole parent-child/death from cancer theme into myself today), the mini-series Lonesome Dove, and the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. What a weirdo, huh?

This weekend, our great friends Rebecca & Michael are coming to Tennessee, to my mom's house in Decatur County, actually, to be more exact. They live in Massachusetts, and Rebecca is a performance artist originally from Knoxville. She misses the South a lot and when they were down for the wedding, decided that she wanted to shoot some pieces down on my mom's land. I think it's going to be video, but I'm sure B will shoot some stuff too. Liz & Dusty are coming as well, so we're going to have a rural southern couples retreat on Saturday night. I'm terribly excited, and probably going to make the following dessert. We ate this when WWOOFing at the Sunshine House in Greece last summer, and I ripped the recipe off Takis. I've never attempted to make it; I'll have to figure out the metric equivalents of all this shit.

Takis’ Chocolate Avocado Cake
½ kilo oats (soaked for 2 hours)
juice of 2-3 oranges
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup chopped dates (soaked with oats)
½ cup raisins or chopped figs (soaked with oats)
2 spoons of flaked coconut
cinnamon
water
2 tbsp. honey
½ kilo nice dark chocolate bars
rice milk
zest of one lemon
zest of one orange
2 avocados, pureed very well
Various fruits for topping

Mix oats, orange juice, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, chopped dates, raisins/figs, flaked coconut, cinnamon, and let sit for one hour. If not think enough to form crust, add more oats (unsoaked).

Oil 9” cake pan very well.

Pat oat mixture firmly down in pan. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-45 minutes.

Melt chocolate bars with a small amount of rice milk. Add to this the lemon and orange zest, as well as the avocado puree, and combine thoroughly. Top with sliced fruit (fresh cherries and peaches are primo) and nuts while chocolate is still warm. Chill until firm.

Celsius??? KILOS?? WTF?

*Oh, yeah. The Mooneys are my mom's side of the family, and they are definitely crazy. The particular shade of Mooney crazy that this fear of immolation in the car came from is probably Cousin Joy-flavored. She, who once plead with her pregnant daughter-in-law not to go outside during fireworks because "one might light on your belly."