Tag: vegetables

In which… well, not much, actually

On By Luther M. SilerIn Parenting, Teaching4 Comments

My son is apparently reading a book called “The Alphabet for Hippies;” so far I’ve heard him mention that R is for radicchio and K is for kohlrabi; I feel like he should not know what these things are. I barely know what these things are, to tell you the truth. S is apparently for Swiss chard.

C is for cookie, dammit, not “currant.” I rebel against the tyranny of the good-food alphabet!

Anyway.

Featured events for today: One of the two Kids who are Always Suspended came back from suspension today; the other was himself suspended by the end of the day. At the moment I don’t know what for. Another kid has just been put on half-days due to behavior issues and has also been suspended for the last several days; he managed to last literally less than five minutes before getting sent out of the room and then home. That’s not a joke or an exaggeration. Here was his school day: 1) came to school; 2) ate lunch; 3) four minutes of class; 4) sent home.

Also, I intercepted a note from one student to another that turned out to be a rather detailed and surprisingly well-written and romantic description of her first kiss. The girl flipped out in a fashion that was probably supposed to be dramatic but just ended up hilarious; when I stopped laughing I assured her that I didn’t give a good goddamn who she was kissing and gave her the story back. There are certain situations when we find out about stuff that they’re doing where we become mandatory reporters; a two-second kiss is not one of them.

At some point I actually did do some teaching today, too. This has actually been a pretty good week (the absences of both of the Always Suspended twins for the first two days of the week helped) and I’m hoping tomorrow keeps the trend going. Especially since the other possibility is that the week has been saving all of its bullshit for Friday. I’d prefer that to not be the case.

(He’s still reading that book. What the hell is a Xigua?)

Tonight’s activities will mostly involve reading, vegetating on the couch, and trying not to die. Forgive me; I can’t be exciting every day.

In which break out those recipe boxes

On By Luther M. SilerIn Cooking6 Comments

kale-granola-6

Announcement follows!  Beginning this Sunday, the sixth of October, in the 2013th year of the Common Era, I shall become a vegetarian for the time span of one (1) Earth week.  Here is my definition of “vegetarian”:  I will not eat anything that at any point in its life walked.  I shall limit myself to one (1) serving during the week of anything that used to swim, and I shall only consume things that swam if the alternative is devouring an enormous steak and destroying my streak.  Things made from former things that walked, or things that came out of things that walked are exempt; in other words, if I want some chicken stock or beef broth in my food, or if I want to eat eggs, I’m gonna.  Honey, despite being an animal product, is also clearly not meat. Plus whatever other rules I feel like I need for whatever reason I choose to need them.

Why am I doing this?

Well… uh… no reason, really.  I’ve had, through the purest chance, three dinners in a row where I didn’t have any meat, and something like six of the last eight meals (lunch today had turkey) were meatless and I noticed.  I’m curious to find out if I can drag it out for an entire week.  I have no actual attraction to vegetarianism as a sustained lifestyle choice– I don’t actually eat all that much red meat, to be honest, but doing without chicken is unimaginable– and animal rights appeals do not particularly move me.  No, I don’t slaughter my own meat, but you can be damn sure that if I had to I’ll kill the hell out of a chicken or a pig or a cow no matter how pretty her big brown eyes are.  I wouldn’t like it very much the first time but I’d get over it quick.  No, it’s mostly just curiosity.  I wanna see if I can.  The wife claims that it’ll be a piece of cake for her (she’s participating in the game is as well, which means so is the boy) but I’m waaaay more of a carnivore than she is.

Anyway:  gimme some recipes, kids.  Nothing’s off-limits.

(Also: I’m starting Sunday because we have preexisting dinner plans for my mom’s birthday tomorrow, at a Chinese restaurant, and while eating vegetarian Chinese isn’t exactly terribly difficult I’m not going to want to, and we’re out of town all day on Saturday, which will involve unpredictable food options.  I’m not going to set myself up to fail and I’m sure as hell not going to be a dick about what I’ll eat at my uncle’s wake, so we’ll start the day after and go Sunday to Sunday.)

This’ll be fun.