What made you smile today?

But YOU MUST have beignets and cafe-au-lait at Cafe du Monde.

Don't know what those are George, but I will try them.

I smiled knowing I am going to the drag strip this morning

George--You had to say begniets, didn't you? Just the thought of them makes me smile. (I'm doing NutriSystem and haven't seen the inside of a Dunkin' Donuts in months.)

TTH--They're French doughnuts.......mmmmmm....deep fried.....mmmmm......powdered sugar....... <sigh>

wife's jokes.

My daughter Hermione was runner-up in the Dudley Review writing contest
(poetry category).

She has two of her poems published and they are right up front.

Ok, this did not make me smile.....

This made me laugh so hard my guts hurt..


http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=104908596661&amp;h=mAHR_&amp;u=YBTag&amp;ref=nf

She is SO Hermione.

Congratulations to her! (And you!)

Kids walking up my office wall, handprints on the ceiling - leavers leaving primary school.

Ain't she?

"So, how has your life been, so far?"
A guy walks into my shop this morning. He is about my age. He has a vaguely religious slogan on his t-shirt. I get a bit defensive; cautious about where this is going with his opening line.
He says, "I haven't seen you or Cville for 33 years."
He has a very noticeable NH accent. I know accents. He tells me he is on his way home after dropping his son off at a Habitat for Humanity project in NC. He decided to swing by Cville, where he had gone to UVA, 3 decades ago. A clue, but not much of one. Was he once a customer of mine, an architecture student? Or maybe he was an employee of mine.
Being a guy, the notion of asking him "Who the f*ck are you?" never crosses my mind as an option.
He talked about spending 4 or 5 hours walking around town yesterday, amazed at how much and how little Cville had changed.
Then he asks if I had ever heard anything from Brian F. And was I still in touch with Robert, the gentleman farmer. Finally there is something I could latch onto. He was Brian's roommate in the dorm 1st year before Brian moved into an off-campus group house where I lived. He was a friend of Brian's and we would all often go swimming in a pond at Robert's farm.
But his name. I can't think of this guy's name.
He tells me how he had gone home to NH and had gotten involved for awhile in politics. Elected to city Council and then the state legislature. NH (I bet you don't know this) has the 3rd largest elected legislative body in the English-speaking world.
He leaves after an hour, but not before giving me his card and asking me for mine. Jim B the name said; John B said mine. I think we are both relieved to be able to address each other by name.

rjb, Enjoyed that! We need more stories from you.

A book, rj. A book. Please do it.

Two hours on the phone with my best friend.

Had a lovely late afternoon popping out for a couple of hours... Took N. to find Balllon, the tiny shop of a fashion designer I'd seen at WAMP, where we found her a beautiful little jacket for her upcoming birthday. Then we walked up along the railway and up Szabolcs and Vagany streets, showing each other random rubble excursions on the way (with bonus giant styrofoam christmas balls), to get to the bufe by Rakosrendezo station and its perennially shut rail crossing, a place I love and which she "got" as much as I do. It was just lovely.

Yes! It would be great! An RJB book of short stories and anecdotes, it would be wonderful.

Yes, totally. You don't realise how important community is - or how much more flow it can give to your life - until you go without somewhere .. just look at RJB's stories as well! It puts schwung into your life..

The langos definitely aren't sweet! They're deep fried dough, basically, with a bit of garlic oil spread on top, or alternatively / additionally, sour cream and cheese - that's the best combination. But you can get them with just sour cream too or with other stuff, even sausage (?!).

Langos are great. Surprisingly, they're quite hard to get in Budapest, downtown at least - but no festival, sunday in a park, daytrip destination or provincial riverside boardwalk is complete without a langos seller. I guess they're kind of proletarian and that's why they were hard to find in downtown Pest .. but now a langos place has opened next to the Instant courtyard cafe, for that late-night liquor-fuelled hunger.

EDIT: Sajtos tejfölös lángos

I have no idea what schwung is but I think I'd probably agree that community puts it into my life.

Yeh, 'schwung' was inducing me to do some personal word play..


Thanks for the additional info about langos, nimh. I never never ever deep fry anything myself, for two reasons: I'm scared of setting my kitchen on fire, and because I never have that much fat in one place even if I wasn't scared about using it with high flame. Nevertheless, I do love things like fritters.. at restaurants. I'd probably like langos.

Schwung = drive, dynamism.