• The red basket has arrived. I am pleased to have it in my possession, though I think I should buy some paint and re-spray it.
  • Some dishes have also arrived. More of the set were found after I left for the airport; one of my sisters-in-law will ship them to me.
  • I am very pleased to have The Bowl in my house. The Bowl lived on a table in the living room, visible from the entrance to my house, all the time I was growing up. It usually had some sort of seasonal decoration in or near it. I love the Bowl for its own sake, because it is beautiful. There is a myth about its provenance which seems to be belied, or at least complicated, by the manufacturer’s mark on its bottom. Whatever. The Bowl is now mine, in my living room, and seeing it makes me happy.
  • I also have The Rolling Pin, with red handles, to replace the one I got at a yard sale. I feel sillier about shipping this than I do about the Basket and the Bowl, but I’m still pleased to have it. I’ll give my other rolling pin away.
  • I have vigorously refused various silver-plated objects (coffee pot, trays, candlesticks, and similar oddments) offered to me. I used to have to clean that stuff as a teenager. No thank you. It saddens me that my mother found these things a meaningful statement of status, and that her kids just want to be rid of them, but times change. Whatever her fantasies, I am not going to have “co-eds,” the dean, or my church group (a non-existent group, since I don’t attend church) over for coffee and serve them from the silver pot.
  • Does anybody serve drinks from silver pots any more?
  • One of my classes has met. My students are adorably enthusiastic. I hope they stay that way.
  • I still have to finish the syllabus for the other class. It’ll get done.
  • I think I should make some vigorous efforts to settle back into the house where I still live. The more complicated and annoying it will be to move, the more likely someone is to make us an offer, according to Sod’s Law. Right?