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elfsA few weeks ago, Omaha and I attended the Democratic district caucuses and through some bizarre set of circumstances ended up being the representatives to our legislative district as well. This Saturday was that day. So we woke the kids early and gave them a quickie breakfast of home-made bran muffins and orange-banana smoothies, then herded them out the door.
I'll just say this: if the Democrats hope to win this fall, they'd better be more organized in general than the 33rd District. These people treated the event as if everyone could be counted on to pretend it was 1925, when people had nothing better to do on a summer afternoon than sit all day in a hot, un-airconditioned room and argue about the finer points of Roberts Rules of Order, work their way through a mind-numbing 66 resolutions all condemning George Bush or advocating expensive social projects without specifying from where the money might come. A process that was supposed to take 2½ hours ballooned to a stultifying six hours of acrimony about how each proponent's proposals were not being taken seriously by the rest of the party. The reading of the rules alone, necessitated by an archaic assumption that some of those attending could not read for themselves, took twenty minutes.
Through all this, the girls were just amazing. Kouryou-chan and Yamaarashi-chan kept themselves more or less well-occupied playing in the back yard of the meeting hall, which abutted against an undeveloped greenbelt with a tiny stream running through it. The bugs, leaves, dirt and water were perfect for them. Omaha and I switched off monitoring them and the party's goings on. We were there for one reason only: to nominate our candidates (Omaha was "undecided", I was committed to Edwards-- remember him?).
As it turned out, the thing broke down into two groups: Kerry and "uncommittted." Since I had been given the vote by my district, I went with uncommitted. "Uncommitted" ended up with six votes, but twenty people wanted to represent those six votes, so Omaha and I put in our voices for the six we wanted after meeting with all twenty, and then we bugged out. Not very democratic, I suppose, but that's the way things work. If other members of our district couldn't be bothered to show up, it fell to mine & Omaha's sensibilities.
I got home, made tuna-fish sandwiches for everybody, and then took a nap while Omaha hacked on her computer and the girls went outside to play. When I woke up an hour later, I had a curious post-nap blurriness of vision that took about twenty minutes to work itself out; this happens whenever I nap in the daytime and use the facemask to keep the light out. It went away after twenty minutes or so.
Omaha went out to visit with some friends, so I had the girls to myself. I cooked dinner-- adult macaroni and cheese, which actually takes a while to make since it's a full-blown white sauce recipe. One of my better investments was in the non-stick cookware, which made cleaning up a white sauce recipe trivial.
Preheat oven to 400F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Cook 2½ cups milk with 2 bay leaves in a small saucepan over medium heat. Wait until bubbles form, then turn off heat and let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook 1 lb. pasta (I used shells, but elbow or ziti is fine) according to directions, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. Pour pasta into a greased casserole dish.
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 3 tbsp butter until foamy, then add 3 tbsp flour and whisk until smooth. Take out the bay leaves from the milk and add the milk, 1/3rd cup at a time, to the flour mix, whisking until smooth continually.
Add 1½ cups grated cheese. I used smoked Cheddar, since that's what we had, but any Cheddar or Emmenthal works, choosing sharpness to taste. Stir until melted. Pour over pasta, toss with 1/2 cup grated Parmesean, salt and pepper according to taste, and sprinkle heavily with at least ½ cup bread crumbs. Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until breadcrumbs turn brown.
Dinner was at 7:30, and around 8:00 we settled down to watch the "Japanese" episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, which was great. I think it's amusing that they can do an entire episode in Japanese, expecting the American kid audience to be hip enough to "get it." We played a few rounds of Sequence, and I gave the kids ice cream cones with one small scoop of vanilla-- it was all we had left of that flavor.
While the kids got into their pyjamas and did a load of laundry and swept the dining room floor, put away the dishes and all the usual chores. They picked their books-- Horton Hears a Who for Yamaarashi-chan, Hop On Pop for Kouryou-chan-- and we read them. The girls went to bed without complaint and then so did I, too tired even with my nap after such a long and rather grueling morning.
I'll just say this: if the Democrats hope to win this fall, they'd better be more organized in general than the 33rd District. These people treated the event as if everyone could be counted on to pretend it was 1925, when people had nothing better to do on a summer afternoon than sit all day in a hot, un-airconditioned room and argue about the finer points of Roberts Rules of Order, work their way through a mind-numbing 66 resolutions all condemning George Bush or advocating expensive social projects without specifying from where the money might come. A process that was supposed to take 2½ hours ballooned to a stultifying six hours of acrimony about how each proponent's proposals were not being taken seriously by the rest of the party. The reading of the rules alone, necessitated by an archaic assumption that some of those attending could not read for themselves, took twenty minutes.
Through all this, the girls were just amazing. Kouryou-chan and Yamaarashi-chan kept themselves more or less well-occupied playing in the back yard of the meeting hall, which abutted against an undeveloped greenbelt with a tiny stream running through it. The bugs, leaves, dirt and water were perfect for them. Omaha and I switched off monitoring them and the party's goings on. We were there for one reason only: to nominate our candidates (Omaha was "undecided", I was committed to Edwards-- remember him?).
As it turned out, the thing broke down into two groups: Kerry and "uncommittted." Since I had been given the vote by my district, I went with uncommitted. "Uncommitted" ended up with six votes, but twenty people wanted to represent those six votes, so Omaha and I put in our voices for the six we wanted after meeting with all twenty, and then we bugged out. Not very democratic, I suppose, but that's the way things work. If other members of our district couldn't be bothered to show up, it fell to mine & Omaha's sensibilities.
I got home, made tuna-fish sandwiches for everybody, and then took a nap while Omaha hacked on her computer and the girls went outside to play. When I woke up an hour later, I had a curious post-nap blurriness of vision that took about twenty minutes to work itself out; this happens whenever I nap in the daytime and use the facemask to keep the light out. It went away after twenty minutes or so.
Omaha went out to visit with some friends, so I had the girls to myself. I cooked dinner-- adult macaroni and cheese, which actually takes a while to make since it's a full-blown white sauce recipe. One of my better investments was in the non-stick cookware, which made cleaning up a white sauce recipe trivial.
Preheat oven to 400F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Cook 2½ cups milk with 2 bay leaves in a small saucepan over medium heat. Wait until bubbles form, then turn off heat and let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook 1 lb. pasta (I used shells, but elbow or ziti is fine) according to directions, drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. Pour pasta into a greased casserole dish.
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 3 tbsp butter until foamy, then add 3 tbsp flour and whisk until smooth. Take out the bay leaves from the milk and add the milk, 1/3rd cup at a time, to the flour mix, whisking until smooth continually.
Add 1½ cups grated cheese. I used smoked Cheddar, since that's what we had, but any Cheddar or Emmenthal works, choosing sharpness to taste. Stir until melted. Pour over pasta, toss with 1/2 cup grated Parmesean, salt and pepper according to taste, and sprinkle heavily with at least ½ cup bread crumbs. Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until breadcrumbs turn brown.
Dinner was at 7:30, and around 8:00 we settled down to watch the "Japanese" episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, which was great. I think it's amusing that they can do an entire episode in Japanese, expecting the American kid audience to be hip enough to "get it." We played a few rounds of Sequence, and I gave the kids ice cream cones with one small scoop of vanilla-- it was all we had left of that flavor.
While the kids got into their pyjamas and did a load of laundry and swept the dining room floor, put away the dishes and all the usual chores. They picked their books-- Horton Hears a Who for Yamaarashi-chan, Hop On Pop for Kouryou-chan-- and we read them. The girls went to bed without complaint and then so did I, too tired even with my nap after such a long and rather grueling morning.
