In reflecting upon Luc and his previous girlfriends, I can’t shake the feeling that if I want to win him, then I need to be someone not me, and that realization clashes with my determination to stay true to my principles.

Of course, just what are my principles? The virtues of chastity, patience, and obedience don’t really come to mind in any ( Read more... )

Sunday began with the mixing of tomato paste and water, or, to sum it up in a single word: inauspiciously. In addition to the tomato sauce, I also mixed three variations of salad dressing and relegated all of them to the fridge to let the “flavours mingle” for a few hours ( Read more... )

The BBC called the great man's philosophy "obscure" and the New York Times managed "abstruse" and "murky." I think Derrida deserves better in death, overshadowed in life as he was by Sartre, Lévi-Strauss, and Foucault.

Tomorrow an assembly of characters from Our Lady will converge at my place for dinner, and Luc has recently made it known to me that he shall count himself among them.

Even the threat, or shall I say, the mere possibility (expressed that way, it loses its scare factor) that Luc’s presence should grace the upcoming event, gave me the impetus ( Read more... )

I can attest to incremental progress in the sphere of home arts. Last night I cooked pierogies using a new recipe, which resulted in a dough neither too tough nor too heavy. For the filling, of course, I used potatoes - which I so elegantly mashed using a bottle of balsamic vinegar (the housing office has provided us with a meat cleaver but no ( Read more... )

Today we - the Dutch nation collectively, or at least the population of southern Utrecht - experienced a rare day of autumn brilliance. I biked to work this morning beside pastures, cast in gold and frost; along the lake, overlaid with leaves (brown and newly fallen); then up and over the white wooden bridge that spans the Crooked Rhine. To my ( Read more... )

Operation No-Name proceeded today after a solid two hours of "Introduction to Celtic Language and History." (I drew knitting designs in the margins of my notes. Or more precisely, made notes in the margins of my designs ( Read more... )

Operation No-Name begins today. I should have first liked to grant it a decent name, but none of my ideas - Operation Ideal Wife, Operation Perfect Girl, Operation Miss Manners, Operation Millionaire - have hit the nail on the head. So, until further notice, Operation No-Name is in the works. Its goal? I'm surprised that I even need to clarify ( Read more... )

from the Spanish forces in 1574. I ought to make Leiden hotchpotch for dinner tonight - essentially mashed potatoes and carrots with bits of bacon (tastier than one would assume from this description) but instead I'm baking raisin bread today, or at least planning on it; because I left almost all my recipes at home, I've had to turn to the ( Read more... )

Luc Westerveldt is single for the first time since I made his acquaintance four years ago ( Read more... )