I love this picture.

Oriane passed along this link to Dan Steinhilber's brilliant work, which goes screeching right into the "Dang! Why didn't I think of that?!" file folder.

I have a good excuse though. Duck sauce is an East Coast thang. Or at least, not a West Coast thang. Or at least, not in my experience. (I was wrong about the rangoons... I could be wrong about the duck sauce.)

I am so overwhelmed by everything that has to get done before I leave for Minnesota! I might not have any blog-worthy things to say for the next couple weeks since most of what's going on in my head is lists of boring errands, things to bring with me, & so forth. Presumably I'll have more interesting things to say in the lovely month of May, once I get out there in the field. So don't give up on me!

Meanwhile, I recommend you go see Bend It Like Beckham.

Crab rangoon sighting, a little too close for comfort: Donna spotted "Crab Cheese Puff" on the sidewalk dry-erase board of a restaurant less than a mile from here. The rangoons are encroaching... they are spreading... eeeeek! I should probably calm down though; I don't live in a prime Chinese food neighborhood, exactly. Most of the good stuff is at least a couple miles away. (I know... life's tough.)

Also: a friend went to one of those speed-dating things at a Chinese restaurant in Lafayette, & reports they had crab rangoons in their meal. Which seems oddly appropriate, somehow.

I've been calling Chinese restaurants in Wisconsin to make sure they actually exist before I go driving all over tarnation looking for them. It can be pretty funny, because I'll ask, "What's your cross street?" & they'll be like, huh? which makes me imagine some tiny 1-stoplight town where it's completely pointless to ask where they are. Or they ask, "Where are you coming from?" expecting me to say I'm at the other end of town, and then I go, "Um, actually, I'm calling from California." Hee hee!

One place, I asked if there were any other Chinese restaurants in town. They helpfully included the Tempura House in their short list. Well... some people argue that Japanese folks originally came from China... (which kinda reminds me of a friend of mine who was catching flak from some militant Afrocentric types because she was hanging out with a white friend; she said to them, well, you're always talking about how all humans came out of Africa, so aren't we *all* Africans then?)

Motels in Wisconsin & Minnesota are not as rock-bottom cheap as Wyoming, but really I can't complain.

How harrowing to be without internet service for 4 days... I heave a sigh of relief now that I'm back online. I'm so dependent on this it's pathetic!