Sarah’s parents came to town for the week. We spent the weekend with them in a garage apartment on the beach. I perched at the dining nook table so that I could study (for the Principles of Test and Evaluation final that I took this morning) whilst looking out over the grassy dunes to the sea. I’m not quite sure why Sarah and I don’t go to the beach more often; we like it well enough. At any rate, it should take less than a visit from the inlaws to make us leave Valparaiso.
On Thursday, her parents, my parents, and we are going to New Orleans for the weekend. Preservation Hall, here we come. I’d like to check out the Bywater neighbourhood whilst we’re there - we never venture beyond the French Quarter (for books and beignets) or the Garden District (for Copeland’s). Maybe we’ll take a riverboat ride too.
We’ve put a bit of time into planting flowers, vegetables, and herbs over the last month. I’m looking forward to summer crops and tithing marigolds and parsley leaves - maybe some amaranth grain too. Unfortunately, tithing five longnecks out of fifty bottles of Smoky Porter could cause some divisiveness in the church. Why should the elders be the only ones who get beer tithes? I’ll be sharing a lot of that batch, I suppose (That is, if it turns out better than the last two batches. I may have to farm it out to my former brewing partner in Atlanta, as he’s had a lot more recent successes than I.)
Sarah, we should formalise our arguments over paganism and sophistication to post them on here as a debate so that everyone can see what a rube you’ve married.
Speaking of rubes, I found out today that Hunter Thompson was assigned to Eglin Proving Grounds in 1956 where he wrote for the base newspaper and moonlighted for the NWFL Daily News under the name of Thorne Stockton. I think that I should make a trip to the microfilm room at the Fort Walton Beach Library.
Finally, I also learned today that Amtrak offers rail passes. Particularly inviting is the North American. For about five hundred bucks, one receives thirty days of “unlimited” travel in the United States and Canada. The caveats behind “unlimited” include the following:
- Your trip must include at least one journey between the United States and Canada.
- Your trip must include travel on Amtrak and Via Rail Canada.
- Pass holders must obtain a ticket for each trip.
- The pass may be used for a maximum of four one-way trips on any given leg.