Salmon, Chicken And Meat Loaf

Andrew left for Dallas on business this morning. Andrew will be in Dallas until Friday night, so I am staying with his parents while he is away.

I like staying with Andrew’s parents on those rare occasions Andrew must travel on business.

I don’t get lonely when I stay with Andrew’s parents. His parents are good company, and they are very good to me.

I also don’t go hungry when I stay with Andrew’s parents. I know, in advance, that I will get a wonderful dinner every night.

Andrew’s mother also insists upon packing a lunch for me every night to take to work the next morning. She packs quite a good lunch. She always packs a couple of sandwiches for me, and a container of cole slaw or tomato-cucumber salad or pepper salad or something similar. She also packs fruit (an apple, a pear, a peach) and a few homemade cookies. She is not convinced that there is a perfectly fine cafeteria in my office building.

I don’t think Andrew’s parents or I will do much of anything this week.

Andrew’s father and I are sort of overloaded on college basketball right now, and I don’t think we plan to watch any basketball games on television this week. We’ve had more than our fill for now.

Neither of us has been able to get into the college basketball season this year.

None of our teams is having an especially distinguished season. Further, we made a mistake, I think, in attending five Minnesota home games within a four-week period. This involved too many games for us over too short a period. It more than satisfied our interest for the year.

It also made us glad that we did not get season tickets. We talked about getting season tickets last summer, and we decided against it. We thought that eighteen home games would be nothing so much as a chore, and we were right. Five games were more than enough for us. I don’t think we could have survived eighteen games.

Last year, Andrew and I attended the Big Twelve Conference Mens’ Basketball Tournament, and we had a fantastic time. It was one of the greatest conference tournaments of all time, as it turned out. My Dad had invited us—but only because last year’s tournament was held in Oklahoma City—and we totally lucked out.

Last year was a one-time-only event, not to be repeated. This year Andrew and I will not be attending any year-end tournaments, and I don’t think we will miss anything.

Tonight we have been reading, mostly, and that’s probably all we will do all week. The television has not been turned on once all night—in addition to having had our fill of college basketball, we have also become satiated by the never-ending flow of political news stories—and we have not even been listening to music.

It has been totally quiet, and totally magical. Aside from a little conversation, the only noise has been the sound of the dog yawning, and the sound of the dog walking across the room to get a drink of water and returning, and the sound of the dog chewing on his toys, and the occasional sound of the dog growling at his toys as he eagerly and playfully bites into them.

He received a dinner of grilled chicken tonight, because the rest of us had grilled salmon, and he does not like seafood. He enjoyed his dinner.

We also had a garden salad, seasoned rice, steamed carrots and steamed green beans. For dessert, we had poached peaches and homemade peanut butter cookies. The dog got some cookies, too, because peanut butter cookies are his favorite.

I will get more peanut butter cookies for lunch tomorrow, because my lunch is already packed. In addition to the cookies, tomorrow’s lunch consists of a container of garden salad, a salmon-and-cucumber sandwich on an English muffin, a chicken-and-green-pepper sandwich on an onion roll, and a container of poached peaches.

Tomorrow night, I am informed, we will be having meat loaf for dinner. The dog loves meat loaf, so he will be happy. I love it, too, so I will be happy as well.

I doubt that Andrew is eating half so well in Dallas.