A Quiet Weekend

Andrew and I had a second very quiet weekend in a row.

We stayed home all weekend, going out not at all.

I studied. Andrew cooked.

Cooking certainly helped keep the apartment warm!

On Friday night, Andrew was in the mood for a “major” dinner, so he prepared sesame chicken and pasta with steamed shredded vegetables mixed into the pasta.

The chicken and pasta were only a starter course. After we ate the chicken and pasta, Andrew truly got to work, preparing: Steak Diane; a complicated potato dish that included cream, chives, onions and sharp cheddar cheese; baked okra; fresh green beans with almonds; fresh mushrooms seasoned, coated and fried; and a complicated tomato salad.

It was a stunning dinner—and we skipped dessert.

We ate breakfast all morning on Saturday. We had grapefruit. We had shredded wheat. We had strawberries and blueberries in cream. We had scrambled eggs and toast and orange juice and cranberry juice. We had fresh homemade cinnamon coffee cake (and not from a package).

We had no need for lunch on Saturday!

However, around 4:00 p.m., we were again ready to eat a little something, so Andrew prepared chicken quarters coated with an apple glaze and baked in the oven. We ate the chicken quarters with steamed peas, steamed carrots and Andrew’s mother’s version of Waldorf Salad.

At 8:00 p.m., we were ready for our first dinner course: oysters baked with green peppers, green onions, bread crumbs, parsley, egg yolk, crumbled bacon and butter. Even though Andrew had never attempted baked oysters until Saturday night, the baked oysters were incredibly good.

Our main dinner course was at 9:00 p.m.: a small pork loin, already seasoned, that Andrew merely had to put into the oven. We ate the pork loin with potato pancakes, steamed lima beans and boiled beets. Andrew does not even like beets—and neither do I—but on Thursday night, while we were at the food store, Andrew said that he had a powerful taste for beets and, consequently, he bought some. The beets actually went well with the pork loin, the potato pancakes and the lima beans.

For dessert, we had a small lemon pudding cake, which turned out perfectly: a soufflé-like texture on top, a sauce-like texture on bottom.

Yesterday we had a breakfast that again lasted all morning. We had granola. We had cantaloupe. We had baked eggs and toast and grapefruit juice. We had American waffles and sausage. We had homemade cranberry-orange muffins.

After breakfast, we did not eat again until 4:00 p.m., when we had grilled tuna, seasoned rice (from a package) and steamed broccoli.

Last night we had a major garden salad, followed by baked chicken and stuffing, mashed potatoes, white corn, fried zucchini and two fruit salads: a cranberry-nut salad and a whipped tangerine-cream cheese salad. For dessert, we had homemade cherry crisp with ice cream.

I don’t think I could have eaten as well this weekend even at Andrew’s mother’s house!

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While I have been diligently studying, Andrew has been diligently working. In his spare time, Andrew has been doing some serious reading.

Alex will arrive for a short visit on Thursday night.

My sister has announced, midway through her second year, that she is sick of Vanderbilt. She has decided that Vanderbilt is provincial and she is talking about transferring. My parents do not know whether to ignore such talk or to be in an uproar.

Myself, I am looking forward to Spring Break and our trip to Greece.

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Like Andrew, I view my blog as a personal journal and I do not expect strangers to read my blog or to find my blog interesting.

I do nothing to promote my blog. I very, very seldom comment on other persons’ blogs and I make no effort to “publicize” my blog or to expand my blog readership. My blog is for me and me alone.

I was, accordingly, quite surprised when—out of the blue—my blog readership instantly tripled back in October of last year.

After tripling in October, readership quadrupled in November and quintupled in December.

What was going on? Had I become more interesting?

Alas, my increase in readership had a more mundane cause: people were coming to my blog in search of “White Trash Fat Lady” videos.

Last autumn, I wrote about our summer vacation in Bavaria and Austria, and in one such blog post I wrote very briefly about a hilarious program we viewed on European television, a segment of a program devoted to “White Trash Fat Lady”.

“White Trash Fat Lady” videos portray a genuine (and extremely down-market) American family in the Southeastern United States. This appalling hillbilly family and its outrageous shenanigans are presented mercilessly for the camera’s (and the viewer’s) amusement. The people on the videos simply have no shame. They are, quite obviously, loons, trashy and disgusting in equal measure. I have no idea why these people are not sufficiently mortified never again to appear in public.

Apparently a veritable industry has arisen around “White Trash Fat Lady”. One may find “White Trash Fat Lady” videos all over the internet on any one of thousands upon thousands of websites worldwide devoted to the habits and foibles of “white trash”. Until Andrew and I viewed “White Trash Fat Lady” on European television, we had had no idea that people everywhere were enjoying so many laughs at the expense of American lowlifes in general and this particular family of lowlifes in particular. A focus on white trash has become a growth industry in recent years, especially outside the U.S. Websites featuring photos and videos on the subject now number in the millions, offered in languages I cannot begin to decipher.

The “White Trash Fat Lady” videos Andrew and I saw in August indeed were enormously funny.

However, there are no “White Trash Fat Lady” videos to be found here.