more sausage, and a visit del sud

last night's dinner literally was leftovers - d was being wined and dined by a vendor at the capital grille, the city's new old boys club, so i just reheated the pasta with an extra sprinkle of parmesan in the toaster oven. was marginally better about dessert - no peanut butter or frosting, but instead a handful of the new peanut-butter-filled hershey's kisses, which are ok but no peanut butter cups, and a finger of sheridan's "layered coffee liquer" which we got in a duty-free shop on our way back from the british virgin islands or somewhere and has been languishing in the fridge ever since.

tonight we leave for a week-long road tour of the south: atlanta to see d's sister and a college friend of his; savannah to see my dad; and then charlotte, where my 84-year-old grandmother is getting married (to a man, she's dismayed to report, of the advanced age of 85). we'll be camping much of the time, and i'm in charge of provisioning our camp foods. bring on the smoked sausage!

isn't there something uniquely repugnant about sausage? even the lower-fat turkey variety? how profoundly horrifying is it that we grind up the least attractive parts of animals and then stuff them into a casing made of their own viscera - or, perhaps even worse, that of some other species? i try not to think about this too much, because i am unfortunately an adamant, jane-come-lately member of the sausage fan club. as my most hilarious friend once said, "how can anyone be anorexic where there's sausage in this world?" and she's right; sausage is - while not an absolute good - a very tasty, fat- cholesterol- and preservative-riddled good. and to think i grew up in a vegetarian home.

besides, the dog really likes it when i give her morsels of sausage when i'm using it in a recipe. i'm one of those pet owners who's constantly concerned that my dog hates me, or at least couldn't give a flying %&*@ whether i'm around or not, so i gotta remind her occasionally that i can be the source of all that is good and meaty. and that "mom" can be just as fun as "dad". like this morning, when we went running together? wasn't THAT fun? huh? huh? huh?

that was my first run since, i think, thanksgiving day. i'm expecting my knees to lodge a formal protest any minute now.

back in a week...