Perverse liminality

Last year around this time when its imminent collapse became obvious to everyone, I added "Borders" as a topic to my Google News page in the hopes of getting some early notification as to when the local branch would be closing so I could make it there in time to raid it. That didn't happen. But the dedicated section of my news feed never went away, it just got odder. You see, whatever search Google is using to populate it with headlines not case sensitive, so what I end up getting is a sampling of stories about frontier issues from around the world. Which, given my interests, is kind of neat, actually. But I don't recall ever seeing a juxtaposition quite as strange as this morning's:

• Border Patrol evolves to meet the demand of Texas-Mexico border violence
• LEAD: India, China begin talks on decades-old border dispute
• Tips for a mixed flower border

Maybe I should just replace the existing sections like "World" and "Sports" with other random keywords like "Body" and "Undermine" just to see what might pop up.

Downtown

It's a testament to what an unwinter we've had so far that on Saturday, when I asked monshu what it was like outside, he replied, "Nasty." I pressed him to elaborate and he mentioned that it was in the 20s and kind of cloudy. I couldn't believe it. 20s, partial sun, no wind to speak of--if this were any ordinary January, we'd call a day like that gorgeous.

A couple weeks before Christmas, my determination to wear my moccasins until they literally fell apart finally paid off when a neighbour made mention of them and the Old Man, appalled, offered to take me shopping for a new pair. Unfortunately, as I found visiting Cabela's with my mom on Boxing Day, something has happened to my left foot which seems to have made it a bad fit for pretty much every slipper designed for human use. Did the muscles develop weirdly back when I was on crutches and it was having to take the strain? All I know is that if they were long enough they were too tight, and if they fit the front of my foot they were loose in the back.

At the time I hoped that it was a quirk of their sizing. But at Macy's yesterday I tried on pairs from three or four makes and it was the same problem every time. At one point, I even considered buying two pair and using only one slipper from each, but I decided the gain was too marginal to justify it. There were two fairly decent pairs of Merrell's on deep discount at Nordstrom Rack, but in the end I decided to go with a pair of cheap-ass Isotoners so that if I ended up hating them, at least the GWO wouldn't be out that much. (I'm stilled burnt from the pricey shearling-lined pair I bought him two years ago that has sat in the closet ever since, having failed to fit either of us adequately.)

After that, we headed off to Lloyd's on Wacker for dinner with Nuphy. On Nuphy, as it turned out, since we'd hardly sat down when he insisted on paying in return for all the meals he'd had at our house without reciprocating. What a mentsh! Fortunately after that, it turned out to be a good meal. Nuphy had the blackened salmon while monshu and I both went for the tuna. I was dithering aloud between the steak and sandwich, since the latter had better sides (sweet potato fries vs fried rice), and our ultracharming waitress offered to make a substitution. Sadly, that seems to have thrown the kitchen, since they sent it out with the rice anyway and by the time she'd brought it back corrected, the fish had gone a bit cold.

No matter; it was still a good piece of fish cooked well, and for less than we would've been charged at Rivers or One North across the street. Incidentally, the layout is almost identical to One North, making for a certain sense of déjà-vu on entering for the first time. Nuphy noted that the bar is smaller, and naturally it offers less of a range. (The Old Man couldn't find a scotch he liked, but at least seemed happy with his wine.) The difference was most noticeable in the sides, particularly the broccoli which was served properly steamed but without a touch of oil or seasoning, and the service, which was less stuffy. Definitely a place to keep in mind for future opera nights.

Today the weather is back to being crazy warm. Thursday finally saw the first decent snowfall of the season and it's melting away as I type this. Still worried about what that's going to mean for the plant life.