dehiscent fruit...

the last time my brother was back in the states for christmas ('03) he bequeathed unto me the rice cooker he had initially brought home from taiwan in anticipation of his permanent residency in california. plans changed. rice cooker is mine. it's a bright, orangey-red affair. i like it a lot, but its capacity is far greater than i need. we already have a little single serving rice cooker which is quite adequate. but i'm a sucker for this other's orangey good looks. last night was the first time i attempted to use it. all of the instructions are in chinese. i don't speak chinese. i don't read chinese. i am chinese-less. after several false starts the jasmine rice cooked up nicely. yay! and that, my friend, is one anticlimactic tale. so.

bequeathed is ugly to look at. somehow i still like it. why is that?

i found a new word today. regmacarp, n.-- any kind of dry, dehiscent fruit. i'll try to drop it into sentences. it's the only way to retain. sure, it sounds awkward at first. please, could you pass the regmacarp? but education is like that. devastating w. devastating k. devastating w. until maybe someone...yes, of course, have one of mine.

bitter melon. jewel weed. man-underground.

a new spider plant. sometimes when i come home people have left little gifts for me. this was one of them. it's a really nice spider. loooong arms and small pups. there was also a christmas cactus. very healthy. two new plants in one week. generous. so generous. once when i came home there was a wild boar skull hanging in a plastic sack from the front gate. there was a bullet hole in the bone. sort of ominous. but it was a gift from a good neighbor who has known me since i was very wee and knows i like skulls. it's one of my favorites. he also left some agaves and aloes one day. like having my own boo radley. i give him tomatoes sometimes. sometimes he gives them to me. i'm glad to know people like that. benevolent slinkers.

i wish i had a bag of ripe tomatoes right now. thai fried rice. mmm.