I remember you, you drive like a PTA mother.

Post Birthday de-briefing.

Nothing major happened. In the sense that nothing tragic happened - yet, at least. I forgot to include in my last post the really awful thing about my 26th birthday, namely that my car was stolen. Right out of the parking lot. That set in motion a long line of events that included a drive by myself from Kansas City to San Diego with a relatively new Honda Accord. But that's a story for another time.

There was a goodly crowd at Lancer's. I remember, vaguely, that I couldn't play any pool to save my life. There was a particularly tragic incident where I was shooting at the 8-ball behind an opponent's 9-ball, and the only shot I could concievably pull off to avoid a scratch was incredibly difficult. I scratched. But I played some Dinosaur Jr. on the jukebox (I forgot how cool that band was), and some Louis Prima, as usual. People kept feeding me bourbon and Amstel Light, and I got a little tipsy, but not too drunk. I decided toward the end of the night that in order not to feel like the weight of the world was on my shoulders the following morning, I should start protesting people buying me drinks, which always brings a frown to my face, but it had to be done.

Dale-time was also nice. I bought a nice copy of R. M. Hare's "Moral Thinking" at a used book shoppe in La Jolla. There were a couple of other nice volumes there, but they charge market price, so I could only afford the Hare. (Brief aside: why are books in philosophy so expensive? I mean, those things are expensive. When I see a trade paperback for less than $20, I'm thinking: "wow! Why is this so cheap?" I think philosophers and philosophy graduate students in particular ought to boycott or something, until the books are brought down in price by the academic publishers. It won't work, but here's to fruitless efforts.) I then sauntered over to Tower Records and bought a couple of DVDs (Dr. Strangelove and the new Criterion edition of Wages of Fear), and Surfer Rosa by the Pixies. The latter really confused me the first time I listened to it, but then I started to realize what they were up to. There's nothing quite so rockin' as "Debaser" or anything else on Doolittle, for that matter, but that's ok. I was also desperately trying to find a copy of "Cracker" by Cracker, but my efforts were without reward, except that my travels brought me to Borders, where I found that Cambridge University Press is now also trying to cash in on the "On Bullshit" phenomenon - they're marketing copies of Harry Frankfurt's "The Importance of What We Care About", which contains the original essay, with the big marketing logo: "Contains the Best-Selling Essay 'On Bullshit'" on the cover. And they're also charging $20 less than the original (the original was $32.99 at Borders, the new one was $12.99). That seals it. If CUP can charge $20 less for a philosophy book, why can't they do that for all of them? I mean, I suppose they expect this to sell (do they really?) but that big a discount signals that they can afford to charge less for their academic works.

Yesterday was also nice. I went antique shopping in the mid-morning, and bought a nice old postcard of Westminster Abbey done in oil. Then it was off to the grocery store to get the ingredients for a fantastic Veteran's Day dinner. I bought a bunch of potatoes, a bottle of wine, misc. peppers and herbs, and four lamb shanks. I ended up making Herb-Crusted Lamb Shanks with Potatoes Lyonnaise and Haricot Vert with sliced almonds and red pepper. Pretty sweet. It took about two hours to cook, but it was worth it. Way too much food for me, but it'll serve nicely for the rest of the week. I also watched Dr. Strangelove and The Limey. Good stuff.

Back to grading today. The fun never stops. Except for now.