Weekend in suburbia

The summer heat finally settled over the suburban landscape this weekend. I haven't perspired this much since, well, last summer. A few minutes in the yard, and I was drenched. Inside, with a/c and ceiling fans going, I still worked up a sweat if I did anything more strenuous than sit on the couch.

But, it was a fine weekend. Saturday I had my first formal (not really formal, but planned) dinner guest. We celebrated his birthday with a meal of salmon, Greek potatoes and Armenian green beans--the ethnic recipes courtesy of a Moosewood Cookbook. (I have to digress here and say I love Moosewood's recipes, but sometimes find their proportions and cooktimes wildly inaccurate. My friend explains that "the original recipes were probably like 'saute these beans until you're finished smoking your joint....'" He has a point there.) We also had a lovely cheesecake courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, in a waspy counterpoint to the crunchy main meal.

It's been a long time since I cooked a whole meal for anyone but myself. The timing went off without a hitch and everything turned out very well (there's usually one dish that could have been better, no?). The birthday boy was pleased, and it was a great little evening. After dinner we went out in the yard and saw an albino raccoon sniffing around my compost pile. I spotted one ten or more years ago in the neighborhood, so maybe this is the offspring. What is the life expectancy of a raccoon? Aren't albino animals considered lucky, or is it the opposite? Well, I took it as an auspicious sign.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning brought some disturbing news. A woman about a mile from where I live was murdered in her house, an apparent victim of a robbery. It appears to have been a random, unlucky event, which makes it all the scarier because it could have been any of us.