A Plant-Eaters's Day Out

It was a good day off: I went to a neighborhood secondhand bookstore and bought some books on vegan or near-vegan cooking; bought some pizza for lunch; went to Tandy leather and bought artificial sinew, glover's [leather] needles and leather scissors which were all fortuitously marked down; bought groceries and came home.

The pizza was from Farelli's wood oven pizza and I asked from the get-go if they could leave off the cheese. So I had the base, herbed olive oil, fresh mushrooms, spinach, whole garlic and basil. It was fine without the cheese, although I added a little salt. Took the garlic cloves and mooshed them up, then spread on the pizza again. I just always wanted to try that and see how a pizza is without cheese. It was great. If only the crust was whole wheat instead of white.

When I came home I asked Pearl and Nick if they wanted to go out to Point Defiance Zoo. The lawn mowers had inadvertently found an undiscovered faucet and had to turn off the water until they could fix it. I unloaded groceries and then made quick sandwiches with mini-baguettes, a cream cheese analogue with chives, sliced VegiRella which is actually the best cheese analogue I've tasted yet, spinach leaves and a bit of basil.

I also had brought home a canary melon to try. Very sweet, juicy and mild flavor all its own, though close to honeydew. Sew I cut that up for the lunch as well. I also brought my usual beverage: cut up a lemon, add a slice of ginger root and put into a water bottle [one with a wide neck, obviously] and add water. In this case, the water was off and I put in ice.

I drove Pearl and Nick out Pioneer to I-5 then up Highway 705 to Ruston Way and out along the waterfront. By this time the sun was fully out, so it was a beautiful view. [I'm hoping to show Nick, from Seattle, some of the best of Tacoma.] On through Ruston and up past Pearl Street [named after my daughter, of course] and to the zoo. We saw a glimpse of the polar bear, sea otters and seals, and the walruses [walri?] sleeping in the sun. The belugas are gone: one has died and they shipped out the other one some place he can have some company.

Through the acquarium--to me, an aquarium, with its darkness, dank smells, echoing concrete and damp creatures is nothing more than the ultimate leaky basement. The shark exhibit is always good, though. The elephants were in the barn, we did see a young tiger pacing, and then came across the unexpected best time yet: eight or nine river otters the size of young cats, sleek and playing rough and tumble in the river and pond, herded around by two lumbering porcupines. Delightful.

At this point I was hungry. I opened up the sandwiches and melon and we ate with enthusiasm. Nobody said, "Ooh, what's this stuff?" They were delicious. On the way home we stopped for milkshakes and tomato juice at the Antique Sandwich and back down Ruston Way and home to a new faucet out doors and a note: "Dear Sobhani, we will be back tomorrow to finish the rest of the high grass . . . " They left a long-handled pipe cutter there on the ground.