Love and Marriage, Cheese and Farscape

July 25, 2008

Each year that passes by in my marriage, I become more like Mathra. Perhaps it's because he's not here this summer, but it's recently come to my attention that there are two very Mathra things I have started to do. When driving, I used to signal to other drivers and pedestrians that they could cross in front of me by flapping my whole hand, but the other day I realized that I was just calmly using my first two fingers to wave them across. Sort of like a flight attendant.

But that's a Mathra thing. The two fingers thing is all him. Also, I've started saying "signal-to-noise ratio" a lot. (I mean, when applicable, I'm not just randomly dropping it in conversation like a new vocab word, or anything.) I'm certain there are other things that I'm doing just like him, but they haven't quite filtered down yet. What I want to know is, has Mathra assimilated any of my idiosyncrasies or am I just a commitment chameleon? Does this happen to all couples at some point?

What else is going on around here...? Oh yes, I seemed to have pissed quite a few illiterates out there with my column about the Divisadero Farmers' Market at Bay Area Bites. If any of them had actually read and digested what I wrote, well, maybe they wouldn't have attacked with such ignorance. Sheesh, it's like being back at Television Without Pity.

...which segues so nicely into another topic. I finally, finally Netflixed the next two episodes of Farscape in my recap assignment, so I'll soon be getting "Out of Their Minds" and "My Three Crichtons" Farscapped and published right here on The Grub Report. (After which I'll be moving onto my block of season three episodes.)

No, I'm not getting paid for it because I just feel that bad about not getting my Farscape assignment done and published before the recent changes over at TWOP. The Farscapers over at TWOP were always so nice and generous (hello, DVD player!) that I'm really sorry I didn't get a chance to give them their recaps in a more timely manner. Hopefully, this will do just as well.

Oh, and? I'm back at the Cowgirl Counter this Saturday from 8-12pm. Rachel and I were joking that we're not going to know any of the cheeses, but I only need to fake it for four hours and that's pretty easy to do on a Saturday. (Kidding! Every cheese fact that comes out of my mouth is taste-tested and researched within an inch of its mold!)

However, I will give you this tip: the current crop of SF Drake is more incredible than usual.

Tasting out SF Drake on one of my first days at Cowgirl Creamery gave me a happy affinity for the cheese. Not only could I rattle off the fun facts to know about this stinky, slurpy cheese (triple cream, aged with currents, washed in Beaume de Venise) but I frankly adored it. Knowing that, I shouldn't have surprised myself by I yelping, "WOW!" to my empty apartment when I bit into a recent round. What was that sudden juicy rush of dark fruit mixed amongst the tangy paste? Surely it couldn't be the currants which had previously looked as though they had been either flattened into little dark spots on the top of the round or, more likely, removed completely before wrapping for retail!

I examined the rapidly softening wedge I was having for lunch. Sure enough, there were whole currants there and they weren't just black ghosts of currants. Delicious.

Happily, not much else about this luscious cheese has changed, although I did note that it was ready and willing even without the hour wait at room temp that is usually required. In fact, the fat rounds I have brought home from Andronico's have all been sultry and sticky right out of the fridge.