S. Worthen | Weblog

If I do say so myself, I dressed up very nicely for the gala departmental event on Friday. The only downside was that, over the course of the day, my black shoes had acquired a very obvious bright white band of salt encrustation. I sat down to clean them off with paper towels and water. Galina suggested a bit of oil, say, safflower. I don't know about you, but on an average school day, I don't carry a bottle of safflower oil around. I do, however, carry around a very small pot of Burt's Bees Hand Salve, which is based on beeswax and olive oil. After cleaning the boots with water, I rubbed some hand salve into my shoes, and they turned out beautifully!

Today, for my first time, I went out to dim sum. We went to the Bright Pearl Restaurant in Chinatown, highly recommended for dim sum by both Becky and Gary, and our guide books. It was wonderful. It's exactly the way I like to eat, lots of small dishes, great variety, and a nicely balanced meal. There were four of us, just enough that we could try a variety of things, and even try fish and seafood dishes without imposing any on C. The black bean sauce mussels and the BBQ pork sticky buns were particularly wonderful.

I've just ordered a small fortune in books, courtesy of Christmas money. I'll write very nice thank you letters indeed. I'm happy about it: everything from dissertation relevant books to a pilates dvd.