The Passing of Thunderstorms

Minnow gave a big smile and got a stamp in her passport from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services this afternoon. Free to swim across oceans again!

Go with the Flow

Peel several beets and garlic. Chop a few onions and carrots. Drizzle some olive oil and toss everything together. Sprinkle a bit of coarse sea salt. Set the oven to 350C and sit back for an hour with Ha Jin's new novel "A Free Life".

I am not in Hong Kong as planned, but at least my house smells good.

Tomorrow I will fill my house with the aroma of pumpkin pie.

The Green Card Vanishes

Four hours before her scheduled 9am flight to Hong Kong on Tuesday, Minnow's Green Card remained in hiding.

Given how she routinely paired the $1,000 card (black market price) with her passport in a dorky neck pouch, and given her quarterly international travel, this disappearance remains more gripping and mysterious than Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes."

Instead of embarking on a 16-hour direct flight to the land of kung-fu films Minnow finally resigned to staying in Gotham for Thanksgiving. Worse, a replacement of this Green Devil takes weeks to months.

For the uninitiated: this means no traveling outside of the US.

Everything happens for a reason, especially something so unprecedented... (too distressed to analyze that now)

Minnow feels like a useless idiot.

Because she is one.