Denizens of Raleighwood This weekend we went to Raleigh for the first time since February 2003, when Colliculus and I got trapped there for 6 days by an East Coast storm and he almost missed his Chicago job interview. That signaled the permanent end to a streak of annual February visits to the Triangle area that began around 1986, when my grandparents moved there, carried on uninterrupted through high school, contributed to my choice of colleges, and continued even after my moves to Baltimore and Providence. But February is a terrible time to drive to NC and an even worse time to fly there. I think May may become the new tradition, because the weather differential is just about perfect. It was warm and sunny there, whereas it's still cool and fall-like here. In fact I'm just about fed up with the pleasant autumn-type weather here.

On this trip we got to see the Militant Nudist's grand house, meet her special friend J and spend many hours drinking in her backyard, which is possibly my favorite activity. We also got to catch up with Lauramander and Morphis and see plenty of TLC (MN and TLC were my roommates pretty much all through college). We also visited my grandparents in Burlington and saw some trailer parks and so on, but nothing really photogenic except this company near MN's house:


The angel looks kind of like a bad-girl Tooth Fairy to me. And I have no idea what angels have to do with mulch.

I didn't know until this trip that shrimp and grits was a traditional Southern dish, but TLC enlightened me to this point. Sooooo good. We're going to have to learn to cook this one. 

¶ 6:19 PM