Glass and Vegetables

My Christmas was disappeared (I'm reading a novel about Guatemala) by a cold, and my New Year's by an attitude. In an effort to disappear said 'tude, I've been scrubbing out the cupboards. I figure if I'm miserable anyhow, I may as well engage in some nasty chore.

And nasty it is. I believe I've established that I'm no housekeeper, right? Well, I was squeezing my eyes shut as I tried to scoop up a dead bug on the top shelf when I heard the tiniest of shifts from the dish-drainer followed by a large, tinkling crash. WTF (What's That Fuss)?

It was a drinking glass that lost its life in a freak accident, not that you'd know it from the photo. The thing just collapsed on the spot. It was a fairly chunky glass, made in Italy, a set of four I've had for years. It holds twenty ounces. Held.

I knew, of course, that I was in for seven years' bad luck, but then I remembered that was the penalty for broken mirrors -- looking glasses, not drinking glasses. Whew.

But it was good luck because, look -- right next to it, surely keeping a stiff upper lip, is a beautiful bone china mug from Liz for Christmas, from the Victoria & Albert Museum. It's untouched.

As long as we're in the kitchen -- which, in most places, means food rather than bugs and broken glass -- look at the pictures I took on the street in front of Yummy's yesterday. That was two days after the Tuesday Market in Gulfport. I think the potato is quite lovely, but that Brussels sprout is clearly having a bad day.

We were trying to find a meal in Gulfport on New Year's Day, a Thursday, but it was not to be. Yummy's was closed. Pia's was open, right up until we parked in front of it. Then two o'clock had a stroke, and it was closed. We could've tried the Peninsula and that new French place and, well, quite a handful of others, but some of us were just too cranky. Instead, we -- and now it's the Royal We, not the previous Editorial We -- called Pizza Hut on the way home and got a medium Veggie Lovers with Pepperoni. Who needs Brussels sprouts?