Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011 - 11:12 a.m.

Ate about 1/4 of one of those jars of marmalade at breakfast today. So good. The set was a little loose, but the rindy bits were nicely suspended. It was jelled. Just softly so. Those 2 jars are not going to last long. I may not even bother refrigerating the second one. It won't have time to go bad.

Anyway, yeah. I guess I'd be rash to characterize marmalade as a 'forgiving' jam to make, but in comparison with strawberries or pears or other things basically without pectin, I'd say it is.

J reports seeing a 4 lb. bag of oranges for $1.50 in Tucson yesterday. Sadly enough, I'd say that cheap citrus is near the top of my list of reasons to get excited about our approaching move. Here is the list:

Reasons to get excited about the move:
1. warm weather
2. cheap, abundant citrus of many types (I hope)
3. Gem and mineral show
4. new market for my work, lots of galleries
5. real Mexican food
6. Sonoran hot dogs
7. proximity to a really good linguistics department, even though I will have little if any interaction with the folks housed therein.
8. bleak landscapes close at hand.
9. flat. Maybe I'll be able to bicycle again.
10. figs, potentially.

And the other list. Reasons to be horrified at the prospect of the move:

1. Moving 3 cats cross-country.
2. Cleaning the house and environs well enough to sell it.
3. Change! Eeek, run away, run away!
4. Big cities make me worry.
5. No more effortless herb gardening.
6. I need humidity.
7. Plane rides with toddler will become non-optional.

That's kind of it. I guess it's encouraging that the first list is longer than the second list, although I'm not sure that the plane ride thing doesn't outweigh the benefits of cheap citrus. Certainly I'd trade access to Sonoran hot dogs for not having to move the cats. Oh, well.

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