Posted 12:55 PM by Benjamin Holland
Last night we had our annual bachelor auction, and we managed about $500 out of it. I am fundrasing chair right now, so I was busy last night trying to make the thing go smoothly. I only went for $32, well short of last year's mark, but at least I was bought by someone I enjoy spending time with. Ginger (who is now officially my girlfriend) shelled out the money for 3 hrs of my time. Tonight I am going to Columbia to meet her parents over dinner. It should be interesting. Hope everyone is well.

Posted 4:09 PM by Benjamin Holland
That basement better still be clean, regardless of where the books end up. Anywho, I am off to my Lil Bro/Big Bro dinner and then to the Kappa Sigma bachelor auction, I will post soon.

Posted 12:48 PM by Rob Holland

The Basement Library

I was amused and pleased yesterday to read in Amy Morrison's blog that her first exposure to John Irving, a writer she has come to love, came from a ratty old copy of Garp that was in the Holland basement. You can keep the book, Amy, though I did wonder where it was when I went looking for it for Pamela. But this brings us to the whole question of the basement library. There was a time in the history of western civilization when having a library at home was a sign of wealth and culture, and the private libraries of a number of literary figures have been celebrated. That, of course, was during a period when books were leatherbound and the library smelled like the inside of a new Mercedes, just the place to wear your smoking jacket and sip brandy. Now, with books bound in paper and dog-eared in a second, and with the noise of TV and videogames all around, a home library is an anachronism. Lynn has never wanted so much as a bookcase upstairs in the "real" house, and I, being unable to part with the books I had accumulated in college and graduate school, stubbornly clung to them, even though many were boring and outdated tomes of literary criticism. I built a couple of simple pine bookcases and kept the better part of the collection in the basement, where I half-hoped that my electronically-addicted children would happen upon some treasure during a boring summer and remember the basement library fondly.

I guess some of that may have happened, although over time the books got yellower and moldier. Some fell on the wet floor and became mush. The basement is dank and poorly lighted anyway, and not an inviting place to sneak a peek at English literature. When I spoke to one of the kids' English teachers at an open house about encouraging summer reading, and told her about the library, she suggested the books might be more appealing if I bought the child in question a new copy.
Eventually, the children came home from college and dumped some of their own books onto the shelves. Note they didn't keep them in their domiciles! Not enough room, with all those Tivos and home entertainment centers.

Anyway, with Pamela now departing soon to college, the underlying reason for holding onto all those ratty books has pretty much gone away. We've cleared out a good many already, and the rest will probably not be far behind, especially as we have plans to remodel. So children, if there are any of these treasured volumes that you think you might like to claim, time is running out. Amy's got her copy of Garp; better grab your complete Shakespeare while you have a chance!

Posted 8:41 PM by Nicholas Holland
Today was a day of ups and downs. I got rejected from the last job I had any hope for. I'll be applying for research assistantships here in Durham next week and looking into part time Kaplan to make extra money.

On the other hand, the hated Duke Blue Devils basketball team lost to the Indiana Hoosiers in a shocking upset at none other than RUPP ARENA. Though Indiana is hated, Duke is hated more, and it was even swweeter because I was at a Duke Law Bar Review with about 300 Duke fans.
UK plays tomorrow night against Maryland--your prayers are welcome.

That's all for now...

Posted 5:11 PM by Rob Holland

The 3-Day Red Bean Cook

OK, we have our own cooking story. Pamela went to New Orleans, right? We didn't get to go, right? We knew Pamela would probably be having red beans and rice, right? (She did, too, at Bruff Dining Hall). So, what could we do.

Why, make our own red beans and rice, right? So Sunday night Mommy soaks a bag o' beans over night and into the next day. 18 hours of soaking. Then she starts cooking them when she gets home from work. Cook, cook, cook. Boil, boil, boil. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Two hours later, taste the beans. Still hard as a rock. Hmmmm. Guess it's Chicken Voila for dinner.

Tuesday arrives. Let's put the beans, which spent the night in the refrigerator in a Ziplock container, back on the stove. Cook, boil, bubble, you get the picture. Two hours later, hard as a rock. And bland, bland. Add spices. Cook some more. But back to the freezer for dinner fare. Pamela's home by this time, and she's mad because she can't have red beans and rice again.

Wednesday arrives. Put the beans back on. Read the cookbook. "Soak for 24 hours, cook for 12 hours." Hmmmm. Boil, bubble, stick to the bottom of the pan. Add water, lower heat. Beans begin to get mushy. Hmmmm. At last, red beans and rice! But still bland. Get out the bottle of hot sauce and sprinkle liberally.

Mmmmm.

Next time we crock 'em.

Posted 5:41 AM by Rob Holland

Hail to the Chief

I thought Benjamin would post this, and I didn't want to steal his thunder, but since he's been too busy to blog, let it be known far and wide that he has been elected president of his fraternity. I am sure that beyond the great prestige and honor, it will mean a major raise in his salary. Congratulations, Benjamin!

Posted 2:56 PM by Pamela Holland
Well, I had another fun day at Tulane today. This morning, I had to get up early and go listen to Tulane plugs. We watched two more videos (which puts my total Tulane promotional video count at four) and we had a few speakers. One was really entertaining--the dean of the honors program. She is apparently a favorite among students (they call her Dean Jean) and I can see why. She is a trip. She is the most sarcastic old lady ever and she spent the first five minutes ragging on the Dean of Admissions and then halfway through her rambling decided that she needed water. Well, when the gopher who fetched the water brought it back, it was only half full--another opportunity to complain. Anyway she was very amusing, and a good note to end all those speeches on. Then, we went for a tour of Tulane's sprawling campus, which made me regret wearing flip flops (yes, mommy, I know you told me to pack walking shoes, and I did, but they just didn't look right with the cute skirt outfit I was wearing--didn't you always say beauty hurts?). After the loooooong tour, we had lunch, which was surprisingly good. I know they dress it up for honors week and all, but it was still good. I had red beans and rice with cornbread, and there were a million and one menu options, including a whole vegan section (like I care, right?)and a station where you could have them make any type of omelet you want. Anyway, after lunch, I opted out of the honors panel for students and wandered around campus. I found the glass art room and then headed over to the bookstore. I bought a couple shirts ( one for me and one for Geoffrey) and some notebook paper so I could do the school assignments that are due when I get back home. Then, I hooked up with a friend of my host and went to a sociology class nad then went with antoher friend to a Britain Empire course. They were fine, as far as classes go and the first was mildly entertaining, because the teacher chumped out his one kid for asking a question that he had covered several times in classes that student had skipped. The teacher was a bit full of himself--he apparently wrote the textbook that the class was using. Anyway, I'm done with all things honors for now and I think we're going out to dinner with my host's family tonight (she's a New Orleans native). Well, that was my day.

Posted 7:18 AM by Rob Holland
It's quiet around here. Pamela should be boarding her plane to New Orleans right about now, and Sarah is out at the airport on standby waiting for a flight to Lexington sometime today. She has a connection through somebody with Delta who gave her a buddy pass for a free flight, but she has to fly standby. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find a seat to Kentucky. The erstwhile friends went back to Transy last night, leaving Sarah behind. Nicholas also just left, driving back to Duke with a load of junk in the car, including a folding chaise he bought in Florida he doesn't know what he's going to do with now that he has it.

We took Geoffrey and Jennifer out to dinner last night to a new neighborhood eatery in Decatur called Diesel. It's in what used to be the awful old convenience store on W. Howard, across from the Citgo Station. That area is yuppifying, and Diesel was busy last night. Jen and I had their cajun fried game hen dinner, Geoffrey had etouffe, and Mommy had a crab cake po boy. The food was good; the chardonnay tasted like the name of the place. I'm not sure if it came out of a box or a plastic bag. Geoffrey was smart and stuck with Harp beer.

Mommy has gone to Publix to buy a corned beef roast to boil for St. Patty's Day dinner. Don't know if we're doing mint cream chocolate wafers or not. Did you ever find any of the wafers, Toey?