> > Like I said, the Stoddards have a gift for putting one's heart at ease.
>
> Is that a gift or just the quality of not bearing sharp objects?
>

It's a gift, whose particulars I can't exactly put my finger on. But Sam and Leen are, undeniably, great company. A pity that they couldn't have made a longer stay with Wolf.

> > Sam, you didn't tell them about my boxed-up boxy basement!
>
> That's because I didn't see it. During the tour of the household, you were going to show it to us, slipped downstairs, then decided you'd better not. :-) Even so, I'd bet money our basement looks worse.
>

Mmm...basements.... Boy, do I ever covet storage space. I've got boxes full of old comic books in my old room at my parents' house, which I really ought to take off their hands, but we just don't have the space. Jacqueline's uncle has been keeping a largish dollhouse for her for several years now, and we're finally going to relieve them of its custody this fall sometime, but again, I really don't know where we'll put it. *sigh*

> > The pork ribs were cooked in... erm... hoisin sauce, dark soya, 5-spices powder (cloves, fennel, cassia bark, aniseed), fermented tofu in red bean paste, star anise crushed by mortar and pestle, and honey and crushed garlic.
>
> Now, if it had been me, the sauce would have consisted of out-of-the-bottle barbecue sauce. Period. If I was feeling ambitious, I might have thrown a little cheez whiz in. :-)
>

Wolf, can Jacqueline and I come visit you sometime? ;-) Seriously, my sweetie *loves* learning about new and interesting ways to cook. She's the antithesis of Sam and Leen in that regard. And even I, whose only pre-marital proficiency in cooking consisted of microwaving day-old pizza, have acquired a measure of enjoyment in cooking (which of course surpasses my measure of *skill* in it, but c'est la me) since entering into wedded bliss.

> > And, if you'll forgive me for mentioning this particular quirk... The other thing that astonished me about Sam is how he watched part of the TV show upside down, lying on the floor.
> ...Not that Iron Chef would have been terribly hampered by sideways or upside down viewing...
>

Thank you, Wolfie, for choosing such an auspicious episode to introduce Sam and Leen to Iron Chef! Jacqueline and I love Iron Chef Chen Kenichi (his gopher cheeks are so cute!) and were immensely pleased that he delivered a world-class comeuppance to the restaurant that had deigned to find him "worthy" of a battle with their chef in Kitchen Stadium.

> At any rate, lying on the floor rules. I do it much more than any other member of my family. In fact, I even have a penchant for lying on *stairs* and have figured out how to do that in a few different ways and be quite comfortable, assuming the stairs are carpeted.
>

I lie on our floor all the time, and I frequently do it at friends' houses, too, if we're all just sitting around the living room or some such thing. (I realize that that makes it sound as if we have a lot of friends down here that we visit all the time. We *wish*.) I've lain on stairs, too, and can second Sam's assertions about the rulingness of same. These are important public issues, you know, and every voice counts. :-)

Iss "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses" achar