It seems that there is a Persian ice cream parlour in Los Angeles--- a place called Mashti Malone's, on North La Brea. A place I really must tell Miss Ginny at ginny_mccoo about. We both like things Persian--- history, language, poetry, lissome aquiline dark-haired girls with ivory skin and black eyes ---and Miss Ginny loves as well the idea of Persian desserts. Mashti Malone's does Persian ice cream--- rosewater saffron flecked with pistachio, sorbets in pomegranate and rosewater, orange blossom with pistachio. I've never been to Los Angeles--- neither has Miss Ginny ---but a article in last weekend's NYT makes Mashti Malone's seem very much vaut un detour. And the website says that Whole Foods carries their ice cream. That is worth bearing in mind...

Does anyone out there have Mono's "Slimcea Girl" on mp3? I'm very much looking for it--- and for any other tracks from their "Formica Blue" album. "Slimcea Girl", anyone?

I took the Small Black Saturn by the garage this morning to have it made road-worthy for my venture east to see Miss Laura. My mechanic called back a couple of hours later--- never a good sign. Well, he said, about all of those tires...And your brake system needs flushed. Ouch. Ouch. Well, I suppose it'll need to be done sooner or later. And if it gets me to Orange Beach and back, I can't complain. But I will be an impoverished little long-eared desert hedgehog for a while. I won't let that keep me from seeing Laura-Ashlee, of course. Or from going to NYC with my green-eyed girl.

Mashti Malone does Turkish Coffee ice cream... I do wonder if it compares to the lost flavour of my youth--- HoJo's coffee-brandy ice cream.

Miss Laura says that I'm to keep reminding her not to buy any more vinyl this fall--- that I'm to help her save money. She must do the same for me. There may be far fewer dinners at my favourite Thai place...and certainly no buying sprees at Amazon or iTunes.

Ah, well.

Still--- the Skinny Island with Miss Laura. Very much worth it. I can live without new wardrobe additions or bottles of Reyka. I can use the library instead of Amazon. But travel is necessary. As anxiety-ridden and desperately crazed as I can be, travel is key. And all the more so if there can be a lovely wicked clever girl at my side and in a hotel bed with me.

Summer Year Eight echo: Miss Laura will have a Morning After Kit with her. Orange Beach morning, and then a Manhattan morning-after. Vienna or Krakow or Milan, if I have anything to say about it, too.