Gluttony

Sometimes I find myself pondering my relation to the 7 deadly sins. I readily admit guilt in all the sins of incontinence, so I'll one day be residing in one of (or perhaps all of) the upper four circles of Dante's Inferno. And that's actually not so bad. I'm averse to sins of violence and malice, so I don't think I'll be forced into real estate below the river Styx. You see, In Hell, that's like living on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks. The uppermost layers are much more pleasant. I'll have interesting neighbors with whom I can commiserate; we get to watch the pennant race in the Vestibule of the Futile; and we can poke fun at the bloody fools across the river. It's kind of like my current situation: "Yeah, it sucks being in the U.S. right now...but at least I don't live in a red state!"

Last night I ate dinner with my Thai friends and this morning I suffered the after effects of Gluttony. Puki cooked and as always, it was delicious. As always, the copious amounts of chili melted my internal organs and forced humors to the surface...tears squirted from my eyes and my skin flushed beet red. The Gewürztraminer wine I bought specifically to counter the spice didn't help at all. So be it. I finished off the nuclear feast with a slab of delicious taro-flavored cake leftover from Niki's birthday and, after I drove home, an entire bar of Valrhona chocolate. Speaking of godfodder (the scientific name of the cacao tree, so dubbed by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, is Theobroma Cacao -- which translates from the Greek to "food of the gods"), right now I'm finishing off a bar of GUARANDA varietal from Ecuador (71% cacao). It's got a "perfumed aroma with fruity, acid notes and floral tones of acacia honey, with milky and exotic wood nuances". Yes, I'm a chocolate fiend. One more reason to find me guilty of gluttony.