The things I learn about Brandon

I learn new things about Brandon every day. Yesterday we were shopping at Wal-mart and stocking up on food (we returned so many wedding presents there that we had plenty of money for groceries.) We were in the "Oriental foods" aisle and Brandon asked me if I wanted to get anything else. I told him that I would like to make sweet and sour pork and I reached for a bottle of sweet and sour sauce. Then he stopped me and said, "Shady, don't get that, we can make it." Confused, I said, "You can't just make this stuff--you have to buy it. Like the sweet and sour pork that I had at your house. Where did you get the sauce for that?" "We made it," he said. "It's nothing more than vinegar, sugar, and a little bit of ketchup." Needless to say, I kept saying "Really? Seriously?" for about 10 minutes. I mean, I knew his family always made their own bread and syrup and pickles and window cleaner, but, sweet and sour sauce? You have to draw the line somewhere. I had always assumed that there were certain things that everyone just bought.

Another thing I learned about Brandon that day struck me when I dropped him off for his FE review. He asked me if I wanted to come see the sandbox. I said okay and he took me into his lab where I saw just that-- a giant sandbox. I told him that I always thought that he did work for his classes, not play in a giant sandbox. I said that if this is what geologists do then I should be a geologist. He said that they didn't play in it, they just observed it. Then I pointed to a muscular little figurine standing in it and said, "That looks like a toy to me."

That's okay. Brandon does more work in his classes than I do, even if it involves a giant sandbox. And now I get to learn how to make sweet and sour sauce so that I can likewise confuse little girls like me who thought that everything came from stores.