Complex Numbers

Roughing It

At home, I have a knife.

My wife got it for me this year for my birthday, because I'd seen one like it at her aunt's house. It's folded Japanese steel, sharp as a Hattori Honsu blade and shinier than a brand-new cell phone.

I didn't bring it with me.

The only cutlery this house has are butterknives and a set of cheap-ass serrated knives. When it was my turn to make dinner, I had to chop an onion with a serrated blade!

I won't even discuss the pitiful excuse for a corkscrew. If the owners of the beach house can't even stock the kitchen properly, what else did they leave out? Foundation pilings?

And the stove. ELECTRIC! The trendy no-burner range and an oven that's impossible to regulate properly. And the microwave's no better: it has fewer buttons than ours at home!

Don't get me wrong - I like being on vacation. But I didn't know I'd be roughing it!