Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Hey, guys, Minnesota's in the news! And what a headline!

Kids Swap DNA for Fairground Rides

I am slightly regretful that "The Circus of Brass and Bone" is set more historically, and so I cannot use this...or can I? Bone aether, blood, the circus' disbarred-doctor-and-snake-oil-salesman's experiments when...oh, but that would be spoilery if I told you.

But...oh, this could be fun.

In-laws are in town. The plan: Textile Center/Weavers Guild of Minnesota fabric sale, Mill City Museum, maybe Earth Day celebrations at Midtown Market. Should be fun!

We meandered out to the Art Shanties a few weeks ago, and here are a few of my favorite photos. The full set is here.


( Read more... )

So far, today has been a mostly good day.

I didn't have to go in to the day job (always a good start), so I slept in a bit and got a fair chunk of writing done. Critically, I started actually writing "Tree of Life"--always the hardest part of a new story. Also, usually the worst writing. In this case, that bodes well for the rest of the story, because I think I might win for awesomest opening line ever.

I called the insurance people again, and they said, no, you won't actually owe tens of thousands of dollars, your information and that document must have just crossed in the mail.

Physical therapy today involved lots of electrodes and biofeedback. It works surprisingly well, but I could learn to hate blinky lights that beep at me.

Walking home, I had a chat with the sign-painter decorating the windows of the corner store nearby. It has sat vacant for a few months now, ever since the candy shop-that-wasn't opened and closed its doors in the space of three days. Soon it will be home to one of those catch-all urban corner "stuff" stores--cell phones, urban fashions for ladies and men, copies, and faxing. I complimented his work, and he told me that he was also a tattoo artist and showed me some of his sketches. Then he asked me a "confidential" question about whether I indulged in what sounded like epinephrine but was actually some sort of tea (ideas, malcubed?). He said it was better for you than cigarettes, but I told him I didn't indulge in those either. Besides, he had few teeth, so I'll reserve judgment. I said no, and went on my way with a "God bless you, baby," farewell. Soon it will be summer, and I'll be walking more, and will have more random encounters.

And now I'll be researching a CSA, the idea of having a share in which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

So, I had some silly plans of writing several long posts about various and sundry interesting and/or stressful and/or Important things going on in my life, but...um...I have no time. So I will try to sum it up in a (comparatively) short post.

Work Stuff
It's work-like, by which I mean that I have audiobooks to listen to to distract myself from it, and I'm still watching that clock like a hawk. Many large projects are coming in for the next two weeks, and since 80% of the workforce quit during a dry spell, they're really short on QC people. So this means fulltime and overtime for the next two weeks for me, probably including all weekend long.

Knee Stuff
I'm getting around a lot better. Today was the first day I was able to go without the knee brace. My knee still hurts a fair amount, and it has a distressing tendency to move on its own when it shouldn't.
( Rehab details )

Writing Stuff
I've been actually getting a bit of writing done, which is very exciting and happy-making. Unfortunately, now that work's ramping back up, I probably won't have much time free to write. *sorrow* I should definitely start posting writing logs again, though--I've noticed a definite drop-off in motivation once I stopped posting them.

Spec the Halls has gotten its first few submissions, which is exciting. I still need to a) clear out all the deadwood left from last year, b) put in a little macro to allow people to sign up for the newsletter in a little box, c) get some site traffic statistics package, and d) ponder whether I want to enable comments, and if so, how difficult that would be in the current format. Only a) is mandatory. I'm also thinking about setting up a Twitter for it. That could be fun. A whole blog would be overkill, but Twitter would be doable.

State of the Abra
Forced inactivity has made me restless and cranky, though I try to keep perspective and rein myself in. There are some large Venn diagrams of worry and planning for the next year and a half of my life that are intersecting. A lot of scheduling hinges on the Surgery/No Surgery call, and everybody who has faced the same choice, whether or not they went with it, seems to feel pretty strongly that surgery is a very good idea.

The Mad Scientist is being a very good husband in terms of doing little things that he knows will surprise and please me, and he's definitely winning the Christmas presents arms race.

Social Life
I'm pretty mobile right now, and I suddenly have my evenings free again (no martial arts). Thanksgiving was spent at sinister_dr_x's and fayde's, and it was very good--lots of tasty food and hanging out with friends, as well as meeting a new person. The Mad Scientist took me to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra last week, which was entirely enjoyable (that was one of the longer posts I wanted to make), and afterwards we hung out with raoulthegoatboy at Kincaid's and drank fancy $3 mojitos and caught up. Also good. I don't want to lose touch with all y'all (very much not, in fact), but I'm pretty bad about even emailing or calling people on the phone, much less seeing them. Some Wednesdays nights I get to watch Heroes season 1 over at discoflamingo's.

I'm sure there was more I wanted to talk about, but I have run out of time.