Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Dear Writer Brain,

I Did. Not. Need. a full-fledged eco-activist endangered gorilla/zombie story to burst full-fledged into my mind. Really. I have one writing project that I'm barely able to keep up with the required words for, another that I'm thisclose to finishing, a third that I'm collaborating on with another person that I really need to get my next installment going for, and a fourth that's a novel I've backburnered for way too long because of other writing projects.*

Curse you, Zombie Kong!


Sigh. Well, at least it ain't due until February.



* In order:
Circus of Brass and Bone
Remediation Village (or whatever I'm calling it this week)
Letters to Platinadar
Heretic's Last Hope

Three of these will end up book-length!

Feeling strongly disinclined to write, for some reason. Head not in the game.

Dear Brain,

Think of it this way. You're really procrastinating from cleaning and weeding. Go write now, m'kay?

No love,

Me

This whole "being dependent on Phil to get me anything that can't be carried in a bag" (since I'm on crutches and don't have a hand free to hold stuff) and "Phil has to do all the cleaning" thing is getting old. He's frustrated because he doesn't really want to cook and doesn't really know how to cook the CSA stuff. He's decidedly cranky about the amount of stuff that just isn't getting done and the number of requests I have. And I am cranky that he gets annoyed and says he's not going to get me something rightthenwhenIwantitnow! That said, I'm very grateful that he's here and taking care of me and generally being patient and supportive. Hopefully this Friday the doctor will say I can go to a cane and a knee brace, which will at least make me capable of doing some stuff.

This morning's a case in point. I wake up when his alarm goes off, and, er, nature's urgent call means I can't just wait until he's gone to trek upstairs and take care of things. Plus he usually snoozes the alarm for a half hour anyway. I go upstairs, and since I'm up and it's early and I don't want to have to do this again, I go through the whole nine yards: getting a clothes I can wear; unstrapping the knee brace; waterproofing my incisions (saran wrap + waterproof tape); showering; reapplying bandages; strapping on the knee brace; and brushing teeth. This process delays Phil enough that he has to rush out the door in the morning, which means he doesn't have time to make me cereal. And the poor SOB still has to return a library book and pick up pain pills for me on his way home. Not to mention Mt. Washmore in the kitchen.

Then, of course, I fell back asleep, on and off, until 1 PM. I wake up, strap on the knee brace to trek up the stairs to freshen up, take pain pills, make myself a lunch that I can carry in a bag (toasted asiago bagel with a little cheddar cheese--yum!), eat, strap on the knee brace to move the chair closer for my knee stretches, do my knee stretches (owieeee!), strap on the knee brace to get ice, ice my knee, strap on the knee brace to return the ice to the freezer--and it's 3 PM.

I need to figure out how to reprogram myself to think not, "I should remember this for XYZ," but, "I should write this down." All I can remember of the awesome dream I had this morning is that something was eating a cave full of people, but first it dipped the edges of the cave in something that stood in for margarita salt, and I thought it was hilarious. See? Not useful. And a couple of days ago, in the shower, I had a great idea for a Twitter-length short story, and I have no idea what it was now. Corollary: I need to keep pen and paper within reaching distance in the shower. I've had so many great and now-faded ideas in there.

05/07/2009 - Thursday, full work, lots of downtime
* Processed OWW crits of Vicesteed, Chapter 27, though I was a bit frustrated by my inability to email/message other members to thank them. Seems to be a personal choice whether they make that info viewable, and there's no way set up to message them without it.
* Processed MinnSpecCritter emailed critiques.
* Realized that some of the edits I remembered making to Vicesteed ch. 2 just weren't there anymore. Freaked out. Hunted through all my files. Discovered that I'd made further revisions to chapters 1-3 and saved them (separately) in a file called "Vicesteed draft 3 ch 1-3." Note to Self: Never do that again. Ever. The draft currently being worked on should have all the most recent changes, and archiving everything chronologically is way less important than making sure not to lose any changes. Never ever ever do that again.
* Processed crits for Vicesteed chs. 1-7 and sent out 8-12 from/to A.
* Updated OpenOffice version on home and work computers
* Finished marking up Vicesteed ch. 17. There may have been hosannas involved.
* Posted writing log.
* penthius freewriting, a retelling of the Midas myth.

01/06/2009 - Tuesday, now rok
* Read FundsforWriters newsletter
* penthius freewriting: "Mob Baby: Science Fiction"
* Did my not-as-frequent-as-they-should-be computer file backups. Note to self: in future, only backup *new* photos, not all of them. That took forever.
* Redmarked a large chunk of Vicesteed chapter 5.

Looks pretty, though, doesn't it?

I'm putting these notes to myself so that, next year around Easter when I start looking for a recipe, I'll look up this entry and see what my thoughts were.

I used Allrecipes.com's "Easter Bread Ring" recipe, minus the almonds and anise seed, but with dried fruit in place of candied fruit (other recipes called for dried fruit). Do not do that again. It turned out kinda tough and dry, and the fruit tasted nasty once baked. Of note--2 strands work very well for making the braid--three would be more work than necessary.

Rising time--the rising times were pretty bad, and it didn't rise properly. Remember to start baking this early in the day. Also, use the microwaveable heating pads to wrap around the bowl to get it nice and toasty.

Fruit & nuts--No, don't do it! Ick. I have discovered that I do not like fruit and nuts in my yeast breads. (There is only one exception, and that is cinnamon-raisin bread.) I ended up picking off the bits of fruit before eating.

Frosting--Frosting is a good thing, and so are sprinkles. Yum. Make more frosting than you think you'll need. Also, you are not a huge fan of the easy powdered sugar & milk frosting, because it tastes "raw". Try other frosting recipes. Cream cheese frosting, perhaps? Or a glaze?

Easter Eggs--You may think they look pretty (and they do), but they freak Phil the hell out. And make the bread "smell like eggs." Remember, eggs are his enemy. Be nice and only put 2 or 3 in. Also, you will be eating all those boiled eggs all by your lonesome.

Somebody has removed all the little "garden fencing" I put up to protect the plants in the front of our house. Probably because, as intended, it got in the way of them walking all over it.

She-Hulk smash!

That's it--I'm planting caltrops. Only they'll have to be disguised as regular gardeny things. Hmm...pointy-headed gnomes on really deep stakes to keep 'em anchored?

Also, the narcolepsy is a bit worrisome. Got home early from work after wrapping up QC on a project, curled up on the couch "for a minute" and slept for a couple of hours. I think it may be an avoident-stress reaction. Or I could just be not getting enough sleep.

Note to self: do not drink the Very Large Margarita when you are just starting to feel healthy again. Even if it is Happy Hour cheap. I'm back to my sinuses feeling like crap and debating whether or not I go to martial arts class today. I missed Tuesday. It would be a bigger deal if I planned on going to Tournament; then I'd definitely go. As is, I'll be avoiding Saturday classes until after tournament to avoid all the tournament stuff.

Note to self: add Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show to market list. Thanks, stephdray!

Note to self: check to see if laptop liable to burst into flames.

Trying to find a copy of one's old resume when the last time one used it was several years, a computer, and at least one move ago = Not Fun.

Note to Self: Keep decent records!