for the next couple of weeks because I am going to be doing Christmas Traveling. Six nights with one side of the family, seven nights with the other, with intermittent internet. Also, good food, gifts, and fun times.
Merry Christmas!
Tag: friends
Christmas Books
Thanks to everyone who has made my Christmas a literary one. Among many excellent gifts, I also received several exciting books, including some by Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett, Connie Willis, Doris Lessing, and Mary Robinette Kowal. I will have lots of promising reads for 2011, and I hope to be more diligent about reviewing them…as soon as I get back to my regular Internet.
Until then, happy early new year!
April 18
Three years ago, I bought twelve extra spoons because I was tired of always running out of them. Since then, to justify my action to the teasing of my friends and family, I have always striven to make the additional spoons feel useful. Here’s a chronicle of my spoon usage today.
Spoon #1. I made my first cup of tea and oatmeal with the same spoon.
Spoon #2. I needed a fresh spoon for my second and, later, third cups of tea throughout the morning.
Spoon #3. For lunch, I had tomato soup, which one usually eats with a spoon.
Spoons #4-5. In the afternoon, I made peanut butter cookies, an activity that required one spoon for getting the peanut butter out of the jar and a second, smaller one for scooping the dough out to roll into balls.
Spoon #6. I stirred a quart of instant lemonade.
Spoon #7. Having misplaced Spoon #2, I needed a fresh spoon for my fourth cup of tea.
So there, you mockers. Tell me that my foresight of three years ago was not justified. I even cleaned them all up after myself.
March 19
1. Orson Scott Card. He is one of the few authors (in the company of such greats as Douglas Adams, Frank Herbert, and Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) who makes the three-hour drive to and from Oklahoma something I look forward to. My husband and I just finished reading Ender in Exile, one of three or four Ender books we’ve read aloud on road trips. The book might be better if you’ve read the Ender series in chronological order by publication, but it’s technically a “midquel” between Ender’s Game and the following Ender trilogy. We hope very much that Orson Scott Card will keep writing. Because we’re driving back to Oklahoma next weekend.
2. McNellie’s. Some friends and I ate here the day after St. Patrick’s Day, because we’re all far too smart to attempt it on the day itself. My order, fish and chips, was quite tasty, but the best part was the enormous selection of drinks. Next time I’m definitely ordering some hard cider.
3. Weekend. And, happily, I still have a weekend of Spring Break left. I still have a substantial portion of a story rewrite to slog through. Once I’m on the other side of it (the story, not the weekend), I’ll be more pleased. As for the weekend, I already wish I had several more days of it.
On Chess
Alas that I have had little success lately in my games of chess online. Behold:
- 30-Jan-09. Lost to tedbru.
- 27-Jan-09. Lost to annikah.
- 09-Jan-09. Lost to tedbru.
- 04-Jan-09. Lost to tedbru.
- 17-Dec-08. Lost to annikah.
- 10-Dec-08. Won over tedbru.
The perceptive will realize that I haven’t won a game since the tenth of December (except for the three or four I won during the Christmas holidays, playing in person). I’m not entirely certain why this is, though I’m quite unhappy about it. Perhaps I base my moves in part on the body language of my opponents? Or perhaps the online setting doesn’t feel as real and needn’t be taken as seriously as a physical game? Or (it can’t be) perhaps I’m getting worse?
Chess is a game of logic and strategy, requiring knowledge of the abilities of your pieces and of the ability of your opponent – there are no cards or dice to sully the game with chance. If you lose, you’ve been out-thought. If you win, you’ve really won. I like the purity of it, the moments when all your careful study and calculation locks into place. If he goes here, then I’ll take him, and he’ll take me, and I’ll move so, and he’ll have to move so, and then I’ll have him. I know few of the nuances of offense and defense, the balance of power, the foray into enemy territory or the laying of a subtle trap; but the little I know of it, I like well.
‘Queen’s gambit’ really means something to me who has done it before.
It’s not the recent losing I mind especially; though it would be foolish to deny that I had much rather win, I really do love just to play. But this apparent sign that I’m not playing as well or as earnestly as usual makes me a little disappointed in myself. Mental self-discipline is always something to strive for: no matter how much you have, there is more to be attained.
Well, then. I will be thinking harder this time around.
*snickers evilly*
Today
My maid of honor and I drove to my parents’ house in Arcadia for me to try on my finished wedding dress. My aunt did a positively stellar job making it, and I can’t wait to wear it at my wedding in four (4) days.
On the way home, Chera and I had picaresque adventures driving on Route 66. First we stopped by Pops in Arcadia for Dublin Dr. Pepper from the fountain. We resisted the temptation to buy a hamburger for only $3.50, as well as many Pops paraphernalia, including coasters, t-shirts, and lunch boxes. Just down the road, we stopped by the Round Barn, a ‘non-smoking historical site.’ We climbed the wooden stairs to the impressive loft, which was indeed round. It was acoustically aesthetic, but the main thing was that we could say we saw it. In the gift shop downstairs, we were told, “Sign saysno pop.” Apparently Pops and the Round Barn are not friends.
Catching a sign which promised us watermelons, we took a U-turn down a tree-lined side street. Another sign directed us to the left, but as we continued down that road, we became fearful of the apparent lack of watermelon – and lack of bridge. Both in the sense that a sign warned, “BRIDGE OUT,” and in the fact that there was no bridge. We did, however, see a sign suggesting a pumpkin patch (with a realistically rendered watermelon pasted to it). Although the gate was locked, the sign declared it was open, and so in a fit of type-A personality, we called the number recommended and asked to be let in.
And so we viewed watermelons growing. They weren’t growing very fast, at least, we did not discern any changes while we watched; but we did purchase the last nice watermelon from the farmer lady’s refrigerator for $7.00. We put Watermelon in the back seat and drove on, anticipating the Big Blue Whale, but we were laughing too hard about the shaking of the corn and passed it.
At the mall at home, we found a smashing deal at Vanity – three solid colored shirts for $9.00, which is pretty hard to beat. And then we made an excellent dinner. Behold:
Red Wine Chicken
Brown some garlic and basil in olive oil in a pan. Add four chicken breasts and cook until no longer pink in the middle. Add 1/3 c. brown sugar and 1/3 c. red wine. Simmer for 15-20 mins. Serve with pasta and steamed broccoli.
To top off the brilliant day, we watched Elizabethtown, in which the Round Barn (and 2 Brothers Pizza) features briefly during Drew Baylor’s road trip. This was accompanied by additional wine and
It was a good day.
The Simple Things
Yesterday: I listened to a new mix CD while driving to the mall, where I spent rather a lot of money on clothes. (As I quipped later, I grabbed things off the racks, threw them on, and bought them. It was wonderful.) After this, I played with Anastasia, and ate a delicious manicotti dinner cooked by my very talented chef of a fiancé, who then took me to a bookstore where I ordered a book (The Dispossessed by Ursula K. le Guin) that I had been wanting for a while. Then he treated me to some ice cream–I had a cup of ‘banana pudding’ with graham cracker in it.
Today: After a leisurely morning of reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, I expect to pack up my books and computer and notebooks and go with Chera to Panera Bread, where I will order my favorite meal (You Pick Two, bacon turkey bravo sandwich with no tomato, tomato soup, a baguette, and an iced tea). We will discuss books and writing and stuff in general, and then read and write and gaze into space, hopefully for the duration of the afternoon. We may break down and shop for groceries afterwards, at least, we will if we want to eat. But it will be together, and that’s all right. And in the evening we will watch a minimum of one episode of Firefly.
Needless to say, it’s been good to be out of school.
Mostly About Books 