Yesterday I slept in, and then grocery shopped with a ton of other working moms; honestly, the store was packed with harried-looking women picking up turkeys and barking orders to clerks and haranging (sp?) people over their cellphones. Darrell took the day off too, so we went across town to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Thai place, and then paid a visit to the nearby H-mart, where Emily loaded up on Pocky and I stocked up on frozen dumplings and we found actual ripe persimmons for a reasonable price. We came home and I made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie and almond shortbread and pie crust cookies, and I brined the turkey and roasted the neck for turkey stock. And we had nachos for dinner. What a great day.
This morning Megan was up before anyone else to get the Nibble Tray ready. This is our family tradition. I don't want to cook anything other than the main meal on Thanksgiving, so we set out a bunch of little things to nibble on through the morning, have our feast around 2, and then eat pie for dinner when we finally get hungry again. I put the girls in charge of the Nibble Tray this year--they purchased all the nibbles, which included crackers, lots of dried fruits, nuts, two kinds of cheese logs, pie crust cookies and chocolate biscotti. Megan really, really wanted crab, too, but I explained that if the point was to have something sitting out all day, then fishy stuff was not an appropriate choice. So when I came downstairs this morning the Nibble Tray was all set up and ready to go. I got to cook a nice meal without any kind of time pressure, and after dinner we rented "Transformers 2," which was just awful but in a restful kind of way. I mean, I never cared about the characters at any point, so there wasn't any of that inconvenient emotional engagement; but the Transformers themselves were still cool and things blew up every few minutes.
I feel rested. My fridge is stuffed to groaning with delicious leftovers, so I won't have to do any real cooking for another few days. I think I"m ready to tackle the bathroom again tomorrow.
I turned it in!
I'm done!!!
Yay!!!!
In other news, we've got the shower tiled up to about 3 feet off the floor. We'll get back to it Friday and Saturday, and if all goes well the weekend will end with a fully-tiled shower. Yay again!
Ah, I'm so tired.
I wish I had something new or interesting to say, but I wrote all day at work and now I'm worded out. I am limp as a noodle. I should not operate heavy machinery (thankfully this was not on my to-do list for the evening). I did make some apple spice muffins, which should be out of the oven in any minute. Warm muffin, green tea, bed. Ahhhhh.
So it was a relatively quiet day today. I feel more rested and less frazzled than usual.
Hey Monday--I'm ready. Bring it on.
In other news, I think I have an idea for the cover story, which is good because ye old deadline loometh most loomily.
In other, other news, it's still cold and rainy, very November-ish. I value late autumn--there's something about the change of seasons that makes sense in a deep part of my soul; California's unending procession of beautiful sunny days really grated on me--but I don't love the bone-deep chill that comes with damp weather.
How are you?
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This afternoon I was downtown, having just listened to Ken Feinberg give a speech and getting ready to head off to interview a rich important person, when I gave my Blackberry a quick check and found 6 missed phone calls and a bunch of e-mails from Darrell. Turns out Emily had been sent home sick with swine flu symptoms. She doesn't actually have the flu, thank goodness, but man, is her school ever quick on the trigger. I guess I'm not surprised; H1N1 is spreading so fast that almost everyone I know has at least one sick kid.
In other news, the bathroom floor is grouted. Praise me! It looks beautiful. You have to wash all the grout off the actual tiles without removing the grout from in between the tiles; if you're a relatively normal person this is fine, but if you have any obsessive tendencies THIS WILL NOT HELP. I literally could not leave the tiles alone; I just kept coming back to check it "one more time" and fiddling with the corners and wiping them down over and over again. I couldn't bear the possibility of having grout stuck on the tiles forever because I did not do my due diligence.
Argh, so tired; so much work to do between now and Thanksgiving. If I think about it I panic. I can keep myself busy enough so I don't think about it, but as soon as I lay in bed and close my eyes I start rehearsing the mental list of what I need to do the following day. I should probably just plan a few evenings of working from home to see if I can make more progress. It would be better than not sleeping.
Bleach: Are those thought bubbles for Ichigo, finally and at last?!? Woo-hoo! Ichigo is thinking! I was starting to worry that he had forgotten how. And judging from some of his expressions, this thinking business hurts like a mother.
After Ichigo's oh-so-cocky boast to Yammy last week, he now can't use his mask. Ah, pride. I guess that Ichigo is willing to be a monster if he can use that monstrous strength to protect, because that validates his existence; it makes his life worthwhile. (This is where Ichigo and Ishida most mirror each other, I think: Ishida and Ichigo both want power because they couldn't act to save their beloved persons from death. Ishida was willing to die for power. I wonder if Ichigo is too? Orihime, on the other hand, thought that sacrifice made her life worthwhile, and Rukia thought that duty made her life worthwhile. Someone get a therapist for these people, stat). If Ichigo can't use his mask, that rationale--that the Beast is okay because it lets him protect--is proved hollow. And then the monster exists for no good reason, possibly for no good. (Ichi-stein was cute, however).
Ichigo remembers Inoue, but facing away from him, just as he was facing away from Rukia in the last chapter. He must feel terribly alone. And he's fixated on friendships--why isn't Yammy upset that his friends are dead? Why is Orihime upset that Ulquiorra is dead? I don't begrudge him a moment of confusion, as he's been pushed and pushed and pushed the last few months of his life, in story time. Kid needs a breather and some room for reflection.
Oh, and Yammy calling Ulquiorra trash? That's rich.
Look, somebody else loves the Betsy-Tacy books!
An interesting column on anonymous posting on the internet:
“Anonymous comments also alienate many thoughtful readers, who are the majority of people who read newspapers. When readers complain to me about ugly comments, I urge them to weigh in, but most balk. It's like trying to persuade your friends to visit a great tavern in a bad neighborhood: They want nothing to do with that side of town. An editor at another online news site in Cleveland told me they screen coments before they're posted, in part because he believes the caliber of conversation affects the enthusiasm of advertisers. "You can't monetize jerks," he said.”
Experiencing pain helps you “understand how abhorrent it is to inflict pain,” says Dana Jennings. That struck me as one of the most profound things I’ve ever read, and explains a piece of me to myself.
And big, big thanks to brightredglow for recommending Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, because I never would have picked the book up otherwise and it was such a fun read! I particularly loved Nightblood, the sentient magic sword that kills people in the most horrifying way but thinks that it is "destroying evil" (and can't be convinced otherwise). Ah, I loves me an evil magic sword. Sanderson is finishing the Wheel of Time series for the late Robert Jordan, and now I'm actually looking forward to that.
Bleach: Ah, thank you, Rukia! This is why I love you: you see people for who they really are. Rukia's perception and insight has had the most consistent characterization in the whole story, as far as I’m concerned.
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Dengeki Daisy:
( Read more... )Ashita no Ousama:
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In other news, I had a terrible week and the weekend wasn't much better, but today I managed to check something off my list and very politely told off a professor who was rude to me, so things are looking up.
In other, other news, I have no IshiHime ideas for this year's ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
bleachness contest. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
debbiechan , I'm going to fail you this year! Well, there are still a couple weeks left. Maybe I'll think of something.
