he opens his mouth, but the words won't come out

I need to go to bed right now; the Sunday Scaries hit hard today, and I need to give two presentations at work tomorrow, so I should probably get some rest. But today was otherwise good - I got up in time to put a pork butt in the oven, where it roasted for approximately nine hours, and it was totally perfect for supper.

Then [censored] and I spent a lot of time discussing possible renovations to my Iowa house - I shouldn't do everything I want to do because property values here aren't exactly skyrocketing and I don't want to completely overinvest, but I have also accepted that I'm going to make a nice kitchen because I cannot stand the kitchen I currently have and like cooking enough to invest there. We also spent twenty minutes planning out how we would paint the staircase next weekend before agreeing that there's absolutely no way we'll paint the staircase next weekend, so that was a relief.

At some point in the afternoon, I did a bit of writing, and I also took a tiny nap. We went out to mom and dad's for supper - Mom made scalloped potatoes and baked beans to go with the pulled pork, which made for a v. tasty meal. Then we came back to my place, and I watched the end of the Super Bowl + Olympics coverage. And now, sleep is imperative - goodnight!

i ain't blind and i don't like what i think i see

The one-day-delayed Sunday Scaries have arrived right on schedule. I actually think my headache is because I was away from Denver's altitude for three weeks and am dehydrated-ish, but we'll see how tomorrow treats me.

That said, I feel pretty happy about what I did today before my headache hit. I got up reasonably early, made coffee, meditated, and then sat in my writing office and did a couple of hours of writing work. I took a break when Katie called, and I lured myself into being distracted by inviting myself over to her backyard for lunch. Before I went, I made some dry rub spice mix and prepped a pork shoulder so that it could rest in my fridge for a few hours, and I also showered so I wouldn't smell like dry rub.

When I got to Katie's, we hung out in the backyard, wearing our coats and pretending that everything was fine. Luckily, while Denver's altitude can be a bitch, the weather is often not bad - it was in the fifties and sunny, so while it was not the kind of weather that would have caused me to actively choose an outdoor lunch in the beforetimes, it was certainly feasible to do it today. So, we hung out for a couple of hours, caught up on life, and ate poke bowls (we did not share with James because he is allergic to fish and also had to leave for a doctor's appointment anyway). It was great to see her, of course, and I wish all days in quarantine could be this lovely...

After we finished, I swung by my house and then went to the grocery store (with a detour to wash the Iowa gravel dust off my car). When my groceries were duly procured, I came home, put everything away, and then threw the pork shoulder in the instant pot. This wasn't entirely effortless, since I seared it first, then deglazed the pot before pressure cooking it, but it was as close to effortless as you can get for making a tasty meat dish. However, I started it slightly later than I had planned, and even with pressure cooking it takes almost an hour and a half. So while it was cooking, I ate leftover thai food from yesterday, and then did a bunch of housekeeping stuff to bring things into a semblance of order.

And now, I need to stop staring at my screens and maybe spend a few minutes reading paper before bed - goodnight!

better nix my summer plans

Today was pretty good, although I was tired by the end of it - I didn't get enough sleep, and I intend to rectify that posthaste. But I dragged myself out of bed in time to write, so that was a delight. And then I showered, slogged all day, took a break to eat a poke bowl, and took another break to have class with Alyssa. When that was over, I made dinner while talking to [censored] - he was good, but my porkchop, polenta, and brussels sprouts were even better.

Then I was tired, so I doomscrolled and cleaned my kitchen. And then I had an 8:30pm meeting with someone in India and did another hour of work right after. But now I've gotten through what I need to get through, and I'm going to read a bit and go to bed - goodnight!

the simulation just went bad but you're the best i ever had

I was somewhat unenthused about work today, but it's been worse before and it really wasn't all that bad. I did my usual coffee / meditate / journal routine, and then I worked for ninety minutes or so before bothering to shower since I was writing emails instead of participating in meetings. Then I got ready fairly quickly and got down to business, and had a decently productive day overall - so I guess I'll take it.

I took a break around five to talk to [censored], and then I ate some pulled pork and potatoes before sitting on my back patio and doing another hour of work. But I wrapped up by 8:15 so that I could chat with a couple of my California writer friends - it was nice to have a small group since the big zooms are way too difficult to handle. Barbara and Anne were in fine form, and Grace joined us a bit later, and it was so nice to see their faces even if it was just a reminder that I can't actually be in the same room with them.

And now, I think I'm going to try to go to bed early - goodnight!

psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est

I had a v. lovely day in ye olde Iowa. I slept for nine hours, which I haven't achieved in awhile, and I also took a nap this afternoon, so perhaps I'll go back to Colorado at least somewhat rejuvenated (although I'm sure Nebraska will attempt to suck out my lifeforce on the way). When I woke up, I went upstairs and made coffee with the Philz beans I shipped here + the French press that lives here (yes, I have become insufferable; perhaps I'll try my aeropress tomorrow). Then I meditated, bought some turnips in Animal Crossing, showered, etc.

I spent most of the afternoon hanging out on the patio - it was windy but warm enough, and my dad was monitoring his meat smoker while my mom was weeding her garden. So I sat outside and surveyed the fields and listened to my dad tell me about the life and times of a man named Burtis, who used to bathe twice a year (within thirty days of each other, since he only bathed for the county and state fairs) and died sometime around when I was born.

At some point, I went inside to read because it was too windy to read outside, but I fell asleep instead. I woke up as the weather worsened, and [censored] and I made a mad dash to town to put our vehicles in my dad's shop just in case there was hail (there was not, but I got to ride home in a truck that is nearly twenty years old and bathes about as often as Burtis did, so that was exciting). When we got home, we ate supper - my dad's pulled pork turned out amazingly well, and it was perfect with my mom's leftover potato salad (always better the next day) and five cup salad (which looks like a jello salad, but doesn't have jello in it). We also tried some peach whiskey from an Iowa distillery that [censored] had stocked up on, and it was excellent. Vacations with pulled pork and peach whiskey are still vacations, even if they are in lockdown.

Then [censored] and I watched a couple of comedy specials, and now I've stayed up way too late, so it's time for bed. Goodnight!

in a screaming ring of faces i seen her standing in the light

Feeding myself two meals a day is really quite an accomplishment. Yes, I realize this is how the vast majority of the world lives (or at least the vast majority of the female world) - but I'm accustomed to my employer feeding me breakfast/lunch, and to traveling / eating out quite a bit. In the beforetimes, I might have fed myself a couple of times a week, which mostly turned into peanut butter toast, toast and eggs, avocado toast, tuna on toast....toast, mostly. But now, even if I skip breakfast or eat yogurt/granola for it, the rest of the day requires some planning ahead, a lot of cooking, and an absurd number of dishwasher loads for one person.

Perhaps I'm reconsidering all this cooking because I burned my eyelid tonight. It's really not as bad as it could have been - it hurts a tiny bit, but at least I closed my eye in time and just hit the flesh with a hot spatter of grease instead of getting it in my actual eye. Still, it seemed like insult + injury after putting together a somewhat elaborate meal that required multiple pans.

That meal was a carnitas bowl, which did turn out really well - the carnitas experiment will continue, because I think that the results of slow cooking for eleven hours yesterday weren't really any better than the previous recipe I tried, which only required 90min of pressure cooking. But these are v. tasty, and now I have four servings in the freezer and three in the fridge for other days this week. Shredding the pork took awhile, and then I had to get cranking on the rest of dinner - I made rice, black beans with shallots, and some fresh guacamole, all of which was great. I also seared the carnitas (see: grease explosion into my eye), and it was all delightful.

The rest of my day was good as well - I meditated, journaled, showered, ate some leftover potato/chard mix with poached eggs (which I poached), talked to my parents, picked up a curbside delivery order, tidied up my house, did some major reorganizing in my garage, etc. And now, I'm falling asleep while I'm typing, which is always a good sign that it's time for bed - goodnight!

you just don't care what you look like, the world is falling around you

Today was a bit weird, but probably would have been considered normal in the beforetimes. I woke up and laid in bed longer than I planned, but I still was able to meditate, journal, and shower before my first meeting of the day. I only slogged for a few hours - while I realize it's bizarre to feel like I need a break right now, I need a break right now, and so I took the afternoon off. That mostly meant I messed around the house. I also ran a quick errand to Target, which was probably stupid; what I got wasn't completely life-threateningly essential, so if I get the 'rona I will deserve it. That said, my leaving-the-house protocol is quite strict, involves a mask and gloves, and requires that I use a paper shopping list (so I can leave my phone in the car) and that I disinfect everything with alcohol when I get home, so I think it's about as good as it can be.

Then I came home, did a bit more house stuff, and had a socially distant happy hour with Kristen. It abruptly started to thunder/rain right at the end, which was a v. unwelcome turn of events, but that only lasted a few minutes. Then I took some time to make a v. v. tasty dinner - I had defrosted some thick boneless pork chops and brined they yesterday, and so today I cooked them and also made an excellent parmesan polenta. These two things go perfectly together, both from a taste perspective and from a preparation perspective - the polenta takes 40+ minutes to cook, while the pork chops take about ten (with five additional minutes to rest), so you can make them together without feeling rushed. Tonight's version turned out particularly well; it's too bad polenta leftovers aren't quite as tasty as fresh polenta, but I think I'll survive.

Then I messed around online and journaled a bit more, and now I need to sleep - goodnight!

you don't know how lucky you are boys

Too tired to blog - I got approximately four hours of sleep last night, and then got up at 5:30am to go on a hike with Aunt B. We went to a state park near her place, and it took a bit of time to jockey ourselves into position (we left my car at one end and took her car to the other), but the hike itself was great. It was three miles, not too difficult, and no rattlesnakes in sight despite copious warnings. The advantage of getting there so early is that we didn't boil to death in the heat of the rocks, so getting up was worth it (although I really didn't think it was worth it when my alarm went off).

Then I stopped at Starbucks on the way back to the house, and then I made avocado toast to satisfy my hipster cravings. Eventually I showered and Aunt B and I went to the outlet mall nearby - turns out they have a Lucy store, which is my favorite brand of workout/athleisure gear, so I got a pair of capris, a tank, and a sweatshirt and was rendered very happy for as long as the 'I just bought something' endorphins remained in my bloodstream.

When we got back to the house, I alternated between watching 'The Crown', working, napping, and journaling until it was time for dinner - a v. delish pork chop courtesy of Uncle B (it was a bona fide Iowa Chop, since they brought them with them from Iowa) and some twice-baked potatoes and salad courtesy of Aunt B. I read for a little bit after dinner, and then hung out in the kitchen and talked to Becky until it was time to go to bed.

And now, that's exactly what I'm going to do...goodnight!

come on over baby

I'm going to actually try to go to bed before 12:30, which would be a new record for my time at home. Today was okay, all in all, although I got very little done, and what I tried to get done ended up breaking everything....

I spent most of the morning/afternoon hanging out on the patio. It was only seventy-ish degrees and cloudy all day, so it wasn't the most beautiful day on the patio ever, but it was probably way more comfortable than it will be tomorrow, when it should hit 95 degrees again. My mom joined me for quite a bit of this, which was lovely. We also took a break to help [censored] with [censored] before he [censored], although it's unclear whether [censored] survived the adventure (fingers crossed!). And I spent a little bit of time scribbling notes about Lucy's story in my notebook - I want to start writing this week, or at least have a better sense of where the story is headed.

Eventually, though, I came inside and ate the bounty of my dad's afternoon activity - he used his smoker to make ribs, along with an experiment in pork belly, and it was all so fucking good. I am fond of pork, while [censored] isn't, so it's a good thing he had to [censored]. But the ribs were delicious and the pork belly was fantastic (and would be even more fantastic if it were grilled or fried after being smoked), and my mom's potatoes and green beans were a delightful addition.

So we mostly didn't talk while eating all of that, since we were all in our own individual hog heavens (had to, #sorrynotsorry). Then I started messing around with my website again, and I tried a new wordpress theme that broke everything (including my old theme). I got it back to the point where it's a viable website again, but I need to decide whether to keep going down the wordpress route, or whether to finish the Squarespace site that I was playing around with (which looks very pretty, but has some limitations), or whether to do something else entirely. Decisions, decisions.

But now I really need to sleep - there's lots I want to get done tomorrow (mostly sitting in the sun drinking coffee, rather than sitting in the clouds drinking coffee) - goodnight!

strike a pose

Today was a long, lovely day, and I'm ready for bed (even though I should stay up all night and write...but maybe I'll do that tomorrow night). I got up fairly early and spent the morning chained to my laptop, which was quite productive once I got started. The writing process continues to intrigue and mystify me, but at least it's working now, so hopefully I'll produce a book worth publishing in the next month (doable, but I've got a lot of slogging to do before the end).

Anyway, a smoothie and a couple of coffees kept me going until noon, when I ate a sandwich and then showered/put on a dress/made up my face so that I could pursue my afternoon/evening activities. I had made this plan a month ago, back when I thought I was turning my book in to my editor last week instead of this coming week, and so while I was a little loath to socialize this afternoon from a timing perspective, I was super eager for the plan itself. I met Joann (of spinster honeymoon fame) and the original Jen Lui at the de Young, where we had tickets for the Oscar de la Renta exhibit. I hadn't been to the de Young since Jen got married there, and when they told me to meet them in the garden where she had gotten married, I had a brief moment of disorientation because I had been quite tipsy when I had arrived to her wedding (due to ill-advised champagne consumption while watching a football game) and so wasn't sure if I remembered where the garden was. But I found them, and we talked for a little bit before going in to the exhibit.

I thought it was all quite lovely - de la Renta's collections had many more wearable (or theoretically wearable) pieces than I've seen at some of the other fashion exhibits I've been to (namely Alexander McQueen, which was perhaps more stunning but also mostly crazytown). Of course, I might not have worn the pants that had fur hanging off the cuffs in a way that almost looked like a string of small rodents (or maybe that's exactly what I would wear, provided I became a postapocalyptic warlord, which is kind of my backup career choice). But I really enjoyed the exhibit, and I'm glad we caught it.

Then, we wandered around several other areas of the museum, including a great photography exhibit and a bunch of interesting stuff from Oceania (New Guinea, etc.), which made me think a little bit about the ethics of collecting stuff. All in all, it was a nice way to spend an afternoon, and since I recently bought a membership, I really should go there (and the Legion of Honor) more often, if only to people watch and scribble in my notebook in a more beautiful setting.

After we were done, we adjourned to Laurel Village (a neighborhood I never go to) for dinner at Spruce. We started with a drink at the bar, and I downed my tequila and strawberry cocktail in record time because it was quite refreshing. Then we had an amazing dinner - we split a kale caesar salad and some foie gras, and both were excellent. I had a pork loin for my entree, and I thought it was excellent - the pork was perfect, and it was served with a sweet potato puree and some random assortment of vegetables, all of which worked quite well together. We also split a deconstructed s'more and some chocolate mousse, and it was all quite delicious.

The verdict was that we would all go back if the opportunity presented itself. As it turns out, Spruce is owned by the same restaurant group that used to had Des Amis, and so I hugged one of the waiters who used to be at Des Amis (and whom I ran into too late in the meal, since we might have gotten comped some wine if Spruce had known about or acknowledged my former VIP status). Unfortunately, it's too far away from my house (and also too stuffy/expensive) to become my Des Amis replacement, but it was an excellent Saturday night outing - and gave us plenty of time to gossip and catch up and discuss a wide variety of topics.

We were done by eight, and Jen and Joann dropped me off on their way out of the city, which was perfect. Then, I did a little bit of work, but mostly fell down a wikipedia black hole - and now I think it would be better to sleep and start fresh tomorrow. Wish me luck with that - goodnight!

switching to glide

I feel like I got a lot done today, but that didn't result in a lot of words produced...so hopefully I can change the output tomorrow. But I had my usual half-sloth, half-productive day in ye olde Iowa - I got out of bed at 10:45ish, which was way way later than I should have (and probably threw off my energy for the rest of the day). Then I ate some bacon and fried myself an egg while talking to my mom - my breakfasts in Iowa are a little more delish than the granola bars I tend to eat at Philz (although the omelettes I make when I'm not at Philz are less likely to burn me than frying an egg in bacon grease).

After that, I came downstairs and worked for awhile. I read through all the stuff that I sent to my editor in a haze at 3am the other night, and it turns out I really like what I sent her, so that's good news - we'll see if she feels the same way. Then I was going to write some new stuff, but I took a break to eat lunch, and then I had some admin-type stuff to accomplish (booking and canceling hotel rooms, dealing with taxes, etc.), so I did that instead.

Eventually, I slacked off and took my mom into town, where we bought some groceries - I'm going to make stuff for cobb salads tomorrow, since I tend to eat v. weirdly when I'm here (my parents eat a big breakfast, no lunch, and big supper, while my eating situation in SF is snacky breakfast, decent lunch, more snacks, and wine for supper). Then we went to the town where our mail comes in and visited Gloria for a bit - she's in my secret society, and I missed the meeting I had hoped to go to last Wednesday thanks to the blizzard; she's also in my mom's garden club, which my mom skipped on Friday. So we stopped by to see her and pick up some stuff my mom should have gotten at garden club, and it was good to see her - I would say more, but none of you know her, so it would interest you even less than the rest of my blog does (although she thinks that people with Parkinson's should fish more often, since her husband did amazingly well with fishing in Texas, possibly because of the movement his tremor caused for the lure. idk, ymmv.).

sssanyway. After seeing Gloria, we came home, my mom made tenderloins for supper, and I spent the evening alternating between fine CBS programming and working on admin-type stuff - I'm going to a reader event at the end of April that I need giveaways/swag for, and so I was designing stuff and ordering books for that. After several hours I feel like I made no progress, but we'll see whether I feel the same in the morning.

And now I need to sleep and force myself out of bed earlier tomorrow - goodnight!

eh, sexy lady (oppa gangnam style)

I realized today that I've been all over the Polynesian Triangle in the last year - Easter Island and Hawaii are two of the three corners, and while I didn't make it all the way to New Zealand, Bora Bora is a pretty respectable distance. If I were a more sincere, #basic white girl, I would say that I'm so #blessed and post an appropriate image with an appropriate quote, but I'm not that - so I'll just say that I love beaches, and I would vote for every future conference to be held in Hawaii.

But I need to speed this up - today was great, but I'm so tired (I've only been sleeping five good hours a night, thanks to my cold situation), and I have to get up in time for the eight a.m. breakfast tomorrow because my friend Barbara is speaking there. Today, miraculously, I forced myself out of bed and downstairs in time to get a coffee before going to an 8:30am talk with Anne - and I'm glad I went, because I had some ideas while sitting there. Then, we went to the keynote brunch - the food was more like lunch food, but it was surprisingly good for hotel food. And Bella was the keynote speaker, so it's always fun to hear her talk. It's frankly a little bizarre that I've become close enough friends with the people who give speeches at these things to end up sitting at their table during the talks...I don't think I could have predicted this five years ago, but a lot of it comes down to being lucky to live in the same city as some super successful writers. Also, I think I'm vaguely endearing (and by that I mean some people love my cynical, sarcastic side), so that probably encourages them to keep me around.

sssanyway. Bella's talk went really well, although it was hijacked afterward by someone who wanted the mic to talk about their own advocacy stuff, which was just bizarre. But then I tried to go to another talk, decided it wasn't working for me, and so went to one of the outdoor bars and worked for a bit. Then I had a meeting with a couple of people from one of the retailers (hint: I make a lot of money from them, but then I pour it back into things like the gorgeous new gold MacBook that I'm typing this on, so maybe it's all going to be a wash in the end). The meeting went really well, and we talked about ways to promote Rafe and Octavia's book, and they seem excited about it. So, yay to that.

Then I took a too-brief nap and a much-needed shower, grabbed a snack, and boarded a bus for a luau. This was nice, but it was also probably a mistake - I didn't realize when I signed up that this was a massive excursion, including a bus ride that was an hour each way, plus four hours at the luau itself. The dancers were really good and I thought the kalua pork was as tasty as always, but it was too long and I felt trapped (as did others - a few people called cabs and were willing to cough up the $100+ to get from the luau back to Honolulu). Still, I had fun with the group, and I think that the new woman I met last night (Nalini) now sees that I'm not a total raging mess since I only had one watery mai tai, so it's possible we'll be able to be friends after all.

Then we came home, and while I had hoped to sleep on the bus, our guide entertained us the whole time (which involved things like doing the wobble and the macarena while seated). So that was actually pretty fun, but I hit a wall as soon as I got back to my room, and I never want to see people again. But I have to see them in nine hours, so I should go to bed and get over my temporary hermitville - goodnight!

dressed up to the eyes, it's a wonderful surprise

Today was both gorgeous and productive, and so I'm going to bed a happy (and very full) camper. I oddly woke up at 5:30ish, laid in bed for quite awhile wondering why I'd woken up, and finally got up and made tea so that I could start the writing day early. It was still slow going, but better than it has been in awhile (I got ten pages), so I'll take it. I took a break around 9:30ish to have breakfast, and then I did some shopping therapy on Union Street (which was entirely unnecessary - I've been doing far too much shopping the last few weeks, which is a clear sign that the book is troubling me in deep and dreadful ways). But I got some things from Sephora for my upcoming trip to Germany, bought a new umbrella, and got a cute dress and a top, so that's all fun.

Then I came home, worked some more, and eventually dragged Terry to Des Amis, where we worked in the late afternoon (I invited her with the express commandment that I needed to write, so we split an order of fries and then I had a coke while writing and she had a cocktail while reading). Then I came home, took a v. restorative nap, put on a fancy dress, made my eye makeup all smoky, and put on crazy heels for the first time in months.

This was all in support of the day's main plan - Kathia took me to Gary Danko for my birthday, which was absurdly indulgent and completely wonderful. We ended up waiting an hour and a half for seats at the bar, but we had champagne while we waited, and the wait was completely worth it. The food was amazing, from the amuse bouche (some sort of gazpacho), to all the mains, to the cheese course, to the chocolate mousse they brought out for my birthday. Possibly the best dish was this little buckwheat thing with caviar and creme fraiche, but the scallops were to die for, and the pork belly was definitely my weakness. Oh, and the risotto with crab was great. And the blue cheese on the cheese platter was so very good.

So, that was all intensely yummy. And because we were sharing the courses over the span of a few hours, we had plenty of time to catch up, which was great since we hadn't hung out without our laptops in ages. Kathia gave me a pep talk and ordered me to stop holding myself back (which I agree with), and we discussed all sorts of other topics and generally had a fun time. And now I want to go on a quest to go to all sorts of other fabulous restaurants in the city since I mostly just go to Des Amis (did you know that?), but that's going to have to wait until I have some more time...

...and speaking of time, it's time to go to bed if I have any hope of accomplishing what I want to accomplish tomorrow. Goodnight!

how could you be so perfect for me

I had hoped to take today off, but instead I slogged brutally for almost all of it. I'm v. behind at work, so I spent some time catching up today - not enough to get truly caught up, but enough that my Monday won't be hideous. I also got my brows waxed (maybe not entirely necessary for the wedding I'm in this weekend, but I felt it was necessary). And I stopped working at four to meet with my marketing guru so that we could further our plans for world domination - I really love her, and I think she has some great ideas, so the trick will be implementing them while writing and doing the day job and trying to have a life.

But by six I was done with her and everything, so I sat at Nectar for a couple of hours and ate delicious food (burrata and proscuitto, followed by bacon-wrapped dates, since I hadn't consumed enough pork yet) and drank delicious wine (tempranillo, my old friend) while reading tumblr and twitter and all sorts of stuff related to social media for my writing job. Then I came home, folded laundry like a peasant, etc. And now I must sleep so that I can get up early tomorrow - I have the day off, but that really means getting up and training with Alyssa at eight as per usual, then showering and proceeding to a writing date (with a break in between, which I intend to fill with my favorite Palo Alto activities). Goodnight!

the final countdown

I'm out of words. I went to Goody at 9:30, where I met up with Kathia, and I wrote for four hours straight, with a short break to have 'lunch' of two hard-boiled eggs and a Mexican Coke. Yes, I'm living the dream. Then I came home, took a bath, wrote the back cover copy for Alex and Prudence's book (a necessary evil that I'd been putting off forever), and then met up with Kathia at a wine bar to write for another two hours. Thus rendered completely braindead, I abandoned her and met Terry at Nettie's, where I had an absolutely amazing dish of halibut, clams, and slow-cooked pork. Yes, that sounds like a mistake, but it was totally wonderful. And the 'high tea' cocktail I had with it wasn't so shabby either.

But now I'm desperate to sleep; tomorrow is going to come all too soon, and I am so fucking desperate to finish this book that I need to get myself in gear early tomorrow and write all day without relief. Goodnight!

it's either sadness or euphoria

I am ready to go home, I suppose, but only because I feel like I have to be. I had a brief, vivid moment this afternoon where I had a visceral urge to throw my cellphone into the Seine and run away forever, but I have somehow survived.

In short, today was dreamy in its perfection. I slept in a bit, choosing to skip Kathia and Terry's rendezvous at the Musee d'Orsay, and then wandered down toward the Tuileries and the Louvre with no intention of going into the museum and every intention of taking pictures of whatever outdoor features struck my fancy. Then I rendezvoused with my friends, and we made a v. fortuitous decision to go stand in the lunch line for Le Comptoir, which we had been trying to get into throughout our entire time in Paris. I was fueled by the desire to sit outside with the blankets draped over all the seats that were embroidered with the figure of a pig, and Kathia and Terry were motivated by the food - and we all won.

I've had some fabulous meals on this trip, and I think that the Basque pig dish at Glou on Sunday is still the winner for best dish - but for best meal overall, Le Comptoir may have beat it. We started with a charcuterie plate, a cheese plate, and a dish of mushrooms with foie gras - omg, delicious. The ham on the charcuterie plate was the best thing ever - except for the fried pig skins, which were also the best thing ever. But then they were topped by the entrees - we had a beef (bouef) dish that would have been the winner in any other setting, but it was blown out of the water by this pork dish that I can't describe but was truly orgasmic. I was apparently flushed and clearly aroused throughout this meal, and the waiters got the point when Kathia and I both snapped at them at any attempt to clear our plates. But the waiter was oddly charmed when I draped the blanket over my chest like a shawl and declared myself queen of Le Comptoir, so I think we made some friends. We ended it with a perfect chocolate pot de creme and some coffee, and I wanted to die from happiness.

After that, we were going to go write, but when we got to the place we were going to, Kathia and I had both hit the wall so hard from the dying breaths of our aroused adrenaline rush that we said goodbye to Terry and came back to the hotel to take naps. I didn't sleep as much as Kathia did since I had a romance writer task to take care of, which was super annoying - but I did get a nap, which was super necessary. Then we met up with Terry at a cute little wine/bookstore, where we had three different pichets of wine across the three of us and generally admired everything about Paris. Then we went back to Glou on a whim and had charcuterie, beef, cheese, and dessert - it wasn't as perfect as Sunday, but it was the perfect denoument. We finished with a walk along the Seine, and now I should sleep - our flight is at ten tomorrow, which means I must get up far earlier than I would like. The real world awaits, but for now, I can wish you bonsoir!

you got a fast car

I am so full of meat that it's not really funny anymore - I'm pretty sure I have the meat sweats. I had dinner with some of my coworkers at a Brazilian steakhouse in Palo Alto, and I ate an absurd quantity of meat. We were all starving when we got there since we hadn't eaten much all day, and this place made some seriously legit meat, all of which they brought around on giant skewers and carved off for us as necessary. They even brought out the special skewer of chicken hearts at the request of one of the Brazilians on my team, but it was a little intense to end on organ meat after eating at least two pounds (I may be being conservative here) of other meats. Okay, maybe it wasn't two pounds. But I had two sausages, at least six ounces of filet mignon, more sirloin than I can remember, some tritip, a piece of pork, a piece of turkey wrapped in bacon...I would continue, but now I kind of want to vomit. And then I want to go back and do it again.

sssanyway, the rest of the day was good; I worked out with Alyssa this morning, which was excellent, and then I slogged without respite until 5:45. Then I had a meat feast, then I drove two of the guys on my team back to the city with me, and now I really need to go to bed and sleep off my protein coma so I can be somewhat productive tomorrow. False hope, I know. Goodnight!

the pandorica opens

I didn't even attempt to work today. Instead, I woke up at eleven, took a shower, ate some chili, and spent the rest of the day [censored] nine [censored] with [censored]. We took a break around 4pm so that I could run into town and buy a last-minute gift for a family member; I also bought a bottle of Templeton Rye, since the liquor store in town happened to have a batch and it's an approved hipster liquor for the making of fancy cocktails when I get back to San Francisco. Then I came home, [censored] two [censored], and took a break for supper.

My mom has been trying quite hard to translate our old favorites into gluten-free delights, and she scored big on two levels today. The first was a peanut butter cookie sans flour (which annoyed [censored], since she called downstairs to tell us that she had made me cookies, which he thought wasn't inclusive enough). The second was a tenderloin, which in Iowa vernacular is a piece of pork pounded/flattened, dipped in egg and crushed saltines, and fried. I can't eat the saltines, but she tried crushed corn chex for me, and it was splendid. Granted, I couldn't eat the bun, which was unfortunate, but the tenderloin was delightful.

After supper, I wrapped a couple of gifts, then [censored] three [censored] before [censored]'s bedtime. And now I should really go to sleep myself -- we're doing Christmas with my sister tomorrow (I suppose it is Christmas Eve, which feels odd), and then I have to wrap the rest of my parents' presents and let visions of sugarplums dance through my head. Goodnight!

it's a thousand pages, give or take a few

I can barely remember the first half of the day because it was utterly consumed by the flames of the second half. I shall try to reconstruct it for you, though, like a shoddy arson investigator reconstructing a house fire and getting a dude executed for something that likely wasn't arson (see: Texas, several years ago).

I woke up around 10:15, which was actually early compared to when I have been waking up, although that fact didn't seem to be appreciated by my family. So I showered, got dressed, made my bed, etc., and went upstairs to find the entire Wampler clan gathered in the kitchen. I suppose my aunt's scandalous husband isn't a Wampler, but you can tell he wishes that he were (or maybe he wishes he were anywhere else -- it's a little unclear). sssanyway, Uncle Mark, Aunt Kathy, Drewbaby, Aunt Becky, Scandalous Uncle Brian, and Gram were all here, as were my parents and [censored], to belated celebrate Thanksgiving, so we all hung out for a few hours. My mother made another midwestern feast: hamballs (ground ham, ground pork, breadcrumbs, etc); sweet potatoes (with brown sugar but sans marshmallows - we're not savages); cheesy potatoes (self explanatory); pickled beets (ugh); apricot salad (canned apricots, orange jello, cheese - much more delicious than that incomplete description makes it sound); relish tray (carrots good, radishes bad); and rolls (gluten-filled). Aunt Kathy brought cranberry salad (cranberries, celery, cherry jello); Aunt Becky brought a lemon cake that looked amazing but that I didn't eat due to my gluten avoidance. We didn't play Rail Baron or anything else because everyone wanted to leave before dark, when the deer descend on the roads and make every journey a miniature version of Frodo and Sam toiling towards Mordor, where the orcs are replaced by unarmed but suicidal deer who thwart you at every turn.

So it was good to see them all. It's so hard to believe that Drewbaby is a senior (as is my nephew Zane), so I'm planning to come back in May for their graduations. I will see them all again when I'm back here in a couple of weeks, though, so I don't think anyone felt a lot of pressure to hang out. After they left, I basically worked straight through until now, with some breaks here and there to snack, watch bits and pieces of TV, catch up on bits and pieces of the internet, etc. I slogged through another 15ish pages -- good, but still never enough. I'm going to work like crazy this week, so even though I get back to California on Wednesday, expect hermity posts through the weekend.

And now I must sleep before the language processing centers of my brain utterly shut down; that last Mordor reference nearly blew them out. Goodnight!

our passion rises up from the ashes

So much for getting up early, but also so much for vacation. When my alarm went off this morning, I shut it off, and promptly slept until noon -- oops. But then I woke up, took a shower, ate some lunch, and proceeded to work most of the afternoon/evening/night. I was working at the kitchen counter for most of it, which was not maximally productive since I had the LSU/Arkansas game on mute for much of the afternoon, and also kept talking to my family members as they wandered in and out during their various chores and errands. I also took a break for supper (for which I made the brined porkchops that I've been making in California, to go with some awesome potatoes my mom made and the leftover layered lettuce from yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner), and I lost an hour and a half or so reading up on British peerage/titles/forms of address (and another hour and a half just now after falling into a rabbit hole about extinct languages on Wikipedia).

So since it's 2:45am here, I must go to bed immediately. But luckily, I wrote approximately fourteen pages today -- not enough to finish the book, but I'm making progress. So hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight, write another 14+ pages tomorrow, and keep feeling like finishing this book is possible (hahahahahahaha). Goodnight!