Post/Note/Hope

On this, the last day of NaBloPoMo 2010, wouldn't it be great if I wrote something thoughtful and insightful?  Yes it would.  This isn't that post though.  Maybe later if we're all lucky.

So far today has been completely ordinary (except that Pete got up before I did - that's unusual) and I'm feeling hard pressed to think of a subject to write about at all.

Speaking of writing, I really enjoyed NaNoWriMo.  I hope that I can keep up the writing habit.  I don't know if I have two hours every day to commit to writing though.  Hopefully I can swing one hour.

I'm not sure that the writing habits I got into this month were the best for me.  I know I did a lot of padding (you know- used a lot of words I knew I didn't need) in my attempt to reach the 50,000 word mark.  I guess I usually edit myself more as I go when I write.

Well this is working a different way and it's important to try new things.  Now I can try editing myself afterwards.  Maybe I'll do a better job now that those thoughts have been floating around in my head for a month.

Anyway, I probably only got into the "edit as you go" thing because I'd put off my assignment till the last minute and didn't have time to edit later.  Not the greatest way to get into a lifelong habit.  Yup, it's important to try new things.

I don't know if I'll try to do both NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo at the same time again.  I think the blog suffered.  It got less time, attention and thought than it normally would in November.  I hope I haven't alienated anyone with my uninspired posts this month.  If I have they probably aren't reading my apology right now, huh?

Okay, I'll knock off the rambling and move on with my day now.  Thanks for your patience, assuming you're still reading,
xoxo,
Mel

P.S. Now I'm really excited to take my novel into my studio and move it into it's next incarnations: comic books, videos, paintings and sculptures.  Even farther into the future I hope, a video game.

Mwwwaah Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaa!

Home Stretches

In 1579 words I'll have hit the 50,000 mark.  I can do it before noon.  Then I hope I can get on to the NaNoWriMo web page, get my numbers validated and buy myself a NaNoWriMo Winner t-shirt - and underpants, socks, hankie, hat, toaster etc.

I'm a tiny bit concerned that once I've finished writing the first draft of the novel before the end of the month I'll forget that it's still NaBloPoMo and I'll blow it on the last day.  AAAAAAAAA!

Fingers crossed that that won't happen.

Elastic Cords

I have this probably erroneous belief that I will see the people I've met in my life again.

You know, people come and go in your life.  You meet each other, you like each other (hopefully), you separate, you meet up again.  Always.  As if everyone is attached to each other with elastic cords and we bounce apart and bounce together again and the cords never break.

I fully expect to see everyone I was in kindergarden with again at any time - even the people I didn't like or who didn't like me.

I sincerely hope this is true.  It hasn't yet been proven false.  I can keep hoping it's true till the day I die.

Thanksgiving Round Up

I would say that the first major holiday after my dad's death went pretty well.

It started off a little slow with me and Mom striking out for the mall right away.  Our hearts weren't really in it.  We did find a couple of cute things to buy.  I got a red lipstick and Mom got a fun scarf.  We had the most fun at the Kate Spade store. (That's where my lipstick is from.  Looks like you can't get it on line though)  Lots of fun shapes and colors there.  But we weren't really in a shopping mood.  It kind of felt like our usual lunch wasn't as fun either even though we got popovers.

When we got back from shopping, Mom, Pete and I went and picked up Pete's brother, Marc at the airport.  Things perked up after that.  We got to show him the things we like about town.  For instance we had dinner at the Whaling Bar.

While we were there my brother and Sarah arrived from L.A..  Once we were all together, including the dogs, we all kind of loosened up and relaxed.

It ended up being a pretty jolly and low key Thanksgiving.  The food was great, there was no strife of any kind (well, Fay tried to beat up her doggie cousins - I'd count that as strife)  Okay, no human strife.  A good time was had by all.  Hooray!

Fried Eggs

Jose Andres ruined me for regular fried eggs.  A few years ago I picked up his cookbook, "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America."  The photos caught my eye and I read the recipes and saw that they were easy to make.  There are a number of recipes in there that I make all the time, like the spinach and chickpea stew.  I bought the book when I was vegetarian so there are a lot of good veg recipes or recipes that you can easily make veg.

But I mentioned the fried eggs.  He shows a technique where you use a fairly high heat, a lot of olive oil and tilt the pan so the hot oil pools and you almost deep fry your egg in a regular frying pan.  If you do this your egg comes out rounded, crispy and browned on the outside but still has a runny yolk (if you like it that way - you can always cook it longer) Since I'm uncoordinated I couldn't figure out how to tip the pan with one hand and get the egg in there with the other.  You're also supposed to spoon the hot oil on top of the egg while it's cooking.  I'm way too uncoordinated to do that.  I just fry the eggs flat in the pan with a lot of olive oil and flip them.  It still works.  I'm now addicted to crispy fried eggs.  Regular fried eggs are disappointing.  Boo-hoo!

Bottom line, I highly recommend this cook book.  It has definitely added new techniques and ingredients to my cooking arsenal without a lot of labor and sweat.

Maybe This Is How Fay Feels

I can't believe how hungry I am today.  You might think, "Well how convenient!  It is Thanksgiving, after all."  Well it isn't Thanksgiving yet.  Not here.  I'm in California and it's only 9:30 AM here.

When I got up at 6:30 local time I had a piece of whole wheat toast with some swiss cheese meted on top.  A little later I had some left over steak.  I also had a cup of coffee, a glass of water and a few spoonfuls of yogurt.

I've been doing a little cooking and writing in the mean time so time has passed.  I got hungry again so I looked at my watch to see if that was reasonable.  My watch said 12:00.  "Yes!" I thought, "I can make lunch.  I'll have a salad."  I got out the salad fixin's and started a-making.  Then I glanced at the clock over by the sink.  It said 9:00. :(  I remembered that I didn't reset my watch so I could easily tell what time Fay thinks it is.

I'm eating a damned salad while I type this.

Fay Loves Grandma

I apologize for the writing quality of this post.  It turns out I'm over-caffeinated.  I'm also out of the habit of editing myself as I go from NaNoWriMo.  I'm a-cranking' out the words.

Fay likes to travel.  She especially loves to go to California.  Grandma's house in California is a sprawling one level.  We put plenty of yoga mats down on the wood floors so Fay can make it easily across the wood floors from our room into the kitchen.  Elsewhere there is carpeting.  But the key is that she can make it to the kitchen.

I think the thing she likes best about California is that there are more people here to mooch food from here than there are under normal circumstances.  I have a feeling that I've written that before.  Oh well.  Sorry.  Ish.

Grandma is a total sucker for Fay's charms so Fay's mooching is very successful.  Fortunately Fay also gets a lot of exercise running from the bedroom to the kitchen and back.  Still, when we flew back from here back in August they almost didn't let me on the plane with Fay.  She and her carrier are supposed to weigh less than twenty pounds.  They weighed twenty-three!

Yesterday Grandma was a little careless when she was giving Fay a piece of cheese.  You have to give Fay her treats horsey style, with a flat palm.  She can be very grabby.  She's so rude.

Mexican Restaurant Law Plus

I have a law for Mexican restaurants.  If I'm in a Mexican restaurant for the first time and they have a fish taco I have to get that.  Also, if they have tamales I have to get those.  If they have both I get both.  It's a law.

In other news, I had a massage today.  Whoa baby, was it good!  It also turned out to be a great time to think about my novel.

I've been feeling a bit stalled on the novel.  I knew I needed to think about it but I couldn't seem to make the time.  The massage was a great time to think.  I found that I like the world of my novel.  I enjoy spending time there.  That's probably a good sign.

Today's Song

As much as I love Tom Waits I was somewhat relieved to awaken with this song in my head today.  Nowhere near as sad.

Take It With Me

For some reason, the instant I wake up this song comes into my head.  It's been at least a week.  It's a good song but it's so sad!  I know you could argue that he's being appreciative of these thing in his life but the music itself is so melancholy.

NaBloPoMo Filler

Uh oh, eleven PM and I haven't posted yet!  I'd better think up a topic quick!

Well, here's something:  I took a bunch of photos today of the giant dead maple tree that stands at the entrance to our driveway.  I love that thing.  It really is beautiful even though it's falling apart.  It's rather stark and knobbed and has huge funguses (oh yeah, that should probably read "fungi."  I'm not changing it though) growing out of it.  I saw an owl suffering through a rainstorm in it once.  It's dramatic.

Unfortunately, because it's falling apart some guys are going to come next weekend and cut it down.

BOO!!!!!

However I accept that that has to happen.  It could fall on someone, after all.

Another unfortunate thing is that I can't fine the folder I saved the photos to.  I'm pretty sure it said 11 somewhere in the name of the folder but it's not the folder I thought it was.  I'm going to have to download some more photos from that camera and see where it wants to put them in order to find out where it s.

Here's something else I did today:  I went to the Brookline house and got a tour from one of the new/old* owners.

Not surprisingly it looks great.  They completely renovated the basement.  They also refurbished the old windows, saving the antique glass panes and replacing the window ropes with chains.  They did a lot of new insulating too.  I could tell the place was less drafty than it had been.  Debra showed me around.  She was so excited to be living there again.  I was happy that they have it again and can afford to make the improvements we couldn't.  It's a great house and we were lucky to have lived there.

And now, random photos of Fay.  Two almost identical ones because I couldn't decide which was cuter. Of course if I had just picked one you would never have missed the other.

I looked back and am shocked to see that I never posted about the people who bought our house last year.  The people who bought our house from us are the same people we bought it from in 1991.