Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 19
November 22, 2012
Lovely silence descends.I have a headache, my back hurts,...
Lovely silence descends.
I have a headache, my back hurts, and I'm VERY tired. Doing Thanksgiving is sort of a combination of a Broadway performance and the D-Day Invasion.
The day began with the Thanksgiving Salmonella Challenge: last week I had purchased a fresh, brined 16 pound turkey from the same folks from whom I've been purchasing fresh, brined birds for years... and when I opened it to start cooking it at 6 this morning for Thanksgiving Lunch (various members of the family do the Two-Family Thing and I'm the first shift), it smelled pretty iffy. So I had to change out of my jammies and go turkey-shopping on Thanksgiving morning at 6 a.m. The Store That I Don't Like, fortunately, was open (though not the people who'd sold me Smelly Bird in the first place), and had 20-pound turkeys (which would not have cooked in time and besides, there weren't going to be that many people present) and little 12-pounders. I got a 12-pounder, previously frozen, non-brined, and still pretty icy, and the biggest roasting-chicken they had.
Thank Heavens for the Joy of Cooking. Also for person who invented the probe thermometer. I put the cats in lock-down, covered the turkey with butter-slobbered cheesecloth and both birds turned out fine, moist, and tasty. It was a wonderful lunch, beautiful time with my lovely family, and if going turkey-shopping at 6 on Thanksgiving Morning is the worst that happened to any of us during the day, we all really DID have something to be thankful for. (Though I will have sharp words for Store #1 when I turn up on their doorstep tomorrow morning with Smelly Bird in an ice-chest).
Now the cats are giving me Pitiful Eye, and snooping all around the front rooms checking out what's different. I will spend the remainder of the evening slaughtering everything in sight on Diablo, and go to bed very early. LosCon tomorrow.
I have a headache, my back hurts, and I'm VERY tired. Doing Thanksgiving is sort of a combination of a Broadway performance and the D-Day Invasion.
The day began with the Thanksgiving Salmonella Challenge: last week I had purchased a fresh, brined 16 pound turkey from the same folks from whom I've been purchasing fresh, brined birds for years... and when I opened it to start cooking it at 6 this morning for Thanksgiving Lunch (various members of the family do the Two-Family Thing and I'm the first shift), it smelled pretty iffy. So I had to change out of my jammies and go turkey-shopping on Thanksgiving morning at 6 a.m. The Store That I Don't Like, fortunately, was open (though not the people who'd sold me Smelly Bird in the first place), and had 20-pound turkeys (which would not have cooked in time and besides, there weren't going to be that many people present) and little 12-pounders. I got a 12-pounder, previously frozen, non-brined, and still pretty icy, and the biggest roasting-chicken they had.
Thank Heavens for the Joy of Cooking. Also for person who invented the probe thermometer. I put the cats in lock-down, covered the turkey with butter-slobbered cheesecloth and both birds turned out fine, moist, and tasty. It was a wonderful lunch, beautiful time with my lovely family, and if going turkey-shopping at 6 on Thanksgiving Morning is the worst that happened to any of us during the day, we all really DID have something to be thankful for. (Though I will have sharp words for Store #1 when I turn up on their doorstep tomorrow morning with Smelly Bird in an ice-chest).
Now the cats are giving me Pitiful Eye, and snooping all around the front rooms checking out what's different. I will spend the remainder of the evening slaughtering everything in sight on Diablo, and go to bed very early. LosCon tomorrow.
November 20, 2012
GUEST BLOG:I've written a guest blog for Jungle Red W...
GUEST BLOG:
I've written a guest blog for Jungle Red Writers (www.jungleredwriters.com) which should be up tomorrow; the blog is on the subject of coming up with names for characters. Now I still need to figure out how to "reply" to comments, if there are any...
Not to mention that I have to a) teach tomorrow and b) when I come home i) clean up the last of the construction debris ii) prep the house for Thanksgiving dinner iii) pre-cook the pre-cookables and iv) get ready for LosCon, which is Friday. But by all means, stop by Jungle Red Writers and see what I have to say on the subject of naming names.
I've written a guest blog for Jungle Red Writers (www.jungleredwriters.com) which should be up tomorrow; the blog is on the subject of coming up with names for characters. Now I still need to figure out how to "reply" to comments, if there are any...
Not to mention that I have to a) teach tomorrow and b) when I come home i) clean up the last of the construction debris ii) prep the house for Thanksgiving dinner iii) pre-cook the pre-cookables and iv) get ready for LosCon, which is Friday. But by all means, stop by Jungle Red Writers and see what I have to say on the subject of naming names.
November 12, 2012
It doesn't actually get cold here in Southern Califor...
It doesn't actually get cold here in Southern California. I used to complain, "Gee, it's cold!" and my dear friend Laurie, who grew up in an uninsulated cabin in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho in snow up to her elbows, would look down her nose at me and sneer. (And she's right - one year I was a guest at Arisia in Boston during a blizzard and later went out to Old Sturbridge Village when it was two degrees and my escort and I were the ONLY tourists, and THAT was cold)
But it's DAMN frakking chilly.
Mr. Heater Repair Man is going to come this afternoon (allegedly) to make everything okay again, but the heater is only in the front part of the house. The study isn't heated, except by a space-heater which I've now put in the living-room for Rocky the Cat, so it's REALLY chilly back here. (Poor Rocky is still fighting with Polly, the New Girl, and won't leave the living-room - I have to feed her specially. It's her own fault - she hates other cats - but she's old and tiny and she needs the heat) (And yes, I'm going to get her one of those microwave heating-pads but it won't arrive before the heater is fixed).
I've just turned in the copy-edit on Good Man Friday, so I get about 3/4 of a day to actually work before Mr. Heater Man arrives - I've just realized that I'll lose another day of work next week, tidying up the house in preparation for the Family Thanksgiving. No wonder the book is coming slowly.
I need a Latin phrase translated. Could people who can do this message me?
But it's DAMN frakking chilly.
Mr. Heater Repair Man is going to come this afternoon (allegedly) to make everything okay again, but the heater is only in the front part of the house. The study isn't heated, except by a space-heater which I've now put in the living-room for Rocky the Cat, so it's REALLY chilly back here. (Poor Rocky is still fighting with Polly, the New Girl, and won't leave the living-room - I have to feed her specially. It's her own fault - she hates other cats - but she's old and tiny and she needs the heat) (And yes, I'm going to get her one of those microwave heating-pads but it won't arrive before the heater is fixed).
I've just turned in the copy-edit on Good Man Friday, so I get about 3/4 of a day to actually work before Mr. Heater Man arrives - I've just realized that I'll lose another day of work next week, tidying up the house in preparation for the Family Thanksgiving. No wonder the book is coming slowly.
I need a Latin phrase translated. Could people who can do this message me?
November 11, 2012
That lovely feeling of mellow nostalgia I get on the firs...
That lovely feeling of mellow nostalgia I get on the first morning when it's chilly enough to turn on the heater was considerably spoiled when I turned on the heater and nothing happened. The nice fellow who came to investigate it assured me that nothing WOULD happen until I gave the Universe back most of the unexpected check I'd received twelve hours previously, that I was joyfully hoping to use on Christmas presents.
Oh, well...
Much better to receive the check and then immediately have to give it back, than NOT to receive it AND have to fork out for the heater. Still...
The Universe works in mysterious ways.
Tea, laundry, enough sleep and a day of writing... AND no class tomorrow. (So I can be home for Heater Man...)
Oh, well...
Much better to receive the check and then immediately have to give it back, than NOT to receive it AND have to fork out for the heater. Still...
The Universe works in mysterious ways.
Tea, laundry, enough sleep and a day of writing... AND no class tomorrow. (So I can be home for Heater Man...)
November 10, 2012
What's the deal with the sudden influx of people comi...
What's the deal with the sudden influx of people coming into LJ with random, inappropriate comments that are obviously phishing? I've had three of them in the past week - two only today. Is this people getting LJ accounts to try to get us to answer stuff that's clearly totally bogus and scams? Has anyone else had this problem? It's recent.
November 4, 2012
In a Halloween mood a couple of nights ago I sat down and...
In a Halloween mood a couple of nights ago I sat down and re-watched Blair Witch Project, which scared the living bejeezus out of me the first time through. The second time through... not so much.
During the late '50s and early '60s, my parents wouldn't let us kids see horror movies. (I learned later it was because my Dad has an extremely vivid imagination and they give him nightmares). But we were desperately curious about them, so my cousin Paul John would tell us about them - give the plot and descriptions.
And the most horrible, scary, terrifying one that scared me even to THINK about was a William Campbell flick called "The Tingler". From what Paul John told me, the movie I saw IN MY HEAD was unbelievably frightening.
And then as an adult I saw it in Real Life. Oh, boy. Vincent Price wrestling around on the floor with a two-foot rubber earwig. What a heartstopper.
Time changes all things.
These days I find some of the '50s monster-films very soothing, if I'm agitated or upset about something I can't change. My go-to films are Godzilla and The Thing From Another World (the REAL version, not any of the remakes). There's something about seeing the Big Guy trample Tokyo that I find very calming. I suspect, actually, that the upsurge of horror films in the '50s were a way of displacing the horrible anxieties of the Cold War - although it's very strange, seeing the opening shots of Godzilla, and realizing that the people carrying charred bodies out of radioactive ruins had, only five years previously, ACTUALLY been carrying charred bodies out of radioactive ruins.
I was awfully old before I realized that the Raymond Burr footage was all spliced in later and that you never see the faces of any of the characters that he's talking to. They actually did a good job of that.
During the late '50s and early '60s, my parents wouldn't let us kids see horror movies. (I learned later it was because my Dad has an extremely vivid imagination and they give him nightmares). But we were desperately curious about them, so my cousin Paul John would tell us about them - give the plot and descriptions.
And the most horrible, scary, terrifying one that scared me even to THINK about was a William Campbell flick called "The Tingler". From what Paul John told me, the movie I saw IN MY HEAD was unbelievably frightening.
And then as an adult I saw it in Real Life. Oh, boy. Vincent Price wrestling around on the floor with a two-foot rubber earwig. What a heartstopper.
Time changes all things.
These days I find some of the '50s monster-films very soothing, if I'm agitated or upset about something I can't change. My go-to films are Godzilla and The Thing From Another World (the REAL version, not any of the remakes). There's something about seeing the Big Guy trample Tokyo that I find very calming. I suspect, actually, that the upsurge of horror films in the '50s were a way of displacing the horrible anxieties of the Cold War - although it's very strange, seeing the opening shots of Godzilla, and realizing that the people carrying charred bodies out of radioactive ruins had, only five years previously, ACTUALLY been carrying charred bodies out of radioactive ruins.
I was awfully old before I realized that the Raymond Burr footage was all spliced in later and that you never see the faces of any of the characters that he's talking to. They actually did a good job of that.
October 28, 2012
Just what I needed... I received yesterday the copy-edite...
Just what I needed... I received yesterday the copy-edited manuscript of Good Man Friday (a.k.a. Mr. J Goes to Washington), on top of an exam last week and one this week... And I'm ENORMOUSLY pleased with it. Re-reading after months away from it always reveals things I missed and screwed up, but I'm very pleased with this one.
Being handed an extra class, though it's wonderful from a financial standpoint, makes for some tiring days and evenings: since it's another mid-day class, that means I'm burning up almost two hours a day, four days a week, on the road. Night classes, though they're exhausting, (and next semester I'll have a single night class) are once a week; so next semester I'll be actualy picking up six extra hours of either work or down-time.
I also got prospective panels for LosCon on Thanksgiving weekend - they've got one of the best programming chairs on the job, and thus there were a swarm of interesting things to choose from.
Being handed an extra class, though it's wonderful from a financial standpoint, makes for some tiring days and evenings: since it's another mid-day class, that means I'm burning up almost two hours a day, four days a week, on the road. Night classes, though they're exhausting, (and next semester I'll have a single night class) are once a week; so next semester I'll be actualy picking up six extra hours of either work or down-time.
I also got prospective panels for LosCon on Thanksgiving weekend - they've got one of the best programming chairs on the job, and thus there were a swarm of interesting things to choose from.
October 25, 2012
Windy night, spooky weather. Curtains billowing noiseless...
Windy night, spooky weather. Curtains billowing noiselessly and cats chasing around in a frenzy.
Re-reading the little book I put together a couple of years ago, of my favorite haiku - old haiku masters, not the modern "funny" haiku (much of which isn't nearly as funny as its writers think it is). Something about the imagery of the old haiku masters - mostly Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki - touches me at this time of year. Mostly very, very simply, like Hokusai sketches (and I used a lot of Hokusai sketches to illustrate it for myself); a sense of looking at snapshots of time and place.
Moonless night...
A powerful wind embraces
the ancient cedars.
basho
All the baby spiders
scatter
to make a living.
issa
Another very long day. I'll hit Kaiser on my way to school for a flu shot, looking forward to a night slaying monsters in Azeroth.
Re-reading the little book I put together a couple of years ago, of my favorite haiku - old haiku masters, not the modern "funny" haiku (much of which isn't nearly as funny as its writers think it is). Something about the imagery of the old haiku masters - mostly Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki - touches me at this time of year. Mostly very, very simply, like Hokusai sketches (and I used a lot of Hokusai sketches to illustrate it for myself); a sense of looking at snapshots of time and place.
Moonless night...
A powerful wind embraces
the ancient cedars.
basho
All the baby spiders
scatter
to make a living.
issa
Another very long day. I'll hit Kaiser on my way to school for a flu shot, looking forward to a night slaying monsters in Azeroth.
October 19, 2012
After years of trouncing on the other cats, in her old ag...
After years of trouncing on the other cats, in her old age poor Rocky is finding out that what goes around, comes around. For all her pretty softness, Polly is a scrapper, and now that Gus has grown into a great big tom-cat, Rocky has been ousted from her position as Head Critter in the house. She's sulking and angry, and has retreated to the dining-room table, and a big cardboard box left over from a friend's birthday present: Fortress Rocky. She hides in it and growls whenever any of the other cats comes into the front room. I'm very sorry for her, because I love her very much, but she DID ask for it. As far as I can tell, Polly doesn't attack her, but she won't let herself be attacked the way the much milder Cupcake does.
I love watching the group dynamics. They do exactly what people do, except they don't pretend they're doing something else.
And all three girls still completely ignore Damsel. Only Gus interacts with her, and he's very nice about it when she attacks him and tries to tear out his throat. (She has no muzzle to speak of, and he's twice her size, so it's all good. She needs the exercise.)
Still hot gray monsoon weather here.
I love watching the group dynamics. They do exactly what people do, except they don't pretend they're doing something else.
And all three girls still completely ignore Damsel. Only Gus interacts with her, and he's very nice about it when she attacks him and tries to tear out his throat. (She has no muzzle to speak of, and he's twice her size, so it's all good. She needs the exercise.)
Still hot gray monsoon weather here.
October 12, 2012
It's spider season! Shelob the Great has returned to ...
It's spider season! Shelob the Great has returned to my front yard and spun her web between the corner of my house and the corner of the neighbor's - a big frakkin' web for a spider whose body is the size of my thumb. She (well, one of the line - I know they don't live more than a year or so) builds her web there every year. I keep knocking it down (carefully) in order to get to the trash-cans, and it's back in the morning. I'm VERY careful taking out the trash after dark.
(I presume the human bones I found entangled in the web a year or so ago were the postal carrier's - there were letters scattered on the ground, and an empty can of dog-repellant. I presume Shelob used the dog-repellent as seasoning. She's like that)
It's also helicopter season. They're hovering over where the Shuttle is parked, a mile or so from my house. I heard the sirens and beepers in the small hours of the morning.
(I presume the human bones I found entangled in the web a year or so ago were the postal carrier's - there were letters scattered on the ground, and an empty can of dog-repellant. I presume Shelob used the dog-repellent as seasoning. She's like that)
It's also helicopter season. They're hovering over where the Shuttle is parked, a mile or so from my house. I heard the sirens and beepers in the small hours of the morning.
