Happy Halloween!
My vacation hath vanished like the October Snows. I got a metric tonne of work done during the week, and kinda slacked off on Saturday and Sunday. I got the house cleaned, cooked some, and slept like the dead. This is okay, because I essentially worked three sixteen-hour days on the book, and I did get at least a couple hours work in each day.
My brain's too addled for a full writeup, but a few things bear mentioning:
* Kraut v 2.0 was a stunning success. We ate it with chicken brats and canned two additional pints. JimO and Kat have one of them; they got a mailbox full of kraut as their Halloween Trick. Kraut 2.0 was so good that I bought a hayoomongous five-pound cabbage and made more.
* I planted the second batch of tulip bulbs in the backyard, and now I totally can't wait for April.
* I pledged to WBEZ and will be receiving the sneak-peek DVD of the upcoming This American Life cable series. I am giddy as a schoolgirl.
* Nothing sucks worse than finding out the inks you just laid down were fugitive. I had to thick-paint most of the last two pages, thereby doubling the amount of time they took.
* I am now the proud owner of the new Absolute Sandman. ("Hey, Regular Sandman Comics!" "Hmn?" "Shun!" [*link NSFW*] ) It is a huge and mighty thing of beauty. We sat down last night and went page-by-page with the old versions: the differences are astonishing, and really give those early issues their due. I could never really appreciate them before, thanks in large part to the wretched powder-blues and pepto-pinks the previous colorist was so fond of using (I know it was the late-eighties. They still sucked.).
* Dessert Martinis are yummy, but they really foul me up the next day. Oy. I'm sticking to Bailey's and Coffee from now on.
* I've been going to the gym for over a month. My waist is shrinking. The scales say I'm losing weight. Why can't I fit into my jeans?! I've got really, really muscular legs now, or so I'm telling myself, and muscle is bigger... and wobblier... than um. Yeah. Glutes of... something. Oatmeal?
* Speaking of which, Blueberry Garam Masala Oatmeal loses its charm after the third bowl.
* Homemade chili does not.
* Delicata squash is remarkably good, and tastes rather like chestnuts: sweet and earthy and nutty. I stabbed it with a knife, then microwaved it for ten minutes and just ate the flesh off the rind with a fork and some salt. Yum! I'm also going to toast the seeds and eat them; like an extra-added prize inside. I like to make them with sugar and chili flakes, like hot crackerjack. Next up: Butternut and Buttercup. Allez Cuisine!