Daily Adventures

I spent nearly fourteen hours on ramen broth, yesterday. *laughs* I should have taken a picture or three, but it's a slow process.

Momofuku Noodle Bar has a cookbook out that details it's exacting process for making ramen broth, and I follow all the bits but the bacon and I use bonito shavings instead of bacon. I also probably skim a little more fat off the broth than they do, but it's all to the good, and I don't put any salt in it so that when we eat it with our noodles, we add it then.
( Read more... )

I had a crown that had a hole in it and I was NOT looking forward to replacing it. At all. But I went into the dentist this morning and they took off the old crown. There was a small cavity underneath it, which they quickly removed. They built it all up again, and then took an impression of both the inside and the outside, and then made me a temporary crown and put it on.

It hurt doing it, for all the doctor did a great job of applying the novocaine, to the point where I couldn't feel my tongue or that side of my mouth; but now it hurts a lot less than I thought it would. They adjusted everything beautifully, and for all that they tore up my gums pretty good getting it in and clearing out all the old stuff, the tooth itself doesn't hurt as much as it used to or nearly as much as it did when the old, badly made crown was put in place. I suspect that the cavity was starting to affect it a little, and having it covered up well, now, makes it happier.

( There were a lot of small things they did... )

For most of the last week we've had snow. Thick snow, heavy, wet spring snow, and for a full day and a half it lay nearly a foot thick everywhere. Jet and I had a blast going out and sledding and building snow men, because the usual Colorado snow falls when it's so cold the stuff is powder dry and can't pack worth a darn.

Yesterday, the temperatures got into the 60's, and everything was melting.

We went out walking in the afternoon and the sound of dripping, running water was everywhere. It was absolutely wonderful! All the grass has gone green, and the local weather report says that Longmont is even with its annual average of precipitation for the first time in a few years, and the state as a whole now has 75% of its usual snow pack, so we'll actually have some water this summer, unlike the last few years, which have had unusually warm springs.

( TV and movie watching, writing, knitting, and painting things I've been doing... )

We really should be used to snow in November... but it's always something of a surprise to see the world in white when it was in the 70's just days ago, and I had to dig out my shorts in order to walk outside. Now our nights will be in the teens.

I've been... busy.

Writing, supporting a demented_dee, walking, learning... making her gluten-free Oreos too. Many thanks to flit for pointing me at the site, as I have a friend who can't have even a trace of wheat in anything, and she was missing Oreos something fierce, so I took a few days to figure out all the ingredients, and then spent an afternoon making one batch, and another afternoon later in the week making another... for us. *laughs*

They were so good, we loved them just as cookies, especially with crushed peppermint candies stuck in the cream. They were very much like Trader Joe's Peppermint Joejoe's. Very nice. I do have to say that it feels like a minor miracle every time the dough actually comes together.

I'm also dealing with a mild depression, and doing the things that can distract me from it. Yesterday, John and I went to see Skyfall. Today we went to see the DaVinci Machines Exhibit here in Denver.

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Been home for a few days now, and finally recovered enough to try and think a bit. *laughs*

Was busy for a bit there, the second book got accepted by the publisher in only about 2 weeks after we submitted it. The feeling is starting to sink in that the first book wasn't entirely a fluke, and that we're actually able to write these things with vigor. It also struck me that I'm actually pretty good at this plotting thing and really figuring out the motivations and reasons underlying the things that happen in a book.

Also finding that I'm able to find my own voice given reasonable time and something to really concentrate on; however, it's not helping that the short story lady hasn't gotten back to us on the Valentine's Day short stories. *laughs*

( And I've been filling my time with movies, books, and plotting galore. )

Just today I was reminded of the first six months after I quit work. I'd just come off a huge project that involved hundreds of people, lots of management and coordination, and communication up and down the organizational hierarchy. My boss actually offered to send me to the West Coast to get an MBA because of the work I did, so I had shown some aptitude. I was good at it.

However, for the first six months after I stopped working, I spoke to nearly no one. Even John and Jet didn't get a lot of conversation from me, and I slept 10 to 12 hour nights for quite some time.

I feel a little bit like a flat tube of toothpaste.

I'm still not exactly sure why, but given that last year I came up with nearly half a million first draft words, and this year for the first three quarters I still managed to write nearly a quarter million words even with nearly a whole quarter completely off and all the editing needed to get a manuscript published, maybe I have reasons.

( And, as always, it's hardest to cut myself some slack, but I've tried to with ghost shrimp, outdoor movie, and books. )

I've been having an oddly hard time just concentrating lately. Some of it is because the allergy, dry eye, and simple eye infection stuff has come back, but equal in both eyes now, not just the right like last year.

Some of it is that yesterday I went to see Out in the Silence, at our church, with the documentary's creators right there to talk to us, along with a brand-new (2 week old) state-wide initiative to make sure that all the school districts in the state follow through with the new anti-bullying legislation that was passed in the Colorado State legislature this last year. All good things... but some of the real stories just floored me.

If you have a chance, see the movie. It's not unrelentingly depressing, there's funny spots and uplifting bits, too. It's up on Hulu, it's on their site. It's free for anyone to watch that wants to see it. But they like it when you also do the public screening thing, as the main point is to allow regular people a voice to stop the abuse.

( Cut for explicit badness that happened within 20 miles of my town. )

( And now just cut for length for flists. )

The last several days have been pretty insane. Much of it because both John and I were trying to let Jet fit in the very last things he wanted to do before he went back into school. And because Darkprism is coming for a week and a half visit, so I'll be kind of busy for a while.

One of the things Jet really wanted to do was get the last fish for his aquarium, and it turned into a two-pronged attack of sorts.

For some reason I'm just not sleeping the way I want to be sleeping, either, so have just been trying desperately to catch up. On the Friday before last weekend, I was so tired that I was just stumblingly stupid for most of the day. I actually got a parking ticket, almost got run over by someone backing out of a parking slot, and Jet was amazing about getting me back on my emotional equilibrium.

( Cut for pictures, aquarium nomenclature, and results and some good things along the way, including seeing _Cowboys and Aliens_ and reading _Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate_ by Diego Gambetta. )

Jet and I went and watched it today.

John's in Seattle for the week, so I'm a single parent from Monday through Friday, and I'm always amazed and impressed by all single parents during such times. Not that Jet's at all difficult, either, but I find myself really wanting to take advantage of the time I can spend with him and try not to drive him crazy or drive myself crazy. doing it. *laughs*

( Donuts, books, and movies oh my. )

I'm gradually recovering from the last couple of weeks. After doing the Albuquerque trip and the eight hour drive home, I had two days before I left on Wednesday for Pleasanton, CA, and the pleasant company of amberley and my usual social whirlwind with the Horde, plus a nice little Minicon at EndGame in Oakland.

The food was to die for, the hotel suite amberley put me up in was a lovely place, and the gaming was a blast. Of course, when I got home, I immediately got sick (ran a 100 degree temp yesterday and hurt so much all over that I was doubling up on ibuprofen just to feel human again) and am still in the throes of recovering from that, which is why the lack of updates and pictures and things the way I usually do travel logs, so this may be a bit more sparse than my usual adventure logs.

( Review of Let Me In, Mountain View, Santa Cruz, Minicon, and Home again to a 100 degree temp and an odd sort of flu. )