Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

This weekend was one comprised of many small parts - a little work, a little sleep, a little socialization, etc - which makes for, well, a pretty boring weekend wrap-up, actually.

I can say that I attempted to make oven-baked spare ribs for the first time, and they came out quite well. I need to finagle the dry rub a bit to my personal tastes, but the meat was falling-off-the-bone tender and tasty. So there's that.

For now? My cold is gone, the (NY) Giants won yesterday, I got a full night's sleep, and both cats seem lively and with good appetite this morning, without needing to wake me up before 6am to inform me of this fact.

Clearly, the day/week can only go downhill from here. *looks at to-do list* Yep. But for the moment, it is a Most Excellent Monday. Salud!


EtA: and while it has mostly been a very good Monday (see later post) I also seem to be having a mild allergic reaction to something, the way my biochemistry's been wobbling all day. *goes to have another laydown*

And so the Giants win the Superbowl , in yet another omg why do you try to kill us game.  Well-played, fair-won, down to the last second, and can the Pats fans stop bitching now, please?  Your guys didn't play as well.  They lost.  At least your coach had the manners to stick around for the end of the game, this time.

[yeah, I'm not forgiving Belichick for that any time soon.]

Good party from our Most Excellent Hosts, who made up for the fact that they recorded the last minutes of the game (thereby catching me at my foul-mouthed, hyper-tense best) with a bottle of bubbly opened after we finished leaping about and high-fiving each other.

And this morning, waking up to ElderCat having stomach trouble (poor darling) and the usual crap talk from people who bitch about having to hear about the Superbowl for one day, when they natter on about Glee/American Idol/cricket/etc every. single. week.

Ah well.  Today, there is coffee and cornbread for breakfast, then off to lunch with Madame Editor to discuss current book, next book, and Future Plans.  Yeah, some days life really IS that semi-slightly-glamorous.

(after which, I will sit in a coffee shop somewhere and work for several hours, catching up on the writing I DIDN'T do yesterday, due to The Game.  This is exactly when I can't afford to fall off schedule, because it will snowball through the rest of the year, if I do....  )

For those who might be wondering... no I did not have a heart attack, an aneurysm, or sprain anything.

No thanks to the frakkin Giants, who made me suffer for it. Oy.

Guys, brilliant, hard-fought game, you looked mostly-fabulous, but enough with the field goals instead of the touchdowns, ok? Our lives will last longer if you stop doing that.

[on the other hand, way to shut down the Dallas housewarming party. *evil toothy grin*]


EtA: not that the person I said it to will testify, but damnit, when Eli first took the field his freshman year, I said he was going to be a QB in the style of Phil Baby (Simms). Cool, precise under pressure, steady when it gets hot... now if we could lick that time-clock management problem once and for all...

The apartment smells like chili* (gee, I wonder why) the cats are wondering why mom's not at her desk, and I have been informed that I should be rooting for Pittsburgh, as Pitt is still #1 Nephew's front-runner school choice.

I'd rather have had the Giants playing today, natch, but it will be fun to just kick back with friends and watch the game without the accompanying agita. And either way, there will be Stadium Cake! :-) And don't forget the halftime show! *is Bruce-cheerful*


For those about to couch, we raise our beer and chips in salute. The rest of the world, we'll see you on Monday morning.



(and happiest of happies to nycdeb!)



*traditional meat-only, Mexican-influenced, and ranging from "mmm, toasty" to "OMG sour cream now!" hot, depending on how my powder blend came out that year....

I'm too old for this shit. Srsly. Foly huck.

(EtA: fortunately, I am the sort of fan who spends 3 hours shouting and swearing and then doesn't think much about it until the next game. Let the pros worry about stats and whatnot -- I'm just here to have fun.)

As promised, you heard it here first: you can now pre-order Curse the Dark and Bring it On in mass market paperback from Amazon (and so, presumably, your bookstore of choice, as well). If you know you're gonna want it (and you know you will) why not order it now and have it done? My publisher will thank you. (really. they will. Even if I have to drag it out of them. If I see a noticeable jump in pre-order numbers on Amazon, I will drag a representative over here and have them thank you. How'bout that for customer service?))

Also, I can't remember who gave me that stone mortar and pestle, but thank you again! I ground a bunch of spices this morning (I'm making a lamb tagine) and not only does my kitchen smell wonderful now, but my aggravations are mollified. :-)

and now on to the evening's t.v. roundup:

1. Bush's little speech just made me want to dig my heels in further and demand more accountability, not less. I'm contrary that way, yes. When someone I already don't trust tells me to jump Because It's For My Own Good and They Know Best [even though They got us into this], I back away from the ledge. But that's just me.

2. The writers of "Bones" have redeemed themselves considerably. Poor Zack. For a brilliant alien creature, he's such an idiot. But their idea of what a "publisher" looks/dresses/talks like? Okay, let me break it to you gently, guys. Publishers of major houses look, dress, and talk like any other executive of any other corporation. They absolutely don't look/dress/talk like the director of a cheap porn movie from the 1970's. Sorry.

3. You know a show's got it goin' on when you watch the entire show standing up and pacing. Welcome back, Criminal Minds. We missed you.... [although ( for spoilers ) Also, the off-timing because of #1 kept throwing me in terms of pacing the plot. I wasn't sure if they would ( for more spoilers ) I did like the ending. Poor Hotch. Poor Morgan. You idiot.]

3a. I still have trouble seeing my city get beat up. Especially under a terrorist attack scenario. Not any kind of active reaction, but a passive awareness of the fact that it disturbs me. Interesting, to map my progress that way.

4. Letterman was really, really funny (in an "I'm bitter, damn it" way) about McCain canceling on him at the 11th hour. McCain's handlers really should have timed their decision better. Pissing off a national tv host with an office of pretty damn good comedy writers on-call is never a good idea.

5. Plexico, you eeeeediot. [the previous will only make sense to Giants fans]

Spent Sunday afternoon hidden in a downtown bar with a bunch of fellow Giants fans, some early-arriving Jets fans, a few random Redskin fans, and a bunch of very rowdy and enthusiastic Detroit fans who got very very quiet as the game ended. Sorry, guys. But I was rooting against you just because your fight song was so damn annoying. For those of you who don't follow such things -- yeah, the Giants won (41-13).

Mass transit to/from the game: $4
A steak-and-eggs brunch and two pints of Bass -- $35
Being carded by the bouncer: priceless.
Being hit on by a 20-something Jets fan: hysterical.

But now it is Monday, the weekend has been rolled up and put to rest, and I'm back to the desk. And I've realized that trying to balance what the Story needs with the Actual Process of wine-making is making me second-guess the readership for Vineart War. The history/geography/politics/religion I have no trouble messing with -- readers understand second world/sidestep fantasy as not-quite-but-like. But how will people respond to something less malleable -- a scientific process, after all -- as being not-quite-but-like? Especially if they too are fans of the process and the results?

EtA: I'm not (hopefully) talking an infodump, but the details of the process as an ongoing thread within the books)

So, to reduce my headache, I'm actually asking the readership (or you guys, anyway):
[Poll #1259845]

In a different Universe, for those who don't want to wait for their news, there was an update to The Cosa Nostradamus OnLine over the weekend...

Voting? Yeah, there was some of that. There was also a ticker tape parade, and lo I did go to it, despite my well-founded distrust of crowds, and especially sports crowds.

It was a great deal of fun, actually, even allowing for the @sswipes behind us who thought throwing each other around in a crowd would be fun (and then got snitty with the cops who came over and told them to cut it out or get locked up and miss the parade). Yay for it not raining, and yay for getting there early enough to get a spot right up against the barricades! I wasn't quite close enough to reach out and touch the trophy as it went past, but if I'd lunged forward....

( I took some photos, but unless you're a J'nts fan they're probably pretty boring. A sampling... )

Many thanks to Bill E, whose 6'much" ran interference for my 5'few" as the crowd got thicker and rowdier (my calm but heartfelt "if you hit me with that elbow again I'll hit back, and it won't be in the face" seemed to have cowed the youth in question enough so that I remained unmolested after that).

The after-parade was actually more dangerous -- it seemed like every street was blocked off, funneling us all toward City Hall, which was blocked off as well for speeches and whatnot. The cops were trying to be helpful but there was only so much they could do. I got myself back to Riverdale eventually and had a late lunch in my local diner (yay! I have a local diner again!) while working on a client manuscript. Tonight, more work. And thus is the hooky-playing guilt assuaged...

There are few things more amusing at 4:30 in the morning than tossing Boomer a q-tip and watching him do his Mighty Catch-and-Kill thing on it. (actually, this is pretty funny any time of day, but at 4:30 it was particularly distracting, almost distracting enough to make me forget that he was the damn reason I'm awake at this damn hour)

He did let me go back to sleep eventually, and is now sitting in the office window watching the cars go by with an air of absolute innocence. I am pleased to note, however, that he also looks tired. Vengeance is mine!

But this isn't a post about cats. It's simply to note that today is Superbowl Sunday, which means that in a few hours I will be hitting the road for an afternoon/evening of social rowdiness with friends in the name of football, tailgate foods, tailgate liquids, and the end of that gut-clenching nervousness that comes upon me whenever the Giants take the field. Thank god that's...

what? Oh. Right.

The Giants are in the Superbowl this year.

*quiet glee*

And you know what? It would be wonderful if they won, duh. I'd be thrilled. But it almost doesn't matter to me, so long as we get a good, interesting game. A blowout, even if your team is winning, is a bad Superbowl.

Yes, I really do mean that. See, the Giants are my team, yeah. But I love the damn game.

That said? Go Blue!