Well, a productive morning -- major revisions on "Interruptions" which I think actually improved the piece (while putting tons more of my RL into it; I think this is one of those 'can't publish till your parents are dead' pieces). We'll see what class and Fiction online workshop say.
Theoretically I'm supposed to be revising Dreams from scratch right now, but am feeling unmotivated. I'll tell you about what I'm reading and watching instead, okay? :-) I finally saw the new version of Little Women yesterday -- they did a superlative job, I thought. I actually cried in spots (okay, that's not so hard to get me to do, but I thought this would be schlocky and it totally wasn't). God, Winona Ryder is gorgeous. Paul claims that she's the current incarnation of the dark-haired goddess, and I don't think I can contradict him (Tori Amos is apparently the red-haired goddesss....he isn't sure there is a current blonde incarnation).
I've been rereading the Earthsea trilogy by Le Guin -- I find children's books relaxing when the rest of my life is stressed, and Le Guin's style can only be a good influence on me. I'm partway through The Farthest Shore right now and have just hit one of my favorite lines: "And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet would I remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content."
Last night Cliff and Thida came over for a late dinner. Made chicken cacciatore from the Fannie Farmer cookbook (convenient because almost all the ingredients are stuff I have around -- we have tomatoes in the backyard, and the rest is onion, garlic, tomato paste, herbs, chicken) with angelhair pasta and breaded portobello mushrooms with a garlic sauce. Ellison, one of my housemates, is a wizard in the kitchen -- I asked him what I should do with the mushrooms and he just rattled off the following:
Dip them in egg white and dredge in seasoned bread crumbs. Set aside until two minutes before serving. Mince a fair bit of garlic, saute in olive oil, cool somewhat, stir in mayonnaise on very low heat. Fry mushrooms briefly in olive oil and serve with garlic mayonnaise. (He even minced the garlic for me)
It was absolutely delicious, even though the mayonnaise separated somewhat, turning it more into a garlicky-oil thing. FF cookbook says one should whisk in a drop of boiling water, over and over, to correct a separated (broken) mayonnaise, which I tried until I got tired, and it worked partway. :-)
Okay, enough procrastinating. I will now ignore the fact that it's a beautiful fall day and get back to work. Really. Maybe if I keep telling myself I love my work, really I do....:-)
--3:10. No, I didn't do any work. Not writing work, anyway. I decided this would be a good time to start throwing together that recipes file I've been meaning to do....definitely still under construction. Did I miss any?