Are y’all still out…

Are y'all still out there? :-( I haven't heard a peep from you guys in weeks...I could have sworn there were about a hundred of you last I counted. Maybe you don't love me anymore.

Well, my local friends seem to like me anyway. Dinner went beautifully last night, though my dining room and kitchen are a disaster today. I'll get to cleaning them at some point. S'okay -- the food was good, which is what matters. I ended up making Sri Lankan fish croquettes for appetizers (deep-fried), which turned out to be really yummy with a dry fume blanc to start. They did kind of fall apart while frying, for the most part, but they tasted just as good as if they'd stayed perfectly round. :-) The beans were too spicy, but everything else worked really well, I think.

Right now I'm busy re-reading Kay's Lions of Al-Rassan -- Chris (of SH) and I are doing a joint review of his latest duology, and we want to review his earlier work briefly in the process (because we're both rabid Kay fans and are looking forward to spending time babbling about his books), and Chris hasn't read that one, so I need to be sure I remember it well so I can talk about it. I do love Kay. On page 66 he had me sobbing this morning. 66! That's barely enough time to say hello to the characters, much less fall in love with them. But he did it.

I think the goals for today are as follows:

• Keep reading Kay
• Read one critical essay
• Write one critical response
• Clear desk

There, that's not so bad, huh? I'm trying to pare down my ambitions a bit. Otherwise I get panicky that I'm not getting as much done as I said I was going to.

12:30. Well, about halfway through Kay, and my dining room is clean. We progress, if slowly. I'm really enjoying reading today, though. It's chilly, so I've turned on the heat and lighted candles. I'm still in my flannel pyjamas. The candles are lovely, especially my new one -- I bought a big orange pillar, and a wrought iron stand. I've been lusting after those forever, and when I saw one on major sale yesterday, I didn't even try to resist. It's so gorgeous; my living room feels medieval now just from that.

I've definitely been spending a little more than I should lately; I've been buying stuff for the house, making it even more homey. I realized why, yesterday -- I miss Kevin. And if I can't be with him right now, if I can't watch tv with him, or fall asleep in his arms...then my house needs to be really comfortable and beautiful and warm, so I can at least be a little happy in it. It works pretty well...I go hours, sometimes, without missing him. I suppose that's the best we can hope for right now.