the wife

My wife and son are watching THE THREE STOOGES

Standard

I’m a very lucky man.

If I’m writing a post, then by definition it’s not bragging

Standard

The V-Day tradition around here is heart-shaped food, and I have a bunch of little kitchen tchotchkes to make that easier–forms for pancakes and special cake pans and whatever. But no one around here likes cake, and my wife is more likely to ask for pear ginger scones for breakfast than pancakes.

Yeah, this post is mostly about food. Sherwood, you probably want to skip this one.

She got her scones, then left for work. I waved goodbye and hustled into the kitchen and got started on the “real” V-Day food.

I used a french bread recipe that makes a pretty big loaf (7 cups of flour–I have a scale but my recipes are still by volume). I split the dough into thirds and rolled them out flat. Into one third I laid chopped kalamata olives and pesto, the next sun-dried tomatoes, the last fancy parmesan grated fine and diced pepperoni. Then I rolled them back into loaves, braided them together and bent them into a heart shape. That’s what was waiting for her when she got home.

Here’s a picture of her (after a particularly tough day at work): Continue reading

Here’s the Valentine I bought for my wife

Standard

Touching, right?

What do you guys think?

The problem with giving up TV is that you don’t have TV anymore.

Standard

So, I told my wife I needed to do some scanning tonight so I could mail back my galleys tomorrow. Fine, fine, she answered. We had dinner and the boy made me play the Lego Indiana Jones levels he created.

After that, they started putting on their jackets.

“We’re going to the pub on the corner to watch the Olympics.”

“What? You’re leaving?”

“I’m having a milkshake!”

“Well, I don’t know if they have milkshakes there–”

“Mom, they do!”

“But we’re going to watch the opening ceremonies. I don’t know how long we’ll stay.”

They put on their jackets. The boy refused–three times–to change from his shorts into long pants. My wife shrugged, apologized, and said “This will give you a chance to work.” Then they left.

So I’m sitting here in this empty apartment. It’s quiet. Jesus, it’s never quiet around here. I should be relaxing and enjoying the solitude. I love solitude. But the truth is that I already miss them.

First, a great video

Standard

Mightygodking just posted this, saying it’s a couple years old but awesome for those who haven’t seen it before. That includes me, and maybe you:

Some strong language in there, mixed with the whoa!.

Second thing: You know those people at parties who don’t have a TV and make sure they tell as many people as possible? Well, that’s me now. I’ve mentioned this in comments once or twice, but never in an actual post: We can’t watch TV anymore.

It wasn’t planned and we didn’t renounce it in a big dramatic way. My wife rearranged the living room and suddenly the cable didn’t reach. This was… end of October? We were supposed to be upgrading to digital cable (broadcast TV in Seattle is a disaster) but I never bothered to get the box. So we didn’t have anything to watch except the occasional DVD from the library.

And it’s been better. My son falls to sleep easier at night. We all do more reading. I go to bed earlier. It’s surprising how comfortable it is to do without it. Also, I do not make sure to mention it to everyone I meet.

For now, at least. At some point I figure we’ll sign up for satellite TV or something. Until then, we have this DVD-player and Wii screen on the other side of the room, and things are much quieter around here.

Nice place you have here. Buy my book.

Standard

I’d planned to drop a link to this article into a “Randomness” entry for later posting, but actually I want to talk about it.

Click through and check it out, please: Stephen Elliott did an unusual sort of book tour to promote The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murder: he did readings in people’s homes. They were all complete strangers to him, but they agreed to pick him up at the airport and host a party for 20 people, minimun, in which he’d read from and talk about his book. At the end of the party, he slept on their couch.

It sounds like it worked out very well for him, mostly–so well, in fact, that he got himself an article in the New York Times (which I imagine will sell more books than the tour did). Personally, I think it’s a great idea for a non-fiction writer. I don’t think it would work for me.

For one thing, I don’t really like to talk about my book, especially with people who haven’t read it. For another, I’m uncomfortable visiting my friends at their homes. Traveling from one stranger’s house to another, unable to leave, sleeping on their couch… ::shudders:: It would be misery.

His lending library idea is simpler and more doable for me, but less interesting, too.

The reason I bring this up is that my wife attended a slightly unusual book tour event last night: She went to a “Words & Wine” event for Sir Ken Robinson, author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. For $25, she got a copy of the book (signed, ‘natch), a little wine and hors d’oeuvres, a front row seat while the author was interviewed, and a chance to talk to him later. Annoyingly, the interviewer seemed to think the book was about finding yourself or finding happiness, when the author and the audience kept turning it back to its actual subject: education reform.

Still, she had a great time. She also spoke with the woman who ran it, who told her they don’t do sf/f. They tried it once, but the crowd didn’t match the elegant/affluent tone. And that’s fine by me; my wife loves me and liked to promote my work to the people she meets, but she’s a socializer. I’m not. I find the idea of mingling in a hotel reception room with a bunch of strangers much less uncomfortable than doing in a home, but I’d still rather kick back at home with a book.

Me, I’m still doing email interviews. Just yesterday I had a request for another one. ::shrugs:: It’s not exactly revolutionary, but I’m not exactly brimming over with new ideas for meeting new people.

Giftmas

Standard

This Christmas, my wife bought me a Wii Fit Plus and a huge (as in eight inch by five inch tin with a candy bar in it. At first, I was surprised by this. Wouldn’t the “Dark Chocolate Caramel & Sea Salt Bark” counteract the exercise games?

Apparently not, because I’m not the one who was supposed to be eating it. I had, in fact, been saving it, but when I opened it today, all but an inch-and-a-half was gone.

Now, I’ve certainly been guilty of giving people things I wanted. For years I gave books that I wanted to read to my friends, with a polite request to read it when I was done. Hey, I was poor.

But those were books. When you finish a book, you can hand it to a friend. Fancy candy, not so much. My wife, she’s a smart woman. Oh, and it’s really good candy.

Christmas wrap up.

Standard

Get it? “Wrap?” Huh? Huh?

Okay. I’ll tell this one briefly, if I can even manage that any more: The boy received quite a bit of love from Santa this year, mostly in Lego form. My wife received the light-up bicycle safety vest she so subtly hinted at (“Ooo! Check out that guy’s vest! I’ve been seeing those around and they’re awesome!”) although it wasn’t the one I would have preferred. It was, however, the very last one in stock at REI, so I didn’t have a lot of options.

Her surprise gift was a down comforter. Our old one has worn thin and she was waking up in the middle of the night from the cold. The new comforter is fantastic. She sleeps much longer than she used to, and I’m happy to see how well it’s working for it.

Me, I received clothes (I explained to my son that he would know he was an adult when he was happy to get underwear and socks as gifts) and a Wii Fit Plus.

The Wii is actually pretty awesome. The interface is a little bit of a struggle, but that might be on me, not the machine. The exercises (I haven’t tried them all yet) seem like fun. Added bonus: we have to keep the living room organized to use it, which is nice.

The biggest problem is getting a turn with it.

Otherwise it was all quiet time at home with family, and a brief but welcome visit from an old friend. And that’s how I like it.

Three things:

Standard

First: Child of Fire is on the bestseller list for Mysterious Galaxy. Yay! Dear Internet, please bring me more news like that.

Second: My wife had a sleep study appointment tonight. We hired a babysitter, went out to dinner, I dropped her off at the room, then headed out to the bus stop to put my son to bed. Ten minutes before I arrived, at 9:15, my wife called to say the technician had called in sick and the study was cancelled. She had to take two buses home and this is not the first fuck up in scheduling this study.

Third: I forget the third thing. I’m tired. Good night. Oh wait! No I don’t! For dinner, we went to a German pub/restaurant and had spaetzle, fried pickles, a big fresh pretzel with sinus-clearing sweet hot mustard, pork with mushroom sauce, and other delicious things. I had two German beers (Kostritzer, which is a black lager and Radeberger Pils)–typically, I’m not a fan of lagers, pilsners and such, but these were really, really good.

Now I’m tired. Good night.

Some catching up

Standard

This will be a quick rundown, because it’s late and I want to sleep, but I also want to cover some things:

Yesterday, I got two flu shots, seasonal and H1N1. That evening I was coughing and by bedtime I was feverish and shivering. The fever broke around 4:30, and I went back to sleep. Right now I feel mostly okay, but damn, why didn’t I go to bed earlier.

My son had his eighth birthday party today. It went well.

I mailed Man Bites World to my agent. Only 15 minutes in line at the post office! I promised it to her by Giftmas, and she’ll have it. I just wish I’d had time to polish the prose more.

Tomorrow, I’m going to celebrate the mailing by spending a sizable portion of the day reading.

But, while so many of you poor folks were out killing brain cells watching AVATAR, I stayed home with the family to watch HOGFATHER. It’s a flawed show but it’s wonderful, and the end always puts tears in my eyes. My wife absolutely loves it. Go Christmas!

And now I collapse.