Yes, it has been a while.

I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks, making it difficult to even consider making an entry here in my journal. What follows is a somewhat perfunctory laundry list of what’s kept me from doing so for the past week and a half. Since I last posted I…

…put up more panels of Dicebox.
No, nothing new since November 26th. I’m working on it, though.

…watched Triumph of Love with Christopher and Kip.Giddy good fun—and Mira Sorvino is hot.

…did a good deal of yard work. Preparing for winter—weeding, cutting back, mulching, raking as well as planting iris bulbs that were a gift from a neighbor. In addition, Kip and I planted a Montmorency Cherry tree as well as moved our pomegranate shrub/tree over to a new location in the yard—Kip had determined that its previous location would interfere with our future deck. Granted, we won’t probably
be building said deck for a couple of years, but best to move the pomegranate now when it’s young and somewhat dormant. Hopefully it will survive the ordeal, we’ll see come spring.

…met Amy,
Aaron and Roberta for drinks and sweet potato fries at Chez What.

…went to Melina and Caufeld’s open house.The impressive part was that they had just moved in that morning.

…did much cleaning. Before and after contractors, before and after Thanksgiving, before and after home repair…

… received the new Ricky Jay book, Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck as a gift from Lori Matsumoto, curator of the Museum of Jurrasic Technology.

…got a haircut.

… saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with Barry.Which was, as Barry pointed out, not much more than an expensive but beautiful accompanying illustration to the book. I do suspect I would have been absolutely lost without having read the book in the first place.

Actually the highlight of the excursion for me was seeing all the Shriners at the Mall, complete with rhinestone-strewn fezes.

…finished Summerland
by Michael Chabon

…also finished Joan of Arc by Marina Warner. Only took me, what? four months? While that is not unusual for a non-fiction book (that will often get interrupted with a somewhat lighter books) it is unusual for a Marina Warner book. I more commonly find her writing very engaging and will generally finish one of her books in a week.

I’m actually pleased to hear she has a new one that sounds good: Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds. Though I’ll probably try]to ignore its existence as I have about a dozen books waiting to be read, some of them presents from last Christmas. (It helps I can’t afford]it right now.)

… worked on a logomark based on a giant squid’s desire to conquer the world.

…stayed out of the electricians’ way as they cleaned up the nonsense of a house that has been a rental for over 60 years. Including removing a circuit breaker box that has been recalled by the manufacturer. Which thankfully we don’t need anymore since they removed all the wall heaters that were attached to it. Said wall heaters dated from the ’40s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. We never turned them on and as of a month ago, we now have forced-air heat from our gas furnace upstairs (ahhh…) …went shopping.

Mostly in preparation for Thanksgiving, but also a couple of home repair runs.…got caught up on my email correspondence.… had Thanksgiving. Which oddly ended up at our house. Odd, because it wasn’t technically our shing-ding. You see, my co-worker, Hilary the Destroyer, had decided to take it upon herself to hold Thanksgiving for those who wouldn’t be going to some homestead or another and I guess this included Kip and I. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, she realized she wanted to invite more people than she could possibly hold in her tiny one-bedroom apartment.So she asked if she could hold it at our house. And since the electricians still had to complete some work in the flat downstairs, making it difficult to rent out just yet, we agreed, and invited some of our own guests.In fact, Kip rose to the occasion, trying to outdo the number of dishes Hilary was to prepare. But I have asked Kip in the future to treat an extensive menu much as one ought to treat jewelry—lay out all that you plan to wear (or cook) and then remove one. (Maybe two.)

Myself, I made Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole, Ginger Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry and Orange Relish with Ginger, and Autumn Gold Soup, the last being from one of my all time favorite cookbooks, Sundays at the Moosewood (I often make the Mushroom Pie).

A whopping eleven people attended, who all seemed to have a good time and were angels in cleaning up.

…had a few evening meetings planning said Thanksgiving.

…reorganized all our kitchen cabinets with Kip. Nothing like using almost all your plates, pots and utensils to realize you now have the perfect opportunity to totally clean out the remaining things, clean the cabinets, install new shelves, put down new shelf liner and make things generally more useful.

…did wall repair.

…painted a bathroom.

…worked on my entry for the the upcoming group show at Pushdot
Studio.

As the emphasis is digital art, it gave me the perfect opportunity to indulge in a photo collage in Photoshop.

As I was planning it out, assembling imagery and the rest, I came to the conclusion that what I was doing was one picture of a series of four. When I complete the series, I will finally begin the Art section of this site and put them there along with a few other things.

In the meantime, the one I am submitting, Hecate, can be seen here.
… commenced another round of wine making with Becca.

Disregarding previous setbacks, and never minding our first batch of pear wine isn’t done yet, we decided to charge on ahead and start a batch of apple wine. Becca records our previous flounderings here—she neglected to mention that we started with a recipe meant for one gallon when we really wanted three. We did supplement with sugar water as recommended, and then added much lemon juice to raise the acid level. So, really, we have a pear lemon-wine in the making.It did all go quite a bit smoother this time—beyond not doing things for the first time and being better prepared for making three gallons. And the activity of the yeast did indeed pop the lid of our bucket, hooray!

…had a post Thanksgiving dinner with John and Becca, sharing leftovers and watching Cowboy Bebop.

And of course there was the day job and all the little things that comprise life.

So, I’m off to draw and maybe hang a couple of doors later. I will try to be a bit more clever next time.

In the meantime, Kip has resurrected Long story; short pier.