Back to work

After I got back from the convention on Monday, I was still on vacation - two days with nothing to do. Except that on Wednesday night, we had dinner at Abigaels with mabfan and gnomi. Dinner was wonderful and a lot of fun - and what else would happen when four rather geeky sf fans who have not had a chance to do this for over a year finally manage dinner together?

We built a tower out of the dessert menus - and Jonathan regrets not making it more house-of-cards-like.

The extra two days off were exactly what I needed. I spent them reading and writing - got at least one story done, and discovered Georgette Heyer, which is something I should have done a long time ago, having already plumbed the joys of Jane, Charlotte and Dorothy.*

Wonderful, charming stories, and while there is a het romance in the center of things, there is much possiblity for slash on the periphery.

But today is Monday and I am back to work. And I nearly walked out the door when I came in - the exposed and rather dull flourescents have been replaced by covered flourescents in the dropped ceiling, with non-functional ceiling fans removed. The white walls have been painted a lovely shade of pale green. There are bulletin boards by every desk. And there are two locked key cases and a new system so we can keep track of the keys, which I think is excellent.

Everything is prettier and brighter and more functional, and I had less work waiting for me than I expected. Oh, I had to call in for supplies and change the toner on the printer and the copier broke down on my watch, but otherwise, it's been a rather smooth return to work, for which I am duly grateful.

*Lois McMaster Bujold dedicated A Civil Campaign to Jane (Austen), Charlotte (Bronte), Dorothy (Sayers) and Georgette (Heyer).

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Things that throw you out of a story:

Reading a PotC story and someone mentioned "sucking out fillings."

Nope. Jack had a mouth full of gold teeth for a reason - no fillings in the early 19th C. A tooth hurt, out it went.

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Tomorrow night begins the period of time called "The Nine Days." Coincidentally, it lasts nine days. Tomorrow night is the New Moon of the month of Av. The Ninth Day of Av, or Tisha B'Av, is one of the two major fast days of the year, which means no food or water for twenty-five hours. While Yom Kippur is solemn but joyful, Tisha B'Av is nothing but painful and bad. It commerorates many things, but primarily the two Destructions of the Temple in Jerusalem, which happened on the same day.

We're in the Three Weeks, which is the three week period leading up to Tisha B'Av, during which we do not have weddings or purchase new clothing (or if we do purchase it because to not is to lose the chance, we do not wear it until after it's all over.) No hair cuts, either. These are minor mourning practices.

During the Nine Days, the mourning gets stronger. We do not wear clean clothes (custom is to wear, piece by piece, the outer clothes for those days, before they begin. Just a second is enough. We kinda rub them on the floor.) or bathe unless we are sensitive. We're sensitive. :) We also do not swim for pleasure, or listen to live music, and there are those who avoid canned as well. Men do not shave. And we do not drink wine or eat meat. All of these rules are suspended for Shabbat, of course. More to the point, they are customs, not rules. Which is why we can get around them by wearing clothes ahead of time, or by calling ourselves sensitive, or by arranging required festive meals or taking advantage of them to eat meat during the Nine Days.

Five years ago, for example, good friends of ours had a baby boy, and his bris happened to take place during the Nine Days. We drove down to Maryland from New York...:) What's funny is that the normal stuff served for britot is dairy - bagels and lox and such.

This, then, is why we had beef for dinner last night, and I'm cooking beef now, and we will try to get a meat eal in before sunset tomorrow night.

And this is the true purpose of this post. Any one have a good technique - not a recipe, just a technique - for vegetable curry? Just for something to serve besides fish and pasta.

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Huh.

I just read The Taste of Life and Unlikely People, both Harry/Neville stories.

And I want more. It's hard to find believable sweet and gentle in the HPverse, but it seems to be here.