Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: snow covering Halloween decorations.

I'm trying out my new keyboard while writing this to you, so that arrived. Hooray!  (It has a very clickety-clack sound that I'm quite enjoying,)

Otherwise, Shawn and I are sitting in our living room wondering just how FEW trick-or-treaters we will get this year. It's VERY cold outside. So far (at 6pm-ish) we've had two sets (one mom and one child each) which is frankly more than I expected. It is literally one degree above the freezing point of water 33F/0.6 C.

Luckily, we always buy the kind of candy WE like, so even if we're stuck with a whole bag of it left over, it won't be a hardship. 

We did a decent amount of house decorating, though not nearly as much as we've done in the past. I will admit that I haven't been in the Halloween mood, which is weird for me because this is by far my favorite of all holidays. (Thanksgiving, which we turned into a Friendsgiving is a close second.) I'm not really sure what's been up with me. Possibly I'm a little affected by the change in seasons. I don't normally get depressed in the dark--in fact, I've been really enjoying the cold, dark rainy days we've been having; they've been great for snuggling in and writing--but perhaps it affected me subconsciously in a way I can't even fathom.

 
Image: Our decorations, two lit pumpkins and several witch banners. I think we look friendly and welcoming. despite the snow.

Perhaps later, when we're sure the last of the kids have come and gone, Shawn and I will do some kind of ritual for Samhain. Even if all we do is light a candle or two, it's nice to mark the turning of the wheel. 

Happy Halloween (and Blessed Samhain) to you all.

Halloween was a crappy day for me, mostly because I spent almost all of it shuttling my various family members to places AND I had to work at the library. I ended up feeling too physically exhausted to carve pumpkins.

Just to give you a recap of all the stupid: In the morning, I had to drop Shawn off at the dentist, come back home and take Mason to school, go BACK to the dentist's to get Shawn, deliver her to work, and get my a$$ all the way out to Shoreview where I worked for four hours, on my feet. Then, immediately after work, I went back to pick up Mason at school and deliver him to his college class, from there, I swung back over to the History Center to get Shawn and take her to her hand PT in downtown, where I sat around and waited in a waiting room. After that, I took her home so she could start handing out candy, went back to get Mason at college, and brought him home. All this, and I forgot to pack my OWN lunch, so I didn't eat for the FIRST TIME until 4:00 pm. No breakfast, and only a handful of chips found in the break room at the library for lunch. NOT VERY SMART, FYI. To say that I was hangry was probably an understatement.

Also? This may be the first time, ever, for me not to have carved pumpkins for Halloween in my entire life. :-(

Halloween is one of my major holidays and I never even dressed up. Mason did, at least, and that cheered me greatly. He feels too old to go out trick-or-treating (which I would argue, but it's up to him,) so he dresses up to hand out candy to the littles who come door-to-door.


Picture: Mason with a zombie mask over his face. His glasses are over the top of the mask making him look like a weird, old man.

He actually mostly wore a devil mask most of the night, but I find this particular mask on him to be kind of hilarious. It was his idea to dress-up in a suit coat, because he's going for the "gentleman monster" look, which I also found amazingly charming. Honest to all the god(desse)s, Mason's whole thing last night was what cheered me up and turned my day around.

The day before, I started trying out some vegan desserts.

As I mentioned previously, we have a contingent of vegans who come for (American) Thanksgiving, a holiday centered around the consumption of MEAT.

To be fair, I personally consider it a holiday to celebrate made-families (to which our vegan friends 150% belong), but, you know, the turkey is still central to many people's conception of Thanksgiving. We long ago discovered vegan roasts for them that I can buy pre-made, so that part is no longer the issue. I also have a number of easy substitutions for many of the sides that I would normally slather in butter, drown in milk, etc. So most of the sides on the table they can eat (without having to be shoved onto a vegan-only table, which, I mean, the point is to make everyone feel welcome...) My French bread is almost vegan to begin with; I just need to not put on the egg wash at the end to make it so.

So... the thing I continue to try to improve every year that they come is the desserts.

Vegan baking is tricky.

You are bereft of most of your leavening (obviously soda and baking powder are still on the table, but eggs are out,) and, of course, chocolate. I did, this year, manage to find vegan chocolate chips. I discovered a recipe for "chocolate and orange vegan crinkle cookies" in a magazine devoted to vegan cooking, which I bought because it was their "holiday special" and promised not only baked goods, but also a vegan egg nog.

On Wednesday night, I tried out the crinkle cookies.

At any rate, I hunted down and assembled all my vegan baking needs:


Picture: all the vegan things in their drab, sad earth-tones.

What I love about the peppermint crinkle cookies that Shawn makes for Christmas is that they're chewy. The top is a little crinkly-crisp (hence the name), but then you get that great "mouth feel" when you bite into them and get all the chocolate-minty goodness that's just so chewy and yummy. It's sensual experience.

I was really hoping that I might be able to duplicate that.

Alas, not so much. I believe the main critique from my family was a very Minnesotan: "They're not bad, but..."

They looked promising all the way through the process. I thought the batter was weirdly fudge-like, but Shawn reassured me that that's how hers are pre-baking.



Picture: very dense, chocolate batter.

I followed the recipe precisely, which is often a thing I'll do the first time I try something, even if, at the time I'm thinking, "Really? That much orange extract??" Because I go under the assumption (possibly a false one) that these things have been taste-tested and perfected in some industrial kitchen and maybe there's something about vegan chocolate that I don't know about that works really well with that much additional orange flavor.

No surprise, my instincts were right. Next time I try these I'm going with a teaspoon less of the orange extract, possibly even reducing it down to just a hint (like a 1/4 teaspoon.) Because, I know from experience that is POWERFUL stuff. One of the other consistent complaints I got from my taste testers (aka my family) was that the orange was "a little weird."

The end result was also less chewy and more granular, which is something I'm not sure quite how to fix. I am considering also trying a little bit of a baking soda/baking powder mix (as offered on a vegan website devoted to "fluffy" baking,) to see if that addition will get the desired consistency. I'm going to freeze all these attempts in separate baggies so that, should they want to play taste tester, too, my guests can try out a sample from each batch. This one is going to be labeled, "too orange-y, cake brownie texture."



Which, you know, isn't terrible. So, I do, at least, consider these a partial success. 

Now the question is, do I subject my family to vegan egg nog, or do we try vegan sugar cookies (which I plan to shape into turkeys, for the IRONY.)

I'm out of coffee in the house again, and I was feeling lazy, a bit down, and very self-indulgent, so I stopped off at my new favorite coffee shop in Downtown St. Paul, Claddaugh. Mary, the owner, and I are casual friends--we've known each other on and off since back when she used to work at my previously favorite coffee shop (before it moved) called Café Amore. At any rate, she asked me how things were, and I started in on a little whine about how I'm still without a contract. The guy standing beside me, who was waiting on his latte, asked me what I write. I told him I wrote science fiction and fantasy novels, which were, until recently, published by Penguin. He gave me a funny look. I figured the conversation was over and then he said, "How would you like to be a content manager for a web designing company?" And I said, "What? Are you offering me a job?" To which, he said, "Well... er, I'm offering you an interview."

I don't know if he was high or utterly charmed by my dog/bear hat or what, but I thought about it for about two seconds and said, "Sure, why not?" and handed him my business card.

I have no idea if anything will come of this, but it was a cool random act of... well, randomness, which I sorely needed this morning. I'm feeling a bit down because I have a sick fish. I haven't even wanted to write about my fish escapades lately because they've been so f*cking depressing. Death, death, with more death sauce. But, I was seriously considering getting out the camera yesterday because I've had one fish who I really thought was going to make it. We NAMED HIM AND EVERYTHING. But, this morning he's listless and kind of sunken to the bottom of the tank....

And, oh my god, it just about killed me, you know?

I mean, I have to say that, for the most part, despite the set backs in my life, I try really hard to remain a chipper and upbeat person. But goddamn fish.

sigh.

I should try not to let this bring me down, but I hate being a bad fish mommy, you know?

But, back to the happier news, Shawn, Mason and I had a wonderful Halloween night. Mason got a decent haul of candy and we went to our usual spot at Sargent Avenue (near Cretin). The next block up decided to get into the spirit, too, so we ended up with twice as many houses to trick-or-treat at. Mason, however, seems to be getting to that age when what REALLY thrills him (beyond the costume) is handing out treats. This used to be my favorite part of the holiday, too, and I felt all warm and nostalgic sitting inside the house last night with Shawn listening to him talk to the little trick-or-treaters on the porch.

Here are a few pictures of the evening festivities:

I went as defeated Renji, because I found this just-a-bit-too-orange wig, but which had the right cut to be down-Renji hair at Party City where we bought Mason's costume:


Mason (as evil jester) and I getting ready to head out:


A close-up of Shawn (as witch) and Mason (still the scary harlequin):


As is typical for our neighborhood, and despite all my house-decorating efforts, we normally only get a dozen or so kids at our door. So, we're also left with a huge bucket full of the candy we bought. But, since this happens every year, we've gotten in the habit of not only buying cheap, but also buying a lot of the stuff we know _we_ like. So, I may eat every Sixlet we bought over the next several days. All I can say is that I'm glad I was weighed and had my cholesterol test LAST week....

I just finished editing my very first podcast!

It's called "Travels in the UnSeen World" and it's in support of my friend and fellow writer Rachel Calish's UnSeen World. The podcast isn't up yet, but it will be very shortly. I'll post here again when it is.

But, at moment? I'm super proud of myself. Everyone told me working with Audacity wasn't hard, but I didn't really believe them. Now I do! It helps that Rachel purchased the podcast a really nice microphone, which we've nicknamed "Magic Mike" for reasons...



Yeah... it's probably one of the more phallic things any of my friends have bought me. Uh... yeah, let's go with that. Anyway, we recorded several interviews that got distilled into the first episode, which is going to be one part interview and one part like, language/Berlitz tape. Our first language? Cuneiform! Rachel happened to know a professor at my alma mater, Augsburg who was willing to record a few "phrases" for us. Our first word of the day? "Like a dragon...."

If you can't tell, I'm still really excited about it. I'll be sure to put up a link when it's all ready to go.

Whoo!

In other news, I finally got to go to the doctor. Shawn's insurance finally covers me, so I went in and took ALL the tests. Also weirdly invigorating. On Wednesday I see an eye doctor too. Next up? Booking the dentist!

We also got our house decorated for Halloween and Mason went to the first (of possibly other) Halloween parties. His friend Soren invited him over and they even did things like BOB FOR APPLES. When I saw pictures of that on Soren's mom's Facebook page I said to Shawn, "OH THANK GOD. Someone else has provided picturesque childhood memories for Mason!" I mean, seriously, isn't bobbing for apples one of those things kids are supposed to experience at least once in their lives? Now we can check that off the "things you never knew you needed to provide as a parent" list.

Right, so here's his costume:



He's a ghoul harlequin. This is an outfit that he found in a catalogue for Party City that he got, for whatever reason, really attached to. It is pretty cool, I must say. Plus, I managed to find a perfect red wig should I decide to cosplay Renji again anytime soon, so even though we drove around forever on Saturday trying to find a Party City, I'd say it was worth it.

Okay, that's all I got for now. More soon!

I'm really sorry that I haven't updated here in a while. Coming out from under the book deadline has been particularly difficult this time around for some reason.

I've got a lot to do today. It's my day to volunteer at Mason's school, recycling, fish tank cleaning day (yes, I still have fish,) and in my writing life I've got a zillion things going on as well. I have a new Precinct 13 book proposal in the works that needs revising (and submitting), a short story that wants writing, and I need to prepare for my SF World Building class/workshop at the Loft on Saturday. Plus, there's a number of things the Loft folks want for advertising for the upcoming on-line class I'll be running in February.

BUT, I would be extremely neglectful if I didn't post a few Halloween pictures! Here's Mason in his monster/devil costume, looking very threatening:



Since I always tag along on his adventures, I threw together a Harry Potter costume:



I have a Slytherin patch on my robe, but could only find a tie in Ravenclaw colors, so I told everyone I was an "evil genius." :-)

As usual we went all out on decorations and pumpkins. Here's some of what we did:









So that was our Halloween. Now I've mostly cleaned up the yard, but the porch is still very decorated. Shawn is off to a business trip to Washington, D.C. today, which means I may either be super inspired to get things done around the house or wallow in lonliness. :-)

I just want to say a quick "hello" before going back to being head down over the keyboard. I'm trying to finish a fist draft of PRECINCT 13 this week so I can get it to beta readers and off to the publisher before we get into the "omg, so OVERDUE" part of the deadline missage.

I'm at a coffee shop this morning, however, because I have to head back up the hill to collect Shawn. She's got a doctor's appointment to get a vitamin B12 shot. This is suppose to be part of the cure for theright-side numbness that she had that sent us to the hospital all those months ago. Our big plan is, if the medicine doesn't make her sick, to have a lunch date afterwards.

We had a busy/not-busy weekend. We didn't have a lot on officially, but we did a lot of yardwork and we got the boxes of Halloween decorations out of the attic and STARTED putting those out/up. Halloween is one of our favorites, and I like to get creative. We built a garbage bag, leaf-stuffed spider for the front yard, and we started a scarecrow "victim" for her web. We're waiting to put up all the cobwebs until we get a new front door.

We've had a broken screen door for years. Part of the reason we haven't replaced it until now is that part of the issue is the when the spring broke, it took out part of the frame. I'm only SO handy and re-building door frames is out of my pay grade. But, we're going to see if Shawn's brother has the skill set. If nothing else, we're going to purchase the new door. We have a handyman on-call if we end up needing to pay someone.

Mason is taking swimming lessons again. He loves swimming, so it's a pleasant way to spend an hour or so on Saturday morning. I've been usuing the time to plot the novel and/or write to my pen pals (though I forgot to address the envelope this morning!)

That's about all the news fit to print. I had a great time on Friday going to the Occupy Minnesota demonstration at the "people's plaza" (formerly the government plaza) with Eleanor. We mostly did what Minnesotans do best -- stood around drinking coffee and chatting amiably. There was a little reading of declarations, but, generally, it was nice to be part of the movement in whatever small way I could. Because a nice woman gave me a sign that her daughter had made (the organize little fish eating the big one), a lot of people took pictures of my sign and I got interviewed by someone doing a "project" who wanted to know why I was there and what I hoped to get out of it. I said that what I'd like to see is more attention given to the middle class's' struggle by the media and politicians, and later Eleanor told me she was glad I answered that because she would have said, "REVOLUTION!"

I've also been enjoying the picture that's been going around Facebook of "Octopi Wall Street" because the day that Eleanor and I were there it was Cephlapod Appreciation Day.

We actually got a lot done this weekend. On Saturday, we headed off to Mason's swimming class, which he continues to excel at -- even though we were almost late thanks to my addiction to coffee. Note: next time get up before everyone else and fetch coffee, or, in a crazy option, make some AT HOME.

We weren't the last ones to class, though, so that was a relief. At any rate, Mason enjoyed splashing around I think he's poised to make more break throughs -- possibly figure out the front stroke (knocking on wood.)

Then we spent the rest of the day finishing up the garden work. I put Mason's veggie garden to bed and cleared out a couple other spots. It's not perfect, but considering how much we should do, we made a good dent in the to-do list. We also raked up the ginormous pile of leaves in/next to which we take our annual fall family picture. My hair is quite long and wonky this year, but I think the picture(s) look pretty good. They'll stack up nicely with all the other, at least.

Sunday was, of course, Halloween. I think though, for Mason, the Dragon Quest at Kuk Sool Wan was a close second in terms of things he was excited about. Our karate (actually kuk sool wan) studio do a kind of maze/challenge thing for the junior members for the school. Mason got to wear his new uniform (gi) and, even though we haven't attended any real classes yet, it seemed to me as an objective observer he wasn't particularly less coordinated, etc., than the others. They set it up as a game, so it's not required that you know much about the martial art, just that you live up to the princples of the thing: respect, teamwork, etc. In fact, I thought Mason was particularly good with teamwork. At one point the kids get "cursed" -- some are without arms (tied to their sides), some are without eyes (blindfolded), and some are melded (tied together) and they have to negotiate a simple obsticle course. The only way to do it successfullly is to work together. Mason had no arms and he was teamed up with a blinded student, and so he had talk the other student through the course. He did really well up to the blocking part. It was hard for him to remember how to describe where the blows would be coming from, but he eventually got it. It was really satisfying to watch, actually. And, compared with some of the others who had been at the school much longer, I thought he did extremely well.

He dressed up as the Grim Reaper/zombie/monster this year. His costume was actually very good. He had a mask, a scythe, and chains that he picked out at Menards. We found a good hoodie to help cover the mask (and keep him warm, an important part of any Halloween adventure in Minnesota), and claws and gloves and a long black robe that was originally meant as a witch dress-up dress given to us at some point by our friends the Jacksons.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.