Category Archives: Food

From the Wilds of Southern Ontario

So here I am in lovely Oakville, enjoying moderate temperatures which force me inside at about five-thirty PM because it’s too chilly. I also have to put socks on inside because the tile floor is too cold.

I ain’t complaining. Love it.

Those who are familiar with my mum’s culinary abilities will sigh when I tell you that I’ve already had mussels, grilled salmon marinated in maple syrup and orange juice, baby spinach and mushroom salad with a wonderful cream dressing, almond pound cake, those fabulous Spice Cookies Which Emphatically Fail to Suck, and last night’s delicate bolognese sauce on pasta. Plus my dad’s homemade Sauvignon Blanc.

It’s good to be fed by the parental units. Oh, yes. And I’ve only been here a day and a half.

I’ve also already read two books, a pile of magazines, visited old family friends, and dropped two rings off to be sized. Today, all three of us are going to see Shrek 2, because taking your thirty-three year old child to an animated feature still counts.

Those Who Know

Thanks to a meeting last night, everyone’s back on an even keel, on the same page, and there were even visual aids provided by HRH, who sketched neat little cars and drew people inside them as we worked out transportation to our annual spiritual retreat down in Pennsylvania.

Oh, and the Second Cup’s frozen hot chocolate? Delectable. You can actually taste real chocolate. I might skip the whipped cream on top next time, although after drinking the rest of the deliciousness the whipped cream ended up at the bottom, flavoured with the remaining chocolate. I’ll have to be in a decadent mood to order the whipped cream again. The drink itself, though — a definite winner. And what do you know, there’s a Second Cup only ten minutes away from me…

Autumn, the Human Barometer

Over the past twenty-four hours I have been driven slowly mad by the changing air pressure as mirrored by my sinus cavities.

Dear gods, yes — the pressure outside changes as the mini-fronts come through, an ice-pick suddenly appears digging deep into my cranium from one of the many lovely little sinus chambers. I often don’t realise it until I find myself attempting to curl my fingers through my skin and into said sinus cavity to release the pressure. Yesterday, I moved inside and outside my in-laws’ house a dozen times seeking relief as the pressure subtly shifted by a kPa or two.

They grilled shrimp for my birthday. Wasn’t that a wonderful treat? And they gave me a lovely leatherbound blank book, with a nifty red owl bookmark that will travel with me to Toronto later this week.

My newfound need for naps illustrates how miserable sleeping at night in Montreal has become, now that it’s summer again. HRH put the air conditioner in, but I still seem to sleep better in the afternoons. I also attribute my odd need to sleep so much to a reflection of how mentally exhausted I am after producing a polished book in ten weeks.

I’ve read two books since I finished the manuscript: Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ancestors of Avalon by Diana Paxson (which was only so-so; I should have waited for the trade paperback), and The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (which was absolutely marvellous magical realism). I’m halfway through Rebecca Wells’ Little Altars Everywhere at the moment, which is possibly even better than Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (although equally disturbing in places). Today I’ll finish two book reviews and send them off to the magazine for which I write them.

Words for thought, from t!‘s interview with the Suffix9 zine:
“Regrets are for people who don’t understand their present beauty.”

Oops

Damn it.

I forgot to eat again.

I’ve really been trying hard to keep to a regular schedule of food intake, and I’ve been so good for so long! Only now, after the shakes and dull headache have set in, do I realise that the last time I ate was around seven last evening. And it was a light meal, too.

Huzzah for bruschetta, mozzarella, and fresh bread!

Book Update

Today’s word count: 4,423
Total word count: 56,889

I’m spent. I had crazy dreams of hitting 58K today, but that would mean almost a 6K day, and frankly I think I’d be useless for days if I did that. I’m so close to 57K, but I’ve been pushing, and pushing, and pushing for so long today that if I push any more something will break. Possibly something valuable like crystal.

I should go get a Haagen-Daaz ice cream bar. That will help.

It’s Thursday

Yesterday was an Eeyore kind of day. Nothing seemed very exciting, things were a bit gloomy, and the progress I made on the manuscript was much less than I’d hoped it to be. Part of that was my own stupidity; I opened the file with the complete text to look at something and a single chapter file as well, and forgot which one I was working on, so I ended up writing new material in both. I then took an hour comparing the two screen by screen to standardize them. I now have a twofold new strategy: (a) only open one file at a time (duh), and (b) all new typing will be done in a red font. That way new stuff shows up very clearly, no matter where it is.

Ceri started a new novel yesterday in my presence. She also brought coffee and chocolate croissants with her, which was terribly generous for someone who intended to take the new-novel-plunge. She wrote over 1300 words, which beats some of her NaNo 2003 days hands-down. (It also beat my word count yesterday, but she consoled me by pointing out that I was doing research and editing too. Editing that could have been avoided, of course, if I hadn’t lost track of where I was working. I just can’t believe my stupidity. Anywhats.)

I went out to one of the local pubs with a friend late yesterday afternoon, where we talked about religion, compared the Anglican and Catholic churches, mused about the basic beauty of the Christian faith and mourned the bureaucracy that has crushed the original teachings, and talked about the sex of God vs the gender of Christ (very, very interesting). We were marginally hit upon by the two gentlemen sitting two tables over, which made us both raise our eyebrows and smirk a bit at one another – she’s been married almost four years, I’ve been married almost five. It’s good for the ego. We had two rounds plus some nachos to nibble, and when we finally left I thought it was eight-thirty. Turns out it was nine-thirty (eep!), which meant that HRH was trying manfully to rein in his raging instinct to call out the troops to search for my broken and bleeding body in a ditch somewhere, and her husband had been waiting at his place of employment to be picked up for an hour. Oops. See, God is just so fascinating; this is what happens when I talk about religion and drink cider at the same time.

I wanted to go downtown today and wander through secondhand bookstores, but I feel so guilty about not accomplishing very much yesterday that I’m staying home.

Did I mention I’m over halfway done this book? I’m trying to be impressed, but all I can see is the half not done and due on July 1.

The Secret History of Fanta

Well, this is disturbing:

Coca-Cola GmbH (Ed. note: this is the German division of the multi-national corporation)

All those hippies on a hill teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony always did strike me to be a bit sinister. It turns out Coca-Cola’s swastika connection is not limited to the Robowaru incident. Coca Cola GmbH sponsored the Nazi Olympics of 1936 (and I am looking at you Beijing 2008) and only had its syrup supplies cut off upon the belated American entry into WWII. The company turned around and invented Fanta as the replacement Nazi soft drink. Who knew? An exhibition seeks to recreate Coke ads of the period that are inexplicably difficult to track down.

Coke advertised in the Nazi Army paper shortly after the invasion of Sudetenland, the ad was a picture of a hand holding a bottle of coke over a map of the world, the slogan was “Yes we have got an international reputation.”

(Found over at Ghost of a flea.)

Gives a whole new meaning to the idea of being in a position to teach the whole world anything. Brrr.