There was polenta last night. There almost wasn’t, as I couldn’t locate my special recipe. Then I remembered that I’d published it in my last book, so into my office I went, pulled down my reading copy, and made my polenta. I used fresh lemon thyme from the garden, which made it extremely lemony — too lemony, actually — and the sharpest cheese I had on hand was old cheddar, so it wasn’t exactly what I’d been craving. But I fried two squares up today for lunch and they were better fried than fresh, as frying gave them a nice smoky flavour.

We had huge rare barbecued steaks and roast potatoes with it last night, and it was all delicious.

This weekend I also made a cake for the double birthday bash of Pdaughter and Sandman7, which was well received, and I enjoyed the associated party that we were both able to attend thanks to Blade agreeing to occupy our living room as the Designated Responsible Adult On Site. Sunday we finally went and got supplies so HRH can build me more shelves in my office cupboard (because one can only stack things so high on the ground and single shelf midway up). I’m currently in the throes of ‘must change office NOW’, and the plan is to box a lot of the current stuff in there (mostly teaching stuff in binders, etcetera) and store them downstairs, as they’re not currently needed (nor in the foreseeable future). Then with two new shelves in the closet, I can get most of what’s on the corner bookcase in there and perhaps eliminate the bookcase entirely, or at least reduce things enough that I can replace it with a half-size one, which will open the room up a lot more.

We had a lot of fun with the boy this weekend, watching him chase pigeons and laugh at ducks and run around the backyard. He had a three-hour nap both days. I’m guessing there’s a growth spurt happening.

This morning I at last figured out how to get the damned printer to handle duplex printing. And my in-box this morning held an advance view of Lu’s new collage series that she mentioned last week. I’m so excited; I can’t wait to see how the series evolves. I suspect I’ll end up commissioning a large diptych for my office wall.