finally, a useful meeting!

On Thursday night I went to my first writer's group meeting. It was very useful and I'm glad I went. The guy who ran my sub-group is known for being sort of mean. I was really glad. He gave me a good reality check about my book, and some great advice. I'm going again 4 November.

In fact, I was so excited that after the meeting I came home and worked on my book for 3 hours. I haven't finished my last chapter but that's okay because I did a major revision of my prologue, first chapter, and my proposal. Today I did research on competitive books. Tomorrow is writing day!!!! I got a hopefully useful book called "Naked, Drunk, and Writing". I do write naked in the summer, but it's too cold to do that now.

I managed to get all of my errands done today too, including removing all of my outside vent covers and putting in insulation (what a fucking pain in the ass). Then I climbed up on my roof to winterize my swamp cooler and almost fell getting down because the old divider wall I climb to get up on the roof was about a foot taller than the new one. I did a pretty impressive iron cross trying to lower my foot down to the divider. Ech.

And, I watched two disturbing movies: Benny's Videos and Funny Games. Fucked up.

that's what's up doc

I went to the doctor's today because my friend Camile made me. I don't have strep throat but I have a sinus infection. Antibiotics to follow.

I was also told that I need to gain weight, and that I have scoliosis (discovered when she was checking my lungs - ha! I don't have bad posture, it's a genetic defect). For the record, my lungs are in great shape and my doctor can't believe I smoke. So, smokers out there, if you can't quit take up running. It seems to offset emphysema, which I should have, but don't. Or at least go for a brisk walk. You guys should be doing that anyway.

I also had to get a test to see if I have anemia because I don't eat enough meat. I did, however, eat some of that meat thing I made yesterday (even though it was a little crispy, it wasn't bad - it wasn't horrible - it was edible). I also accidentally forgot about the spaghetti squash I was cooking in the oven and over cooked it for an hour. That was also still edible. Last night I put half of it on my salad. Tonight I think I'll mix it in with some mashed potatoes and see how that tastes. Those fuckers are really hard to aerate (you have to put holes in them before you cook them because they explode).

I forgot about my squash because a guy came by to measure my back doors, and we started talking, and it was only when I was emailing Cam that I remembered the damn thing. I'm replacing the doors with full view doors so I can have even more light in my house. Psyched to get my new doors!!!!! They are energy efficient, and metal, and will be so much better than the crappy wooden doors I have now which are falling apart.

perverted canadians

And, BTW, what's up with THIS??????


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_re_ca/cn_canada_commander_slayings

"Many of the pictures showed a serious-looking Williams masturbating in or with the stolen lingerie. In one picture, he appears to be wearing his military uniform with his trousers dropped to expose pink panties."

Does it surprise me that he was in Dubai? No. I told you everyone over there is fucked up:

"Williams, a 23-year military veteran, has never been in combat but has been stationed across Canada and internationally, including a stint in 2006 as commanding officer of Camp Mirage, the secretive Canadian Forces base widely reported to be near Dubai."

with apologies, and a word on my meat mallet

I've been getting some complaints for not writing lately. My excuse is that I've been sick, so sick, in fact, that I am actually going to see a doctor (I know, shocking). I've lost my voice and can't really talk (and someone should chime in "you say that like it's a bad thing").

In the mean time, I've also managed to not write the last chapter of my book. But, I did sign up for a writer's group in Denver today. We meet on Thursday night. Should be interesting.

And, I'm cooking some more stuff. Today I went to buy a flank steak (I haven't been grocery shopping for 4 weeks) to make this new recipe thing I found, but they didn't have anything called flank steak in the meat place. So I got this other thing called a brisket, which looked like the same thing as a flank steak according to the recipe pictures. Stupid meat. Why do they have to make it so complicated?

Anyway, I pounded the shit out of the brisket thing and then tried to put it in my slow cooker but it got so flattened out that I had to cut it up so it would fit (amazing how much meat spaces out when you flatten it, reminds me of flattening relational database tables, but, that's more useful because then you can do complex queries without crashing the server because you put in a bad outer join - why am I talking about that - I don't know either). Then I doused it with this dressing thing I made. It could be the worst meat ever. We'll see.

One other recipe thing I did wrong was it said to sear the meat. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds hard. That's why I decided to mash the brisket with my meat mallet. Hopefully searing and smashing create the same end product.

Tomorrow, the book will be done. TOMORROW!!!!