food

Today was allegedly Tuesday

I slept in a little this morning. Yesterday’s heavy lifting tired me out more than I thought.

This afternoon, I drove over to the Massapequa Preserve, mostly because the weather was nice and I’d never been. And I kind of needed to get out of the house. I had a little trouble finding a spot to park — the preserve doesn’t have just one entrance, or a parking lot of its own — but I hiked around a little and took some photographs. I think ultimately I only saw a little of the place, but it was nice to be out and about.

Then this evening, I treated myself to dinner out at a local Japanese seafood buffet. I’m not usually a big fan of sushi, but it’s quite good at this place, lots of variety, and lots of other food to choose from if you don’t like the whole raw fish thing.

And that’s about. I’m watching episodes of The Office now on cable. An exciting vacation, no?

Tuesday various

  • Textbooks Up Their Game. The Wall Street Journal looks at the evolving world of the textbook market and the role that e-book volumes will play in it.

    The iPad does seem better suited to the textbook market than most other e-readers, if only for its versatility. But I can’t see app-ready editions of textbooks having much widespread appeal (beyond the student who already owns an iPad) or impact, unless the price of Apple’s reader and/or the books comes down significantly. Students are unlikely to pay $69.99 (much less $84.99) for a book they can’t re-sell and that, once the iPad stops working or needs to be replaced, is gone too.

  • Daleks voted the greatest sci-fi monsters of all time. It’s a weird list. The original poll was for “Monsters, Supernatural Beings & Fantasy Creatures,” which means picks like Aslan makes more sense — although a CGI lion with the voice of Liam Neeson is a little monstrous, too — but Pilot from Farscape?
  • Real or not, I think I can live without J.D. Salinger’s toilet.
  • Deconstructing the Twikie. Surprisingly, this hasn’t been done by Cockeyed.com. [via]
  • And finally, I’ve really been enjoying Zach Handlen’s Star Trek: The Next Generation recaps:

    It can be difficult to convincingly show love in fiction, because the experience of falling for someone is both highly personal and curiously universal; the details and shared moments are what give the feeling texture, but the rush and elation of it are things that we all share. So you’ve got to find some way to make the small moments appear distinct and honest so that the big moments feel earned.

“F.A.O. my Schwartz!”

Today was a half day at work, thanks to summer hours, so I of course used the opportunity to finally see Toy Story 3 in theaters. I had a voucher for a free movie ticket from a couple of weeks ago when I saw Inception, and the showtime fit with my schedule this afternoon. It’s probably not the best of the three Toy Story movies, but I think it’s arguably the most bittersweet, and it’s really quite lovely. I may have cried just a little.

Beyond that, just your typical Friday. I decided to stop for breakfast at a diner a block from the office (spinach omelet, turkey sausage), and it’s weird how late I felt getting in at nine instead of eight-thirty (or even eight-fifteen), like I do most other mornings. With summer hours, it’s 9 to 1 on Fridays, but it’s incredible how much that one little change to my schedule — I usually eat something light for breakfast, at my desk — discombobulated me for the rest of the short workday.

This evening, my parents and I went out to eat a local Japanese hibachi place.

And that, really, was my Friday.

A quiet Sunday

A quiet Sunday, mostly, spent hanging around the house with the dog and doing the Times crossword. (He’s more into the jumble, actually.) I joined a couple of friends (and a new member, an acquaintance of a friend) for our weekly free-writing group, and I had a couple of photos accepted for inclusion in Small Beer Press’ A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2011. I quite liked this year’s planner, and Gavin Grant recently put out a call for photos, so… And then finally, Kaleidotrope #9 got its first official review. (An unofficial one came in the other day.) It’s always nice to get feedback on an issue, good or bad, but especially when it’s good.

I went for another short walk, had pizza for dinner with my mother, and tried some homemade ice cream from a new local creamery. And that’s about it as far as Sunday goes.

Oh! But that blood drive that I thought was yesterday but wasn’t? It was actually today. Which I knew, because I’d written in my calendar that it was August 1. But I spent a lot of yesterday morning thinking Saturday was the first. But I was quickly disabused of that notion and was at multiple times reminded throughout the day that Sunday was actually the first. But I never made the connection in my brain between the corrected dates and the blood drive. I just happened to be walking past the church where it was being held earlier this evening. Had I eaten anything recently — I skipped lunch — and had it not been winding down anyway, I might have gone in to donate. Maybe next time.

Ah, Friday

First there was work.

Then there was play.

Summer hours are only fun on Fridays, and even then I’m not entirely sure the trade-off is worth it. But there’s definitely something to be said for getting home at two o’clock in the afternoon instead of six or seven o’clock at night.

I’m not sure I used that time too productively. I went and bought milk, and a few other groceries, and I watched this week’s episode of Burn Notice. I very inexpertly trimmed and separated some lamb chops for dinner for me and my mother. (My father had a Boy Scout dinner, welcoming a visiting troop from Westbury (the original one) in England.) I spent an unexpected amount of time cleaning up broken glass when I accidentally knocked a jar of gravy off a shelf in the garage. (I can’t say I’m a fan of the stuff myself, so I wasn’t exactly broken up about it. I just didn’t want our dog to lick up shards of broken glass.)

And that’s about it. Today was a much nicer day than yesterday, still pretty hot but not as oppressively muggy. Word is, this is the hottest July on record in most parts, and I’ll be happy enough to put the humidity behind me.

Now I think a little capping might be in order.