Climbing · the · Third · Stair

From time to time I get curious about what time sunrise and sunset will be occurring, and one of the glories of the internet is that it makes finding this out very easy. I used to use the solar calculator here, but today I found the much niftier one here at the Earth Science Research Lab. The new one is more fun because instead of putting in the coordinates of the place you want the sunrise/sunset times for into little boxes, you drag a little pin around a map of the earth. Also, you can tell it to remember where you put the pin, so you can go back to it later and not have to start over at the beginning. I put the map on Lincoln using a map view that showed eastern Nebraska, and then after cranking up the magnification discovered that I had placed it about four blocks from my apartment. How fun is that? Sunrise calculated not just for my city, but for my zip code. *swoon*

This weekend is the one-year anniversary of my move to my new apartment. It's not exact to the day, but I started to move the day after Thanksgiving last year, so it's good enough. I have decided this means I really need to finish unpacking. (I am so very bad at moving!) To be fair, I'm almost done with getting things out of boxes, it's finding them permanent homes that is the problem. The biggest issue is books, I have more books than bookshelves. I think that one is ultimately solvable--I have an office now, which means I have a place to write and store books--but getting it done when I could be writing or cooking or crocheting or etc is the problem.

I have a bit of incentive now, because I have decided to decorate my place for Christmas. In token of this, I bought myself a poinsettia this week. I may buy myself more, because I love poinsettias and they, like peppermint stick ice cream, are only available one month out of the year. I'd like an amaryllis as well, but that will depend on how my disposable income goes this month. But they are available all winter, so that is not such a problem.

My most recent story has been getting a lot of reaction, a lot of it bad, and it has bugged me more than usual. After finally getting a full night of sleep, I've decided that this was mostly because my day job was really stressful this week and that was hyping all my responses. But I remain irked by the notion that the story was a 'missed moment of awesome'. First off all, the concept smells like something from TVTropes, a website I have rapidly come to loathe. Second, I didn't miss a moment of awesome because I wasn't aiming for it. I do not write awesome. You want awesome, you need to stop reading when you hit my name in the credit line because you will only be disappointed. I've been on the story team for like three years now; shouldn't that be clear to everyone by now?

The sun has risen, my tea is finished: Time for laundry!

My most recent L5R story is up (finally! I was so horribly late with this one): Autumn Chronicles.

From time to time yhlee and helen_keeble make mention of having music lists for stories when they are writing, and for my most recent story I decided to try it.

The list I came up with is probably not optimized, if indeed that concept can be applied to a project like this. The list was assembled from songs I happened to have loaded into my MacBook at the moment, and I didn't go through any of my CDs to see if they had anything appropriate. It was fairly entertaining, and when I do get my music collection in order it might be fun to come up with lists for other stories I've done. I can't really say that it helped me write, but I've had so many problems with this story (and most of them non-writing related!) I'm not sure if that is conclusive.

For the curious, here's the list:
The Chain, Fleetwood Mac
Total Eclipse of the Heart, Bonnie Taylor
Courage (For Hugh MacLennan), The Tragically Hip
Too Good to be True, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Devil Inside, INXS
Silvio, Bob Dylan
The Dark of the Sun, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Three Pistols, The Tragically Hip
Zombie Zoo, Tom Petty
Kick, INXS
Divinity II, Advent Children soundtrack
All the Things She Said She Said, Simple Minds

So I'm finishing up my morning tea and scanning the AEG forums when I notice that the semi-annual dust-up over BoJ is still going on in the Setting subforum. I've been trying to ignore it this time, but (as usual) I can't resist a good train-wreck.

But even knowing what I know, I was kind of taken aback by the post that claimed that the current story team had no respect for the book. I mean, really? Misquoting the Story Team is the L5R community's second favorite pastime, but it's not often that the result is so funny.

(Also, it's not often your default icon is the exact perfect match to a post. More funny.)

For the past few years the bakery has offered dinner rolls in the shape of a bunch of grapes. We call them 'bread sculptures', which is something of an exaggeration given my lack of artistic talent--but I can bake bread, so they come out pretty nice looking. Anyway, this year I was organized enough to make some demo models in advance, so that customers would have an idea what they looked like, and to get photographs on the website. Which means, I can show them to my friends. ~linky!~

I love making them because shaping bread is always so satisfying. Next week will be VERY VERY BUSY, but at least I'll get to make bread!

The times I am most badly in need of a day off are invariably the times when it is completely impossible for me to do so.

I've been thinking that I should post something here, but I'm so tired of thinking and explaining about work and/or being sick, because that's pretty much all I've been able to expend energy on this week.

Happily, LJ has come to my rescue. Go here to the Princess Tutu comm and watch the snippet of video there. It's weird and stylized and (to my mind) quite charming. The creator has some background info there, so I won't bother to repeat it here.

Since seeing it I have been unable to get the song out of my head, but I rather like it so that isn't so bad.

The idea that any character who is unhappy, wrathful, nasty, or in any other way deviates from the Happy Shiny Magical Samurai norm, needs to become a Spider personality--should be taken back behind the barn and shot.

And have its wife and children sold into slavery.

And have its fields salted.

I'm just saying.

I woke up this morning after a dream where I was watching a Disney movie where the heroine (you could tell she was the heroine because she was wearing whites and pastels) had a pick-axe and was twirling around and singing a joyous little ditty about how wonderful it was to beat people to death. I recall watching with some interest and thinking, "I really need to tell yhlee about this!"

Look, I've got a fever, ok? I'm doubly not responsible for my dreams.

Yesterday I was congested, feverish and listless. Today I was all of that, plus suffering coughing spasms that leave me doubled-over and beet red. It's really quite unpleasant. I can't cough anything up because there is nothing to cough up--my lungs are a clear as a bell; it's my sinuses that are triggering it.

The listlessness is also very unpleasant. I've been eating ravioli from a can, without bothering to heat it up, because scraping it out of the can and into a pan, and from there into a bowl, seems like too much work. I tremble to think of what my sodium intake today has been.

I'm hoping that I've hit bottom and will start cycling back up soon. I have stuff I need to do, but I need a brain that isn't braising in its own juices to do it.

Short form: My radio interview had a TN of 20, and I rolled really high.

Somewhat lengthier form: The event went pretty smoothly. I had been a little worried when I woke up yesterday, as I found myself with a slightly sore throat and some nasal congestion. A pot of hot tea and my antihistimine took care of that well enough. I was somewhat nervous when I got there and learned that we would also be accepting call-in questions from listeners, but that did not result in any disasters. In fact, by sheer chance I managed to answer a caller's question before she was even put on the air to ask it. ("It's the ultimate in customer service", I commented.)

Our general manager had had the foresight to bring a radio to the store, so that my staff (and anyone else with a free moment) could listen. The general opinion seems to be that I did a good job--apparently I have a good radio voice and I'm good at explaining things. (The last at least does not surprise me, given that I spent a number of years as a TA in physics. Practice, as they say, makes perfect.)

I'd followed through on my intention to call my parents to let them know, and as a result my mom called me last night to tell me she'd heard me on the radio. She also said I had done a good job, but really what does one expect to hear from one's mother? I don't know yet if Dad heard it--his work may have kept him away from a radio. But we are supposed to get a tape of the show, so if he is interested I can find a way to get him a copy of the tape.

On the down side, my slightly sore throat and congestion of yesterday has blown into heavy congestion and a low fever today. So I am at home, fretting. My staff is really good, but we are still in Grand Opening mode and as a result of the interview I'm now expecting a heavy run on our lemon bars. *fret* At least the lemon bars are easy to make. I really need to get well soon, though. November is a horrible month to get sick in.

I keep forgetting to post this, though I'm not sure why anyone would care--

I'm going to be on a live radio interview program tomorrow. The show is called Judy A La Carte, and it originates on KFOR, a local radio station. I'm even listed on the show's official website, though for some reason they only have my first name. (That might have been a result of our advertising person's mistaken efforts to keep my name off the internet. That ship sailed a long, long time ago.)

Anyway, I'm supposed to talk with Judy about the bakery and baking in general. I'm not too worried because although I am horrifically shy in personal matters I can talk forever if I have a role to play--and Bakery Manager is a role I am very comfortable with.

I suppose I should call my parents tonight and let them know. Parents like knowing things like this.

A few years ago helen_keeble demonstrated the boundless depths of our friendship by writing a an L5R fanfic for me. About exploding possums. Earlier today I discovered that recently Helen herself hadn't been able to find the story because she hadn't tagged it and it was lurking in the dusty corners of her LJ.

As fate would have it, I have it bookmarked because last spring I was trying to find it, and d_silverblade heroically battled the forces of entropy on my behalf. Clearly, the only fit thing to do is to put up a link here, so that other people may benefit from helen_keeble's writing and d_silverblade's heroism.

The series of events that would later be referred to variously as the Season of Teeth (by the Crane), the War of Dire Beasts (by the Lion), or That Thing With The Possums (by everyone else) started, as so many wars do, with a party.

I ended up working late again yesterday.

As part of our grand opening media blitz we had someone from a local radio station doing broadcasts from our store from 4 to 6 pm. I'm normally gone by 3ish (bakers hours, yo!), but I'd decided that someone needed to be there during the radio thing to make sure the sample trays got put out and to give a brief spiel about the bakery on air. As is usual in these cases, 'someone' was me.

My original plan was to put out the sample trays, make sure the shelves looked tidy, talk to the radio person, and take off. As they say, no plan survives contact with the customer base. We were swamped! The lemon bar samples we'd prepped didn't last more than a half-hour so I started chopping up some of the peanut butter cookies we'd baked that afternoon and sampling them. Then I kept circling the grab-and-go case where the cake and lemon bars were stocked. Whenever I saw a customer eyeing the lemon bars (this week's bakery special!) I'd ask if they'd like to try a sample, popped open a container, and offered them one. Then I'd take the remainder back to the kitchen, cut them up into bits and wander the aisles offering them to customers. It was kind of fun, really.

Between my guerrilla sampling efforts, making sure the shelves stayed stocked and orderly, and showing customers where the stevia now was, I was there the whole two hours. I was tired, so tired, but at least I got stuff done. I'm now wondering if I shouldn't switch my hours around a bit so that some days I'm at work later in the day. Sample stands don't fill themselves, and you can't always rely on the manager-on-duty to check them. *ponder*

I am a huge fan of Dante's Inferno, which I first read in high school because of an Uncanny X-man summer special. (Let it never be said that comic books are not educational.) Since I started writing I've been reading and rereading it, trying to tease out lessons from the Master's style. (In much the same way, I guess, that Dante studied Virgil. I'm fairly certain that of the tow of us, Dante is the better student.)

Tonight I felt moved to share one of my favorite passages. It's the section where Virgil is explaining who Dame Fortune is to Dante, and I've included one of Virgil's bit of smack:
( Cut for length, but you really should go and read it )

I had a new L5R story go up on Sunday: Changes. It was supposed to go up on Friday, but to my shame I'm the slowest writer on the team and when I'm under stress (you know, like from impending grand openings) I get even sloooower.

Anyway, aside from that I enjoyed writing it. It had a standard-issue monk in it, and I like writing those kind of monks. I don't have anything against the fire-breathing variety, I just don't find them as interesting.

The mayor was late for the ribbon-cutting ceremony (sigh) but otherwise our Grand Opening got off to a great start. All of the bakery's shelves were loaded. The tray of breakfast-type goodies I had put out for customer snacking/sampling was much appreciated. We had started a large batch of whole wheat bread: it was our big sale item for the weekend and so it was very, very important for us not to run out. We had samples of chocolate cake to go out when the breakfast tray ran out. Everything was great.

About ten I realized that the one batch of whole wheat we had made would not, in fact, be enough and we were in clear danger of running out of bread before the dinner rush. This was not acceptable.

I grabbed our whole wheat recipe and calculated the quantities needed to make a batch 50% larger than our current largest batch. I was tempted to make a batch double the size but I was afraid that our large mixer (a machine that is roughly as tall as I am) wouldn't be up to the load. Later it occurred to me that even if the mixer could handle it we wouldn't have enough oven space to bake all of the resulting loaves. As it turned out even the 150% batch was more than both ovens could handle, but that's what refrigerators are for.

Anyway, having calculated I made the giant-sized batch of whole wheat bread. Twice. I was a little worried that we would run out of bread-pans, but I had contingency plans for that. And we were NOT going to run out of our big sale item on the first day of the store's Grand Opening. Not happening. I didn't care if I had to stay at work until my night crew showed up, we weren't going to run out of bread. I had 500 pounds of whole wheat flour in my backstock and I don't have to be conscious to bake bread.

In the end I only had to work 12 hours. Those weren't continuous hours, either, I had one break for lunch and another break later while the last loaves were cooling. I got everything packaged, dragged myself home, took a long bath and then had dinner. I was exhausted, but the first day Grand Opening as over.

Tomorrow at nine a.m. we will have the ribbon-cutting ceremony that will officially open our new, expanded, remodeled store.

It feels a little unreal to me. We've been talking about expansion for years. We've been planning this one for months. We've been overrun with construction workers since July. But the walls are up and painted, all the new display cases and storage areas are in and the floors have been cleaned and waxed shiny. Today I was going back and forth between the bakery and my display area and there were no construction workers anywhere. It was an odd non-sight.

My bakery is ready. At least, it's as ready as it can be given that one of my day people was sick this week and I have no way of knowing how much bread we are going to sell over the weekend.

As I was leaving this afternoon I stopped to ask our assistant general manager something. Before I left she said, "I think your department is the only one in the store where the staff isn't panicking," she said. That made me feel good, because they shouldn't be panicking. That's a manager responsibility. Also, there is no reason for them to. They know what needs to be done--bake lots of stuff--and they know how to do it. Everything else has been taken care of: our shelves are in place, we have almost enough whole wheat flour to last out the month, and I even got the sign with our bread-baking schedule posted where customers can see it.

At the end of her shift today, Katy asked if there was anything more I needed her to do. "I need you to get a really good night's sleep tonight", I said. Now it's my turn to take that advice.

Because ironhand asked: Yes, we did get snow Friday night/Saturday morning. I awoke somewhat after 7 am to find the heavens in the snow equivalent of a slow drizzle, and as a result spent the next few hours hanging around my living room in my night clothes, drinking tea and goofing off. (No, I cannot explain the connection there. Either it makes sense to your or it doesn't.)

It stopped snowing late morning and by late afternoon most of the clouds had cleared off. Around 90% of the snow vanished in the resulting sunshine. For those of you not familiar with Great Plains weather, this is pretty typical of late fall/early winter weather.

The snow and its allied cold did in my tomatoes and nasturtiums, as well as the volunteer morning glories. The kohlrabi that escaped my notice this past spring is continuing on as if nothing happened, as have my dianthus, the sweet alyssum, lemon balm, sunflowers, chives, and golden marjoram. The marjoram is surprise: I had always thought of it as a tender perennial, but clearly it is somewhat tougher than I expected. If it can hold on a few days longer I might lift it and take it inside.

I dug up the three bell pepper plants, took them inside and potted them up. I pruned them all to varying degrees, since their roots had all taken a beating and I was worried that they might not be able to supply water to all of their leaves. At present the one I pruned the hardest is looking the best, for all that it is now a stick with a few tufts of leaves. The other two were still somewhat droopy yesterday; if they don't look better tomorrow I'll give them another round of pruning. At this point it will be weeks before I get any peppers off of them, but at least I'll have them raring to to next spring. Besides, plants make a place more livable and nightshades are prettier than scheffelaras.

The weather service is predicting snow this Saturday. Snow! Noooo!

Admittedly, snow in early October isn't all that unusual here. But--my garden! My tomatoes! My bell peppers! Especially the peppers, because I have yet to harvest a single one. They had been shaded (and slowed down) by a clump of goldenrod, and I didn't figure out what was going on until August. After I cut the goldenrod down they bloomed like crazy, which means they now all have a dozen bell peppers in various stages of development on them. Just in time for the snow. *sigh*

Having thought it over I have a plan, of sorts. I'm going to let them go until Friday, when I'm going to pick all the larger peppers. Then I'm going to dig up the plants and try to bring them indoors as container plants. There is a good chance they will die from root destruction, but they won't survive the weekend if I leave them so it's not like I'm risking anything.

I'll also have to pick all the tomatoes I can. And then look for recipes for green tomatoes. *cries*

Some days I just hate having to model appropriate behavior.

There's a discussion going on in the story forum about the Shadowlands, and of course Bearers of Jade came up. And at a certain point I was moved to post my opinion on BoJ, which can be summed up as, it had some really neat bits but it left me wondering why the Empire hadn't fallen to the Shadowlands years ago. In reply a couple of people posted, "oh, you're wrong because of X, Y and Z". You know what? I know about X, Y and Z. I'm on the effing Story Team, which does take a certain familiarity with the setting. I still hold my opinion on BoJ. Astonishing, I agree, for a woman to maintain an opinion after being contradicted, but there you have it.

I cannot, however, say any of this in the thread, because that would take the thread off-topic. Deliberately derailing threads is a bad thing, and as I am a moderator I need to avoid bad things. Some days this is. Really. Annoying.