If you had invoked me before you began this journey,

Well, let's start with 50 Books, shall we? In no particular order:

1) Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper - I then lent it to my dad whose first comment was "I want to buy a cleaver now." I, already being in possession of a cleaver, bought two of her cookbooks, both for
specific regions. Land of Plenty, which is Sichuanese, and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, which is Hunan. There's a bunch of really good stuff in them, and I'm really looking forward to cooking out of it.

2) The Fortune Cookie Chronicles - short, easy, read on take-out Chinese in the US. I'm fairly convinced it's related to an article in the Times a few years ago about the origins of fortune cookies, but damned if I totally know.

3) The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1 - Surprisingly good. I nabbed in on the cheap for the iPhone (Dark Horse is putting out a bunch of trades in such a format) and got sucked in. The James Jean cover art may or may not have been partially responsible.

4) Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightning Thief - I... don't know. I'll probably read the rest, but I don't think it was absolutely wonderful. The characters and the characteristics of their immortal parents were well-done, and the idea was good, but I felt it was... a bit lacking somehow.

The next books sitting on the to-read list are mostly partially-read. Likely, they'll get tossed aside in favor of a history of the Custer Battlefield since 1876 (work reading, title is Striken Field) and You Are Not A Gadget, which I think, based on some skimming, I will both love and hate. Expected reaction shouldn't be as violent as the one to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is one of the few books where I've wanted to kill the writer.




Other than that, I went out to fighter practice tonight. I'm not a newbie, I am uber!noob! But, on the bright side, I practiced some simple things with Bryan and am feeling a bit better with stuff overall. With luck, enough friends will be willing to put up with me poking at them for a bit of time once a week, and all shall be good. Did discover I need to retape my tip though - red on black... not so good for my sight. Definitely need to get in better shape, but this is a good reason.

Also working on cleaning the house, which is a slow process. Translation - getting the library and spare bedroom to actually *be* such things. It's working out though, which is a nice thing. It's also rather overdue. (If you can consider it a few months to be overdue.) In the end, jut happy to be getting the house together and everything settled. After Crown - and btw, we'll be there Saturday and a bit of Sunday - we're going to get the yard in order.

Tomorrow, between work and CSA pickup, my plans involve, quite simply, homework. I feel like I'm running a little behind, but really I know I'm ok. Need to finish something for last week, but I should be alright, I think, as it's kind of not too much.

About the only downside to all of this is that one of my eyes seems to be a bit sore/painful. I actually think it may be a stye, but that doesn't make things any less annoying. Combined with the fact that I spent all morning being very sniffly, it's not been a good day in Willa!health.

Well, school starts today. Currently, am on campus outside the art building. I feel like I should make the comment about how freshmen seem to be getting taller every year.

Bought a bike yesterday, so I can more easily get to school and work. While I'm not drenched in sweat, it's enough that I'm going "yep, out of shape." With luck, this'll help some. It's rather peaceful coming in this way, and i do have a bus pass for those times when the weather is ick. Bike is a nice little all-purpose commuter model in a pretty pale blue. (I'm not going off-road, or anything more serious than errands. And I like it.) Also got a rear mounted rack for it, since I could get them to install it, and will pick up baskets in the near future.

Then we had dad over for dinner and Weeds. *sigh* I do love that show dearly.

Nabbed from llyfreneth

( my xmas stocking )