It's very strange when you see your writing in person...

Last night, Omaha and I went out on our weekly date. Both of us were exhausted from the endless weeks of working we seem to be putting ourselves through, and we haven't been getting enough exercise, so that exacerbates our exhaustion. We went out to one of our favorite restaurants, The Saffron Grill up in Northgate.

The food was excellent, as always. The waitress was a small woman with a big head, who spoke so quietly she was hard to hear and who didn't seem all that thrilled with her job. But the most interesting thing about her was her eyes.

I've written that the character Wish from the Journal Entries has eyes "shaped like wings, ready to take flight." Like many writers, I had no idea what that meant when I wrote. Now I do. It was partially the make-up, but her very large, broad eyelashes and the outer sweep of her lower eye really did form wing-shapes.

Larry the Tarantula

So, Storm got a Tarantula as a prize at a local political event she and Omaha attended on election night. It's a spiderling Costa Rican Tiger Rump, which is known to be skittish, with a highly irritating but not dangerously venomous bite. And after two days in his little canister, we had to go get Larry food and learn how to care for him properly. Larry is named after a local union operative, make of that what you will.

Storm and I went up to the pet shop, where a woman familiar with tarantulas gave us the skinny, sold us five crickets (a dime a pop, from a big box of hoppy bugs) and sent us merrily on our way.

Larry had been sluggish all day, but when we tossed in an extra half-inch of dirt and five crickets, Larry went to town. Kouryou-chan is terrified of spiders, but even she thought watching Larry pounce on a cricket and suck it dry of precious cricket bodily juices was cool. The three of us watched intently. Storm positively cooed. "He's so cute!"

And now Storm knows how to tell when Larry's hungry: he follows her finger around the side of his cage, hoping for food.

We need a medium-sized fishbowl to start, and then we'll move on to a full-sized terrarium when the spiderling grows to be more than two inches on a side. We did get the foot-long forceps for cleaning out cricket carcasses.

Today's Moral Quandry!

Today's moral quandry: Is it okay to ogle a blind woman?

While Omaha and I were standing at the deli where we got today's lunch, a couple entered the deli through the back door, holding hands. He was one of those very cute European bear-geek types that haunts the cubicle corridors of the Pacific Northwest. Despite his weight he looked like he got out into the sun more than once in a while. She was a well-built, vivacious, pretty, and significantly zaftig Chinese woman, dressed in green slacks and a black, low-cut blouse, with a slightly distant look.

It took me a moment to realize that they weren't just holding hands, but he was leading her. Then I spotted the white cane in her other hand.

I experienced a moment of confusion. Is that okay? I mean, it's not like she can ogle back. Does she know how much consternation she's causing, showing that much cleavage? Surely he would tell her, right?

(PS: The use of the "gaze" in your responses will be cheerfully ignored.)

Polenta Casserole!

So, without having much around the house, I decided to make polenta casserole. This is basically three layers: one layer of polenta, about 3/4" deep, one layer of my home made meat sauce, and a thin crust of mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake for fifteen minutes, until the crust is melty and a little browned.

Well, I thought it was delicious. The rest of the family, not so much. My Italianness must have been showing through. I was very disappointed, though, because I was hoping they'd like it more than that.

Ah well, more leftovers for me.

Dialogue, with punch line

Omaha said, "So, you can't post pictures?"

I said, "Not to your Facebook business page, no."

"But you can post links?"

"Sure. Right there."

Lisakit said, "Can you post links to pictures?"

"Sure," I said. "I can even post this, too."

"What's that?" Omaha asked.

( Punchline, if you haven't figured it out already. )

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p.s. The link is safe for work. Probably not safe for diabetics, though.

[edit: Darnit, that linked worked for me; guess I still had permissions. I've fixed it.]