I’m up waiting for Rob to come home although there’s a chance that he won’t be home until tomorrow.

Confused? He was driving back tonight from California, after driving there yesterday to drop off grapes.  He thought he’d make it back by 12:30ish tonight but also thought he might stop and sleep instead. So, I’m waiting up to see if he calls to tell me he’s pulled over for the night.

Meanwhile, to pass the time, I’ve completed a short story, made a peach and apple cobbler, and made vanilla ice cream.  I believe the first two are successful. The third is a little… crunchy.  If I think of it as snow cream then it’s fine.  Note: lowfat milk doesn’t cut it for icecream.

On the other hand, the cobbler really wanted it and… this will tell you a lot about me. I was too lazy to walk back to the store to buy ice cream.  It’s okay. I see the crazy there.

Did I mention I finished a short story?

Edited to add: 12:45. He is home safely. Night all!

To catch you up, Maggie stopped eating again which is troubling since she hadn’t really gained back the weight she’d lost when she was so ill.  Knowing how bad it can be if cats stop eating, I tried force-feeding her this morning and that went exactly as well as you might imagine.  Taking the wiser course, I took her to the vet today.  They can’t find anything wrong with her.

But she wasn’t eating. So they gave her an appetite stimulant and subcutaneous fluids.  Back at home, Maggie kept looking at the food as if she wanted to eat it but was too nauseated to consider doing so. And then, finally, she nibbled.

The problem was that she wanted to be near me and followed me from room to room.  I wanted her to hang out with the food. So I hauled my computer and a chair into the kitchen and camped out there for most of the day.  She ate a little.

The situation is that if she goes the weekend without eating her kidneys will likely begin to shut down.  There are also likely larger issues going on, but at this point the vet says that everything, except irritable bowel syndrome, is untreatable. So we’re treating it as if it’s IBS and hoping for the best.

Maggie is alert and walking without pain, if a little unsteadily.  Really, aside from the loss of appetite there is nothing apparent wrong with her.  I wish I could speak cat so she and I could talk about what was going on.

Edited to add on Friday: She has begun nibbling and had some tuna and kibble today.  Many thanks for the healing vibes.

As small gifts at Christmas, I made homemade Balsamic dark chocolate truffles. This was my first foray into truffle making, so I was surprised by how easy they were to make. They were so easy that I decided to try another recipe from the same site that several reviewers recommended.

Tasty, yes. However, it prompted me to post to twitter, “I am hoping that wrapping the homemade truffles in gold foil will keep them from looking quite so much like turds.”

Why am I writing about it now? Because I need to make another series of small gifts and am strongly considering the truffles. My only problem is that I don’t know where to go for the gold foil in NYC.

Any suggestions?

Yesterday I woke spontaneously at 9:00 a.m., which I did not approve of. I’d had so little sleep the night before, that it just seemed unfair and yet I was wide, wide awake. So fine. I got up, took a shower and eventually wandered out to the farmer’s market with my roomie Heather Lindsley. We acquired breakfast and discussed the relative merits of a theater career track versus a literary one as well as wondering why everyone in Madison ambles instead of actually walking.

The rest of the day seemed to consist of meeting very cool people for food or drinks, interspersed with a nap. I didn’t manage to make it to any panels at all which is a shame because Wiscon has really good ones. I’m going to try to remedy that today. Speaking of which, I should head out and hit the con.

• 11:36 I’m heading to the airport to go to the Nebulas. #
• 13:30 Wacky. I used the new paperless boarding pass on my cellphone and it worked. It’s like living in the future. #
• 14:30 On my plane to LA via Cleveland. The paperless boarding pass was stunningly easy to use. I felt very SF and sophisticated. Toys! #
• 16:49 Heading to L.A. now. It’s a fine, fine opportunity to nap. Too bad I’ll be working instead. #
• 21:54 Just touched down in L.A. I napped AND got my work done. Yes, this was a long flight. #

I had dinner with Doselle Young and Shana Cohen tonight at a very nice restaurant. It’s so nice to go out with other foodies.  I’m now ensconced in a truly gorgeous hotel room and about to collapse in bed. After I finish two or three more things…

I have to say that seeing a vegetable garden go in at the White House makes me really happy.

via The White House – Blog Post – Spring Gardening.

As part of the month of birthday experiences, I threw a Favorite Childhood Food Potluck. The rules were that you could bring the actual item or a grown up rendition of it. It was a tremendous amount of fun, but not clearly thought through. Why? Because everyone’s favorite childhood food was a dessert.  We had an entire table of sweet, sweet desserts.

There were two notable exceptions. Liz Gorinsky made a homemade version of Stouffer’s frozen macaroni and cheese that was a god send in the midst of all that sugar. It vanished very quickly. My favorite visual memory of the evening came after everyone had left and Rob picked the giant serving spoon, scraping the edges of the tin to get out the last of the mac and cheese. The spoon was so oversized that he totally looked like a small child.

The other exception was one of my favorites, shrimp cocktail.  Apparently, when I was very little, I loved it. Mom tells this story about putting away my sweater after some part and discovering, in the pockets, handfuls of shrimp. Upon questioning, I explained that I was saving them for later. Fortunately, I didn’t feel the need to recreate that entire dish: Day Old Shrimp with Finely Shredded Cotton Fibers.

Other favorite foods included Katie Menick’s homemade girlscout cookie Samoas, Fabulous Girl’s Mother’s Lemon Poundcake, Jennifer Jackson’s grandmother’s coffee toffee bars. There were flapjacks, Capri-suns, Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes. Graham Crackers and White frosting, and… somewhere in there a sugar coma set in.

I was a little distracted today but still managed to wrap up a story and edit another. At one point, to keep from checking my email every two minutes, I headed into the kitchen to start cooking and made some Deep, Dark Chocolate cookies. Gluten free, I’ll have you note.

We all trouped out to a matinee of Coraline, which was really enjoyable although there were aspects of the book that I seriously missed.

I’ve now stayed up waaaaay too late, finishing the final touches on Issue 10 of Shimmer. I’m going to print it out in the morning and barring any surprises, we’ll send it to the printer on Monday.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a story that I’d like to start tomorrow.

And today, ladies and gentlemen, I learned that not all to-go cartons are microwave safe.  The container on the left, containing my lunch, and the container on the right began life as the same size.  One minute and thirty seconds later, I had a shrinky-dink.

Today we took it totally easy. We’d had invitations to go to friends homes for Thanksgiving and turned them down because having two whole days with nothing on the schedule seemed much more appealing. I made blueberry walnut muffins for breakfast.

Around mid-day I realized that we basically had apples and some salsa in the house. Maybe a little more than that, but still, it was not presenting any easy menu options so I ventured out to the store. To my surprise, the stores were a) open and b) no more crowded than usual.

For dinner we had lemon rice, seared ahi tuna with black pepper and sesame seeds, and sauteed mixed winter greens with a tea broth. Afterwards we watched Groundhog Day, which Rob had never seen.

There are many things in the world to be thankful for and today, I’m thankful for a chance to be utterly lazy with my husband.

If you didn’t have to be anywhere at all, how would you spend the day?

When we had the Codex Writers’ Retreat we had a cookout one night and on another night we went out to barbecue. I had to explain to some of the guests that the two words were not synonymous. The following song will explain better than I could.

Spotted at Matthew Jarpe, who clearly understands barbecue.

I like this recipe for cookies. What I don’t like is that my oven is running 200 degrees hotter than it should.

See those cookies that look like they are completely burned? That’s how much was left on the pan after I chiseled the rest away. I don’t use the word chisel, hyperbolically.

Nice, huh?

This is mostly so I can find the recipe again. A friend of mine gave me a bag of Thai Iced Tea, which is one of my favorite beverages. I can only have one and early in the day, because I have issues with caffeine, I just made it at home for the first time and it is perfect, perfect I tell you, for beating the heat.

6 cups water
1 cup Thai tea
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cream
6 tablespoons condensed milk

In a kettle, bring the water to a boil. Place the tea in a teapot or glass container. Pour the water over the tea and let steep until bright orange in color, 3 to 5 minutes. Strain into a clean container, such as a pitcher (or, if in tea bags, remove the bags). Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Fill 6 tall glasses with crushed ice and add tea to 3/4 full. Add 1 tablespoon cream and 1 tablespoon condensed milk to each glass.

Our friend Daddi is in town for a big expo and he brought us several packs of our favorite Icelandic treat. Flatkökur are flat cakes, that sort of look like burned crepes. Made with rye flour, they are sooooo tasty and I’ve missed them a lot. There’s nothing comparable here.

My flight was further delayed, but that was just fine. I sat down and this charming gentleman settled into the seat next to mine. I noticed that his reading material was Naomi Mitchison’s Travel Light, from Small Beer Press. Naturally, this merited comment, as it made it almost certain that he was also coming from WisCon.

Indeed. My seatmate was Ron Serdiuk from Pulp Fiction Press out of Australia. We knew so many people in common that it was almost comic that we hadn’t met before. The flight seemed almost too short, so we shared a cab into the city.

I must say, I was not expecting the flight home to be one of the highlights of the trip, but it was.

The next highlight happened at home. My beloved husband had picked up season three of Battlestar Galactica. And Chinese food. Mmm…