Bluejays of Zenith

Yay--the next round of kids have arrived. The Nipper, the Redhead, and Raptor got here around four. We chatted and drank some ice water, and then I started work on dinner. I thought I had a ham in the freezer, which would have been an easy fix--just heat it up. But it turned out the ham-shaped thing was actually a lamb roast. Oops. So I had to stick it full of garlic, brown it with onions and carrots, add a cup of red wine, some thyme, and a cup of strong coffee with cream and sugar (that's the Swedish method) and then roast it for a couple of hours. We had some cheese and wine time while it was cooking. I went back to the kitchen after an hour or so and fixed some bitter greens sauteed with onion, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and hoisin. This was an experiment. The greens were actually lettuce from my garden that had bolted and become rather tough. But as greens, it was pretty good, for those who like bitter greens. Also made a big pot of mashed potatoes. The Redhead came out and kept me company while I was cooking.

I was running around the house before that, trying to get all the things done, but not really succeeding. I did get 300 bookplates signed for the Collector's Edition of the ERB novel in which my story is included. The Nonesuch signed them first, as author of the novel, and then somewhat to my surprise, I was expected to sign them too. It's a lot of unpaid labor to painstakingly inscribe one's signature on 300 bookplates! It takes longer than you might think, especially when working with a finicky fountain pen that doesn't take kindly to the coated surface of the bookplate paper. I only spoiled three or four of them. I had to spread them out all over every flat surface to let the ink dry, so it needed to be done before the guests arrived. I was grouching about it, but actually, I felt a creeping sense of happiness and satisfaction at signing my name to something. It's a shared universe and all, but for a fleeting moment, I felt like a real writer. Sigh.