![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
HickoryBark of Celeste
Dec. 19th, 2023 10:37 pmI was unexpectedly perky this morning, up to a point. Perhaps it was because I had to be all ready to go at 8 to get my long-postponed blood labs done. It was the perfect time to be out, because the sun had just come up, and the "Ode to Joy" chorale from Beethoven's 9th was on the car radio. The phlebotomist, a nice woman named Peggy, punctured me on the first try. And then I got home and had tea with the Sparrowhawk before he had to take the car in to have a couple of things fixed. When the lab report came back, everything was normal. My hematocrit is outstanding. My HDL is a little low, and my blood sugar is a tiny bit over 100, but both have been that way for years now and they don't get any worse. So I don't care. Everything else is in the middle of normal. We had a lovely Zoom with Deb and the Prussian--it's been moved to Tuesdays. I ran around doing a few incidental tasks when I had spare time.
The cheer lasted until about 4, when it turned out we weren't getting the car back. Their suspension expert had to go home unexpectedly, so they're keeping the car until tomorrow. This was a setback to both of our moods. I had to tell Madame I wouldn't be able to come and visit with her tomorrow. Which is all very well, but now I'm worried about trying to fit her in somewhere else, and I'm not sure I'll be able to. The car might be ready tomorrow afternoon. Having no car for the best part of two days puts a serious crimp in my plans, such as they were.
On the bright side, we went downstairs after dinner and started putting the Thuma bed together. We got all four interlocking sides put together with the legs. It's like one of those three-D wooden puzzles. We've left the remaining bits--the slats and the headboard--for tomorrow when we get a second wind. It worked pretty well, but I will say that although one person could theoretically do it alone, it was a lot easier for two people to do it together.
In the Rosamunde Pilcher book I mentioned yesterday, there's a moment when the main character, who isn't a professional organizer, tries to make a list of what to do about Christmas. She writes on it "bacon" and "tangerines" and then gives up. That's about where I am in my planning process. She, of course, has been endowed by her author with adjacent characters who love making lists, and also have a fancy car and buckets of money, so they have no problem taking over her Christmas list and manifesting marvels. Whoever is writing my character arc has left the whole thing up to me.
As I was writing that, I remembered joking with the Nonesuch that writing these days is all about having a hook, and if I really wanted to sell books, I'd rewrite "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and just add bacon to every recipe. Then it would be "Mastering the Art of French Cooking WITH BACON." That might well be my breakout book. But now it occurs to me that I was thinking too small. Not just cookbooks, but EVERYTHING. Forget "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." What we need is "Pride and Prejudice AND BACON." "War of the Worlds WITH BACON." "Brave New World OF BACON." I'm just sayin'.
The cheer lasted until about 4, when it turned out we weren't getting the car back. Their suspension expert had to go home unexpectedly, so they're keeping the car until tomorrow. This was a setback to both of our moods. I had to tell Madame I wouldn't be able to come and visit with her tomorrow. Which is all very well, but now I'm worried about trying to fit her in somewhere else, and I'm not sure I'll be able to. The car might be ready tomorrow afternoon. Having no car for the best part of two days puts a serious crimp in my plans, such as they were.
On the bright side, we went downstairs after dinner and started putting the Thuma bed together. We got all four interlocking sides put together with the legs. It's like one of those three-D wooden puzzles. We've left the remaining bits--the slats and the headboard--for tomorrow when we get a second wind. It worked pretty well, but I will say that although one person could theoretically do it alone, it was a lot easier for two people to do it together.
In the Rosamunde Pilcher book I mentioned yesterday, there's a moment when the main character, who isn't a professional organizer, tries to make a list of what to do about Christmas. She writes on it "bacon" and "tangerines" and then gives up. That's about where I am in my planning process. She, of course, has been endowed by her author with adjacent characters who love making lists, and also have a fancy car and buckets of money, so they have no problem taking over her Christmas list and manifesting marvels. Whoever is writing my character arc has left the whole thing up to me.
As I was writing that, I remembered joking with the Nonesuch that writing these days is all about having a hook, and if I really wanted to sell books, I'd rewrite "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and just add bacon to every recipe. Then it would be "Mastering the Art of French Cooking WITH BACON." That might well be my breakout book. But now it occurs to me that I was thinking too small. Not just cookbooks, but EVERYTHING. Forget "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." What we need is "Pride and Prejudice AND BACON." "War of the Worlds WITH BACON." "Brave New World OF BACON." I'm just sayin'.
