On Cheese, Coffee, and the Written Word

Under grey clouds gravid with rain, Jeanine and I went to the farmer's market today. Last week, we picked up some great pepper sauce and some ghost pepper salt (which I now put on nearly everything), plus some gluten free pizzas and coffee beans. Just the essentials.

This week, it was the cheese curd that called our names. Plus more coffee beans, although only I could hear them. Jeanine is deaf to the cries of coffee.

We stopped in at the book store so I could pick up some Alastair Reynolds novels. I was feeling good about having saved money and space by accepting the loan of a big bag of books and DVDs from a friend (now more than a year ago), but he's a friend with excellent taste, leaving me wanting more on all fronts, so most of my recent book and DVD purchases have been directly inspired by the contents of this particular bag.

There was a book signing in progress at the store, and I recognized the book as one I'd impulse-bought a few weeks ago. It's a book about a book store, so it appealed to me to see a writer of a book about book stores sitting in a book store with a smile on his face and a pen in his hand. His name is Robin Sloan, and his book (his only one to date, I believe) is entitled Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. As soon as I finish reading all of the books I've borrowed, I'll crack its cover and get started. It's not a signed copy though, because I bought it on the wrong day.

Speaking of writing, I just dusted off and threw a new coat of imaginary paint on one of my other blogs. It's completely fictional, and hasn't actually been updated in around a decade, and when I peeked at it today I found that most of the posts had dropped off some virtual cliff into the unreachable darkness of nowhere-land. I updated the template and republished them. Since it's a story written in blog style, it must be read back to front, starting with the oldest post and working forward. Annoying, isn't it? Perhaps I'll start updating it again. Or maybe not. Check it out here.

Jeanine just walked through the house holding both chickens. There was a whole lot of flapping going on.