Monday morning miscellany

Wow. Everything was going so well and then... I forgot to post on Saturday. It was practically the first thing I thought of yesterday and it really pissed me off: I'm out of NaBloPoMo. I was so irritated that I refused to post anything Sunday. Today, though, I feel a sort of zen calm at having let go of one of my month-long obligations. But I still have NaNoWriMo and the Retro Recipe Challenge to accomplish so I'd better not relax too much.

I had lunch with Lucy on Saturday and got to hear first-hand all about her fabulous road trip through South Dakota. (No, "fabulous" in the same sentence with "South Dakota" is not an oxymoron.) She bought me a copy of The Little House Cookbook while on her journey, and I can hardly wait to recreate some of Laura's and Ma's recipes.

Yesterday Sean droppped me off at the library while he did some shopping. This doesn't sound like such a momentous event, except that I haven't patronized a library in over ten years so it was a bit of an outing for me. I'd forgotten how good a library can smell, with the old mixing with the new. I got myself a library card and actually checked out a book, a slim volume on telepathy that I'm using for research for my NaNo novel. Telepathy! I'm telling you, my novel has everything: telepathy, sex, home canning, classroom management, witchcraft, American Girls dolls, and much more. I will need to do some further research for upcoming scenes, including one set in the visiting room of a jail; fortunately, I think I may know some first-hand sources for that topic.

Also yesterday, I saw Little Children. I don't know if this movie is on your radar, but it has been the movie I'm most interested in seeing since it opened a couple weeks ago, and I urge you to catch it. The guy who wrote the novel it's based on also wrote Election, and Little Children has a bit of that story's dry humor. But this new movie has a uniquely unsettling, unpredictable plot and across-the-board stellar performances, particularly one by Kate Winslet. (Can you imagine any other actress willing to admit onscreen that she's larger than a size 2? Kate Winslet, I will love you forever for that.) Jackie Earle Haley, who most folks best remember as bad boy Kelly Leak in the original Bad News Bears movies, appears here after being absent for years from the big screen; his performance as a sexual deviant is both disturbing and heartbreaking.

And last night was a first: I dozed off BEFORE Desperate Housewives started, instead of half an hour in. I think my transformation into cranky old man is complete.