(no subject)
Yesterday, I got paid my entire salary backlog. I'm very very happy.
We did eat two meals out yesterday to, I suppose, celebrate our (temporary?) return to financial solvency; but today it's back to the eating-at-home grind. I'm trying to become a better cook, but between the two of us we eat so few of the same things. I'll eat just about anything as long as there's no discernible mayonnaise and no bananas at all. He's more picky: no crunchy, no raw, no gratuitous vegetables, there must be meat, etc. So it's a challenge sometimes, and we get into a rut. We eat spaghetti about once a week, tacos, chili, stroganoff, and generally something with chicken thighs. That's really not much variety at the end of the day. So, armed with Alton Brown, The Joy of Cooking, and The Gourmet Cookbook hopefully we can get out of this rut and branch out some. I want to learn to make really good pot roast. I'm just too chicken to try it b/c it seems complicated and like I could wind up with a really disgusting result. Wish me luck. :)
Yesterday, while we were eating lunch at Char--which was great, by the way, I ran into my old boss, the owner of the other jewelry store. He was very nice but vague and didn't ask me what I was up to, which says to me that he knows where I am and that I'm working for Brian. It's a small town, and B has not been shy about throwing their name around. He is older than I am and doesn't care if he burns bridges, but I do. I was kind of hoping to keep everything at least superficially civil. I hated it while I was there; but now that I don't work for them, I don't really wish them any ill will. I just wish I didn't ever have to see any of them unexpectedly. I've got to stop looking over my shoulder for them every time I leave the house, though. It's exhausting, and I didn't do anything wrong. Hopefully this encounter will presage a return to my living a little a less 'fraidy-cat-like life around here.
I am really settling in to the new jewelry store. It's a good atmosphere, and B is a great boss. He sends me out often to run errands, which I ADORE. If we get more customers, we will stay in business; but if we have more customers there will be LOADS more to do and less time to run errands and gallivant. So it's sort of a business Catch-22. Bottom line: We need customers. Not just for diamonds or new stuff, either; I would be thrilled with a bunch of repairs. You can make good money doing repairs. **fingers crossed**
Finished The Amber Spyglass the other night, and I guess I am ready to write a review-lette. I kind of hated it. I kind of hated The Subtle Knife, too, but I thought it was an in-between book and that he might get a little better with the last book. Nope. The first one, The Golden Compass was good. It wasn't great, it didn't change my life or anything, but I don't regret the time I spent reading it. The other two were not good and were, in my mind, a tremendous waste of time. I guess that they had just enough kernels of goodness--whether it was characterization, neat made-up stuff, a plot line that grabbed me, or whatever--to keep me reading to the end. I'm not sure I'm glad that I did, though. The writing was very, very patchy in that some of it was good and some of it was so convoluted and/or heavy-handed that it barely made any sense. He seems to have a knack for good fight scenes, but his person-to-person dialog is awkward to the point of seeming like high-school-writing-club stuff. That bad. Also, his obvious hatred of the Catholic Church is a fact that would not have bugged me if the writing/story had been consistently good, but it was not and therefore I didn't enjoy being bludgeoned over the head by his assertion that the Catholic Church is always bad or that they want to make life miserable for us all and quash everyone's fun. Also, I thought that the unhappy ending sucked. After all that shit, I wanted a happy ending. Some authors seem to think that a uselessly unhappy ending that constitutes "sacrifice" and makes the main characters miserable is somehow praiseworthy and constitutes good literature. Wrong-O. Conclusion: Thumbs Down, Hated it.
We did eat two meals out yesterday to, I suppose, celebrate our (temporary?) return to financial solvency; but today it's back to the eating-at-home grind. I'm trying to become a better cook, but between the two of us we eat so few of the same things. I'll eat just about anything as long as there's no discernible mayonnaise and no bananas at all. He's more picky: no crunchy, no raw, no gratuitous vegetables, there must be meat, etc. So it's a challenge sometimes, and we get into a rut. We eat spaghetti about once a week, tacos, chili, stroganoff, and generally something with chicken thighs. That's really not much variety at the end of the day. So, armed with Alton Brown, The Joy of Cooking, and The Gourmet Cookbook hopefully we can get out of this rut and branch out some. I want to learn to make really good pot roast. I'm just too chicken to try it b/c it seems complicated and like I could wind up with a really disgusting result. Wish me luck. :)
Yesterday, while we were eating lunch at Char--which was great, by the way, I ran into my old boss, the owner of the other jewelry store. He was very nice but vague and didn't ask me what I was up to, which says to me that he knows where I am and that I'm working for Brian. It's a small town, and B has not been shy about throwing their name around. He is older than I am and doesn't care if he burns bridges, but I do. I was kind of hoping to keep everything at least superficially civil. I hated it while I was there; but now that I don't work for them, I don't really wish them any ill will. I just wish I didn't ever have to see any of them unexpectedly. I've got to stop looking over my shoulder for them every time I leave the house, though. It's exhausting, and I didn't do anything wrong. Hopefully this encounter will presage a return to my living a little a less 'fraidy-cat-like life around here.
I am really settling in to the new jewelry store. It's a good atmosphere, and B is a great boss. He sends me out often to run errands, which I ADORE. If we get more customers, we will stay in business; but if we have more customers there will be LOADS more to do and less time to run errands and gallivant. So it's sort of a business Catch-22. Bottom line: We need customers. Not just for diamonds or new stuff, either; I would be thrilled with a bunch of repairs. You can make good money doing repairs. **fingers crossed**
Finished The Amber Spyglass the other night, and I guess I am ready to write a review-lette. I kind of hated it. I kind of hated The Subtle Knife, too, but I thought it was an in-between book and that he might get a little better with the last book. Nope. The first one, The Golden Compass was good. It wasn't great, it didn't change my life or anything, but I don't regret the time I spent reading it. The other two were not good and were, in my mind, a tremendous waste of time. I guess that they had just enough kernels of goodness--whether it was characterization, neat made-up stuff, a plot line that grabbed me, or whatever--to keep me reading to the end. I'm not sure I'm glad that I did, though. The writing was very, very patchy in that some of it was good and some of it was so convoluted and/or heavy-handed that it barely made any sense. He seems to have a knack for good fight scenes, but his person-to-person dialog is awkward to the point of seeming like high-school-writing-club stuff. That bad. Also, his obvious hatred of the Catholic Church is a fact that would not have bugged me if the writing/story had been consistently good, but it was not and therefore I didn't enjoy being bludgeoned over the head by his assertion that the Catholic Church is always bad or that they want to make life miserable for us all and quash everyone's fun. Also, I thought that the unhappy ending sucked. After all that shit, I wanted a happy ending. Some authors seem to think that a uselessly unhappy ending that constitutes "sacrifice" and makes the main characters miserable is somehow praiseworthy and constitutes good literature. Wrong-O. Conclusion: Thumbs Down, Hated it.