michael john grist

Last night I saw something quite extraordinary.

I'd stepped outside the door at around 12.15 to perform a first footing- a quaint northern English custom where you ensure your luck for the year by making sure the first person to enter the house is a friend- in this case myself-  when  I noticed a very bright orange light coming towards me from the north. It didn't look like the lights of an airplane, it wasn't on any recognised flightpath and it was entirely silent. Then I noticed there were others. They kept coming up over the northern horizon- not in any obvious formation but all on the same  trajectory, north to south. Our house faces north so some of them seemed to be making directly towards me. Others were following the same straight course across a wide stretch of sky to the east. There were none visible to the west.  As they passed the zenith they disappeared- I looked out the back window and there was nothing to see-  which suggests they were craft with a light at the front- which became invisible as soon as their backs were turned. I watched them for about 20 minutes- and during that time there was always one in view and sometimes there were as many as four. I should have counted them but I was too excited to do anything quite so methodical- so I can only estimate their number. Twenty perhaps- maybe thirty- and of course there could well have been others that flew over before I started to take notice. They travelled fast. I estimate they covered the mistance between horizon and zenith in about a minute. I have no way of estimating their height .
 
They weren't fireworks- there were plenty of fireworks going off at the time to compare them with-  I'm pretty certain they weren't meteors or anything like that- and they weren't like any kind of plane I've ever seen.

Happy New Year, boys and girls and assorted others! May your coming year be better than the last one.

A giant ridiculous dog and his aardvark in the snow:



Happy new year!

. . . the last year of the first decade. I'm looking forward to it and will be glad that 2009 is over. It has not been a good year: financial difficulties, illnesses, and general awfulness left and right and up and down.

Writingwise it was not so bad, even thought I'd been hoping for a better one.

Stats:

49 submissions (I have not submitted much in the second half of the year)
9 sales out of which
3 are reprints

I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, Successful 2010!

Thank you google alerts, and to the good folks who put THE LITTLE SLEEP on their lists, of course!

Author Brian Keene's Top Ten Books of 2009

Author Brendan Halpin My Favorite Books of 2009

Bookgasm: Top Crime in 2009 (Honorable Mention)

Rude Cactus Blog: The yearlies 2009

Blogger/Librarian Andy Wolverton's Best Books of 2009: Mystery and Suspense

galbinus_caeli offers a totally awesome free-form poll:

If you had to live in the world of a science fiction disaster novel, who would be the author? (Optionally: Why?)

Tony - poliphilo  - has spent the last 18 hours or so in bed with an upset stomach - you know what I mean by that, I'm sure.  I've been wondering if it was something he'd eaten (we don't always eat the same thing).  I spoke to my mum and Carl on the phone, and they both told me not to worry about it, it's only a bug that's been going around.

Once you're told that you know that unless you're very lucky you're up for the same thing.  Here I sat this morning, worried about Tony, hoping he'd soon be better.  Now - although I still feel fine - I'm waiting and dreading, and dreading and waiting. 

Perhaps it'll miss me out...

Forecast for tonight through the weekend is intermittent snowpocalypse, which just started.

It's SNOWING!

Scalloped potatoes and spinach bread for breakfast*. Life is not so bad.

Also, Val Kilmer is fifty today. Congratulations GenX. We have officially lived longer than we ever expected to.

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*TBRE brought it home. Quoth she: "I think the secret ingredient is butter." Quoth me: gnarsh chomp mwar!

help pinned under cats send assistance.

Especially since I really need to get up and ice everything that still hurts after yesterday's epic climbing success. And maybe eat something, based on the complaints my stomach is making.

And probably let the poor dog out.

Today is my last Day Off--work on The White City resumes tomorrow, and when that is done, "The Unicorn Evils." So I plan to spend today catching up on two weeks' worth of Mythbusters, reading this manuscript I am helping a friend with, and maybe taking the dog for a run since it's not too cold. Oh, and reading that damned Girl Genius collection I have been trying to get to for months now.

Tonight, the usual shindig with netcurmudgeon, ashacat, and two charming young men of my acquaintance. (And others, of course).

Farewell, 2009. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Best climbing night ever, more or less. There's a new nice little flaggy 5.7- or so that's all just elegant and flowing, which I liked so much I climbed it twice as a warmup, and then after that I sent my project 5.8 on the skywall. Yeah baby. (buymeaclue, the one I was sailing off of so spectacularly on Sunday.) There was falling, and dogging on the rope, and it is so overhung that The Jeff had to tow me back up to it with a second top rope, but--

Well, I had told myself I was getting two holds higher than I did before, which was four holds higher than I got on Sunday, and then I managed that and felt good, so I got one more higher, and tried for the next and came off--but by then I could see how to get to the hold after that, so I got towed back to the wall and made it up a few more--reader, I used a heel-hook, and it worked--first time in my climbing career--and then came off again. And got back on and came off one more time but by then I was one hold from the top and I was going to finish it if it killed me.

It didn't kill me. Clipping the quickdraw on the way down, on the other hand, very nearly did. I was amazed at how strong and balanced I felt for parts of the climb, and how easily I made some moves that felt absolutely terrifying.

By then, I had given myself a coughing fit from the sheer anaerobic output required, which persisted (off and on) until I got some hand got some mint tea with honey in me.

But I did also climb a new 5.9 (balancy, on an arrete, and I was actually quite surprised at how secure some of the very sketchy moves felt), and then I climbed and downclimbed an old standby 5.6 and finished off on another easy one on the skywall.

I am totally psyched. I feel like I may have actually learned something. Maybe I am finally starting to learn to climb.

With a little luck, I'll be able to drop some weight this winter, which will make those pesky overhangs much, much less miserable. (It's amazing how much you can feel any given five pounds when you are hauling it up twenty feet of overhang.)

Also, two cute boys hugged me as I was leaving. All in all, a banner day.

• 06:10 6 am, watching Phoebe eat some apricots while I cook her some oatmeal. #
• 14:41 @TerryJaymes I assure you, everyone there calls it Chinatown. #
• 16:00 Apparently, where I'm from, it's never too rainy and cold outside to be mulleted and shirtless while pumping gas. #Alabama #
• 16:57 Just passed a 1982 GMC custom van in full A-team livery. Fucking amazing. #Alabama #
• 17:09 @superaleja couldn't get one. They looked like they had to get out of Mobile quick. Col. Decker is in town. #

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is the distance between my home in Osaka and my home in Burlington

I've decided that I have to be more honest about my disability.  Unless there is only Tony and me (and to a certain extent my sister-in-law Ruth) I behave as though I'm often tired and sometimes in pain.  The truth is that I'm always in pain and often tired - sometimes pain related, sometimes not.  I have Fibromyalgia, diabetes type 2 ('cos I'm fat) at least one prolapsed disc, no kneecap on my left knee and one that's falling apart on the right, bursitis in both hips and arthritis in my neck, hands and right hip.  I also have Ocular hypertension - which I think is quite funny - it means high pressure in my eyes - don't know anything more about it but it doesn't seem to do much.

I take 240mg Dihydrocodeine, 1200 mg Ibuprofen and either 8 paracetamol or a mixture of paracetamol and 30/500 co-codamol every day as pain relief.  It takes the edge off it, but all I have to do is to stand for a minute or bend or try and get up from a chair and the pain is bad.

Tony looks after me - he puts Transvasin or Diclofenac cream on my hips, lower back, right back (over my liver area) neck and shoulders at least twice a day.

I do pretend to be fine when we go out or to my parents or in-laws.  I try to help out - how can I let elderly relatives wait on me - I should be doing stuff for them.  I feel guilty.  There again if I came clean with them about how I really am, perhaps they wouldn't look at me as though I'm being idle - or that could be my projection - I do at times think that I'm 'getting away with it' and am a workshy whatever, yet ...

Don't get me wrong - I'm not depressed by it all.  I love my life - perhaps that's why I think I'm workshy - I shouldn't be so content.  We don't have much money - but how many countries would give us all that we have.  Sickness payments, disability payments and Tony paid (a small amount) to stay home and look after me.

That's my 'naming my demons'.  Now I can just get on with my life.

We had a wonderful Xmas at my mother-in-law's.  Xmas dinner was served by Tony's sister Jenny, who as usual put together a wonderful lunch  This is her working hard.

I went to church on Xmas morning with Shirley (m-i-l) but neither of us found it very fulfilling.  On Boxing Day Shirley's friend Nora came over for lunch and spent the afternoon arguing with Tony while Shirley and I watched the horse racing.  Shirley is into her racing as she has a couple of horses in training for jump racing - They Hardy Boy, who has won a few races in his time and Twin Bud - bred from a winning mare Little Bud who won for her in the past.  Twin Bud has only run one race so far and didn't do too badly.

Now I would like to wish all my Live Journal friends a very Happy New Year - I hope it's a year of dreams and contentment.

Love and hugs.xx

It's the end of December, which means its nearly New Year's, which means it's time for the Inauthentic Medivnyk recipe one more time.

Happy Holidays!

(Guess what I making today?)

Ukrainian Christmas Cake (sorta)

(Other versions are less fluffy, do not have the yeast, do not have the sour cream/yogurt, do not have the sugar, are less labor-intensive, add fruit or nuts....)

Ingredients:
1 pkg. dry granular yeast
3 tbsp. lukewarm water
1 cup honey (dark buckwheat honey is preferable)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream (I use whole milk yogurt)
1/2 cup butter
4 eggs separated
3 cups sifted flour (I use half whole wheat and half unbleached)
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Grease your pan--rectangular cake pan or loaf pan(s).

Proof the yeast. Bring the honey to a boil and cool it slightly. The honey should be warm.

Cream the butter and sugar together with a hand-held mixer until light and creamy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, and continue to beat until all is incorporated, then add the honey and sour cream and continue to mix. Add the yeast to the resultant batter; it's mostly for flavor. *g*

Beat the eggs whites to stiff peak. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Fold the flour mixture and the egg whites, alternating, into the cake batter as gently as possible so you do not lose the loft of the meringue.

Slide the batter into the prepared loaf pans. Bake for 45 minutes-1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Give it a little while to set up, then invert pans on wire racks to remove cake and cool. But not too much; it's best warm.

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And now I really want to make piroshkis.

But neither they nor medivnyk are really On The Discipline, now are they? And I am, again.

La.

---

ETA: CAKE IS DONE!

Dear Seattlites:

A friend of mine is one of the folks involved in opening a new downtown late-night restaurant in your Fair City. Which debuts tonight! So hie thee to The Night Kitchen. Even though I've never been there, I am pretty sure I can vouch for the place.

Love, Bear

It was all a little embarrassing really. June Whitfield has been a radio and TV comedy actor for sixty years- and in that time played second fiddle to everyone from Arthur Askey and Jimmy Edwards to Julian Clary and Jennifer Saunders- so well done her!  She's a legend. The trouble with this hour-long tribute (screened on BBC 2 last night) is that when you start riffling through her old clips you're hard pressed to find anything that's actually funny or even particularly interesting. The nasal whine she put on for The Glums was distinctive and that was a cool one-liner she had in Ab Fab, but mainly this was a dig through strata of unfunniness- and I've had more laughs watching Time Team.  Most of the shows she featured in are forgotten- and the one that is remembered- Terry and June- is remembered for all the wrong reasons- as a chintzy, cosy monument to playing it safe.  Her admirers and friends used words like reliable and dependable- and an attempt was made to establish her as a great straight actress on the strength of her once having played Miss Marple on the radio- but it was uphill work- and the fullsomeness of the tributes simply didn't accord with the dullness on display.  She's a noble workhorse- but very little of her work is for the ages. To pretend otherwise is luvviness gone mad.

I've got some theories and speculation.  Now, I am SPOILER-FREE, so please no spoilers in the comments.  All I know is what the producers have seen fit to show us at Comic Con (the commercials), and promo posters.

( Click here to enter the No-Spoiler Zone )

Finished my second skein of yarn, which looks almost exactly like the first one.

It's official: plying is the most boring thing ever.

But at least it prevents snacking.

We have a very nice review by Melissa melissajm, one of the readers who received an ARC of Destination: Future.

melissajm.livejournal.com/136744.html

• 21:19 Listening to black metal. I really hope the company sends me to Norway one day. #
• 10:22 @msittig fans folks brought us one of those. We used it to loop white noise tracks and lullabies when Phoebe was first born. Pretty cool! #
• 10:24 Man, this Akmal Shaikh stuff is messed up. Way to go, China. I bet even NK gives us back Robert Park after using him to make a point... #
• 10:43 @msittig yeah. I am wanting another one for the office too. For what it is, ours has pretty remarkable sound too. #
• 15:01 @jizzmatic2000 dude. Tea. #

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