Sept 28

Welp! Weekend report time.

Friday evening was a Dining Adventure (tm) Friends decided to try out a new boba and ramen restaurant, part of a franchise called Taichi Bubble Tea, and all the Mount Prospect team showed up to represent. It was right at my limit for Large Group Restaurant Events (8) but much fun was had, many menu items were sampled, and 2 pounds of leftover ramen came home for future lunches.

Saturday morning shift at the library was a delight. A lot more traffic than on a weekday evening. Higher energy, too, and a different vibe. Nice bonus was that I got to see a lot of co-workers I don’t see very often.

Ramen was just as tasty the second time around for lunch. I started a new book and sat in the sunshine, and it was glorious. After that I was feeling antsy and unsettled, so I played in the yard the rest of the afternoon.

I watered the trees because it’s been dry-dry-dry for weeks now. Picked a bunch of tomatoes from the vines I’ve been neglecting/leaving to the squirrels for two weeks. Brought in over 1.5 gallons of ripe tomatoes and composted another half gallon of nibbled/sun-split/overripe ones. Washed all the tomato bits off the patio, and root-pruned two more of the coralberries. Felt good to be out in the sun and fresh air.

Leftover pizza for supper in front of Black Sails, and then I played games in front of a movie theater(Now You See Me 2) while Spouseman read the rules to a new roleplaying game and played Warframe.

Sunday! finished bacon and bagel for breakfast, then hit th farmer’s market for a restock on herbed spread, smoked mozzerella sticks, cucumbers and apples. Did more reading, enjoyed the sunshine, watched humminbirds, and listened to cardinals fussing. Took a walk to Straw & Bubbles and got some boba tea. Spouseman decided to try the Bingsu shaved ice treat. (warm day, been thinking about trying it for literally months, if not now when, so why not?—that was the thinking.) Mango.

Bingsu is cold and sweet and dairy (it isn’t just ice, it’s like, shaved frozen condensed milk, I think) but somehow doesn’t hit the too-rich, too-sweet buttons that ice cream hits. So that was a lovely dessert discovery. It’s still super-sweet, though. Suffice to say that’s all I needed for lunch.

Had some chips and salsa later with most of my tea as a snack while I sat and did more reading, and some puttering around with graphics ideas. The closes I came to Productivity (tm) was brushing the cat, and helping make supper.

Italian Rice Bake. It’s one of my many favorite pantry meals (made mostly or entirely from shelf-stable/frozen ingredients) It is extra tasty, and it makes 4 or 5 nights worth of meals in one go. So we had supper for tonight, plus Monday and Tuesday, and two meals worth went into the freezer.

What’s in it? ! big jar pasta sauce (spicy vodka carbonated this time) 3 cups uncooked rice (after bing cooked up, obvs) couple handfuls shredded mozzarella cheese, and 4 Italian sausages. I like the faux meat kind because they’re ungreasy, don’t need to be cooked before throwing them into the casserole, and well, they taste yummy. Some parsley, some red wine, some diced up tomatoes, mix it all up in a big bowl and throw it into a buttered 13x9 pan with a little parmesan shaken on top. With the last of the cucumber salad on the side and a nice glass of wine, it made for a fun wrap to the week. I watched Thursday Murder Club while Spouseman had his usual Sunday night online superhero game.

And then I watched Leave The World Behind. I see why it won so many awards. Phenomenal cast putting on fabulous performances, top notch screenwriting, direction, editing, visuals & production, sets, soundtrack, and a bag of chips.

Did I like it? No. I was impressed, and can admire it for many reasons, but like it? No. And not even because it was unsettling. It was designed to be unsettling. I’m good with that part. It’s that it was so very…okay, look. It’s science fiction written for people who “don’t do scifi.” Every second just dripped with Meaningfulness and Messaging and every line of dialogue and plot element oozed with Literary Purpose. And that, my frenz, will get a big thumbs down from me every time.

All that Dramatic Importance is, AFAICT, true to the original novel (side note: I applaud every change the move made from the book, which I read in summary bc I suspect I would find unreadable in full. But. I. Digress.) but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. I will not list all the things that grated on me. Just one: FFS what is it about middle-aged American male Literary Writers that they LOVE making a pubescent female character the symbolic center and moral touchstone of their stories? (and make their mothers be Disney mothers…but that’s two and I said I wouldn’t start a full rant here.)

ANYway. I have a high tolerance for my fiction hitting me over the head with its mesaging. I read all of Thomas Hardy on purpose, voluntarily, FFS. But I might get annoyed when material that basically puts a shiny coat of pain on tired, old stereotypes and tropes I have seen done with a thousand times more subtlety gets huge buzz and major accolades for it.

Might have to watch a cheezy SyFy apocalyptic movie to clear my mental palate. So to speak.

And this one got really long, huh? That’s all for now.