"...we already hate each other..." 25sep10

drinking tea with condensed milk to soothe what little i have with a cold that started on Tuesday. have to fight it because of the berth of work that needs to get done. work here. work there. my inverted matter self, on the other side of the universe is working...inversely. either way, i'm working.

she was a brunette. it was styled like cameron richardson. her body was bolstered by her age, deliciously taunt.

i was stupid for not saying a thing. i'll be eternally flustered by women i'm attracted to: it can't be helped. her eyes were filled with light brown glints. a wide smile that was friendly.

i could tell a lot. she had been hurt before. it's obvious, but not grossly so. she protected herself from being hurt again: i can tell it was bad. like very bad.

i can't fathom it. i'd die before i could even think of it. don't understand.

new photo on deviant art. working on e-book. lulu sites must be pulled, so i'll have to re-point link to something else, once its done in a week. could've at least introduced myself, right?

...old stories/new ones...06sep10...

After getting some finalized artwork for "Pace", I wanted to dig a bit deeper in the containers of my youth for some fodder. Trust me: there's plenty of it.

However, come across some loose three-ring binder sheets, in a folder marked 'Gaming' (why not?), I came across a story from about 1994 (couldn't be earlier, I would've been in the Army at that point). The single paragraph was pretty simple: a classical-mythology story.

"Morlineus (ugh) and Tabitha". Basically, he loves her, she doesn't love him. He falls for someone else and she gets pissed. Tabitha makes a pact to try to vie for him again, but, like much of the classical world: it doesn't work out. Check it out here, renamed, thankfully, as "Teraku and Binjin".

These type of stories work best in a short format, so I've expanded it tonight. I'm teasing it and releasing it as a short e-book later this year (it'll be priced right...like free). Hopefully, you'll enjoy it and tool through the updates on Pace as well.

Sharing Moments Across Time (02SEP10)

Canning corn relish a Saturday night is not typical. I know. What it does for me, and what cooking can do for us, is re-connect us with those we once knew. Grandma B- wasn't even related to me: only related in the 'mother's second husband's mother' sort of way. She was an amazing Southern lady in every sense of the word: gentle, loving, and as sweet as molasses. Having swept through the South in my youth, I have an affinity for their generosity and grits.

We lived off of Aladdin drive, near Lincoln (in Anaheim), at one point. Grandma B- came to stay with us frequently, after my baby sister was born.

She made exotic foods that I only read about growing up (having an interest in cooking, in a purely theoretical sense, if you know my background of eating potato flakes straight out of the box): fresh baked bread, fried green tomatoes (the only good ones I've ever et) and canned preserves. I hovered around her fascinated.

The canning process is all about cleanliness, that's what floored me as a ten-year-old. Boil this, boil that, use only fresh towels, don't re-wipe, that's not good, that's got to go. Phew. I was exhausted watching her. But. Seeing that homemade apple butter spread was like magic. Apples, sugar, rendered. Huh? How did you get that from that? [emphasis should be there somewhere]

So, like Grandma B-, I hunkered down for about four hours and, come hell or high water, was going to make corn relish. It didn't involve pectin, which I'm a little leery about right now - and only involved natural ingredients. With canning, you really make a commitment to that batch: still fascinating as ever (ok, for those reading this, I should say "me").

You instantly connect with those moments in that hot little kitchen so many years ago. You can almost hear her voice guiding you on. She was patient, let me tell you.

Cooking is amazing in that it is solitary, but, ironically, shared. I am blessed to have so many great ladies in my life who have shown me how to cook well. They've shared great moments and I hope to pass it along to my little ruffians who may say the same one day when I'm gone. Although, I'm not nearly as patient...*woof.