November Frost (And Updates)
Posted on November 15, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
The Polar Vortex has Ohio in its grip, but in this part of the state at least that hasn’t meant snow. Just frost, which, eh, I can live with for now (I do not believe in snow until after Thanksgiving. I think that’s reasonable). Krissy went out and took a couple of pictures of the morning frost to show off. Here you go.
That poor, frozen bird.
In other news the writing has been going well. I’ve landed on a writing quota of 3,000 words a day to finish up before the end of the year and I’ve been hitting the quota daily (that’s on weekdays, although I’ll likely be writing/editing a bit on weekends/holidays as well), so that’s good. The writing’s not bad, either, so that’s a bonus. As noted here previously, I’m not doing much updating here during November, but once I hit my quota you can see me tooling about on Twitter. After 3,000 words (which is a nice clip but 50% more than my standard 2k/day clip), crafting 140-character comments is about what my brain can handle.
Any plans for the weekend?
really beautiful!
Just had my first cross-country ski in the yard here in Northern Ontario. Got about a foot of snow this week, so it’s just enough to tromp around outside. The local Nordic ski club is grooming already, so we’ll be out for nice, long excursions soon.
Brrr! All the forecasts keep saying its going to be a brutal winter. Not looking forward to it.
Only plans are to have some dinners with friends and try to stay warm!
beautiful
Nice photos, Krissy!
I’m glad to hear that the writing is going smoothly. You’ve set yourself a steep goal, but it sounds like you’re staying on top of it. Hope the results please you (and everyone else, of course).
Our weekend plans include some extended time at the pottery studio (need to work on a couple of commissions from friends for holiday gifts), attending a play with a friend this evening, and the usual laundry, grocery shopping and housework. Oh, and possibly shoveling snow, as our weather forecast includes those dread words “accumulating snow” for overnight tonight. Yuck.
We are going to a wine pairing dinner at A Chef’s Kitchen in Willamsburg, VA. Think of it like an episode of Emeril Live where everyone gets to eat the food. Chef John and sous chef Nick cook the meal in front of you and teach you about various aspects of cooking while they do it. We’ve been several times, and they are easily some of the best meals we’ve had. If anyone is in the area, I highly recommend it! Their website: http://www.achefskitchen.biz/
That’s very positive to look at (-:
Decompress after doing nothing but repairs (I have nightmares about paint) and class prep for the past six weeks.
Then, once $HERSELF arrives with the mesquite pucks, it’s time to smoke-dry the last of this years ripe jalapeños that I just picked up at the farmers’ market. Ah, chipotles!
Grading papers and having fun with the new puppy! Picked him up last Sunday – a 2 month old Rough Collie (in case any one is curious). He’s a sweetie.
Doing NaNoWriMo this month. Managed a 2400 word sprint today to break 30K. Now I can relax with the Sunday papers and take a day’s break tomorrow.
Fortunately London is damp rather than freezing; my plans for tomorrow involve doing nothing.
Today was a visit from my sister, so we hit Libertys, John Lewis and Selfridges, which claims to have the largest shoe department in the world; I believe them.
It wasn’t entirely frivolity and Afternoon Tea; this is London, after all. Thus, a peaceful demonstration pedal along Oxford St by cyclists who would like drivers to comply with the speed limits, and thus kill fewer cyclists, together with the equally peaceful vigil outside Zimbabwe House, to remind the world that free and fair elections are a good thing, wherever you are.
So, today was wonderful and tomorrow I might work up the energy to read a book; I hope that others are enjoying their weekends as much as I am enjoying mine…
There’s over 40″ of snow on the ground in parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. They pretend they don’t care, but you know they’re whimpering inside because it’s so early.
Yeah, it’s not going to be a fun winter here in the upper Midwest.
Chipotles – that’s an excellent idea for the remaining late season jalapenos. I wonder if it would be good to dry out the remaining habeneros…
We crossed from Sault Ontario into Sault Michigan on Thursday night and were surprised to find most of the city had shut down. Apparently 18″ of snow during the workday will do that. We didn’t get much just a few clicks away and across the St. Mary’s River. Amazing how different weather can be over short distances.
3000 words a day is a lot.
Chipotles depend some on the wood you have for smoking. I use mesquite (NOM!!!) but pecan is traditional. The challenge is keeping the fire starved enough to smoke them rather than cook them. I use a charcoal starter can with the air inlets blocked by roof flashing riveted over them, then put the can on a bed of sand. If it gets too starved, resettle the can and maybe scrape a small air channel. About 150F is a good temperature to shoot for at the chiles, which I cut in two lengthwise to speed drying.
Habañeros can be dried, but I don’t think they work out that way as well as they would canned. Pickled habañeros are awesome, especially with honey and garlic.
Cool pictures of frost!
Wish all we had was frost, but it snowed and sleeted here on Thursday, and snow is forecast for Monday. We had lows of 23° F two nights in a row, also.
It doesn’t normally snow here before Thanksgiving, and only once that I can remember in the last 20 years, so this is unusual for North Alabama.
Another day in the pottery studio–My first holiday sale is next weekend, then it’s every weekend up til Christmas Eve. So two dozen coffee mugs this morning, soup bowls to trim tonight. Rinse, repeat.
Colonel Snuggledorf, have you a website? Love to see your work.
Not that Frank –
Oh, goodness no, I’m just an amateur who likes to make mudpies. I don’t sell my wares; I give them away in return for donations to the American Cancer Society (I’m a cancer survivor). It’s a win/win, because an afternoon at the wheel is a meditative and healthy experience for me, and then any proceeds go to fight cancer. Plus the folks who buy the stuff seem to like them, so there’s that.
Today was trimming a batch of pocket mugs (mugs with a pocket on the side for teabags, for tea-drinkers) that one of the VPs at work commissioned. Tomorrow, if there’s time with all the mundane minutiae, will likely be throwing the cookie jar that a friend asked for. I throw at a community studio, so I have to wait my turn for kiln-time, and as the holidays get close, the wait gets longer and longer. So I try to get any holiday commissions cranked out and into the queue as quickly as I can.
How about you? Do you have a website? I’m always eager to see what real artists do with pottery – share, please do!
Aren’t you supposed to be working on a novel?
We miss you, Scalzi! And I’m going to visit my parents tomorrow and hopefully finish an Andre Norton novel, but other than that nope.
Colonel:
Clicking on my name will take you to my website. I’ve also got a blog about pottery and random observations at offcntr.livejournal.com. Lots of work in progress pics at the latter.
Speaking of writing (don’t know where else to put this)…I just finished “The Peripheral”, William Gibson’s latest. I thought it VERY good; and there are some parallels to certain devices in John’s “Lock In” that were notable to the point of bringing “simultaneous invention” to mind.
John, have you had a chance to read “The Peripheral” yet? Have you and Mr. Gibson talked about “action at a distance”?
(PS: I’m trying not to spoil either book here, thus a bit cryptic.)
Just cold here, no precipitation yet, though we’re supposed to get the Official Georgia Winter Forecast (rain in the 40s) tomorrow.
For the weekend: catching up on schoolwork and NaNo after allowing myself some recovery days from having had my very old dog put down. :-(
Spent part of it at Thought Bubble, Leeds very own comic convention. Which was rammed but still friendly and fun with great panel discussions and 3 halls packed full of creative, interesting people. Bought some wonderful new graphic novels, some quite far from the mainstream. All in all not a bad way to pass a foggy, cold and clammy day or two!
Me, my plans were mostly to stay inside and be warm. It’s been in the low 40’s and high 30’s for more days than I care to think about here in South Carolina. Up there in Ohio you may have little sympathy for me, but it’s not supposed to be this cold in November here. Heck, we started out the month with snow on November first! It turned to rain before dawn for me, but not far away 20,000 people lost power from the snow. We don’t, as a rule get ANY snow here, but snow in November… unheard of!
The weekend is over, but it was spent adding a third dog to the household (my mum’s chihuahua, who we’re looking after while she wanders the Middle East for a bit) and wandering about the Art Gallery with my in-laws, in the glorious/godawful Melbourne spring.
Today was baking and writing. And dishes. Ugh.