Birthdays, Baguettes, and Some Updates

I had thought that the strangest bit of conversation to pass between Jon and me this past week was 'yes, Michael was wearing the super hero cape and the duct tape when he went to the ER. I don't think he had on the tool belt though.' But then there was: Jon: Sweetie, are you into a new kink that I don't know about? Me: What ARE you talking about? Jon: There's a tray of raw chicken on the bed. Me: Ah, that's where that got to. How my Brother-in-Law ended up at the ER is a long and admittedly entertaining story, but that would be for him or his wife, Judy to share publicly. I'll have more on them later. I can, however, explain the chicken. I was clearing out the fridge to make room for the birthday cake. I had the big, heavy tray of chicken in hand when I realized that I needed to get something from the bedroom while I remembered (a big issue with me anymore). I put the tray down to retrieve the item and left the bedroom. I left the chicken there while I sorted out the fridge and counter situation. That's when Jon came back from the laundry room and got very confused. See? It all makes sense.

Birthday Boy

Speaking of my in-laws, they called yesterday to wish Jon a happy birthday. Actually, it was my brother-in-law that called to say that Judy was sending her every 30 years birthday wishes to Jon. The idea was for the siblings to talk to each other, but that didn't really work out. Judy got distracted searching for a photo similar to Jon's Jenga pile of dishes. She couldn't find it and that mad her sad, so she decided not to get on the phone. Jon had on headphones, so he wasn't even aware of the call until I jabbed him with my elbow. The upshot was that the siblings yelled into the phone from across the room at each other while Michael and I had a very entertaining conversation about our anti-social spouses. The Cunninghams are delightful people Judy is among the loveliest women I know. Their parents are wonderfully social people. They make you feel like you've known them for decades during the first meeting. Their kids are another matter. They are very odd in social situations until they know you well, yet they attract extremely social spouses. And we are always entertained by this phenomenon. I really enjoyed that call and am reminded that we should get home to see all those zany folks soon.

I can't do much in the way of shopping for Jon's birthday. And it's hard to get Jon something fun, because he acquires the things that really interest him on his own. He has become a search engine wizard in his efforts to secure the often obscure things that are parts of his hobby. And I don't want to always give him things like new socks or shirts. Though essential, they aren't fun gifts. So, I decided to cook something special. As my muse, Kim, often says about him 'all he ever wants are noodles and bread.' This is very true. In fact, I usually make him a tuna noodle casserole for his birthday. But I wanted to do something special from the days when we were dating. So, it was a simple linguine with a garlic and olive oil sauce along with French bread and birthday cake. Simple, huh? Well, the ingredients for any given dish and the process was very simple. It was just that everything was hugely labor intensive. Oy, what a long day of cooking. I've linked to The pages at the top of the Blog -- see the Tabs marked BAKING-- to show you some of the process or the results. I've wanted to tackle baguettes forever, so that was a fun form of kitchen therapy. The results were tasty though still a bit off from a bakery baguettes. They were denser than the professionally made ones, but they weren't something that I could knock someone over the head with. Still, Jon finished everything and seemed to enjoy it, so a good time was had by all.

Updates of Sorts

I'm still in the last throes of writing Ensnared, so I don't have much to talk about there this week. I will have a lot to say about the mechanics of writing this bugger, but I can't just now. Mulling on this ordeal may keep me from finishing. I can't wait to share the astonishing artwork for the cover and ads. All of the film stuff is still in flux. I have an update that will go on the blog for The Secret Cancer sometime this week. The rest of the film stuff is still in flux and I can't talk about most of it still anyway.