etc.

Over halfway through my leave and I’m finding myself wondering how I managed it all, when I wasn’t on leave. I certainly feel like I’m accomplishing less being home, but I know that’s because the research I’m doing at the moment isn’t as measurable as the stuff I do at work. Still, a bit disconcerting.

I have managed to maintain the balance, however. I can’t start my day without a quick walk around the neighbourhood, I usually meander my way over a few pages of a novel over lunch, and when the mister gets home, I close my laptop and don’t open it up again until the following morning. Feels a lot like the balance I’ve been coveting, lo these many years! Which, of course, reveals the inevitable: this balance is thoroughly unsustainable. But, Oh! I’ve had a taste of it now, and it is good!

Also, I’m knitting again! While combing through my archives over the weekend (in search of this recipe), I got sucked into reading posts about my erstwhile pastime and found myself asking “do I even remember how to cast on?” Do I, indeed! I’m now a good way through this shawl (in chocolate brown lace-weight merino) thanks to laptopless evenings and otherwise idle hands. My neck and shoulders seem to have forgotten how to relax into the activity, but hopefully it’s just a matter of time before they remember. It’s good to have needles and yarn in hand again! And, hey, I might have my first finished object (in, oh, a year!) to show you before long. Anticipate!

Note: you must adore avocado to enjoy this beverage. If you do not adore avocado, please move along. And repent your non-avocado-loving sins on the way.

Avocado Shake
Into the blender:

• half an avocado
• tray of ice
• dash of milk
• lots of sugar dissolved in a cup of hot water.

Blend thoroughly. Serves One. This is not a healthy beverage, but it is divine. Recipe cribbed from watching it made at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant in town.

I think I am becoming a domestic goddess. To-day for lunch I threw together the following ingredients: fresh pasta, diced tomatoes, summer sausage, ricotta cheese, garlic, fresh basil, salt, pepper. If you know me at all you know that I don’t ever “throw together” ingredients and end up with a startlingly delicious meal. Bow before me.

One of my most frequent typos: satursday.

Just in from a colleague: The Mildred Wirt Benson (aka Carolyn Keene) Collection.

Recently read, thoroughly enjoyed, heartily recommended: The Professor and the Madman (Simon Winchester), The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion), Gentlemen and Players (Joanne Harris).

Currently reading, thoroughly enjoying, heartily recommending: On Beauty (Zadie Smith).

Two good words that begin with “c”: criminy, caterwaul.

Sticky to-day. And still. The windows are open but nothing is a-stir. Not the lilac tree, not the overgrown hedge (note to self: trim hedge), not the hostas, not the eunymous shrubs. The cats are languid. Part of the hospital down the road is being torn down, so all we hear through the open windows is smashing glass, crashing brick, and the intermittent procession of trucks hauling away the detritus. I had the fan on while I did a couple of sudoku puzzles, drank cool lemonade and ate strawberries for lunch (I refuse to turn on the air-conditioning until it’s absolutely necessary) . I’m fanning myself lazily, wondering how to rally enough enthusiasm to resume reading and reflecting on web usability. Perhaps a stroll to the sweetly air-conditioned library, or a hop over to the coffee shop (which, word has it, now has free wifi) is in order.

Happy afternoon, to you.

At the moment, anyway. At any given time you could swap out that glass of water for a cup of tea. And add a stack of articles. And a book or two. Yes, that’s about it.

This week is the first of that four-week research leave I mentioned a few posts ago. I’m still in the hazy “I need to make a plan” stage, tying up loose ends that never got tied up when I left work last week, responding to email, taking care of mounds of course stuff, &c. I’m trying to take a balanced approach (taking a walk in the morning and closing my laptop during meals is my idea of balance at the moment) and so far, so good. Ask me again in a week. I’ll probably be posting more detailed research-type stuff over on my library blog, so if you’re interested in what I’m actually, you know, doing, check there.

In other news, the mister and I went on a mini-vacation to Boston since we last spoke (since you & I last spoke, that is, not me & the mister; me & the mister speak often). We had a grand time, lots of great food, plenty of walking about, some fine music, and our fair share of rain. Rain on vacation doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it should, we usually end up ducking into a restaurant or shop that we probably wouldn’t have gone into if it wasn’t for the rain. In New York a few years ago, it was a dingy little cigar bar where we spent a couple of hours; in Boston it was Faneiul Hall (which we were otherwise content to walk past on account of the throngs of tourists) where we listened to a few hours of great music. It was a good trip, pictures are here.

And now it’s back to research with me. I’d promise more frequent posting now that I have complete control over my time, but I know better than to do make such a promise.