Now it Can Be Told

[kinzel]

In the hopper for a few weeks and now on track one -- an invitation to be Guests of Honor at what will likely be our first convention for 2006 -- COSine. That'll be in Colorado Springs(yes,COS)in more or less the middle of January next year. The dates are still somewhat up in the air as the concom confirms hotel info; I'll mention it here again, I'm sure, as time draws near.

Meanwhile, our round-trip to ShevaCon will also include a visit with the home-folks in the Owings Mills-Finksburg corridor of Maryland. We've never even seen a Texas Roadhouse that I know of, but one of my relatives seems bent on us having a meal at one, maybe a big family meal. Went to the website -- Rolanni and I may *both* end up with our Willie Braids!

The last of the densely scheduled doctor visits is over -- my eyes are getting old, slowly, and I have prescriptions for two different sets of eye glasses... but only if I really really want them, as my old reading glasses are basically OK, and I still don't have to have the other glasses for driving. Good thing they're sort of optional -- I forgot to budget new glasses into the month. The tendency for my right eye to have adhesions seems tied into a medication I take very rarely combined with extreme dry conditions and long hours at the computer. Refresh Liquigel is my friend.

Right. Meanwhile, my physician is sure I no longer need the 120 day check-ups I was on for a year or so while we fiddled my blood-pressure and cholesterol down to reasonable levels through exercise and diet. All else is well, but the tendency for my shoulder and knee to ache where I hurt them during high school wrestling 40 years ago will likely continue to be a tendency... sigh.

The next "doctor visit" is scheduled for just before ShevaCon, and that one will be the one where we schedule the dental stuff. The dental stuff will, I'm told, take me somewhat out of circulation a day or two at a time once we get underway. I'll try not to bore anyone with details, now or then.

Truck and car both got new windshield wipers today. Frameless. Fairly expensive. New style. But... we'll try them as part of the "getting the truck ready" part of the trip to ShevaCon. Next-up: getting the rear wiper motor fixed so we can see out the back in weather.

I think it was Rolanni who mentioned that Crystal Soldier was, for one halcyon hour, ranked at 3376 on Amazon.com. The book is officially due out in seventeen days plus eight and one half hours, but who's counting? I'll point out that the highest amazon ranking we've ever seen for one of our books lasted three hours and was 42. That was on a Super Bowl Sunday -- apparently our readers don't do football all that much. Meanwhile the hardback Balance of Trade is (right now) ranked #32,424 while the just out trade paper is ranked #39,634. Can you tell I *really* have to get started on today's scenes? Like I have to start an hour or so ago, as soon as I finished lunch?

But, first, a new Pepsi and then to OpenOffice.org to open the file and get Jerel in gear for the day's run.

Comments

House of Death

[pbray.livejournal.com]

There's a Texas Roadhouse near here, and after going there during their opening week I began referring to it as the House of Death. Not that the food was bad, but one of their gimmicks was the baskets of free peanuts. Peanuts everywhere. In barrels by the door, so you could scoop up handfuls and shell them as you waited for a table. Discarded peanut shells on every possible surface of the waiting area, plus more peanuts delivered to your table as soon as you sat down.

As someone with a peanut allergy, this quickly made it to the top of my "never again" list. Though my friends like it, and have returned.

Re: House of Death

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

I'm not exactly alergic to peanuts, in that a single peanut won't hospitalize me, but I'm not good with metabolizing some nuts, apparently - so as long as they don't make eat them, I'll likely be OK. I do have some bad reactions to MSG, and apparently some nut distributors use MSG... so I just tend to avoid all nuts to avoid gastric unpleasantness.

Sorry you're locked out.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

There's a really popular Texas Roadhouse near us -- with, oddly, no highway frontage, so you have to drive through the medical facility parking lot to reach it. I've often wondered if this is a commentary on their food...

Their dinner rolls are made with sugar or something, so they're way sweet, and come with cinnamon-flavored butter. It's a ... unique taste sensation.

They also offer potato side dishes not just the normal baked/fries, but sweet potatoes with marshmallows melted on top.

Just walking into the place makes one's arteries seize up. Although it's a great place to go if you're doing Atkins. They have healthy food on the menu, too, but you really have to look for it. :-)

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty good at locating the more edible foods, and eating reasonable portions. There are a few places, for example, where I'll order breakfast and Rolanni will order a coffee and bagel... and then we split, and find the meal sufficient. We'll do equivalents in other restaurants -- were you with us at Balticon when we did a meal like that in Shula's a couple years back?

wipers

[thecherub.livejournal.com]

I would love to geta set of those framless wipers but Canadian Tire can't get them in fast enuf to satisfy demand i might have to survive the Snowbelt weather that is woodstock, On until the spring.