chocolate cherry martinis and neurotic cats

Gaming a couple of weeks ago.


Happy birthday to Lyanne Quirt!

Sent off another article. One more digital photography article to go, plus the short story (plus my novel project(s), of course). Starting next week, I'm going to start sending out more magazine queries.

I think I'll mainly be targeting higher-paying markets from now on. This will likely mean fewer acceptances, but I'm hoping the payoff should be worth it. That's the theory, anyway. :-) I'll be spending the extra time on my fiction projects.

Had a good Urban Tapestry practice with Allison and Jodi last night, running through our playlist for our concert at Confluence. Allison's and John's cat, Eddie, was schmoozing up to Jodi; it was pretty amusing. Eddie was definitely in a needy mood...in the middle of going through songs, we'd be interrupted by odd sounds which ended up being Eddie climbing into the Coke can box, Eddie gnawing on the end of a plastic watering can, Eddie trying to climb up a bookshelf for no apparent reason. What is it with cats? Most of the time they seem standoffish and self-respecting, other times they go all spazzy and neurotic. Comments from you cat people out there welcome: I honestly want to know. Am I right in observing this is NORMAL in cats? And if so, how do you cat owners stay sane??



Our friend Vartan.


Most of today's photos are from a Friday gaming session a couple of weeks ago (corrected info, heh...I orginally said "last Friday's gaming session" and got Reid into trouble; see Blatherchat) and Vartan's martini-making session on the Saturday. My first martini! As far as I can tell, anything poured into a martini glass is a martini. There doesn't really seem to be one common type of alcohol. To you booze-drinkers out there: am I correct?



Chocolate cherry martini recipe (see next photo for results).


I don't tend to drink a lot of alcohol...maybe the equivalent of a glass of wine a week. Several reasons: it's an expensive habit, I don't like the taste of beer, and I have a pretty low alcohol tolerance. When I reach my tolerance level, I don't get funny and entertaining, I fall asleep. Very boring.

I tend to like "girlydrinks" (Adam English was the first one I've heard use this term, and now I can't think of them any other way)...you know, the sweet kind with paper umbrellas and silly names. I'm fond of plum wine on the rocks, some kinds of hot sake, and an addictive chocolate/cream liqueur that Rand introduced to Urban Tapestry years ago.



Vartan made me my first martini. Yum.


To those going to Balticon and Marcon this weekend: have fun! Wish I could be at both conventions.

And here's a frightening photo from my friend Reid, who says: "Feeling left out in the PhotoShopped-Debbie arena, I thought I would give you my contribution..."

May 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal