Idling through Monday
Jun. 5th, 2006 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat_sochoI'm going to have to start watching how much caffeine I suck down on Sunday nights, because this business of being awake until 0230 has got to stop...slept in until 0700 this morning, which meant I had to drive into work -with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
phoenixalpha's end tables in the back of the Sportage, as if driving up 35W in morning rush wasn't enough stress without those damned things thumping against the back door. Passed on eating the lunch I'd packed (because there's been enough rice in my diet this weekend as it is) and went to Taco Bell instead. Mmmm, chalupas.
Staying up late wasn't all bad. I finished off Disc 3 of Azumanga Daioh, burned the hair metal CD I'd been promising myself for a couple of weeks, succumbed to the raving munchies around 0200 and ate a couple of turkey sandwiches. Okay, that part was bad.
What with sloth and indolence, P and I didn't stir forth from the apartment until about 1230 or so, which gave us just enough time to run by her old place and see what had been left in the garage before I had to double back and drop her off before the Convergence meeting.
The meeting itself...I don't know. I was there mostly to observe, touch base withmichaellee and thaadd, and if at all possible pisces3857 since we hadn't been able to get together and talk hotel contracts. All of which I did, but the meeting itself had an odd feel to it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just me.
Afterwards, it was laundry time, which gave me time to take a gander at Heinlein's For Us, The Living and start David Weber's Old Soldiers. The Heinlein novel, despite Spider Robinson's foreward all agog, is pretty much what you'd expect from a first novel that a master of the craft never tried to polish up and sell during his lifetime - awful. I suppose you could find the shadows of other Heinlein stories there if you looked hard enough, but my literary beer goggles just aren't that thick. Old Soldiers, on the other hand, is the sequel to "With Your Shield", an original story written to fill out the anthology Bolo! reviewed here a few days ago. That story tells the tale of a young lieutenant assigned to a training battalion full of old Bolos no longer considered suitable for front-line service in the war against the Melconian Empire, but as fate would have it the battalion is thrown into action regardless in an attempt to save a Concordiat world unexpectedly attacked by the "puppies". The world is saved, but the lieutenant is severely wounded and her Bolo killed; in the novel, she's assigned to a secret colony effort as commander of the only Bolo to survive the battle, and things proceed from there. It's an interesting story, full of unusual riffs on what could have become a dull, formulaic tale; kudos to Weber and whoever is working as editor in charge of the Bolo shared universe.
After laundry came dinner. I owed P dim sum, so we decided to try out Jun Bo, which replaced the defunct Chi-Chi's on Nicollet and came highly recommended. The quality was every bit as good as we'd been told and then some; not only were the various trays of dim sum excellent but the house special fried rice was outstanding as well. I wasn't too thrilled by the sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, but that's more a matter of my tastes than the food itself. As you would expect from a place serving dim sum at all hours, it was a tad pricy but worth it, imao. Ambience...well, it's like eating in the middle of a ballroom, which is a pleasant change from the usual cramped quarters and low ceilings in most restaurants. The service was very good and as frosting on the metaphorical cake, it's a Coke joint. w00t!
Today's been moderately busy, as reflected by the fact that I started this around 10 AM and am just finishing it now. If the coffee allows, I may actually get a bookshelf done tonight.
phoenixalpha's end tables in the back of the Sportage, as if driving up 35W in morning rush wasn't enough stress without those damned things thumping against the back door. Passed on eating the lunch I'd packed (because there's been enough rice in my diet this weekend as it is) and went to Taco Bell instead. Mmmm, chalupas.Staying up late wasn't all bad. I finished off Disc 3 of Azumanga Daioh, burned the hair metal CD I'd been promising myself for a couple of weeks, succumbed to the raving munchies around 0200 and ate a couple of turkey sandwiches. Okay, that part was bad.
What with sloth and indolence, P and I didn't stir forth from the apartment until about 1230 or so, which gave us just enough time to run by her old place and see what had been left in the garage before I had to double back and drop her off before the Convergence meeting.
The meeting itself...I don't know. I was there mostly to observe, touch base with
michaellee and thaadd, and if at all possible pisces3857 since we hadn't been able to get together and talk hotel contracts. All of which I did, but the meeting itself had an odd feel to it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just me. Afterwards, it was laundry time, which gave me time to take a gander at Heinlein's For Us, The Living and start David Weber's Old Soldiers. The Heinlein novel, despite Spider Robinson's foreward all agog, is pretty much what you'd expect from a first novel that a master of the craft never tried to polish up and sell during his lifetime - awful. I suppose you could find the shadows of other Heinlein stories there if you looked hard enough, but my literary beer goggles just aren't that thick. Old Soldiers, on the other hand, is the sequel to "With Your Shield", an original story written to fill out the anthology Bolo! reviewed here a few days ago. That story tells the tale of a young lieutenant assigned to a training battalion full of old Bolos no longer considered suitable for front-line service in the war against the Melconian Empire, but as fate would have it the battalion is thrown into action regardless in an attempt to save a Concordiat world unexpectedly attacked by the "puppies". The world is saved, but the lieutenant is severely wounded and her Bolo killed; in the novel, she's assigned to a secret colony effort as commander of the only Bolo to survive the battle, and things proceed from there. It's an interesting story, full of unusual riffs on what could have become a dull, formulaic tale; kudos to Weber and whoever is working as editor in charge of the Bolo shared universe.
After laundry came dinner. I owed P dim sum, so we decided to try out Jun Bo, which replaced the defunct Chi-Chi's on Nicollet and came highly recommended. The quality was every bit as good as we'd been told and then some; not only were the various trays of dim sum excellent but the house special fried rice was outstanding as well. I wasn't too thrilled by the sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, but that's more a matter of my tastes than the food itself. As you would expect from a place serving dim sum at all hours, it was a tad pricy but worth it, imao. Ambience...well, it's like eating in the middle of a ballroom, which is a pleasant change from the usual cramped quarters and low ceilings in most restaurants. The service was very good and as frosting on the metaphorical cake, it's a Coke joint. w00t!
Today's been moderately busy, as reflected by the fact that I started this around 10 AM and am just finishing it now. If the coffee allows, I may actually get a bookshelf done tonight.
