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Soooooo...
We had spaghetti squash with dinner last night.
Gnerk.
See, it's not bad. Preferable to actual zucchini, at least. Unfortunately it *is* very much of a summer-squash taste and texture and, apparently, disposition.
Summer squashes tend to make Paul sick, while Winter squashes (oddly? I don't know) are actually really good for him.
The Spaghetti squash (while very nifty from a cooking perspective) acted like a summer squash and did not do him any good.
So. We won't be having that again.
(Which, of course, brings up the question of 'what do I do with the 2/3 of a spaghetting squash I've got sitting in my fridge?' Any ideas?)
I did not make creme brulee yesterday.
I discovered that the handily oven-safe bowl I was going to use for my water-bath is not, in fact, big enough to hold the casserole dish in-which I was was going bake the custard.
It occurs to me now that, in fact, I could (in theory) use the casserole dish as the water-bath, and the bowl as the baking dish.
Or, conversely, I just wait for the dish-washer to cycle through and use my square baking dish for my wter-bath. Which I think would also work. :-)
Anyway, there will be tastey, tastey creme brulle for me. :-) Yay! :-D
*~*~*~*~*
In other news, I got my copy of "No Plot? No Problem!" in the mail, yesterday and have been happily character-sketching.
I offer the following about Sam:
Samantha Lynne Butler (17) attends Lisgar Collegiate Institute in down town Ottawa.
She is, in effect, a fantasy-geek with a dark streak.
She works at Singing Pebble Books (on Main, next to the Green Door), and eats at the Green Door a lot, even though it's expensive (she's not actually vegetarian, by the way, although her friend, Jess, is veggie and ribs her about her 'dead-animal-addiction' occasionally). Her place of work is, handily, only about two doors down from her physiotherapist's clinic. (See below).
She enjoys soccer, but can no-longer play it due to a major car accident that occured when she was twelve (crushed leg, broken arm, cracked ribs, broken collar-bone, whiplash and a bad concussion. She may have been unconsious for a couple of days, too. Not sure, yet. But it would be a handy plot device if she were. ;-)
Her parents divorced (After several years of failed marriage counciling) about a year ago, reaching the following decision:
Sam's Mom (Louise (nee Parker) Butler -- a Real Estate Agent) got the house as a 'buy-out' in lieu of alamony (sp). Sam's Dad (Rob/Ron (not sure yet) Butler -- A Dentist) pays child support dirrectly into an RESP for Sam's futer education (or whatever).
Sam has 'give me my freedom' issues (more-so than most teens[1], I suspect) with her mother. Who is a worrier to begin with, and now is dealing with Control Issues as well, because she's constantly freaking about her daugther Being Careful, and Being Responsable, and also because her husband recently left her and she's trying to hang onto the bit of her family that she's still got.
I can quite easily imagine an explosive exchange between them ending in something like this:
"Dad doesn't care how late I stay out!"
"That's right. He doesn't."
In contrast, the issues that Sam has with her dad are more related to trust. See, When Sam was fourteen, her Dad decided that he was sick and tired of having it constantly implied that he was incompetant or irresponsable, or what-have-you by his wife. He gave himself a raise (he runs his own clinic) and started funnelling the extra money into a private account that he didn't disclose to his family. Revenue Canada knew about it, and taxed him appropriately, but Louise and Sam were none-the-wiser. When Sam was fifteen, Rob/Ron started dropping hints about separation and divorce, and there was a lot of tension in the house, and a lot of fighting. (Sam started escaping more and more into her novels at this point and listening to fairly mainstream Angry Music on her headphones). When she was sixteen (a year ago) her parents finalized their divorce. This was about a year ago.
So. Rob/Ron lives in a 2.5-bedroom (Read two cubicles and a closet) loft-condo down town. His girlfriend, Nat(h)alie, visits often, but doesn't actually live there. (They've been dating about six months -- I think she works for an IT company based in the same multi-business building as Rob's/Ron's clinic).
Sam doesn't think of her Dad's place as 'home'. As such her bedroom at her Dad's place is pretty sparse. There's a futon (that spends the week looking like a couch, and the weekends being slept on by Sam) and an empty closet and an empty chest of drawers, because Sam is still treating it like 'visiting' instead of 'her house'.
Sam will, however, occasionally phone her Dad and ask to spend the night at his place ("Sure honey. You can stay here whenever you want. It's your house, too.") during the week because she's having dificulties dealing with her Mom.
Sometimes Rob/Ron buys her clothes (really basic stuff like jeans or shirts or what-ever) in the hopes that she'll leave them at his place, rather than take them back to her Mom's.
He misses her a lot.
And Sam misses her Dad, but is... tip-toing around the edges of this big pit of issues that she's not prepared to deal with just yet.
The kind of exchanges she has with her Dad are less about yelling and more about tight, strained voices, and "Dad, I'm fine, I just... I don't want to talk about it right now, okay? Just leave it/me alone."
Nat(h)alie Boyer: Is kinda pretty, blond wavy hair, in her mid-fourties. (Rob/Ron's about fifty, Louise is about fourty-eight, I think). Sam doesn't like her *at all*, but she's actually quite a nice woman. She tries to be friendly with Sam (and occasionally makes the mistake of having a "Look, I know you don't like me very much, but I'm not tryign to replace your mom or anything, give me a chance?' talk with Sam -- which is a bad idea. I don't think any such exchange is going to happen in the book, but they may be alluded to by an irritated Sam. Mostly Nat(h)alie is there to keep Rob/Ron busy and out of the house for at least some of the time. :-)
Jess (Evans?): Jess is Sam's Best Friend Since Grade Nine. Jess has a new boyfriend (Carl? Maybe?) who goes to Glebe and who she's been spending a lot of time with lately (ah, the bud of new romance, so eager to burst into bloom. Yada-yada. ;-) leaving Sam feeling a bit abandoned.
Jess is in LEAF, she's a bit of a punky-gothy-Lady-Fest type of girl, if you will, happy as a clam in surplus-store army boots and a bandana listenting to Ani diFranco on her iPod. She and Carl go to a lot of concerts at Club Saw. Sometimes Sam comes, too, but lately she's been feeling like a third wheel and keeps begging off out of awkwardness.
Between Sam feeling wierd around The Couple, and Jess wanting to do things with Carl, they're kind of having a spat of extended isolation.
They miss each other.
I think Jess will become more important to the story as it moves along, if only because Sam's going to end up in some trouble, and Jess is someone who -- spacey as she's become what with this new Boi -- will still be there for Sam when she needs her.
Claire Deschamps: Sam's co-worker at Singing Pebble. A bit flakey. Does yoga, puts a lot of store in tarrot cards. (That could be a fun plot device, I suppose... a really freaky tarrot reading on the eve of Hallowe'en. Hm...) She's your basic white-light Pagan-Bunny. Wears a lot of jewellery (duh) and is, well, very Mystic-Cosmic-I'm-Seventeen-and-Self-Absorbed, but also very well-meaning.
Mrs. Fitzhenry (or, possibly, Fitzpatrick): The school guidance councillor, who Sam's been seeing ever week or two since she was fifteen. She wears her glasses on a fine chain around her neck and is mildly scatterbrained. Not sure what else there is to worry about with this character. Although as the book progresses, she may be increasingly worried about Sam's mental health. We'll find out.
Hellen Saunders (I think): Sam's physiotherapist. Based loosely (as in, she works in the same place) on my mother-in-law. Not sure if she's going to feature in the story in anything more than passing, but there she is. :-)
I think that about does it for humans. :-)
[1] Who came up with the word 'teen-ager', anyway? (Probably some record-producer, if I'm any judge. ;-) Not that I am. ;-)
We had spaghetti squash with dinner last night.
Gnerk.
See, it's not bad. Preferable to actual zucchini, at least. Unfortunately it *is* very much of a summer-squash taste and texture and, apparently, disposition.
Summer squashes tend to make Paul sick, while Winter squashes (oddly? I don't know) are actually really good for him.
The Spaghetti squash (while very nifty from a cooking perspective) acted like a summer squash and did not do him any good.
So. We won't be having that again.
(Which, of course, brings up the question of 'what do I do with the 2/3 of a spaghetting squash I've got sitting in my fridge?' Any ideas?)
I did not make creme brulee yesterday.
I discovered that the handily oven-safe bowl I was going to use for my water-bath is not, in fact, big enough to hold the casserole dish in-which I was was going bake the custard.
It occurs to me now that, in fact, I could (in theory) use the casserole dish as the water-bath, and the bowl as the baking dish.
Or, conversely, I just wait for the dish-washer to cycle through and use my square baking dish for my wter-bath. Which I think would also work. :-)
Anyway, there will be tastey, tastey creme brulle for me. :-) Yay! :-D
*~*~*~*~*
In other news, I got my copy of "No Plot? No Problem!" in the mail, yesterday and have been happily character-sketching.
I offer the following about Sam:
Samantha Lynne Butler (17) attends Lisgar Collegiate Institute in down town Ottawa.
She is, in effect, a fantasy-geek with a dark streak.
She works at Singing Pebble Books (on Main, next to the Green Door), and eats at the Green Door a lot, even though it's expensive (she's not actually vegetarian, by the way, although her friend, Jess, is veggie and ribs her about her 'dead-animal-addiction' occasionally). Her place of work is, handily, only about two doors down from her physiotherapist's clinic. (See below).
She enjoys soccer, but can no-longer play it due to a major car accident that occured when she was twelve (crushed leg, broken arm, cracked ribs, broken collar-bone, whiplash and a bad concussion. She may have been unconsious for a couple of days, too. Not sure, yet. But it would be a handy plot device if she were. ;-)
Her parents divorced (After several years of failed marriage counciling) about a year ago, reaching the following decision:
Sam's Mom (Louise (nee Parker) Butler -- a Real Estate Agent) got the house as a 'buy-out' in lieu of alamony (sp). Sam's Dad (Rob/Ron (not sure yet) Butler -- A Dentist) pays child support dirrectly into an RESP for Sam's futer education (or whatever).
Sam has 'give me my freedom' issues (more-so than most teens[1], I suspect) with her mother. Who is a worrier to begin with, and now is dealing with Control Issues as well, because she's constantly freaking about her daugther Being Careful, and Being Responsable, and also because her husband recently left her and she's trying to hang onto the bit of her family that she's still got.
I can quite easily imagine an explosive exchange between them ending in something like this:
"Dad doesn't care how late I stay out!"
"That's right. He doesn't."
In contrast, the issues that Sam has with her dad are more related to trust. See, When Sam was fourteen, her Dad decided that he was sick and tired of having it constantly implied that he was incompetant or irresponsable, or what-have-you by his wife. He gave himself a raise (he runs his own clinic) and started funnelling the extra money into a private account that he didn't disclose to his family. Revenue Canada knew about it, and taxed him appropriately, but Louise and Sam were none-the-wiser. When Sam was fifteen, Rob/Ron started dropping hints about separation and divorce, and there was a lot of tension in the house, and a lot of fighting. (Sam started escaping more and more into her novels at this point and listening to fairly mainstream Angry Music on her headphones). When she was sixteen (a year ago) her parents finalized their divorce. This was about a year ago.
So. Rob/Ron lives in a 2.5-bedroom (Read two cubicles and a closet) loft-condo down town. His girlfriend, Nat(h)alie, visits often, but doesn't actually live there. (They've been dating about six months -- I think she works for an IT company based in the same multi-business building as Rob's/Ron's clinic).
Sam doesn't think of her Dad's place as 'home'. As such her bedroom at her Dad's place is pretty sparse. There's a futon (that spends the week looking like a couch, and the weekends being slept on by Sam) and an empty closet and an empty chest of drawers, because Sam is still treating it like 'visiting' instead of 'her house'.
Sam will, however, occasionally phone her Dad and ask to spend the night at his place ("Sure honey. You can stay here whenever you want. It's your house, too.") during the week because she's having dificulties dealing with her Mom.
Sometimes Rob/Ron buys her clothes (really basic stuff like jeans or shirts or what-ever) in the hopes that she'll leave them at his place, rather than take them back to her Mom's.
He misses her a lot.
And Sam misses her Dad, but is... tip-toing around the edges of this big pit of issues that she's not prepared to deal with just yet.
The kind of exchanges she has with her Dad are less about yelling and more about tight, strained voices, and "Dad, I'm fine, I just... I don't want to talk about it right now, okay? Just leave it/me alone."
Nat(h)alie Boyer: Is kinda pretty, blond wavy hair, in her mid-fourties. (Rob/Ron's about fifty, Louise is about fourty-eight, I think). Sam doesn't like her *at all*, but she's actually quite a nice woman. She tries to be friendly with Sam (and occasionally makes the mistake of having a "Look, I know you don't like me very much, but I'm not tryign to replace your mom or anything, give me a chance?' talk with Sam -- which is a bad idea. I don't think any such exchange is going to happen in the book, but they may be alluded to by an irritated Sam. Mostly Nat(h)alie is there to keep Rob/Ron busy and out of the house for at least some of the time. :-)
Jess (Evans?): Jess is Sam's Best Friend Since Grade Nine. Jess has a new boyfriend (Carl? Maybe?) who goes to Glebe and who she's been spending a lot of time with lately (ah, the bud of new romance, so eager to burst into bloom. Yada-yada. ;-) leaving Sam feeling a bit abandoned.
Jess is in LEAF, she's a bit of a punky-gothy-Lady-Fest type of girl, if you will, happy as a clam in surplus-store army boots and a bandana listenting to Ani diFranco on her iPod. She and Carl go to a lot of concerts at Club Saw. Sometimes Sam comes, too, but lately she's been feeling like a third wheel and keeps begging off out of awkwardness.
Between Sam feeling wierd around The Couple, and Jess wanting to do things with Carl, they're kind of having a spat of extended isolation.
They miss each other.
I think Jess will become more important to the story as it moves along, if only because Sam's going to end up in some trouble, and Jess is someone who -- spacey as she's become what with this new Boi -- will still be there for Sam when she needs her.
Claire Deschamps: Sam's co-worker at Singing Pebble. A bit flakey. Does yoga, puts a lot of store in tarrot cards. (That could be a fun plot device, I suppose... a really freaky tarrot reading on the eve of Hallowe'en. Hm...) She's your basic white-light Pagan-Bunny. Wears a lot of jewellery (duh) and is, well, very Mystic-Cosmic-I'm-Seventeen-and-Self-Absorbed, but also very well-meaning.
Mrs. Fitzhenry (or, possibly, Fitzpatrick): The school guidance councillor, who Sam's been seeing ever week or two since she was fifteen. She wears her glasses on a fine chain around her neck and is mildly scatterbrained. Not sure what else there is to worry about with this character. Although as the book progresses, she may be increasingly worried about Sam's mental health. We'll find out.
Hellen Saunders (I think): Sam's physiotherapist. Based loosely (as in, she works in the same place) on my mother-in-law. Not sure if she's going to feature in the story in anything more than passing, but there she is. :-)
I think that about does it for humans. :-)
[1] Who came up with the word 'teen-ager', anyway? (Probably some record-producer, if I'm any judge. ;-) Not that I am. ;-)
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