throw another bear in the canoe

I was virtupus and went for a run this morning. Fifteen minutes out (jogged the whole distance) and fifteen minutes back (running intervals), with five minutes of stretching and recovery in the middle. Go on and swallow that live frog, Bear. [Now I have an image of me as Bear Grylls. And no, not so much.]

Interestingly, I slept eight and a half hours last night, and honestly would have liked more. Meatpuppet, what are you dooooing?

Today's schedule: laundry, doing my taxes, page proofs, baking bread, guitar practice, some math, yet another revision pass on "Ballistic," and maybe actually reading an actual book. Ahh, the glamorous life of the writer.

Oh, and I should probably eat something.

[15:25] tanaise: right, because you want more storms in your life.
[15:26] tanaise: dub it something useful like Maker of small bits.
[15:26] matociquala: It looks more like a Stormbringer.
[15:26] matociquala: Never shall it be resheathed when it has not tasted the juice of onion.
[15:26] tanaise: Onions /= storms.
[15:27] tanaise: Name it Onionmincer!
[15:27] leahbobet: It brings the storm to the onion.

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So I got a small windfall recently, and though most of it will be going to appease the tax man, I decided that I could afford to buy myself a kind of spendy present last week, because hey. It's been a while since I bought myself any spendy presents. And nobody else buys them for me.

So I decided I was going to buy a heavy-duty professional quality chef's knife I have had my eye on for a while, since I don't own a cleaver, and this can do double duty on many things. I bought this one, although I did pay less for it than it lists for.

It came yesterday. The blade is so broad I had to get it a new knife block: one with a cleaver slot. And horizontal storage.

I feel a little guilty. Because hey, in addition to my assortment of crappy stamped-steel kitchen drawer knives, I have two pretty nice Henckels, an 8" chef and a paring knife. They've served me well for years, and been shipped across country twice. Every time I thought, hey, I could get myself a really nice chef's knife, I would think, no, this one is good enough.

...I don't think I like them any more.

Poor knives. Abandoned for a new, sexy, younger model. I'm a bad domestic partner.

I'm breaking it in on arcaedia's Vietnamese Pan-Seared Quail recipe, and baby. This thing turns me into Ming Tsai. You should see me mince ginger into tiny perfect cubes. Butterfly quail. Chop an onion or some fresh oregano. Shave slices off a lime you could read through without holding the paper up to the light.

I'm a little scared of it. I could shave light with this knife. It has a rune-carved, watermarked blade.

That's right. My new kitchen knife has a damascened blade.

<3