dainty as a dishrag. faithful as a chow.
groggyApparently I am in the middle of a cycle of stories taking the piss out of academia. I finished one already this year--"The Bone War"--and it's a central theme of the thing I'm contributing to Worldspinner. And I'm finally getting some traction on "On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera," a story I have been working on literally since 1989.
I also have a thing called "And The Balance in Blood," that'll be finished as soon as I think of a climax, and a snarky-ass library story that has no title yet, but it does have an epigraph:
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
? Jorge Luis Borges
Of course, none of these are the things that are due in January and February.
Of course not. Those are still looking for plots.
(I've been cooking a bunch too, as writing breaks--tomato soup and purple sweet potato biscuits yesterday, green tea agar (it's delicious with rosemary simple syrup), and today a batch of 
standuponit's root veggie muffins and some tangerine cream cheese spread to go on them.)
Here, have some pictures of tea. I've been using my beloved and cracked Royal Doulton irises teacup for days, for the moral support, so there's not going to be a lot of variation. *g*
And here, have a bonus picture of my dog.
I says "Have you not seen my grandmother's?"
"No. I think they're in a box in the guest room."
So, we unboxed 'em. There are five assorted matching cups and saucers. I have no idea what they are - I am to fine china what Jenny McCarthy is to immunology - but I don't particularly care. They are pretty, and they belonged to my grandmother, so I will treasure them irrespective of whether they're thousand-dollar antiques or they came from the closeout bin at the Meijer.
And now, apparently because of you, they will once again be used to serve tea.
And you can find out with a little research at least some of the provenance. They usually have the manufacturer and country of origin, and sometimes the name of the pattern, stamped on the bottom.
Also, it's fun to break out the teacups for your friends!
(I've never encountered agar before, obviously.)
Hi doggo!
They buy and sell discontinued china patterns and patterns of silver flatware and they've got a humongous online data base.
And then there's the Great Swiss-Bernese cross matriarch at the barn. She's the last of the pack, alas, but going strong. A different variant of GRD.
My china cups, on the other hand, belonged to my mother-in-law.
Squeak! *bounce*
And good luck with the writing! I hope the plots come upon you soon. :)
Ace is a neutered male Briard. He's 9. He's cut down to a couple of inches of fur. Left untrimmed, he'd look like this: