Rest well, Starr. http://ping.fm/NuKZh

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God sells us all things at the price of labor – Leonardo da Vinci. A post about procrastina . . . . . . tion.

Udi’s gluten-free baked goods are now on display at the local Whole Foods. They’re not frozen (!) and the bread bounces back (!) when you poke it through the plastic wrapper. Moist and tasty, it does *not* need to be toasted. Seriously.

I haven’t seen this kind of thing since last October in Ireland, where it was no big deal to pop into the Tesco and find shelf-stable soft and moist GF bread. I can still taste the hot cross buns, matter of fact. Now I can have that sort of thing here.

Hooray!

In happy wire news, there’s an off-Broadway revival of Angels in America in the works. I’ve only ever seen the fabulous HBO version, and it would be even more fabulous if I could see a touring version of the off-Broadway production here.

The play reminds me of my friend Roy Oakes, may he rest in peace and joy, because it was his oft-stated favorite. I met Roy the year I started writing — he and I took a beginning fiction writing class together and were the only two invited by the instructor to join her advanced class. I remember both of us standing outside her front door on our first “advanced” evening, terrified that we wouldn’t fit in or that no one would like our work. And of course it turned out neither of us had a reason to worry.

Roy eventually moved to Taos, New Mexico. Visiting him was my first real vacation. I met great friends of his. It snowed. We ate Stilton (well, *he* ate the Stilton) and drank port and fed cookies to the Corgis in his living room, feet bare with the radiating heat warming our toes. I fell in love with Taos so hard he had to push me into the van that would take me and my luggage back to Albuquerque. You have responsibilities, he said. You can’t stay here. True, but I kept on coming around when I could.

When his favorite play was slotted to be shown on HBO, I ordered the channel (which I don’t normally keep) just so I could see it. I thought of him often while I watched.

I ordered the soundtrack and played it incessantly while I wrote for the next year or so, and it became the soundtrack to one of my novels, Skin and Bone. I thought of Roy often then, too.

And here I sit, thinking about my friend some more. What a blessing he was and is.

http://leslieclairewalker.com/226/angels-in-america/

Today is day 5 of the daily workout regimen -- an hour of Nia on Monday and every other day except Thursday (on account of a late-running Wednesday night meeting), 30 minutes of heavy cardio. I'm hoping to incorporate some lifting into the mix and some formal stretching (yoga) in the next couple of weeks.
I'm gradually getting more used to this schedule and I'm liking it. Good stuff.

Page 142 of the novel and counting. Happily this weekend I don't have a ton going on, so there can be extra writing time.

The Barnes & Noble big box (thanks to the $100 of gift card money I found in my bookcase) is here. It includes my very own copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (I, like everyone else of late, blame Julie & Julia). Also the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series (because I'm behind the rest of the world), Just Listen, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fragile Eternity, and The Demon's Lexicon. These are in line behind God is a Verb and Coyote Blue. Plenty reading, me. Oh, and cooking, too!

In an effort to get more exercise, I've started to wake up even earlier than usual to work out in the morning. That means a sitting meditation, an hour of writing, and a workout -- all before going to the day job.

Yesterday, this sort of silliness produced a state beyond exhaustion: zombietude. No amount of caffeine could rescue it, either. Bah!

Today, not so bad. Mostly awake, even. We'll see how long that lasts seeing as I have a meeting tonight and can't stare at a book or another Netflixed episode of LOST.

Via my friend Anne Hill and Talking Points Memo, I share a very moving memory of Ted Kennedy.

In all the eulogizing today, I've seen a lot of tributes and several comments about Chappaquiddick, plenty about his public service and more than enough about how he murdered/was responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and should never be forgiven.

I say Ted Kennedy was a complicated and flawed human being, just like everyone else. It's always struck me that, whatever he may have to answer for and to whomever, he did the best he could with his life to help people. That's some redemption in my book.

Not my most fun Saturday morning (and afternoon) ever, but I did get a lot done. Wrote 2K and read the entire second half of Le Carre's The Constant Gardener, with all that thick and engrossing prose.

Oh, yeah, and the car finally got fixed. New throttle body and a regular service. Yay for a working car that shifts when it's supposed to and doesn't threaten to die when it idles. :-)

This morning there has been an egg scramble with lots of kale, ground turkey, and pico, all wrapped up in corn tortillas. Stuffed, we are. Now that the tea has brewed, there will be caffeine and some more novel pages.

http://ping.fm/5ZrUr

Once upon a time, I thought this kind of thing involved sitting at the computer for a certain amount of time every day and meeting my goal word count. Plus, every so often, attending workshops taught by people far ahead of me in the game so that I could learn what I need to always be bumping up my level of craft and business knowledge. And then there’s all the amazing people I’ve met and continue to meet at those workshops. Fast friends made under trial by fire.

All of that is at the top of the list for being and staying in writing shape. But that’s not all.

http://ping.fm/gkGoS

After last night’s birthday festivities (no, not mine, but hosted at my house), I have this gorgeous port. What to do with it?