Speaking of kitchen gadgets that look annoying to clean but I totally need anyway, I present this totally awesome whisk.

Silda is a smart cookie, and very tough. I doubt anyone is forcing her to do what she doesn't want to do. I don't like the idea that she's not doing this for her own reasons-- maybe her kids, or her divorce settlement, or her other ambitions after this.

The children part is what makes me craziest. If she doesn't kick his ass to the curb the lesson she teaches the 3 daughters isn't one I would teach my daughters. Personal button. My neighbor's husband treated her like crap in front of their sons all the time. Now the grown sons treat women like crap. Kids learn from our actions people.

Oh, most excellent whisk! It wouldn't be hard to clean for liquids.

sits with Laura

Craigslist ad for Silda: [link]

Does anybody doubt I'm a blade type?

I did tell you guys the story of the blowhard copier repair guy, who had to "make conversation" (but--why? Fix the copier, and leave!) by talking to me about ...things. In one instance, his gun collection. He seemed to feel I wasn't responding with enough eye-batting adoration--or maybe I just had an itchy spork that day. "...went BOOM!" he finished his saga of weekend black powder events.

I fixed him with a sweet smile, an unflinching eye, and a soft voice. "I don't like things that go boom," I told him. "I like things that go ssssssnnniccckkk."

His eyes got a little buggy, he went a little pale. "Wh-what d'you mean?"

"The katana, wakizashi, and the cavalry sabre I own. Plus my kitchen knives: the cleaver, the 10-inch chef, the butcher knife with the eighth-inch tang, and the Finnish filet knives, all smooth blond wood and edges so smooth you don't know you've been cut till you see the blood. You know, sssssnnnnniickkkkt!"

He turned a little green, and found conversation less necessary after that.

BevDog! remains, as always, awesome.

The iron man triathlete guy in my dept is bugged by my BK Wednesdays. Finds it IMPOSSIBLE that I have had BK at least once a week for most of 5 years. Eat it Health/Fit boy, that's how I roll.

Craigslist ad for Silda: [link]

Ok, that cracks me up. Part of me is saying I should be, as a woman, horribly offended, but that was pretty funny.

The iron man triathlete guy in my dept is bugged by my BK Wednesdays. Finds it IMPOSSIBLE that I have had BK at least once a week for most of 5 years.

Man, if I hadn't brought my lunch today and devoured it already, I'd go to BK just to spite the iron man.

Beverly, I may need to tap your brain for research at some point. I'm still waiting to have more money and more time to actually *do* any re-enacting, but after filling my head with black powder arcana for my last war story, I've found myself needing to learn the bladed side of things. I'm in the same era, but this WIP features one character who's really a lousy shot (we're talking Dick Cheney levels of you would not want to go out hunting with this guy) but good with a sword, and another who's a perfectly good shot, but he ends up as the first guy's best friend and favored sparring partner for sword drill. So I have in mind lots of vaguely slashy male bonding scenes with banter and clashing sabers, only I'll need to figure out how to write the saber bits to frame the banter.