Kitchen karma

My kitchen karma is happy where it is, thank you. Sheesh.

I baked my first batch of sourdough bread today. It came out nicely, after 20 hours of proofing, and five hours of rising. (I used the time in between to unpack 15 boxes of books. I have a couple of boxes of fiction that needs to be weaseled into the fiction shelves, and I'll be putting the textbooks in the basement, for lack of space.)

My karma, though, wants to be balanced. If I'm gonna do good bread, well then. You'd think I could manage spaghetti, don't you? Hah.

Stupid pan caught on fire.

(I'd added olive oil to the water to cut down on the bubblies and to keep the noodles slidey. A little slosh and FOOM! up in flames.)

Just: FOOM!

Didn't burn long, but I thought Dru was kidding when he told me the kitchen was on fire. Again. (So I may have burned my kitchen down before - I was sixteen!)

The spaghetti turned out ok, and the kitchen didn't get much more than smoky. The karma is happy.

First Lines from favorite books

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - How I love this line.

The first facet was purpose. An Oblique Approach by David Drake and Eric Flint - It's a little obscure, but serves its purpose.

The mystery would never be solved. 1632 by Eric Flint - It speaks of the mechanism that hurls a West Virginia mining town a few hundred years into the past, smack dab in the middle of Germany.

As a young warrior, Nukurren had heard the demons come. Mother of Demons by Eric Flint - This one is interesting, setting up the shift in perception to the non-humans (who see the humans as demons).

The visiting Scottish folksinger peered out of the elevator into the hotel lobby. Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb - The first line is nothing. It takes the whole first paragraph to fully express the bizarre nature of a sci-fi con.

When I left my office that beautiful spring day, I had no idea what was in store for me. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls - I do: everytime I read this book, I cry.

Gently. Elfrid let the held breath out slowly as the third sphere took solidity and hung with the other two - iridescent, luminous - in the shadow of the minstrel's gallery. The Princess of Flames by Ru Emerson - I'm not conversent with most of her work, but I've worn this copy almost to shreds.

Twenty-six months before her second birthday, Maia learned the true difference between winter and summer. Glory Season by David Brin - You realize real quick you're on a different world. It takes a little bit longer to really realize how different.

Cazaril heard the mlounted horsemen on the road before he saw them. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - How can I choose just one Miles book? Easy: pick the non-Miles book.

The powers of order and chaos are in all things, and in the life of all races there comes a time when they must learn there is a Choice to be made. Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner - I want her to finish the bloody series. It's truly lovely.