Jon Lasser

I didn't write about the one dive that ironheadjane and I took last Sunday, at Redondo. Twenty-five minutes or so underwater, and I really felt that I'm getting back in the groove regarding buoyancy control and general underwater comfort. So tomorrow's not a bad time to start pushing my boundaries: it's the first dive of our Advanced class, a night dive at Redondo.

Unlike my previous night dive in Bonaire, I'll have a really decent light, and I've dived the site before. That should help, a lot. My previous night dive was a bit confusing, and a little stressful, but very exciting: everything underwater looks different at night. I can hardly stand to wait another twenty-four hours.

I also didn't write about Easter dinner: neutrinoj and zetreehugger came over for lamb (which I braised in red wine using the crock pot while Laura and I dove), gravy, and roast veggies (which zetreehugger made). We played a round of some card/word game whose name I forget, which was entertaining. It was nice and low-key, and tasty, too. Monday I took much of the lamb leftovers and made lamb jalfreze again, which was yummy.

It's been a crappy week for food since then, for the most part: I've been training on the Eastside for work (ITIL v3 Foundation certification), which has meant junk food at lunch (burritos, McDonald's, pizza) and exhaustion at dinner (plus a non-dive Scuba class last night too). Right now, though, I've got ham in the oven, greens on the stove, and I'm prepping for ham-and-bean soup for tomorrow night before diving.

Tonight I'll have to put my dive bag together, so that we can eat, grab bags, and go tomorrow. I can't wait.

Finally, today would have been Michael Jackson's 66th birthday. Raise a glass to the Beer Hunter, if you don't mind, in honor of his memory.

My first (and second) Puget Sound dives today, my first dives in cold water, and my first dives in three and a half years (not counting the pool session last night to review skills). More importantly, my first dive with ironheadjane as my dive buddy.

It's definitely frustrating to be stuck again on the technical bits -- weight, buoyancy, equipment familiarity, and so on. But I'm still comfortable with most of the core skills, and the rest seem to be coming back already. Part of the challenge was new equipment -- 7 millimeter wetsuit with hood, gloves, new boots, new fins, new mask. (Same snorkel, regulator, computer, and BCD.) Part of the challenge was the cold water -- it took me a long time to warm up again, though it didn't feel too cold in the water itself, even if it was 46 degrees at the bottom and only fifty or so out of the water. Really, most of the challenge was too long out of the water.

Cindy, our very awesome dive instructor, noted that it was rather sterile out there today, due perhaps to large classes out on the beach today, and dive activities yesterday. We did see a number of fish, tons of starfish, a bunch of pretty large crabs. (And one tiny, translucent crab scuttling along the bottom that I first mistook for just a small piece of debris someone had stirred up.) Saw what I think were lingcod eggs, a starfish with egg sacs, and a beautiful sea cucumber.

Dives #29 and 30 overall, with 19 hours and 51 minutes of total bottom time. It's great to be back in the water -- I look forward to our Advanced Open Water classes in two weeks, by which time I'll have a new, warmer, wetsuit of my own, and Laura will have her own gear. I'm looking forward to the night dive, which will be only my second night dive. New lights, new dive knives, rash guards, and more, and more. Laura's serious about this: we're buying weights, wetsuits both for here and Hawaii. We're thinking about tanks -- it'll be pretty much the only gear we lack. All we'll need are air fills, and we'll be able to dive together all year long. I'm very much looking forward to that.

Laura and I are heading to Portland for a weekend getaway next weekend, and we're looking for the following:

• A nice place for dinner on Saturday night. Something cozy and maybe a little romantic, but most importantly awesome food.
• A fun place for brunch on Sunday with a moderate-sized group
• People who want to have brunch with me and ironheadjane next Sunday, in Portland

(You can RSVP here or via e-mail.)

I don't write much negative about books here anymore, following a certain incident.

But sometimes I just can't help myself.

I'm glad I'm nearly done reading Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More. ironheadjane bought it for me to read while I was sick this weekend, and I must say that I hadn't imagined bisexual polyamorous vampires could be so excruciatingly dull.

In truth, I'm much more bothered by the lack of imagination in the worldbuilding. Since I haven't read the earlier books in the series, I 'm not sure which parts of it are radically inconsistent with the premise, but I've identified ways that, no matter when the tomato virus occurred or what year it is in the story, things should darned well have been different.

I was also amused by the blurb from the New York Times atop the back cover, which described something as "A Smoldering Combination of Alice Waters and Ozzy Osbourne." I thought, "Alice Waters the chef? Huh? Well, there must be another Alice Waters, a writer, who I don't know about." Nope, the New York Times was talking about that Alice Waters, and it wasn't too complimentary, I don't think. (Also, the burning bunnies annoy me.)

In case anyone's still looking for something to do tonight, ironheadjane and I are having a party, and you're invited.

If you'd like to come but don't know where we live, e-mail, IM, or comment for instructions.

Oscar Peterson's dead, bummer.

I'm sitting at home, eating leftover pasta puttanesca, waiting for UPS to come with my new toy.

Duck is defrosting in the sink, soon maybe I'll make the pickled cabbage salad, since that can be done in advance. Sometime after ironheadjane comes home, I'll pull the suitcase out of the closet and pack for tomorrow, and get to the post office, if it's still open, for some stamps. After that, I'll crisp-braise the duck, roast the potatoes, and make the port-wine pan sauce.

After that, dinner, and maybe a movie.

Tomorrow, Chinese food and A Christmas Story in hi-def at a friend's.