The Megastore recommends.

that's the blue I'm talking about.

1. Cool evenings. In the summertime, we look at the weather for the possible hint of a dip in the temperature. Today, it was cooler than you'd expect for late July, and that felicitous condition just got better as the day wore on. I had a date with my friend Jennifer to have dinner downtown. When I got there at 6:30, the patio was humming, and when she arrived a few minutes later, we decided to eat outside. 'I like to be outside when it's nice,' she said, and that's, to me, the quintessence of summer: too hot, and I feel like my brain and also my will to live are melting, but when it's light and lovely and not too hot, it's only heaven. We took a seat outside and proceeded to have a blissful three hour conversation with excellent food and a pretty great soundtrack. At 9:30, we walked around the corner to our cars. The sky was a particularly sublime shade of twilight blue, which I also recommend.

a dramatic reenactment of the excellent fries
we had tonight.

2. French fries. The people, there is perhaps no greater indication of human civilization than cooked food. You might say feats of engineering or art. And you'd be right--those are also indicators of &c &c, but cooked food? Cooked food makes the world a better place for you, the people, and all the people, really. Example: the fried potato. The potato belongs to the humble, maligned carbohydrate tribe, but really, it and its starchy brethren deserve some serious credit for keeping hope, and people, alive. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that french fries are the best. And it's totally acceptable, in my book, to make a little project of eating french fries at this and that fancy restaurant, for the purposes of science, to see which ones are good, and which one are better, and which ones are the best. Let me emphasize: for science. And also because french fried potatoes might remind you of your mom and how she used to make french fries with a deep fat fryer from time to time, and how they were so so so good. EAT FRIES, is what I am trying to tell you are you even listening to me?

like this, but with chocolate creme anglaise. and popcorn.

3. A whimsical dessert. Okay, I've calmed down, even though I am still excited to report that, at my
lovely dinner, we shared a dessert that was both adorable and delicious. It was another fried thing, a doughnut, beignet style, dipped in cinnamon sugar and served with chocolate creme anglaise. Also, caramel popcorn, don't ask my why, except that it was tasty and charming and we ate every last bit of it. What were they thinking when they thought of it? why chocolate creme anglaise and caramel popcorn? I don't know, but after having eaten it, I say why not?

4. Working on a tiny book project. My previous book project has emboldened me to think I can probably do anything. So I would like to announce that today at the Publication Center's Makerpalooza, which I hope will become an annual event, I began my project, which will entail the following:

just google it, and see some examples of the splendor
of this book form. seriously. just do it!

• a piece of writing that I have recently taken out of my manuscript but which I think still has potential,
• laid out in InDesign and
• turned into a photopolymer plate, so that
• it can be printed on the etching press, to create
• a letter press effect, and which will be
• folded by hand using the Turkish Map Fold, which is
• actually a real thing, and
• bound in a do-si-do binding (thank you for the idea, Charlotte!), which will be
• covered with another letter press title page, and titled Variations on a Book.

If I can pull all of this off, grand and splendid possibilities will await us in the Publication Center. Foolhardy optimism, it turns out, is another thing I highly recommend.