Dispatches from a happy Hullian

I've been really enjoying Windhaven, by Lisa Tuttle and George R. R. Martin. It has Martin's sympathetic antagonists, believable politics and difficult world, but is much shorter and more focused — it's composed partly of adapted novellas, which I think helps keep the authors on track and address some interesting themes without the "ooh, I should jump to another character" of the Song of Ice and Fire series. I find the dialogue a little less real-feeling than in Ice and Fire, though. There are also shades of Le Guin and Heinlein, in the elegance and willingness to take on social issues (without Heinlein's occasional spasms of appalling). I think I'll have to give Tuttle-writing-alone a try sometime.

We've also been enjoying Au Maître Brasseur's "Selection" collection of beers — they're generally strong and many of them are lees-y, several are rich and aromatic, and all of them are tasty (although the Belgian blonde is one of those banana-beers due to those wacky Belgian yeasts, which I still find kind of odd).

For the first weeks of Oscar's life, we got a lot of postal mail — friends, forms, confirmations, cards! Hearing the mailbox go clank was kind of exciting. The flow seems to have stopped now, and we're left with the occasional special offer and pizza menu. I'm thinking I'll try to make use of Canada Post a bit more in the future, and keep the excitement going.

( boo! )
( moo! )

Oscar is tracking things with his eyes a lot these days, and kind of grabby (particularly hair, fingers and clothing for now, but my parents have told me of my baby efforts to disassemble everything within reach). He's got the hard 'G' sound figured out, and a few vowels from the back of the mouth, and he's definitely smiling a lot in social ways and in response to tickling.

Tonight, I had Duchesse de Bourgogne, with stuffed tomatoes and zucchini spread on toast. I had it somewhat chilled in a great big goblet.

The beer is dark red with a modest but persistent head that develops craters as the bigger bubbles pop. It doesn't look terribly unusual, and the aroma as I lifted the glass was a bit sweet, a bit malty… but when I put it to my lips, I discovered a beer that was very much like cider. This beer is apparently made with malt, but smacks you with a sweet, sour, apple-y taste while being darker and headier than any cider I've tasted. I could make out the malt a little bit, but mostly it was all fruit with a little spiciness and lots of tasty oomph. The aftertaste was more tartness and spice.

This is definitely an interesting beer, and I'd be interested to see how my cider-drinking friends, particularly those that are opposed to beer, would react. Judging by the ingredients and the honestly-gotten taste, I wouldn't affix my "not a beer" tag, but this has to be the most different beer in the lot so far.

I'm not sure what I'd drink this with — it went well with the tomatoes and the mild zucchini toasts because they didn't interfere with it. It might go well with some gamey or rich meat, or soft, not-too-violent cheese, too.