First there's a sweet flare of chocolate. That's followed by a rich fruitiness that dissolves into mocha--a dusky taste of something that almost promises to become nutmeg. It goes on from there to deliver a mouth-filling rush of rich cocoa and an unexpected bite at the finish.

Chocolate, with benefits.

My latest indulgence is Häagen-Dazs' new Mayan Chocolate ice cream and it was a fabulous choice. Chocolate with cinnamon is one of those ideas you think could be interesting, but that you might have trouble mentally "tasting." Let me tell you, those Mayans knew what they were doing. A "match made in heaven" doesn't even begin to describe this astonishing combination.

It doesn't hurt that Häagen-Dazs holds no brief for the fad of "low-fat" when it comes to ice cream--something I'm eternally grateful for. I don't eat ice cream often and when I do, I love how the full-fat part of a good recipe adds body and richness to even 'ordinary' ice cream flavors. For the Mayan Chocolate, well, it would have been criminal to have short-changed this amazing flavor in any way. Put away your sauces, leave your nut toppings on the shelf, and don't even bother with that pre-fab whipped cream. This isn't an ice cream that needs or deserves to be drowned in lesser flavors.

Mmmm. Ice cream love!

I wish I was feeling some book-love these days. I've been trying Eddings' The Dreamers series. I got the first two books, but I'm not sure I'll buy any more. His Belgariad, etc. books were good in the beginning although some of Eddings' writing tricks were getting--tired, by the last trilogy. His writing, again, good enough in the first trilogy, was becoming labored, and his jokes belabored, by the end.

In The Dreamers, all of the things that became annoying about the first series are back, tripled and triply annoying. Along with some new irritants. Characters talking in dialect and bad jokes beaten into the ground are bad enough. For some reason, we keep revisiting the same scenes over and over in the new series, from the perspective of different characters. And for no particular reason, since none of the characters have any epiphanies or any unique reactions to events to warrant dragging us through the same scenes three or four times. (Eddings uses a sort of, "he saw this happen and then that happened and then that happened and then that happened" approach--we don't actually follow the characters through the scenes, it's all sort of expositioned at us.) I guess it's an easy way to pad out your word count, but it certainly slows the story down. I'm so bored right now I can't even remember why I cared enough about this series to buy a second book.

Anyhow. A quick visit to the bookstore yesterday netted me three more of Cornwall's Sharpe books. So far, that series isn't letting me down.

So, I hear you thinking, what have you been doing with this week's leisure time as an unemployed woman?

Not blogging, I guess.

The R.C. finally worked out her notice and now we're both without gainful employment. This has changed the rhythm of my days somewhat.

I haven't cleaned, washed, or tidied anything in four days. I have a significant need to do (more) laundry and, looking around, I see that both the kitchen and bathroom could use cleaning again.

Mostly, I get up and check the job sites, sending out resumes and giving my personal email a quick look, first thing in the morning.

At some point I have to exchange emails and/or IMs with Her. She jumps on me every time I'm on IM. I've started leaving IM turned off when I'm online in the mornings.

That job I finished for them the weekend after my last day--well, they finally went back to the client with it, the client made major changes, and She and I have been having something of a stand-off ever since as She tries to get me to do all of the recoding and I stand firm behind my belief that She should do it. I've agreed to do the "hard parts" for Her, against my better judgment since She has to learn sometime, but I'm telling myself to be gracious about it. She got pitched into this awfully fast, the learning curve on this job is steep anyhow, and (in my less-annoyed moments) I can acknowledge that She's trying.

I sent Bernie my last time-sheet yesterday. We'll see what happens. He should owe me for a week of pay, plus whatever accumulated vacation hours I had. If it doesn't show up in my checking account tomorrow, I'm done helping out.

No love for Bernie & Her.

It's amazing how quickly I've gotten used to not going to work, though. I mean, yes, I spend a fair amount of times on the jobsites in the mornings and would spend more if I wasn't being careful not to hog up the computer (the R.C. wants to use it too, after all) but other than that, it's less of a strain than I anticipated.

I should be freaking out, but I'm not.

Earlier this week we went to Home Depot (she said with the casual cool of someone who has plumbed the mysteries of Home Depot before and anyhow who didn’t go beyond the first aisle this week and so stood in no danger of getting--suborned). The R.C. and I each bought a plant and I picked up some saucers I needed for the planters I already had. Then we came home and she repotted and I planted seeds and now I'm waiting with breathless anticipation to see if anything sprouts. I've never grown anything from a seed before. It's very exciting.

So. What's the damage?

Home Depot. $11.50

The bookstore yesterday. $40

We were downtown one day, for lunch at The Market. I think that was Saturday. We also swung by The Cheesecake Factor and bought an entire 6" cheesecake! (I've never bought more than a slice of cheesecake before.) $8.00

Thinking. I think that's all the money I've spent so far this week. I went to the grocery store one day, and we had lunch a couple of times, but food comes out of a different budget. ("Cheesecake" doesn't count as food. It's definitely on the "extras" list.)

As always, bookstores remain the biggest item in my personal expenditures list. Still, I think I'm doing pretty well at not overspending.

I Hate Yarn (brief) Interval

I finished a shawl/shoulder wrap. I don't love it. The colors are fabulous (cobalt blue, vivid purple, separated by swaths of black) but I should have used a pattern. Still. It will be warm for whoever gets it, and that's the point, right?

Also, a light-blue and white scarf. Because I had a skein of light-blue left over and a handful of white.

Still working: A cobalt blue scarf, another scarf with that cream-and-pastel-mess yarn (to use up what I had left over) and another medium-blue afghan (to use up, etc.), which is looking like it's going to turn out to be huge. (And warm!) Another scarf (to use up, etc.) with the fabuloso variegated (dark blue through light purple) yarn that turned out to be less-attractive when worked than I'd hoped it would be.

Buying the just the right amount of yarn for a project is a problem for me.

I need to do more yarn stuff in the evenings. I may be doing well at not overspending, but I'm not doing at all well at not overeating. It's time to start keeping my hands busy again.

/end I Hate Yarn Interval

Lemmee see.... I've spent some time playing computer games. Watched a few DVDs. Got together with friends last Sunday to watch episodes of Supernatural, a show they both adore and that I'm indifferent to but I like getting together with them anyhow.

Next up on my list of things to do while I'm unemployed is to dig out the drawing supplies again (I can't find anything since I tidied my room so ruthlessly) and do some practicing.

I have a lot of things around here I could play with (and that I always think of wistfully, when I'm tied to the tyranny of a 9-5 job) and I'm going to try to get to all of them. If nothing else, playing with the toys I already own will help keep me from spending money I shouldn't spend.

And that's how my week has gone I hope yours as been equally as peaceful?