Normally when there’s food and fire, I’ve been cooking. I submit Chris’ exhibit A, formerly known as oven mitts:

So I was surprised when at The Gracie Mews for breakfast on my birthday recently, my eggs and bacon arrived at the table engulfed in flame. Ok, there was a small birthday candle wedged in some potatoes between two slices of bacon. And then the wait staff sang, which was brilliant, although as English wasn’t everyone’s first language it started going free-style about halfway through. Another song was in the offing but bacon contains grease, and cute little birthday candle flames quickly become threatening infernos when said bacon is piled around said flame, so I quickly made a wish (well two, the first being not to become engulfed in flames myself) and had a very cool birthday breakfast.

And before you say it, no, I will not try this at home.

By that I mean thinking about my next novel. I’m currently rereading The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchmann, and it is beyond annoying at the moment. I’m taking notes just about every other sentence. Her writing style is so lucid and filled with sharp, concise details that I’m constantly thinking ‘oh, that’s good, I have to incorporate something like that in my next book’. She did win a Pulitzer for this book so its pedigree is stellar. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it, even if you’re a fiction reader/writer. In fact, especially if you’re a fantasy reader/writer. Her descriptions of royalty alone make it worth picking up.

I’m fascinated with history. I once took up smoking cigars because I was so taken by the image of some of the great men of history bending over map tables, stogie firmly clamped between their teeth while carving up nation states and changing the very course of human civilization. The power embodied in that captivated me. I got it into my head that I would actually better understand these men and their places in history if I too lit up (and, I thought it might give me a certain roguish appeal with the ladies). As it turns out, there aren’t a whole lot of ladies out there attracted to guys turning green, coughing, then puking, all while trying to discuss the intricacies of the Bismarckian alliance system.

I have, however, found a more useful and rewarding connection with history that holds little likelihood of my regurgitating the contents of my stomach while talking about Sykes-Picot or the Treaty of Versailles. Yes, I’m referring to fountain pens. Every time I pick one up I feel like I have history in my hand. The weight, the deliberateness of the writing, the flow of the ink…it transports me to another time. As useful as my laptop is, give me a stack of thick, woven paper, a bottle of ink, and my fountain pen, and you can keep the cigar.

I popped into the grocery store on my way home from B&N tonight to pick up some bananas and a bagel and made the mistake of paying with cash. My total came to a whopping $2.02 and of course, I didn’t have two cents on me. Some places will let the two cents slide, but my winning smile must have been on the blink because I wound up jingling all the way home.

I’m a coffee drinker for the most part, but I grew up drinking tea. My mother got me on to it as a kid and I find I always reach for a hot tea whenever I’m not feeling well or just want something soothing and not as aggressive as coffee. Last weekend I found a tea that I thought would fit the bill – apple cinnamon. I mean, it’s got apples and cinnamon in it! That’s like one of the greatest duos in history. Sadly, when mixed with black tea leaves the partnership just doesn’t work. It’s like this confused hot mess of cider, tea, and liquid apple pie. Sounds like it should work, but it doesn’t (er, maybe it doesn’t sound like it should work now that I think about it more, but in the store the thought of liquid apple pie seemed appealing). On the other hand, a friend put me on to almond tea which has no actually tea leaves in it and hence, no caffeine, and wow, she knew what she was talking about. Almond tea is amazing. The kicker, however, is that while you can find apple cinnamon tea, the almond tea appears to have been discontinued.