Pre-Thanksgiving cheesecake (beefcake?)

One of the things I still love about my job is the time I get to spend looking through weird old historic photos of the various famous people who have lived in my burg/village/valley over the years. Recognize this handsome fellow? He's going to be the cover guy on the next issue of the magazine I art direct – a different photo, but I think I'm going to find a way to use this one somewhere inside. It would make a great cover though too, wouldn't it?

Work continues to be insane but I've managed to get a day off for Thanksgiving tomorrow – though I worked four hours after everyone else had gone home today, and will also work most or all of the weekend. The reasons why are annoying and I hope they will be dealt with, but I have no authority to do anything about the situation except complain on my blog, so I'm going to let it go. As it is, the press check has been pushed back two weeks, to the very last possible moment we could push it and still have the book out before Christmas. Which means I'll be able to narrowly avoid traveling in the Christmas rush at the airport. Good news.

The boots arrived today and I was right – the ones I wanted are all wrong in the toe. Why do the shoe designers think every woman wants her feet to look dainty and slender? This is actually a pet peeve of mine from way back: I hate it when the proportions of things are wrong, and trying to apply a single standard of proportion (long, narrow, pointy) to every foot on every woman's body regardless of the shape, size or proportion of the rest of her body is just so WRONG! I may have mentioned this before but I have a rather serious aversion to long, narrow and pointy things, especially hands and feet – to me, the ideal shape for hands and feet is more square in overall proportion, with square or round ends on all the pieces. There are exceptions, of course. For instance, a long, thin person with a beautifully shaped head (the shape of the skull is critical to the overall look, in my opinion – and there's only so much a good haircut can do to mitigate an unfortunate cranial configuration) is perfectly welcome to also have long, thin hands and feet.

But a person whose hands and/or feet are too small for their body, or whose head is too small – this will drive me to distraction. I have this problem a little bit with my own head, actually. Not that it's too small, but I have a sort of flat spot on the back of my skull that makes it impossible for me to have very short hair. (By the way – hats are the perfect solution for a disproportionate head. I'll never understand why people stopped wearing them.)

Pointy-toed cowboy boots, or fetish boots, or certain very beautiful vintage pumps (with or without kitten heel) are OK with me. I'm not able to wear them myself, but I appreciate and approve of them.

Anyway. The boots are too narrow and tapered in the toe, and they will be going back. Next, I will try a pair of the plain old classic Frye engineer boots – the 12R, in black. These, as I've already mentioned, have the problem of the curvy heel ... which I just don't know if I can get over. I'm going to try. And if I can't stand it, I guess I'll just get the black version of the round-toed riding boots I've been wearing for the last two years. It wouldn't be the end of the world.

Enough boot talk. Enough frivolous fashion talk! This is what it comes to though when I'm brain dead from overwork, and preoccupied by thoughts of all the yummy desserts (for tomorrow! not tonight!) just a few feet away, over in the fridge. Not to mention the Iron Chef Thanksgiving Challenge going on in the background – they're doing duck, my favorite. And venison!

Happy Thanksgiving.