Wine Has Been Tasted, and Recs Are Made

So tonight I went to a charity wine-tasting event. Now I'm home again. Much wine has been tasted.

I did not care for the Australian shiraz. It had an odd lemongrassy finish. I had three tastes of it, just to make sure I did not like it.

I did like the Argentinian red whatever-it-was, and a merlot from somewhere, and something else that was red and tasty. (I am not fond of white wine, so I did not taste any).

The food, I am sorry to say, was mediocre at best: rubbery mini-quiches, ham biscuits (WTF?) that gave new meaning to the word "leaden," tomato-and-mozzarella bites awash in inferior olive oil, "lamb" sausage that made mutton look young.

But who needs food, when there is plenty of wine? I can always eat later. And now that I am at home, I'm considering eating some toast made of nice rye bread with caraway seeds (a weakness of mine) if I can energize myself to make it.

I did not win the door prize at the wine-tasting, but since I'm not sure what the door prize was, it doesn't matter.

I have finished a draft of my hp_beholder fic! As always when I finish a draft, I believe that it sucks donkey dicks, but we shall see. (When wine has not been tasted, my vocabulary is usually less colorful, but as I believe I mentioned, wine has been tasted.)

As part of my procrastination regimen, I have read some fun/good stories recently. The first two have already been recced by my excellent flisties, but I'd like to mention them again:

Could You Be a Little Less by the_birdnest -- A report on the status of women in the wizarding world. Very funny and very scary.

The Things Draco Carries by catsintheattic. The title comes from a book I'm fond of, Tim O'Brien's collection of haunting Vietnam stories/memoirs, The Things They Carried. This story traces Draco's development, from his first to his seventh years at Hogwarts, through an inventory of the items in his schoolbag. Beautifully-conceived, very nicely-written. Even if you're not a Draco fan, you will appreciate this story. Excellent art, too.

Two Colours of Ink (Minerva/Sirius) by one of my favorite writers, pre_raphaelite1. This hilarious story is a sort of remix/continuation of a very funny Severus/Sirius fic by eeyore9990 called Failure to Communicate. While you don't absolutely have to read Eeyore's piece first, I recommend it.

Both stories revolve around Sirius Black's attempts to seduce people with bad art (thoughtfully provided for your reference by the authors). Pre_Raphaelite1's Sirius/Minerva is not only laugh-aloud funny, with spot-on IC characters, but she also provides her trademark subtextual bite: there's depth and chill to this story under (or alongside or someplace) the humor. Yeah, you have to suspend your disbelief a little bit, but only a bit. The whole thing is taut and clever, and I want a sequel.