It will never look so good again!

I made a cottage pie for dinner tonight, because it's that sort of weather, and initially I was pretty sure I buggered it up. I put too much milk into the mashed potatoes, so I put more cheese into them than I typically do in an attempt to save it (under the theory that "there is no such thing as too much cheese" -- which is practically a law of the universe now, not a theory anymore).

I got it all put together and popped it in the oven for a final meld. I then hit it with the broiler to make the cheese on top brown up.

I managed to turn off the broiler before it became toast in a bad way. I'll never get it this pretty again, no matter how hard I try:

Toasty, golden and perfectly browned in just enough spots to give crunch, but not so many as to make you think overdone. How did I manage that?

It looks pretty good inside, too.

Aside from making myself and the family some damn handsome kib (if I do say so myself), I went on a date with myself this morning. I went to see The Fifth Estate. I don't know why I wanted to see it so badly (that's a total lie, I do know why: Benedict Cumberbatch), but I did, so I managed to find some free time this afternoon. I spent two more dollars than I prefer to in terms of ticket price going to my second choice theater, but it was the only showing I could swing before prices went way up at 5pm.

It was me and two other couples in the theater, nice and quiet. I do have to admit that surprise at what I was watching forced me twice to make sotto voce comments along the theme of What the hell is wrong with you? That's one of the dumbest things I've seen a person admit to doing!

At the end, I sat there for a few moments, digesting it silently, and the woman in the couple sitting closest to me turned to her companion and asked, "What the hell did we just watch?" I wanted to shout out, "Preach, sister", or possibly "I know your feelz", but I restrained myself and just left before the lights were even fully up. It was an unsettling film, in a way I don't quite understand, and I don't like thinking too closely about it right now. Perhaps in a few days I'll know all that I'm thinking about it, and that will make me feel better.

In either case, the quiet of the car during the drive home gave me time to realize there are two main lessons to take away from that movie.

1. Just because someone has an undiagnosed personality disorder does not make him wrong all the time.

2. While it is true that, like the rest of us, someone on the Autism Spectrum can be a jackass, not all jackasses are Autistic. Sometimes, they're just jackasses.

Let's stop confusing the two, hmmm?

Now, I'm off for pie and a little knitting before I make some ice cream bread for breakfast tomorrow. I may even free hand some streusel topping, just because I can.