Happy Anniversary green_dreams and the_weaselking!

A++, would befriend and be Matron of Honour for again. :)

<3

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

What makes it unusual is not that it blows up - go find me a small hexa-N-nitro compound that doesn't - but that it doesn't actually blow up immediately, early, and often. No, making things that go off when someone down the hall curses at the coffee machine, that's no problem. Making something like this that can actually be handled and stored is a real accomplishment.


In other words, Dr Derek Lowe has updated Things I Won't Work With, and his latest entry really stinks:

Gloves, man, gloves. Unless, of course, you wish to be tattooed with elemental selenium while being nauseated beyond description. Should this be your idea of a fun Saturday night, I will not stand in your way.

ETA: His Things I'm glad I don't do tag is also well worth:

The prep goes on in this vein, through six different columns, one after the other. Now, imagine joining this research group (which was Yasumoto's, in Japan). It's your first day in the lab, and here comes one of the post-docs carrying a couple of blenders in his arms. Behind him, another one is wheeling in the bags of frozen eel guts. It's moray margarita time, and will be for some time to come.

I ... ACTUALLY scared the cat. She'll put up with me pummelling the mattress while I giggle hysterically, but irregular supersonic squeaking she objects to.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Paper bags
Black earth
Compost or manure.
Assorted drought-and-neglect tolerant wildflower seed mixtures.
Sharpies

To each bag, add one scoop black earth, one small scoop compost or manure, and a hearty shake of seed mix. Shake, or stir, contents thoroughly. Fold down bag tops carefully, decorate with appropriate illustrations and quotations, and distribute with love to nearby untended vacant lots, taking care to weigh the bags down with small rocks.

As the rains come and the bags disintegrate the seeds will, with the blessing, germinate and sprout.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

We bbq'd steak tonight and I didn't feel like The Usual Can Of Baked Beans.

1 can (1 1/2 cups, cooked) chick peas/garbanzo beans, drained.
1 large can (2 cups) of diced tomatoes, undrained.
1/8 cup lime or lemon juice.
1/2 bunch[1] dill, chopped finely.

Pensey's Mural of Flavour, to taste[2].
Black pepper, to taste.
Salt, to taste, very very cautiously.

Cook on medium until flavours have mingled, liquid is slightly reduced, and rest of meal is ready.

Sometimes it's good to just let chick peas taste like chick peas.

[1] Not a misprint. Seriously that much dill, and if you really like dill, more. If you really dislike dill, basil or cilantro or thyme or tarragon would probably be good. Whatever you use, be generous with it.

[2] It's okay if this means "none".

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Please take note that, pursuant to section 16 of Bill 78, the Chamber of Commerce of Gatineau will have a group of “more than 10 persons” on the 29th of May 2012 between 5:00pm and 7:00pm.

...

We anticipate that there will be about 200 people attending. Please be kind enough to let us know the number of plainclothes officers who will infiltrate our event so that we may be able to order the appropriate catering ...

ETA: Gibbs? We're going to need to let them know about the cottage party... you, um, want any help writing the letter?

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

It would be irresponsible of me to explain why the phrase "we have misplaced the family lunchbox", which is currently an actual thing that has happened around here, keeps making me think of Lynford Cicero Christie, "the most decorated British male athlete".

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

The Carleton Sports Medicine Clinic can fit me in next Tuesday afternoon!

I could, in theory, be pain-free by Tuesday evening derby practice!

Also, I have GORGEOUS new skates. *LOVES THEM*. They fit wonderfully. They feel amazing.

Also, really REALLY good kneepads.

I AM EXCITED.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

lasergirl.
Roller Derby.
Derby girls
Lilacs.
Jamie Bamber at ComicCon.
Fangirls.
Farmer's Market.
Sunshine.
Pimm's in the backyard.
Cassoulet made Friday and now finishing off in the oven.

I am contented.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

If I were an absolutist I would say that every kitchen needs a rocking chair. As it is I will only say that I am very very glad that mine has one right now. And kettlebells. :-)

*makes cassoulet and achiote from scratch, does lazy bicep curls*

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

The more I do towards making my hip better, the worse my knee gets. There's an impressive temperature difference between my two legs atm, too.

I mean, I know precisely what's wrong: I do any exercise at all and the swelling of the bursae starts causing restricted circulation and nerve impingement and also displacing the tops of several things which terminate at the knee just enough to cause trouble at the bottom.

Not exercising, however, makes me crazy, does nothing to fix the various imbalances that are causing this whole problem, and leaves me unfit and therefore both unhappy and more vulnerable to additional trouble.

The cortisone shots appointment can't happen soon enough. And I have just been persuaded to buy the GOOD (read: $75) kneepads for skating in.

Because 1) That's ouchy but also less than the cost of two physio appointments.

And 2) I had managed to forget between my high school days and now just how badly I cope with knee pain.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

"Actually, I mostly want three hours of Tony Stark domestic interior, script by Joss Whedon."

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

The hips are considerably better, but by no means fixed. The anti-inflammatories are murdering my stomach lining, so I'll be getting cortisone shots shortly. This will not remove the need for physio, it just buys me some slack to do said physio more effectively without causing myself massive pain.

Nevertheless, I have taken up roller derby. Nobody ever said I had sense, though for at least this year and possibly forever I will be refereeing rather than playing. I am both Excited and Trepidatious.

Signing up as a ref is definitely the way to go if one is interested in a sport but unsure of or insecure about one's welcome. Basically, you say "Hello, I'd like to spend many of my weekends and a certain amount of my own cash enabling your sport to continue, who do I speak to about that?" Be sure to brace yourself, lest the Head Ref, in her excitement at the prospect of being one step closer to the quasi-mythical condition of Enough Refs, crack your ribs when she clasps you to her bosom.

Talking of bosoms, derby girls are hot, and I am about to be given nigh-unlimited permission to whistle at them. My life. So hard.

I have made a roller derby icon, of which I am ridiculously fond.

, for the lj folks.

I am currently reading Helen MacInnes, who I find like very much indeed, and rereading Ian Fleming, who is a really good read once you figure out how to cope with the large wodges of Fail - my personal approach is that I do not actually LIKE Book!Bond very much, as a person - he's a great character, but that's different - so I quietly attribute the fail to him seeing the world through jerk-coloured glasses and move on. This MOSTLY works.

I am still getting all of my stuff-outside-Canada news from Slacktavist, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Guardian. I am well-informed and consistently appalled.

Talking of appalled I cannot BELIEVE this government. Seriously.

I am late for my own damn carnival, but at least I finally know what I want to write.

Also, on the grounds that trouble shouldn't always get stuck with the arguing, I used the silly little NDP app on my iPhone to Send A Message to Thomas Mulcair about accessibility.

This is just more evidence that the world is not at all fair as trouble totally deserves a grovelling answer and all she gets is frustrated, and I waltz in all balls and elbows and get this:



I've been awake for 24 hours and am not sleepy. This continues to be my life, interspersed with "I've been asleep for 18 hours and am not at all rested."

At this point I'd even settle for a nice steady schedule of sleeping for 16 hours every second night or something. MY BRAIN, PEOPLE.

I have just ordered a truly terrifying quantity of beans from Rancho Gordo. Like, about 70 lb, of which maybe 20 lb are for other people.

I Blame Skud. And we're going to need more jars. We may have to resort to raiding the neighbourhood recycle bins.

Life Sized Bouncy Stonehenge: Best Art Project EVER.

I am mucking about clipping bits and pieces for a Burn Notice Vid. Based on my searches for same, nobody makes or watches Burn Notice vids, but a girl needs her windmills.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Percentage of Consoling Hot Bedtime Drinks I make and drink in this family, by kind:

Ovaltine, 80-90 percent made, 0 percent consumed.
Cocoa, from mix: 75 percent made , 15 percent consumed.
Cocoa, from scratch: 100 percent made, 25 percent consumed.
Tea: 50 percent made, 25 percent consumed.

Marriage: It's not what you think it is, but you know it when you see it.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Is May 1.

We'd much prefer you to post late than not at all, but if you can post on time, please do so; people get really excited about having lots of great posts to read on the day.

If you can't post to Dreamwidth, or perfer to post somewhere else, please use Open ID to drop a comment to the round-up post I plan to make on the day.

*is excited*

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

But first, a question:

I've always had trouble switching the focus of my eyes from "near" to "far"; when I'm tired, or have been reading of knitting over my glasses or with them off for a long time (dreadful habit, I know), or using the computer (glasses on),

1) it takes awhile for my to get my eyes to refocus for distance. When I'm writing or editing or working with vids I find I have to go outside and stare at a building across the river for a bit every hour or so, to fend off eyestrain.

2) When I get overly tired these days, my eyes start tracking more and more slowly; I'll turn my head sharply and my eyes will register this change in their own sweet time. This gives me some interesting afterimages, and also sometimes a mild case of seasickness, as it comes with a definite swoopy sensation.

3) I have progressives, but instead of the cliche of holding the menu or whatever far from my face, I still end up taking my glasses off and putting the text or small item I am working on right in front of my eyes; I may be myopic as Hell but my near vision is AMAZING; I get most of the fiddly jobs in this household for a reason.

Does anyone else get these three things? I don't think any of them is an actual problem, beyond the usual "Oh, yeah, eye-test time", I'm just curious.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

For Le Muffin Plus in the World Exchange Plaza food court.

We went there for lunch after the Hill today and I was considering the soup and sandwich option, so I asked if they had an alternative to styrafoam bowls. The soup guy said no, so I said "let me think about this" and backed up.

While I was discussing alternatives with Cat, he called us back over.

They gave us, with *no need for us to ask further as we ordered more stuff*, a very nearly packaging-free lunch[1]: soup in ceramic coffee cups and quiche and salad on proper (fiestaware!) plates. And they were completely nice about it and treated it as a totally reasonable concern.

The food is "good for a food court": the chicken rice vegetable soup could have been spicier, Cat said the clam chowder (NE) was a bit meh, but the ham quiche and salad were "entirely decent" (me) "fab" (Cat) and the service was *definitely* impressive.

[1] the muffin had been baked with parchment linings and they only had plastic forks. I'm fine with this: parchment is readily compostable and next time I'll remember to put my knife/fork/spoon/chopstick set in my bag.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Is there a word in The Meaning of Liff for the particular feeling of disappointment you get when you buy a small bag of a poncey treat, like, say, organic/made with real juice jellybeans, and they turn out to be appreciably less tasty than the regular sort?

Anyway, Radical Handmaids tomorrow.

I haven't heard any other suggestions, so:

Meet at Bridgehead at Metcalfe and Sparks, 11:30 or thereabouts. 11, if possible.

Cat and I will bring Sharpies, Sheets, Scissors.

Head up to the Hill at 12.

It's going to be chilly, windy, and very possibly rainy or snowy; lots of layers. I plan to bring the Thermoses and get tea and hot cocoa to go.

After: 1:30 or so, I expect.

Lunch somewhere?

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

So I have to say it; the Con Famous Shoes:



are not getting any younger (Yes, thank you, neither am I. "Shut up", she explained.) This might be their last WisCon.

I find myself VERY drawn to these:



They are gorgeous. They are funky. The heel makes me want to weep for joy. And they're close enough in style to the CFS that I am pretty sure I'd wear them a lot.

BUT:

1) They're one solid, not very summery, colour instead of a dark floral. There will be fewer things I can wear them with.

2) On sale, these are two hundred bucks. In my world, two hundred bucks is a lot of money for a pair of shoes.

3) I can be hard to fit, and unless the Toronto store has a pair in my size in stock and are willing to hold them for me on a credit card number until I get into town on a couple of weeks, I'd have to get them online.

4) If they don't fit, because they're a sale pair, I can exchange them for another size (assuming that the size I need can be located, and at my expense for shipping) or take store credit, but I can't get a refund. There is a very good chance that this ends in me putting out for a pair of not-on-sale Fluevogs to get the use out of my credit.

Talk to me...

ETA: OTOH these are kind of glorious, much more affordable (50 bucks), much more likely not to be a fit issue cause open heel, and since I'm going to the US for WisCon on account of that being where WisCon is, I can do the Order Three Return Two size dance with free shipping both ways...



And as much as those Fluevogs are a glorious piece of sculpture, they're not really replacements for the CFS as such. They're sort of their own thing.

I think maybe I'll just keep watching the Fluevog sales for boots. Unless someone inexplicably wants to be my Shoe Mama (or Papa)[1] , full price Fluevogs will continue to be A Thing That Happens To Other People, I think. *sad*

Daughter of ETA:

Ooh, there's a new kid (leather) in town...



At a VERY nice price. And no damned zipper. I hate zippers on boots.

Fluevogs are glorious pieces of sculpture and one day I will own a pair, but La Canadienne's stuff is utterly gorgeous in a totally different way.

[1] I wear a 9. Just sayin'.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

End up with an image open in a tab and NO IDEA where that came from?



I mean, it's lovely. But I got nothin'.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Cat and I are discussing Burn Notice and the Bechdel Test:

commodorified

I mean, sometimes two female characters have conversations that are about men only in the sense of "You are under arrest for the murder of John Q Goodguy ..."

Which I feel should not count against a Bechdel score.
Anyway, Miranda's a girl, right?

fairestcat

yes[1]

commodorified

Actually I should look Miranda up.

Except then I'd have to let go of my indefensible but amusing mental image of a Very Stern Judge wearing a fruit hat over her robe and white wig, sometime in y'all's early judicial history ...

[1] Attention pedants: Joke.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Ian and Cat are off to Montreal; I didn't feel well enough. So I'm making myself something to eat.

99 percent of what people say about self-esteem aggravates the living Hell out of me, and the fact that I know many of these people to be sensible, decent, loving people and therefore suspect that it's a matter of the vocabulary being inadequate and the discourse being poisoned doesn't help as much as it ought to (so if you feel you want to open the topic in comments please bear in mind that I am a bear with a sore paw stomach and hip today, and we all know How Sore Bears Can Get, and be conversational and not didactic), but this is my present contribution to the debate:

The fact that you are cooking only for yourself is not a reason to omit the saffron when you make rice.

I am very gently simmering

1 can of chick peas, liquid and all[1]
1 1/2 cup of chopped spinach (frozen, originally)
1 T Patak's Madras curry paste
1 T Patak's Biryani curry paste
1/2 t Penzey's Rogan Josh curry powder
2 T finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 pinch salt.

It smells very good.

[1] Someone asked me about using bean liquor and about saltiness recently, and the answer is that I generally buy President's Choice Blue Menu beans, and their broths and tomatoes as well. If I do end up using beans, tomatoes, or broth with salt in it I proceed with caution, try to make damn sure I don't have more than one thing with salt, and don't add any extra salt at the end or at the table (and warn people).

Also, this is the 6-bean mix I am always going on about. I find most brands have a bean mix, which normal people apparently use for bean salad. I do not like bean salad, but I use them for just about everything else. The PC Blue are very nice.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Oh, Benny The Rat.

Pope Says American Nuns Too Focused On Poor, Not Enough On Gay Bashing.

Also, Commenters Not To Be, from this story

Hey in the US no one is entitles to any maternity leave - count your self lucky.

Thanks, I won't.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Celtas Cortos (y Amaral):



Oysterband:



This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

I am fairly sure that a version of this exists in every kitchen in the Southwest US that does cooking for large groups, especially vegetarian or part vegetarian groups. I learnt it at Royal in 2000 or so and have made it periodically ever since. It is somewhere between reasonably inexpensive and dirt cheap, it is easy, it is fast (if made with canned beans or once the beans are dealt with), it is remarkably adaptable, and it is, in my opinion, very good.

With a salad, it's a good lunch or light supper. It can easily be doubled, quadrupled, or halved on the fly, once you're familiar with the basic desired results.

Base:

Two cans of black turtle beans with liquid or 250 ml dry, soaked and cooked until tender, liquid retained.
Three large cans of diced tomatoes
One tetra pack vegetable broth
Two cooking onions, diced
Six cloves garlic, diced.

Optional: 1/2 to 1 lb stew beef or stew pork (or ground beef or ground pork, if need be), marinated overnight in the salsa of your choice. I like to use verde. Can also be simmered in the salsa separately and added to bowls at the table, if feeding vegetarians and omnivores.

Spice:
Adobo seasoning, 2T or to taste.
Ancho pepper, 1 T or to taste.
Cumin, 1 T or to taste.
Mexican Oregano, 2T or to taste.
Salt, to taste.

(Measurements as given will make a medium spicy soup. If making more or less soup season cautiously and taste your results a lot: it is almost never a good idea to casually double spices or salt. Try half as much again and then edge up higher. Other peppers and other chili mixes can also be used if you don't have or like adobo/ancho.)

Vegetables: (omit any which are unavailable or disliked, though if you have to omit more than two this may not be the recipe for you; at some point it gets kind of thin and bland without veggies)
One bunch collard greens or chard or kale, ribbon cut or chopped finely.
2-4 C frozen corn
2-4 C cooked diced squash
2-4 stalks chopped celery
2-4 chopped carrots

Simmer until all ingredients are tender and flavours are well-mixed: 1 hour if starting with tender, cooked beans and no meat, 2-3 hours if starting with soaked beans and raw meat.

Toppings: (to be added to each bowl at the table)

Red, yellow or green bell pepper, raw, sliced or chopped.
Queso, crumbled
Cilantro, chopped
Tortillas, flour or corn, or cornchips, for dipping. You can also put the cornchips or corn tortillas, ripped into bite-sized pieces, into the soup about half an hour before serving; they will take on the consistency of pasta, and keep a very good flavour.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

1) Synedochic is organising a brilliant, loving, amazing thing for Texas Planned Parenthood.

If you have a few of your local currency unit to spare you should drop over and get in on it. As arliss says, it's good for soothing down your rage fatigue.

2) Meanwhile, I'm going to be going to this:



Because if there's one thing I have learned from the Canadian hobby of gazing fixedly south it's that if you can catch this sort of stuff while it is still small enough to kill with your shoe, start undoing your laces immediately.

3) This is my final WisCon schedule.

Peace Studies: Sat, 9:00–10:15 pm
Choice Feminism: Sun, 1:00–2:15 pm
Sex Ed: Sun, 2:30–3:45 pm

I undoubtedly ought to have thought of this sooner, but I am having eleventh-hour doubts about the Sunday panels. It strikes me as entirely possible that I may end up coming out of the Choice Feminism panel in an utterly foul mood, which isn't really how I want to go into the Sex Ed one, which I care about approximately 100 percent more.

4) For a variety of reasons my mentally and physical internal weather forecast at the moment is "unsettled weather patterns, mixed sun and cloud, high chance of thunderstorms".

I don't really want to talk about it.

5) Have a calming manatee. Have several.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

(We have been invited out to dinner and need to leave here by 6:30 ish. Himself bikes to and from work.)

commodorified
Do you need a shower?
Note that the 6-6:20 shower slot has been booked.

random
ok, i'll grab a 6:20-6:25 shower then. :)

commodorified
okay. I'll take 5:45-6

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Me: Would we call 'crazy bulletproof man on the roof of my car' a first-world problem?

Cat: Bullet - resistant.

*Later*

Me: 'I was not previously aware how much of WWII was fought by Marquis of Queensbury rules'

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

commodorified: My [Mac laptop] keyboard has been replaced by a cat's furry ass, what should I do?

kd5mdk: Pick it up and hope there is no liquid damage
also, get a hotplate you can set on low as a decoy

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

On the way to North Bay, just inside Algonquin Park:



There isn't much zoom on that. Momma Moose is in the ditch at the side of the road, and I'm on the shoulder 20 feet further east. She kept an eye on everyone, and I did firmly warn some kids who seemed to be tourists from overseas not to even look like they were going to get between her and the twins - I know she looks smallish there, and she's spring-skinny, but you are looking at an animal the size of a heavy hunter - but in general she was pretty mellow and the humans were quiet and respectful.

In North Bay:



This is Ollie, because kd5mdk said he was more of an Oliphaunt then a Heffalump. I found him at a firesale: Vested Interest in North Bay has had a bad fire and is having a massive sale of slightly smoke-scented inventory while they do repairs and otherwise get back up to speed.

After weeks on improvement my right hip and therefore my knee are burning like they were on fire.

I think 10 km on Friday and then Sunday and Monday long drives were a bit too much for the bursitis.

So I think I can safely say that those of you who are local are going to be be seeing a fair bit of Ollie in the next little while. Good thing he's such a handsome fellow, no?

He's missing one tusk; anyone good at that sort of delicate carving? Bone, I am pretty sure.

Right Click and View Image will, as usual, give you very big versions.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

So, let me get this straight:

You can't have abortions, contraception, or same-sex marriage, and people are still being jerks about female clergy, nevermind queer clergy, but y'all have to work Good Friday and Easter Monday and you don't even get time-and-a-half for it?

Ok, look. In the event that y'all ever do somehow end up with an Established Religion, may I just put in an extremely enthusiastic word for being ground under the merciless (Birkenstocked) heel of the Episcopalians/Anglicans/C of E?

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

So I needed a really fast, everyone-is-tired-and-starving kind of supper tonight.

I made pasta with sauce, or, more accurately, Classico and I made pasta with sauce.

There are a lot of things I buy intending to adulterate them extensively before serving. Pasta sauce is a big one.

Making red sauce from scratch is possibly worth it if you have a huge tomato patch or a bushel from the market, or if you're an absolute wizard at Italian spicing, or if your honour is involved, but I suspect most people start a step or two along (and when they DO make sauce from scratch, make some to freeze and adulterate later).

Sometimes I start with plain tinned diced tomatoes.
More often, I start with spiced tinned diced tomatoes.
Mostly, I start with a jar of pasta sauce.

Tonight I started with a bottle of Classico Vodka and I:

1) Browned 2 mild Italian sausages and a chicken breast in a deepish frying pan,

2) Dumped the sauce over them,

3) Added 2 Tablespoons of diced dehydrated garlic, a heaping Tablespoon of Mexican oregano, sniffed it a bit, added a good pinch of adobo pepper and a good pinch of chipotle, tasted it, and added a good pinch of black pepper,

4) Added in about a cup of frozen chopped spinach,

5) Let it simmer while the noodles cooked, and served it with grated parmesan on top, garlic bread (split baguette, buttered and with more dehydrated garlic sprinkled on, then 15 minutes in a 350 F oven) on the side, and chopped tomato and cucumber salad heavily sprinkled with Penzey's Mural of Flavour.

It took about 30 minutes all in, and was good.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Theme: Half-Homemade

Fresh fruit filling in storebought pastry, pasta sauce from a jar with 10 extra ingredients added, packet soup respiced to suit your own tastes ... every cook has their tricks and shortcuts. Talk about yours!

Deadline: May 1, 2012

The first announcement/guidelines post is here.

The only change from the guidelines, etc, given there is, I have created a community for the carnival, as several people asked for a place other than their own journals to put their posts.

I will crosspost my entries from the first round, and people are encouraged to crosspost their first-round posts as well.

There will be a discussion post in the new community.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

We bought some calla-lily bulbs and - oops - left them in the trunk for two weeks.

I am QUITE sure they got frozen at least once in that time.

Have we killed them? Should we just pick up more?

In happier news, the porridge experiment turned out splendidly, and I have either planted or made preparations to plant - you have to soak morning glory and sweet pea seeds overnight first - three egg-cartons of flower seeds.

As oursin said recently, hounds ov spring sai ARF ARF.

Now I must shower and LBD-ify to go and celebrate my bride's new status.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

I love my ridiculous little slow-cooker. I picked it up at the thrift store for practically nothing, thinking that if it never did anything except sit on the table and hold hot gravy and sour cherry sauce for pork chops and so forth when needed it would be worth the $3.00.

Tonight, however, I have filled it with

1/4 C Red River cereal
1/4 C steel cut oats
1 C milk
1 C water
1 T vanilla
1 T (heaping) brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt

And left it to cook.

At worst, I'll need to transfer everything into my beloved little red pot in the morning and remember to start with boiling water next time, but I think that The Baby will manage all right.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Cat is now a Permanent Resident of Canada.

We mean to take that "Permanent" bit pretty damned seriously. She's ours now, and we plan to keep her.

Cat says the best job in the world has to be getting paid government wages to sit behind a desk all day saying "Congratulations, you are now a permanent resident, let me stamp that for you."

I am inclined to agree, as is apparently the very smiley woman who stamped her through.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

But sometimes I can't resist.

To be called a racist now is worse then being a paedophile.

Wow. HM prisons are obviously INCREDIBLY generous with the internet access.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

... not something you should get for someone who doesn't drink in public...

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Otterly stunning latte, for legionseagle:



just 'cause.

And also, promoted from the comments of my last post, my latest bout of Recreational Dyslexia/involuntary contribution to the Drop One Letter game:

Last night I misread a performance schedule on fajrdrako's door as promising a run of Ötterdämmerung. For which I now yearn with every fibre of my being, though I'd happily settle for snatches of the libretto *looks hopefully about*.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Are people seriously arguing that an insurance company should be able to avail itself of a conscience clause? Shouldn't it be made to demonstrate a conscience first?

Also, it appears that someone has produced, and fandom has fallen neck and crop for, a movie which is conspicuously lacking in (or at least lacking in conspicuous) race- and gender- fail.

So of course it has children fighting each other to the death.

*sigh* I'll be over here, listening to Cabin Pressure and rereading Austen. Or writing Now We Are Forty: Eeyore's Lament. Or something.

ETA: AND being genuinely happy for the rest of you. I'm mildly wistful, not actually feeling hard-done-by or wishful of harshing the squee.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

But since various people asked how to get one's oven door off, apart, and clean and various other people expressed an interest in other stages of stove cleaning, I figured I might as well put it all in one place. So here is: ( How To Take Your Stove Completely Apart I Mean To Little Tiny Stove-Bits And Get (almost) All The Grunge, Grease, Crap, Corruption, Dust, Decay and General Grossness Out Of, Off Of And Out From Under It In A Full Day Of Hard Labour Give Or Take, or, Seriously People, Stop Making Food That Stuff Gets Everywhere, A Really Quite Lavishly Illustrated Essay )

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

So I ... may have just spent about 6 hours cleaning the stove. 6 hours WITH HELP: Herself did the burner rings and bowls while I tackled the rest:



and then hung out helping me with bits and pieces and handing me things and shaking her head disbelievingly at the sight of me taking the stove apart into increasingly tiny manky pieces of mankiness and scrubbing them with glee until 2:30 when she sensibly went to bed.



This stove is VERY CLEAN.



The oven, which had a mince pie boil over in it at Christmas, is ALSO clean.

So in theory that should be it for cleaning the stove, except ...



A few years ago I discovered that you can lift up the tops of stoves to clean them. I was mildly irate at my mother for not having told me this, until I did it to her stove and she said "How did you just do that?"

So THEN I should TOTALLY have been done, except...



It has bugged the crap out of me for years that you could clean the outside of the glass on an oven window, but it never looked clean because you couldn't get at the inside panes, which always get streaky and full of condensation and all sorts of Nameless Horrors.

So tonight I finally figured out both how to take the door of my oven off and how to take it apart to clean the insides, which never having been cleaned before were manky with the mank of more than a decade.



It really is possible that I am much too excited about this. I am slightly disturbed.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

OK, so if we're talking NHL rule changes, let's try this: If someone's going to be disciplined for a dirty shot resulting in concussion or other serious injury?

You get suspended, and you can come back when the guy you hit comes back.

Sure it's arbitrary and unfair and depends heavily on luck. So does the long-term recovery and prospects of players with concussion.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

I have:

1) An 8 inch scratch down the inside of my left forearm, which I cannot account for.
2) A small deep bruise on my back from one of my bra hooks somehow managing to get out of position and slowly drive itself into my flesh for about an hour before it started to hurt, and a half hour after that before I could get somewhere to fix it.
3) A deep bruise under a shallow scrape where my thigh and butt meet from squatting down to clean something and running my butt into a sharp splinter on an orange crate. This is surprisingly unpleasant when one is walking briskly, as a major muscle runs right under the bruise.
4) A large discoloured patch on my left big toenail. No clue.
5) A small bruise on the top of my right foot. No clue.
6) A large bruise on my right shin.
7) Large numb/tingly patches on the outsides of both legs, but that's the bursitis and doesn't really count.

This is a pretty normal collection, really. That's the ridiculous part.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Thomas Mulcair is winning the NDP leadership convention and Dallas just slaughtered Calgary.

And Peter Mansbridge is being kind of adorably rueful about the three Leafs tickets on his desk that he won't be using tonight.

*drinkz*


We did both manage to get through the DDOS attack to vote though.

I was pretty much rendered speechless by the fact that they used images of the chalk wall as background for the Layton Tribute.

Now they're reminiscing about the one night Jack and Olivia got to spend at Stornoway and admiring The Sacred Front Door Key. Olivia is suggesting some solar panels would be good.

Ok so now they're handing out victory party drink tickets on live tv.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

And I am reduced to a sort of speechless all-encompassing incoherent prayer.

These images of the Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy, by Ade Bethune, really speak to me right now. So I have iconed them, which is sort of an odd way of meditating on them, but there you go. Anyone is free to take and use one or all of them.



Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty



Welcome The Stranger, Clothe the Naked



Visit the Prisoner, Visit the Sick.



Bury the Dead, All 7, animated.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Seriously, IDEK anymore.



This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

( Goats in Trees! )

( Baby Goats! )

( Even Babier Goat! )

( Happy Goat! )

( Hippie Goat! )

( Partially Airborne Goat! )

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.