guenievre | Entries tagged with fun

And I'm full of yummy steaks. (Half price NY strip at Harris Teeter, rubbed down with lots of salt and some pouldre forte and let to sit in the fridge for several hours, then grilled. Good stuff.)

But since I've been somewhat remiss in posting, I figured I'd go see if the bread recipe I've told several people about was online - and it is! I'm being somewhat dreadful in that it's on the paid-site part of cook's illustrated, but honestly? I just don't feel like retyping it off the cookbook it's in... (which I make this often enough that it opens straight to this page.) Homemade bread, esp. when you don't have to work at it, is a lovely thing - and makes taking sandwiches to work not feel like deprivation...

( The recipe )

I don't always bother with the water-in-a-pan part, as a side note - it makes it rise in the oven a *bit* better for a lighter loaf (it makes the crust not solidify quite as quickly) but there really isn't that much difference.

Meanwhile, I should go back to working - this was an extravagant bit of procrastination, as I got a bid dumped on me Friday evening and have been somewhat tethered to the computer most of the weekend. I don't want to though, so I guess you'll have to put up with me a bit more.

I did go see Stardust last night (yay hooky!), which was fabulous, and we rode the bikes a bit. There was even a bit of a chill in the air last night after the movie, so I guess it'll be fall proper soon - which makes

soucyn dreadfully happy and me not so much.

Let's see...I've been working on some research for a couple new things to me - cheesemaking and possibly more complicated sausage-making (I'm not *sure* I can set up the equipment for cold-aged sausage in my apartment, but I'd *love* to be able to try it). And I ran across (in surfing friends-of-friends pages) a really interesting series on research on

telerib's LJ. The most interesting thing in that series was this entry on keeping a logbook. I'm not sure why this never really occured to me, not even during this discussion a while back, esp. since I've had to keep a lab notebook and what not. Maybe it's just because note-taking, except for specific purposes like research papers, does *not* come naturally to me. Something to keep in mind for the future, though - I'm still thinking about how to best apply this to my own research, in that I *do* need to start keeping that sort of log but I'm not sure what format I want to put it in. Anyway...ok, now I really will go work. Really. ::sigh::

Current Mood: frustrated at work (did I mention this project has no chance of actually making money?)
Current Location: couch of serfdom

Item the first:

I started a new garb project - as I mentioned in my last, incredibly boring post, I've been hoarding some purple silk twill for *years*. I finally figured out the dress it wants to be, and the event it wants to be made for. The dress is shown to the right, and the event will be for Crown. I'm adding some embroidery/pearls around the edges of the sleeves and neckline, though, just because I wanted a bit of "bling". (Thank you,

duchesspadr, for telling me where you found the picture...) Though I'm having a bit of problem finding an appropriate bright-red lining - why is it that one can see fabric, think "hmm, that's pretty and cheap, I should get some"; not do it, then end up starting a project that needs *exactly that fabric* and thus not be able to get it anymore? I *swear* I just saw dark-red (since my purple is slightly darker than the pic, I was also going to make the lining slightly darker) silk twill for a reasonable price at fashionfabricsclub, but it's not there now. They have a few other things, though, so all hope is not lost...

Item the second:
Fighter practice is better than pilates, at least if one counts exercise as being "better" the sorer you are. Though

soucyn's theory of sore-back=crap-mechanics is probably true...though I did pick up some pointers that'll help if I can manage to make them jump that brain-body barrier...

Item the third:
The all-LJ dinner @ Chamas was as usual pricy but wonderful. Though I was underimpressed with Sirens (a pity, since it's a cool building) - if I'm going to pay that for a martini, I'd like to be able to hear people talk. (Speaking of which, ARE there any good-but-a-bit-quieter bars in Durham/CH that I don't know about? Preferences are for interesting drinks...)

Item the fourth:
FYI, if you're ever offered a free trip to Italy, get passports well in advance. Ask my boss why this is important...

Item the fifth:
BoyG is still suffering from tree bukakke, so we aren't going to the Kberg meeting tonight. Leftover chinese and calligraphy, here I come!

Item the sixth:
The Brute Squad of Doom - that is, me,

soucyn; and

3_purple_irises didn't run fast enough - we are collectively the Pennsic Land Agent. More details to come...

Current Mood: time to go home!!!

So I'm reading Susie Bright's blog, of all people (thank you Genie - and for the rest of you if you don't know who that is I'm not explaining, but if you google it I *won't* be responsible for it being NSFW).

But look what she linked to! Nancy Drew Handbags! I wonder if they come with a secret compartment?

This is what happens when Blizzard completely screws me over for going to MC...

Current Mood: bored

Nope, this isn't a rant on authenticity. This is a comic pimpage.

For those of you that haven't seen it, one of the funniest comics I know if is Get Medieval. It's published through LJ here:

http://get-medieval.livejournal.com/738.html (this is the first strip).

I apologize in advance to everyone's bosses for the lack of productivity this will cause.

Current Mood: amused

So it's been a few days since I posted - one of these days I'll get better about that. Meanwhile... on to what I did ~~this weekend~~ this week (ok, I admit, I've been hopelessly remiss!) Of course, nothing particularly interesting happened last week, so I suppose that somewhat explains it...

So Friday night we ended up not doing the Fayetteville demo - it would have required that we get off work an hour early to get there on time, and sometimes we can sneak out early, but it just wasn't in the cards for Friday. Oh well. We ended up going to dinner and hanging out with

Jenny and Owen and

Other Jenny - that was fun, even if there was an overabundance of Jennifers! We made fun of silly fashions at Nordstrom's, played Apples to Apples and experimented with random drinks from my bar...

Saturday I got up early, and finished (mostly, anyway) Girard's new fighting houppe/tunic thing (basic a-line-ish tunic with flared sleeves, done in blue cotton with the sleeves lined in white mystery fabric from the stash (I THINK it's cotton, but...???). It was just a prototype (want to make some fancier, dagged ones later) but he got at least one complement on it, so yay. As soon as I finished that and got dressed (yes, I was sewing in my bathrobe), we wandered down with

Beatrice to the Eagle's Vale demo/practice/revel/thing. It was fun, not a lot of people came down but

Girard got some fighting in. The most amusing part was probably when the fighters were playing on the bridge (there was a small bridge over a ravine in the park, which was sturdy enough and had good railings, so the fighters were like "oooh! real bridge fights!". First, Sir Falcone took possession of the bridge, and made a Grand Proclamation of how he was willing to share the bridge with any man, but if any one took more than his fair half (ie, stepped over the crack in the bridge) he would have to protest strenuously in a martial fashion - needless to say, the fine gentlemen arrayed to fight didn't take this sort of challenge lightly! Eventually, Sir Andras took the bridge, and instead of taking a position in the center, took a position towards one end. Girard was up to fight next, and noted that Andras apparently didn't mind sharing the bridge, and proposed since they had no conflict, they should have tea with the ladies instead of fighting. (G has always been a lover not a fighter, lol - apparently when he was in kindergarten, he was one of the only boys willing to play house with the girls...smart man...). Andras agreed, but said that in that case, he had to claim that his lady was fairer than Girard's. My wonderful husband wouldn't let that stand, so they fought, and Girard ended up winning! (Andras's shiny new armor, while quite pretty, makes a lovely target...). I wish there was more schtick like this (yes,

Solvarr, I just advocated schtick - it's a very specific KIND of schtick, however...). But half the time they don't even bother with salutes at tourneys...that's ok though, if I'm feeling too cynical, I can always go read the Philosophy of Chivalry at Armour Archive - that always makes me happy, somehow...

Anyway, came home from demo, played Warcraft, ate really awful chinese delivery - the cat liked it better than we did.

Sunday was planting day - I have two plants I keep on my desk at work (well, one I've had since last June, one that Girard just bought me randomly. They were both in desparate need of new potting, so I took them home with me this weekend. Now they're happy plants:

Of course, in the process I ended up arbitrarily deciding that plants are good, and maybe I don't kill them as badly as I thought I did. So now I have a herb/flower garden in front of my apartment - I've got all sorts of herbs, and a few pepper plants - I think I'm going to add some tomato plants next weekend, as there's still space.

And I finally managed to strip all the rosemary I had drying in my kitchen (the leftovers I snagged from

Mistress K after The Flood Also Known As Coronation) off the branches, so now I have like a quart (no, really!) of fresh-dried rosemary. Yum. I think some of it will be used for the Next Henna Adventure (details to be forthcoming shortly). Then there was a meeting of people who are going to help with Buckston's Shakespeare-themed "upside-down event" in June - looks like a tasty feast and fun, what with Mistresses Roz and Claire H running it.

Side note: You'd think, reading my journal, if you didn't know anything about the title structure of the SCA, that I was in some odd S&M group...

Now off to home, to play with an arming cote for G - I realized last night that he didn't really *need* a padded gambeson, and doing both a pourpoint and a gambeson was silly, so now I'm just going to do an arming cote type thing and see how that works - part of it is inspired by the one Tasha posted on the Armour Archive (yes, I have been hanging out on there too much)...though I still need to work on the AOTC project (I've made progress, as in I've gotten the software running, now I just have to a. get it to look good and b. add content).

ETA: Sorry 'bout the pictures not posting properly at first - it helps if one actually shrinks ones pictures before posting them... oops!

Current Mood: accomplished

So, let's see, the official KASF rundown.

Way too much of Friday night was spent baking and such. Made shepard's pie for dinner, turned out OK though there was something odd about the mashed potatoes that I couldn't quite pin down. It's not the first time it's happened to me, either - it's this vaguely... green? taste, like the potatoes were slightly undercooked, except they were falling apart so I don't think that's it. Maybe not enough salt? (was trying not to oversalt the potatoes since the stew they were going on top of was quite salty, having been made with canned (i know, i know) broth.
And, of course, there was the massive yeast failure. (well, it wasn't so much a yeast failure as a bakers failure - if you dont' put enough yeast, it won't work - the yeast were 'givin it all she got, Cap'n'..)

Anyway, I entered Mescelin Bread and the Bread Tart from Sabina Welserin in the Royal Baker competition. (Links go to M$Word docs on my website (which mostly isn't there yet) - if you can't read them, I can make them PDFs, I was just being lazy). If you have comments on the documentation, I'd love to hear them, as that has, in the past, been my bugaboo and I did *much* better this time. As far as the actual FOOD goes, well, the judging on that was interesting - I didn't actually *like* the bread, but it got better scores than the tart, mostly b/c I used the wrong crust for the tart. Oh well, at least I learned how to make a fairly good standing tart, lol...and the tart filling was GOOD (

brynpobydd said she kept coming back and stealing bites of it, which made me happy - after all, I cook to make people smile). Need to work on a starter that DOESN'T die in my house - doing the "beer" thing didn't work too well, the bread had a slightly off taste which both judges noted. But at any rate, this was the first time I've ever entered an A&S competition and NOT been disappointed with myself. That was a nice feeling...

No, I didn't win -

brynpobydd did, which is fabulous and way overdue, since the whole thing was her idea in the first place. The funny thing, of course, was that the two of us were the only people that entered - it's the Kberg bread show! And lots of people commented on Solvarr's bread marker - I think I've figured out how to fix the next one, too. (Yes, I know, I should post pics. But I haven't yet - there's a reason for that. Some of the things from Ymir hadn't been unpacked yet, and I had assumed the camera was there. It wasn't. Apparently we left it at Ymir. But, the SCA is a wonderful place - some honest gentle found it Friday night, turned it in, and it made its way back to us at KASF. Woot. yes, I know I should be less careless - but at least it didn't bite me in the ass this time) Speaking of

ramblingheritic, congrats to the newest Pearl!!!!!!

Sunday was filled with WoW (we did the Stockades instance with Tom, Illyria is now up to level 33!) and then we went to see Constantine. Not a bad movie, but Marion and I both agreed it was TOO gooey. Oh well.

Then we ended up with another random dinner party - roast pork (wrapped in bacon, with thyme, salt and pepper) roasted with onions and apples, with a sauce of pureed apples and onions with cream. Yum. Oh yes, and

zihuatanejo came over and taught me how to make Spaetzle. Yay. Now I need one of these, or maybe one of these - I'm leaning towards the latter, as I could make mashed potatoes with it too...

Current Mood: accomplished

Note to self: Next time you throw a random dinner party, do it on a weekend. Or kick people out before midnight. Either, or, doesn't matter...

Oh well, 'twas FABULOUS. What I was thinking of as "2-3 people and some food" turned into I think 10 people, at its "biggest" point, 2 pans of lasanga, yummy cheese dip and bagel chips, garlic bread, baked apples, cheesecake, and a few bottles of wine, blackberry mead, and really strange/bad hard cider (it was Norman sparkling cider, and just tasted "off". I think it was that particular bottle, rather than the type though - it seemed like the cork might have gone bad). Lots of people showed up -

zihuatanejo (J & O),

evan_page,

harleenquinzell,

darklordmoeser,

ramblingheritic,and

island42 and his lovely lady Edela (Caroline) who NEEDS AN LJ. :-) (yes, I'm being as subtle as a baseball bat...)

And, even better, I managed to get at least a "proof of concept" of the baker's mark

ramblingheritic made me. The yeast I had was more or less dead, so the bread didn't rise/bake properly and I took it out of the oven before it really had a chance to get done, but the mark did indeed make a permanent indentation in the crust. woot!

Current Mood: tired

And I'm chained to my desk waiting for some !@#$# thing to print...

The weekend looks to be interesting, though very little of it will be spent on A&S stuff . That's ok, I'm not entering pentathlon anyway. I'm just going to do royal baker, and display a bit... Tonight I'm going to Cody's Chinese Bistro, with Shelly and some other people I don't know - that's ok, last GNO was fun, this should be too...just can't have TOO much fun, as I'm driving. Tomorrow, I think we're going to go tour UNC's rare book library, and maybe go see a movie - I'd like to see Triplets of Belleville, it sounds just kooky enough to be good. I will NOT, however, see Miracle or The Passion, for very different reasons (though oddly enough they're both movies that try way too hard to be inspirational -shrug- go figure - maybe I'm too much of a cynic). And Sunday is string thing, while Nick goes to fighter practice... yay, though I keep saying I'm going to go watch him fight sometime, and still haven't.

So, to kill some time as I'm COMPLETELY unmotivated to work...

soucyn's ( Daily-Show Style Questions )

And of course, I still owe

immortaleve some ( answers..... )

Also from boredom, I took a quiz that purported to choose a book that matched my personality...
( It's a bit perplexing... )

And last but not least, ( LJ style questions ) from

soucyn

The usual disclaimers apply - if you want questions, of either sort, let me know...

Current Mood: really glad it's Friday...

1 - Name one relationship, romantic or otherwise, that you regret in your life and explain why?

Um, not going to do the parent thing for this one, it's too easy, so let's just say... my first BF, Charlie - not that he was that evil or anything, just that I was never attracted to him and was just kind of dating him b/c he was there and wanted to date me (I was second choice for him, too, actually) - so yeah, that's how I got my first kiss, which was not all that great kind of a pity, really...

2 - If you could change one thing about your childhood what would it be?

I wish I had had a CLUE about how to interact w/ people my own age. I could deal with adults just fine, but other people my age didn't understand me, and vice versa, which caused me no end of grief in elementary/middle school, and gave me a few complexes I still have, lol...

3 - Name the person that you would least like to live with and provide juicy explanatory details.

Anyone but my husband, really - and that's mostly just because I think I'd drive anyone else crazy, not necessarily because I have had evil roommate experiences. (I'm quite lazy...and not the world's most organized person... trust me, I'm a really BAD roommate...)

4 - If you could go back and fuck one person that you've had sex with in the past - who would it be and why?**
**Yes yes, for those in the audience with ridiculously low numbers I realize this question might not be appropriate - but make something up damnit.

My numbers are (surprisingly) not that high either - so I'll have to say Scott, the ex-boyfriend right before I met Nick - I never fucked him, mind you, but we did write each other a lot of (bad) erotic poetry before he dumped me... and I'm vaguely curious how all that built-up tension would have resolved itself. Probably badly, really, given that he was kind of, hmm, let's just say lacking in skills and confidence when it came to women.

5 - Name 5 things you must do before you die.

This is an interesting question to answer, as it's kind of hard to differentiate the "Hope I do, but it's kind of dependant on other people", the "Would be nice to do", and the "Things I can control and MUST do".... I *think* the following all fall under the last category...

1. Go to Paris.
2. Have sex on a beach (preferably at sunset).
3. Eat at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley...(Or some other restaurant owned/operated by Thomas Kellerman)
4. Learn to be organized... no, really...
5. Learn to cook efficiently - I'm a REALLY good cook, but it takes me forever... and ever... and ever... to cook anything, so.... people end up waiting for dinner a bit when they come over... oops! I know this seems silly, but it really bugs me...and is one of the reasons I don't cook that often...

Current Mood: busy

Damn I'm tired. That's kind of the summary of this weekend...

No, really, I am thinking about taking a nap when I get home...

Ok, so that's not very detailed... when last I wrote in this, I still had a dagged sleeve to do, most of my houppelande, a hat, etc etc etc. It all got done, amazingly enough - maybe not quite to the level I would have liked, but it was wearable. And got lots of compliments..

The only problem, of course, was that I didn't sleep - for like 42 hours. and then I got dragged out last night...

Of course, Matt is REALLY amusing when drunk, so...that was ok .

More details and pictures later...

of my livejournal. After all, I can't let my dear husband show me up on this, can I?

So... where to begin... it was a VERY long holiday season, and yet seemed to go by overly quickly at the same time. That doesn't make sense... but it seems like my life is doing that a lot lately - being weird about time I mean - like my life seems to be going by in blinks.

Christmas was spent in Florida - which was actually a lot more pleasant than I thought it would be. I'm starting to get used to (after 6 years? 'bout time) having inlaws. It helps that right before we left on the 21st, I realized that I was kind of pushing them away because I felt guilty for having a relationship - any relationship - with them when I don't have one w/ my real parents. That wasn't really fair to anyone involved, so, I'm trying to quit.

We went to St. Augustine - which wasn't quite as cool as I thought it would be - the fort was nice, but otherwise it was touristy and colder than you'd think it would be in Florida - I don't care if it was December, Florida is supposed to be warm (yes, I'm spoiled. And?) We took a REALLY long trolley/train tour of the city - unfortunately there were two trolleys in a row, and we got the one with the incompetant guide. We also went to the Lightner museum, because for some reason I *thought* a painting I adore was there - unfortunately, I remembered wrong, the painting is actually sitting in the national gallery of Ireland. Oh well. There was some interesting stuff there, just not worth the 6 bucks we paid for it.

Meanwhile, I didn't get as much sewing done over vacation as I should have - I got distracted and ended up reading LOTR instead. Which was cool, I finally got over my dislike of Tolkein's style enough to *really* enjoy the books (and this is like the 4th or 5th time I've read them, so I was a bit surprised.) Maybe the Simarillion next?

I barely got time to turn around twice before the New Year's Party. Good points - the food was good (yay eggnog and cream puffs, and I *think* everyone had a good time. Bad points - Nick drunk w/ hangover, my house hasn't QUITE recovered (from the party, not the hangover) and we have SO many leftovers. Oh well, that's ok, there are worse things, so I'll definitely do it again next year. And @ 4th of July, of course.

Resolutions, I think, will just have to be covered in another entry. Mostly b/c I haven't QUITE decided on specifics.

I spent last weekend playing entirely too much Soul Calibur on Xav's playstation - I did find the perfect character for me, at least... she has a tantrum attack!!! (Can't find screen shot) Again, lack of sewing, which leads me to this week...

FRANTIC COMPLETION OF 12TH NIGHT GARB!!! (And I said I wouldn't have to do that this year....) But I finished the first of Nick's sleeves last night... and its very cool... so I think it'll be worth it... Meanwhile, in the next three evenings, I have to sew large portions of 2 houpes... hosen... hats... yeah, it's not going to be fun.

more later...