eruthros

I did make some fabulous blueberry muffins, though, which I called a celebration even though I was planning on baking them anyway -- last weekend I was Iron Chef eruthros. m_shell realized, at about nine in the morning, that she had to take food to the choir rehearsal. And that she couldn't stop on the way and get anything, 'cause the car was kablooey, and she was going to be taking the bus. So I did the fastest paging-through-a-cookbook-looking-for-fast-recipes-I-had-all-the-ingredients-for EVER, and we decided on blueberry muffins (frozen blueberries, natch). I should've cut the lemon zest to speed them up, but I still got the muffins made and cooked in about half an hour, and then m_shell grabbed them and ran off to church, and then her choir ate them all and I didn't get to taste any. So I made some yesterday. Nummy! From Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe, like practically all muffins we cook now. They turned out very well, even though I was an idiot at Trader Joe's and somehow managed to buy lime yoghurt (look, it said "cream lime plain lowfat," and I saw the word "plain," and anyway the container is identical to the one I usually get, and excuses, excuses). Last week's, similarly, were apparently good even though I could swear that I left out the baking soda (never cook a recipe with both baking powder and baking soda at top speed; you'll forget one of the two). Which ... I dunno, maybe it's just a recipe with a lot of flexibility.

*

Query: if you were looking for screencaps of SG-1 (original team or with Jonas or with Cam) striding off together to save the world, what episodes would you think of? Other than "Serpent's Grasp?" Sadly, they tend to save the world in little isolate pockets these days. I mean, in Reckoning, Daniel's off being ... brain-whammied by Replicators, and Sam's with Jacob and trying to fix the Ancient Weapon to kill replicators, and Jack's at SGC, and. Hardly the bold stride of the credits, where they all walk though the stargate in unison.

Query (2): has anyone ever studied the internet phenomenon that results in every parody song being attributed to Weird Al? Even, like, songs sung by women? (Anyone who thinks Weird Al sang "What If God Smoked Cannabis?" is clearly smoking the good stuff.)

Also, I am tempted by that song meme -- where you pick a number, or a couple of numbers, and I upload the song corresponding to that number on a complete playlist of mp3s. Problem: this computer is barely five weeks old; I don't really have interesting and weird stuff on it yet. Except the Hindi version of Dancing Queen. And the entirety of the extant Camp Records songs. And most of what I do have is old; it's practically all ripped off CD, and since I haven't purchased those weird round silver things in years, well. If you promise not to mock me for the weird combination of the sixties and the mid-nineties, leave a number (or two or three) between 1 and ... *pokes music folder* ... 1632 in the comments, and I'll upload those songs for everyone's listening pleasure.

Also, new icon. I had one with a much better border, but then photoshop crashed, and I couldn't seem to get the exact same shade of red again. Curses! I have a similar one with strawberries, if anyone wants it.

Meme from friede
The BBC asked people to vote for the top fifty things everyone should try a bite of in their lifetime.
Bold the ones you've eaten.

( Food, glorious food )

If you woke up and I was in bed with you, what would be your first thought? (Be honest.)

Post reply, then post this in your LJ and find out what my answer would be.

(Is it wrong of me to desperately want to edit the language of this meme? To contain the subjunctive? And a more descriptive wossname than "I was in bed with you?" (I mean, you woke up and I was in bed with you? All suddenly-like? Somehow I think it's supposed to be read as "woke up and found me in your bed," which is not what it says. Oh Christ, I'm stuck in a parenthetical comment and I'll never get out. Help! Help!) Oh, that's better. And definitely better instructions than "post reply?" Anyway. Stupid memes. I edit quiz results all the time, too. They need it.)

In non-memeish news, I just received the FireMountain Gems sale catologue, and want one of everything, which is probably a bad thing. Oh, and yesterday we made the Gourmet version of the American breakfast -- pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Except, you know, with whole wheat blueberry pancakes (we're out of buttermilk, sadly), Nieman Ranch bacon, and eggs with carmelized onions and feta cheese. Like Denny's, but better. There are probably more interesting things going on in my life, but face it, it's hard to trump carmelized onions.

*rushes off to teach a class*

1. What is the first book you remember reading?

By myself, darned if I can remember. (The first book my sister read was Hop on Pop.) With my dad, I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Hound of the Baskervilles, and Danny the Champion of the World in the first grade, but I can't remember the order.

2. What is your favorite book?

Owch. The one I reread most is probably either Gaudy Night by DLS or one of the Guards books by PTerry.

3. Who is your favorite author?

At this exact and precise moment in time, Emma Bull. Ask me again tomorrow.

4. Pick up the nearest book (magazine or any available printed material will do). Turn to page 24 (or the closest to it). Go to the 7th line. What is it?

"That you will be shortly in for tea." [Dragons in the Waters, Madeleine L'Engle, still on my bedside table from my last visit home, when I was doing Childrens Book Comfort Reading]

5. If you could be any character in literature, who would you be?

Archie Goodwin, because that I could go swing dancing, be generally cool, and irritate policemen in fedoras. Or Vetinari -- I did always used to want to be Vetinari. I would like to meet LPW but not be him (I'm anti-PTSD, personally), and I would like to be Harriet Vane if I felt I could do a competent job, but somehow that seems impossible.

And additions to the Friday Five by gurdonark:

6. Name ten novelists who come to your mind right off the bat as folks you love to read--no snobbery permitted:

1. Terry Pratchett
2. P.G. Wodehouse
3. Emma Bull
4. Ursula K. LeGuin
5. Rex Stout
6. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Laurie King
9. DLS
10. Eric Ambler

I thought of GK Chesterton, but mostly I only like his short stories, and of Oscar Wile and GBS, but mostly I only like their plays, and MFK Fisher, but mostly I only like her food writing, so.

7. Name three poets that come to mind that matter to you, no "grad seminar mugging" permitted:

1. e.e. cummings
2. Dorothy Parker
3. Gary Snyder

7a. From friede: three POEMS:

1. Gary Snyder, ( How Poetry Comes to Me )
2. Dana Gioia, (though his politics make me wince, I adore this poem) ( California Hills in August )
3. Adrienne Rich, ( For the Dead )

8. What three non-fiction books made a deep impression on you?

1. James Clifford, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century
2. Christensens, eds. Discovery of America and Other Myths
3. MFK Fisher, With Bold Knife and Fork

9. What three science fiction authors intrigue you this moment?

1. Larry Niven, which is shameful and embarrassing but I really like his short stories
2. Lois McMaster Bujold
3. Carol Emshwiller, if she counts as sf

10. What is the last mystery novel you read?

Either Rex Stout's Not Quite Dead Enough (a pair of novelas) or Laurie King's A Letter of Mary, looking for the Lord Peter bit.

Also, ( the first sentence of the first post of each month of 2004 as a paragraph: )

How it works: go to ff.n and do a "search by story summary" for your name in either HP or LotR. Pick a Mary Sue or two to share the summary with everyone.

( Let's see what we've got... )