I think I'm a sofa

I think I'm a sofa

mad_maudlin

[ userinfo | insanejournal userinfo ]

[ calendar | insanejournal calendar ]

... with cheesecake. [28 Nov 2009|12:00am]

icarusancalion

[ mood | happy ]

I love sga_storyfinders.

And cheesecake.

And look, I have both.

In fact, every sentence ends better if you add "... with cheesecake."

post comment

B-day wishes :) [27 Nov 2009|12:04am]

kennahijja

[ mood | cheerful ]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, snegurochka_lee!

Hope you had a great day, with lots of love 'cause you might just be one of the loveliest people I know, and HP fandom is *so* lucky to have you!

*hugs*

post comment

How to ruin Thanksgiving [26 Nov 2009|05:40pm]

aliciajd

As I was basting the turkey about half way through the cooking time, I noticed that my oven's clock was still set on daylight savings time. So I reset it. When I went to check what should have been a finished turkey, I found that the oven had been turned off in the clock reset process. Everything is ready to serve but the turkey...

I apologized to my family. No one said that's ok. My nephew said, "I'm really, really hungry."

I feel like an idiot. How many years have I been cooking turkeys and never screwed up?

Edit: It was the best turkey I've ever made ... very, very moist. Maybe I should write down what I did! LOL!

5 comments|post comment

YAY LJ! [26 Nov 2009|11:44am]

abigail89

[ mood | relieved ]

LJ to the rescue!

I'm making the corn pudding recipe I made a few years back, but after a frantic search through my recipe files (and boy, I need to organize that!) proved fruitless.

But then I remembered I took some pictures of it with Boy2 because he really liked it. And lo and behold! I also had posted the recipe. *huggles LJ archives*

post comment

Thanksgiving [26 Nov 2009|09:39am]

icarusancalion

Thanksgiving.

I was just informed that mom and her roommate were expecting me to do the Thanksgiving turkey. Along with pumpkin pie (crust from scratch) and my cheesecake.

Whut-?

This is going to be one of those weeks, isn't it?

Good thing it's 9am.

post comment

And the computer goes *boom* ... the fic vanishes [26 Nov 2009|09:26am]

icarusancalion

[ mood | awake ]

Here's a fanfiction heart attack.

Midway through my sga_santa fic, the borrowed laptop suddenly freezes.

post comment

Happy Thanksgiving! [26 Nov 2009|08:56am]

abigail89

[ mood | thankful ]

So it's about 9am here. I got up early to start defrosting the turkey in our never-fail hotwater method. We're also smoking a ham. Made an apple pie and a pumpkin cheesecake yesterday, as well as the dressing, a cranberry-orange relish and a chicken & butternut squash stew (for lunch today). Today I have to do, besides the turkey and ham, the corn pudding and the asparagus.

Boy2 has just gotten up; HeadBoy and Fred are still out and snuggling together. I think Boy1 is down at BlondBoy's house. We're watching the Macy's parade. Lordy, what cheese.

We stayed up late last night to watch 'Carriers'. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen. It was pretty bleak in terms of storyline. The best thing was that I figured out how to connect Albus to the TV, and it was awesome! I also found out by reading the TV user's manual (because I am female and I do that sort of thing) that our TV will connect to the internet by itself and will stream videos from Amazon. That's totally awesome. I still need to get that set up, but wow, so cool. [Hey, I remember black&white TVs with spin dials, no cable or satellite, and Star Trek when it was the most advanced show on TV.]

Went for a walk around the neighborhood yesterday, and today my left foot hurts like a mofo. Dammit.

I hope all my fellow Pilgrims have a great Thanksgiving Day. And I bid the rest of the world a very fine day.

post comment

Blu-ray follow-up [24 Nov 2009|10:22am]

abigail89

[ mood | cranky ]

Thanks for all your tea and sympathy about our boosted Blu-Ray player from Amazon. I'm going to go to the shipping office today to lodge a formal complaint and order a search and rescue. I'm really pissed about this.

Because people just don't wander past my house and think, 'Hey, I'm gonna take that package by the door.' Because they can't. Our house is perched up on a hill and has a long drive way. Even though there weren't any cars there, we come and go at odd hours, so someone watching the house wouldn't even begin to guess when we're there.

Then there's the Fred factor. Fred watches the neighborhood from the front deck. He's a barky dog, but only when someone invades his territory. And he goes nuts when anyone enters the yard.

Unless he was deeply asleep on our bed. In which case I need to have another employee meeting with him. He's falling down on the job.

After dealing with the lovely and very helpful customer service rep from Amazon who issued a refund, Boy1 and I went off to Best Buy, where, lo and behold!, the player I wanted was even less than the amazon price. So I bought it. Set up was incredibly easy OMG! so easy! and I settled in with Boy2 to finally FINALLY watch 'Star Trek'. And on our new HD tv--oh, such yummy goodness. So many details I missed watching it even in the theater *cough4timescough* HeadBoy commented on how much better it would've been on a 55" screen. *headsmack* In our small living room, 42" is a little overwhelming for me.

*sighs* Well, all's well that ends well. But I'm gonna get Amazon their money back.

Now you know what our Christmas gift is. That's it. The boys will have a few things in their stockings, and the chance to buy BR films for the library, but that was a HUGE chunk o'change. Add on top of that a trip to New Orleans, and we're tapped out for the holiday already.

post comment

500,000 animals being slaughtered right now. [24 Nov 2009|02:58am]

icarusancalion

[ mood | blah ]

My mom has been talking about this for weeks:

500,000 animals to be ritually slaughtered?

On Tuesday, November 24th the Gadimai animal sacrifice festival will take place in southern Nepal. It is said that 500,000 animals including buffaloes, chickens, goats, pigs, rats, and birds will be tortured and slaughtered during this Hindu festival.

Write to the Nepalese Embassy: info@nepalembassyusa.org

In India, the ritual slaughter of animals in such rites as the Agnicayana has long been replaced with effigies. There is no religious reason for this throwback. Despite the detailed instructions in Leviticus, Judaism no longer sacrifices the fatted calf. Like that.

post comment

What no one will tell you about college. [24 Nov 2009|12:42am]

icarusancalion

[ mood | happy ]

[ music | Skid Row ]

I'm tutoring high school students, prepping them for the SAT.

I think what they need as much as good SAT scores are some good college strategies. Share yours here.

So here it is:

What no one will tell you about college (until you get there).

1 - Want to increase your scores 5% without doing anything?

( Sit in the same seat every day )

2 - Talk to your professor outside of class.

( Disagree with your prof? Good! Take it to her/him at the end of class. )

3 - Bored? Ask a question.

( Every time I found myself zoning out during a class I would raise my hand )

4 - Avoid clock-watching.

( Avoid the clock-watching tick by sitting where you can't see the clock. )

5 - High school is for taking the classes you hate. College is for taking the classes you love.

( Don't be a masochist -- if you can avoid that hated math class by taking a much more interesting astronomy class, do it. )

6 - Know thyself. Work with your habits rather than against them.

( If you suck at mornings, don't take that 8:30am Japanese class. )

7 - Avoid schizophrenia and be efficient: Take related classes at the same time.

( You can use your readings from Indian history as sources for your Indian lit class and vice versa. )

8 - If the class you want is booked, show up anyway, books in hand, and participate vigorously.

( The professor would rather have you as an extra student than the disinterested slackers in the back. )

9 - Give yourself flexibility: Plan, plan, plan.

( When you're not sure of your major, take classes that apply to all three of your most likely majors first. )

10 - The one I learned too late: Build a relationship with professors who are top in their field by taking more than one class with them.

( If they're a bit of a name, their opinion carries weight. )

1 comment|post comment

Reason number 211 why I love these high school students. [24 Nov 2009|12:17am]

icarusancalion

Reason number 211 why I love my high school tutoring students:

A student wrote his SAT essay. He detailed how, scientifically speaking, the planet doesn't need humans.

<3

post comment

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes [23 Nov 2009|06:41pm]

madam_minnie

[ mood | pleased ]

[ music | Alone (Glee Cast Version) - Glee Cast ]

Thanks mandebooks for linking this:

post comment

Monday calling [23 Nov 2009|11:53am]

abigail89

[ mood | relaxed ]

The weekend was one of those that I like to avoid: busy and cluttered with too many busy-like things. We had a fairly lazy Friday night, which I enjoyed (both boys out of the house until late; a nice dinner alone with HeadBoy, a little pre-Christmas shopping), but then Saturday hit, and we careened from one activity to the next. Then came Sunday, and with HeadBoy down for the count all day, and me at work, it actually kind of worked out.

Two, well, 1.5 days, of work and then Thanksgiving starts. We're having dinner on Thursday with Rev Ann and her hubby, Mike, and their 2 kids, who are adored by my boys, but are a little whiny and at times downright rude so I merely tolerate them (I have plenty of other things to rag on about my boys, but they are never, ever rude to others, except on rare occasions) My MIL called to try to get out of it, to which I smacked her down, even though I couldn't really give a shit if she came or not, but her son wants her there, so...there it is. So she's confirmed. We just have to work out the details of food, and what Rev. Ann is going to eat because she is a veggie.

*~*

So, shocolate has been out wedding dress shopping with suzanne_taylor, and urged us to post photos of our wedding dresses.

( See abigail89 & HeadBoy in all their 1984 glory )

*~*

Decided to participate once again in bridge2sickbay. I actually like a couple I wrote yesterday. Theme was song lyrics.

( McCoy/Chekov: I wanna hear laugh like you mean it. Collapse into me, tired with joy (Snow Patrol - 'Hands Open') )

( McCoy/Author's Choice (Jocelyn): Georgia, Georgia / No peace, no peace I find / Just this old, sweet song / Keeps Georgia on my mind (Ray Charles) )

( Author's Choice (McCoy/Kirk) - The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone. I may have lost my way now, haven't forgotten my way home (Broken - Lifehouse) )

( Kirk/Chekov - Throw your window wide and taste the April night with me again (David Gray) )

Oh, that's enough torture for now. Huh. I think I ended up writing 7 ficlets, which is astonishing. There's a series of 3 that I want to clean up and make into a proper story.

Lunchtime! YAY.

post comment

Women ninjas. [22 Nov 2009|08:22pm]

icarusancalion

The music awards:

Shakira has women ninjas!

post comment

Quantifying a life. [22 Nov 2009|04:47pm]

icarusancalion

Good news on the work front: My tutoring job is going to give me 16 hours a week as of Dec. 1, which is great. It's an improvement.

The pay rate is good, and it gives me the required experience I need for teaching. (90 hours is the magic number. I'll have it by the end of December. Then I need a year of school for the teaching certificate.)

Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to live off of.

I don't have a car in car-dependent Maryland, so I'm having to ask "mommy" for rides to work, to interviews. I have all the time in the world to write -- yet can't find the space because I have to write around other people's schedules.

It's been four months and I'm getting the feeling she's burned out. As am I.

I want my life back.

Quantifying a life.

( When I drove across country to Seattle in 1996, I had a car. )

Aside from the degrees, how did I end up with less than when I started?

post comment

Mousie report. [22 Nov 2009|03:35pm]

icarusancalion

Mousie report.

Some of you may recall this post wherein a family of mouse babies took up residence in one of my fleece jackets (in a box that happens to be outdoors). I discovered this when I pulled my jacket out of the box, scattering mouse infants everywhere. I removed my other jackets, packed the box with newspaper, and used newsprint to scoop the littles back in the box.

A week later I discovered I'd missed four mouse babies, who'd fallen into a box I took inside. Noooo....

Then the temperature dropped and I thought the outdoor mousies were history.

Three weeks later ...

I'm happy to report that the mouse babies survived, and have moved on. But the nest is clearly there, and there are no apparent corpses.

Proof of life: the fleece jacket was not so lucky, sacrificed to the cause. The Mousies chewed a few holes.

Unless Rainy Pass can fix it.

post comment

Snupin Santa is DONE [22 Nov 2009|03:20pm]

ellid

*falls over in gratitude*

Dear God, I hope my recipient likes it!

post comment

Buddhism questions: passing the buck. [22 Nov 2009|03:11pm]

icarusancalion

[ mood | amused ]

People always ask me about Buddhism ... and I'm caught flat-footed. You should ask a good Buddhist!

Well we're in luck. And online, too.

Tulku Orgyen has offered to help anyone with any questions about Buddhism: http://twitter.com/TulkuOgyen

Retweet, tweeters.

And thank you, Tulku Orgyen, for letting me pass the buck.

post comment

The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming! [22 Nov 2009|03:02pm]

icarusancalion

[ mood | bleary ]

The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming!

If you're like me (in years past) you probably tune in to these winter sports, oh, once every four years. You get a general sense of who the favorites are from the announcers and interviews, roll your eyes at the inspirational life story clips, and root for the home team.

Now you don't have to be in the dark. You can be knowledgeable long before the Olympics hit.

At least about figure skating. (Everyone, feel free to correct me. I'm not an expert, I've just been following skating to the best of my ability for a couple years.)

Right now the horse race is on. It's the Grand Prix. As we speak, world class skaters are competing in a series of competitions Russia, France, Canada, the U.S., Japan, and er, I think elsewhere. Right now they're trying to earn points to get to the Grand Prix final -- and prove themselves worthy of the Olympic teams.

You see, last March at the World Championships each country won the number of slots they'd have at the Olympics based on how their skaters did. (The max is three.) China was very disappointed to not win any for men's figure skating. In a real shocker, the U.S. women's figure skating only scored two slots as our current National champ fell apart.

But our men are doing fab. Evan Lysacek won the gold at Worlds and we have a "deep field," namely, many guys running neck and neck for the same titles.

Let's have a look at our boys.

The Americans.

The ever-hot gentleman, Evan Lysacek. (The belt buckle is Batman, with cable and bat-grappling hook.)

( Evan has the quad. He has the fire. He's a skater who starts pouring it out in the last 30 seconds of his performance.... )

Finally, there's Mabanoozerabadahblbrghf. Graceful, fluid, fun to watch. I don't know if he'll keep moving up, he's still inconsistent. But he has a musical sense that makes him figure skating eye candy.

Only three will make it to the Olympics.

Which three? We'll know at Nationals in Spokane, January 2010.

Tomorrow: those other guys, yeah, them foreigners.

post comment

navigation

[ viewing | most recent entries ]

[ go | earlier ]