Deftones

We went to see Deftones last night in Tempe. They were amazing. The difference between seeing one of your favourite bands and seeing a band you like is incredible. I knew every single song, so I didn't really care what they played. I rocked out to the whole gig. Whereas with bands I only sort of like, I'm constantly wondering what they'll play next, and if it will be a song I know or like, rather than just enjoying the music.
They played a surprising amount of songs from Adrenaline and White Pony, which was good, but a little unexpected. But it was cool. Bored and 7 Words work really well live. And my appreciation for the new album quadrupled, or something. The most I listen to it, the more I like it.
So yea. I'll totally go see them again if I get another chance.

More nano stuff.

I'm almost at 50,000. I'm exactly half way through my book half way through the month and it feels great to be on schedule. I had a really bad weekend last and fell behind by about 4,000 words (or a day and a bit). But I've been doing between 4- and 5,000 word days and have finally caught up. The nanowrimo stats page tells me that at this rate I'll "finish" tomorrow. I'm so happy right now. I really feel like I'm achieving something.

I should try not to fall behind on my daily wordcount

Catch up days are so hard. I barely wrote 2,000 words yesterday, so today I had to do over 4,000. I kinda feel like I'm never going t get to 90,000. Even though I'm on track, I kinda feel like I need a break now. I'll probably be fine again in the morning, just writing so much is tiring. I thought I could use some old material to speed things up a bit today, but it didn't really fit with what I wanted. Ah well. Might go play thief for a bit now. Dinner first, though.
Or maybe lordkilljoy will come home and we can watch more Supernatural. We're almost finished season 2. I'm really enjoying it, especially this season. It feels like it hasn't dragged nearly as much as S1. Can't wait for S4 - Castiel. Oooh. I feel like this entry is brought to you by my 19 year old self. Ah well.

I'm off for food now.

Sedona Hike

I'm exhausted right now. I'm trying to get my word count for the day done (and catch up on yesterday) and it's just not happening. And why am I so tired? Well...

We went out on Thursday and one of the lads mentioned, rather off handedly, that they were going to Sedona on Saturday. "Are ye going hiking?" I asked. They were. And I knew I was going with them. I found out on Friday that they had a free space, and not too bright and early on Saturday we set off for Cathedral Rock.
The hike was amazing. I'd really wanted to go for a bit of a walk when we were there last, but lordkilljoy wasn't up for it. So less than a month later I got my chance. The hike itself was short, but steep and we took a few breaks to catch our breath on the way up. We got to the saddle - a flat patch of rock between two steep drops - and ogled at the beauty of the place. It really is incredible. But that wasn't all. The trail went on a little more to a higher, narrower saddle and just standing there (in a vortex), surrounded by orange-red rock seeing the sun shining from the pristine blue sky and making the rock seem to glow was spectacular.
The descent took about half the time as the ascent - the whole hike taking us only two hours. With a good part of the afternoon left, we headed out the other side of Sedona to Slide Rock Park. It was nice - we had a bit of a warm-down walk around. But it was nothing compared to Cathedral Rock. I dipped my feet into the creek and the water was freezing. So cold that no matter how often you dipped them in and took them out again they never got used to the frigidness of it. But it was lovely to cool my feet down after the hike.
We came home then, had a lovely barbecue and by then I was fit for nothing but bed. And it seems I didn't get enough sleep, because I feel really tired now having done nothing more strenuous than walk around a pumpkin patch / farm / autumn celebration thing. Ah well. Maybe food will help. And maybe I can catch up on the word count tomorrow.

writing like a madwoman

Happy November!

NaNoWriMo started today. I want to get cracking on book 2, so this is my motivation to get the rough draft (draft 0) out of the way. I'm going for 90,000 words over the month - 3,000 words per day. I got just over that today, but I feel a bit like a runner who's full of energy right now and is going well in the first part of the marathon. We'll see how things go as the month progresses. Anyway. I'm definitely going to have to rewrite the first 4 pages (because it's abysmal exposition and z being whiney) and I'll see how the rest of the story shapes up before making decisions on the rest of it.

Halloween was good fun. I got my costume finished - very rushed by the end, but it turned out well. Bookclub and the Saturday out were both good. The quality of costumes over here seems way better than in Ireland (or maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention to what people were wearing).

Have I mentioned we're going to see Deftones? I can't wait. I've been listening to them a lot recently.

I don't have a whole lot of other news. :scratch head: I guess I'll go.

NaNoWriMo

I suppose I should mention that I'm doing nanowrimo this year. I'm thinking of doing something very stupid and trying to get all 100,000 words of draft one of book two done over November (or there-abouts). I figure if I have 33 chapters and each chapter has 3,000 words that'll get me to 99,000 which is close enough to 100,000 to me. That means I have to write a chapter a day (that's where the "there-abouts" comes in, because that puts me three days over). And that's why this idea is stupid. On my best days in previous nanos I could write 4,000 words in a day, but that happened only a handful of days and I was exhausted by the time I'd written that much. I'm not sure I can sustain that energy for a whole month. Even to have a chance I'd need an immaculate outline, which I don't have at this stage. But there's still time before November.

First, I have to get my Halloween costume finished. I'm almost done with it. I have a bunch of fur to sew and the bodice to make and I have to put velcro on all the pieces to make them stay on me. Then it's just finishing touches and a bit of painting (and a paper mache shoulder guard - which I'm working on tomorrow) and I'll be done.

Our trip to Flagstaff was really good. We went to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, the lava cave and meteorite crater on Wednesday, and Sedona on Thursday. Sedona is amazing. I want to live there. I drove there from Flagstaff, and we decided to go the scenic route (which is also the shortest distance). Oh wow. The drive was something else. We went over the mountains and coming down the other side was nothing but breathtaking vista after breathtaking vista. It was so beautiful. And the weather was perfect. Warm, but not too hot. The town itself is nice, if touristy. I wanted to see a vortex (how could I not want to visit a vortex - it's Sedona, you practically have to visit one) but either there was no parking or we had to hike (which lordkilljoy wasn't up for). So I'm going to go back some day and visit a vortex by myself. We just went home on Friday because it was raining. I can hear a voice in my head going: "Call yourself Irish? A little drizzle puts you off?" Yes, well. I hate rain. And living in Arizona has made me hate it even more.

Gravy makes such a difference

Dinner last night was amazing. I made bangers and mash and it was better than any I've had in a restaurant. They always try too hard, and add extra things into the mash or make their gravy overpowering. Mine was a perfect blend of buttery mash, salty-spicy sausages and sweet onion gravy. Delicious. I did do the restaurant thing of making a little mound of spuds and standing the sausages around it and pouring the gravy over the top. Nom nom nom.

I also made pumpkin pie yesterday. I was totally excited putting it into the oven, because the raw filling and raw base tasted amazing. What I didn't realise is that pie is not a straightforward thing to bake. So the edge of the crust got burned (badly enough to mean that it doesn't taste nice, but not so bad that you can't eat around it) and the filling didn't cook up properly. It was still quite liquid-y coming out. That didn't stop me nibbling at it while it was still warm, and I was less than enthusiastic about the taste. Somewhere along the way the sweet, rich flavours of the raw things had gone missing. So I put it in the fridge, but didn't forget about it. I had a small slice for breakfast (because even flavourless pie is better than dull cereal) and was pleasantly surprised. I think the flavours must have come back as it all rested together. And possibly pumpkin pie is better cold. So yea. I'm looking forward to eating the rest of it for breakfast over the weekend and next week, and desert and probably lunch, too. A whole pie is a lot to get through by yourself. I would invite friends over to help, but I don't think it's good enough. I don't want people thinking I'm a bad cook (because I'm not).

Did I mention we're off to see deftones in November? I'm so excited. I can't wait to go. I've wanted to see them since 1st year of college. And now it's happening.

I don't think I have any other news.

I think I made yeast

So it's no great secret that I hate doing the dishes. I'll let them pile up and overflow the sink until, eventually, it's gets bad enough that I wash them. I got around to doing them today and there was a pot which had been used to cook potatoes. Just boil them, nothing else - not even a bit of salt in the water. When I took the potatoes out of the pot, I left it by the sink (didn't empty the water or anything) and when I got to it today I was expecting a really bad smell (the lid had been on up until now). But I was pleasantly surprised by a fresh yeasty smell when I opened the lid. It was quite lovely, actually (if you like that smell). I felt really bad throwing it down the sink. That was living yeast I just killed. I would have loved to experiment with it making bread, but I don't know if it can be extracted from the water it was growing in.

I bit my tongue this morning eating breakfast. The rest of breakfast had a distinct flavour of blood to it. It's still sore now.

Ooh. Big news. I'm making studded leather armour from Skyrim for halloween.



I fell in love with this armour the first moment I put it on (almost a year ago - it was the first set of armour I picked up. Actually, I loaded up my second ever save, because I knew I'd get references easily, and it was kind of nostalgic seeing my lvl 38 stealth character all the way back at lvl 5). I wanted to cosplay it all the way back then, and now I have a good excuse. I'm going to try working with craft foam - because it's cheap and available. I'm doing up the pattern now, and I've got the waist bit done out on paper and just putting it around my middle made me really excited. I have high hopes that if I actually manage to get this done it's going to look amazing.

I would like to note here, too, that Guild Wars 2 is the most fun ever. lordkilljoy and I have been playing almost every day since it came out.

Disneyland

Ahhh, I don't even know what to write, we did so much. We spent about 10 hours in the park on Friday and about 9 on Saturday, and I'm pretty certain we missed out on loads of stuff. You could spend one whole day just watching performances. The good thing is that we got to go on all the rides we wanted. California Screamin' (the rollercoaster) is the most fun ever. I wanted to go on it 5 times, but we only made it 3. I get the impression that lordkilljoy wasn't such a raving fan as I was. We ate a bunch of wonderful food and didn't get fat because we walked so much. We'd get back to the hotel each evening and not be able to move for the soreness of our feet.

So California Screamin'... I was a bit intimidated at first, because lordkilljoy had said it was a bit daunting. And I'd not been on a rollercoaster in years and didn't remember how cool they are. So we get into the car and I'm all "ooohhhhh, scary" and we get launched (0 to 55mph in 4 seconds) upwards and then - it's the most amazing thing ever. We're coming around the top, ready to take the first big drop and all I can think of is "I'm flying." And that's it. I can't think of anything else except being a bird and looping across the sky and it's the most amazing feeling ever. And I don't want it to end, but it does all too soon. We queued up again straight away :P

I've had disney songs in my head since Thursday night when we caught a duelling pianos show (not so much dwelling as two guys singing along with each other and getting the crowd singing). Actually, Thursday night kicked off the whole weekend really well. We got in after 7 and went for dinner. We didn't even know there was a show on in the restaurant, and happened to be sitting right by the stage. That fun led into Friday for all the rides, and Saturday for more rides and the parade, and Sunday for shopping and the swinging ferris wheel and serious disappointment that California Screamin was closed and we couldn't go on it one last time.

And then we had to go home. Which was sad. But a bit of an adventure. We had a rather elemental journey back here. Wind, earth, fire and water in the form of a duststorm with lightning and rain. That was pretty spectacular. I'd been taking pictures of the clouds and waiting to see a rainbow (which I didn't - note to self: If I find myself thinking the weather is fit for rainbows, I should look out for duststorms instead) when I noticed this dark line of cloud in front of us. I sort of wondered if it could be an oncoming duststorm of if it was just thick clouds on the horizon. But as we drove closer we saw the road kind of vanish into the sand. And it got closer and closer, and all of a sudden we crossed the divide from clean air to wall of sand and we couldn't see more than 3 or 4 meters ahead. It was deadly (meaning cool). We pulled over and marvelled at this freak of weather and I got really excited to have gotten the chance to experience a real live haboob up close. And it did not disappoint. We were amazed at cars and trucks that didn't pull over, and it was kind of freaky seeing their lights disappear just a few moments after they passed by.

I wish I could think of all the cool little things we did and saw. Maybe I'll write them down as they come to me and make a post of them.

First Fitting

So, apparently, I'm not a size 12. I'm a 10. I kind of knew this, but I assumed pattern sizes were different to shop sizes. Anyway. The dress is huge. I had to sew all 8 seams at 23mm, rather than 16 because it was just so big. But at 23mm seams it fits amazingly. So I don't know what to do with the actual dress. Cut the seams to be sewn 5mm smaller, or sew a massive seam. I'm a bit afraid cutting them smaller for fear of messing up the design. What's really annoying is that 12 was the smallest size of this pattern, so if I wanted to go to a size 10 I'd have to buy the pattern again, which I'm not about to do. I haven't sewn the arms and top yet, so I'm a bit afraid that with my bigger seam allowance it won't all fit together properly. Hmmm.

I don't have any other news.

Dress part 4

I didn't update over the weekend. Not for lack of progress, but because Guild Wars 2 came out and when I finished sewing for the day (which was early, I'll admit) I went playing. Over the weekend I got the princess seams and the pleats done. Today I put the whole thing together and tried it on. It's too big. I knew it would be, because with about 2 seams to go, I realised I'd been sewing the wrong seam allowance. I'd been sewing 13mm, when I was supposed to be sewing 16mm. Sigh. Anyway. I'm just going to sew 3mm inside all the seams around my torso (no need to do all the way down - the skirt is wide enough not to notice). So It's looking kinda cool - even for a mock-up. The skirt is massive. I think I'll need about 3 petticoats to pull it off. I have one and the material to make a second, but don't know where the third will come from. Ah well. That's a worry for another day.

Guild Wars 2 is amazing. It's the best designed game I've ever played (or at least MMO). I actually prefer playing with lordkilljoy than on my own. The game is really set up for doing things together. And there is so much to see and do, and all the cities are beautiful, and the storyline is fun, and I just want to play all the time. One of my favourite things is the dye system. You can change the colour of your clothes as often as you want, so when I get bored of one colour, I simply change it to another. But what I really love is that they make it so accessible. In GW1, you had to buy / trade or find dies and you could only use them once. So to make your whole outfit red, you had to get 6 (or whatever number) red dies. And If you wanted to go blue then you had to get 6 more dies. It was really limiting. Whereas in GW2 when you find / buy / trade a die it gets added to your collection and you can use it as much as you like. It's a small feature, but the game is full of helpful little elements like this that make it a pleasure to play.

Yea. I don't have much other news.

Dress, Day 3

I got about what I thought I'd get done today done. So that means the rest of the material is cut and ready for sewing. Now, start the procrastination machine. I'm so scared of messing up that I don't even want to try. Is that perfectionism at work, or is it something else? And this is only the mock-up. Okay, worst case is that I waste a few days when I realise I've done it wrong and have to go again. No big deal. Right. Tomorrow I start sewing.

As I wrote that sentence my brain went: have I forgotten some vital step, something that happens after cutting that isn't sewing? Ah well. It'll be fine.

Right so. We're off to the pub for a few drinks with friends. I almost forgot to update today, let's hope I remember tomorrow - because I want to have these journals as a sort of step-by-step guide for the next dress I make.

Dress Part 2

Today I got half the material for the mock-up cut out. Cutting material takes ages. From laying out the pattern pieces properly, to pinning them to the material to actually cutting. I'm starving right now and my back is sore from leaning over the whole afternoon. And after it was all cut I had to mark the places where stitching starts and ends. I'm really hoping this stitching becomes clear when I get to the instructions, because right now I have no idea what it's about.

So yea. I get to do it all again tomorrow. But I should be faster because I found the best way for me to cut the fabric while staying within the lines of the pattern.

Other news of note: we pushed Disneyland out by a week. We hadn't realised it was a bank holiday when we booked, and I imagine the park will be packed. So that's a bit sad, but let's hope it means our trip will be even better because the queues won't be so long.

I need to get myself a dress icon.

I'm making a dress

Ever since lordkilljoy sent me a link to some 50s swing dresses a few years ago, I've been obsessed. I think they are the most beautiful dresses a woman can wear. But they are way too expensive to buy and I've contemplated making one for ages. So, last week I came across (very accidentally - I was looking at a random craft tutorial generator) a beautiful pattern - the most different I've seen - and I had to make it. It's vogue 2903, and it looks like this:



I bought the pattern, read the instructions, got material and notions (look at me using proper terminology) and today I cut out the pattern pieces. It took ages and my hand was killing me from holding the scissors by the end of it. I went super-carefully, ironing the printed sheets first then cutting exactly on the lines.

I hope to get the mock-up material cut tomorrow. And maybe start on the sewing that. :) It's going to be so cool. I'll update again (tomorrow I hope with the rest of my progress).

Perseids

We went out into the countryside to see the Perseids meteor shower on Saturday. We drove for an hour, and the lights from Phoenix still stained the northern horizon. I don't know how far we'd have to go to get away from it, but farther than I'm willing to travel.

Anyway, we pulled off the highway and lay on the car, looking up at the sky. It wasn't perfect, though. There was a little cloud cover and the stars weren't the most visible ever. We did get to see a few meteors, though - which was cool. I saw 3 or 4. Tiny little streaks flashing through the sky.

The local fly population was out, and we were both paranoid about being bitten. So we ended up not staying long - only 20 minutes or so. A rustle in the bushes nearby sent us on our way with images of murderers in our heads - or at least in my head, anyway.

Still, it was fun. I drove us and I got to use the headlights for the first time. That was really exciting. Evil, sardonic Ria was all, "You are so sad," but I didn't care. Ooh - another fun driving thing - not related to that night - is that I've been driving our car since January, and more frequently since June. Today, I learned how to use the win-wipers. 8 months and in all that time I haven't been rained on until now. Amazing. I love Arizona. Okay, that might be too strong a word, but it is amazing having blue skies every day. I don't think I could ever get bored of it. Or ever learn not to feel aversion towards rain.

I've nothing else to say, really. Bye, then.

Ooh - actually, I did want to say that I think River acted as our shield and took all the mosquito bites on Saturday night. She kept moving around and fidgeting on Saturday night and today she's been scratching a little.

I'm such a lazy person

I don't know if I've mentioned on here how much I hate doing the dishes. I really do. There is no worse thing to do, in my opinion. Messing around with dirty water, getting it all over you and the kitchen. Scrubbing (I don't actually mind this part), rinsing, drying. I skip the last part. If there's something worse than washing the dishes, it's drying the dishes. The towel is wet after one pot and for the rest of the endeavour you're not really accomplishing much except putting towel bits all over your nice clean dishes. So I lie a towel on the counter and let the dishes drip onto that until the air dries them. Air doesn't mind drying dishes.
Anyway - I had to do the dishes today (our AirConditioning is still broken and I couldn't have the man see the ginormous pile of pots and other non-dishwasher things that had stacked up. and they had gotten a small bit smelly.) and it took me ages. The whole counter - about 1.5m x 1m - is filled with them drying. So that's done now anyway. I tell myself I'll try to do them as they occur from now on, but I know I won't. The weekend will come and I won't feel like doing it and then it'll be Monday and there'll be too many to face so I'll leave it til Tuesday, when there's even more and it's not until I have no pots and no pans left (and I have many) that they'll get done. Sigh.

I made French onion soup today for lunch. It was good. Not quite as good as that which you'd get a restaurant, but I didn't have 2 hours to let the flavours really develop - because I was hungry. The onions were slightly too crunchy and the broth wasn't quite flavourful enough. But it was good for lunch.

I can't think of anything else.

A recipe I have to make again

Lunch today was inspired by WholeFoods' cabbage crunch salad. I improvised based on the ingredients list and another cabbage salad recipe. And here it is, preserved for posterity.

Serves 1 very hungry or 2 not so hungry people

Ingredients

1/2 head of cabbage
2 tbsp silvered almonds
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp mirin (sweet japanese sauce) or any sweetener
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp light flavoured oil
1/4 tsp salt
pepper

Method

1 - toast the almonds by heating a pan over medium heat (or slightly hotter) and tossing the almonds until brown, about 3 minutes. be careful to watch them - it only takes a short while to go from toasted to burned.

2 - mix all the ingredients and enjoy.

So there we go.


We stayed up last night watching Curiosity land on Mars. Well, we missed the actual landing, but tuned in about 20 minutes after. The people on the team were so excited and happy. It was great to see. And it'll be really interesting watching the photos come in from Mars over the next few years and seeing if they find any remains / evidence of life.

We went to see Total Recall on Saturday. I really enjoyed it. It was pure action sci-fi with some very fun ideas.

Not much else happening.

baking

Some might say I've finally lost it, but I say: this is for me as well.
I made dog biscuits today. They involve 5 different flours, eggs and chicken stock (along with other baking necessities - like yeast). It was the most dough I've ever worked with. I even had to split it into 2 batches to roll it out because the counter space wasn't big enough. The recipe makes 200. I needed 4 trays to fit them all into the oven - thank goodness our oven is truck-sized (okay, not quite). They are in the oven now and will be until tomorrow morning - they get annealed. I can't wait to try them, they sound amazing. And with only 24 calories each, both me and River can snack on them without worrying that we are eating too much.
I also made "biscuits" for the very first time. I feel so American. So, they aren't really like scones. They are more like little nuggets of soda bread. They're dense - not fluffy like scones. And they were so simple to make. Yeay for food processors.

Yeay for baking.

Air Conditioned

We got our air conditioning fixed today. It started dripping a bit and, being very pro-active, we got it seen to before it got any worse. So it turned out that the level of freon in the system had diminished (ooh, there's a nice word) and ice was forming on the unit, and it melting was what was dripping. Anyway, the maintenance guy topped up the freon (his words were, "I charged your unit." No you didn't. It needed its gas topped up. You don't charge gas. Americans are annoyingly loose with words and grammar. Ooh, another thing that seriously annoys me (because we've been watching a lot of Olympics) is when presenters say, "He medalled in swimming." No he didn't. He got a medal.) So anyway. It seems to be working much better now.

It does trouble me that the freon had vanished out of the system, though. Clearly we have a leak somewhere. And that's CFC simply pouring out into the atmosphere. It worries me. I think the guy just refilled it, rather than actually searching all the pipes and valves for a leak.

I can't think of anything else to say. Things are much the same as ever here. Ooh, I did make risotto for dinner today. It was yummy, but unfortunately I'm not so partial to al dente rice, so I ate it wishing for the rice to be a little softer. According to the internet it takes 40 minutes to get it really soft. 40 minutes of stirring is not my idea of fun for dinner.

Right. Bye so. I'm off to buy some blue thread to alter a pair of shorts which are too big.

Short Update

In the last week I've:
made berry frozen yoghurt (tastes amazing, needs about 15 minutes to melt a bit when it comes out of the freezer for good texture)
washed my hair with baking soda (going well so far, no greasy or dry hair)
fainted (whacked my knee on the table, pretty certain the dog had free reign to lick my face)
made griddle bread (just like Mammy used to make when we were younger - at least that's what my flawed memory tells me)
gotten loads of writing done (am 2/3 the way through the final, final edits - at least before a publisher gets at it)

Now. I get a star for productivity.

Digestive Biscuit Experiment I

Aside: I found a cicada outside the apartment and I brought him in and put him in a ventilated jar with the stem of a hunk of broccoli. I think he's half dead, but he moves every so often. I hope he finds the broccoli and gets strong again. Either that or he's moulting and I'm about to have something massive on my hands. He already has wings, though, so I don't think he's moulting.

We went to a baseball game on Sunday (Arizona Diamondbacks vs LA Dodgers). It was really fun. It went on for about 3 hours but the time flew. I now understand a lot more about baseball and the lady beside me commented about how I was getting better at cheering at the right times - rather than just because everyone else was cheering.

Anyway. I got it in my head last week that I wanted digestives (McVities ones). But instead of just going two miles to the shop (Tesco have a food shop here - Fresh and Easy - which sells English stuff), I decided I wanted to bake my own. So I looked up the ingredients on a pack of digestives and off I went. Of course, in my case this means making out spreadsheets and looking up ratios and doing random calculations. Then I had to figure out how to bake them. Anyway. The first experiment was a failure. The only resemblance to digestives is that they are sweet and wheaty. I mean, they taste nice - I've been munching away on them all morning - but they are not what I wanted. So, for posterity, here's the recipe, and what I would do differently.



134g ap flour
44g wheat flour
39g sugar
scant 1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp dry buttermilk

40g canola oil
1/2 tbsp water
10g (scant 1/2 tbsp) golden syrup

First off, not nearly enough liquid. I had to add 3 or 4 tablespoons of water extra to the mix. The texture is too soild and the taste is not wheaty enough. So different flour - possibly cake flour, and definitely a coarse ground whole wheat (which I couldn't find in the shop). The sweetness seems about right. I think the next experiment needs more oil, possibly, and a marginally hotter oven (though the bottoms of the biscuits will get burned). Also people say to use white sugar for more crunch. Possibly more salt? You can sometimes taste the salt in digestives. Melted butter instead of oil, but the ingredients definitely list vegetable oil and not butter, so that's out. It's also possible I put in too much leavening.



Anyway. I'll get to that another day. I want to make dog biscuits for River too. so I'll do them on the same day.

I don't think I have any other news.

Randomy Random Post

We got to see fireworks last night. They were cool. And we had a perfect view - about as close as you could get, without even realising it when we chose our spot. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I felt kinda bad as we headed out to the fireworks - even though I'd been for a 5 mile walk with River, but I guess I just felt we should have met up with some people. It didn't help that the day was muggy and overcast.

My crackers got finished off today. I'm going to make more, along with some digestive biscuits. I've set myself a challenge to make digestives exactly like McVities, so I started by getting the packet ingredients list and a random recipe for digestives and merging them. My only one bafflement is wholemeal. Is this wheat? Oat? Some other kind of grain? I'm afraid that oats will bake the biscuits turn out more like HobNobs. And while HobNobs are good, they are no McVities digestive. My caramel squares are almost gone too. The last few are in the freezer.

I renewed my driver's licence today. Kind of spur of the moment thing when lordkilljoy reminded me. So, if you get to the office just after it opens, the wait is only a little over an hour, rather than 3 at every other time. So I shouldn't have to do that again because this time it's valid until a year after my visa runs out.

Remember ages ago, I wrote a post proclaiming how I was totally finished Artificer? I totally lied. I've been working on it somewhat constantly since then and am now almost done with it. I'm 3/4 of the way through the final read through and have some 200 notes on changes and corrections that need to be made (a lot of which are simple typos, but one or two are whole scene rewrites).

I restarted the front panel of my crochet robot. I wasn't happy with it and figured it would only take a little while to do again. It will be cool when it's stuffed and sewed up.

I don't think I have much other news. This post was mainly procrastination for not doing the dishes.

San Diego

We've been to San Diego before, for Comic Con, but never got a chance to see anywhere outside the Gaslamp Quarter. So last week we decided to go - booked a hotel (motel?) on Tuesday and drove to it on Friday. I did my first stint of long driving on the interstate. It was really fun. I was way more excited than lordkilljoy who's all "I've done this a million times." Anyway - I didn't crash, which is good. I'm very indecisive, though. I'd come up behind a car going a little slower than me and be all "should I overtake them?" Eventually I got sick of it and just slowed down so that all the cars were going faster than me. Except for some and then they'd speed up when I'd go to overtake and it was all very annoying. I even overtook a truck on a normal road (ie, no divide to keep cars on their own side of things). You have to go well out of your way to find one of them around here - a normal road, not a truck.

So we got in and went for dinner in Little Italy (which was just up the hill). Dinner was amazing. I've never been disappointed going out in San Diego. All the restaurants we've been to (this trip and the last) have been top class. We strolled around a bit, me dithering between wanting to live in San Diego because it's beautiful and the weather is perfect and not wanting to live there because it's a bit intimidating at night.

Saturday we went around the USS Midway (an aircraft carrier museum) which was incredible. Huge and full of metal and cool things and stuff you could touch. I spent the whole trip dreaming about being an engineer driving the ship, an enlisted naval person, an officer and a fighter pilot. I don't know if I've ever mentioned that I wanted (along with twenty billion other things (every time we passed a train on the road I'd express my desire to be a train diver)) to be a fighter pilot... I could say when I was younger, but I still daydream about it. Living on a ship, getting catapulted into the air and flying around. I don't think I could deal with the actual killing people part, though. So, we spent 4 hours wandering around and listening to the audio tour - it was a really cool morning.

That afternoon we went to the zoo, which we spent another 4 hours wandering around. It's amazing how you fit stuff in when you only have a short amount of time. The zoo was lovely, though. I'm so impressionable. Every time we go to a zoo, or park or something I wander around going: I want my garden to look like this. And as we sat in the aviary watching the birds flit around, was was like: I could totally build an aviary in my back garden. I don't even have a garden :/ Ah, imagination - I suppose I can have everything I want through you.

So anyway, the zoo was cool. There's a cable car that goes from one end to the other and takes you up above everything for a pretty unique view of the animals. And there were loads of acrobatics and shows on the evening we went (not sure if this is what it's like all the time). That night we went out again, for another amazing meal. Even though we were both exhausted, we still enjoyed it.

And on Sunday morning we went off to the beach for an hour or so. It was packed. We drove up to La Jolla and spent ages looking for parking. The beach was beautiful, though. White sand, blue-green sea, half metre waves. I tried to resist and only dip my feet in, but I couldn't. The water was warm (compared to Irish sea water) and the waves were inviting and with only a little encouragement from lordkilljoy I'd changed into my swimming things and was jumping around in the surf. It was brilliant.

And then we drove home - again I didn't crash. Go me!

I made crackers today. They are delicious - not dry at all. I've eaten about 10 (probably more) since they came out of the oven. And they're so crackery. They snap when you bite into them. And they are lovely with cheese. I'd say they are very successful. I used my new pasta maker to roll out the dough thin enough. Only I'm not very good at it yet, so some of my crackers are more thin and snappy than others.

I think that's it. I'm still playing Skyrim. I've clocked up a rather frightening number of hours at this stage. Still not as many as Oblivion, though and no where near as much as Morrowind or Daggerfall.

I crocheted a doily-coaster for the glass of water that sits on my desk. I was getting a bit fed up of having a water ring where it sits, so I did something about it. Now that I'm done with that I'm making a cute crochet robot.

I definitely think that's that.

P.S. Hey, Lj, what's going on with line breaks not auto-formatting?

Weekly News (or something)

For the first time in 11½ years I cleaned up my friends page. Anyone whose name I didn't recognise is gone (because if I don't know your name it means we didn't interact much). I also got rid of a bunch of old communities that hadn't had activity in 3 or 4 years. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. My profile page looks so much lighter now.

Anyway.

What news? I made caramel squares on Friday night. They are delicious. The caramel is more like toffee, but it is absolutely yummy. They come out of the fridge and they are so hard to bite into. I've taken to leaving them warm up for a bit. They are also horrendously bad for you. I think they are the most fatty sweet I've ever made. So I have to seriously control myself and only eat 1 per day. Yesterday I nibbled away on one square for the whole day and it was great. A nibble is all you need, really, to get the taste and satisfy the desire for yumminess.

What else? I'm back playing Skyrim again and after one day I was totally addicted. I just want to play all the time. I started with a new character (a destruction mage) and she is so much fun to play. I always thought stealth was the most fun way to go, but there's something delightfully chaotic about laying down fire runes (which are like magical traps that set off an explosion when they are triggered) and waiting for foes to walk into them, then shocking them with lightning as they stumble around on fire. That sounded so evil. But it's so much fun. Bethesda are really good at making games. I don't think I've stumbled into any of the same quests as last time and I'm doing things completely differently.

River went to the vet on Thursday to get 3yearly injections. She was fine afterward.

Ooh - last weekend we went tubing on Salt River. It was so much fun. They give you rubber tubes and a bus trip up to the start point, then let you off to drift back to the main area. It sounds really boring, but every so often the water gets shallow and fast and that is when it gets really fun. And just watching the desert drift by was great too.

We went to see Prometheus on Wednesday. I really enjoyed it. There were some super gory bits in the middle, but overall it was a fun story about a girl whose faith is challenged.

nomnible

Banana bread is cooked and cooled and it is so delicious. I think it is the best banana bread I've ever had. It's so moist and delicate. Not at all dense, like most banana breads. There are banana-y pieces and chocolaty pieces and it is oh-so-difficult to have just one slice (but at 250 calories per slice (decent slice - about an inch), that's about all I should eat). I can post the recipe if anyone's interested.

I was just out walking River (in the 36° heat) and thought to myself, "I'd be quite happy if this weather went on forever." We'll see how I feel in five months' time.
I'm still getting up at half five to walk her. I think I've discovered that going back to bed straight after the walk (and sleeping until 9ish) works best for me. Napping in the middle of the day doesn't work because, apart from River barking, I sleep very lightly and wake up every few minutes.

We went to see Men in Black 3 last night. I really enjoyed it. Will Smith is his usual funny self, and the capers and character interaction are fun and harmless.

Did I mention lordkilljoy and I are playing Diablo 3? We're almost finished, just the last act to go. It's fun. I'm playing a wizard and I don't think I'll ever get bored of shooting a massive disintegration ray out of my hands.

beee-na-na

I think I just found the secret to good banana bread (possibly - it's not out of the oven yet, but the batter tastes yummy out). People say to use ripe bananas, but they never quite describe just how ripe they should be.
I've discovered that the best kind of ripe* is when the outside of the banana feels squishy, and the inside has sort of melted a little bit, and there may possibly be the start of some fermentation going on (bananas never tasted of rum before). You don't even need to mash them before throwing them into the batter, they sort of fall apart all by themselves.
I shall update again in an hour when this is cooked.

*I have a suspicion that this kind of ripe only happens at about 30°C (the ambient temperature of our apartment).

I may have thrown some chocolate chips in there too :)

Things I Forgot Yesterday

I meant to say that my strawberries and basil died while we were away. The rose started growing... which reminds me that I should take it out of the direct sun again. The poor basil completely withered and died. It was a dried out ruin. The strawberries just hadn't grown, and me - not even thinking - decided to put them in a bigger pot where they promptly died. I still had a few seeds left, though, and threw them in the pot instead. I hope they grow.

The other thing is about ducks. It seems the ducks around here like to take a morning constitutional. Yesterday I saw a duck cross the road and continue on his way along the footpath. Today I saw another duck walking towards me on the path. She promptly turned around and walked away from me. I should try to remember to bring my camera, because I've seen other random things around the ponds too. Like a turtle. I think that was the most random. I've also seen a heron. And a dead fish - a really big one.

So Much News

I'm finally getting around to updating my livejournal. I have loads of news... I must also finish off the account of the wedding - even though I've done all the good bits already.

I'm trying this new thing of walking River at stupid o' clock in the morning (aka 5:30am) while it's a nice temperature for walking. It went well enough while I was still on jetlag time, but now that I'm coming out of that things are getting harder. I was so tired this morning getting up and while out walking. It's only now (because 7 is such a less early time :/ ) that I'm feeling a bit more awake. Though, I am very tempted to just go back to bed now. But I want to get this written first.

Poor River's a bit institutionalised after her month in boarding. The day after we got her home she went into her crate in the middle of the day (which never happens). She's also been going in there in the evenings (when she'd usually be up on the couch beside us). But I think she's coming back to herself again - which is good and bad. It's lovely to have mad, playful, loving River back, but with that side comes the barking at strangers, trucks and the UPSman. Very annoying.

Now, I know there was something else... Crochet - ever since penelope_stone showed me how to do it properly, I can't get enough of it. I'm making fingerless gloves and driving gloves. I'm trying to get the driving gloves done fast so that I can wear them. Contrary to all sane thought - gloves are necessary while driving in 40degree heat. And not because things are hot. No, indeed. It's to stop the freezing cold air coming out of the vent right next to my fingers from giving me frostbite. Okay - that was an exaggeration, but not by much. And if you are wondering why I don't just turn down (up?) the ac, it's because the air is a lovely temperature by the time it reaches my face.

Other things of note: I cycled 35km around one of Killarney's lakes last week (god, was that just last week?). I'm still not finished the string top I'm knitting. I'm making gnocchi for dinner today - from scratch.

I spent a good bit of yesterday driving around by myself. I feel like I shouldn't be allowed control something as freakishly frightening as a car. Every time I go, I feel like I'm going to be in a crash or something. But anyway - I got to the post office and the shop for food without any problems. I do think, though, that our car isn't the most efficient ever. I filled it on Saturday and it was a quarter gone by the time yesterday's jobs were done. And we didn't go anywhere far. The dog park was the farthest, at 13miles away. I looked it up and the Cruze does 22mpg in an urban area. That sounds about right, I guess. That's 250 miles per fill for just driving around (it does better on the highway). Does that mean we did 60 miles in a few days? *Off to google maps to add up journeys.* I suppose we did. Wow, driving really ads up.

Emm, right so. I haven't any other news. I think I have to sleep now.

Wedding Part2

Right - I missed a bit yesterday. After we had our dresses on and were running around getting everything ready, and not having time for lunch, I kind of felt like my dress was in the way the whole time. It was so big, if I stood by the dining room table I blocked most of the way through the room. So I kept moving around and eventually just sat on the couch to leave everyone else rush around getting the last bits organised (like jeans for the next day and proper shoes). And the other thing I forgot, which was a bit funny, was that we lost my personal vows on the way to the car. So when we got to the Imperial I told daddy to run in and get a pen and paper so I could rewrite them. Thankfully I had them memorised well enough to be able to rewrite almost word for word.

So now, where was I? The Ceremony.

We said our pieces and signed our names and when it was all said and done, I couldn't contain my excitement. Everyone could see me bouncing on my chair with pure joy. And 70 hugs and congratulations later it was down to the bar for champaign and ice cream. Nom nom (to the ice cream). Liam ushered us out for photographs (me being a bit slow and stopping to chat to people) and off we went to the park for some (what I hope to be) beautiful shots. I'm pretty certain they'll be lovely - I have much faith in Bernie. The photos went smoothly - me going from "ohh, my dress might get dirty if I stand there" to "okay, I'll walk across this wet grass." Ned dropped us back to the hotel then, for more chatting and all of a sudden it was time for dinner.

I can't even remember, now, everyone heading up for dinner, but soon it was only me and Liam... oh wait. No - we went up to the penthouse for more photos, and when we got back down, everyone was already gone up for dinner. So we strolled the candle-lit corridor up to the ballroom, and waited a moment for everyone to be seated and ready before we made our grand entrance to the sound of 70 bells clinking. It was wonderful.

Part 3 to come soon.

Wedding Part 1

The day was brilliant. From getting ready in the morning to being too early to the hotel to a gorgeous dinner and the most brilliant dj in the world.

We got up at half 8, got breakfast (scones) and messed around for a bit before dressing and going down to get hair done. Lisa did my hair in the most beautiful way. She had a plait around the base of my head and a kind of small updo at the back. Then we had a little time at home, in which mammy ironed shirts, we grabbed the quickest, smallest lunch in the world and then over to Martine for make-up. She did it lovely - keeping it as natural as possible. Me and penelope_stone looked so pretty. Back to Lisa straight after that to get my veil put on. About 20 pins went into that endeavour, but it stayed on lovely.

When we got home, we put our dresses on - keeping an eye on the time. Somehow it got away from us because there was a mad rush at 2ish as mammy, penelope_stone and liam rushed out the door. The car for me and daddy arrived early, sitting outside as penelope_stone and them drove off. So me and daddy got the last bits and pieces together and went out to the car. "Drive slowly and take the longest route you can," was the advice, but we still arrived half an hour early. So the photographer, Bernie, jumped into the car and we headed off to south main street for a few photos. By the time we made it back it was exactly 3, so things worked out perfectly.

The people of the Imperial whisked me and daddy up to the room where the ceremony was taking place. My main impression of that was "oh wow, there are so many people, I can hardly see anything for all these people." And then getting to the top of the room and I see lordkilljoy and he looks amazing and all I can do is smile like a lunitic because I'm so happy and excited. The ceremony flew past - both of us making it through the official vows fine and our personal vows expertly, zombie apocalypse and all :)

That's it for now. More to come tomorrow (or the next day, or possibly next week).

home

Made it home safe and sound - if a little tired (5 hours sleep Saturday night and 7 Sunday). It's miserable here, but it's kind of nice for a change.

penelope_stone taught me to crochet today. I made half a flower which was coming along well, but very floppy, before I ran out of wool.

We went for a walk along the Lee Fields today. We had to run back to the car because it started lashing.

I can't think of much else to say. This hasn't been the most scintillating post. Too tired for all but the basics.

I'm a driver

Dreams of being a stunt driver in Hollywood, here I come! Not really. But I did manage to pass my driving test. I got 96% :)

It was fine, really. I think I need the tester to drive around with me for an hour beforehand to ease me into things. I made one mistake - which I knew I had the moment I did it. I looked in the mirrors / over shoulder before turning on my indicator. But that's okay.

We're off on a plane in 8 hours. I don't really know what to do until then. I don't know if everything's done or not. And I didn't get enough sleep last night (hoping to be tired tonight so that I sleep on the plane) so I don't really feel like doing anything.

Actually, right now I can see myself playing soul reaver. lordkilljoy got it on good old games. It's one of my favourites, and watching the intro made me think how much Artificer is made up of everything I loved when I was younger.

Driving Test Today

How does one drive when one is shaking like a leaf in a gale? I've got it kind of bad today - I feel really sick, even though I'm forcing myself to eat, because I might not get another chance for 3 hours and driving on an empty stomach is an even worse idea than driving while shaking. Well, because I shake even worse when I'm hungry.

Livejournal, you've always been here for me before a test. And once more we go through this together. I keep trying to tell my body to stop with this nonsense, but it won't listen, so maybe you can talk some sense into it instead. Thanks.

dog park adventures

We brought River to a dog park with a lake (pond) yesterday. She swam for her (possibly) very first time. She really loved jumping through the water - I don't think she liked swimming so well, so she got around by doing this leaping-forward-through-the-shallow-water thing. It was cute, and pretty funny.

While we were there a little dog swam too far out and panicked. He swam around in circles for ages. His owners called and called him, but any time he started heading towards them he'd get turned around again and start swimming the wrong way. Eventually the man took his shoes and t-shirt off and went in to rescue the dog. Everyone got back to shore safely, but I'd say the little dog was wrecked for the rest of the day.

The weekend was seriously hot. The thermometer in the car read 41 at one stage. The thermometer in the house got up to 38. It's really too hot for doing anything much - we did manage to laze around in the pool for a bit yesterday, but I worried about getting burned (because obviously I was too lazy to put on suncream).

Spinach Curry

I need to write down last night's curry before I forget about it. It was amazing and I made it by modifying a recipe - hence the needing to write down.

Serves 3 (or 2 very hungry)

Ingredients:

1 package firm or extra firm tofu, well pressed and sliced into 1 inch cubes
olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 tbsp garam masala (I used Shan Tikka spice, but garam masala is close enough)
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp minced ginger
2 tbsp water
1/3 cup greek yogurt
6oz baby spinach leaves
1 large tomato, chopped

Preparation:

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the spices (this amount makes it very spicy, use less if you like less spice) and water, mix together, then add the yoghurt. Mix together.

Add the spinach, and cover until wilted (about a minute). Stir to coat in the yogurt sauce. Remove from heat and let cool a bit while you move on to the next step.

In a separate large skillet or a wok, sautee tofu and onion in one tablespoon of olive oil until tofu is lightly crisp and onions are sweet.

Once spinach has cooled a little, process the spinach mixture in a food processor or blender until almost creamy.

Add the spinach to the skillet with the tofu and onions. Add the tomato and cook, stirring, until the tofu is well mixed with the spinach.

Serve with rice, naan, or whatever (I'll bet this would be amazing with chopped boiled potatoes).

Rye Pita?

I managed to make some kind of rye pita bread today. I've been experimenting with this yeast-free pizza base recipe over the last few days - making it into flatbread and cooking it like a pancake. Today I had the random idea to swap out the semolina and all purpose flours for cornmeal and rye flour. I also left out the baking powder. It mixed up well. I tried kneading it, but I don't know if rye has any gluten to work with the kneading. So I squashed it into a flat circle between 2 sheets of wax-paper and 2 chopping boards. It came out super flat, and super circly. Onto a pan it went and the pan went onto a super-hot cooker and the bread cooked away, until I turned it over, when suddenly it popped. It magically turned into pita bread - which I wasn't expecting at all. In surprise and delight I took it off the pan, tried a bit (acceptable but the dough needs some extra flavour), and proceeded to stuff it with cheese. Nom nom nom (this sentence translates to "I ate it, and it was good"). Now I just need to figure out something I can add to the dough to make it really yummy.

Food Entry and other things

I haven't done one of these in a while.

We made pizza last night. We each kneaded our own little bit of dough and put on our own toppings. It was wonderful. Mine had a ricotta / garlic powder / parsley sauce, caramelised red onions (when I say caramelised I really mean fried with oil, spices and salt), baby spinach leaves, smoked salmon, feta and parmesan cheese. Unfortunately all my flavours were strong and none really came to the fore (but I think the onions were winning). lordkilljoy had a standard pepperoni pizza (with extra red chile).



Lunch today is going to be amazing (if the rice will ever cook). I got random ingredients (stuff about to go off in the fridge) and threw them together into a one-pot meal thing. It's composed of brown rice, half a red onion, most of a red bell pepper, half a can of stewed tomatoes, salt and minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. Oh, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Nom nom nom. Even though I haven't eaten it yet, the bit of sauce I tried was delicious. I'm starving. Come on, cook. It's been an hour and the rice still isn't done.

I'm trying to get a bit fit for the 40km cycle me and penelope_stone are going on. Yesterday I cycled 5 (miles or kilometres) on the cycling machine in the gym, and today I did an easy 5 and a hard 5. I was happy to be done the hard 5, but by the time I got home I was fine again. So I think the machine is in km, because after 5 miles I'd be way more tired. And... on the road, it takes me 5 minutes to go 1 km. And I was on the machine for 15 minutes, and I was working a bit harder than I do when going to the shop... So I guess I have to work up to 45. I don't think I'll be able to add on 5kms every day. Or maybe, with breaks in between. Or maybe do half easy and half hard.

Best Weekend Ever

Friday we went to the cinema to see Cabin in the Woods. A bit scary, a good story and a fun ending. I enjoyed it.

Yesterday we drove the start of the Apache Trail. We brought River along with us, but I guess the sharp bends and ups and downs didn't agree with her. She was very pathetic, and when the road turned into gravel we turned back. It was a good trip all the same, ans we're going to try it again some day without River.

Today, we got up and I didn't know what to do with myself. Go to the hot tub, go to the pool, waste time on the internet... lordkilljoy somehow came up with the idea of going to a waterpark (I wish I could remember how this idea came about). So we looked up waterparks and the big one in Phoenix was having the last day of its reduced price season passes. On an absolute whim we bought season passes, got in the car and went to the waterpark. It was the most amazing fun I've had in ages. All the slides we went on were so much fun - and this one was the best:


The Tornado

You get in, go around a bit, down a big dip and into this huge funnel where you go back and forth a few times until you get spit out the end. It was so amazing. And the great thing was that the park was really quiet today so we got out of the pool, ran back up the steps and didn't have to wait at all to do it again.

The only downside to the day was that the weather was cold. Okay, it was 20degrees, but windy, and when you are wet in a swimsuit that's not quite warm enough. I was shivering badly by the end of the hour and a half we spent there. That's the cool thing about passes. You don't feel like you have to make the most of it, because we can go again whenever we want and it's only 45 minutes away.

Lucid Dreams

A while back, I was browsing reddit and I came across r/luciddreaming. It quickly became one of my favourite places to check when I had a few minutes with nothing to do. I read the posts and marvelled at some people's natural ability to lucid dream. I wanted to do it too - because I have a little natural talent in this area (I've lucid dreamed in the past without trying and I've always had amazing dream recall).

So I set up my dream journal and tried to remember to do reality checks often (I fail at remembering to do things, though). So I went back to reddit and read about an app that helps you to remember to check if you are dreaming. It chimes at random intervals throughout the day and pops up a screen with "Am I dreaming" written on it. I downloaded that about a week ago. And slowly, the idea to remember to reality check has written itself into my brain. I remember to do it every so often without the app's help. So anyway - that's backstory.

Last night I dreamt I was in a shop, wandering the aisles. As I passed a shelf its generic contents changed to jars of nutella. My brain went: am I dreaming? And sure enough... Woooooooo! I tried to change some things but couldn't quite focus enough. So I tried stabilising the lucidity and that worked enough for me to create a doorway out of the dream (with the intention that it would pop me into a far more interesting space). I went through, but as I did, the lucidity vanished and I was back in a normal - but very adventurous - dream.

I'm thrilled and hope that I can become lucid a bit more frequently. Now I just have to learn how to hold onto it for longer.

Photography Musing

I've been thinking about RAW photos recently, even though I can't remember what put them in my head. Possibly post-processing all the photos from Miami. So I reinstalled CHDK on my camera (a cool little program that gives Canon point and shoot cameras the ability to record RAW photo data, and a bunch of other cool stuff) and messed around with it. I finally got it working today and the difference in photo quality is spectacular.

The one on top is the JPG.





See the way the carpet and the bag are over-exposed and the shadows around the table are quite dark. The RAW file smooths all of this out and gives a really balanced light. That's really impressive. It also saves the image at a higher resolution, but I think that could be because I don't have my camera set to the absolute highest resolution.

I just wanted to post my findings here. Now I'm off to clean the kitchen.

Wedding Shoes

I got some pretty dolly shoes to go with my wedding dress. I had to settle for what was available, even though it's not really what I wanted. They are white, soft leathery material, and about 2mm too small, but the next size was about a centimetre too big.


This is them.

They are pretty, and I did want flat shoes. So they'll do. We had considered getting cons, but we woosed out in the end.

I also got two pretty tops today. We had a good day's shopping, really.

Weekend in Maimi

I just made ketchup. I needed 1/2 cup of the stuff, and using heinz would have put me way over my sugar limit for the day. So I made my own with just a tiny bit of sugar. Yeay.

Miami was brilliant. I'd totally go back there for a proper holiday. The beach was amazing (for the whole hour we got to spend there). That's all I keep thinking about. Wrestlemania was good fun and the craic with the lads was fantastic, but it's the beach my memories dwell on. I even have a photo I took of the beach as my desktop.



We actually got to do quite a bit of touristy things (like eating ice-cream and drinking cocktails). We went on the hop-on hop-off bus tour and strolled the bayside area and even managed to make it to the beach for a quick swim in the clear, warm water. It was the perfect time of year to be in Florida, too. It wasn't humid and the temperature was just perfect (perfect being about 28C). It's actually crazy. 28 is my new comfortable temperature. I can sit around and feel somewhat cool in 28 degrees. I'm going to freeze when we go home.

We ate in Bubba Gumps (spin off from Forrest Gump) most of the time. I think it's my new favourite restaurant. Their salmon skillet is the most amazing thing I've ever eaten (I could be exaggerating, but I can't think of any better meal right now).

I'd like to think I could live quite happily in Florida, but then I remember the mosquitoes (not that many around yet, but I still got one bite) and the hurricanes, and I think perhaps Florida is only nice to visit.

I don't have a whole lot of other news, so I'll leave you with some pics...

bread x ∞

I may have mentioned this before but... I love bread. Bread is the best thing ever. You can have it with butter, or toast it. You can rip it into pieces and nom each bit individually, or you can stuff a whole slice into your mouth. You can dip it into soup, or sop gravy up with it. You can build with bread (seriously, the Chinese used rice flour as mortar).

I made some lovely bread today. Even better than last weeks scones... which were good, but not perfect. I found out that if you put a lot of baking powder into bread that it can give it a strange taste. 3 teaspoons of power to 1 cup of flour is too much baking powder for my poor sensitive taste buds. Apparently, there are 2 kinds of baking powders and one has this taste for some people, but the other never does. I'll have to change the brand I have.

I'm going for a driving lesson on Tuesday. Ahhh. I'm going to try to act all confident so that I can just do the test at the end of this lesson (and pass it, of course) so that I don't have to go for my second lesson. I'm such a social goof. Maybe I'll really love the lesson and want to do the second one.

Anyway. I don't have much other news.

hot weather

It's starting to get hot here. The apartment was at 29 degrees last night (that's partly because I'd been baking too), and today cycling to the shop I felt that another few degrees and it will be too hot for cycling. Don't know what I'll do for food then :( The climate is so mild here, that the leaves on the trees don't fall off - they are pushed off by the new growth in spring. It's really weird to see all the leaves falling now. And if you are curious, like I was: Phoenix is the second hottest city in the world. Yuma, AZ is the hottest, and somewhere in Egypt is the third hottest. And I live here. Crazy.

I don't have a whole lot of other news. I made chicken cordon bleu last night. It was amazing. The breadcrumbs were so perfect. I had some issues with the cheese - it wasn't gooey enough. It didn't melt out of the chicken when you cut into it. So if I make them again I will look for some other way to do the filling (last night was just grated swiss cheese (which I don't think I like the taste of)).

Here's a photo, because I was so proud:

disaster

Livejournal, I must lament to you. River ate my scones. I ate one, she ate eleven. I can't believe she got at them. They were on the high counter - out cooling. And they were delicious. The best scones I've ever had. So light and fluffy and crispy on the outside. And lordkilljoy didn't even get to see what they looked like, let alone taste one. I'm so annoyed.

don't bake with dead yeast

I made bread last night. Or I attempted to. I suppose I should have realised something was wrong when the dough could barely absorb half the flour it was supposed to (but having never come across a problem like this before, I just put it down to warm weather). I turned the dough out and let it rise for an hour - in which we went out for dinner - and when I checked on it, it was the exact same size it had been. Now, my brain went something like, "it /has/ risen, surely. It's just that the bowl it's in is so ridiculously over-sized that the bread just looks the same size in comparison." The bowl was not over-sized.

Anyway. Then I remembered that the package of yeast I'd used had been open for a few days. And then I realised the yeast had died sometime over those few days. Poor yeast. And poor me, who had no bread to look forward to. I shaped it into a loaf anyway and left it alone for another hour, hoping something might happen. It didn't. I used the dough as clay to make a very basic duck (which got thrown out today) and threw the rest of the dough in the bin.

Failed bread attempt #1. So, for being baking bread for a few months now, that's not bad at all.

First sunburn of 2012

It is official. The sun here is very strong. I got pretty burned across one shoulder while wandering around the ostridge festival today.

The festival was fun. We got to see a very silly ostridge race, pet a bunch of animals, watch a dog-jumping-into-water show, a monkey show, and eat some ostridge. Nom nom nom.

I don't know what else to say... I think I'm a bit tired. I might go a lie on the hammock.

The End

So. I'm officially done with Artificer :)

penelope_stone is reading it and I might make some final changes based on her feedback, but right at this moment I'm moving on to book 2 and not looking back. I've been tossing ideas about book 2 around in my head for the last few weeks, and I think I'm coming to the realisation that I've lost a lot of what made book 1 good in book 2. I need to bring it back to Zachery - it's still his story. Not Zan and Kej's (or whatever Zan will be called once I settle on a new name for her). So I'm thinking of rewriting most of what I've done from Zachery's point of view. I'm also thinking I don't have nearly enough plot to fill this book out, and that frightens me. Because there's nothing worse than filler. Anyway. That's a worry for tomorrow morning. I'm actually thinking of reworking the outline - doing it in long-version to get a really good idea for just how much content I have. But I don't know if that's just a form of procrastination.

Anyway. It's weird. I thought I'd feel more at putting Artificer away, but I guess I've been done with so many drafts at this stage, it's just another link in the chain. And I guess in the back of my mind, I know that it will be there if I want to make more changes. I guess at this stage, the hard part will be staying away from it. (Nah - not really.)

I don't have a lot of other news. Did I mention I'm playing Planescape Torment again? I have come to the realisation that this is my all time favourite game ever. Yes - it even beats the Elder Scrolls games. The story, the characters, the setting - I love everything about this game. And I love the fact that it's so thoughtful at the same time. There are bits of philosophy in this game that you can't help get caught up in, and get thinking about.

Right then. I'm off.

Pancake Day

On nom nom. I just made the most delicious pancakes ever (okay, maybe not ever - that honour may go to the pancakes I made for lunch last week). I used Alton Brown's recipe, but cut down to size (I ended up with enough for 4 pancakes). Anyway. I've never had a recipe before where I enjoyed eating pancake with nothing on it. I find them flavourless and boring. But this mix. Oh wow. It was like a delicious, fluffy, soft, warm bread. (That sentence may be subject to hyperbole, but not by much.) I ate them with nothing on them. Not even the charms of nutella worked. I did put a bit of grated parmesan cheese on the last one and it made it even yummier.

So... last week's lunch pancakes - also delicious. I didn't have any bread (still haven't made any) and I didn't have anything for lunch. There was some pancake mix in the pantry (we have a pantry :) ) but I didn't feel like boring pancakes. I also had some fresh basil and a half a can of tomatoes in the fridge, so I threw them into the processor and mixed them into pancake batter. I cooked them - putting some cheese on top and they were so delicious. I totally didn't even remember than pancake day was coming up next week when I made them. But anyway - two delicious pancake meals. Nom nom.

What else - we got a basil plant. Woo. Can't wait for it to get big enough so that I can take leaves off it without harming it.

I cast off the string top I was knitting and started an easier one. I would have stuck with the first, but I measured it and it was coming out 4 inches too big, and the pattern didn't work so well with the colouredy wool. So the one I'm working on now is plainer, easier to knit and looks lovely.

Was noch? We went out on Friday to a mardi gras themed dinner. It was quite a good night. I wore 5inch wedges and my feet weren't so sore at the end of the night (but I was sitting for a load of it) and I didn't trip over. Yeay.

Ooh - River's doing really well with the whole not barking when I tell her to be quiet. She actually listens to my command. Woo. She's still doing paw like mad, and she's mostly grasping roll over. She still has no comprehension that down means lie down, but I think that could be that we also say down when we want her to stop jumping on us.

Finally - I'm back playing Skyrim again. It's such a fun game. Steam opened their workshop (where they collect mods) so I've been having fun trying out different mods. I must download the creation kit and have a go messing with my own mod.

Bread is Delicious

I have a honey-wheat loaf doing in the oven and it smells absolutely delicious. I really need to get myself another loaf pan, so that I can make two loaves at a time. It doesn't really seem justified - all the effort for one loaf (which depending on how scrumptious it is might not even last a day). I love this baking malarkey. It's amazing being able to eat your bread you've made yourself, that you know exactly what went into.

I now have 10 rows done on my string top. I'm a regular speed-knitter I am [sarcasm]. It's going to take months and months to finish at this rate. Though lordkilljoy's going on a wwe stint tonight, so I might get a lot done if I sit on the couch with him (rather than sitting at my desk playing games).

The wwe stint is therapy from a terrible, terrible end of week. Yesterday (was it only yesterday?) he lost the car keys. When they didn't turn up by noon today, he called a tow-truck to come pick up the car. Half way back to the rental place, the keys showed up. So typical, you really just have to shake your head and shrug. That's life, isn't it? Anyway, we have another car now, so it's all good.

I don't think I have a whole lot of other news.

News Things

I finished my skirt on Friday. Wore it on Saturday. It's a bit weird - not exactly even and I cut the material sidewards. So I'm not sure if I'll wear it that much; probably just wear it in the summer when I'm hanging around the apartment.

Did I mention at all that we taught River how to do paw. She does it for everything now. It's very cute: waiting to get lead on for walk - paw; want food - paw; looking at treats - paw. I think she thinks paw means I'll get what I want. Hee.

I went out with the girls on Friday. It was a good night - I got to dance, which is always fun. I think I'm good now for nights out for another few months. I can ignore all the things I dislike about night clubs when they only happen once in a while, but too often and I just get to hating.

What other news... Did I mention that I started on my cotton string top? I have 5 rows knitted at the moment. I've given myself until June, but this is going exceptionally slowly.

Dinner tonight was amazing. I did a tofu and veg stir fry and it was so delicious. Soy and oyster sauces make an amazing base for stir fry - add in a little stock, ginger and mirin and you get something absolutely divine. I love Mondays. I could eat rice and stir-fry every night.

Right so. I'm off to play Star Wars.

Drive to Fry's

I just drove us to the shop and back (and around the estate). Go me :) I need some work on mirrors and on trusting that I'm seeing everything. I'm kind of slow because I'm afraid there's something there (like a bike or person) that I've overlooked. And there was a lot of, "Okay, I'm just going to go. Ahhhh." I'm such a girl. But I got us there and back safe, and got lunch for myself too. Yeay.

We got the matrix on blueray recently and have been watching them over the weekend. They are quite good movies. The first one is still so much fun to watch, and even the second one (last night) was a bit of action.

Not much else is going on - Royal Rumble is on tonight, so we're going to watch that. It would be really fun to watch John Cena (the ultimate good guy) turn bad (or heel, as they say). That's the only reason I'm watching. Does that make me evil? Because I want to see the good guy fall? I guess it's just a story element I really like to see unfold.

I don't have a whole lot of other news. Ooh - the thermometer in the car got to 26 yesterday. The one on the balcony got to 20. That's pretty cool (or hot, really).

Watch

After 11 years of perfect service, I finally let my watch go to watch-heaven. lordkilljoy's been trying to convince me to get a new one for some time, but there really isn't anything wrong with my old watch - it's just old, and a bit worn. The battery went a while back and I've been meaning to get it fixed. But lordkilljoy said to get a new one instead of fixing the old on, and I guess I agree with him. So, here's my new watch. It's so pretty: Momentum M1. Anyone who knows my old watch will also know that the new on is a lot like it. But if something works for you, why go looking for something different - comfort in the familiar and all that.

Cooking Update

(And writing update - let's do that first. It's more exciting.) I went over all of Artificer in five days. Once I got through the first few chapters, I was mostly reading, though. I can't seem to help myself - I get so caught up in the story. I guess this is a good thing, but now I'm wondering is the end good enough. The whole book is so exciting, with huge things going on and then the end just seems to come around so fast. Not sure if I just read it too fast, though. And it is just the end of the first book - kind of leading in to the second book. Or maybe I need something to slow the pace right before the end, and then pick it back up again. Not sure.

Right - cooking.
I've still been mad making delicious things, I've just kind of lost the will to photograph / write about them. Highlights this week were rolledy tubes of pasta with a cheese filling inside (way to make food sound unappetising :self-depreciatory face: ). They were absolutely delicious - like a yummy rolled up lasagne. And they were lovely, despite me not having two and a half of the ingredients.
The other high point was the meat sung type thing I made last night. It was "type thing" because it didn't actually have any meat. I used quorn instead, but you wouldn't even know. It was so delicious. And I got to puff rice noodles. I used up all my oil doing it, though. But it turned out so lovely. I made a huge dish - like 15"x10" or something - and we ate almost the whole thing. Savagery, but it was so yummy. And to be fair, most of it was air in the puffedy thingys. Anyway. Pics:


Well, one pic. Nom nom nom.

Today is a good day

I love when I make a list of things to do and I get everything done. I had a wonderfully productive day today - got some writing done, some wedding stuff, hung out with River, tidied, got dinner ready. I'm all go. I wish every day could be like this.

We're off to Raw (wrestling) tonight. Hence the productivity. It should be really good - I'm looking forward to it anyway, and I've only been half-watching wrestling for the last few weeks.

I have a new morning routine. It's mostly the same as the old one, but after I get in from walking River and have breakfast, before I do anything else, I write for an hour. Just one hour - not that long at all, and I'm getting loads done. Okay - I am still rewriting (so it's possible to get loads done in an hour) but it still feels good getting though a whole chapter in that little time. I'm back picking at the start of Artificer again and I really think I have it this time. This is absolute final draft for the start of the book. After this I have to make Azrynn more of a person, and that's it. Those are my last two problems with the book. Then it's off to query. Oh, em. No. Wait. It's not. Then it's on to book 2 until I get a work permit - then query book one.

I don't have much else to say.

(re)Learning to Drive

After almost 5 years, I went out driving today. We got our learning permits on Wednesday (a very happy, albeit nervous day) and today me and lordkilljoy went out driving in a car park. It was kinda scary, but kinda fun too. The straight bits were fun, going around corners was not so much fun.

We put up the hammock yesterday. It was a lovely day yesterday and we decided taking a nap out on the balcony was a wonderful idea. And it was. Even though it was a tiny bit cold. It was even colder today so we lay out there with sleeping bags. It was hard to stay awake it was so comfortable. I can't wait until it gets warmer and I can lie out there in shorts and a t-shirt.


Us :)

I can't think of anything else to say. I'm sure there's loads, but I can't think of it right now. I'm off to play Star Wars.

Oat biscuits

On a whim last night I decided to make something nice. Something cakey and chocolaty but not too rich. I would have made chocolate lava cakes, but I didn't have small enough pots to bake them in, so I settled on oat walnut chocolate chip cookies. It was incredible, from taking the flour out of the press to enjoying the first bite of melty, sweet, oaty, chocolaty biscuit took about half an hour. My mixer is amazing. You literally pour everything into it and 1 - 2 minutes later it's ready to go in the oven. If I'd had it over christmas I would have made chocolate chip cookies every day (okay, not really) but I do think they would have come out more like M&S cookies. Because the ones I made last night had an almost identical texture (to M&S ones).


Yummy (even if the first bite does seem excessively sweet - the oats and walnuts quickly balance that, though).

Ooh - and the slow cooker is off the hook. The brisket last night was delicious.

Slow Cooker Ultimatum

This is it for the slow cooker. We are having beef brisket in a tomato / jalapeño sauce and if it doesn't work out I'm never using the slow cooker again (except for the odd time we have Irish Stew). I find most things cooked it in come out tasting very similar. That could be the recipes I'm choosing, but I'm kind of bored with it's limitations and I'm sick to death of it's contrariness. No matter what I cook, or for how long, after a few hours water will seep around the rim of the lid and start to sputter and splatter all over the place. And that's not even the annoying part, the annoying part is that's the water that's keeping the food moist. So we end up with a mess to clean up and dry dinner. Seriously, slow cooker, it's your last chance.

We had salmon-fish cakes last night. They were delicious. I'm 100% convinced that anything that comes out of America's Test Kitchen (the people behind Cook's Illustrated) is amazing. I have 4 of their books now, and I'm starting to use them almost exclusively. I wish they had a slow-cooker recipe, I didn't notice one in the books.

Did I mention the fajitas we had the other night? From Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, they were delicious. I would have had the chicken on it's own with nothing else - just chicken. It was so yummy. The chicken was so good, in fact, that I ended up pulling it out of the wrap so that I could enjoy its flavour to the fullest.

I've stopped taking pictures of meals because it's kind of a lot of effort and I need a tripod that can work well with a table. That and I'm usually too hungry to wait the 2 minutes of photo-taking.

I did no work on my skirt today. I hoovered and that pretty much sapped any care I had to do anything else. And I've had this weird eye-socket-headache on and off for the past few days. It's annoying.

Anyway - bye.

Domestication

I'm getting an inkling about myself and I'm not sure if it's something other people already know about themselves. I'm biased when it comes to things I've made for myself. All the cooking over the last month or so is making me realize this. I really, really love the food I cook. It's the most amazing food I've ever eaten. But I've come to the idea that if I got the same food from a restaurant, I wouldn't be so absolutely in love with it. Something about having worked for the food makes it taste better.

What really brought this home is the bread I baked yesterday. It's yummy out - a honey oat white bread. Slightly too dense and slightly too sweet, but I think it's delicious despite these flaws. If I'd bought this bread in a shop I'd probably buy it again, but only if there was nothing nicer there. And therein lies my bias. Do I judge myself easier or things in a shop / restaurant harder? Or does criticism just not come into the picture at all with the things I make? It's weird.

Anyway. Bread. Yummy. Will be making it again at some stage. Well - I might look out for a different oat bread recipe that uses less honey and more oats.

I've started the big sew-up of my skirt. It's turning out well. Though the ends are a bit weird. They turn in instead of out. Some ironing might be in order. I'll leave you with a picture of the material.


So cute.
I'm turning into a right little domestic lady, amn't I?

Brand Loyalty

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I was reading this amazingly interesting article on how being motivated by a reward can kill that motivation and it reminded me of something I'd mentioned while out for dinner with some friends on Saturday night. It has nothing to do with motivation, but it does have to do with the way the mind works. It has to do with brand loyalty / recognition.

Living in America is very different to living in Ireland, systems are different, beliefs are different, roads are different, but even something simple like choosing a clothes washing liquid is different. Choosing something like clothes washing liquid is really difficult over here, and you know why - brand recognition. I have no idea what brand of washing is good. I picked washing because it's harder to choose than with food. With food, you look at the list of ingredients and you have an idea of how good the food will be. But with washing you have no idea. You don't know what different brands' claims to fame are. What one will get my clothes cleanest? What one will be gentle on colours? What one will smell nicest? You can look at price and go by that, or by the packaging, but they aren't really a guide. Price is variable and packaging is designed to be appealing.

So what to do? You pick one and hope for the best. And while you pick that one, you think back to how much easier buying this stuff is at home because you have all these brands floating around in your head. The brand you used at home might not be the best, but you believe it is, and that makes the decision easy. It's not really a decision at all.

Being out here just made me realise how much we take brands for granted - how comfortable they make us feel. They are a crutch to save us having to agonize over what product is best. Now, I know a lot of people will just pick the first product to hand, but I like to delude myself that I'm buying the best product out there, and I get uncomfortable when that delusion is shattered.

Anyway - all that said and done, I think I picked a good clothes washing liquid this time. Yeay.

For the Empire (Red)

I finally got my christmas / birthday present from mammy and daddy. It's a KitchenAid stand mixer and it looks so amazing. It's "empire" red, it looks like something beautiful straight out of some retro-future. I've not had a go of it yet because we defrosted the second loaf of ciabatta the same day we got it, so there was no need for bread.


This is it. So beautiful.

The ciabatta we had with lasagne I made from scratch. It was amazing. lordkilljoy insisted I make it again in the near future. We had a kind of pork ramen today. That was nice too - the sauce on the pork was delicious, but I put in slightly too much oil.

Not much else - I'm going playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (never finished it before) so I'll be fresh for Revelations.

beets, om nom nom

Well, it's more a case of coconut milk - lemon sauce nom. But the beats played a big part in it. Confused? Right. So we had fish and beets for dinner today. I like beetroot but I've never cooked a whole one before. We were having it as a side with fish today and (wow - I'm really struggling with clear syntax today)... you know what. I have no idea where I was going with this.
To sum up - beetroot tossed in a little oil and vinegar then drizzled (or full on covered) with a coconut lemon curry sauce is absolutely delicious. It made the fish, which had been the original benefactor of the sauce - pale in comparison (puns, puns, puns). Little did I realise, however, that coconut milk is mostly just fat and was unable to finish my nom-delicious beets. Much to my disappointment. But I'll have it for lunch tomorrow :) yeay.

Emm, earlier in the day, when I'd been preparing the beets, I noticed all the leafy bits about to be thrown out. Well, I didn't so much notice them as want to do something productive with them. It's a little hard not to notice something that you've had to practically saw off a vegetable. Anyway... (again)
I cooked the leafs and ate them. They had a nice flavour. I think they'd work really well as a substitute for green beans or something equally questionable in a a stir fry or something. River enjoyed them too. I think she likes vegs more than fruit. I got bored of them kind of fast, though. Leafy greens and me have an odd relationship because I find them really weird to eat. Like I could never scoff them like I do with rice or something. I kind of nibble at them, taking my time to dissect the flavour, but then I get bored that the eating process is taking so long. And if I try to eat more in a bite I find I don't like it any more. Weird. It's something I'd have beside me and chew on the way someone else would do to nuts or something... but I can't do that because it would be gone cold. Boo.

I feel like my other icons aren't getting much use - all my posts these days are about food. Ah well. Food is good. Right so. Bye then.

Now we're cooking with cream

For the first time ever I used a recipe with cream in it, and was it ever yummy. Yes it was. We had pasta bake with spicy italian sausage. It was pretty basic, but absolutely delicious. Something about sausage, tomatoes and cream (and pasta) just works.



I'm sewing a jacket from a pair of jeans at the moment. It's turning out quite well. I have everything done (arms sewn on, back darted into shape) except for the front. The shape of the material is a bit funky and I'm not quite sure how to make the front look good. It's all well and good if the sides and back look amazing, but if the front doesn't match, I'll never wear the thing. So I'm waiting for inspiration on that.

I don't have a lot of other news. I guess I forgot to say that my wedding dress arrived. It's beautiful. There's one small problem with it (some material got puckered by poor stitching) but I think it's fixable.

Right so. I'm off to play Star Wars: The Old Republic with lordkilljoy now. Later.