Making foody things

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I made chicken stock. From the few tastes I took, it came out rather good, but we'll see when I eventually use it in something. I followed Michael Ruhlman's Ratio for everyday stock. I love this book. It's got seriously interesting things in it - like how to make sausages from scratch and chicken stock and the best pancakes I've made (Alton Brown's pancake recipe is still one of my favourites, but this one is slightly easier for a Saturday morning).
So, a bit of a background on me and chicken stock. Every time we make roast chicken (which is about 4 times ever) I say to myself: I really should have a go at making stock from the bones rather than just throwing them out. So I'd shove the remains of the bird in the fridge, and look at it every time I'd open the fridge over the next few days, and say to myself, "Really should make stock." But it never happened, because I was never really motivated. And I'd end up throwing it out after a while. So yesterday, I finally psyched myself up for a whole day of keeping an eye on a pot of bones and water, and it turned out great. I did it in the slow cooker, because I know for a fact that I can't keep any of my pots on the hob at below a simmer.

And I'm making two breads today. A naan for Liam and a carrot / butternut squash / pecan loaf for me for later if I get peckish or tomorrow's lunch. And hopefully it'll still be good when Mammy and Daddy come to visit on Friday (I'm doubtful about that). As I write this, I have corn starch all over my right side. It fell out of the press and spilled all over me :/ And it doesn't clean up easily.

Ooh, and I made a salad dressing the other day. It involved carrots and ginger and vinegar and oil in the blender and turned out lovely.

So that's that. A quick round-up of other news: I am slowly finding homes for all our stuff in this house. I want to relearn to drive here in Ireland, but when it comes to actually going out driving I don't want to. I only have my learner permit for a year, so I can't really dawdle with it. I'm running the intro 5e D&D game. And I'm really enjoying trouncing Uruks in Shadow of Mordor.

I Bought a Bow

Look, look! I can post again without feeling like a stranger on my own blog. Yeay.

So, this is a little random. And of course it needs a story to go along with it. We went out for brunch yesterday and I decided I wanted to go to REI (they are having a sale and I wanted to see if I could pick up a wicking string top; I couldn't, but that's not part of this story). After REI we went to the games shop and on the way home we ended up going north on the 101 instead of south.

"You know what's up this way?" I said. "Bass Pro." Yes. Bass Pro, a fishing, hunting, boating, really crazy-american (sorry Americans, but face it, you do have a penchant for going over the top with things) outdoor shop. That place was an experience - taxidermy animals all over the place, antlers lining the walls, a massive aquarium in the middle of the giant shop. I was pretty cool, but pretty frightening at the same time. I suppose hunting is such a small thing in Ireland that seeing a whole shop dedicated to it was odd.

Anyway, we just went up to see the place, because we'd been told it was worth seeing. I kinda wish I'd brought my camera, but I would have looked weird taking photos and the security people probably would have given out to me.

So, this all brings us up to the point of my story. They had a load of archery stuff upstairs (down from the racks and racks of guns and rifles) and I got all nostalgic about archery. There's a range here in Chandler by the dog park and I always look in wistfully when we pass. So we looked at bows. Not seriously, because they were all over $200, but I can't say I wasn't tempted.

That evening, as I was importing old posts into Blogger, I came across a post where I wrote about the archery class I did back in '06 / '07. And I'd written the name of the bows we used. And out of curiosity, I went on Amazon to see if they sell them. And they do...

So, I think the title of the post says all that needs to be said at this point. Well, except that it's bright blue and will be here on Wednesday and that Chandler Archery Club is giving a one-day lesson in June. they run lessons through-out the year too.

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.

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.

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.

stealth bomber

I saw a stealth bomber fly over head the other day. It was the coolest thing I've seen in ages. I almost didn't believe it was a stealth bomber, but they are kind of unique to look at. The only reason I looked up (well, apart from the fact that I generally look up if I hear a plane overhead) was that it sounded a bit weird. It was louder and different pitched than a normal plane. And when I saw the black and the ziz-zag wings I was like: "wow, that is so cool." And I did an excited dance. And then in vanished behind some clouds. It's kinda cool living near an air force base.

The clouds were the remnants of the storm that hit last week. There was snow on the mountains for a whole day (it's melted now) and Santa Fe mts got 9 inches - it's still there. I got to wear my wonderful black coat and my long hat the other day. I was so happy going out in them. It's warmed up again, though - I might even be back into string tops by the end of the week - they are giving 25.

I don't have a hole lot of news. I can't wait to go home. Only a week and a half to go. I need to start packing.
Yea. I'll go now.

Comic Con and Cosplay

Ah, Lj - I've missed you. Please don't go down for over a week again. And I've had loads to post about too.

I'm working on my portal gun at the moment. I've been carving the main back part from expanding foam (the stuff you use to insulate cracks in your house with). The can said it can only be used once, but I had no trouble clearing out the application pipe and using it 4 or 5 times. I emptied the can :)
Anyway - it looks kind of cool. Well, it's still really rough, but it has the shape of a portal gun, which is good.

I was carving today and I sliced my thumb. The cut is about a centimetre long and I have no idea how deep it is, but davidnarby thinks it's pretty deep because of the amount of blood that poured out. Anyway, I have a plaster and a bandage on it at the moment and it's not too sore. I poked at it earlier, though (silly, I know) and that really hurt.

Other news: Comic Con was good. We saw loads - it's kind of hard not to when it's the size of a small town. San Diego is lovely. We stepped off the plane and walked outside and the first think I said was "California has the perfect climate." For all that, it did feel cold in the shade (24degrees is cold these days). I think I'd live there, given the opportunity. Not in San Diego, perhaps... there is too much an undercurrent of a city that's not quite as nice as the façades of the buildings would lead you to believe.

I can't really describe the con itself... fascinating, crazy, colourful. We spent 3 days wandering around and we didn't see everything. It really is huge and there is so much to do. We managed to fit in some browsing, buying, Wii games, DS games, a SWTOR PVP session, celebrity spotting, artist signings, panels on comics, internet stuff, we saw the mythbusters, stood in mile long lines, didn't stand in 2 mile long lines (that's an exaggeration - it wasn't 2 miles, but it was long - it was about 1km, actually - that's pretty long for a queue). We ate in a restaurant that had been taken over by SyFy and made out to be the restaurant from a TV show - Cafe Diem from Eureka for anyone who watches that (it's good - give it a go if you are looking for something fun with a sci-fi twist to watch).
What really amused me was that we had to get the train in each morning and the main stop was 12th and Imperial Transit Station. It's funny because if you ignore the 12th, it becomes Imperial Transit Station, which has a very sci-fi tone to it - like something from Star Wars.

I don't know what else... River is well. She's really cute, actually. In the evenings when lordkilljoy is at work, she sits beside me just waiting for rubs and attention. I think she misses having someone to cuddle next to on the couch. She's gotten into a routine of sleeping until 8 these days - which is good. 7 was just a little too early for me. She even slept until 9 the other day. Amazing.

Right - I think I'll go now. Get some food, maybe. I'm thinking of just putting on dinner, because I have no idea what to have for lunch. It's a little early for dinner, though. Oh well.

Scriptfrenzy

So, I finished my script with 98 pages. That's good enough for me. It's a kind of fun story, and it ended well. I suppose I could go back and try to pad out some scenes, but honestly, I think I did enough of that while I was writing it.

I think I just don't have it in me to write a 100 page script. I got to 99 pages the last time I tried - I added in blank lines until I got to 100 pages.

Yea, I don't have much else to say.

We're off to watch roller derby next weekend. That should be really fun. It's lordkilljoy's birthday tomorrow. We don't have any plans.

I think that's it, really.

weekend in cork

a post of points, because i don't feel like writing much.

i went down to cork for a school reunion, which i went to. people are 10 years older and have families. weird.

i bought a goji berry tree. woo - healthy berries. my tomato is huge and i think it has just sprouted the first shoots that will be fruit. i also think the pepper is about to produce fruit.

hmmm. it seems i didn't actually have that much to say.

crickets, crickets everywhere

lots of news. going to sum up the main bits, and go into detail on the kerfuffle in the kitchen today.

right - since i last posted, i got a job. i'm doing freelance transcription, which is great. i get to write (even if i don't get to create), i don't have to worry about getting into dublin for 9 in the morning, and i can go make tea whenever i want (it's work-from-home, if you hadn't guessed). fantastic.

saturday was my cousin, audrey's, confirmation. i went over to their house with denise. their house is beautiful, and so big. the day was good, got to meet aunts and uncles, and granny again. and i get to do it all again this weekend, because it's my cousin, conor's, confirmation. i'm looking forward to it - i'll get to see even more people.

i've started draft 3 of my novel. lots more changes in this draft, but not quite as drastic as the changes between drafts 1 and 2. i'm tackling the first chapter this week. i'm giving myself a week on ch1 and then a day for the rest of the chapters. until ch 14 (or whatever - the one that used be chapter 6) then i have to devote some time to making large changes again.

so today, or more accurately this evening: it seemed like a normal evening, had dinner, watched doctor who. and then i decided to water yoshi's tank and clean out his pool. normal enough tasks. but while i was at it, i decided to clean his little waterfall / fountain thing. i lifted off the top "rock" and in the pool of water underneath was a little floating island of critters. or critter larvae. all swimming around like bacteria under a microscope. awful. anyway i dumped them down the sink and washed out the waterfall and all was well.

but the god of tricks wasn't done with me yet. thirsty after my exertion, i got a drink. as i closed the glasses press, the smoothie maker fell from the shelf above it. but it didn't just fall onto the ground (no - that would have been too easy). it fell onto the tub of crickets (yoshi's food) and crickets, cricket poo, porrige and shed skins went everywhere. well the last three fell on the ground and on the counter and stayed put. the crickets fell on the counter and on the ground and immediately scurried for the closest dark space.

they ran under the dishwasher, under the washing machine, behind the cooker, under the microwave - even into the cracks in the tile grouting. we picked up as many as we could find, but i know for a fact there are at least three still loose in the kitchen. gooo. i'll be seeing them scurry across the floor for the next month - if not more.

now... what was i going to post about? there was definitely something, but then lordkilljoy came home and distracted me. it was something short, possibly seasonal, but i just can't remember.

short update on stuff - 16 week plan is going really well.
playing assassin's creed again. one of the quests in fable 2 broke and i got annoyed with it.

ahhh - i remember what i wanted to post. lordkilljoy got edge (magazine) on friday and there was a little dust cover on it. and ezio featured on that, so i cut him out and stuck him up next to my computer. he's been keeping me company all day :)

ok, gotta go.

passport

so, despite my eruption on twitter the other day (wwaaaaaaa..... the price of getting a new passport went up since last month. i'm just not in the mood for this right now. it's so expensive.) i sent off for my new passport today. it took 2 hours of cycling from one end of the village to the other and waiting around for the garda station to open. but in that time i got to go in around the castle (i'd only ever walked around the grounds before). it's kinda cool inside - they have an informative exhibition; i never guessed how many battles this place was involved in, or how much power it held between 1200 and 1500.
so my new passport should be here the second week of september. and then me and lordkilljoy can go on a last minute holiday to the sun and hopefully the temperature will have dropped a little.

mmm, muesli bar and yoghurt with honey for lunch. yummy. i don't really have any other news.

i moved my keyboard receiver around a few weeks ago, but now if i have it on my lap i have to go far away from my desk or i start loosing letters. it's a little annoying.

animals

so i'm off to cork for the weekend (yes, i'm aware that it is only wednesday).
script frenzy starts today.
the newts are still alive, still not eating.
yoshi ate 4 crickets this morning. i'm so proud of him :) it's kind of silly being proud of a lizard for eating. i mean, everyone has to eat. now if only the newts could understand this.
did i mention that i figured out what species the newts are? they are chinese warty newts (paramesotriton chinensis)(i can't believe i know the latin name off the top of my head). not that it makes a whole tonne of difference, but it's nice to know.
i really have no news at all. i had serious anxiety dreams last night. when we went to bed newt was lying on the bit of wood we have for them out of the water. it's usually not a good sign at all, so i guess my dreams were worrying for me. but he's ok today. i think he was just shedding - i found skin in the water today. it's a pity yoshi dosen't shed so easily. he's still got old skin clinking to his head, arms and his whole lower half.
yea, so i hope everyone is still alive and well when i get back.

a few days at home

wow, one and a half pages of friends entries to get through (that's like 60 entries, mad). so i'm off to kerry today. i'm really looking forward to it.

i went into town yesterday and broke my non-spending policy. why is it that when i have no money coming in, i find nice clothes to buy. well, actually, i think it's that cork is better for shopping in. maybe it's because there aren't the massive crowds and because i know the layout of all the shops. but anyway, i got 2 new hoodies and a t-shirt, which is magenta (i don't know why i was attracted to it, but it will go well with a black long-sleeved top under it).

i haven't really been doing much all week. i've been getting 10 hours sleep the last few nights... i have no idea why i'm sleeping so long, 9 is usually what i need. and i've been having really vivid dreams - like really brightly coloured and loads of movement in each scene.

ow, this flexible rubber keyboard is making my fingers sore. i'm going to go now.

happy winter solstice, and happy birthday to thanatos_elnyx.

i'll try to get around to posting properly at some stage. i'm back playing fallout3 - it's a big black hole of time and interest.

a theraputic rant

i don't know why hoovers annoy me so much, or why i really really hate hoovering. i've just finished hoovering the apartment and i feel like killing something right now. i suppose it dosn't help that my hormones are all over the place today, but still. why can i not just accept the hoovering and do it in peace? because the stupid thing bumps into everything and the wire gets caught around stuff and it dosn't just hoover bits of string up in one pass and the elephant trunk thing likes to do silly dances around me, like some kind of over-enthusiastic snake dog thing. haaaa - it's actually exactly like some kind of silly puppy who really just wants to please you, but who's pathetic cuteness is grating when all you want to do is make it stop. just act like a serious thing and stop kidding around! maybe if a hoover had a cute face and made cute noises when you rubbed it, i wouldn't find it quite as offensive as i do.
right - this rant isn't really helping me calm down any. maybe it's the loudness of the hoover that gets to me. because, really, it shouldn't make me feel this bad. it's just a silly machine that sucks things up and follows you around and makes loud noises. and the place does look better afterwards. hmmm. perhaps it is the noise of it. i feel better now that i think i've found the source of the annoyance. next time i'll wear earplugs. and put on ravel's piano works or something.

yea.
now i have to go to the village and get breakfasty sort of ingredients. and then i have to come home and write loads (i wanted to get ahead of my word count today) and then i hope lordkilljoy hasn't forgotten that we had sorta thought about going to the cinema tonight. ooh - maynooth is getting a cinema. it's so cool having a cinema just down the road. you don't need to plan in advance to go.

ok - i feel like usual bubbly self again. thanks again Lj therapy!!

dreams

my dreams have gotten totally crazy again. i thought it was just a spring thing, but no.
the night before last i dreamed of me and lordkilljoy trying to buy groceries, but everyone kept butting in on front of us, and then the girl ran off and our shopping was left sitting on the belt for hours.
then last night involved a group of rebels or some sort of resistance movement going up against a pirate / skeleton king and there was this wierd bit where there were demons or something and i had to free someone (possibly my aunt joan) from this dark room; but i was terrified to go in because she was possessed by the room. but i did get her out and the room looked like an old parlour from the 50s or something.

next week i will not see the sun rise, for it will all ready be up by the time i see it.

i can't wait for the weekend. lordkilljoy and i will be staying in clontarf castle. woo!! a whole 3 days of not having to stand up except to move from one place to another.

work's going well enough. i'm not really having a great week this week, simply because my hormones are acting up and making me feel rotten half the time. but i can't blame work, because i know that it wouldn't matter what i would do - i'd feel the same way.

to wrap up other things: been watching dr. who and lordkilljoy play lost odyssey and i've been playing prof. layton. we've been cooking lots and making some yummy pasta sauce mixes, with sort of random ingredients thrown in. jonathan coulton on friday - i hope my feet arn't killing me.

k - i'm going to go now.

plants and pots

lordkilljoy and i went shopping for plants today :) that was fun. i'd kinda said having a fern could be fun - i sorta meant it, much the way i sorta mean a lot of things... anyway (lordkilljoy tells me i should use capitals - i tell him i'm lazy). he took me up on it and we went out to a large garden centre in celbridge, where we bought a middle-sized bamboo, an indoor bonzai, some herbs and some pots to put them in. i'm happy. we have plants to look after. i hope they survive. i have never managed to keep plants alive before - my room was always too dark. the apartment faces north, so gets no direct sunlight, but i hope it gets enough for the plants' needs.

not much else. we watched deathnote 9the live action). i really enjoyed it. but it just ended. i want to see how everything gets resolved between light and L. it's interesting. it had a really good character dynamic going on. the only thing that annoyed me were the dodgy graphics for ryuk. but i got used to it after a bit.

i must go for a walk around the village tomorrow. see what there is to see, hopefully find someplace that does hair cuts that arn't depressingly expensive. yea...

dewa mata!! (ooh, japanese books havn't arrived yet. i can't wait 'til they do)

some small things

i changed the covers on my bed today. i went back to my old covers - the green, navy and red ones. i love those covers:

so colourful. but i'm off to dublin for the weekend, so i won't get to sleep in them until i get home. i'll have something to look forward to going home.

penelope_stone and i watched tomb raider last night. it's a fun film, so silly in places.

ooh - i finished luck in the shadows this morning. it's such a good book. i love seregil so much. some of the banter he comes out with is so funny. i can't wait to get on to the next book, him and alec :)

yea, you can tell that i have absolutely no news of merit, at all... i'll just go now.

i'm getting worse

yesterday all i ate was a half a bowl of cereal and 2 trail bars. i lay in bed last night starving and trying to force myself to sleep so that the hole-pain in my stomach would go away.
it's not that i'm trying to starve myself or anything. i just didn't have an appetite all day except for last night in bed. having a sore throat always kills my appetite.

we have a new addition to the household today. penelope_stone had a baby! no!!!! she got a laptop (might as well be a new baby, except that you can hit ctrl-alt-del when stuff goes wrong). why does nobody say del-alt-ctrl, does it have to be delete that gets hit last or something? yep - alt-ctrl-del works too. amazing.
:shake head: anyway.

not much to report here. i got a missed call on my phone yesterday and what with meteor being silly i can't check my voicemail, so i have no idea who called me. i'm so worried it's the company i applied to for a job. so i rang them earlier asking if someone from the company had tried calling me. the receptionist said she'd check and get back to me, but that was over an hour ago and no call, so now i'm worried if i've screwed up my chances.
i got a letter in the door from college, letting me know that there's a flash development position available in south dublin, but just reading over the specs made me realize how much i really don't want to do flash stuff for the rest of my life. 3d modelling seems so much more fun and creative.

my illness has improved vastly from the weekend - now i have a dry-sort-of-cough and a bit of a sniffle and that's it. yeay.