Friday, September 12, 2008

Since there's no good rhubarb to be had (not even for ready money), I made Savage cookies. They smell good. They also taste good, but I hope I'm not going to be all jittery, since I had to test a lot of them... On the upside, I didn't drink any coffee, since I burned my fingers by touching the bottom of the pot. I love how my kitchen and bathroom look when they're really sparkly clean. So shiny! Lots of shiny metal.

Posted at 5:32:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Oh no! My berries are full of antioxidants!

Posted at 12:08:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I couldn't fall asleep last night, so I watched three (!) episodes of Yes, Minister in my chaise on the laptop. (Netflix's Watch Instantly feature is pretty cool.) It's weirdly addictive, especially considering that I don't like or understand politics, let alone British politics. I used to sometimes watch it when it was shown on PBS (early 90s, must've been) and I liked it then too, though I never understood 9/10 of what was going on.

Must figure out what homemade treat to make for Robert's visit tomorrow! I don't think rhubarb can be had this time of year...

BTW, ever since Labor Day weekend, a few of the trees around here have got it into their heads that it's autumn. More and more keep joining in. I think they're crazy.

Posted at 2:35:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Monday, September 08, 2008

They're getting more Milo in Maine shirts at the Glastonbury Whole Foods! A million workers were converged in the Milo in Maine area today when I was there, so I asked them about them, and they said they're meeting with the representative next week (or this week? I forget) and are going to get more designs, including the stitched kind and adult ones! I asked what his name was, and it's the same super-nice guy I e-mailed with. I reiterated how much I love the shirts and that I want more! They don't even have MiM shirts at the West Hartford Whole Foods, but Glastonbury WF is MiM Heaven. Weird.

At Suder's today, I was paying for my vegetables when I noticed my hand was bleeding all over, getting blood on my wallet. (It was nice and red!) Suder rushed over to get me a damp paper towel and a dry paper towel and asked if I would be okay without a band-aid. I told him I lived pretty close by, so it would be fine. I have no idea how I cut my hand, but I guess it must've been from shucking the corn! Weird x 2. I made grilled corn tonight. It turned out pretty good (with lime! the lime is essential) but I like regular pot-on-the-stove corn better.

By the way, I was reading a Q & A on Ask Metafilter about how to cook corn on the cob (that's how I found out about the lime thing for grilled corn) and I couldn't believe how varied the answers were! Most of them sound crazy to me, like it would get way overcooked. The way I do it is boil a big pot of water (enough to cover the corn, or at least almost cover it), and put the corn in after it comes to a full boil, then turn the water off and let the corn sit in the water for 5 - 15 minutes. You can eat it in 5 minutes, but you can also leave it in for 15 minutes or so if you're not ready to eat it yet, or if you want to eat part now and more later. It's super easy and it always turns out perfect. (I didn't invent this; it's just what it says to do in my cookbook.)

The headshot above is a Palma photo from yesterday in my chair at the hangar. Palma's not very good with colors, but I still like it. That's my favorite shirt right now. I got it at Uptown Consignment a little over a month ago, and I'm already worried about what'll happen when it wears out. I don't know what I'd do without it.

Posted at 7:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

The boards we're using for the stand are real stripey, so we're going to pretend it's zebrawood.

Posted at 11:13:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

At Jaffrey, eating our peppermint stick ice cream:

Laura: What flavor ice cream would the Hulk like?
Dean: Strawberry.
Laura: I thought it would be mint chocolate chip.

Laura: All right, what flavor ice cream would David Banner get?
Dean: Rocky Road.
Laura: Bwahahahahahaha! That's perfect.

(Then we determined that McGee would get coffee ice cream. And I kept thinking about Dean's brilliant Rocky Road answer and giggling.)

Posted at 6:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Wow, Irish and American whiskey have an "e" and all other whiskies (Scotch, etc.) have no "e." Interesting. And why am I reading about whiskey/whisky? Because of McGee and his flask, of course.

However (now this is very confusing), Raffles and Bunny always drink whiskey with an e, even when it's "Scotch whiskey," a combination of words that would seem to be a contradiction.

I have put much thought into this, and the only thing that makes sense to me is that they are drinking Irish whiskey most of the time but when it's Scotch whisky they still call it whiskey anyway, but can get away with it because there's the clarifying adjective "Scotch" in front. If they were talking about Scotch but didn't refer to it as "Scotch whiskey," it would spelt whisky. (I presume.)

According to Wikipedia, Irish whiskey was the world's whisk(e)y of choice in the late Victorian era:

At one time, all whisky was spelled without the extra 'e', as 'whisky'. In around 1870, the reputation of Scottish whisky was very poor as Scottish distilleries flooded the market with cheaper spirits produced using the Coffey still. The Irish and American distilleries adopted the spelling 'whiskey', with the extra 'e', to distinguish their higher quality product.

Posted at 2:42:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

We had a McGee party! "Mystery Man" parts one and two. It was like slash fanfic, minus the actual slash part. McGee's clearly obsessed with "John Doe" now! I want to know what's in McGee's flask.

Lots & lots of rain from the tropical storm. We even got a little water in the basement, coming in through the hatch! We noticed it since we were doing more sawing and glubeing.

Posted at 12:41:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.