It is a quiet Saturday. I have a sore throat and squeak when I try to talk. However, my flatmates have spent the last two months with near-continuous chest infections, coughs, and other complaints, so I'm getting off lightly. I am enjoying sitting on the couch reading books. Books!

Joel has kindly gone off to the supermarket for soup ingredients and cat food.

N came into the lounge. I waved a book at her. "Have you read this?" I asked, and then I went off on a brief rant about it.

"Are you reading that for fanfiction?" she asked. "Whenever you're reading a dodgy book it's usually for fanfiction."

...She is correct in this and many things.

Then my other flatmate, having gone out the back door for a walk, passed the lounge window, and spent a good five minutes playing peek-a-boo through the window with our cat.

Life is good.

Back to ongoing book #2.

Tags: books, fanfiction, life, silly

The first two season of MTV's Undressed are streaming online.

Which means you can watch a younger (24, although her character is clearly a bit younger) Christina Hendricks, pre-Firefly, in an episode written by Buffy/Angel writer Stephen DeKnight.

(For people with different genre preferences, the Very Special Plotline from the second season in which Katee Sackhoff learns that she can, indeed, love a man in a wheelchair, is also online.)

Here's a report from 1981 about reading newspapers online. Worth the two minutes to watch.

As a bonus, here's an actual screenshot from the story. Yes, that was newsworthy enough to get captioned back then (and this was about a year before I got my first home computer, an Atari 800 that I still miss).

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/24.html?src=rss

skeuomorph: a design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques.

Two nifty examples:

1. A flowchart of your soul's journey as viewed through a Mormon lens.

2. Word frequencies in TMBG lyrics.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/23.html?src=rss

genethliac: of or pertaining to birthdays or to the position of the stars at one's birth.

Story link.

Tags: muniverse, tales of mu, update

So, I hit Ocean State Job Lot on my way home from work yesterday, and on a whim I bought a $3 jar of caviar and decided to have a caviar omelet for dinner (since 'song's out of town, cooking eggs wouldn't be a problem).

The thing I hadn't realized is that it was black capelin caviar.

Most of the traditional caviars are black, so I didn't really question that this one was, too. But capelin caviar is normally orange (like a tiny version of salmon roe).

Which means it was dyed.

So when the caviar hit the hot and somewhat moist eggs, the dyes ran. Leading to a green and blue omelet. Fortunately, it tasted just fine, but that's definitely a lesson learned. I also chose to not let Max lick the plate (in spite of his not-so-polite requests to do so), as I've got no idea how healthy those dyes would be for a kitty. I hate depriving the cat of seafood or eggs (although I don't hate it as much as he does), but better safe than sorry.

But yeah, cheap caviar = dyed. Which is silly, as orange caviar doesn't look any grosser than black caviar. Also, the omelet was delicious.

(Incidentally, it was a jar of this caviar; for $3 instead of the $8+/jar they're charging online, I'm just fine with it.)

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/22.html?src=rss

theurgy: the working of a divine or supernatural agency in human affairs.

It might have something to do with the Republicans crying wolf so many damned times.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/21.html?src=rss

pasquinade: a satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.

Story link.

Tags: muniverse, other tales, update

Political memory is short, so for those who don't remember, here's the Senate vote on Hurricane Sandy relief.

Note the presence of Inhofe and Coburn in the "no" column.

When they inevitable request aid for OK, yes, they'll be a pair of hypocritical bastards.

No, it doesn't mean OK should be denied the aid; the request is legitimate, and the people need help, not a pointless lesson in what a pair of shits they've elected.

But the senators themselves damned well deserve to be raked over the fucking coals. And to get the fuck out of our government.

(FYI, for those who don't know, my roots are in OK; my mom grew up in OK, and although I no longer have any family near any of the affected areas, it's still a part of my childhood.)

When the comment from the PE teacher on your daughter's mid-term report is, "social responsibility is inconsistent," that's a little like the high school equivalent of being on Nixon's enemies list, and the sort of thing that convinces me she's doing something right.

Needless to say, her comments from her real teachers are all raves.

Oh, and yes, I'm sure there are good K-12 gym teachers out there, just as there are good debt collectors, TSA employees, and televangelists out there. I haven't met any yet (don't get me started on the ones I dealt with growing up), and this one's the stereotype of the genre, right down to being a sub-literate bully.

I rarely make birthday posts these days, but I had to say happy birthday to the one, the only, the fabulous, incredibly creative and endlessly game muffyjo!

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/20.html?src=rss

coalesce: to blend or come together.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/19.html?src=rss

darg: a day's work.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/18.html?src=rss

consortium: any association, partnership, or union.

Chapter 151
Chapter 152

Tags: muniverse, tales of mu, updates

Thanks to The Social Network*, I've learned that A) 'song's birthcousin (who I've known since he was thirteen, some twelve years back) is engaged (finally!**), and B) that an old friend of mine (someone I roadtripped with to Megacon a long time ago, before 'song and I were even seeing each other) is now a brand new dad.

*I mean, it was the first place online where you could share news with people, add "friends," and meet new people, right? So it surely deserves that title.

**They've been dating for at least seven years, and seeing as she's almost as much a part of his family as he is, I'm both happy and relieved.**

(ETA: 'song claims that she was only disputing the title track's quality; I still say she's wrong, though. I mean, Bret Michaels made the couplet, "Don't look back and have no regrets/Like beasts of prey we must feed on it" work!)


I meant to post this last night, but LJ spent hours being unusable (and DW still won't let you poll for free). Anyway, shadesong and I had a mild disagreement last night about this topic. As far as I'm concerned, there are only four possible answers to this question, and they're listed below, but if you've got some other wacky one (like "not a good album"), I suppose you could leave it in comments.

Poison's Flesh and Blood:

Poll #1913973
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

is

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/17.html?src=rss

motza: a large amount of money, especially a sum won in gambling.

in which I get disproportionate fits of giggles at this:
Reasonable person: a fictional person with an ordinary degree of reason, prudence, care, foresight or intelligence whose conduct, conclusion, or expectation in relation to a particular circumstance or fact is used as an objective standard by which to measure or determine something.

(and I can find legislative support for the idea that an employer is obligated to provide training for likely hazards at the workplace, and establish best practice guidelines, but I can't find legislative support for the idea that an employee is then obligated to follow said best practice guidelines, argh)...

Tags: silly, work
Current Mood: silly

Normally, I get grumpy when a spellchecker lacks a word. But when you're typing an email at a largely Jewish school, regarding something specifically dedicated to a Hebrew teaching program, it's a good thing when a squiggly red line appears when you type "pogram" instead of "program."

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/16.html?src=rss

allochthonous: not formed in the region where found.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/15.html?src=rss

circadian: noting or pertaining to rhythmic biological cycles recurring at approximately 24-hour intervals.

Target will be selling DC-comics summer lawn items and furniture. shadesong has already requested a Batman snack cup.

Star Trek: Into Harkness

In a tribute to Fantastic Voyage, the Enterprise is shrunk down to enter the bloodstream of Agatha Harkness, dying thanks to a curse placed on her by a mad Wanda Maximoff. They fight dangers ranging from microscopic Brood to microscopic Romulans to microscopic Kree. But things get intense during the climactic battle, when the Big Bad is revealed: Brian Michael Bendis (played by Michael Chiklis). The battle between Kirk and Bendis is epic and heartbreaking. The sequel, featuring Mark Millar (played by Alan Tudyk), will turn out to be underwhelming, derivative, and overlong, but will be the most successful in the series.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/14.html?src=rss

quacksalver: a charlatan.

Story link.

Tags: muniverse, other tales, update

For years, Lasagna was about the only kind of pasta I didn't like. shadesong was baffled by this, since I love pasta, meat, cheese, and tomato sauce. There were two problems: First, I'm simply not a fan of the long, flat noodles, which seem to be the worst form of pasta in terms of the texture/flavor ration. Second, every lasagna I'd tried was a crappy one built around the noodle as the primary ingredient (see this image for a typical one). These monstrosities were over 50% noodle, and sometimes had five or six layers of noodles in them. They were nasty, and I thought that's what a lasagna was supposed to be.

Fuck no.

Once I discovered the truth, that the noodles in a good lasagna exist solely for the purpose of providing a minimal structure to transport oodles of cheese and meat (with some sauce attached), I realized how good a lasagna could be. It's also surprisingly easy to make, and like making a cake, has the advantage of usually providing some yummy prep-leftovers. I made it again last night for Mother's Day, and am still feeling kind of full the day after.

Here's my recipe, modified from a few I'd found in books and online. Note that I make it gluten-free, since 'song has celiac disease, but no one who's ever set foot in our house has ever complained about it; as I said, the pasta's the least important part, and if you're tasting the pasta in a lasagna, you're probably eating a crappy lasagna:

Ingredients:

1 package gluten-free lasagna noodles (or any lasagna noodles that don't need to be boiled/soaked first).
1 65-ounce jar of Prego Pasta Sauce With Meat. You're welcome to make your own sauce, of course, but I'm a fan of not doing work when I don't have to. You'll still be modifying this so that the ratio of meat to sauce reaches a more acceptable level, anyway.
1 container (usually 1.75 cups) low-fat ricotta cheese (regular-fat will work just fine of course, but the low fat stuff doesn't lose much flavor)
2 cups low fat, small curd cottage cheese (small curd is more important than low fat, if you're wondering).
1 1-lb ounce package (or two 8-oz packages) mixed, shredded Italian cheese. I'm partial to the six-cheese mix from Sargento. Do NOT use low-fat cheese here.
1.5-two pounds of ground beef (from my chili-making, I'm guessing you could sub ground turkey easily enough, and probably other meats, too; I'm less certain about a veggie lasagna.)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
salt, pepper, anise

First mix the ricotta and cottage cheese together in a bowl.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Start by sautéing the onions until they're somewhere in the soft/brown range. I usually use olive oil here. Then throw in the garlic and sauté for another minute or so. Add the ground beef and sauté until it's all browned and mixed in with the onions and garlic. Turn off the heat (and if you're stuck with a fucking electric stove like I am, remove the pan from the burner), then pour in the sauce and stir. The residual heat will warm it up just fine. Season with salt, pepper, and anise/fennel to taste.

Now, take a 9X12 pan and ladle in enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Then cover with a layer of noodles (you'll probably need three full ones, and one partial one to go horizontally across the top). Take the ricotta/cottage mix and spread thickly on all of the noodles (I try to make it thick enough to make the noodles invisible). Then ladle in sauce to cover the cheese (again, thick enough to cover it up). Then layer in noodles, and repeat. You might get a whopping three layers of noodles if your dish is deep. Do NOT, for the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, overfill your dish.

Once you're done (the top layer should be a sauce layer), sprinkle the shredded cheese on. I go for a thick layer of cheese, and it usually ends up being about 10-13 ounces of the stuff. Then cover the dish in foil and place in the oven for an hour. If you've got any leftover sauce or cheese mix, eat these; it's the savory equivalent of eating cake batter.

After that, take it out, take the foil off, and let it sit for about fifteen minutes; at this point, it's bordering on soup, and you should give it time to set. In the meantime, take advantage of the melted cheese and possibly slightly crisp that's stuck to the foil. Melted cheese is yummy, and you shouldn't let any go to waste.

Finally, eat! We usually put ours in bowls, not on plates, as things will get messy otherwise. Makes a decent number of servings. Let's call it ten, unless I'm there, in which case it's more like six.

This morning I am saddened by news from a friend, but I wanted to remember what a lovely day we had yesterday.

Mother's Day is kind of complicated, because we always share it with my mother and sisters. In the past we've tried going out to various places, but it's always a hassle with such a large group and last year, at Flora, was particularly disastrous. So when I found kitchensurfing.com, I thought this would be a perfect solution--and I was right!

It's a clearinghouse for independent chefs. You put in a request for what you want--food dropped off for a meal, a week of meals, a cocktail party, a family dinner served, whatever--and any chefs who are available and interested send you bids. Since it was Mother's Day, I put Jason in charge of the plans and he found Gita Kantrow.

She arrived at noon and got cooking. She served us pan-fried chicken dumplings as a nosh, then we moved to the table and she plated salads of spring greens, pears, and blueberry goat cheese that were light and delicious. That was followed by an amazing glazed salmon with mushroom risotto and there was a dessert of Nutella ravioli with banana caramel muffins for dessert. And then she departed, leaving the kitchen spotless.

The best part? The whole thing cost half what our meal at Flora did.

I generally love cooking for parties and gatherings, but this was such a treat and seems like a great solution for many situations. The whole family agreed that it was a lovely, low-stress day and so much better than any restaurant.

Tags: food, holidays, recommendations

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/13.html?src=rss

melliferous: yielding or producing honey.

1. Seeing Rod Stewart was sad. Sad, sad, sad.

2. Bringing back Juliet Sims only served as a reminder of how much the voters fucked up in season 2 at the end.

Skepchick notes that Reddit treats men better than women.

Reddit users respond by calling her the c-word and the t-word.

(The first link is safe and well-written; the second is vile.)

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/12.html?src=rss

feminacy: feminine nature.

As most of you are aware, Jason and I moved to London shortly after our wedding. In that time we visited most of Western Europe and Egypt, as well as touring around the UK. When we were at home in London, we had many guests, saw many shows, visited most of the museums and tourist attractions, ate at many restaurants, and had lots of other adventures. Although I wasn't on LJ at the time, I was writing up regular reports and sending them to friends & family throughout our stay. Over the past year I've been transferring these reports to LJ and have finally finished that process. If you're interested you can go back and read them, starting with our arrival. If you're looking for specific recommendations on things to do in various spots, comment here and I'm always happy to dig up the details.

Enjoy!

Up here, we recognize the right to cheap beer, dammit.

(Also, we've gotten a huge state refund every year we've been here, and I generally got squat when I lived in GA.)

I'm off the Museum of Fine Arts today, because Stan Sakai is speaking there. Yay! Alas, it's likely to focus on the crappy iOS game (which has some of the worst UI I've encountered, and really belongs on a system like the Vita), but it's Stan. Plus, you know, the MFA.

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2013/05/11.html?src=rss

snafu: a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation.