Oh, Mr. Murphy. I wish we weren't such steady companions sometimes. Every workday since last Friday, sweetcolleague & I were waiting for further data input - and now that it shall arrive tomorrow, no, really, totes serious, tomorrow afternoon!, it couldn't be any more inconvenient a time: the information will take us hours and hours to integrate, and tomorrow's the big, long-awaited Office Summer Night's Party. & :-(

::

At least it meant that I could leave early-ish today, go to the gym for a good hour, and then bake lemon-cranberry muffins* that smell heavenly. (No, I haven't tasted them yet, but trust me, the the batter was delicious. & ;-)

* No time tonight; bed now, but I can provide the recipe later?

::

Torchwood: Yes, I watched it and enjoyed it. I haven't forgiven Rusty for ( spoilers for TW2! ), but I still like Gwen a great deal, and to me, this show has always been captivating in its cheesy monsters-and-aliens glory, not to mention Cardiff as the centre of the world, or canon bisexuality.

If you care for a cool Torchwood review, check out Selena's. I look forward to her thoughts almost as much as to the series. & :-)

By popular (no, really) demand:

( Apple-Yoghurt-Lime Muffins )

Last email exchange of Little Med Student & Me went thus. ( This is Relevant To The Topic At Hand. )

Jesus Christ. I just watched TSCC 2x21 Adam Raised A Cain, and the final scenes sent shivers down my spine.

Too tired for elaborate thoughts now, especially as no one seems to read 'em - not being passive-aggressive, folks, just stating a sad fact - but if you happen to have seen others fans' reviews or meta, please feel free to link me to them.

If this show gets cancelled, I'm going to throw things at the tv. Certainly join any campaign we fans can come up. Alas, sending mail or memorabilia is far less sufficient than sending a Terminator into the FOX execs' studios. (What? A girl can fantasise.) The Sarah Connor Chronicles enriched my life in the oddest way, I realised the other day on the orthopaedic doc's couch: when he was jabbing that fifth syringe of its kind into my knee, through the scar tissue, straight into the joint space, all I thought was, Well, Sarah Connor would not whimper at this point. In brief: WWSD?

::

After returning from the parents', I baked an organic apple crumble and spent three quarters of an hour at the fitness studio slash gym around the corner (after which I of course ate half the apple crumble). monanotmona proclaimed me crazy for going there from 10pm to 11pm, but as a night person (I wanted to spell that "knight person;" I think I just should have), I could not see any fault with this schedule and am now very glad I went, what with my knee feeling better than it did all weekend.

While both of these - apple crumble & happy knee times - are totally lj-worthy, I'm posting about RL for a reason: I am listening to random mp3s on my player while I work out, but much as I like my current marriage of Amanda Marshall & Death Cab for Cutie, I'd like to branch out.

Do you happen to have any music mixes for exercising handy? (Fan-mixes very welcome, of course!)

I baked (almost-)all-organic whole-grain lemon muffinscupcakes*, and let's just say this specific kind of (organic fair trade yadda yadda) sugar does not work for the frosting - too bitter; while I like molasses and our local Rübenkraut, it kills the subtle nuances of the natural lemon flavour (since they were non-organic, I didn't use the peel). Hmm.

* It's a cupcake if it has frosting, right? Even if it's a v. thin layer only?

::

The reason I needed to post, however, was that while I was reading for work (don't ask) and lying on the couch, I did a few simple knee exercises. And now, for some reason, it almost doesn't hurt to stretch it. \o/ \o/ \o/

Baked muffins and had the parents over. All of these v. pleasant today. Babelfish'ed recipe beneath the cut.

( Caipirinha Muffins *sans cachaca* )

::

Just now watched the rest of TransGeneration, the Sundance documentary.

Highly, highly recommendable. Inspiring and touching, not to mention touching upon issues beyond transgender ones: sex and class and race and the concept of privilege, inseparably connected. Much as this is a rarity in transgender-themed productions, my occasional tears here were happy ones - at ( spoilers for the documentary ) this old church ladies' warm smile and her words, "Well, you're never old enough to change."

(kaizoku, have you seen it?)

::

Read over and collected RaceFail '09 entries but in a typical flash of even more typical brilliance managed to crash and wrongly re-load Firefox so all my bookmarks from the debate over SGA vids to Skins graphics sites were gone.

But.

toft_froggy has a sum-up post with many links that I saw last, but you could pretty much just go and read my friendslist for an in-depth look and mentions of the relevant contributions. Off the top of my head, among the contributors not yet linked by Toft, let me point out bossymarmalade's post here, and of course ciderpress's own words as well as the ones she forwards.

Guys, you all are - tired, I know. But also amazing.

hermine just left - arrived here in the afternoon, and somehow the time flew, and it was so late we decided she might as well stay: almost time for watching today's Tatort, which was a lot more fun with two. There was also a quick lentil curry dinner, with bonus pineapple for dessert. (No, Grim, it wasn't a personal pineapple, sorry.)

Beforehand, to properly cheer her up these days, I had baked yet more muffins. (The last batch I'd made Thursday night from 11pm to midnight because said co-worker was leaving for London, and I'd promised her a taste of my famous muffins - no, really, famous! See my lj moniker, as given to me by the ever-apt stultiloquentia).

See?

( Organic Strawberry-Yoghurt-Muffins, with a dash of lime. )

I baked a cake, but I eated 1/4 of it.

...no, really, I did. Thankfully (or not), I took photos of the crispy-golden glory it was before that.

( Apple-cinnamon cake )

In actuality, this is the mother of all muffins...but turns out I misplaced my little silicone muffin forms sometime during the last move. Ah, well. Double the baking time, double the fun, right? Lower the temperature for the second half, too; that way, it did turn out baked through & through yet deliciously moist.

ETA: ( Recipe: REAL' SIMPLE APPLE MUFFINS )

::

Did spend a good hour at a local gym afterwards, which made my knee feel a whole lot better. And for the record, I am looking forward to posts that do not mention my health, not even in passing.

::

I only needed a 30-seconds translation because I needed a caption for the icon I'm using for this post, but as I couldn't find a translation online, I created one. If anyone else is up for a tiny piece of Schiller, have at it?

( At once *freer than birds* and clinging to the original )

Personally, I blame the alcohol for everything in this post.

( 3 Wine Icons )

::

I JUST SUCCESSFULLY FLIPPED MY (LARGE) PANCAKE* IN THE (LARGE) PAN.



::wins at cooking::

* Spelt, of course, with organic milk & a dash of organic yoghurt, plus that organic fair trade raw cane sugar that saves not just me but the world, like, twice over. Here's the recipe; as I didn't have baking powder (again), I used baking soda and the yoghurt. Applied chemistry FTW.

Little sis and the boyfriend are gone again: boo. It's a lazy sunny day after Christmas: yay.

Time for the internets culinary part of it all - tasty treats sent by the darling kskitten and kangeiko, and of course our Christmas dinner.

( Mmh. )

I'm inclined to agree with the Random Proverb Generator athena25 has last linked me to there.

In other news, had my last Oral Prep Session with Di in the morning and a long, lovely lunch with a new friend who's awesomecakes.

Speaking of, I baked shortbread.

( Photos & the recipe )

Also, I looked fab today, with my boot-cut faded jeans and my sleek little black turtleneck. But let's face it, I didn't look quite as tasty as these cookies. So, uh, photos of me reserved for when the competition isn't so steep.

I took a study break to
a) be true to my current lj name and make muffins from a new recipe, and
b) watch Torchwood.

ad b) ( Torchwood S2 finale )

ad a) ( More Muffins! With recipe & photos )

Just made a cheesecake. It turned out pretty damn awesome in the realms of crust, look, and consistency but needs a bit of work in the realms of taste. ( Bake-O-Babble )

Now, I'm watching Oz & James's Big Wine Adventure, which so far is fun (and making me have that last glass of Zin after dinner).

I did mention my friend Em's older sister, right? The tiny-but-fierce one who was a drummer in her band; Em and I would go their concerts, stand in the back, and yell, DRUMMER SOLO! Anyways, she and her husband, four years her junior, went to France, visited châteaux and enjoyed a wine tasting or two.

emssister: I had no idea Châteauneuf-du-Pape was just this tiny village...with a huge rep, of course. In the wine cellars, when I idly picked up a bottle out of the wooden shelves, the clerk manifested next to me and took it out of my hands as if it were a raw egg.
monanotlisa: *g* Wine: serious business there.
emssister: No kidding. I mean, the only reason I know Châteauneuf-du-Pape was great and famous were the lyrics of Body Movin' by the Beastie Boys, you know? Like a bottle of Châteauneuf-Du-Pap' / I'm fine like wine when I start to rap.

Didn't really get anything done save sifting through my accumulated mail, writing an email to the landlady, and going grocery-shopping, but I am still quite content: plans for a meeting with Cutie, for a Christmas Market stroll with the OSG friends, and for a little trip to my uni city where an old friend of mine is celebrating his 30th birthday.

Think I'll make key lime pots de crème and watch Dexter now. It's a Florida-themed night, you see?

1. Verbatim from mmmchelle:

"The Campaign for America's Future has an ad urging members of Congress to override Bush's veto of funding for health care for poor children. Those of you not from the US are scratching your heads in amazement, aren't you? Not only did he veto it, but his reasoning is that it puts us on the slippery slope to socialized medicine. To paraphrase Stephen Colbert, if you give children health care when they're little, they'll grow up thinking they should be able to visit a doctor when they're sick.

The ad is brilliant. It has a child explaining how children will deny photo-ops to representatives who don't vote to override the veto.

Watch it here and then use CFA's site to send an email to your rep."

2. Add-on re: those muffins: ( the recipe. Also, an icon. )

At least my muffins taste good. ( Evidence. Only not really. Where is the long-distance sensor-o-meter when you need it? )

Recipe?

Came home -- own apartment -- after rep class and did what I had to do according to machinistm. ( Took pics of cupcakes. )

Quark purchase recommendations, the blog with the recipe I used, random icons created to make up for ciderpress's Very Bad, No-Good, Awful day, and terrible puns can be found, in anti-chronological order, here.

Service over yonder down, so I can't ask the twittercrew --

when does one frost cupcakes? When they've cooled down, right? How much?

Answered, thankee!

pukajen, soundingsea, awmp, herself_nyc, and cindergal were posting about the ten-year premiere anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the latter is, with kellyhk, even organising a Welcome Back to the Hellmouth ficathon.

Although I don't really read much BtVS fic at all any more, having been devoured from beneath by other fandoms, I still love the show and miss it -- re-watching the first season in all its dorky, campy, and thoroughly charming glory has kept me entertained during my exercises, but most of all, I'm incredibly thankful for this my first actual fandom (after X-Phile lurkerdom) where I met the best and brightest people. Took planes to India and California to see them -- and their worlds -- in person, and I never regretted a single day with them. With you.

***

I baked another cake. Sure -- I love cake, Mama loves cake, Papa loves cake (and you do too), but mostly, I was giving my books and assorted study materials a wide berth.

Not that the banana nut bread with cocoa & rum for dinner hurt, then. & :-) And afterwards, I did manage to study for almost four hours: not too bad, not too bad.