Miss Cellaneous

Food

Came too late for the cut smoked beef because the sausage'n meat counter closes at 8pm. Okay, fine, whatever, I thought: ( impromptu lamb stew! )! ♥

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Colleagues & Such

Did I mention that there was a fire alarm in our building when I was still on crutches? I was on the 8th floor, and the "floor ward" rather upset (as this was not a drill) - she hurried the two of us over to the staircase before you could say, "WTF ELEVATOR?"

monanotlisa: *slowly climbs down seven flights of stairs on crutches*
sandynotlisa: *grins* "Hey, look at the bright side: You're lucky you're not in a wheelchair right now."
monanotlisa: "It's you who's lucky I'm not in a wheelchair right now. Cause then you'd have to carry me."

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Fandom

BarbC & TLN talk about about the AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) wank.

rahirah: "Tangentially, there are probably many, many writers who feel, in moments of self-pitying, hormonal woe, that people only love us for our stories, and the cruel intarwebz do not appreciate us as they should, for the crystalline purity of our unique and fragile snowflake souls, nor does fandom provide us the unceasing emotional succor we so richly deserve. Ghod knows that I have felt that way upon occasion myself. But most of us generally recognize that feeling for the passive-aggressive, entitled whining that it is, and keep our damn mouths shut until it passes."

thelastgoodname: "What if a person didn't want a future in which fannish activities were recognized as legal? What if said person liked doing things that are morally and legally dubious--what if that were part of the draw? What if the illegitimacy of the act were part of why a person participated?"

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Meme

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Just one question, please, but it can have sub-parts.

Question can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth and has comments. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

monanotlisa: I'm gonna make the tarte au citron now!
mamanotlisa: Great!
monanotlisa: *rummage* Where are the other eggs?
mamanotlisa: Nowhere. These are the last ones.
monanotlisa: But I need at least one more for the shortcrust!
mamanotlisa: Well, I'm not that fond of shortcrust.
monanotlisa: Me neither. Hey, wait a minute...

An hour later, I presented this to the parents:

[more nom]

Crème au citron! :D

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I made waffles for my sister & my family this morning. :)

NewYear2010

I'd like the recipe......please!
ETA: The poll generator on Semagic is made of FAIL today. Thus, if you like the recipe, you'll have to comment. ;)

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If you liked the Dr. Who finale, you probably shouldn't click ( my brief thoughts on The End of Time, Part Two )

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Worked till 9:30, worked out for another hour at the gym, and am now enjoying a banana-chocolate milk (made with the organic banana and the Milka-Weihnachtsmann Zartherb that Johnny at work had given me). I may have had two large projects on my desk these last two days, but now I'm off work until the week "between the years."

Speaking of women & work, how 'bout this BusinessWeek article? Women Hedge Fund Managers Outperform Men.

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vervealemania, check out our present for Mama. (I know she'll like it; we've looked at it together before.)

After cooking a hearty lentil curry at my place, monanotmona and I strolled through the City where she had Glühwein and I had Eierpunsch...which, unfortunately, has little in common with eggnog. Save, of course, the eggs and the alcohol.

Then, in one of my carpe diem moods, I dragged Mona to the nearest jeweller and finally had new holes punched into my ears. Didn't even make her hold my hand too long.

( See? )

Back from the annual office Martinsgansessen: that bird was pretty yummy, same for the Kartoffelklöße und the Rotkohl (even though the latter does not reach the one my Mama prepares). Cheerful chats with old(ish) colleagues were had at two different tables, too.

Speaking of workplace associations - I think I mentioned before that absolutely everybody should have an English office-mate. They make work life a lot more hilarious.

First, there's the phone conversation between sandynotlisa and his girlfriend in Brussels, where she interns - he started to laugh uncontrollably and immediately told me what had transpired:

gfnotsandy: By the way, I'll see my first Shakespeare play tonight! Very excited.
sandynotlisa: Sounds great. Which Shakespeare play are you going to see?
gfnotsandy: King Leon!

And then there's the story of this girl-pal of his, whose taste in men is not always...ideal:

galnotsandy: It's 10pm - you know, I'm getting hungry. How about dinner?
datenotsandy: Sure thing, babe.
datenotsandy: *goes, buys pack of crisps at the bar, and very proudly hands it to her*

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The very last one in this oddly adorable interactive animation is bugging me. Pun as always intended.

*sneeze*

Otherwise, I plan on not meeting anyone tonight: nice change after Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Instead, there will be cake & organic steak - not at the same time - at the parents', who are at a birthday brunch now and will have old friends over later. (I do have to bake said cake first, but hey. Am thinking Dutch Apple Tart, and also have so much love for the Search function on Dreamwidth.)

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Sandy just left: we've successfully established Spooks Wednesday! Next up: 802/803. :)

Watched Harry and Ros and Malcolm, oh my, and culinarily Went All Swiss: Bündnerfleisch & Appenzeller (on dark rye with fresh vine tomatoes). Because I believe in a thing called love fusion, we drank junmai-shu sake that he called, interesting, and we all know what THAT means. Back to a good red wine again next time - I informed him that sake is really beer, judging by the way it is brewed (yet of course not quite).

sandynotlisa: Aw, Spooks. It reminds me of home.
monanotlisa: Gore and mayhem and terrorists never fail in that regard, I know.

Yes, yes, I know he meant London, and people talking in crisp accents, Oxford (like him) or otherwise.

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Weekend was - I want to say lovely, which it totally was, but mostly, it was about food. ( At a) a conference, b) a dinner by invitation, and c) my parents' 40th wedding anniversary )

In less food-y but still family-related news: This Sunday, Mama, Papa and I sat down to play Memory, and then Sudoku at my mother's little laptop. Turns out Papa knows some mean tricks, and my mother - also a scientist, after all - may be quiet but is v. sure-footed around those numbers. Nostalgic activities: sitting at the big wooden living room table, dusk - not to mention drizzling rain, sigh - falling outside, the three of us (sans sis, sadly) with our games and conversations and little thrills of victory.

All of which reminded me of a conversation I once had with three of my uni friends who persistently argued that board games were the Official Herald of Boring Parties (With Even More Boring People). As someone who'd spent not just Sunday afternoons with the family but also many, many nights with my friends and quite a bit of tequila/vodka/other-drinks-one-only-has-when-still-under-twenty-oh-GOD playing board games obsessively cheerfully, I could not agree...but have wondered ever since.

View poll: Board Games?

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Friend, food, and drink: generally a winning combination. In this case, the WIN! holds true in two instances.

1.
I don't know why or how, but in the year(?!) I hadn't seen her, I'd forgotten Anne is a fan! ( The joys of re-connecting, fannage in Germany, and also a sidenote on the Munich murders )

2.
The (fresh and divine) soup kitchen I often go to for lunch was closed, however, so Anne & I had to find another place. Where they admittedly served huge portions of tapas - we could have easily shared two, I think, at roughly five Euro each.

If only it had been good too. ( Details of FOOD. Also, PICS )

3.
Now, having returned after everything and hanging at the parents' (who are away visiting friends: sturmfrei!), I'm drinking Hakutsuru Draft Sake, which is fine, if not exciting, taste-wise. If you do have sake recs, bring them on.

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For the SGA folks only:

The truth is: Sometimes, I just cannot help myself.

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Much as I love kimchi with an unholy passion, maybe those 400g for dinner were a bit too much? ::breathes fire for a while:: It's a good thing I have nigori sake to quench it.

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I've gotten back into the swing of actually reading books again - Rubyfruit Jungle (♥ ♥ ♥) and Funny Boy and Elite: Auf den Spuren der Mächtigen von morgen.

I have three more novels off 50books_poc lying on my den table (Blue Boy, Smile As They Bow, and Southland) but am sacrilegiously pondering a purchase of Limit, Frank Schätzing's new sci-fi thriller. ( On his writing as based on The Swarm )

Liest einer von Euch deutschsprachigen Lesern zufällig das Buch und möchte in Bälde einen kleinen Vortrag darüber halten? ;)

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If you had all the thyme in the world -

what would you cook/bake/otherwise prepare with a truckload of these specific herbs?

They're fresh and were, together with rosemary and bay leaves, the contents of a box from my organic supermarket that said "Herbs de Provence." One's gotta wonder if there were any left for the rest of the region. Srsly.

Made muffins with some of the thyme - wait; actually, I made some muffins with some of the thyme. The rest were sour cream/raspberry muffins, which I'm sure is a pairing no one will quarrel about.

( 2 Kinds of Muffins: photos )

ETA: Jesus Christ, these savoury muffins are spectacular. Om nom nom!

This calls for a recipe re-post...

( Olive'n Goat's Cheese Muffins with Herbs de Provence )

Excuse the Babelfish in the prep section, babes. I worked until 7pm, then worked out at my gym for an hour, and only then baked these two trays of muffins. & ;-)

Day, not come, yadda yadda.

Instead? At jwaneeta's: "the pure, distilled elixir of d'awwww"

Warning for LARGE photos and srs bzns background of the global warming kind. ascian3, yes, I know they are kinda stinky and grumpy. But!



ETA: Kitchen = battlefield. Lentil curry = DONE!

Tomorrow's my birthday party. Bummer, I'd thought, I should have sent the invitation before my US vacation - with only one week to go, no one will have time. Then I thought, Just as well quality, not quantity!

...only that almost there were still quite a few who could come, after all. Which puts me in a bit of a quandary: wine I have (you are not surprised), beer I will get (German, standard, Bitburger was suggested).

That said, what food should I serve? ( Numbers, musings )

But apart from that? Any simple, no-cook (but bake is fine) foods good for a party?

Poll #1453267 Party Food Suggestions
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Oh yeah -

You could/should/might wish to make...

RoomieE also doesn't want to go see Paper Moon with me; it's part of the Cinespia project of free classical film viewings in the Hollywood Cemetery! I mean, seriously, blankets and picnics on a hot summer night: how can one not want that experience?

Fine; I'll just be going on my own. And bring tasty foodie snacks. No wine, alas; will have to open that 2005 Old Vine Zin when I get back...

Good times in San Francisco and with thelastgoodname. They were, among other places, had in this Vietnamese restaurant.

( Obligatory food photos that might just make you hungry )

Now, I'm lying in whiskeypants's sofa-turned-guest bed. We both met bar_butterfly, enjoyed the first affordable pizza I've ever seen on this continent, and had a sales clerk elaborate on the values of six of the eclectic dozens of beer the store offered: drinks for our later viewing of Kill Bill 2 and Pan's Labyrinth, which is utterly gorgeous and haunting like few other movies. Watch it, just beware: this is not pure fantasy. Civil war, fascist dictatorships, and how this shapes and destroys human beings constitute the story, not a mere backdrop.

Speaking of society and history? grimorie spoke about the death of Corazon 'Cory' Aquino, the 11th president of the Philippines in her lj today - of the funeral, but mostly the love of the people for her. (Click her name; she's crossposting.) thelastgoodname has a post up that deals with college football and not-so-isolated racism.

Oh, wow. This vanilla pudding made from scratch (Rezept auf Deutsch, Recipe in English via Babelfish*) and with organic ingredients is incredible.

::eats it up WITH A SPOON::

* Eheheh. Best. Translation. Ever. Let me amend: "Food Strength" = starch, "Kurdish Worker's Party" = package of.

I used to think that the colour "apricot" was a bit of a cheat. Oh, please, I thought, my apricots are orange. Brightly so! What's up with this muted tone?

And then, today, I made this li'l shake from organic soy milk and the scraped-out (juicy, so juicy) flesh of super-ripe apricots...and, okay, I concede.

Apricot, indeed:



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If you do the Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto thing, check out the *comments* to this post.

I'm unapologetic...but also too old for celebrity crushes. *sigh* Especially when said celebrity seems to be a bit of a douchebag. At least Star Trek RPFandom seems to agree, by and large. Heh.

As for this icon: never have the lyrics been more ironic. Want the song - Commander, by Girlyman? I just bought the whole album; I'm allowed to share with a few close friends, after all.

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Annnd it's time for Ian's birthday party. He's serving a small group of us dinner. ::rubs handsbelly in glee::

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. & :-(

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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?

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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. & :-)

Second date with Butler!Boy went well: I wore a cute grey dress, he was a good guy and lifted my bike into the streetcar, and we ate our way up & down the sushi menu at the Japanese restaurant of our second third choice, which means ( foodie talk! )

Also, have some icons. I separate for fandoms because I care:

Stargate Atlantis: ( Rodney McKay, and also my John/Rodney OTP )

Star Trek XI: All of the main cast, almost? ( Kirk, Bones, Kirk/Bones, baby!Spock, Sulu (lots of him), Chekov, Uhura! )

True Blood: ( 3 Lafayette icons. I apologise for the gratuitous nudity; these seem to be the only ones of Lafayette online in high-ish quality. I wonder why... )

By the way, did you see my new blog design? I like it. It's simple. LIKE ME.