I have fallen to the darkness: I set up a facebook profile. Now I’ve connected with a bunch of people I knew in college, high school, etc. and it’s kind of weird. Had a late-night chat with an old friend who apparently had insomnia at the same time I did.
Hopefully when I get off of this medication (probably tomorrow after I see my doc) the insomnia will let up and I’ll be more awake and able to get back to more reviewing. I do have some kitchenware reviews coming up, however.
I’ve been posting our friend & business partner’s handmade jewelry to the Etsy shop. His work has a more formal style than mine and a decidedly medieval flare—I think you’ll like it!
7:00 am: I forgot the pie crust dough would have to be chilled before pre-baking, and the fats frozen before making the dough. So we froze the fats over breakfast and made the dough afterward in the food processor. Now it’s chilling.
10:45 am: Phew! Mocha raspberry trifle assembled. Pie shell baked. Mini puff pastry shells filled with chocolate cream and topped with cool whip. Two versions of cornbread in the oven (sweet & not sweet). Sweet potato casserole assembled.
Monday morning: Well that’s the point at which I stopped having time to post. We made two stuffings (sausage mushroom, and ‘plain’), made the sweet potato pie, roasted the brined turkey, made bacon cheddar biscuits… We filled baked frozen puff pastry mini-shells with an agave tofu chocolate cream and topped them with a little cool whip, and you wouldn’t believe how stunning they were (not to mention I doubt anyone would have guessed they had tofu in them). Then we made garlic broccoli and some lightly buttered & parsleyed carrots at the last minute.
But the best part was all the cool friends who visited. Unfortunately a couple of them are allergic to cats and had to be doped up, but I think they enjoyed the food!
“Cyber Monday” at Errant Dreams: We have a holiday special going on at errantdreams.etsy.com, where we sell our handmade jewelry and bookmarks. All of the bookmarks I posted before November have been marked down in price by 20-30%. Also, from now through Dec. 31, if you have us ship within the USA and order a least $20 in products, you’ll get free shipping. Just place your order and wait to pay until I send you a revised PayPal invoice.
Here’s a sampling of items:
In addition, if you’re in a more practical and less fanciful mode, we have two cafepress stores (Caffeinaed Chicanery and Gamers’ Heaven) with T-shirts, mugs, etc. in a bunch of designs. Some randomly-chosen designs in each store will be reduced in price over the day today, so poke around and enjoy!
I had to get my Warcraft dailies out of the way first. Not too many of them—just the five I really want. I.e., the Dalaran cooking & jewelcrafting dailies, and the Kalu’ak dailies. I’ll come back to those in a Lich King post soon.
Doctor’s appointment at 9 am (the knee I banged up over 5 weeks ago has developed a mysterious sore lump), but other than that, it’s just cooking, one last tiny shopping trip to pick up some herbs & such, and fun!
11 am: Whoops. Well we’ll be getting a late start today. Doctor’s appointment turned into an x-ray to rule out fracture and abscess, a prescription pick-up, then buying the last couple of ingredients. Lunch next…
3:30 pm: The make-ahead mashed potatoes are made ahead; they’re sort of like a twice-baked potato casserole. Yum! We’ve also peeled and sliced carrots for an herbed carrot dish, and made a coconut caramel cream pie. Time for a Warcraft break while the dishwasher goes.
5:30 pm: We’ve made the brine for the turkey, as well as the sugar puff cookies. We’ve chopped broccoli florets and fresh bread crumbs and mixed the rices for the wild rice pilaf. We’re about to bake sweet potatoes for tomorrow’s sweet potato casserole.
Feast cooking tip #2: Plan for the unexpected. Be ready to axe one or more of your recipes if you find yourself short on time. For one, we’re always over-eager when picking out recipes. For another, something always comes up. What with medical stuff today we decided not to make a pumpkin pound cake. It isn’t as though we really needed it anyway; it was one of those whimsy things.
Irrelevant plug: Earlier today we decided we should have a holiday special at the craft store (errantdreams.etsy.com). So, as noted at the top of all store pages, through December 31 of 2008 you’ll get FREE SHIPPING on any order of $20 or more shipping within the US. Just go through the Etsy checkout process, but wait to pay until we’ve sent you a revised PayPal invoice without the shipping charges! Here’s just a smattering of the things you could get, and let’s face it, it’s way cooler to get your loved ones handmade one-of-a-kind items than mass-produced stuff!
7:10 am: Why day 1? Well, because we cook on Thursday and Friday and serve on Saturday. Technically I’ve already done a few things (made dry mixes for cornbread & biscuits, etc.), but this is where it really begins. My husband and I just made chocolate marshmallows, and now it’s time for a break.
Feast cooking tip #1: Remember to take breaks. Between each recipe, clean up the dishes & your work space, drink some water, and get off of your feet for 10 minutes to a half hour. It won’t seem necessary at first, but boy will it help later.
10:05 am: Chocolate marshmallows, Warcraft, orange cranberry sauce, Warcraft… back to work to make mocha pastry cream for a raspberry mocha trifle!
10:45 am: Mmmmmm. Mooocha. Well that came out well! Hard to go wrong with chocolate, coffee, and vanilla bean. Now we’re taking a 15-minute break before cutting and coating the marshmallows.
1:50 pm: Marshmallows cut & coated (most with a cocoa/powdered sugar mix, some with melted chocolate). Lunch eaten. Bacon bits made for the biscuits. Extra-sharp cheddar grated for the biscuits.
And that, I think, is that for today. Cleanup is still to be done before a friend comes into town tonight!
Feline aggression is one of those really confusing things to unravel. It has so many possible causes and very few ways to pick them apart to find the right one.
It’s all about instinct. Aggression could be fear, stress, territorial disputes… or a sign of an underlying pain or illness. Cats instinctively know that sickness is weakness is danger. They will do anything and everything to avoid displaying that weakness and putting themselves in perceived danger. This means hiding symptoms, as well as using aggression to keep others at bay.
Selene, one of our cats, recently became extremely aggressive toward her brother. Because the timing was coincident with a cat coming around and making her territorially aggressive as well, the theory was that she was showing displaced aggression. However, my husband and I were convinced it was more than that. A test showed minor indications of infection, but further tests didn’t culture anything. We got the Comfort Zone diffuser with Feliway feline facial pheremones, which are used to comfort and calm cats. It definitely helped, but the situation continued to deteriorate.
We brought Selene back to the vet and they were kind enough to fit us in at the last minute with their behavioral specialist. Long story short, she has joint troubles (possibly arthritic) and was having constipation issues. Now she’s on glucosamine and chondroitin for the joint troubles and a medicine for the constipation. There’s still some aggression, but it’s very noticeably better and less frequent.
It’s often been said that, man’s assumption to the contrary, cats have not yet been domesticated. I think this is one of the more prominent indications of this. Things would be so much easier if cats would just display their symptoms instead of trying to hide them!
In New England we had little black crickets that didn’t even make me—notorious bug wimp that I am—nervous. In Maryland we don’t have crickets, we have Dire Crickets, a reference that any D&D geek will understand in a heartbeat. They’re about five times the size of the things in New England, and way weirder looking. They look like those old crickets after a radioactivity “incident” out of a horror movie about mutants. Worse, they can survive being played with, hunted, and even chomped on by my cat for more than an hour. They’ll repeatedly play dead until he loses interest, then go on the move again. I had to trap one under an empty tea tin the other morning until my husband woke up (I’m enough of a wimp under normal circumstances when it comes to bugs; it’s worse when I have insomnia and bare feet).
Latest book review: John Levitt’s New Tricks. Coming soon: a review of Patricia Potter’s Behind the Shadows.
The holiday shopping has begun! We’re seeing sales jump of our long-time faves the level 70 designs, as well as of our new level 80 designs. Grab ‘em now!
Speaking of holiday shopping, don’t forget the etsy store (errantdreams.etsy.com), filled with hand-made jewelry, bookmarks, etc. in a wide variety of price ranges and styles! More going up every day, and more than 100 items already up; we’ve recently started adding the newest bookmarks we’ve been making. Here are a few example photos:
I spent most of last night vomiting violently and repeatedly, possibly as a reaction to an antibiotic. I was so sore by the time there was nothing left in my stomach, from all the spasming, but Cahlash pressed himself against my back in bed, stretched out against it like a perfectly-warmed and furry heating pad. It was awesome, and definitely helped me to get a couple precious hours of sleep. The cats didn’t even fight for once. And when we got up, Cahlash kept trying to lead my husband out to the living room where I was while he was getting dressed. Selene also spent much of the night cuddled against my shin. They get so concerned when their people are sick. It’s precious.
Anyway, I’d just like to say…WE WERE RIGHT.
*ahem* Now that I have that out of my system…
Several people kept saying that Selene’s new-found viciousness was most likely a behavioral problem. We kept insisting there was more to it than that and that something seemed wrong. Turns out both cats have an infection of some kind. As soon as we know what kind, we can treat it and hopefully the violence will end and they’ll feel better!
In the meantime, we’re trying a product our vet recommended called “feliway”. It’s a feline facial pheremone, the same one cats use to mark you as theirs when they rub their faces on you. It’s supposed to calm them, and you can get it as a spray or as a room diffuser (called “comfort zone”). We’re using the latter. I don’t notice any odor, and it doesn’t bother my many sensitivities & allergies. We’re also cautiously optimistic that it might be starting to have some effect. We trust our vet’s recommendations, and even the lady at the checkout at the pet store enthused over the stuff.
Now I just have to keep the broth down that I had for breakfast, and go see the doctor again in an hour.
I’m worried that one of our cats may be ill or in pain or something. She tends to get territorial and cranky now and then, but lately she’s practically been trying to kill her brother. It seemed to center around a cat that was coming to the back door; she’d see it through the glass, hurl herself at it, and when that didn’t work she’d go after her brother. We closed off the room that door is in, though, and yet today she went after her brother worse than ever even without that. Sometimes when one of them is feeling ill or in pain they’ll get pissy at each other, so I’m worried there might be something else going on. I made a vet appointment for her on Saturday. That won’t help her stress level any, but when we reach the point where I’m afraid to allow our two cats in the same room for fear that the next time I won’t be able to separate them…
So that plus the possibility that I might have another infection and might have to go get antibiotics again are making me stressed and cranky today.
I have some very nifty new jewelry and such that I’ll be gradually posting for sale at errantdreams.etsy.com, including a few pieces that use some remarkable handmade Jaipuri pottery beads:
Harder to get things done these days. As someone with mental disorders, I find my motivation dramatically reduces during the winter months. I love winter, but the lack of light isn’t good for me. I’m sleeping much better now thanks to Seroquel, but it’s adding to the appetite-increasing effect of the Effexor, which also isn’t good. Particularly when you like to cook things like homemade honey-gingerbread marshmallows:
I plan to take most of the batch to a friend’s this weekend!
Two brief thoughts on politics. As usual, I prefer to stick to process here when I touch on politics at all, not partisanship. So take partisan arguments to other blogs.
First, I read an article this morning that said that young people really aren’t turning out much so far in Florida’s early voting. Guys—VOTE! We all like to complain that past generations have left us with a mess of a world, politically, environmentally, etc. But one of the major ways we have of trying to make a difference is by voting for the candidate we think will best clean things up. So I don’t care who you vote for—just do it! It doesn’t take that much effort!
Second, after Obama put out his ad quoting John McCain as saying he’d need a VP who could advise him on economic matters, and then showing Palin winking, there appeared a fresh wave of complaints of sexism. As a woman I’m calling bullshit. The question of whether Palin is qualified to lead the country in economic matters is a perfectly legitimate question. If she is, she’ll withstand the questioning by proving she has the credentials. If she isn’t, well, it’s important to find that out. We ask these questions of male candidates all the time. Refusing to push a female candidate for her credentials just because she’s female, THAT would be just as sexist as saying that she couldn’t understand economic matters because she’s a woman.
I’ve been making more jewelry, and I’m very pleased with some of the new pieces. Here are two that I particularly like, Ice Queen Jewels:
You can click on the images above to look at larger versions at deviantArt. Or, you can click on the text links above them to see 5 different photos of each at Etsy, and to buy them if you wish!
My last customer commented that she was extremely impressed with our packaging. You see, I try to package each piece separately within a little jewelry gift box inside of a padded mailer. I do this for entirely practical reasons. Our mailman has driven me insane with his treatment of packages. He’s shoved things into the mailbox so hard they split open and tore the contents open. He throws things at the house—and I don’t just mean a tiny little lob. So when I package something, I ask myself, “How can I package this so it would survive treatment by someone like him?” If this has a side effect of giving the customer a really nice little box for the jewelry, that’s great!
It’s been two weeks since I skinned my knee and it’s finally scabbing over. I’ve had notoriously weak ankles all my life—I do exercises specifically to strengthen them, but nothing ever seems to work. I was on the last step of the stairs to the sidewalk out front when my ankle gave way. My foot stayed on the step, and my knee hit the concrete below it. I’m really very lucky that all I did was skin my knee. But it took enough layers off that the center refused to scab over for two weeks. Once or twice a day I had to clean out my knee and make sure it wasn’t getting infected. It’s great to finally be able to wear long pants without having to tape gauze over my knee!
Anyway, between the fact that I was in constant knee-pain until a day or two ago, and the days getting darker, and my husband having been out of town on a trip, I’ve been incredibly unproductive. But I’ve made some jewelry, and I’m looking forward anxiously to this election being over. I hope you all have a great weekend!
We’ve pretty much finished rolling out the level 80 T-shirt designs at cafepress. This means two things: first, we expect to phase out the level 70 designs around the end of the year; we’ll keep them on sale until then, so grab ‘em while you can! Second, we think the level 80 designs are even better than the level 70 designs, and the level 70 designs have been quite popular. So be the first to get your own!
Also, cafepress has added some new items, like travel mugs and the flip mino camcorder. Yes, a pocket-sized camcorder. What will they add next?! Pssst—level 80 items make great holiday gifts for gamers!
In unrelated news, I almost always put brief excerpted versions of my reviews on Amazon, just for the heck of it. I thought it was kind of cool when I went from starting out in the 700,000s (back before there were millions of users posting reviews) to the 700s. Apparently today they started calculating the reviewer ranking differently. Partly to stop people from “ballot-box stuffing”, or finding ways to rate their own reviews. Partly to emphasize whether a person’s reviews are seen as helpful or not, so that quantity doesn’t trump quality. And partly to emphasize newness of reviews, so new reviewers get a chance to climb up the ladder.
And suddenly my rank went, literally overnight, from 679 to 64. That’s pretty cool.
Just place your order and wait to pay until I send you a revised PayPal invoice.
