Note to self: go to Milan, buy chocolate panettone someday.

In somewhat related news, one of my colleagues brought some chocolate panettone in today, that their stepmother brought back from holiday. It is so good. I can't figure out how they got the gooey chocolate into it without it becoming simply part of the dough - gooey seems to be its natural state at room temperature. Maybe it was injected afterwards?

Speaking of things culinary, I ordered some ginger recently, when I did some online shopping. I thought I ordered one piece - I didn't really mind what size, I only needed a little bit - but I ended up with a big bag of the stuff. Perhaps I ordered it by weight, and ordered 1lb, not 1 piece. I dunno. Anyway, this resulted in me looking up how to preserve ginger. I tried this recipe, because... well, because I have a NaNo to write and I needed something to procrastinate with concentrate on while I thought about the story. It was actually pretty easy, it just took a long time, and I ended up with a couple of lovely by-products - namely a water, ginger and lemonade mix that was nice with a bit more lemonade added, and ginger syrup. Ginger syrup, omg.

I'm thinking up lots of things I could now do with the ginger syrup. Mixed into ice cream! Added to mulled wine! Taken when I have a cough! Spread on pancakes! Eaten straight from the jar with a spoon!

I also, this weekend and yesterday - I was off yesterday - made pepper and poppyseed bread*, potato cakes**, céleri rémoulade** (similar to coleslaw, except with celeriac), naan bread, dahl, and raita. We had a little homemade Indian meal yesterday. It's amazing how motivated I get when I'm supposed to be writing something. But I did hit my word target, so that's okay.

They're repeating Colditz, the 1970s TV series, at the moment (on Yesterday, for UK peeps). Gosh, David McCallum was adorable. Well, okay, he's still adorable - but, er, not quite as devastatingly attractive, IMO.

I have more intelligent - well, more lengthy - things to say about the series, but not right now.

p.s. Scrivener is awesome.




* While very drunk! And it was delicious! I get to a certain state where I want to prove I'm still capable, so I do things like vacuuming, making bread, cleaning the bathroom...

** While hungover. Not so much fun. I kept having to stop and sit down for a bit. Also, the bloody Madagascar Penguins had an entire cartoon about trying to make one of them throw up, which really didn't help.

.

Most useful information I've seen all week: how to prevent email recipients from using 'Reply All' (on Outlook).

So going to come in handy.

(Prompted by some genius replying to all ~500 recipients of the email I had to send out yesterday, to say something completely irrelevant. ETA: Okay, not to all ~500 recipients, because I BCC'd most of them, but to all the core members, at least.)

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I watched 'Up' (finally) yesterday, and would just like to say OMGDOGGIESOMG! Can I have a Dug? Can I can I can I can I?

Today, I bought tickets for a play - something I reallyreally want to go see. A and I always get tickets to something in the new year, you see. Post-holidays, January looks like a long, hard slog, and February even worse, so we need something to brighten our winter.

In previous years we've been to see Return To The Forbidden Planet (space monsters from the Id ftw), The Play What I Wrote (fabulous play about Morecambe and Wise, a little like seeing them live), The Woman In Black (skeeery!), Rock 'n' Roll (highly intellectual and verbose Tom Stoppard play, all about Czechoslovakia and Pink Floyd and the Velvet Revolution), and, last year, The First Emperor (British Museum exhibition about the first emperor of China - Terracotta Army, omg). Plus some other things that I've forgotten, probably. This year, we're not going until well into the Spring, which is sad, but it's something awesome, and it's not on until then. And I can't tell you what it is, because A could read this.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to it. :)

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I've been poking about with my friends filters, because I seemed to have several that basically had the same people in them, and some that were for a short-term purpose only, so if you suddenly have access / don't have access to old posts, you a) probably won't notice, but b) can tell me if you really want to see something or other.

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Last night, I dreamed I was the young Charles Dickens. WTF? I don't even like Dickens. Can't I dream about being, I dunno, Louisa May Alcott, instead? Also, I don't think he did live in an orphanage and have adventures.

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redial_the_gate  rewatch tonight, watching Small Victories, woohoo! The second time in two episodes that Daniel helplessly witnesses his friends effect a last-minute escape using an Asgard beam. Rather stressful for the poor lamb. Still, he's probably given them ulcers, too, with his complete disregard for his own personal safety in the face of Injustice.

Hear ye, hear ye... 

Announcing the arrival of

redial_the_gate, a comm in which we're going to rewatch all - yes, all - of the Stargate episodes, including the film. Yes, this will take about four years. What, you had something better to do?

It's still in the stage of being set up, so please step carefully around any exposed cables, wear your hard hat at all times, and don't lean against the paint. It'll be fully operational (fingers crossed) for discussion of the film on Tuesday 24th July, just in time for the 10th anniversary of the debut of Stargate: SG-1 (27th July). *gets misty and sentimental*

So dust off that old VHS of Stargate the movie, give it a watch, visit the comm, and join the squee!

And don't forget to bow down in praise to abyssinia4077, the genius who thought of it in the first place, and the driving force behind setting it up. KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD, TAU'RI!

*picks up tools, gets back to work*

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Oh, before I forget - does anyone know how to chat to more than one person via IM? So that all the people involved can chat at the same time, in the same window, I mean - like a conference call (I can do the holding-two-separate-conversations-at-once thing, although it does make my head want to explode). Is it easy, or do you have to download a specific IM service? I've failed at teh internetz, and can't work it out. 

 

Okay, I shall confess, I was a tiny bit naughty - but there are extenuating circumstances. See, I went to post my 

remix_redux story, and when I logged in, the first story - at the top of the page, no scrolling - was the remix of mine - Hard Candy Shell, a remix of Peanut M&Ms And The Twinkle In Her Eye. I wouldn't have scrolled, and I wouldn't have searched - but it was right there.

And I can resist everything but temptation.

I posted about it when I read it, but then I took the post down again, because I'm indecisive like that. But to show my wonderful, wonderful, wonderful remixer what my initial - practically incoherent - response was, this was the post:

> IT'S SO GOOD!
>
> I'm in love!
>
> *does a happy dance*
>
> It's the bestest ever! Whoever it was got the tone just right, and it felt like my story, but different, and it was just SO GOOD I HAVE TO WRITE IN ALLCAPS! And the ending just about froze my heart!
>
> I swear, I'm shaking. The thrill, my loves, the thrill...

And, re-reading it (as I have a time or... twenty...), I have to say that my reaction is still pretty much the same. *g* I can't find enough words to praise it.

There's a wonderful feel of the spaces in between what was written - the implied, left unsaid... remembering a term from art class, the negative space. Not that what they've written isn't fabulous - it's so very, very good - but the way they've created the shape of what's not there is just lovely, and completely heartbreaking. They completely got what I was trying to do in my story - and they've done it better. *g*

The last section still kills me. And the two glasses... and the last line... *goes incoherent again*

So, all in all, I'm pretty happy - can you tell?

Also, my remixee liked their story, and I'm so very relieved - I was very unsure about it, and about how they'd feel about me remixing a drabble (because our fandoms don't overlap much), so I'm very pleased. *wipes brow*

Also, I've totally guessed who wrote mine (unless someone's been super subtle at misdirecting with the formatting). How bad form is it to thank them properly? Or should I stay schtum until the unveiling?