swatkat | Reading

Stayed up too late last night and got a late start this morning, so I am already behind on my plan. But I will try to go to bed earlier tonight and get up earlier tomorrow to get back on track. Unfortunately, there is another planned water shut-off for plumbing repairs from 9 am - 12 pm, so I'll have to make sure to make the coffee required for both the chocolate and the mocha cupcakes ahead of time (it has to be room temp anyway), as well as making sure I have an extra bowl for handwashing.

I did get all the fig cookies made and packed into the cute cookie tins I bought so I'm not always giving away my ziploc containers (they are useful and they changed the shape so I can't get any more of the ones I really like), and the pork buns as well (pics) but I didn't eat dinner until after 7 pm and now the dishwasher is running, so I'm done for the night.

oh, I wanted to note that this year, I bought some fancy holiday/red-and-green sprinkles from KAB for the cookies - normally I just use multicolor nonpareils, but these look kind of festive, I thought. I also got red/green sprinkles for the funfetti cupcakes so I will be very on-theme.

***

( 6-day plan, day 3 )

***

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: switching btwn Ravens vs Pats / Rangers vs Preds

hannah

When I saw this year's Winter Solstice happened to fall on the last night of Hanukkah, it struck me as fitting that the longest night would have the most candles in it. Making the most light against all the darkness.

It's due for a chill here this week - not much below freezing, but wind and some rain. I've got nowhere to go and not much to do, and all of this together has me looking at my tea collection and thinking about where to get started and what I might be able to finish. Modest goals building towards larger ones, as the days begin building up again.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: The Warmest Part of the Winter - Voxtrot

cyberghostface posting in

scans_daily

( Scans under the cut... )

topaz_eyes

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

netgirl_y2k

In a fit of unrealistic optimism I signed up for

ficinabox, because, sure, after having not written any fic in a year I could definitely write 10k in quick succession.

(Narrator: she couldn't.)

I ended up having to drop a bunch of that wordcount because I suck and have forgotten how to make words happen, but I did enjoy writing again.

(Narrator: she didn't. It was like pulling teeth.)

And I'm pretty proud of what I did manage to write.

(Narrator: Actually, kind of, yeah.)

Bella Ciao (ciao ciao ciao) (Andor; Vel/Kleya; post-series; 5k)

“I’ve never–” Kleya panted.

“With a woman, you mean.”

“With anyone.”

“What?” Vel pushed herself up, and Kleya slid off her lap to one side.

Vel had lost her virginity to an older cousin of Perrin’s who'd fingered her in an empty shuttle at Mon’s wedding, and who afterwards had cried and begged Vel not to tell anyone or it would ruin her life.

“I’ve been busy,” Kleya said archly.

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (The Marvels; Carol/Valkyrie; 2k)

“What does Asgardian divorce look like, anyway?”

“Oh, it’s quite easy,” said Val cheerfully, “I’d just have to publicly denounce you for sexual inadequacy and then punch you in the face.”

“...How publicly, exactly?”

Or,

Four times Carol and Val don’t get divorced.

In continued unrealistic fits of optimism I am both considering signing up for

rarefemslashexchange, and trying to write a Pluribus fic before the finale airs on Wednesday, because, Jaysus, I have so many feelings about that show.

musesfool

So I may have been a little...over ambitious in purchasing eggs and butter and expecting it all to fit into my tiny apartment-size fridge. I did get all of it in there, but there was literally no room to let orange rolls rise overnight so I knocked that off the list. Maybe I will do them for New Year's morning instead.

I also had an unfortunate start to the fig cookies. I made the filling yesterday and I might have put too much cocoa in as I thought it was the bottom of the container so I just dumped it in and well, there was more than I expected in there. *hands* It's fine. Then when I made the dough earlier, it smelled weird. I think maybe the Crisco had gone off? Idk, but I threw out what I'd made and did it again with the newly opened can of Crisco and it smelled correct, so I didn't really get to make cookies this afternoon as planned, but I might make some after dinner, which is how we did it when I was a kid - every night for the 2 weeks before Christmas we were in the kitchen making fig cookies.

I did marinate the pork country ribs last night and they are now in the oven roasting, so that at least is on track.

I also watched Wake Up Dead Man yesterday, and I liked but didn't love it? I'm not sure why? ( spoilers )

This is a long essay about the movie (spoilers, obvs) that goes much deeper into it: Entirely Too Many Thoughts About Wake Up Dead Man by Leah Schnelbach.

Oh, the timer just went off so I have to take the ribs out of the oven, so I guess I'll just hit post!

***

( 6-day plan, day 2 )

***

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Eagles vs Commanders on tv

topaz_eyes

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

laughing_tree posting in

scans_daily

The future of the Marvel universe, I don't think it is set, I don't think it should be set. I think you can have a bunch of different ones. To be honest, it's sort of nice to have a few futures that are very probable, like the Days of Future Past or like King Thor... -- Al Ewing

( Read more... )

cyberghostface posting in

scans_daily

“What’s so tragic about [Doom] is that he could be a great guy. If he went in a slightly different direction, he could be a good guy. That’s why he and Reed have such a Capital R relationship. They see themselves as these sort of very similar but very different men.” — Ryan North

( Scans under the cut... )

laughing_tree posting in

scans_daily

A lot of people still are like, "Oh, Jo's the Green Lantern, but she's only in it a little bit with all this large ensemble cast that keeps expanding." [...] Jo's not the Green Lantern. Jo has the green power. There's a difference. The Green Lantern is that big thing that's currently on the moon. Nobody knows what the hell it is. That's the Green Lantern. That's what the book's about. -- Al Ewing

( Read more... )

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

hannah

I made a cake for my dad's book group, as is customary, and it wasn't until late in the day, long after dropping it off, that I found out the book group had cancelled its in-person meeting - to be fair, they hadn't known that until the afternoon, what with someone coming down with something and everyone else electing not to drive.

It also turns out that my parents had a building party scheduled that same night. One my dad thought he wouldn't go to with the book group, but could attend since the commute would only be from the lobby to the apartment. One where he could bring a cake that I'd happened to have dropped off earlier that day.

The group had been reading Charles Dickens, and I thought an apple ginger spice cake would be fitting to the general vibe of the novel. It turned out to be a set of flavors that were just as fitting for a near-solstice wintertime party.

I'm always happy when something I've baked finds its way to a good home, and I'm even happier when there's a little story to go along with the cake.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: nothing now

musesfool

I am officially on vacation - I don't have to go back to work until January 5th! Now the bakepocalypse can begin! I've made more work for myself, but I think it will all work out - I've been planning it in my head, and this is how it goes (please take "run dishwasher" as a given at least once and probably twice each day):

( 6-day plan )

I think adding in the roast pork and the pork buns and the orange cranberry rolls might be kind of nuts? But also having that food on hand will let me eat breakfast/dinner without having to do any real cooking or ordering in. (I will also have some ham and cheese to make sandwiches if it comes to that, and some granola bars for snacks/breakfast if the orange cranberry rolls don't happen.) And I think I do have time before the cupcake baking begins in earnest.

What I'm considering now is whether I should make the frostings and immediately put them in piping bags (with specific tips in) for storing in the fridge instead of trying to do the transfers all at once on Christmas Eve morning the way I usually do. Filling the bags and then keeping them in tupperware might be easier? But I've also found that sometimes my "time-saving" plans end up making things worse, so idk.

Anyway, that's my plan for the next 6 or so days! It's a good thing I enjoy cooking. *g*

*

Current Mood: ambitious
Current Music: Best Winter - Tom McRae

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

tcampbell1000 posting in

scans_daily

JLI #16-17 introduced the Queen Bee and her alliance with Jack O’Lantern. In that first appearance, she was all poise and grace. Despite her chilling games of mind control, she also exuded a false warmth that snared lovers and allies and disarmed her enemies.

In her second appearance, the warmth is gone. It’s true what they say: holding high political office ages people before their time.

( But why won’t certain office-holders DIE of old age already? )

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

superfangirl1 posting in

scans_daily

( Read more, )

hannah

As I've been saying over the evening: my father's book group usually meets in person, but due to one of the members coming down with the flu, the decision was made to meet on Zoom like it's 2020 all over again. But their loss was the party's gain. The cake I made for what would have been the book group's meeting instead went to my father's building's winter holiday party, so it still made its way to a good home. An apple ginger spice cake seemed fitting for Charles Dickens' London - they were meeting to discuss Bleak House - and it managed to slip into a general wintertime holiday festival without any issue or trouble. Once people started in on it, it went quick.

I'd had a stressful day, due to meeting with a therapist and my parents at the same time. It was necessary and it was useful and by golly was it stressful. After it was over, I simply went back to my apartment. Nothing else. Then I thought I could sit in my apartment or I could go to my parents' building winter holiday party. I went with the party. I'm fairly hammered at this point - it wasn't an open bar as such, but there was rum and there was tequila, and all I used as a mixer was a slice of lime and about a quarter cup of commercially made eggnog at one point. And the eggnog was with the tequila, not the rum, which isn't a choice I'll make if I attend another such function.

For all that I'm not anticipating tomorrow, with all its responsibilities, I'm good with having gone tonight.

Current Mood: drunk
Current Music: nothing now