Sofia told me that she had seen this video on the news.  I didn't believe her! http://news.yahoo.com/video/odd-15749658/royal-commuter-17204973 I am shocked beyond belief at this video.  The Queen of England mind you, riding as a common passenger on a commuter train??? How low the monarchy has fallen.  When she sits now...she is nearer the ground.  This makes me incredibly sad.  Both for her Majesty, who in her old age deserves far better...and for England.  This is a mean and shabby way to treat your monarch, and I am ashamed for you.  

First you shame her into paying taxes, complain about the amount of her annual stipend, take away the royal jet, make her give up her beloved yacht...which I am certain nearly broke her heart, because you could see it in her face, and now this?  

What will you have her do next?  Ride a bicycle to the state opening of Parliament? 

Un-F'ing-believable!  Shame on you, England! 

Too amusing not to share:
http://myfirstfail.com/2009/12/13/funny-baby-photos-mary-if-you-just-come-along-quietly/

Not surprisingly this deep into December, this weekend is going to be completely insane. I've got friends coming over to the new house tonight, then we'll all be heading to a holiday potluck. Saturday I've got a party in Tacoma, one in Monroe, and one in Bremerton. Sunday is the 13th birthday for a friend's daughter who is very special to me. On top of all that is an all weekend long work party in Bothel/ Lynnwood to prep for NYE. I'm trying to figure out how I can make it all happen (especially Saturday) and coming to the conclusion that I won't be able to be everywhere and see everyone I'd like. :(

To book end things properly, here's a wonderful demonstration of the joys of duct tape:
http://myfirstfail.com/2009/11/24/funny-baby-photos-behold-the-powers-of-duck-and-tape/

My sekrit stan gift has been sent off, and my super sekrit sources tell me it has been received! I hope they like it! :)

I both cooked and baked last night for the local holiday potluck and just have to roll the Gingerbrede in powdered (or colored) sugar when I get home to cut down the stickiness of the honey. I'm happy with how that and the batch of shrewsbury cakes turned out. I was worried there for a bit after I creamed the butter and started adding the flour as it just didn't seem to be coming together. It seemed like it would be a disaster right up until it jelled into a lovely dough. They were both tested by my in house non-foodie and pronounced tasty!

I even managed to get the rest of the mailed cards out, and now just have the ones to be hand delivered left. I'm planning on taking a batch to the potluck tonight for just that purpose.

I'm so frickin' festive I'm even wearing my red and white stripy knee socks today!

one of those mornings...I dumped a glass of water over the toaster (while it was on) and knocked over my coffee (soaking a bunch of books)

this is usually the cue for our heroine to slow down, clean the friggin house and start paying attention to whats going on OUTSIDE her head

gotta love the holidays :)

I give you- Santa pictures past and present. See how they grow.



2009 4 years old


2008 3 years old


2007 2 years old


2006 1 year old



2005 Infants

Imaginary historical recipe:

Luncheon for Ye Fat-man Desirous to Becomme Slendyr. Take greenerye and put thereto tunny, and also beenes, and also verjuice.

Modern version:

Dump half a bag of pre-chopped salad greens and raw vegetables into a medium mixing bowl. Toss with a little vinaigrette. Add half a pouch of water packed tuna, and half a can of pinto beans. Serve with a fork.

Verizon and Yahoo don't want customer's to know how much they've been payed to sell their information:
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/12/yahoo_verizon_fight_release_of.php

One of the coolest quote lists I've ever seen-yup, I'm a multi-faceted geek too:
http://tasha.gallowglass.org/quote.html

A little bit of faith restoration in humanity:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/091215/canada/canada_manitoba_man_lottery_generous_fontaine_lotto_max

I started holiday cards before thanksgiving and I just finished them today. So much for getting them out early. At least they'll be in the mail today and I got my sekrit stan gifty out yesterday (I was going to correct it but sekrit stan just has a ring to it). :)

I managed to get more progress made at home last night in the kitchen, but we have a few people coming over on Friday and I want the house totally whipped into shape by then. Since I also just found out Monday that tomorrow is the baronial holiday pot luck thingy I'm going to be both cooking and working on the house tonight.

I was planning on brining chicken ambrosino as that's now my pot luck standby, but since they want fingerfoods I'm a bit at a loss. I'm thinking maybe Gingerbrede or the French or Italian version of stuffed eggs. Any suggestions F-list?

This is going to be another crazy holiday weekend with new year's prep, two holiday parties, a friend who's selling off a drool worthy book collection and a birthday party for a VIT (very important teen-ager, Ms. Boo is turning 13!). I'm going to try to make it to everything, but we'll see how that works out.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2009/12/12/scripts/yule.shtml

Here's the ivy, here's the holly.
Banish all your melancholy.
Don't want data or retrieval,
boy it's fun to be medieval.
It's the life everyone wants.
We don't need no renaissance.
You can have your Reformation.
We prefer inebriation.
Drinking, eating, fornication.
You can go to Sunday School.
We are pagans. We love Yule.
GRUNTING CONTINUES, MEDIEVAL INSTRUMENTS, MARCHING OFF.

I'm finalizing the floor layout for the display space this week, so I've got a last call out for artisan/apprentice displays. I know not everyone's apprentice is on the list so if you want to share the request feel free to pass this along:

Greetings!
I just wanted to check in before I submit the final floor plan to see if anyone else wants to display items/ research/ 15th cent. left handed widgets at this coming 12th night. I plan to sent the final email by the end of the week so please get to me soon if you haven't already done so.

I don't really need to know what item you're displaying (so long as it isn't illegal, and don't be afraid to display the same type of thing someone else is.

Here's the list I've gotten so far with tentative items and space:
Elewys 1x1'- socks & documentation for feedback
Halima 1x1'?- Something woven? :)
Sophia 1x1'- I'm guessing lampwork beads,yes?
Sabine 1x3'-book binding extravaganza! Anything else?

In joyous service,
Raffaella raphaellad at yahoo dot com

Dear Sekrit Santa Victim,
I have finally found, wrapped and shipped your gift! I am hoping that it will arrive in time despite my tardiness and the crossing the border possiblity of delay. Hugs and Merry Merry Christmas,
Gulenay

I just spent the evening making up little individual baggies of pony vitamins so the nice helpful barn staff can just dump a baggie into the bucket for HisNibs. there's a baggie to go with breakfast and a baggie to go with dinner. Each baggie contains a carefully measured bit of vitamins and/or herbal supplements, stuff for his arthritis, etc. you know those pill minder thingies your grammie had in her purse? with little compartments so she could remember which she had taken, etc? **

its like that, but ziplock bags. and now I have this rather unpleasant taste of alfalfa dust and licorice (the multivitamin has fenugreek in it which is supposed to be good for ponies). blech.

but I did a whole months worth so now HisNibs is set even if I cant get to the barn for a long time (weather, etc). also ran to the feedstore tonight to get stocked up on grain.

cant wait for the days to get longer so I can reward myself by going for a wee ride after work...

** actually, there's a company that makes up those compartment thingies for horses. you tell them what vitamins, etc you want and they'll make em up for you. and its actually not that much more expensive than buying in bulk and making up baggies. too bad the stuff I want they dont have...

friday - out for Cody's birthday. Montage, 9 mussel shooters and a salad.

saturday - gym, weighed in at 280 (!). Assembled some monitor stands for work.

sunday - got the xmas lights up - new LED ones that look fantastic. Made beef and barley stew. Converted leftover lemon curd into lemon/cranberry cookies.

New important discovery: consumption of white bread, white flour, sugar, &c, seems to be correlated with me feeling horrible. I've never been a pastry person anyway, so this is not a big deal. It was just surprising that a day or so of not paying attention to what I eat would have such an obvious effect. Either my tolerance is shot, or I used to feel like that all the time.

Whew, it's been a hectic day. I had to deal with the long unpleasent ordeal of replacing my lost license. I managed to bottle the rest of the spice mixes during a brief interlude. The yeild was interesting.

LXXIII. Specie fine a tute cosse / LXXIII Fine spices for all dishes (things)
1 oz. pepper, 1 oz. cinnamon, 1 oz. ginger, 1/8 oz. cloves, and 1/4 oz. saffron
12 1/2 bottles

LXXIV. Specie dolce per assay cosse bone e fine / LXXIV Sweet spices, enough for many good and fine things
1/4 oz. cloves,1 oz. "good" ginger, 1 oz. "soft or sweet"cinnamon, 1 oz. Indian bay leaves
9 1/2 bottles

LXXV. Specie negre e forte per assay savore/ LXXV Black and strong spices for many sauces
1/8 oz. cloves, 2 oz. pepper, 2 oz. long pepper, 2 oz. nutmeg
19 1/2 bottles

Here are some gratuitous images:



I'm also still working on how to process the booklet of documentation and will meet up with fittzwm sometime tomorrow to work on possibly hand binding some. I got a bid from the UW print shop, and if I were to do 20 copies how I originally envisioned them it would be around $60+. I'd like to bind some in a really nice and sturdy way, but for donating in bulk as largess I'm going to need to find a more cost effective method.

In just a few moments I'm going to scurry off to dress for the evening performance of the nutcracker, featuring my favorite little ballerina. I've gotten a dozen roses for her at the end of the performance, as I remember how incredibly special that was when I was performing at her age.

I think like the tags best as fittzwm suggested. What do you think?

This morning as I return to my bedroom from my shower i sat on the side of my bed to think. As I sat there in the dark room a beam of sunlight broke its way in through my window. The beam shone past my face just inches away illuminating a column of dust. I lifted my eyes ever so slightly only to see that the still dust had the most amazing sparkle. I stared at the slowly drifting dust only to notice the resemblence to tiny stars. I wondered where the little stars were drifting to. I watched them swirl and dance with amazement. It was just like my own little universe, every speck a million times brighter than our sun, every space between them a millions years away. For that brief moment I was lost in space. It was wonderful.

I started with a clean spice grinder, then measured things out by weight, ground up each spice, then mixed. I've put them into what glass bottles I have for them, but I need to get at least a case for the additional spice mixes that wouldn't fit. I also need to figure out a viable method for labeling. I'm thinking clear lables with some form of calligraphy.
Here is what they look like:
LXXIII. Specie fine a tute cosse / LXXIII Fine spices for all dishes (things)
1 oz. pepper, 1 oz. cinnamon, 1 oz. ginger, 1/8 oz. cloves, and 1/4 oz. saffron



LXXIV. Specie dolce per assay cosse bone e fine / LXXIV Sweet spices, enough for many good and fine things
1/4 oz. cloves,1 oz. "good" ginger, 1 oz. "soft or sweet"cinnamon, 1 oz. Indian bay leaves


LXXV. Specie negre e forte per assay savore/ LXXV Black and strong spices for many sauces
1/8 oz. cloves, 2 oz. pepper, 2 oz. long pepper, 2 oz. nutmeg


Here are all three together in the order listed above. My only concern with giving them as a set of three is that the fine and sweet spice mixes look almost identical, even though the first one has a decent amount of saffron, and the second has bay leaf.