When we were visiting John and Patty earlier this month, Patty made really good popovers for breakfast. I was looking around for a recipe, and I found one that was highly rated. I was reading through the reviews, and I found one that criticized the authenticity of this particular recipe.
It said:Â “This recipe WILL NOT give you popovers. More like poopovers.”
And I said: “HAHAHAHA! Poopovers.”
I used to post funny links a lot. I seem to have gotten out of the habit of that, which is a shame, because it was good fun.
Today marks the beginning of a new area, a personal renaissance of funny link posting.
To kick things off:
A man who takes pictures of himself sitting on things, with the fantasy that he is crushing actual buildings and stuff. (No nudity.)
Thanks to Luke for finding this. Luke is not the owner of the butt in the picture.
I gather Ames must have been hit by the wintry mix we have predicted for tonight, because my father did some wacky background work on the family portrait we took last weekend. It’s weird, but we’re cute, I think.
I’ve been studying Italian every night, and man oh man, I’ve forgotten a lot of it. I’m decent at the nouns and the verbs, mostly because they’re a lot like Spanish, but what has gotten away from me are the prepositions and other little connecting words, like behind and above and because and therefore and maybe. Actually I think I know all of those; I can’t think of the ones I don’t know, probably because I don’t know them. And there are a whole lot of those. I guess I’ll use the “smile and struggle and look sheepish” method, which has worked so far in France and Portugal.
I booked a place to stay (Gea di Vulcano) for our first night in Rome, because we’re arriving at night and won’t be able to get into the apartment until the next day. That’s all right; it will be nice when we’re jetlagged to just be brainless and check into a hotel and have someone else make me breakfast. Besides, I love Italian hotel breakfasts. Nothing like a mezzaluna (aka croissant) and espresso to get the day started.
For our night in Copenhagen, hotels.com has a pretty good deal (by Scandinavian, aka $candin$pendian, standards) on the place I want to stay (The Square). It’s very close to the train station, which is handy for such a brief visit. I still don’t know what we’re going to do in Copenhagen; probably just wander around and see the sites a bit. I just had a silly thought: I wondered if they have Peppe’s Pizza (a chain in Norway) in Denmark, but I bet by that time we’ll be pizza-ed out.
My mom recently reminded me that I’m a tiny bit Danish. No wonder I like pastries so much.
It’s raining. ICON is broken. We said it would be down two hours and it’s been about five. People are getting grumpy, myself included. It’s Monday. Tonight is the finale of The Bachelor: Rome and they’ve barely showed Rome at all lately, which is the only reason I’ve been watching. Both the finalists are annoying.
(But at least it’s warm, so it’s not freezing rain or snow. ICON is only a computer system, not anything that keeps people’s hearts beating. We’re doing all we can, and it sounds like they’re making progress. We can deal with it. Monday is almost over. At least my Monday nights will soon be able to be dedicated to Heroes, which is a much better show than The Bachelor.)
It’s not that I don’t love you, Em (you should know that’s far from the case), but Map and Dot chimed in first, and I went to the store last night, so I got stuff for cranberry cupcakes.
I’m thinking about trying something fancy with the pecans, maybe making some kind of praline topping. Or not. It depends on how much energy I can dedicate to it tonight.
Have a great Thanksgiving, everybody. Â Thanks to all the people who make my life and the lives of others better every day.
Somebody tried to squeeze five days of work into days.  WEAK.
I meant to go to the grocery store last night, as we have no food, but I got lazy and it didn’t happen. I deeply, deeply must tonight.
What should I bring to Denny’s family Thanksgiving? I have this nice salad I was thinking of bringing, but I’m afraid it would be all wilty and depressing by the time we got there. Desserts might travel better.
Which of these do you think sounds the best? I’m looking for something that’s crowd-pleasing but a little different from the typical Thanksgiving desserts. It also has to travel well, since it’s a 3-hour drive.
I’m enjoying the beginning of the last of my 3 consecutive 3-day weeks. It’s going to be hard to go back to a fiver next week.
It’s good to be home after being away since Wednesday, and good to see my nice husband again.
Also, did you know that the doofy-sounding “Almond Sunset” flavor of Celestial Seasonings herbal teas tastes just like an almond cookie? Or, perhaps, what would happen if you smooshed up an almond cookie, soaked it in hot water, and then strained that water?
Now you know.
What do you get when you combine Sara Stevenson, Joe Scrimshaw, their wonderful families, lots of great friends, and a beautiful setting?
Why, a delightful wedding, of course. Here are some pictures.
I’m off to Minneapolis tomorrow to help celebrate my dear friend Sara’s wedding. Bridesmaidy and rehearsaly stuff is tomorrow night, then the wedding is on Friday. It looks like the place they’re having it is pretty cool, so I’m looking forward to that, and of course I’m excited to see her and my other good friends. It’s an all-female extravaganza, in fact, because none of my other friends’ husbands/significant others can come due to the weeknight schedule (except, of course, the dashing bridegroom Joe…and, you know, all the male guests). Denny’s going to be at a work thing in Chicago.
I don’t think I’m bringing my computer (quel horreur, I know). Well…maybe I should. Then I could download pictures immediately. On the other hand, there are going to be four of us riding back together, plus all our luggage, so extra bags won’t exactly be welcome. Such deep dilemmas bring these modern times.
Not that I didn’t know, but it turns out I am extremely dependent on email for my personal and professional communication needs.
Long story, but my email got horked due to some changes that were made on the server and a bug in the software I was using. My entire inbox, saved messages, sent items, and everything else got eaten. The email team is working on getting them restored, but if you tried to contact me at my work email over the weekend, you may want to re-send to my hotmail or gmail address.
Stupid Monday stupid stupid.
For as technologically hip as Denny and I usually are, we’ve really lagged behind in the entertainment technology field. But just as day or two ago, we joined the dark (light?) side. We ordered a Tivo and signed up for Netflix.
We don’t get out to movies very often, partly because of how expensive they are and partly because nothing’s ever playing at 8:00. 8:00 is exactly when I want to watch a movie. 7 is too early; we’re still winding down from work and dinner and exercise and all the evening stuff at that time. 9 is getting a little late, especially on a weeknight, because I am a wussy and get a great thrill from being asleep by 10:30 (in my own defense, I have been getting up early and exercising).
So, since we don’t get out to the movies much, we don’t see a lot of the films we’d like to, and Netflix seems like a good way to manage it.
The Tivo is just for the hell of it. To be embarrassingly honest, what put me over the edge was Lifetime changing their schedule so that Golden Girls is on during the day when I’m at work instead of at night when I’m home. I just don’t feel right without my regular doses of Rose being dumb, Blanche being slutty, Sophia being spunky, and Dorothy being mannish.
YOU SHALL BE MINE AGAIN!
My coworker brought in his 8-day-old baby daughter Guthrie (nickname Gus) today. Here is an IM conversation I had with Denny on the topic:
It’s really too bad kids aren’t better typists, on the whole. I remember, when I was in kindergarten or first grade, bemoaning the fact to a classmate that I had all kinds of great ideas, but writing them down was hard.
Now, due in no small part to my Internet addicition, the whole mechanical aspect of getting words on paper (or on the screen) is easy. The creative part is harder.
Maybe when I have a kid, I will hire a scribe to follow him/her around and capture all the great ideas so he/she won’t be burdened by mechanical challenges.
Here you can see Denny’s honored entry in the Food and Wine photography contest (it’s in the third row, third from the right).
We misremembered; it wasn’t his cupcake shot, but rather a shot of some napoleons I made with garden raspberries.
They received 950 entries and only chose to display 30 of them. A lot of them are really nice, though there are several I don’t like, too. That’s the way judging goes, I guess. I am very proud of Denny for his success. I am also hungry for napoleons.
Denny posted a picture of our Halloween costumes.
They will not make sense to you if you are not a fan of the greatest reality television show of all time. If you are a fan, however, I hope you find them thrilling.
Also, only 16% of polling places are reporting, but I am optimistic about the future of our state and nation. I haven’t felt this way since 1992 when I couldn’t get “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” out of my head. Come to think of it, it’s still in my head.
I’m in Minneapolis. It’s 46 degrees, and it’s supposed to be in the 60’s tomorrow. What? It’s November. I brought all these sweaters and it’s too warm to wear them.
It was fun to see our friends John and Patty. Patty is about eight months pregnant, so she was looking rather different than I’m used to. We brought them a baby onesie from the Lincoln Café that says “Food Is Important.”
Other activities: we saw Borat, which, at the time of writing this entry, has a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That is very surprising. I liked the movie, but it was really outrageous, probably the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen in a movie theatre. The only thing that is even vaguely comparable in terms of audience response was South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Borat was, to some degree, a cultural critique of modern-day United States, but it was also just a super-profane caricature of a foreigner.
Still, if you’re not of a delicate constitution, I would recommend it. It was certainly an experience.
Denny and I are visiting my parents this weekend, and they enjoyed the iSight too.
My lovely parents. Do you ever wonder where I get it? See Article A: Dad.
This deserves its own entry.
Remember that lovely photo Denny took of the cupcake with the lily? The one that was displayed at the State Fair? He entered it into a Food & Wine photography contest, and while it didn’t win (boo), it was selected to be among their top entries and will be displayed on their website. I’ll post a link when it happens.
Yay for Denny!
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