Let's take a moment to give thanks for everything and everyone we love. Without them, what the hell is the fun in life, right?

That being said, now that everyone has gorged themselves silly on turkey, or duck if you like that sort of thing, and mashed potatoes or yams or both, lets feast ourselves a plenty with this veritable cornucopia of cake photos:


This cake was for a birthday and not as many might assume a wedding.






A giant black iPod I had to make for a 40th birthday party.


Classic interlocking circle design on the bottom tier, swirls on the second tier and rosettes on the top tier.


More interlocking circles and lots of fondant ribbons.






I guess the groom is a golfer. The bride and groom cake toppers were custom made by (and dont quote me on this) the bride's mother. I think. It was awhile ago.


A Goliath of a cake.


This is a cake my best friend/co-worker made because I told her if she wanted it, she'd have to make it. I think she did a bang up job on it. It was for her mother's birthday.


I really love the copper colors against the white with the blue ribbon, even in a shadow, this cake pops. Plus, it has the bonus of having kind of a steampunk vibe to it. Only a little though.


Oh man, I remember delivering this one up near the wharf area in San Francisco. I had to go up these marble stairs, through a room, into the ballroom, all the way to the end and around the back to get to the table. It seemed like a lifetime carrying that thing. It weighed quite possibly a metric ton. But I have no scientific data to back that up with.


There was heavy wind this day, and as I left I had this fear in the back of my mind just lurking. It was the fear that those cakes werent going to make it. So I showed the guys there how to set up the cake (when I snapped this photo) and took it all apart so it wouldnt be a cakewreck.


I really like the simplicity of this cake. Plus it's really small and cute. The only bad thing is, it was on a 15' table and just looked way out of place. All the guest tables had their own 9" round of cake as centerpieces.

And that's that for this time. Until next time I wish you all good tidings and happy holidays. Please, if you care to share what you are up to and how you are doing, it would be much appreciated. I'll try and respond when I can to any questions of funny anecdotes but it's surprisingly busy this holiday season, which is good for us all.

~Kiyoshi

So yeah, because my sleep schedule's been so fucked up, I haven't been taking my Wellbutrin. I really really need to remember that it's not optional.

Dinner tonight, which should have been dinner last night, was good, but it was only half of what I meant to serve and the meat was just a little too pink even though my meat thermometer said it was a lot more done that it turned out to be.* I really didn't feel the cooking vibe so we had the caramelized butternut squash/sweet potato dish (which was very good) and lamb, which was very good even if it was a little pink. We'll have greens and mashed potatoes tomorrow.

Things would have been a lot smoother if I'd been taking my meds, as it was I stressed this one waaaaaay too much.



*Um, hi...I'm really not in the mood for recommendations or helpful hints or solutions or whatever here.

Right now I'm mostly thankful that I no longer have a migraine.

There's food in the oven and I'll do a much longer post about it all later.

Hope those of you who celebrate (and those how don't) had a great day!

Sparky has had some damn weird few days. It has also become apparent that the schedule I could keep at, say 19, is suddenly infinitely harder at 28. I feel old.

On Monday was working extra hours and flat our because work load is freaking huge (and had been for a while)

On Tuesday I was on call and, naturally, stayed up most of the night, burning down my to-do list. Then I have my moment of pure horror. Looming deadline, work undone. Reason? Work is boring and other work is interesting.

After much consideration I decided that the Senior Partners would not accept that as an excuse. I considered briefly training the cat to gnaw paper but recall the memo that clearly states that “The firm will not accept that any work has been bitten, gnawed, clawed, scratched, consumed or otherwise defaced or destroyed by felines, canines, any other mammal, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, flesh eating bacteria, man eating plants or other, unknown life forms whether they be extra-terrestrial, mythological, extinct or otherwise.” It was a very thorough memo. And shows they know us very well.

So Wednesday was an INFAMOUS ALL NIGHTER finishing this file in record time AND trying not to let the other work fall behind. No actual sleep was had - deadline was met. I rejoiced and was hailed as a god!

Thursday appointments ALL FREAKING DAY and clients take exception to you collapsing and drooling on them. Trust me, we know. I complain bitterly and my dear secretary presents me with multiple memos of my repeatedly putting off appointments because I was busy/tired/lazy/didn’t like the person in question/having an impromptu karaoke competition that may or may not have involved dodgy music videos on the CCTV. I thanked her kindly for reminding me of these incidents. Repeatedly. At length. And did not in any way express any desire for her to die in fire. No, no I did not. Not even when she sent me a message every 15 minutes entitled “TICK TOCK!!!” Ah office humour - and then they complain when we bring in melee weapons!

But I go home confident that I have stemmed the tide and prepare to sleep. Beloved had, amazingly, cooked a steak and kidney pie which was edible, tasty AND didn’t do irreparable damage to the kitchen or any great structural damage to the house or leave suspicious and un-removable stains on the counters. I was impressed. Of course I believe this means that the meat in said pie was probably the remains of one of the neighbours since cannibalism would nicely counterbalance his unusual competence. Still, it was tasty *eyes neighbours in a speculative fashion*

And then my brother rings. As ever, I despair of my genetics. It appears he found a kitten and it is sick and he... well he did many things involving vets and RSPCA and needed to know what to do and was generally flailing around in panic. You wouldn’t believe he was 26 would you? So my sleep time turned into talking him down and informing him that he is not, repeat, NOT to adopt said kitten.

Finally settling in for some damn sleep and Beloved tells me he’ll look for other days for York’s most excellent Christmas Market that we intended to go to today...

Except, I knew we’d not really have chance another day, especially if we want to go to Hawes (for cheese. Trust me, so worth it) at the same time. And Beloved has had this on his “ZOMG YES!” to do list for some time because he ALWAYS misses the market and has to listen to me describe it. And he won’t go alone.

In other words, there was no way in hell I was not going even if Beloved had to carry me. (Full report incoming). Which meant working last night, getting up early to blitz work this morning so I could go slacking this afternoon.



So, Sparky is now... rather tired. I am going to hunker down tonight and try to address some of my email backlog. Expect a more functional Sparky tomorrow.

J and I just pretty much finished our Christmas shopping. We made a serious dent in it last Saturday, and we were determined to get it pretty much done today, only it was rainy and grey and we started out rather cranky because we both HATE SHOPPING and didn't get on the road until after noon, and then by 3:45 we were HOME and POOR but we did not care because with the exception of a few little odds and ends, we are DONE AND IT IS NOT EVEN DECEMBER YET. \o/

The one odd bit of oddness: seeing this gem in a mall store window, because of course it's never too early for little girls to start learning their roles in life! (I know there's a picture of a boy there too, but he is only one of the four children pictured and he was not the child on the front of the box.) Considering that yesterday J and I were commenting on the fact that in many ways we are massively unsuccessful in sticking to our assigned gender roles, and that earlier I refused to make gendered choices for the Angel Tree girl and boy I was buying presents for, instead choosing matching gifts, this made us o.O even more.

(Also: we were passing by the store window of the local religious bookstore, in whose window there was this tome, and there was a slight pause as we both contemplated it.

J: Let's firebomb this place.

me *cracking up*: I love you SO MUCH.)

In case anyone wants to know where all the sudden writing is coming from: the getyourwordsout deadline looms. I may or may not meet my wordcount! I am at approximately 154,441 words right now and my challenge is to meet 200,000 by the end of the year. Will I or won't I meet the challenge?!?! Who knows! December's gonna be funnnnn. Also I am suddenly feeling really relaxed and free about writing and I haven't been like that for a while. It's a good feeling. We'll see how long it lasts. I might be able to actually tie up a lot of loose ends I have hanging around! That is my hope, anyways.

The comm'll probably be put forth again for 2010 and I'd recommend anybody to join it simply for the kickass year-long wordcount spreadsheet they give ya. It's very handy, I'll tell you that.

Also, my chocolate pudding pie was delicious. Totally putting that down for the books. Om nom.

And now, a pro-tip: don't write about your own scary monsters that you made up right before going to bed because you'll only scare yourself. I've probably just gotten ready to give myself nightmares. Greaaaat. :||| It'll be a good fic though. :]

Title: August Blaze
Rating: PG
Word count: ~2,200
Pairings: John/Rodney
Warnings: off-screen death of minor original characters
Summary:
Notes: AU, sequel to By the End of April, and written for deltacephei and her mad author-guessing skillz. Beta-read by the ever-amazing kisa_hawklin. ♥ And I'm posting a day early as I've no idea whether I'll be able to snatch a few minutes online tomorrow and Saturday, and I had promised fic.

If you haven't read By the End of April and don't want to invest the time: John's a fireman; Rodney's a professor who fell in lust with him after seeing him as Mr. May in the city's Firefighters Calendar; John saved Rodney's life in a subway gas explosion and agreed to go on a date despite previously considering himself straight; they're both selfish idiots, in their own ways. People die.

~~~

( August Blaze )

I thought it would be appropriate to give away my November book on Thanksgiving. Now, of course, to me Thanksgiving is a strange and exotic thing, like 'cheerleaders' and 'prom.' As a child, it pretty much just seemed like something made up for the movies.

As a grown-up, I have celebrated Thanksgiving twice, and I enjoyed it very much both times. There is a whole pile of delicious food, you guys. There is DERBY PIE.

What is Derby pie, you may well ask? I will tell you. It is chocolate chip cookie dough pie.

I can best describe the amazingness of this pie by describing to you my vision of a Truly Good Time.

SARAH: *is on her cherry-red sofa curled up with a new book, possibly either Kelley Armstrong's The Reckoning or Megan Whalen Turner's A Conspiracy of Kings, and a bowl of hot Derby pie and cold vanilla ice-cream*
DOORBELL: *rings*
SARAH: *answers door*
ERIC FROM THE TV SHOW TRUE BLOOD: Sarah, my beloved, at last! I have fought hordes and crawled over broken glass, broken women and broken men to be at your side! Come away with me and be my Queen of the Night.
SARAH: Uh. I'm a little busy right now.
ERIC: But only you can truly warm my cold undead heart - and only you can look amazingly fabulous at the helm of the yacht I have purchased for you.
SARAH: My ice-cream is melting, so if you would excuse me...
ERIC: Let me introduce you to a world of dark pleasure and unimaginable luxury.
SARAH: I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR.

Derby pie is that good.

'Sarah,' you might at this point say suspiciously. 'What have blond vampires and pie got to do with your November book? Are you not straying A LITTLE OFF THE POINT?'

You shouldn't doubt me. I am as on point as a ballerina or a stake. For my November book of the month is Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margi Stohl.

It may seem eccentric to have a book that comes out December 1st as my November book, but a) it is so good I could not wait! and b) It fits in with Thanksgiving in a key way I will discuss later.

For now, I will say this. I love books set in the South in the same way that I think people love books set in Ireland: it's very strange to me (never been) and there's a rich culture there, and a really different way of doing things. I love other kinds of media set there too - I love the Gone With the Wind movie as well as the book and I love the TV show True Blood. (You see how my earlier mention of True Blood's Eric the Vampire is relevant now, don't you? All my vampires are relevant - I would never present you with gratuitous vampires.) All of them have seeeveral issues, but I love them nevertheless. I love Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Saundra Mitchell's Shadowed Summer. So when I was presented with a 600 page teen fantasy novel set in the deep South I was beyond thrilled.

A plentylot (Yes, that's a word. I'm a writer, we know these things) of YA fantasy books are set in Generic Small Towns/Generic Suburbia in the US. I am against this, because - well, because we are all against generic stuff, aren't we? Few people pipe up and say 'What I really like is for my food to be bland.' Gatlin in Beautiful Creatures is a small town that is the furthest thing from bland - even though Ethan, the narrator, feels stifled by the small town atmosphere we get a vivid image of what the town is like, and from the start we know the town is much more interesting than Ethan thinks. It's atmospheric enough to roll around in.

And then there's Ethan. He's a boy. Okay, Sarah, quit rocking our world with your amazing information, say the peanut gallery, but there is a real scarcity of boy narrators in YA fantasy. Now, this is not the same as my generic towns complaint - I love that girls get so much of a voice in my favourite genre, but it is at a point where one looks around and cries softly because one is all alone... I like boys to get a voice sometimes, so they don't seem like Alien Creatures. And I like seeing girls to be awesome through boys' eyes as well as through their own. It is always nice to have variety.

Plus I am glad not to be all alone. *sob*

And not only is the boy our narrator, the girl is the supernatural one who the boy is drawn to. And Lena is awesome, through Ethan's eyes or not - I like her being off-beat but anxious to make friends, but immediately ferocious when challenged. I like that she wears black nail polish and absentmindedly writes on her own hands. She's great - both a teenage girl unsure of who exactly she is, and very much her own person. And Ethan is very much his own person too: I like very much that he's a jock who loves to read.

I really love the romance in Beautiful Creatures because, in spite of the fact there are supernatural complications, incubi, secret libraries, dark pasts and curses to make the whole situation High Drama Angsty, the main characters are also huge dorks about their romance in a way we can all empathise with. (Possibly just me...)

ETHAN: Lena, even though we are TELEPATHICALLY LINKED, I am not sure if you like me!
LENA: I REALLY like you.
ETHAN: Really like like REALLY like?
LENA: Yes.
ETHAN: So - just so I'm clear on this - you like like me. In that special sort of type of way.
LENA: Yes.
ETHAN: OMG yay!
LENA: Yay!
EVENTS: Tragic long-dead soldiers, evil relatives, family curse, did we mention incubi?
LENA: Ethan, even though we are TELEPATHICALLY LINKED, I am not sure if you like me...

It is a sweet and really believable romance. They are such dorks, you want to hug them both.

I also very much enjoy that the book is long: I read fast, and especially with such an atmospheric book, it felt right to be able to sink right in and be totally submerged, whether fighting off evil curses or enjoying descriptions of extremely delicious-sounding Southern food. (See, Thanksgiving and pie was just as relevant as the vampires.) The book gives itself time to explore its minor characters, too - my very favourite is Marian, who came along just when I was thinking I'd like to see a cool lady besides Lena. She's a librarian with secret supernatural knowledge! She's a lady of colour and it's not a big deal! I like Marian even more than Lena's Uncle Macon, who is sort of like Edward Rochester cast in the role of Boo Radley. Plus I think it is cool that the book was co-written: I have co-written myself and it is such an interesting process.

To make a long story short, if I was curled up with Beautiful Creatures and Derby pie, I might not even answer the door to blond vampires. Who wants Beautiful Creatures? I'm afraid I can't offer anyone Derby pie.

Seriously, I have been WAY TOO CRANKY the past couple of days considering the amount of awesome in Merlin fandom this week, and the amount of awesome to come. But I started writing a story where Bradley goes off to Belfast to stalk Colin, and there were going to be drag queens and hotel rooms with pool tables and crack, and it's over 5000 words and Bradley is not even IN N.I. YET because I had to write so much BACKSTORY because they have been TOGETHER SO MUCH over the last month and I have to incorporate that, and suddenly there is BOYANGST and BRADLEY'S MOMMY ISSUES AND WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS EVEN COMING FROM? I JUST WANTED SOME CRACK WITH SEXING.

*pants* I'm also trying to write a small, porny snippet where Merlin shaves Arthur's beard late at night after he comes back from a long winter hunting trip, only he's crap at shaving and keeps nicking him, and has to run his fingers over Arthur's face to heal the cuts as he goes, and by the time he's done they're both hard and they fall on each other like hungry dogs, ONLY I AM NOT EVEN AT THE SHAVING YET BECAUSE THEY KEEP LOOKING AT ONE ANOTHER AND LOOKING AWAY AND BEING DUMBFACE AND AWKWARD.

*weeps* WHY SO PLOTTY, BRAIN? I just want to get both of these done by Dec 1 so I can get my Yuletide story started, but the way it's going I doubt I will be making this self-imposed deadline. *sigh*

As people know from my previous rambles, including my rant against the pernicious evil that is Wheatabix and my righteous fury against Special K I have some issues with healthy food.

My mother is a diabetic - sufficiently severe that the doctors keep umming and ahhing about her injecting insulin, which she rather fiercely wishes to avoid. So, checking labels on food became a necessity to her and it’s a habit that has spread through the family.

So I read labels and have generally been quietly horrified by what I read. The amount of artificial crap (preservatives, flavours, colourings etc etc) that goes into everything is unreal - but that’s nothing compared to the salt, sugar and fat lurking in every little thing (go check the sugar content of any condiment - then the salt content of your bread. BREAD! We’re advised to have between 4-6g of salt a day. There’s 0.7g of salt in every SLICE of Hovis’ bread and supermarket’s own brands are often worse).

In general, the more processed the food is, the more crap they put in it (to a point where I wonder if it should even still be called food). Most ready made sauces, for example, are horrific - and ready meals? Adding a heavy dose of arsenic probably wouldn’t make them much less healthy.

So, we do most our own cooking. We cook huge batches of food and freeze it. We cook our own sauces, prepare our own condiments. We bake our cakes and biscuits and even our bread. We cook as much as we possibly can from scratch with a minimum of meddling. We go to farmer’s markets and the covered market and get our food fresh and un-messed with. Our diet is extra tasty and super healthy :)

And it’s a luxury.

How many people have the TIME or ENERGY to live like we do? If they’ve got kids or other dependents or work extra long hours (or 2 jobs) then putting in the cooking time we do isn’t practical. And trawling round the various farmer’s markets is much more effort than doing a quick shop round the Supermarket (and checking - and understanding - all the labels of your weekly shop? Yeah time time time - especially when you’re tired or busy or distracted or little Bratleigh is screaming. And who thinks to check the labels on bread for salt content? Or food covered in ‘pro biotic‘ and ‘digestive health‘ for sugar content?). The time and the energy to cook and shop like we do is a luxury.

And there’s the expertise. I’m a decent cook - but I became a decent cook because I had the time and the energy and the money to splurge on cook books, to browse the internet, to experiment, to buy overpriced ingredients and risk a disaster with them, to cook a meal that we may not like (or may be totally inedible). That’s a luxury.

And let’s not forget the money. These toxic ready meals are damn cheap. Putting together all the ingredients for an equivalent meal can be damned expensive - and if it’s fresh they don’t keep as long either (sure you can, and do, find the ingredients cheaper - but that’s more searching and checking and TIME). The money is most certainly a luxury.

And this annoys me muchly.

It annoys me when the powers that be are having the screaming meemies about the obesity epidemic that we are happy to allow and encourage conditions that ENCOURAGE obesity. There’s no standard or real pressure to make ready meals remotely healthy - or healthy meals that are quick and easy. Sure, some places have made some steps but they‘re exceptions, not the rules. We bleat at people to eat less salt, have huge advertising campaigns about eating healthily, eating less fat - and the adverts run alongside adverts for, say, yoghurt full of sugar announcing that it’s healthy. Or Special Bloody K telling us how to lose fat and eat so much salt that you might as well just eat bacon.

This idea we have that if we throw enough guilt and condemnation out there and people will stop being so naughty is ridiculous. Yes, there are things people can do, especially in relation to exercise, and choices people can make (if they choose to do so). But while healthy eating costs more money, time and energy than loading on the fat some people will simply not have a chance or choice to eat healthily.

AND while advertisers are free to wrap even the most toxic of ingredients in “light” and “healthy” labels then many more will be sincerely trying to do so and failing because of the deceptions that are the norm in the food industry.

givtree is a great fannish idea, a community where you can make it more about the "giving" than the "gimme" this holiday season. Find out more about the comm on their userinfo page. My post is here. Please go, join up, contribute if you can, and spread the word.

Candice wanted a laptop for XMas, so we’ve been looking around the ads the last few weeks keeping an eye out. This week, Best Buy had a combo deal for a pretty decent laptop (best one I’ve seen in the $500-$700 range), printer (which Candice also wanted), and laptop sleeve.

We went to the store, but when we asked customer service about the laptop, they told us that the only laptops they had left for the deal had all been “optimized” by the Geek Squad, to remove all the needless junk programs, and had some recovery disks created, and that this service meant we would have to pay an extra $60 if we wanted to buy the laptop in-store.

So we headed back home, and went to the Best Buy site. But ordering online would add $25 shipping. So then I decided that we should try in-store pick-up, and just to test a personal theory, I chose the same Best Buy location who told us they only had the $60-extra “optimized” laptops.

The next day when picking up the laptop, sure enough, there is a huge sticker on the side that says “OPTIMIZED BY GEEK SQUAD: 11-02-2009″ and it came complete with 4 recovery DVDs.

So take that Best Buy. I think it’s BS to advertise a laptop at one price, and then the only laptops you keep in stock have all been “optimized” forcing your customers to pay an extra $60 if they want to buy a laptop from your store. So I still got the laptop, even an “optimized” one, at the ADVERTISED PRICE.

Imagine that.

PS: Candice knew this was her gift, knew I was buying it, and is already using it (though I’m making her wait til XMas morning to open the printer and sleeve). She’s pretty excited about it, since it’s her first non-work laptop, and her first laptop that doesnt suck.

Hello quizlings and quizlingas! As previously reported, I'm in Kenya. So, yeah, things will be a bit delayed this time around. However, that's no excuse for you not to play this- err, last week's quiz. Sorry for the delay; it's been hectic, and between planning and flying and stuff, I ran out of time. But answers will show; they just might be a bit late. However, there will be monkeys, as soon as I upload pictures of real live monkeys. And if we're lucky, lions too. Probably no tigers.

Go! Play! Take Quiz! Only in Kenya!

UGH UGH UGH I JUST REALIZED I ALSO OTP GERARD/LYN-Z AS WELL AS GERARD/FRANK.

This may not be a revelation to anyone else BUT IT IS TO ME. Because: I define realizing my OTPs as being nearly unable to read/write anything where the couple in question breaks ups as the main drama of the fic OR if the OTP is a background couple and then one or both of them then goes on to a different relationship to be the main couple in the fic. I CANNOT READ THESE. And it makes me sad since there've been a bunch of kickass-looking fics where Gerard and or Lyn-Z go off with other people after being together AND EVEN THE THOUGHT OF THAT MAKES ME WANT TO CRY. And or feel like a Victorian lady suffering from the vapors. Maybe if I had someone read them before me and assure me the fics weren't too heartbreaking I could read them. But that's kind of a time-consuming process.

lol most overinvested. I feel ridiculous and crazyfaced over my emotional reactions BUT I CAN'T HELP IT. This is possibly an underlying basis for my love of threesomes and moresomes. ORGIES SOLVE LOTS OF OTP PROBLEMS OKAY. This is possibly most explicitly shown in my latest(!) mcr gsf fic where the frank/gerard otp crept in where I didn't even mean it to be. OOPS.

I've spent the past couple days reading this series: Thursdayverse by apiphile and swear_jar and a bunch of other people. IT IS SO GOOD and so crazy at the same time.

I ALSO OWE PEOPLE FIC AND OR ITEMS FROM THAT EXCHANGE MEME WAY BACK. I assure you I haven't forgotten. I'm just a major-tastic procrastinator. scary_lullabies! You will be receiving items. I will see if I can scrounge up your address or I'll e-mail to ask laterz. magdalyna! You will be receiving fic of uncertain origin. I do hope you like AUs as much as I do (and I suspect you doooo.) oninobara! You will be receiving fic of extremely familiar origin. You are surprised, are you not? Trust me you will like it mu ha ha ha (see my evil laugh? think of it as your fic condensed into exclamation format.) And at this late month I don't actually think I need anything given back. Because mostly these ideas have been surfing in my head all year and they deserve to be gifted out to all of yous properly instead of collapsing in on themselves. No really, no pressure from y'all at all. <3

Gosh I am so wired. I SPENT FOUR HOURS DRIVING STICK SHIFT IN SOMETIMES STOP-AND-GO HIGHWAY TRAFFIC AND THEN MADE A CHOCOLATE PUDDING PIE FOR TOMORROW. OR RATHER LATER TODAY. I have many things to be thankful for which I will post poste-haste. Happy Turkey Day, Americans and other people who like celebrating the day.

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Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!