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This has, at least partially, to do with video games, and I know at least one person on my flist that's not totally happy with them right now, so I'll cut this for her sake.

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Proof that Taddeus is, indeed, the spawn of Satan:




Notice the reflection in the floor....

Watching Mononoke and preparing to make some double-chocolate muffins with chocolate ganache icing. I'm going to do a little experimenting tonight, since these muffins are for a potluck, and there's a fair amount that's up in the air--I have unbleached bread flour, instead of all-purpose (oops!), but flour is usually flour and should work okay. I'd like to do the icing, but I've never really made icing before, so that's new, and I won't be using maple syrup since I couldn't justify the nine-dollar expense for the real stuff. I've got some boysenberry syrup; I think it'll be fine, but we'll find out.

Lastly, I splurged horribly and got some real orange extract, so I'm thinking of making some of them orange-double chocolate muffins. If I do, I'm wondering how they'll taste, and how they'll taste with the chocolate-berry syrup icing. I don't want to take nasty muffins to my co-workers.

I'm going to go as a gypsy, as soon as I can find a few more bits for the costume. (I rarely get so interested in dressing up for Halloween--it's kind of fun!)

I think I'll do a batch of regular muffins, and another batch of the orange-chocolate, and test out the icing on one of each. And then maybe make some more in the morning. Or--better yet--make about half a batch tonight and split it in half--half regular, half orange. But I don't know how the icing will keep.

I can do an icing test in the morning, and a taste-test tonight, maybe...no, scratch that, I don't have enough chocolate chips. Damn.

Ah, well. Getting it sorted for the morning in my head, at least.

Flushing the last of my faith in humanity down the toilet.

...

For fucking serious?

I don't have any other words for this, really. Other than "rape culture" and "this is why we need feminism."

Oh, and "all those onlookers should be charged with something for standing around and acting like gang-rape is a fucking show." Preferably something painful and permanent.

This is just a short little post, advertising some blogs and things I've come across lately.

For instance, how is it that I've been a vegan for more than two years, and a vegetarian for six, and I only recently took a look at Vegan YumYum? Corny title, yes, BUT. LOOK AT THAT FRONT PAGE. Quality food porn, yo.

Speaking of vegan food blogs, Get Sconed" looks pretty awesome, too. Love the adorable monster!

I Googled 'white bean and roasted garlic soup' and got this recipe, which looks pretty awesome: Farmgirl Fare, and I might try it. I made the soup from VwaV last night, and wow, I could've killed a vampire at fifty paces. A little too garlicky in the end, for me; next time I might try this recipe, and use a little less garlic until I find my garlic comfort zone.

I've also found this blog: Granny Squares, all about different granny squares. I need to sit down one day and do some stitching with some of the nicer patterns.

I also stumbled across Crafting a Green World, a site for recycling and crafting. Yay!

A vegetarian blog that's helped me start cooking a little more with a little less: 30 Bucks a Week. Veg*n food, often kinda ritzy, on thirty dollars a week for groceries. Yes!

And, of course, Natalie Dee.

Okay, so, in between bouts of minding my roommate's kids, doing dishes and checking on the garden (a bunch of bean plants that probably won't last much longer, and some little green anonymous seedlings!), I've been cooking and making plans for what I want/need to cook.

Mostly what I did today was baking--muffins, muffins, and more muffins. Well, one batch counted as "biscuits" I guess, but I still used a muffin tin and liners. I made applesauce-carrot muffins, based on the Applesauce Bread recipe in How It All Vegan, and harvest herb muffins based on the bread of the same name, and Fancy Biscuits--biscuits with some green onion and dill in them, though I omitted the dill.

So, I have lots of little muffins, and I think next time I'll do some doubling of the recipes and lengthening of cooking times. They aren't pretty, but they've been pretty yum so far.

As far as soups are concerned, I'm roasting garlic for white bean and roasted garlic soup, out of Vegan with a Vengeance. After roasting the garlic and prepping the ingredients, it'll probably take about twenty minutes to make--most of that will be sauteing the onion and blending the soup. It's supposed to take literally five minutes of cook time. Why have I not made this before now?

I've also got what I need for carrot soup, and I have so many potatoes that I could probably whip a potato soup up later this week. (I'm very big on soups, yes?)

We've had to seriously crunch the money around here lately--after bills, I had about two dollars in the checking account, and after the store (twenty dollar budget) I had a little less than two dollars--but I cook a lot from scratch, so I have a shitload of stuff on hand to make good food with.

I'd like to make at least one soup tonight, and I have enough vegetables for roasted vegetables, a couple of soups, and some scrambled tofu thrown in there somewhere. Or barbecued tofu. Mmm. Or the PPK's infamous chickpea cutlets, which I have all the ingredients for, plus some broccoli and potatoes besides. And olive oil! I managed to get some extra virgin olive oil--canola and peanut really don't cut it, especially the super cheap ones. Olive oil, I'll never diss you again, though I maintain the right to diss green olives or the occasional black-olive-on-pizza.

Anyway--I has food for the next week, and that's enough to make anyone happy.

None of Peter Pan--who is now at the shelter and hopefully on her way to a good home--but Pom was being cute again, and I had to share.

( Pom and Taddeus being cute and rather blurry. )

I'm a cat-magnet. I am! I was on my way home from a walk this morning and guess what? I heard a little kitten meow. So I double-back like a good animal lover, and find a tabby kitten in a tree.

Now, I know cats can get down, so I wait--and he jumps to the electrical box next to the tree, and then he stretches himself out to perch on my shoulder.

I know, I know. Another cat?

Well, no.

I can't afford to get him neutered, vaccinated, de-wormed, et al. I don't have a good home situation to get him used to other cats--my roommate has two kids. Kids + socializing cats = not so good. So I'm going to take him to a shelter or a rescue and hope for the best.

He is sweet, especially once he got some food into his stomach, but he does NOT like dogs at all (we canvassed a couple of houses to see if he belonged to anyone nearby and I thought he'd turn into a hissing spitting whirling dervish when we got to a house that had large dogs), and he needs proper sociallizing with other cats--he growled at Taddeus though my bedroom window, so a little sociallizing is probably called for. I think neutering would honestly go a long way in that direction, though.

He's a short haired tabby, with a cream underbelly and white feet. His eyes are green and he seems to have a little bit of a cold--he had a bit of a runny nose. I'm keeping him on the back patio, so hopefully I can find someone to take him before I have to take him to a shelter.

Pics later! For now I'm calling him Peter Pan, it seems to fit. Off to google local rescues.

ETA: Scratch that, all the local rescues are either full or closed today. Oi.

ETA the second: I should also note that I think he needs more care than I can give him right now--he's skinny skinny, and very afraid, I think, of other cats as well as dogs--Taddeus got out while I was giving PP a little love, and Peter Pan just started growling, even though Taddeus had very little interest in him. They didn't come to blows, but it illustrated how impossible it would be to keep Peter Pan, even if I could afford to. He needs lots of time and love, and I'm really scared the shelter won't be able to give him all he needs.

ETA the third: and I've finally gotten a proper look, and Peter Pan is actually a girl. I applaud her courageous subverting of gender roles.

First first first: THIS. Oh god, GrownUp!Doumeki! Maru and Moro! A possibility of xxxHolic continuing on without Tsubasa! DO WANT NAO, PLZ.

Okay, now that that squealling fangirlism is out of the way....

( Here are some things I've been meaning to write about off and on over the last few weeks: )

But this funny video is a cute montage of Buffy clips, called "The Sunnydale Sound" and set to the Blue Danube. :)

And this one packs all seven Buffy seasons into one vid, very fast in stills, so all my non-Buffy friends can watch it and say they've seen the series. ;P

Oh, and this Glory vid to the song "Shoes" is great, though Not Safe for Work Or Kids, as is the montage of Jossverse guys in It's Raining Men which is worth it just for the abundant nekkid Nathan Fillion.

The wrist is still sprained. It really sucks how you want to do something as soon as it's not allowed anymore.

1st is xxxHolic gen, 2nd is Piffle World Duklyon fic. WIP.

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Because I have nothing substantial to post about, except the incredible cuteness of my cats. So sad.

( Cat photos. )

At last, I deliver on my promise of catly cuteness, as experienced by my feline kids.

( Cut for big, big, insanely cute pictures. (Well, I think they're insanely cute....) )

Does anyone other than iambickilometer want to beta a fic? saanrio is pretty busy with her family and Real Life things, and doesn't really have the time/energy to go over it.

The fic is xxxHolic, not long (I kind of want it to be longer, actually, but I'm feeling kind of stuck), no warnings, and should have been written, beta'd, posted, and delivered about eight months ago--I suck at deadlines. Anyone interested? I'm fully okay with criticism, and suggestions are love.

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

*sniffles* I...I love you guys!!!

No, seriously, I do. You guys are great, and I don't tell you that often enough.

Hopefully the next time I post, I'll have some long-overdue giftfic to partially prove it!

( No fic, sorry! )

So, posting on a day when I'm so tired and sleepy and useless~

I'm feeling very weird today. Maybe it's because I don't think I've eaten, or maybe it's the heat, or maybe it's the insomnia finally catching up with me, but wow, I just want to go back to bed. I'm drinking some super sweet tea right now, and then I think I'll go make a super kick-ass batch of baked stew--I'm so hungry, but so lazy.

Also, I need to do dishes. My roommates are bothering me again, in the way they don't really help keep house, but I'm not really jumping up to do it either, so I kind of feel like I've got nothing to stand on.

Right. Off to drink more tea (maybe it'll wake me up), read some Dresden/Marcone fic, and then off to make stew.

*uses the only vaguely appropriate icon*

( Saving Face, Wil/Vivian. )

( Amelie drabble. )

( Criminal Minds/BtVS crossover drabble, crack. )

Went out with some friends/co-workers to a local bar. Not smokey, but lots of space and music (although a little too loud). Had fun. Reassured two of them that yes, the hermit has abandoned her cave for the evening. And I got to eat more than just fries for dinner--the place had a nice (and spicy) portobello mushroom burger, which was yum. And no cheese! Or creamy mayo-sauce on it to avoid, so yay! It was very spicy, though, and I discovered that I like sucking pure lemon juice off my fingers--nice and sour. Who knew?

for my own benefit (well, and anyone who stumbles on it, I suppose): ( Stuff I'm willing to trade or sell. )

Also, totally unrelated to the above: it really irritates me when someone writes a fic, friends-locks it, and then links the f-locked post to a public community. Or uses a link to a f-locked post on a public website. If someone can get to it by link-hopping, it's public, and if you're worried about kiddies reading your porn, either f-lock it to the appropriate community or don't post it at all, kthnx.