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Summer Weekend

Aug29

I think I got more sun this weekend than I have in the entire summer. Thank god for sunscreen…!

Saturday, T. and I hiked out (okay, “drove” out) to an antique festival in Penn Yan, which is:

1. About an hour from home
2. On one of the tips of Keuka Lake
3. Home to several good Amish/Mennonite-run markets

Which pretty much tells you what our day looked like!

We spent a couple hours at the antique fest and got… one really nice fireplace poker. It’s a really nice fireplace poker, though, with a good long hook at the end, made out of bar stock.

Then we hit two wineries on our side of Keuka that we never make it to, bought a bunch of really tasty wine, and stopped for lunch at a food truck serving bison BBQ (super tasty!)

Somewhere in there, we hit our favorite Amish grocery store for some bulk foods and ridiculously tasty cheese n’ stuff…. Then we came home and napped forever. Good day!

Sunday, we headed out to the nearby Taughannock Creek for our first creekwalk of the season. On the way home, we stopped at a farmstand and bought a jillion things… Um. Well, nearly. Half a peck of peppers and half a bushel of canning tomatoes. Nom!

Side note: Paula Deen’s deep-fried summer squash recipe really is quite good.

It was quite a fun weekend, all things considered. A good couple summer days.

Oh, and I got into bullet journaling but that’s like at least two blog posts on its own…

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Weekend, Pinterest, Instant Pot, etc.

Aug22
  • If you use Pinterest, have you ever found yourself in Pinboard Bloat? Like, you start a board, Pinterest suggests some similar boards, so you follow them, then Pinterest is like “try these suggested pins” so you pin those and the next thing you know, your little board of, say, Addergoole Changes is a giant behemoth of mermaids and satyr beefcake and winggy people?

    Or, ah, is that just me?

  • Have I mentioned I love our InstantPot? So far, we’ve only made two dishes in it, but love it!
  • If you haven’t checked in on the new Addergoole page, you can still earn fic with comments!
  • And if you know anyone who might be interested in supporting my Patreon, Nimbus is stuck in the man-eating plant, and only the patrons can get her out!

    (a couple patrons had to reduce or drop patronizing due to funding issues, and thus we are back down below the $40 net “serial episode a month” level. Poor Nimbus! Stuck! ~Woe~!)

  • And this weekend: We installed a toilet!
    Seriously, even if they tell you when you buy a toilet that there’s a wax ring in the package, buy two. Not one, two. You won’t regret it.

    That being said, our pretty new reasonable-height dual-flush toilet is in and goes, YAY!

    Our old one had been first stained by our rusty water.

    And then some previous tenant had used something so corrosive to clean the orange that it had stripped the enamel off the porcelain.

    And then the house was winterized, and the blue dye… stained the porcelain.

    Black veined toilet! Ick!

    (we’re looking into water softeners now…)

    That’s one more step towards a non-ugly bathroom!

  • I’m low on interesting links this week, so how about you? Share your cool links!

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No, I love this too much, I had to share it again and again and again

Aug16

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Weekend, with non-weekend musings, questions, and such…

Aug15

 

  • This weekend was a weekend of “oh, well, maybe later?” We went a lot of places, but mostly achieved very little.  However, it RAINED!  Lots!  *dances around in the rain*
    (Also, we did a lot of shopping, but that’s not all that exciting).

    • I’ve been thinking that for Lexember — or possibly before — I’ll do two “translation” projects — a portion of an illuminated page in Old Tongue (the language of the Ellehemaei in Fae Apoc/Addergoole) and a poem in Calenyen (for Reiassan).

      Is there anything in particular you’d like to see “translated” for such projects?

  • We went to see Ghostbusters.  My “review”, such as it is, can be seen here (warning — non-positive): https://twitter.com/lynthornealder/status/764593963034669056

  • We got an Instant Pot! It’s an electric pressure cooker, rice cooker, slow cooker, etc, etc.  We made steel cut oats in it, and they turned out pretty awesome.  
    See the Kitchn’s article on the Instant Pot here — https://t.co/P35KyOxnNm

  • The Shannara TV series has very little to do with my memories of the books, but those memories are 30-some years old.  Also? So much eye candy, and much of it male!

  • If anyone has any more pictures of this guy, cosplaying as Emergency Costume Repair, I’d love to see them.  Great idea!

  • Shutsumon introduced me to #WebFictionChat, and they are having a monthly Serial Book Club.  Check it out: https://twitter.com/Chrys_Kelly_/status/763776957314129920

  • Random moment of awesome while looking into illuminated texts — https://t.co/AazDZfuX0m this dragon climbing his way out of the text.

  • There is still one 250-word slot open in “Leave a Comment, get a fic” over at Addergoole’s new site.

  • Annnnd the meta-conversation with Jaco from Lady Taisiya’s Fourth Husband is still going strong over here: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/tag/meta-conversations

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Weekend, with flea market and semi-relevant links

Aug8

We went on a field trip Sunday!

So, we drove up to nearly where Sam grew up – about 3 hours, the northwest corner of the state, inasmuch as NY has corners. There’s a rather big flea market there, that does a monthly EVEN BIGGER flea market. And we got stuff! Specifically, a picnic basket, a hand-held/hand-operated sewing machine, and a loaf pan of pumpkinyness. Total spent: $16.

And then we got REALLY GOOD ice cream and then we went to a Hyatt’s (art supply store) and a BBQ store and… then we drove home and fell over. Good day, all in all.

  • Some Fun links I’ve encountered:

  • Do you Pinterest? I have three newish boards you might find interesting:

    • Addergoole Changes, which, you guessed it, has art depicting potential Changes for Addergoole and the fae apoc ‘verse. (Changes, if you don’t follow the setting, are the physical ways in which Ellehemaei (fae) are different from humans.) There’s a lot of Mermaids; I’d love to see some other suggestions if you find things.

    • Thimbleful Thursday collects all the little graphics I’ve made and posted so far for the Thimbleful Thursday & Tell-me Tuesday prompts

    • Reiassan Inspiration is a combination of garb and cultural references, brightly-colored clothing, and brightly-colored rest-of-the-world. Also braids, and there really ought to be some goats there. Again, please feel free to suggest anything you come upon that might be Reiassan-y.

  • Speaking of MCA Hogarth, if you have not checked out her Candy-Colored Kickstarter, you have just about three days to go for the neon goodness that it is.

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Recipe Notes: Microwave Vanilla Cake

Aug2

It’s too hot to bake! But I have a microwave!!

I squished together 2 recipes:
http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/the-moistest-very-vanilla-mug-cake/ and
https://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/tips-recipes-microwave-mug-cakes

This is what I got:
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. (6T) all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
1 egg
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients together*, mix wet ingredients separately, combine.
Split evenly into 2 ramekins.
Microwave approx. 1.5 minutes.

*If I do this again, I will do like Alton Brown and call the sugar a wet ingredient, mixing hot butter-sugar-egg-milk in that order (avoids clumping, risking cooking the egg, sad solid bits of butter).

Taste and texture to come later.

Edited to add: it was overcooked and tough. Not sure if it was JUST the overcookieness or if it was too something as well. Tasty, though. Shall try again and report back.

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Weekends, Links, and other fun things…

Aug1

 

  • I got stung by a bee for the first time in my adult life the Sunday before this one.  The poor thing was probably just looking for something alive, considering the drought-ridden state of our yard.  Still, I’ve learned a) I’m still not allergic to bees (somewhat of a concern, as both my father & my maternal uncle had adult-onset of bee-sting allergies), b) there’s quite a range of non-allergy-based reactions to bee stings.  In this case, “where did my ankle bone go?”  It took about a week for the swelling to vanish — I have my foot back, finally! — and I am left with an itchy spot and a strong resolve to not get stung again.

  • I have gotten Thimbleful Thursday prompts scheduled out through the end of July 2018!  I wanted to make sure I had a year in the hopper after I, um, got distracted and forgot to post prompts from December through May.  I think I’m set, now.  I could ignore it for 2 years and it would still be there.

  • We are building a bed!  We bought a new mattress during July, going from a Queen (second-hand, 1000 years old) to a new foam California King (and when I put it “cali king,” I giggle every time) mattress.  Thus, need a new bedframe.  
    Because our bedroom is narrow and longish (7-½’ by 14-½’), we’re building a storage bed with drawer/carts coming out the long way — from the foot.  This is leading to a frame that looks something like an elongated E.  We’ve got the lumber; next stage… cutting!

  • You can make a Suicide Squad-style icon of yourself! Or, in my case, sort of a wishful-thinking self.

  • If you’re interested in paranormal romance, check out Selena Page.  I’ve beta-read both extant novellas, and there’s another one coming in August!

  • Cutthroat Kitchen fan?  Did you see this post from Jet Tila?

  • There’s still slots open — comment on Addergoole’s new site and get a ficlet in return.  Make the pretty new page look less lonely!

  • …I really gotta get around to renewing my DW subscription…

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5000 miles… or maybe just 7

Jul19

♪ Well I would walk a whole three miles
and I would walk three miles more
Just to be the gal who walked six miles…♫

Yeah, it doesn’t quite scan, and it was seven miles anyway… we went on a hike this weekend!

We met up with an old friend, who we used to hike with all the time, and a-hiking we went; we parked one car in Dresden, one in Penn Yan, and we hiked the Keuka Lake Outlet Trail from end to end!

(then we ate fried food and had ice cream, but that was awesome, too).

The trail follows an old railway bed and, unlike most things in the Finger Lakes, it’s relatively flat – good for getting back into hiking. It’s pretty, it’s smooth, and it even has portapotties.

The neatest thing for me, though, was the locks. I grew up on the Erie Canal; I’m used to locks. But I’d never seen them on a creek before! The ones on the Keuka Outlet Creek aren’t functional anymore, but even the ruins are neat to look at.

I think we’ll be going back… just as long as we have someone to park at the other end. 7 miles is enough 🙂

♪…who walked those miles
to fall down on the floor
Da da lat da (Da da lat da)♫

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Craft Fest Craft Fest (Our trip to CornHill Arts Festival)

Jul13

This past weekend, we did almost nothing on the house – except plant one small squash plant, after clearing and turning over and weeding and hauling dirt into and weed-clothing sufficient area of our squash patch to let it spread (hey, it’s been a slow summer for gardening).

But we did go to a craft festival. Corn Hill Arts Festival is one of the biggest and best festivals in Rochester, and one that has been going on for a very long time (I first went with my parents, when it was a more hippy-feeling event and I was much smaller).

Back when we lived in Rochester, T and I went to many (not all: almost impossible) of the craft festivals in the area, but it’s been several years since we’ve driven back up for one (It’s about a 2-hour drive each way). It was nice to go back, and I think the break did us good. I felt far less jaded; there were many many new things, and even the trendy-thing-with-too-many-booths was new to us.

And we bought things! We did not buy wall art, because oh dear gods, the wall art I wanted cost too much. But I got a new mug! And some new earrings and a new bracelet (fork!) and a small piece of art and… *breathes* OH YEAH a fairy door.

Pics of the fairy door when we install it on Grandmother Maple. For now: My fancy new mug.

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The Sink Is In – Homeownership at its finest

Jun28

(I shall try to get a photo, I promise)

We have a sink and faucet!

(New ones, that is, and finally installed.)

This project, like all home improvement projects, expanded and expanded and expanded – but it’s done. Well, at least for the moment.

So, problem one: Our walls are nearly-solid wood, not studs. They’re 2″x~15″, 16″-on-center.

That means the sink plumbing does down, not into the wall and then down.

That means our solid-bottom pedestal doesn’t fit, ’cause the solid bottom would go right over the encased-in-cement drain!

So, fix one: we bought two ~4″x4x”x24″ pieces of very pretty maple, sanded, stained, and polyurethaned them. Instant (ha) stand-out.

Then we got food poisoning.

Then the P-trap didn’t have a down, because plumbing goes into the wall.

Then the hot water didn’t work.

Fixed!

It took – well, don’t ask, but it took 2 weeks of working on it regularly, but now we have a beautiful functioning sink.

Next step: toilet. Wish us luck!

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