Bercilak's · Lady's · musings

I went to the Waltham Farmer's market on Saturday. I got the usual veg, and also some old friends and wonderful new finds.

Dale, from Warren Farm was there, so I got red currant jelly and maple jelly, and a spice rub. I don't him or his wife often, so that made my day right there.

I also found fresh red currants, 4 year old cheddar, and non-fat garlic ginger honey salad dressing. The cheddar is out of this world good, and the dressing is mighty tasty.

Red currants are really yummy, and I'm planning to pack them for snacks at work this week. Tangy and crunchy, and very vivid.

Possibly the best find, however, was the whole wheat pumpkin bread. Nicely textured whole wheat bread, slightly sweet, with a good kick from pumpkin worked into the dough, tasty spices, and the crunch of toasted pumpkin seeds worked through the dough. I'm going to have to work out a recipe, as this was the best bread I've had in a long time. The hearty flavor was reminiscent of pumpkin pie, without in any way being dessert like. It's divine spread with brie, and nearly as good with ricotta.

Got a call from the nice lady at McSpadden Dulcimers. My shipping was going to be hella expensive, would I like do downgrade to something reasonable. Yes, please, and thank you for letting me know.

Insert nice letter to boss letting him know that nice lady is awesome.

Email from boss: Nice lady was mistaken, they did not have a dulcimer on the shelf to send me, they are building it and expect it to be done by the end of the week if all goes well. Sad B-Lady, but it's an honest mistake, so no problem.

Send email back asking that I be contacted when it ships so I know to look for it in the mail. Get email back in about 10 minutes, saying "sure thing, note is in the file".

So even though I'm going to wait a bit longer than I'd hoped for my new baby, I'm really really happy with the folks at McSpadden Dulcimer. Squeeing to commence in 2 1/2 weeks or so.

With any luck, I'll have had a chance to learn a song by the time Mom comes to visit.

It's a kiwi bird! http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/crazy-kiwis/

So cute! I totally have to make this.

Raise your hand if you are surprised.

I placed an order for a McSpadden standard hourglass flat head dulcimer in all walnut. I can't wait for it to get here, hopefully Thursday.

There will be much geeking as I learn to play. You've been warned.

Many thanks to Peter for helping me think through my purchase, and for the gift of a "How to play dulcimer" booklet that he put together for his workshops.

rikhei!

Hope it was a good one. ;)

Today has been good so far. I think I'll keep it.

+Got to work on time, even with leaving the house a bit late.
+Remembered the brownies I made to share with folks.
+Had packed a healthy lunch last night, and still think it sounds tasty.
+Got a card from Sandra, who totally rocks. (In this, and just in general.)
+Got happies on LJ. Thank you guys!
-Forgot to bring in my Gnome. (My sis-in-law is a silly person.)
+Paul and I both have gift certificates to Tasca (a yummy tapas place) because it's our birthday month. We're headed there for dinner tonight.
+I have another desk decoration! I brought in my Filkhaven magnet.
+Having lunch with Lisa R. and Barbara today.
-Having to work on my birthday
+No one is in to bug me at work today!

When I worked at the Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University, I processed (read organized and published) the papers of Anne Martindell for the Public Policy Papers collection. She had quite a life, and I was honored to get the chance to meet her during my summer at the library.

Obit From the New York Times:

( Anne Martindell's obit below )

List as it stood before:

The Speed of Dark by Elisabeth Moon
The Secret Country Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land Pamela Dean
The Warrior's Apprentice (compilation) Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan's Game Bujold
Ethan of Athos Bujold
Barrayar Bujold
Vol 1-7 Dorothy (Comic put out by Illusive Arts Entertainment)
The Little House Cookbook (Cover to cover, yes.)
Shards of Honor by Bujold
Brothers in Arms by Bujold
Mort by PTerry
Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Arrows of the Queen by M. Lackey
The Curse of Chalion, Bujold
Into The Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
The Book of Ballads Charles Vess with a bunch of cool authors
Arrows Flight by Mercedes Lackey
Arrows Fall by Mercedes Lackey
Whim of the Dragon by Pamela Dean
Sourcery by PTerry

New Additions:

Bell Book and Murder by Rosemary Edghill
Requiem for a Princess by Ruth M. Arthur
The Down Home Zombie Blues by Linnea Sinclair
Pandora's Daughter by Iris Johansen
Cetagandia by Bujold
Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs
Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone
Mirabile by Janet Kagan
Partners in Necessity by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (Will be finished as soon as I borrow a copy from Victor and Lara. My copy had a 50 page section missing.)

My cousin Rachel is pregnant! Her small one, Dash, will have a sibling come Mid-December.

Yay!

Rachel is the most awesome of my cousins. I'm really happy, and hope that all the tests she has to deal with now come out with no problems at all.

My copy of "Partners in Necessity" is missing a bunch of pages. More specifically, it has a repeat of about 50 pages, and about 50 pages totally missing. In the middle of the third novel, in the middle of a fun sequence.

I am not pleased. I am not pleased at all.

I'm going to the bookstore this evening, to find a copy of Carpe Diem, in any form available, and read said 50 pages so I can go home and finish the rest of the book. I mean, I could just get the ebook from Baen, but I don't feel like paying 5 bucks to finish a book I already purchased.

I'm not much of a poetry fan, honestly. It's a rare poem that sticks in my head and won't let go.

Richard Wilbur's "The Death of a Toad" has stuck firmly in my head since my senior year in high school when I encountered it on the AP American Language and Literature test.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/wilbur-toad.html

It works well as a dramatic reading at a filk, due to the lovely mix of absurdity and profundity.

Poor Toad. Stupid power lawnmowers...

First off, thank you so much to the folks who have placed orders.

Secondly, I'm closing my Pampered Chef show one week from today. If you would like an invite and have not gotten one, please drop a comment and let me know.

Thanks folks!

Hey folks!

I'm hosting a Pampered Chef catalog show, and you are all invited. The party technically starts tomorrow, but if you have asked for an invite and go to pamperedchef.biz/glasserkitchen, click on "order products", and then enter Leah Smith into the host name, you can order products today and have them be credited to my show. If you'd like me to send you an invitation to the show, just leave an email address for me to send it to here, and I'll be happy to do so.

Doing this show in May is special, because Pampered Chef will donate $1 of each item you order to the American Cancer Society's education and early detection programs.

Thanks muchly everyone, and happy shopping. :)

Please Note: I do not have a car, so if you don't live close to me, or have a way of visiting and thus picking up your order, please choose the option to have your products sent directly to you.

I've been browsing bulk vanilla bean prices, mostly for the hell of it. (Also, to show my brother when it comes birthday time.) Mm.. vanilla is tasty.

http://www.theposter.com/vanilla2.html

http://stores.ebay.com/Vanilla-Products-USA

Tonight I'm going to stop by the drugstore on my way home and pick up Epsom Salts, maybe a pumice stone, and a really good foot cream. Possibly also cuticle sticks and some polish. It's pedicure time! My feet are a mess, and I'm kinda embarrassed to wear sandals and have my pants catch on my calluses. *sigh* It's a yearly thing.

List as it stood before:

The Speed of Dark by Elisabeth Moon
The Secret Country Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land Pamela Dean
The Warrior's Apprentice (compilation) Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan's Game Bujold
Ethan of Athos Bujold
Barrayar Bujold
Vol 1-7 Dorothy (Comic put out by Illusive Arts Entertainment)
The Little House Cookbook (Cover to cover, yes.)
Shards of Honor by Bujold
Brothers in Arms by Bujold
Mort by PTerry
Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Arrows of the Queen by M. Lackey
The Curse of Chalion, Bujold
Into The Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
The Book of Ballads Charles Vess with a bunch of cool authors
Arrows Flight by Mercedes Lackey
Arrows Fall by Mercedes Lackey
Whim of the Dragon by Pamela Dean

New additions:
Sourcery by PTerry

List as it stood before:

The Speed of Dark by Elisabeth Moon
The Secret Country Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land Pamela Dean
The Warrior's Apprentice (compilation) Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan's Game Bujold
Ethan of Athos Bujold
Barrayar Bujold
Vol 1-7 Dorothy (Comic put out by Illusive Arts Entertainment)
The Little House Cookbook (Cover to cover, yes.)
Shards of Honor by Bujold
Brothers in Arms by Bujold
Mort by PTerry
Android's Dream by John Scalzi
Arrows of the Queen by M. Lackey
The Curse of Chalion, Bujold

New Additions:

Into The Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
The Book of Ballads Charles Vess with a bunch of cool authors

We went to the Flemington Outlet Stores today. I got sandals, and some undies. Good stuff, nothing to write home about.

I also got a pair of PJs with flannel pants with penguins in scarves on them, and a purple knit top. Comfy, cute as hell, $11. Total score.

(I also got a pair of flannel/knit PJs with clouds and stars on them, with a bright yellow top, and also a green fleece set. Cool, but not as cool as the PPPJs.)

Yay!

List as it stood before:

The Speed of Dark by Elisabeth Moon
The Secret Country Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land Pamela Dean
The Warrior's Apprentice (compilation) Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan's Game Bujold
Ethan of Athos Bujold
Barrayar Bujold
Vol 1-7 Dorothy (Comic put out by Illusive Arts Entertainment)
The Little House Cookbook (Cover to cover, yes.)
Shards of Honor by Bujold
Brothers in Arms by Bujold

New additions:

Mort by PTerry
Android's Dream by John Scalzi

13 weeks, 13 books. (And one of the books was a compilation of three.) I think I'm all set to do 50 books in the year, though that's not a hard and fast goal.

Making hamentashen with farwing tonight, which should be lots of fun. I have all the ingredients, except for jam, and I'm bringing home baking gear from work. Glee! Farwing is bringing the jam for this batch.

Making hamentashen with Eden Saturday, which should be lots of fun also. Bringing jams, but nothing else, as Eden has leftover stuff from making lots of Pi last week. Staying over Friday, as well, she's up in Beverly, and I have no car.

So my landlord will get cookies, my department will get cookies, my dearest happyfunpaul will get cookies, and I will get cookies. I'm even going to freeze some so that my Mom, Dad, StepMom, and Grandma will get cookies. I love baking cookies. *bounce*

Went to Berk's last night, bought two pairs of shoes. Thanks quezz!

Sadly, the Stash Pumpkin Spice Tea isn't as good as I'd hoped. It's nicely spicy, but the pumpkin flavor doesn't come through. It's still really tasty, though, so don't discount drinking this tea for what it does offer, flavor wise.

So if you want a gingery spice flavor, with a bit of clove, go for it, but it's not pumpkin pie in a mug.

Stash Tea's decaf Chocolate Hazelnet tea, with a little milk and sugar, tastes pretty close to Nutella. I'm not sure how available this is in stores, but you can order off their website.

Yum.

Report on the Pumpkin Spice tea later today.

From the very end of February till now I've been tracking what books I finish. I have a bunch of new ones, so I'm not doing the "dribs and drabs" approach that I normally do with my books that I've read before.

All hail Boston Book Annex. They bought a large library of medieval literature and criticism, and after the first spree when they advertised it, it's been sitting there and not moving. I got quite a haul on Tuesday, and I'm glad the nice guy who rang me up insisted that things not go into the clearance racks to get beaten by the weather.

The List:

The Speed of Dark by Elisabeth Moon
The Secret Country Pamela Dean
The Hidden Land Pamela Dean
The Warrior's Apprentice (compilation) Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan's Game Bujold
Ethan of Athos Bujold
Barrayar Bujold
Vol 1-7 Dorothy (Comic put out by Illusive Arts Entertainment)
The Little House Cookbook (Cover to cover, yes.)

I've also started Writing the Oral Tradition: Oral Poetics and Literate Culture in Medieval England by Mark C. Amodio. (Bought this new, not in the haul from BBA.)

As I type here on my lunch break, I have a question for ya'll.

What do you bring for lunch to the office?

What do you bring it in?

What facilities do you have to cook/reheat/refrigerate?

Do you make lunch for just you, or an SO/housemate also?

Edit:

My work has a full kitchen. (Nutrition lab, so it's 7 kitchen set ups, and two dishwashers.) I have a variety of things in my drawer, noodles, Trader Joes Indian packets, soup, ect. I also have bread in the freezer. There are always carrots in the fridge, hot drink makings, typically milk and salad dressing in the fridge, and balance bars, chocolate, peanut butter, crackers, ect. in the cabinet. Plus if there is a lab class that's making food, there will be leftovers from the labs.

I make noodle/veggie/veggie protein/sauce dishes for myself and Paul, and we have them for lunches. Or I'll make sandwiches.

Thank you all for replying. I find the topic fascinating, though I'm not sure why. School lunch research interests me too.

Hi local friends.

I'm thinking about maybe doing Boston Organics for a while, the $27 a week small box, 2/3 veg, 1/3 fruit. If you've ordered from them before, please let me know what you think. Is it a reasonable value? Do you get a lot of stuff?

I'd rather go to a farmer's market, but I can't do that, working the hours I work, what with the placements of the farmer's markets around here.

I want to do a CSA, but we may or may not be moving, so it's not feasible.

Please help.

I think I've mentioned before, I'm doing a lending trade of SF with one of the prof's husbands (TF's husband TF). So Much Fun. I sent him some Pratchett, and he's sending me Bujold. I'm so hooked, it's not funny. I've read The Warrior's Apprentice, and Vorkosigan's Game so far.

I just got Shards of Honor, Brothers in Arms, Barrayar, and Ethan of Athos.

Now I get why so many people read Bujold.

Glee!

And a question for the crowd. What should I seek out when I'm looking for new stuff to read? Any genre, any form. If it's horror, note that I'm not a horror reader typically, and dislike gore of any sort.

Sitting here grinning like a maniac. I have a job, for real, with papers coming. Real job, with real money, that I like, where I like the people.

YAY!!!!!

Need to call Michael and thank him for helping me out so much at PSG. He's a really good guy, and I know he'll be happy for me.

*bounce*

Xtabentun is a really tasty honey/anisette liqueur. It's also reasonably hard to find unless your order it online.

I am a very lucky beast, and was gifted with a bottle of said tasty Mayan alcohol this weekend.

Yum.

Thank you mnemex!

Does anyone know if any of the satellite lots for Boskone parking will let you park even when they are closed?

I saw a few that are open days on weekends, but not overnight. If we could park there overnight, it would be perfect.

Thanks ya'll.

Yay!!!

I got "Chimp" and "Leaf Bug". I'm really happy, they are beautiful. Thanks ohiblather!

In other news, my first new day... second first day? Something like that anyway... Today at work was good. People were really happy to see me, and it was nice to just fit right back in and get going.

Mochajava-number-I-don't-remember, Sari says to say hi.