Stew!

I am extremely pleased with how my dinner turned out last night. I made my mother's very special beef and vegetable stew recipe that I've always loved and wanted to learn how to do. I was really nervous about it, more nervous than I've been about a dish in a long time. It was really important to me that it come out right, and not only did it taste the way it was supposed to, everybody ended up really liking it. While I enjoyed the company of everyone present, I had planned for the guest list to be slightly different. Several of the people I invited at first couldn't make it, so I ended up filling in the gaps with people from slightly different social circles, so perhaps it was not the most compatible set of dinner guests I've ever had at Elsinore, but I still thought it was nice. For those of you who may not have exactly felt like they were clicking, I apologize. But I'm still glad it happened, I had fun, and I got to prove to myself that I could make a recipe that was vry important to me.

Curried Carrot and Pear Soup recipe

(makes 6-8 servings)

2Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp curry powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 c vegetable stock
4 large carrots, coarsely chopped
2 pears, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, for 3 mins or until softened. Add curry powder and garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.

Add vegetable stock, carrots, pear, and sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, or until carrot is soft and soup is fragrant. Puree soup until smooth. Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Savory Artichoke Pie recipe

Savory Artichoke Pie:

To make crust:

Combine 1 1/2 C flour with 1/2 tsp salt. Cut in 1/2 C margarine. When mixture resembles coarse crumbs, drizzle with 2-3tasp cold soy milk. Press dough with fingers until it starts to hold together in large clumps. Shape int oa ball, then spread in a greased pie pan, pressing with fingers. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degree and bake for 8 minutes longer, until slightly golden.

For filling:

2tbsp olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp shopped basil leaves
14 oz canned artichoke hearts, drained, gently squeezed, and cut into 6 wedges each
12oz firm silken tofu, lightly drained
1 cube vegan vegetable bullion

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a skillet. Add onion and cook, stirring, for 8 minutes or until lightly browned and soft. Add garlic and basil and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in artichokes.

Puree tofu and boullion cube. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spread half of tofu in baked pie crust. Arrange half of artichokes on top. Repeat a second layer with the rest.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until topping is lightly browned. Let cool 5-10 minutes before eating.

Larp progress

I am attempting to take advantage of my current pleasantly low stress level to do larp work. We're far enough along on Paranoia that we're into writing character sheets now. We're all assigned to write one team each, and I've made a decent chunk of progress on two of my six characters. I'm ambitiously aiming to have at least rough drafts done for all of them by the end of this week. They're not enormous or particularly difficult, so it seem fairly achievable, though I will say they aren't coming quite as easily as I thought they would. We just have to come up with a decent name for it besides just "Paranoia." Attempts thus far have not been impressive. Oz progress is slow, but at least I've got the mental presence to devote some focus to it. I finally wrote up my bid for that game, that's a step in the right direction. The trouble was I'm still in the process of hammering out the story, so I'm not exactly sure how to describe it in the blurb. Ah, well. I guess if I work out a better one I can always change it later.

It occurs to me that I'm going to be running three games at Festival this year-- Alice, Oz, and Paranoia. I'm delighted to rerun Alice, as I will with Jared's help. It's a large game, but it's both so rules-light and we both know it so well that it doesn't really need more than just the two of us. As for Oz, it's a small game, so Bernie is the only other person I'll need to help me run that. He's great to help GM because he's capable, and he doesn't larp so having him doesn't reduce the player pool. Though the pressure is on, I will be really glad to finally be writing another larp of my own. I've been coasting on the success of Alice for way too long. ;-) I'm also helping write Paranoia. In fact, Paranoia has both a huge writing team and a huge GMing team, consisting of Bernie, Joe, Mac, Matt, and myself. Hopefully we'll all be there to run it. I'm pleased with and excited for this, but I'm wondering if I'll not get enough playing time with three of my slots already taken. I don't mind not getting to play per se, but I am concerned I might miss games that I particularly want to be in. I know a couple of the games I'm interested in that will be running at Festival I have or will have already played, such as GM Space or League of Extraordinary Hogwarts students, so perhaps I won't feel shorted. GM Space will undoubtedly run Sunday morning anyway, so that time slot won't conflict. Speaking of time slots, I'm hoping that Alice runs in the evening-- probably Friday. Bernie wants Paranoia to run in the evening on Saturday, to give his brother Joe the best chance to come to Waltham from Maryland to help run the game. I don't really have a preference for when Oz runs, except that it not conflict with, say, Jared's game so that he can play in it.

I have a good feeling about all of this. Here's hoping it pans out. I guess I'd better get back to work.

Quick status update

Wow, I haven't posted much recently. My life has been pretty even lately, which is nice-- despite the lack of things to say, I am quite well. School goes as it should, I'm engaged in things I enjoy, I'm involved in creative pursuits, and things go well with Jared, and those are the things that make me happy.

Verdict: success!

Last night was the playtest of GM Space, and I am delighted to report that I had a blast. Jared and Sharone should be very proud.

I played Lily the GM, one of the cast characters, and I had a really fun time wracking my brain for ways to get players to keep playing even when they seemed determined to somehow break or ruin the game. Apparently rigel is signed up for this game at Intercon, and I would hazard guesses both that she would enjoy/is likely to get cast in this character. I believe that would be the second casting she and I will have shared. But as much as I liked my cast role, the horde had so many hilarious bits that I was starting to get jealous. There were lots of spot-on parodies of the weird things that happen in larps and the stupid things that players do that just cracked me up-- not to mention a lot of cool stuff taking off of the Lovecraft universe. All the horde players, particularly Nat, Susan, and Ryan, were just so funny and awesome. I really loved a lot of Mac's bits as well. I remember when Jared started getting concerned that certain important things hadn't come up yet, because the players weren't moving through the horde characters fast enough. Well, dear, that means you've written horde characters that are strong enough to actually stay in game for a while! Apparently they were written too well. :-) The game pretty much accomplished everything it was supposed to-- it has just enough plot to create a framework and a trajectory, with enough humor to really carry its true goal of being a humorous game. With some minor tweaks suggested by the playtesters I think could be completely polished and ready for Intercon. Should this game rerun in the near future (I want to bully Jared into bidding it for Festival) I highly reccomend it.

I extend my congratulations to Jared and Sharone, and I am immensely proud of both my love and my friend. Say nice things to them when you see them!

Midsummer casting

So... the Midsummer casting has come out. I'm a little floored.

I'm Puck. Uh... okay.

I'm by no means displeased, but I am certainly surprised. Okay, I tried out with one of Puck's monologues, but that was just 'cause it's a fun one and I don't have any other pieces from the comedies in my repertoire. I really didn't think Taylor would consider me for it. I expected he'd go with Frances, who is a born Puck, and has in fact played the part twice before. But I guess he wants to do something different. Maybe the fact that he saw me as the Fool in King Lear made a difference.

Well. This should be fun.

GM Space playtest!

Last night I determined my head just isn't safe around witticaster. ;-) She knows why!

Tonight is the official playtest of GM Space, the humorous two-hour horde larp written by Jared and Sharone. I'm very excited for it. I will be playing Lily, one of the cast characters and the lone female GM running the in-game game, Miskatonic Graduation Party. It'll be at BSCF tonight, going simultaneously with the regularly scheduled gaming. Wish them luck, it's their first game!

Also, this week I had the audition and callback for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Jared did as well. Tonight all the theater groups will get together and fight over actors, and then we will get our roles. I'm very interested to see how this casting turns out, but that won't be done until late at night.

Snow, snow, snow

The one downside of not having any of the housemates around this weekend is that it's snowing like a bitch and I wasn't able to make them help me shovel the driveway. I've been out there three times so far in the last two days. Jared kindly offered his help, but I hate making him deal with our chores. As of the third time it's about half done, as it's gotten melty and heavy, but we'll go out later and finish when I recover my strength. Ah, well. At least it's good exercise.

Elsinore to myself

So, with Dave and David away for the weekend and Mac and Sheena at Arisia, I have the house to myself. I like it this way. So, what's the very first thing I do with my bachlorette pad to myself? Clean, of course! I blasted bad TV in my room while I scrubbed the place down-- it really needed it. So, now that things are neat and lovely again, I am pleased. Too bad I couldn't have gotten all that done before bronzite* and Bernie came over for dinner last night. It was really nice to see Bronzite after not getting a chance to for a while, so it was a good time. I made a recipe from the Rachael Ray cookbook my parents gave me for Christmas, roasted haddock in breadcrumbs topped with onion and tomato. I'd never made it before, and it came out very nicely. I still have one huge filet left that I didn't even cook. Maybe I'll do something with it tonight.

Intercon hotel rooms

Chilling with Jared in the library again today. We're trying to figure out a final class for him to take. It looks like, if he doesn't get into this one he really likes, he'll be in the same comparative literature class as me. We've never had a real class together before-- fencing doesn't count --so maybe we'll be able to help each other.

In Intercon news, I have made the hotel reservation for our little Brandeis contingent of con-goers, which consists of myself, jh1230*, zapf*, witticaster*, lightgamer*, and phoenix_rinna*. I have stepped up into the position of this year's Fearless Leader, so the reservations were made in my name and the bill put on my credit card. For you guys, the hotel told me that they will cost $127 each plus a 9% tax. I have not yet received the receipt, so I don't have the exact total in front of me, but I made an estimate. Here my math, which I have demonstrated so you can check:

[$127 + ($127 x .09)] per room / 3 people =
($127 + $11.43) / 3 =
$138.43 / 3 = $46.15 per person

Think that's correct. We'll have to wait for the actual receipt to be sure, but that's about what it'll be. If any other Intercon goers still need hotel space and would be interested in sharing, talk to me. We have room for about one other person in each room, and it'll mean splitting the costs among more people, and I will talk to the others about it.

Our second

Today is Jared and my second anniversary.

I love you, babe.

Back at Brandeis

I have returned to Brandeis, and am quite glad to be back. I had my first and thus far only class today, an English class about self-conflict with my favorite teacher, Professor Quinney. I'm also pleased to discover I have fulfilled pretty much all my requirements for my English and Creative Writing double major, and need only to submit the paperwork to secure it. Additionally, I have enough credits to only have to take three classes this semester. That might be nice, to be a little less busy that way. The way things are looking, I may be able to be finished with all my classes by noon every day of the week. :-) I love having open afternoons and evenings.

I'm currently sitting in the green room in the library with Jared, typing on a public computer while he gets some class reading out of the way. In about a half-hour I'll be going to what I believe will be the final session of Kindness's cleric game. He says it will be mostly role playing, which I like the sound of, so this should be good. I'm interested to see how he concludes our adventure. I'm certainly craving some RP time, given how I didn't get any over the break.

Also, I need to bid, and consequently buckle down on, Oz. It should be a medium-sized game, fifteen or so players, so it's not nearly the workload that the twenty-seven-character game Alice was. I just hope I have it worked out well enough to come up with a good summary for the bid. Maybe I can do a little work on it tonight.

Redgoth hair stylist

So I tried the new hairdresser and I am very pleased. I got this girl named Kristen who was a lot of fun. I liked the look of her 'cause she was just a little bit punked out, and she was wearing the most awesome red goth boots. I said to her, "Nice goth boots, where'd you manage to find red ones?" She was delighted by the compliment, told me about this place in New Hope, and then said, "Oh, my God, you're a weekend goth, aren't you?" I laughed and said yes, and she was like, "Me too!" Although to be honest she wasn't really all that weekend, she had lots of piercings, spiked red-streaked hair, and of course the boots. And she asked me what kind I was, then said, "No, wait, don't tell me-- you're a lily, aren't you?" I'd never heard that term before. She said lily goths are the pale, delicate ones who dress more on the pretty side and show a lot of skin. And I was like, "Oh, you mean gloomcookie," which, yeah, that's totally me. She, interestingly, is a red goth-- she dresses in the punk goth style, but everything's always in red, including her hair, eyeliner, everything. She showed me a picture of her and her heavily tattooed boyfriend in her getup. I'd never actually seen a red goth before; I liked it. We got into a fun conversation about different kinds of goths and the various combinations thereof. I'm a pretty/perkygoth, while she's a perky/punky/redgoth.

And on top of it all, she did a great job with my hair. She touched up the layers and styled it really nicely. I'm very pleased, and I love finding fun people in unexpected places.

Yet another hair excursion

I am going to try to get my hair cut today. It may prove more difficult than anticipated, since the place I always went to at home is no longer in business. :-( I'm always slightly frightened of trying someone new, as I am scarred by the number of times I've gone somewhere I didn't know and they were unable or unwilling to give me what I asked for. I really don't like finding out this fact through the resulting appearence of my hair. But it's gotten crazy long and flat lately, and it'd be convenient to take care of it while I'm still at home. My mom suggested trying a place in the nice new mall around here; I generally have success with mall places.

God, I'm always so nervous about this. It's just hair, and it'll grow out if I don't like it. But I'm so damn vain I don't want to have to deal with hair I don't like.

Lying liar who lies

I just saw somebody fool a polygraph lie detector test on TV, and it occurs to me how miserably I would do on such a thing. Now, don't mistake my meaning-- I can be a fantastic liar when I want to be. I'm very good at covering those little inconsistencies that can give you away, in that way I am a tactical genius ninja superspy badass. My work in TMA showcased this particular talent of mine. I can also play it totally cool so you'd never know to look at me that I was lying; I'm an okay actor as well. Lying, after all, is basically acting. The reason I'd be screwed over by a polygraph test is that, internally, I'm a mess from the nervous stress of telling untruths. My heart pounds, my stomach tightens from the guilt of telling a lie-- that kind of physical reaction would give me away I'm good at concealing that kind of feeling, but only because that's the sort of stuff you can't see.

How interesting. I'm both a good liar as well as a fundamentally honest person. No wonder I get so twisted up inside. :-)

Shrunk

I believe my favorite sweater shrunk.

...
I like it. :-)

Sometimes a drag

Tomorrow I'm going to need to find a way to go get my prescription. My parents don't know I'm on it and my car is in the shop at the moment, so I need to come up with a decent reason to borrow a car. When I want to go somewhere, especially in one of their cars, my parents aren't big on the answer to the question "Where are you going?" being "Out." Being home can be a drag sometimes-- I want to show respect for my parents, their rules, their feelings, but a lot of the time doing that makes me feel like a teenager.

Good Kincaid

Today is Epiphany, as well as Carmen's birthday. She would have been fifteen today; this is the first birthday she's not been around for. My dad put a picture on her on the refrigerator of when she was in her prime. She really was a beautiful dog.

Had a riding lesson today. Went better than I expected it to, given how long it's been. But I'm pleased with how well I rode, and though Kincaid may have been totally unable to go round, at least he wasn't as stiff as he sometimes is. I hear they've been jumping him again, which I hate since it makes him get all strung out and go really heavy on his forehand, and I could definately feel the effect. He just doesn't carry himself well enough to maintain it with that intensity of work. But I managed to keep him in a good frame. Unfortunately, even though I've been working out, my muscles just weren't used to that particular kind of punishment-- seems like the only place the muscles in riding ever get used are in riding. So I'm parked out with sore hips and thighs for a while. Ah, well, hard work is good for 'em.

Thanks to having to kind of stay in one place due to the soreness, perhaps I can use the remainder of the evening to get some writing done. I made a little progress on Oz since I've been home, but not nearly as much as I'd like to. A little focus of some kind is in order. I get back to Waltham on the 11th, and school starts up again the 13th, so I should try to use my free time while I can.

Bye, zeby shoes

Got new shoes today, as my old zebra-striped shoes no longer supported my arches. It's a shame, I'd really grown to like them. I checked my journal for when I wrote about the last time I got new ones-- April 21st of last year. Geez, it really doesn't take long to wear out a pair of athletic shoes. I had to go to about eight different stores until I found what I wanted. My tastes in everyday shoes are very specific-- I like little black Pumas I can walk and run in, so I always get a variation on that theme. I would have just gotten another pair of my zebra shoes if I could, but this year's version of that shoe has leopard spots instead. I have, you see, a moral opposition to leopard print. I like the ones I got, though. They're sleek suede and very comfy, and I couldn't decide whether I liked the black or the brown better, so I ended up getting both. It'll be good to have more than one everyday pair, so neither of them will wear out as fast.

Nicely done, Dad

My dad fixed my iPod for me today. I'd been having problems with it because its damn battery wasn't lasting more than fifteen minutes no matter how long I charged it. My dad took the bad battery out of mine and in its place he soldered a battery he got out of my brother's old one with the broken screen. I'm impressed, it was a pretty delicate job. He says he thinks the battery from the one with the broken screen is of an older generation, so it may not be as high quality, but it seems to be actually holding charge for a while. Thanks, Dad. Unfortunately it wiped the iPod's memory, so yet again I have to rebuild my traveling music collection. That'll be a pain, and I don't have any of it here. Maybe I can find all my stuff on Dad's many external hard drives totally devoted to songs.

I always treasure getting notes...

Jared wrote me to me from Costa Rica today. A really loving and lovely sweet message.

I suddenly feel a lot less lonely.

Godfather Trilogy

I just completed the Godfather trilogy with my family.

Tom Hagen should have been Don. I don't care if he wasn't blood, I don't care that he wasn't Italian. He was more like the Godfather than any of the Godfather's own blood, and better at the game than any of the Italians. If he had become the don, he would have made that Family run right, and it wouldn't have become as sick and twisted as it became. Whenever Tom told somebody to do something and they didn't, they failed. He was the smartest of all of them. Sonny was a bad don, Michael was a monstrous don, Fredo would have been a weak don, and only Tom could have been like the old don. Vito should have adopted him formally, named him Tom Corleone, and passed his Family down to a man who could do the same things he could with it.

Jared in Costa Rica

Jared left for his family vacation to Costa Rica today. He called me from the airport but I missed it, and now he's already gone. I always hate missing his calls, but I'm disproportionally upset because that would have been the last time I could talk to him until he gets back in a week. He was kind of holding me together these past few days what with the other stuff going on. I feel like a jerk for missing his last call. It's going to be lonely without him.

Missing Carmen

It's still strange being home without Carmen around. She's been gone since the beginning of June, but this is only the second time I've been home since then, so I'm still not used to being in this house without her in it. I still expect for her to come greet us when we come in the door, and several times I've started cutting up table scraps to give to her after dinner. Boy, do I miss that girl. She was such a good girl. The best girl anyone could have.

I wonder when my parents will get a new dog. My mom went through a phase where she never wanted another dog ever again, but as I figured she's come around and would like to have a new one around. I think she wants a big one, like a German shepherd or a retriever. I'm not sure if they'll be sticking around the area for much longer or what, so they may be waiting to get one until they know.

All I know is I miss having a dog.

Corle-owned

"Take that, gangster! You got Corle-OWNED!"

I am such a dork. :-D

A hard start to 2009

The last couple of days have been kind of difficult for me. I have been asked not to give details, but I recieved some bad news about someone very important to me, and I've been extremely upset. This past year has not been easy for some of my loved ones, and it seems things are going to get harder. I'm praying and trying to be hopeful that everything is going to be okay. From now on, I'm going to focus on what is truly important to me. The people I love-- Jared, my family, my dear friends. My art-- writing, theater, larping. A lot of this stuff has highlighted the hollowness and wrongness of a lot of things I've been clinging to. And it's made it all the more clear that I need to let go of them.