not dead, just reading...

[thanate]

Martha Wells is doing a drawing for a free autographed copy of her new book, for those who are interested. (Also, she's got the first two chapters up on her website, if you don't know whether you're interested or not...) She's one of four people whose books I will buy instantly on name recognition alone, and I'm very excited about this one.

In other news, I survived last week, despite spending ridiculously much of it knocked flat by a cold; pretty much my entire achievements for the week were half a sweater sleeve and marmalade. The marmalading part was a success; I managed to achieve gel stage despite the pot being just a little too small for the batch size-- by the time the candy thermometer made it up to 220, the mixture had boiled up to the rim where the lid sits. So I brought it up there & turned it down immediately three times & hoped for the best, which seems to have worked. The canning part went beautifully also, and in fact my odd assortment of canning jars ended with exactly the right amount of marmalade to fill five of them... so I haven't actually broken one open and tasted it yet. It may be far too bitter for usual consumption, in which case I will have to plan some kind of exciting baking. We shall see...

cheshiretiffy mentioned Rapunzel's Resource the other day, which I think everyone who has long hair ought to be aware of (no really, click on her style index!) and wandering links from there brought me to a page on the slightly silly "curly girl" website about clipping your hair to maximize curling as it dries. (here, scroll down) Now, I don't even own a blow dryer, so blow drying straight is not something that happens to my hair, but it does get pulled fairly straight by the weight of two or three feet of wet hair farther down, and so I tried their little messy clipping technique with a little gel for good luck and had terribly exciting hair all yesterday, and today I've got lopsided waves all the way up to about an inch away from my part, which is also pretty exciting, and usually takes a lot more humidity to manage. If I'm really lucky, it'll even survive brushing.

This afternoon, I'm going to learn about volunteering to do dolphin pregnancy watches at the aquarium, which is not quite as exciting as nurturing orphaned baby birds, but it's probably far less stressful...

Comments

[leimon-malakoi.livejournal.com]

Is that like calf watch and foal watch? if so? I hope you have a good book.

If your jam isn't editable try this site:
http://www.foodinjars.com/

or this site:
http://sweetpreservation.com/

Who occasionally have good recipes for using up jam in everyday cooking. I really like food in jars. She makes me want to can more. (I even got an asparagus steamer to do small batches in.. I've got it bad)

Good luck! Oh - and I was wondering if you would do a journal for me? email, please?

[thanate.livejournal.com]

It's sort of like calf & foal watch run by animal behavior specialists, so with palm pilots & recording how often the new babies take a breath or tries to nurse and various other things.

[dancinglights.livejournal.com]

I miss working at the aquarium so much. Mind you, I only ever worked in the gift shop, but I volunteered to close as much as possible so that I could wander around after hours and get to know the poor creatures who hid from kids tapping on the glass all day. My grandfather still volunteers there occasionally; thank you for reminding me of its awesome :)