What is it about the middle of the week? And what is it about this week that everyone so far as been perfectly miserable. Can we get past this already?

As always, to get around WP Spam Free, old word = your word

rain

I don’t care if I’ve posted about chocolate pudding before. I think I’m fighting off a cold, and I want chocolate pudding, and I don’t feel like writing about anything else.

This pudding is rich and creamy and I like to mellow it down a bit with fresh whipped cream, but it’s good without it (I just have a hard time eating an entire ramekin of it.)

Chocolate Pudding
2/3 cup sugar
3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups milk (not skim)
2 tbsp butter (if using low fat milk)
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I like to use Mexican vanilla)

Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt. Add a small amount of milk, and stir until all the the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the milk. Slowly add the remaining milk, stirring carefully. (Switch to using a spoon from here on out.)

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly and making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. After the mixture has boiled for a few minutes it will thicken a bit. Remove from heat, and immediately add the bittersweet chocolate and vanilla. Stir until the chocolate is melted.


The author recommends putting the pudding through a sieve. I don’t bother, I just divide it into ramekins, cover the ramekins, and put them in the fridge.

From The All-American Dessert Book by Nancy Baggett. This is one of my favorite cookbooks. It’s got gorgeous pictures and I’ve loved every recipe I’ve tried.

The name was nice for a short story, but not really appropriate now that the tale has evolved. Need to do something about that.

Don’t Yawn with your Mouth Open Part I
Don’t Yawn with your Mouth Open Part II
Don’t Yawn with Your Mouth Open Part III
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You may have noticed last week my complaint that the soles broke on my favorite pair of work shoes. I’m not complaining that she shoes finally wore out–I wore them on a regular basis for five years (maybe more).

Luckily, I was able to find the exact same pair of shoes at Amazon. The shoes at the right, only in black. (Of course they were in black.)

They’re very comfortable, and they go with almost everything I wear. And all you people that like stylish shoes with heels–that’s fine, but I’ll stick with my comfy shoes.

Why is it that the past several books I’ve read have been horribly depressing?

I’d been saving the last Donna Leon Guiod Brunetti book to read, since it was the last currently published in paperback. I was feeling down today, so I picked up Suffer the Little Children to read, and it’s completely depressing.

That’s it, I’m showering and going to bed. This is more than enough for one day.

Is Jim’s birthday.

I think this year he turns old or something.

Please go wish him happy birthday!

This is MWT’s fault.

————–

Everyone said Southern California was the perfect vacation spot. “Get away from dreary Scotland!” they said. “A change will do you good!” they said.

Bah humbug. She should have stayed home.

Sure it was sunny–the weather had been beautiful the entire time–but she wasn’t used to the sun, and got a terrible sunburn.

And then there was the traffic–she’d never seen so much traffic! She didn’t realize what a backwater her home was until she reached California. Night and day there were people everywhere!

She’d thought a change of scenery would be nice, but didn’t realize the scenery would be so completely full of people.

She knew it was provincial, but she started wishing she was home almost as soon as she arrived. Sure, there were amazing new species of fish–she’d never seen anything like some of these species, but that hardly made up for all the other hassles. The food and water weren’t what she was used to, there was more sun than she was used to, and the people…

She was going to kill the dolphins when she got home. Even if suggesting this vacation wasn’t a dirty trick, it was still a pretty horrible experience: How are you supposed to enjoy your vacation if you have to spend the entire time hiding from people that don’t believe you exist?

The locals told her she’d be fine–“those Californians are constantly drunk and stoned. No one will notice you, and if they do, they’ll just think you’re an hallucination. Besides, you don’t live here! Who cares if they see you?”

“Who cares my left flipper!” she’d told them. She had no desire to be caught and dissected.

“There are lots of environmental laws in California!” they told her. “You’ll be fine.”

She’d stared at them if they were barmy, and then asked pointed questions about the amount of pharmaceutical run-off in the water till they’d dropped the subject.

All in all, it was one of the worst vacations she’d ever taken. To hell with the economy. Next year she’d just have a staycation.

… is apparently just for me.

elflock
noun A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

From personal experience, I can tell you that this is one of the more horrific things that can happen to one’s hair. Tears will ensue.

NOTE: When the story first started to evolve in my mind, the angels were sitting on clouds. But I wanted them to be further back, which is when the bit about the stars came to me. The title was the last thing I wrote.

———————

We humans see stars as things way up out in space, objects far far away from where we are.

But there’s another way of seeing the stars, a way that we yet lack the ability to see. If you could see the stars that way, they’d be more like nails in the sky from which you could hang things like swings if you wanted.

And if there were swings hanging from the stars, then there might be a being sitting in a swing.

Perhaps even two beings, swinging and having a conversation.

“I kinda miss the old days, back when we had fiery swords and such,” the first being said.

“You just liked the fact they all walked around naked,” the second being replied.

The first being shrugged, “That’s true as well. I sometimes wonder why we didn’t get gender. You look at the planet, and most everything down there has gender.”

“Bacteria don’t. Viruses don’t. Amoeba don’t”

“You’re not helping,” said the first being. “You’re just making my point. Only lower creatures got made without gender! What does that say about us?”

“Why do you insist they’re lower creatures?” the second being asked.

“Because they evolved first!” The first being was starting to get indignant. The swing started moving faster.

“But there are many more bacteria and amoeba and genderless creatures than there are gendered beings. Sexual breeding has advantages and disadvantages. We were made without gender, humans evolved with gender.”

“Even a plague of locusts has gender,” muttered the first being.

“The Maker doesn’t have gender,” pointed out the second being. “So we are more like the Maker in that way than the humans.”

“Yet the humans insist on giving the Maker a gender! And even worse, they insist that the Maker is male! Why would the creator of all things that gave birth to the world be male?” the first being shifted back to being indignant.

“Well, if the humans who call themselves Christian thought the Maker was female, that would make her a lesbian, right? Didn’t I read that the Christians had something against lesbians?”

“That’s ALSO stupid!,” the first being was starting to get irate. The swing started moving higher and faster. It was quite possible that if the first being continued to get upset, the swing would eventually rotate completely around the star. “Why would the Maker create a creature and not allow it to be itself?”

“No one ever claimed humans were smart,” said the second being. “Or even rational.”

“You can say THAT again!” said the first being.

“But then it’s not as if humans have the corner on irrationality.”

The first being looked at the second suspiciously, “what specifically are you thinking of?”

“Well, there’s the platypus.”

“Oh the platypus,” the first being said dismissively. “Why does everyone pick on the platypus?”

“What about the ostrich? Or the sea cucumber?”

“They’re different,” the first being said, “that’s not the same as irrational.”

“Dinosaurs.”

The first being stopped staring angrily into space and turned to look at the second. “Dinosaurs? How so?”

“You think it’s rational that dinosaurs were allowed to evolve to become masters of the Earth and were then completely wiped out?”

“Well…”

“It’s not like they did anything to deserve it,” the second being said.

“Well… If the dinosaurs had lived, the humans would never have evolved,”

“And that’s fair to the dinosaurs how?”

“Well…”

“My point is that the world isn’t rational. Isn’t very fair either. But on the bright side, we got free will.”

“True.”

“Thank you. Now stop swinging so fast, you’re making me sick.”

Nothing exciting today.

When Kat sits like that, I like to tell him it makes his butt look big.

He doesn’t seem to care for some reason.

All week, every time Grandmom has gotten out of her chair, Kit has jumped up into it. Kit doesn’t seem to get the idea of not irking the woman who gives her treats.

Then again, it hasn’t changed how often Grandmom does give her treats.

Morgantown WV has the lowest unemployment rates in the entire nation.

Mind you, I’m not going to be taking that for granted, but I’m not worried about my job or Michael’s job.

One note however, if you are thinking about moving here? Traffic still sucks.

We have a single pink-red tulip, that somehow ended up in the kitchen.

Yesterday at dinner I realized its unfolding bloom had weighted it down until it was resting its head upon the mixer.

I really liked the way it looked.

I have no idea where this is going. Thought I was done with it, until the first sentence hit me while I was showering.

Don’t Yawn with your Mouth Open Part I
Don’t Yawn with your Mouth Open Part II
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Don’t Yawn with your Mouth Open, Part 1

Nothing extremely disturbing today. Thank goodness.
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