Larocque and Roll

Merry Fourth Day After Christmas, and a Happy Two Days Until New Year’s Eve! December 29, 2007

Woo!

I just spent the Christmas holiday at the home of my parents, mostly eating, sitting around and eating and oohing and awwing over the antics of my nephew [1]. It was a good visit, and everyone made out well in the gift department. The weather was distinctly un-winter like - up here, it’s well below zero, and there’s so much snow it’s getting out of control [2]. Down there? Barely any snow and hardly any need for mittens.

Today started out pretty ambitious - I got the house cleaned and washed a few floors [3]. Now I can barely gather up the ambition to waddle over to the couch to knit and watch TV.

Coming soon: the books of 2007! [4]

[1] He’s teething, which means there’s lots of funny faces and an ocean of drool.
[2] Last night, we got another 10cm. Insane!
[3] Blissful domesticity.
[4] I know I said I was going to do this a week or two ago, but I’m sort of glad I didn’t have a chance to. There was still plenty of year left for me to read a whole bunch more books, which is what I did over the holidays.

My favourite mistake December 16, 2007

Just before the staff party, I saw an episode of Sugar where Anna was making desserts with condensed milk. One square in particular caught my attention, and I bought all the ingredients with the intention of making them for the party. Because I had already made a gingerbread trifle, I decided to pass for the moment.

I have another pot luck party coming up on Monday, so I thought I’d have a go at making them last night. I followed the recipe exactly as it said, despite some misgivings, and then put it in the oven. Before I did, I put a cookie sheet under the pan just in case.

A little while later, I checked to see how it was doing. It’s a good thing I put it on that cookie sheet because it had completely bubbled over. Not only that, it had seeped behind the parchment paper I’d lined the pan with, meaning removing it would be a challenge. Once it comes out of the oven, it’s supposed to cool off for a few hours - thank the deity of your choice for Canadian winters!

Once it came back in and thawed some, it was as difficult as I though to get it out. When you do, it’s oh so worth it.

Yeah, it’s a bitch to get out of the pan, but it’s sticky and sweet and delicious. If you’re inclined to try making it, here are my thoughts:

1. Only use half a cup of butter in the crust. You just want the crumbs to stick together, no be batter-like (which they were last night.)

2. I used graham cracker crumbs instead of vanilla wafers. Hey, if I can find shortcuts, I’m going to take them.

3. Use the salted peanuts! The little bit of salty in the sweet is a lovely contrast.

4. If one can of condensed milk covers the top, then don’t add the second can. I think that’s why it bubbled over last night. That, plus the overabundance of butter in the crust turned it into a soupy concoction which re-hardened after the cooling period.

I thought about drizzling chocolate over it once I got it out of the pan, but that would just be gilding the lily.

Smarty pants December 12, 2007

Thanks to everyone who sent me encouraging messages yesterday after I posted my Facebook status as “stupid stupid stupid!” I did send a few people a brief explanation, but here’s the long story:

Whenever anyone on our public computers sent something to the printer, it printed immediately. Then there were discussions/arguments about what the person had to pay for, and sometimes the exchanges were heated. Or, someone would print something and never pick it up, so at the end of the day we were stuck with a stack of paper no one wanted.

The company who made the reservation software we have on the public computers also makes a piece of software which will hold print jobs until the person comes to pick them up, thus cutting down on arguments and wasted paper.

So, yesterday, the rep was coming to install it on our computers. We’ve been corresponding for weeks about network setups, system requirements, blah blah blah. Monday night she sent me a confirmation email, making sure that the computer I wanted the control software installed on was able to print to the printer the public computers use.

Which is when it hit me: the circ computers don’t use that printer. In fact, they can’t see it at all because the public computers are on a completely different network, so they wouldn’t be able to control the print jobs. In the three months we’ve been corresponding about setting this up, I somehow managed to forget this minor, but key, detail.

In the end, our IT folk came up with a workable solution, and basically saved my ass. I’m still reeling from how foolish it was to overlook that last bit, and how much stress it put on me and the IT folk. There’s no excuse for this, and the only defense I can offer is that I’m currently overseeing three other major projects, all of which are coming to a head this month, not to mention all the day to day details, like scheduling and vacations and overtime.

Fortunately, today I was back to my usual self. Not quite brilliant, but far from the idiot I felt I was Monday night.

Overdue books December 8, 2007

Man, did I not post the list of books I read in October? I don’t think I did. In fact, I didn’t read many in November either - I started quite a few which I ended up chucking out the window before I finished them. Plus, what with being busy not doing NaNoWriMo and all, it takes a lot out of a girl!

~ Carey, Jacquelin. Kushiel’s Justice (7.5)
I’d been waiting for this one for quite a while, and not patiently either. It was good, and I look forward to the sequel.

~ Chelminski, Rudolph. The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine (8)
Very good biography of the French chef Bernard Loiseau. Also good insight into the high-stress world of haute cuisine, especially in France, and an explanation of where the Micheline Guide came from. Excellent!

~ Lukyanenko, Sergi. Night Watch (6)
It was good at first, and then it started to repeat itself over and over again. The second book isn’t a whole lot better - I’ve been stuck on it for over a month for the same reason.

We’re to the end of October here. I recall that there were a few other books started and discarded around this point, including a few I started and put down and ignored.

~ Gabaldon, Diana. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (8)
The first thing I want to say is that there was a plot…twist? [1] that left me gobsmacked for the better part of a day. That said, I’m glad she’s writing books from the perspective of one of the darker characters from the Outlander series and making him so very human and sympathetic. There’s also a book of short stories about Lord John which I just got this week. I might save it for the trip home at Christmas.

~ Strohmeyer, Sarah. The Sleeping Beauty Proposal. (5)
Why oh why did I finish this book? It frustrated me at the time, so I must have been bored.

~ Cabot, Meg. Size 14 is Not Fat Either (6.5)
Also heavy on fluff, but soothing, brain-numbing fluff. And it’s not just that - I like Meg Cabot, and I wish she would write faster!

~ Barker, Clive. Mister B. Gone (3)
It was like a grown-up version of There’s a Monster At The End of This Book, starring Grover. It can be summed up thusly: “Oooooh, I’m a scary demon - boo! - and I really live in this book, and I want you to burn it! Why aren’t you burning it? I know where you live and I’ll come and get you! Oh, not really - just kidding!”

And I think there was another abandoned book in here, and I can’t remember it. Wait - got it…

~Moore, Christopher. The Stupidest Angel. (9)
It’s a Christmas book, featuring a dead Santa and zombies! What’s not to love about that!?!? (And it’s Moore, so you know it’s going to be funny.)

So I suppose at some point I’m going to have to go through and pick which ones I liked the best. Okay… check back next week and I’ll see what I’ve come up with.

[1] It wasn’t a twist, really, but a surprise.

NaNo 2007 Day 30: Endgame December 1, 2007

I just spent the last hour an a half in the kitchen making the components of a gingerbread trifle (it will be assembled tomorrow afternoon). Before that, I spent most of the day cleaning the house, moving furniture around, and shopping for groceries. Last night I spent almost three hours baking gingerbread cookies [1] for the cookie exchange at work today. Before that, I spent an accumulated seven or eight hours making new curtains for the windows on the main floor and a new cover for my footstool.

Prior to that, I’ve entertained four guests on three occasions for a total of six days and seven nights (I’m rounding up, I think). With those visits, came the obligitory cleaning and slaying of dust bunnies.

This is a long way of saying that I didn’t get any writing done on my story since the last update. None. My total word count this year was under 2000. I did try a few times - I’d sit down at my laptop and stare at my screen for an hour or so before giving up and going and doing something more [2] productive.

Part of it was the story - I just wasn’t feeling it. I had no plot, no characters, and no passion for what I’d written. If I’d had any of the three, you can bet I’d have made time to work on the story. As it was, it was too easy to walk away from it because I couldn’t see getting to the point where I would start to like it. And in the end, there was just no spark. To belabour the analogy, the patient had very little life on arrival and died on the table.

Would I do NaNoWriMo again? Damn skippy I would! Would I do it next year? I sincerely hope so.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to bed. I’m hosting the staff Christmas party tomorrow night - almost everything is done except sweeping the floor, and cooking my two dishes. I can sleep the sleep of someone who is on schedule for once.

[1] Yes, I’m obsessed with gingerbread. What made you ask?
[2] Or occasionally less.