Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 126

It isn't a fur throw on that couch...

Thanks to a post on an entomology listserv I'm on...

bugguide.net/node/view/307090

I expect to see a really good horror story or movie come from this image being on the web...

Food question: freezing yoghurt-containing foods

I'm making lamb curry again and want to freeze half of it.  I haven't put the yoghurt in yet and was wondering if it would freeze better (or actually, thaw better) with or without the yoghurt in it.

Life in the Country: The New Meat Saw

Today our schedule and John's  finally meshed and we went over to the ranch to  try out the new meat saw.   We didn't have long so we cut only one chunk of lamb...but wow.   As in...wow. 

I cleaned the table and then we pulled a shoulder of lamb (near-mutton lamb--not a little bitty lamb)  out of the freezer and turned on the machine.   And it might as well have been butter, for all the trouble the saw had with it.   Fingertip pressure was all it took--we weren't trying to hurry, since we didn't

New snippet at Paksworld blog

I'm pushing ahead into book three while doing revisions on book two...so decided it was time to post a book three snippet. 

www.paksworld.com/blog/

Arcolin and Cracolnya are discussing a new development in northern politics.   It's never wise to annoy the dasksinyi and someone has been unwise.

Food: luscious dessert

I don't have a name for this yet--it was yesterday's inspiration.   It's a variation on Apple Brown Betty.

Slightly stale homemade brown bread, cut into slices then cubed.  
A crisp apple, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced (would've been better with two.) 
Chocolate pudding mix, the cooked kind, prepared as per directions (for my box it was 3 cups of milk)

In a buttered deep rectangular casserole, layer bread, then apples; dot apples with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon (and other spices as de

Double-binds

The first time I clearly recognized a double-bind, I was a skinny (too skinny, my family physician said) teenager.  Over the long haul, the cause was impacted, infected wisdom teeth that gave me a near-constant low-grade fever, aching joints, and also destroyed my appetite (most things tasted bad) but that wasn't discovered for another few years.  Right then, my doctor was urging me to eat more and suggested having a malted milk with an egg in it when I came home from school every day, recommen

The Voice Lesson

In addition to all the teaching he does in rehearsal, David-the-director (as opposed to David the Rector of the parish, and St. David the church, and David the arbalest--but in this post only one David is referenced, OK?) offers choir members one free half-hour lesson a year. 

Carolyn (fellow alto) and I took ours together--or rather, she sat in on mine, learning from my mistakes, and I sat in on hers, learning from hers. 

I now have enough confidence (starting from somewhere below middle-zero w

80 Acres: Drought July

There's a new post up at the 80 Acres blog.   You can contrast the header picture, also taken in July, with the first picture in the post--both are of the near meadow.    In the header, the grass is green (summer green for our grass, not English green...) and the sky is full of soft cumulus clouds that have at least some potential for rain.  In the other, taken July 4, the grass is burnt brown and the sky has almost no clouds, and a flat hard blue.

But there's always some beauty.  A grasshopper,

All things bright and...hmmm....

The weekend migraine is finally easing off, though the house looks like someone didn't spend time straightening up or cleaning this weekend (or for the past month, for that matter.)   With out-of-state company coming by this afternoon, that's not great.

OTOH, the bread is in the oven beginning to smell wonderful. 

And I found four different things in bloom (in the yard only) to put in a little vase for the kitchen table, which is clean, has a clean cloth on it, and plates and eating utensils laid

Scary Time at the Computer Corral

I left the computer running when I went out to do some other stuff in the house,  and sort of forgot that, when I came back down the hall and thought "I wonder if the big fireworks shows in the East are on TV yet." 

While I was gone, AVG did its automatic update of definitions, etc.   Later, I went back in and found myself staring at the message no one wants to see (though it wasn't phrased this way): "You've got Virus!"    

All's well that ends well, and though I'm still running checks and am ab