First, because it amuses me so, Richard has created a Sci Fi Movie Generator. Now you, too, can create your very own scripts worthy of the high quality production of the Sci Fi channel movies. You are welcome.

It’s been just another day – a little cold, a little grey and dreary. You know, the usual. I went to work and picked up a bag of cat food on the way home because we ran out a few days ago and all the bowls were down to crumbs. Worse yet, you could actually *see* the bottom in some of them, which in the mind of cats constitutes a full scale emergency, requiring waking me up at all hours of the night to holler about it. I also swung through Costco to pick up a gift for the gift exchange we’ll be doing at the office dinner tomorrow night, and stopped by a few other places since I was in the area, looking for one more thing for Richard (alas, I did not find it). Then I went home and filled up the bowls before the cats trampled me and ripped open the bag themselves (the fact that there was still kibble in the bowls, albeit a small amount, is irrelevant to the fact that they were STARVING).

While at CostCo I saw a kit to make a gingerbread house, and since I remember that my niece had so much fun doing the Halloween one when we visited them back in October, I had to buy the Christmas one for her too. I dropped it off at my parents’ house, along with the recorder music, picked up the music that my sister and I are going to be singing for the late service on Christmas Eve, and then eventually made it back home in time to wolf down dinner and get busy with the knitting, which is going slower than I’d hoped, but which I still have every intention of finishing on time. We will not speak of the fact that the edging is going to take a millenium to complete. Leave me my delusions.

Anyway. In the spirit of sharing, and also because the regular place I post recipes appears to be broken (the existing files are visible, but I cannot edit any of them, nor can I apparently post anything new. Grumble), I give you my recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge. I have no idea where I got this recipe, or when – it was in the book where I scribble down recipes to keep for later, but it’s far from the last recipe in the Desserts section, so it could have lurked there for years.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Combine milk, chips, peanut butter and corn syrup in saucepan. Cook over medium heat until chocolate is melted.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour into well-greased 8″x8″ pan.

Chill until firm. Cut into squares (I do 64 pieces because this stuff is rich). Store in fridge.

Tis the season for Holidailies

Because our office is very small, our holiday event each year is a dinner out, just us and our various spouses or dates, at someplace nice. We’ve also, in years past, tried to schedule some kind of lunch thing as well, just to keep the festive spirit going. Actually, the lunch plan has less to do with the holiday season and more to do with the fact that we all like having lunch together, but hey, any excuse works.

We’d tossed around the idea of doing a potluck, which we’ve done in the past, but this close to Christmas we were all tired and the appeal of trying to actually cook something has been diminishing at a rate inversely proportional to the amount of holiday baking some of us have been doing lately. So instead, today we did a do-your-own-sandwich lunch. One person brought a selection of breads, another brought a whole plateful of cheeses, I picked up an assortment of meats at the deli, and there was also salad and drinks and dessert. It was quick and it was easy, and no one had to go out and brave the frigid temperatures to start up our tiny little office grill, and aside from the fact that we have now determined that we need to invest in both a decent bread knife, and a cutting board, for the office, it worked out perfectly. I suspect next time we consider doing a potluck at the office, we’ll do this instead.

********

A few days ago, while watching some program or another, we saw previews for a made-for-TV movie called “Dead and Deader”. Considering it was made for the Sci Fi channel, we knew immediately that it was going to be very, very bad. But sometimes the very, very bad can also translate into ‘funny as hell’, so Richard set the DVR to record it (all hail the DVR), and we watched it tonight.

It was bad. And I mean, really bad. We were snickering and mocking it from the very first opening shots, and by the end of the movie, Richard was having so much fun with the mocking that he was inspired to write up this. I suspect that anyone who has ever watched more than one ‘Sci Fi original movie’ will agree that he pretty much nailed it.

Tis the season for Holidailies

I brought a plate of the chocolate peanut butter fudge in to work today, and sent a plate in with Richard as well. This was done in order to share the holiday joy with our coworkers, but also, and perhaps more importantly, as a wa to remove temptation from the house so that I do not end up eating the entire pan by myself. This was critical because this truly is the best fudge ever, and if my coworkers and Richard’s are any indication, I am not the only one who feels that way, and I am sadly weak in the face of things that include dark chocolate and peanut butter all mixed together in one tiny delicious square of bliss.

Of course, bringing fudge in to work means looking at it every time I went into the kitchen to get coffee or heat up my lunch. Still, eating a few pieces is still preferable to eating an entire pan. And we will not speak of the box of teacakes sitting at home, of which I am trying to limit myself to only one or two a night. It is good that most of those will be going in to work with Richard on Wednesday, or there might be powdered sugar-covered carnage very, very soon.

In consolation for having deprived myself of a whole pan of fudge (ha), we had pizza for dinner, and watched the remaining two episodes of Wallace and Grommit (one of which involved collaborative sheep; the other which included an evil, scheming penguin). Then I went off to my knitting group and Richard went off to Borders to do some writing, and why it did not occur to either of us to carpool since we were going to places within two blocks of each other I have no idea, but Richard won major good husband points by being willing to pick up the “love” issue of one of the most horridly tacky knitting magazines ever possibly published, simply because it includes a pattern that I had been dreading trying to design by myself, and I am willing to purchase horribly tacky magazines if it means that I do not have to do all that calculating myself.

Tis the season for Holidailies

The cantata is finally done, and with it, the last of the big holiday responsibilites. I feel like I can finally heave a huge sigh of relief and focus on nothing more complicated than finishing the gift knitting, mailing out the last of the Christmas cards, and looking forward to Christmas and time off and family and fun.

This afternoon, in between cantata in the morning and cantata at night, I went to the knitting group at the bakery. It was a small group there, but that was actually preferrable, since we were all working furiously on holiday knitting and appreciated the distinct lack of noise and crazy that sometimes happens when it’s a much larger crowd.

The recorder group practiced this morning, before cantata rehearsal, and even though it was kind of messy, I am remaining optimistic that it will sound far better by next Sunday. The cantata rehearsal wasn’t nearly as fumbly as yesterday, and the performance during the morning service went surprisingly well; better, in fact, than the evening performance, at least as far as I could tell. By this evening I was exhausted and struggling for the low notes, and the other tenor was also tired and struggling for the high notes, so luckily between the two of us we covered the range, but still, it sounded as if a number of the other singers and musicians were feeling the same way. I think I am not the only one who is very, very glad it is over.

Tis the season for Holidailies

We had rehearsal this morning, for the cantata, so I woke up early enough beforehand to get a load of laundry through the wash, and make a Pumpkin Apple Gingerbread cake for breakfast. I woke Richard in time for him to make coffee (have I mentioned lately how much we love the new coffee maker?) and we ate breakfast with just enough time to do it leisurely before we had to head off to the church to sing. The cake, by the way, is tasty, but tastes nothing at all like gingerbread, and was time consuming enough that I am not sure if I will bother making it again, but it somehow seemed appropriate to the season, and with the apples and the pumpkin, one small slice is *extremely* filling.

After rehearsal we came back home and I spent some time on my knitting. Eventually Richard headed off to Borders to do a little bit of writing, so I zipped off to the grocery store to pick up flour and chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and butter, and then came home and did a little Christmas baking. I made a batch of Russian Teacakes (they have a lot of other different names, but basically they involve a little flour, a lot of butter, and some crushed walnuts, and when they are cooled they are rolled in powdered sugar and they are like a little explosion of sweet buttery joy in your mouth when you eat them). While the dough for those was chilling, I stirred up some Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, which is basically chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and butter and just enough peanut butter to add a rich flavor, all melted together and poured in a pan to cool, and by the time Richard came back home, I was stirring up the dough for spritz cookies. We are all out of green food coloring, so instead of trying to mix up my own green, I decided to just make them all blue. Except I added a bit more blue color than I’d anticipated, and they turned out very, very blue – sort of the color blue you might expect if you made cookies out of a Smurf.

We watched an old Wallace and Grommit cartoon during dinner, and then I rolled out the teacakes and put them in the oven to bake, and my timing could not have been better, because all the cookies were just cool enough to store in tins by the time my parents came to pick us up.

My parents have been looking for a local production of Ahmal and the Night Visitors for some time now, so when they finally found one – in Sacramento – they invited us to go along. This particular production was quite well done, for being performed by amateurs, and was especially fun because the actual acting during the performance was ‘done’ by puppets.

Tis the season for Holidailies

Today has been a lovely, quiet sort of day. Nothing too exciting happened at work, which is always preferrable on a Friday when the last thing any of us wants to do is deal with something urgent. I even managed to clear off a sizable space on my desk, just for the heck of it. My desk at work is organized by the pile system, mainly because it is huge and available shelf space is limited, and piles are easier to see than stuffing things in drawers and out of sight.

It’s been a grey and chilly day, although I cannot complain one bit – we, at least, have sun and calm weather down here in the Sacramento valley. My dad emailed the rest of the family to say that my little sister (who lives up in Seattle, and thus is right smack in the heart of that horrible blizzard that’s been pounding the Northwest this week) has no power, and a tree came down and took out the back window in her car. Of all the reports of downed trees, and downed power lines, and houses smashed and airports closed and tiny airplanes picked up and tossed around like toys from the wind, if the most they got was a broken car window, I am thankful.

We had a highly nutritios dinner consisting of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches, toasted under the broiler, and watched two episodes of Battlestar Galactica (last week’s and this week’s) and Richard sat on the futon and worked on story revisions while I sat on the loveseat, surrounded by cats, knitting. This weekend is nearly upon us and it will be a busy one, and at some point I really ought to try to get some baking done, but for now, it has been nice to just sit back and let the day go by, quiet and calm and still.

Tis the season for Holidailies

You know how, a week or two before a big event hits, it all suddenly comes crashing in on you – the enormity of everything you still have yet to finish, and the rapidly shrinking amount of time between now and then, and the stress and the anxiety? I think today was that day. Not so much for me; but it sure seemed like it was that day for a lot of people around me. Everyone is a little more irritable, a little more prone to snap at people, a little more prone to take offense. We’re all tired and worried and trying to narrow our focus so we don’t have to think about everything that looms over us at the end of the year and eventually, it all just gets to be a little too much.

So here is the thing that you have to consider, when this happens. If you do not get that perfect gift bought and wrapped before whatever gift-giving holiday you celebrate, will the world come crashing to a halt? If you do not bake every single traditional holiday goodie this year, will your family fall apart? If your holiday cards get sent out late, will people refuse to open them? It’s all the small things like that that get us all wound up and so wrapped tight by stress and nerves that that is all we can think about.

It doesn’t make it any easier, sometimes, to disentagle oneself from all the expectations we heap on our own heads. But sometimes it’s good to get a little reminder; a little perspective. Take a deep breath. Remember to breathe. Let life go on.

Tis the season for Holidailies

Dear Internet,

It’s time, once again, for the annual end-of-the-year wrap-up letter, which works in lieu of an actual entry today, mainly because there really are things in here I didn’t talk about in the journal, for a change. Not, mind you, that I was trying to actively hide anything; more that I was just lazy and unmotivated to write and let a lot of things slip through the cracks.

First, the usual job update. Nothing too exciting to report here. We’re both working at the same place we worked last year and we’re both still quite happy about it. I know that seems so incredibly boring compared to years past, but hey, that’s life.

Richard spent a lot of this year writing, trying to flesh out a more comprehensive draft of the novel he wrote during last November’s National Novel Writing Month challenge. He took a break from that to whip up another novel for this year’s NaNoWriMo, and also took a few breaks to toss out a few stories here and there to see which ones stuck. A few actually did – including his short story “Indications”, which was published in Pseudopod. He also appeared on “Insight”, a locally produced show on Sacramento’s National Public Radio affiliate, to chat about his writing (specific to that whole wacky NaNoWriMo thing that apparently baffles those cute radio folk).

And while he’s been heads down over his computer writing up a storm, I’ve been heads down over my needles, knitting madly. I produced a rather large lace shawl in sixteen days, earning myself a gold medal for the Knitting Olympics (tens of thousands of knitters took part. We may be weird, but we’re growing in number and we are armed with sharp pointy things). I discovered that knitting seven pairs of the same pink socks to raise money for charity is not nearly as fun as it sounds; and walking 39 miles for that charity is even *less* fun, but I did it anyway. I made myself a lovely cabled cardigan and wore it all over Ireland. I had fun making lace shawls and stoles and goofy hats for store samples for two friends. Oh, and I also had my first submitted pattern published in the December issue of Magknits.

We did a few pretty exciting things this year. The biggest one, of course, was that we finally took our honeymoon trip to Ireland. We spent three weeks there, most of it soggy, and had an amazing time. We took a ton of pictures and wrote all about it (entries for the Ireland trip start here). We launched Daikaijuzine, an online magazine of science fiction, fantasy, poetry, and more. Richard is the Editor-in-Chief, and I’m the Managing Editor, mainly because I am one of those wacky people who enjoys editing, and obsesses about proper spelling and grammar (in other people’s writing). The first issue was launched in September and our next full issue will be published in March, and will features stories by renowned fantasy writer Tim Pratt and New York Times bestselling author David Wolverton.

I’m still in the church choir, since tenors continue to be in very short supply. Ah well. On the plus side, our choir joined a few others and sang Haydn’s Theresienmesse in April. There were a few hundred of us singers, and it was quite fun. I also recently joined an all-women’s choral group and am enjoying getting to sing as a woman (I’m an alto) instead of as a man (since I am usually a tenor) for the first time in years. Our most recent concert earned rave reviews. Yes, I am still a bit giddy about that. And while I’m no longer one of the rotating piano accompanists (since the church finally hired a full time accompanist), I am still in charge of the recorder group, so get to do non-singing music from time to time as well.

The nerd-foo remains strong in our household. We made our usual pilgrimage to Dragon*Con, the country’s largest science fiction and fantasy convention, held every year in Atlanta, Georgia. We had a wonderful time attending panels hosted by writers and actors from some of our favorite shows. We both got to celebrate our nerdiness even more in October when Richard got to see one of his favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, speak in Berkeley, and later on that month, we both got to see Terry Pratchett, another favorite, speak in Petaluma, California.

It hasn’t all been fun and games this year. Health wise, this hasn’t been a great year for Richard – no small comfort that the doctors told him it’s been the worst year they’ve seen for everyone with asthma. Despite continuing the allergy shots, my sinuses still are doing their best to kill me. And of course, there was the matter of my Dad’s little lengthy detour into the hospital, first for the emergency six-way bypass surgery, and then for several weeks of therapy after he suffered a mild stroke. He’s doing amazingly well now, but it was a pretty scary time for the whole family and we have all told him that he is not allowed to do that again. Because. You know. That will work.

And finally, the requisite update on the four-footed members of our household. After losing Rebecca in 2004 and Allegra in 2005 I was a little nervous about how this year would shape up, but so far everyone’s health seems to be holding up well. Sebastian continues to get louder with age (much like a fine whine. Ha ha ha! Okay, I’ll stop now). Tangerine seemed to be a bit under the weather earlier in the year, and gave us quite a scare by sneaking outside and staying out for two nights until we found her, but she’s finally decided that feeling poorly is just no fun, and seems to have shaken whatever it was off. Zucchini remains convinced that we are plotting his demise, and continues to lurk, suspiciously, just out of sight. Rosemary contiues to cart her little stuffed dragons all over the house and arrange them in complex patterns we have still yet to decipher. Azzie remains as deeply fascinated by water faucets, the DVD player, and closed doors as he has always been. And Checkers – the tiny little tortie we adopted in March – feels compelled to share her (numerous) opinions with us by squawking, or occassionally flinging sparkly balls at us, much to our continued amusement.

So that’s it. All things considered, it’s been a pretty good year. Here’s hoping 2007 brings more (and also a bit less) of the same.

Tis the season for Holidailies

The holiday crazy is far from over, so I should not relax too soon, but somehow it felt right to just heave a huge sigh of relief after the weekend was over. All that’s left, performance-wise, is the cantata for the church, but that is far less pressure than the concert this weekend. I suspect that has a lot to do with the fact that the music is significantly easier to sing, and there are one heck of a lot more than just seven of us doing the canata.

Part of the reason for letting myself relax just a bit, though is that now that rehearsals are done, I can resume going to the Monday Night Knitting Group, at least for a few more weeks. So that’s what I did last night, and I went to the Tuesday Knitting at the Library tonight, and it just felt like it was this little oasis from all the busy I’ve been dealing with lately. Monday night I made good progress on the shawl, mainly because at the end of the table where I was sitting, the topic of conversation mainly focused on pregnancy, and since I have never experienced it, nor do I ever intend to, I could just let the conversation wash over me and nod and smile and just focus on knitting lace. It was, actually, quite nice. As for tonight’s knitting group, it was a small crowd, but it was nice to see some familiar faces and just knit and chat and not think about anything complicated except the pattern coming together under my fingertips.

Richard and I have been watching the miniseries The Lost Room the past two nights, and alternately shaking our heads with amusement, or bemoaning the fact that this thing could have been so much better. The story idea has a lot of potential, but it seems like the editor must have been out sick during the final draft of the script, and so it comes across as a bit clunky and weak. We’re continuing with it til the end, mainly because there are only three parts to it so it’s not as if we have to invest a huge amount of time, and also because sometimes it is really nice to watch a show where very little thought is ever required. Compared to our usual television watching (Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, House, that sort of thing) inane TV is a nice change.

Tis the season for Holidailies

Things that make me very happy today.

• Chai spice, and hazelnut, coffee creamers (I may never go back to regular creamer again!)
• Our new living room arrangement (I love it. Richard loves it. The cats love it. I am even rethinking my intense need to get new furniture because I love the new layout so much)
• The batch of polenta I made this morning, currently cooling in the refrigerator and destined to become the base for what should be an incredibly delicious lasagna for tonight’s dinner
• Anticipation of an evening spent with yarn and pointy sticks and good friends.
• Starting the week with a review (reprinted below) of our concert that is better than anything we could have ever dreamed.

New vocal ensemble Vox Musica delivers masterful program
By Edward Ortiz – Bee Arts Critic
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, December 11, 2006

It’s a shame that some extremely enjoyable holiday music rarely gets played the rest of the year.

For who could argue against hearing Gustav Holst’s sublime “In the Bleak Midwinter” or “Silent Night” anytime?

The seven-member female vocal ensemble Vox Musica made that argument a valid one with a superb performance of holiday choral music Saturday night at Sacramento’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

This new vocal ensemble (they performed their first concert last spring) is a welcome addition to the music scene, and they proved it by delivering the goods on a smartly selected program by director Daniel Paulson. Choosing vibrant and temporally relevant works by six living composers to counterbalance choral masterpieces proved a smart move.

The highlight of the evening belonged to the ensemble’s performance of the harmonically complex “A Nativity,” by Englishman John Tavener. This provocative work uses its first soprano as the starting point from which other voices join in to sing dissonant notes. The ensemble connected with the haunting nature of the work, and the pliant singing gave it intense color.

Also noteworthy was “Ave Maria” by the Venezuelan composer Cesar Alejandro Carillo. The ensemble sang the dissonances of this work with a delicate touch that deepened the profundity of this evocative piece.

Among the area premieres was a work by Bay Area composer Kurt Erickson. The ensemble sang his “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” with punch and vigor. This is a rhythmically forceful work that is refreshing for the way it blends two older songs.

Some of the better performed works were older ones, including Tomas Luis de Victoria’s “O Magnum Mysterium” from the Renaissance period. Here Paulson directed his singers towards a joyous interplay of polyphony and homophony.

And it’s hard to imagine that the group’s expressive and tonally focused turn on Holst’s classic “In the Bleak Midwinter” has been done any better.

Tis the season for Holidailies