Buying BORAT tickets online is smart! / Eating pasta from a tub

Just talked to my sister, who said that she'd already bought me my tickets online. The lady at Famous Players said that it was a good idea to buy them online, since last night's BORAT showing sold out... they had to put on three extra showings of that movie! She also suggested showing up at least an hour early in order to get good seats, otherwise we'd be stuck at the front: Nathan has to pick various people up (including Jeremy?), so I'll show up at 8:25 with Vivian S. (who MIGHT find the movie offensive, even if it's funny... she had that opinion of a certain FAMILY GUY episode, after all) / Eric / Steph. No railings at BC Place (just for reference), but at least Steph knows where I prefer to sit in movie theatres... somewhere in the middle, since going down the stairs with no railings is hard on me with my balance issues. My sister has no idea what Mom's making for dinner, but it'll be cool.

I had a weird dream about being with a bunch of little kids who looked kinda Mexican. Two of them (in Campus Crusade shirts?!) decided to complain vehemently to my father about all the bad things he'd done to them, and concluded their rant with saying that they hoped he got run over by a truck and died soon! Dad didn't do anything back to them (he would have in real life!), and instead went outside of the conference park centre... where the kids' wish came true, almost! He did get run over by a truck, but he didn't die. My friends and I were definitely supporting the kids, and got into this tub full of creamy pasta with them. We were able to eat spaghetti, Fettuccini Alfredo, and penne with meat sauce all from the tub while talking about various things. Very weird dream, but who knows... maybe that means I want pasta, haha.

Now I gotta get going and take a shower / eat some turkey before leaving for Awana with Henry. The movie will be cool, man! :D

Error messages on LJ, hockey, nouns as stupid names, blogs, politics

Well, I managed to update last night's entries on here to LJ earlier today, despite all the lovely error messages I got. Maybe there's still hope, haha. Let's see how well this goes... bleh! They've had a power interruption in their datacentre. I *knew* I should have made a backup of a certain entry elsewhere while I could...

The Canucks lost 5-2 to Minnesota the other day, and they play Colorado tonight... yikes!

I've been checking holiday_wishes and want to respond to julie709's list. Then again, someone else wants ornaments for her six kids. That's all very well and good, but some people really should not name their own kids! Her kids' names are Justice (10-year-old boy), Credence (9-year-old boy), Trinity (4-year-old girl), Epiphany (3-year-old girl), Ardor (1.5-year old girl), and Solace (6-month-old girl). I have no real problem with Justice or Trinity, but the other four should be left as NOUNS! Ugh. I want to leave a comment to this effect, but of course I won't. *sigh*

Checking blogs... Dawn's written about Halloween and Costco. Apparently, she's stocked up on Brie and a bunch of other food.. even if she can't do whatever she wants when she wants, at least Vivian's dinner was fun! She wants to go visit San Diego and Hong Kong over the holidays: I guess she'll see about that plan later. Dave's discovered a cool new drink: three sips and bites first is his rule before dismissing stuff, and it's been good to him again! Says he leads a double life of being a TV junkie at night while doing his grad student narrow field of study thing by day. Heh, he seems to like it... and he loves sleep. (hope he's not got the MONO!)

Spoz has his usual weekender commentary and photos up... he's a photojournalist, but NOT working for things like the Adelaide Advertiser. He did go to Triple J radio station, though... madcap hijinks, indeed! Steph has pictures of her UGLY BETTY costume up... good enough for $25 at Café Artigiano's! Vivian has stuff about learning, teaching, Bible verses, and song lyrics up. Ah, the weird nature of attraction, emotion, and familiarity is something else... and what I will never understand for myself at all. Oh well...

You Should Have Voted For Kerry

Though You'd Rather Vote for Michael Moore

Who Should You Have Voted For in 2004?

You Are 28% Politically Radical

You've got a few unusual political ideas, but overall you're a pretty mainstream person. Chances are that you're turned off by both the radical right and looney left.

Are You a Political Radical?

Garlic CAN kill you!

Today's Weighed Down Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

In May 2004, fifteen Chinese workers were killed when storage shelves stacked high with garlic collapsed in central China. Some 34 workers were buried by tonnes of garlic after 10-metre (30 foot) high shelving broke at Chenzhai Cold Storage in Zhengzhou city, Henan province. A major rescue operation was launched - with 15 bodies recovered and 19 people pulled out alive and taken to hospitals. Chinese newspapers said the accident happened on Wednesday morning as the workers were stacking garlic cloves. Rescuers worked throughout the day and into the night to dig out the workers weighed down by the garlic and metal beams. The cause of the accident is under investigation. Thousands of people are killed by accidents at work in China every year.

Culled from: BBC
Generously submitted by: Amos Quito

**********************************************************************

Wretched Recommendations!

Sam Mori has a book recommendation for us - sounds like a winner to me!

Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill

"I had to read this my freshman year of college and could not put it down. It details the spread of disease and infection through the course of human history. I think it provides an interesting perspective on disease epidemics of the past - it doesn't romanticize the situations one way or the other. For once."

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Morbid Link Du Jour!

Here's a useful site which contains links to haunted places in all 50 states: The Shadow Lands Places So you can be disappointed at not seeing ghosts everywhere you go!! (Sorry, that's my bitterness creeping in again...)

Purell threats, crazy punctuation, sitting on people, BORAT, beards, being morbid, El Pollo Loco

Darn LJ doing work, since that means I'll be very behind on it tomorrow! Looks like I'll need to backdate entries yet again... wooyeah. (not)

Tonight, Eric claimed that I never answered the door... yeah, the phone was off, and I forgot to turn it on. I kept on mishearing things he said, which led to some crazy accusations. Threatened him with a double dose of Purell hand sanitizer if he mentioned a certain subject again, and told him that I was going deaf. (it could be true, since I'm older than I used to be!) Eventually, we got to church, where he told me that he had to leave and pick up his friend Korey - things didn't work out well in Vernon for him, and he'd just come back from visiting his mom in Powell River. We wondered how Dylan would fill up a whole program with talking about Bible Study: let Pastor Edward talk for half an hour, and then have an hour-long group discussion of various questions! I think our group had a good talk about stuff, so maybe this new thing WILL be good for me... who knows? (gotta keep focused and look at Dylan all the time... I just shouldn't do what Jeremy's dad did once, and look at the Bible in preparation for my next remarks while someone's sharing!)

Jeremy shared various crazy ideas with us, such as his crazy punctuation marks. A question mark combined with a colon, or a question mark combined with an ellipsis might be useful in some circumstances! (such as a list ending with a question mark and a colon) He asked if I wanted some bottled water from the refreshments, but I already had some... however, I took one for home since he said it was so good! (134 parts per million) There were some buns with shredded pork (not shredded chicken) in them (Jeremy had rice and pork fluff for dinner one month when someone gave him a LOT of it!), plus thinly-sliced apples and Chinese pastries with imitation crab meat, and some Diet Cola which only one person took! After the program was over, we went upstairs to say hi to the Resonate people: we could see hockey pool stuff going on courtesy of Steph's laptop hooked up to the overhead. Cordia, Quan, and Joyce were playing Christmas tunes on the piano: NOOOOO! Nathan told me that a bunch of them were going to see BORAT tomorrow at 9:25, and I got a ride for that funny movie from my sister! (must tell Henry to drop me off at the townhouse tomorrow... or I could bus it, but I'm not sure what time the bus runs...)

Jon and Jeremy discussed bottling beer tomorrow, the Yaletown Brewery on Sunday, and some other stuff. Jeremy and Eric decided to battle each other with their water bottles, while Citrus playfully beat up Mike after he discussed his new computer parts with the guys. (makes me wonder where I'll get mine!) When Jon heard "sit on him!", that was all the motivation he needed to stop talking to Joey about stuff... he just ran to the aisle and sat on both Citrus and Mike. Steph explained various wrestling references to Danielle, who then told me that she'd missed Eric on MSN when he'd messaged her. I told her that all he ever did to me on MSN when I didn't reply for a while was ask whether I was (still) in the bathroom, haha! (he confirmed that) Saw Dallas, and talked to him for a bit... a bunch of us decided to take over Dragon Ball, so we went. Danielle just wanted to go home and sleep: sometimes I want to do that too! Like I said to her, it's cool going out and such... but even if you stay up after you go home, you can just go to sleep whenever you want and not have to stay awake for an extra hour or so because you're not home yet!

I had a peach-pudding bubble tea with pearls and coconut jelly, and our group took over three tables! (Ray, Vivian, Karen, me, Jon, Eric, Jeremy, Karen Grace, Christon, Vania, her two friends, Dallas, Sheena, Donald, Steph) We told Jon about our Bible Study discussion, and talked about old fashion magazines: Katie Holmes BEFORE her corruption by Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, rings encrusted everywhere, umbrellas, Avril Lavigne looks, etc. Dallas and I switched tables, everyone helped everyone else get their bubble teas, Jeremy helped me get my number when I forgot it, and we talked about homeless people / Tinseltown / sample sales / Asians looking younger (Jon thought my getting carded at the liquor store was hilarious!) / church acronyms (Vancouver Chinese Alliance Church's VCAC is so German!!!) / Jeremy without a beard (he showed us his ID card from two years ago... such a difference!) / Vania putting a lot of thought into thinking about what Punjabi men looked like without their beards / BORAT online tickets / other things. We joked about finding Indians who weren't Sikh anymore and trying to convert them, with the sole purpose of asking them how it felt when they shaved their huge beards off! (Jeremy says that you can feel every single breeze for at least two weeks before your skin feels normal again)

Eric had to leave early to look things up online for Korey's trip back to Ontario: the guy called him at least three times, and each time Eric wasn't home yet! Dallas, Jeremy, and I went with him: we encountered a big deep puddle, which was fine... good thing the grass wasn't a swamp! We discussed electric trolleys, stealing power, TV, Jeremy's roommate Darryl downloading stuff, UGLY BETTY, Youtube / Google, the bridge closure, opening the windows ("no steamy activities back there!"), and other things while dropping the guys off. After that, I thought Eric was talking about the crazy traffic when he was really calling me crazy, and concluded that I was losing it! We kinda got lost after taking an alternate bridge home, but we figured out where we were going soon enough. He told me that the first thing he saw on Youtube was something about a stabbing at Aberdeen, then noted that my voice grew more excited when he mentioned that... hey, it's not my fault I'm interested in morbid stuff! (I should really send a bunch of people the link to the Morbid Fact of the Day / archives, hahaha) Good times, haha.


El Pollo Loco (Pollo Asada)

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 4 Preparation Time: 0:00
Categories: Chicken, Cheese / Eggs

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

1 cup White wine vinegar
1 cup Olive oil
1/2 cup White wine
Oregano
Thyme
Salt
10 milliliters Garlic -- mince
1 1/2 teaspoon Hot sauce

Mix all ingredients and marinate two whole chickens which have been cut in half. Marinate several hours in refrigerator. Grill chickens slowly until done.

Leaping across fronds and water, Jon at Fraserlands, BC Lions email, quizzes

I had a weird dream with Corey, Eric, Jeremy, Vivian, Karen Lew, my dad, and others in it... being oddly quiet during a drive across fronds and water which involved having to leap from one point to the next? Bring it on... as well as Karen saying "WTF... I was supposed to message Shelli!" in pink font on MSN! (although maybe not the first thing, heh) Then there was a romantic element to the dream (kissing in a huge ornate room)... not involving me or anyone else I mentioned! It was just... weird, with little silver-grey capers spilling out of a book's pages. Odd, but that's my brain for you! ;)

Steph just called me from work, which is weird enough... she wants to make sure we have a ride home since Jon's doing stuff at Fraserlands tonight. As far as I know, Eric will be there... the ping-pong isn't till next week, so I have some time to make up a viable excuse, like this tagging work which has consumed me lately! ;) (dunno why someone's so insistent on my being there when I DON'T PLAY!)

Jon sent a bunch of us an email about seeing a BC Lions football game on the 12th, right after service. The game's not till 1, but time is a consideration! Tickets are $35... I'd wonder why Steph and I are the only girls on this email, but we're his sisters. *shrug* Eric says "I'm in... shouldn't be too difficult to Skytrain there right after church. (Though the Skytrains will get crowded, especially for the trip back.) Cheap tickets will put us in a section with at least a few fans who have had a few too many before going to the game and will have a few too many more once they are there... but it's an experience." I don't think I'm in, but that could change!

You Are a Winter

You look ravishing in: Black, burgundy, emerald green, hot pink, icy colors, navy blue, red, royal purple, and white

What Season Color Are You?

You Are 32% Republican

You're a bit Republican, and probably more conservative than you realize. If you're still voting Democrat, maybe it's time that you stop.

How Republican Are You?

You Are 60% Democrat

You aren't a full-fledged Democrat yet, but it's likely the party that fits you best. You probably consider yourself an independent Democrat. You usually support the party, but you also think for yourself!

How Democrat Are You?

Leslie's Amazing Mental Ability... You can multiply two numbers... as long as both are 10 or less (Remember... with great power comes great responsibility!) 'What is your Amazing Mental Ability?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Yaletown Brewery, fluid draining, Ian Curtis, Durkee's Famous Sauce

Jon's sent us Sunday dinner info once again: this week might be too short notice to do one, there's a tentative one on the 12th, and the other two Sundays before this one have been booked with other dinners. (Joe's farewell and Vivian's birthday) Says we might do Yaletown Brewery for a dinner instead: their half-price pizza and beer are indeed both very good!


Today's Fluid Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

In 1549, the charnel chapel in St. Paul's churchyard was pulled down, and one thousand cartloads of bones were transported and deposited on "moorish ground" in Finsbury Field, London. The site become known as "Bunhill Fields." (most likely a corruption of "Bone Hill") Burials on the site did not commence until the mid-seventeenth century, but so popular did Bunhill become that by its closure in 1853... 120,000 interments had taken place.

Bunhill Fields is like no other burial ground in London. Sedate chest tombs, tightly packed headstones, and the virtual absence of angels / crosses / draped urns / broken columns set Bunhill apart. One famous inscription tells of the vicissitudes of Mary Page, who died in 1728 of a failing heart which necessitated fluid being drained from her abdomen:

In 67 months she was tap'd 66 times,
Had taken away 240 gallons of water,
Without ever repining at her case,
Or ever fearing the operation.

Culled from: Death: A History Of Man's Obsessions And Fears

**********************************************************************

Loads of pictures of Bunhill Fields are available at UK Graves.

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Reflections From The Castle DeSpair

When I was a suicidal teenager, my favorite band was Joy Division. There was something so soothing about singing along to lyrics like, Directionless, so plain to see / A loaded gun won't set you free / So you say or Existence, well what does it matter? In fact, my entire teenage experience could be summed up by a couple of Ian Curtis verses:

Oh, how I realized how I wanted time
Put into perspective, tried so hard to find
Just for one moment thought I'd found my way
Destiny unfolded, I watched it slip away

Now that I've realized how it's all gone wrong
Gotta find some therapy, this treatment takes too long
Deep in the heart of where sympathy held sway
Gotta find my destiny before it gets too late

Luckily, I was able to find my destiny... er, is that what this is?... before it got too late. Ian Curtis was not as fortunate; he hung himself on May 18, 1980. That's a date that I know from memory; Ian's suicide was a signalpost of my youth. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that it was probably not a good idea to worship a suicide, but I couldn't help myself. My doomed romanticism was at its most sharply tuned during those dark days in the 1980's and I spent my days cloistered in my room listening to Joy Division, reading Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and writing my own gloomy (and piss-poor) poetry. It wasn't much of a life, but it was a living...

I've weathered a lot of rugged emotional terrain since those teenage years (yes, woe IS me!), and although the specific schoolyard scenarios that tormented me back in those days are now a distant memory, the painful emotions that accompanied them still ring true. However, one thing has definitely changed in my medicated mind: I'm not particularly impressed by suicide any longer. I am far more likely to feel sympathy for the loved ones left behind and forever scarred by the suicide than I am for the desperate individual who committed the act. I look back on my own nearly-successful suicide attempt with more embarrassment than pride these days, and I'm not nearly as likely to show off my abundant scars as I used to be 10 years ago. Is this what they call "maturity"... or am I just a boring old Comtesse? Who can say?

So, it is with this changed perspective that I read Touching From A Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division by Ian Curtis' widow Deborah. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but I thought I would get some understanding of how Curtis' family and friends could just stand by and seemingly do nothing while his obvious suicidal tendencies went fatally unchecked. The book doesn't really answer that question - except to reinforce just how isolated Curtis had become in his final days, and how estranged he was from his family. If you believe Deborah's account, Ian was almost zombie-like during his last few months, as the strain of his personal problems (a broken marriage, a doomed love affair, and increasingly uncontrollable epilepsy) became unbearable. After reading this book, I understand why Curtis killed himself, and in some ways, I can't say that I blame him.

The book also presents Curtis as a very unlikeable personality. He is cold, controlling, uncaring, and indifferent towards his wife. I have to take that presentation with a grain of salt, since a lot of it smacks of 'Embittered Ex' syndrome. Deborah doesn't seem to have the slightest understanding of her husband, and doesn't offer any explanation of his motivations or his artistry. They don't communicate, don't seem to have anything in common, and they don't really seem to like each other either. It's a pretty depressing read, but not for obvious reasons.

There is one additional thing that I cannot forgive Deborah Curtis for - and that's refusing to publish Ian's suicide note in the book. She makes reference to it as being "deeply personal" - and I suppose this is her excuse for not printing it. But she sure had no problem in exploiting her personal life with Ian when writing this book! Yes, I know I'm being voyeuristic, but I can't help myself - I want to read the note! I want to know what his last thoughts were as he approached his "last fatal hour." Instead, I'm left with continued frustration.

My next read on this subject will be Mick Middles' book Torn Apart which presents the perspective of Curtis' girlfriend Annik Honoré. It's supposed to be much more enlightening than anything his wife could offer. I certainly hope so!

Touching From A Distance: Ian Curtis And Joy Division by Deborah Curtis

Rating: ** skulls (out of 5)

And there's always Anton Corbijn's movie Control to look forward to... It looks excellent!

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Morbid Site Du Jour!

It takes a certain type of deranged genius to create a site like Dead Diseased Baby. I am jealous I didn't think of it myself!

Thanks to KelShubert for the link.


Durkee's Famous Sauce

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 16 Preparation Time: 0:00
Categories: Sauces, Cheese / Eggs

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

1/2 cup Cold water
4 tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2 cup Plus 2 TABLESPOONS dark vinegar
2 tablespoons Salt
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Whole egg
4 tablespoons French's prepared mustard
4 tablespoons Margarine -- tiny bits

Place all ingredients as listed in blender on high speed until smooth (2 minutes). Transfer to top of double boiler and cook over gently boiling water, stirring often for 12 to 15 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Once more, put the mixture back through the blender for 30 seconds or till smooth, using high speed. Refrigerate in covered container 24 hours before using. Keep refrigerated 3 months.

Personal projects, rain, butter, missing experiences, dreams of cakes and prudes

I probably should go and spend time with my grandma today, but it's raining (or threatening to) and I could use the extra time to work on this project I have going. I've finished tagging random_musings and my personal journal, and now I just have to do the same thing with 5000survey and RQ. Grandma doesn't like going out in the rain anyhow, as it messes up her hair... so I'm home free! Speaking of journal stuff, there's a community for the machine that runs Joule. Maybe it will be back soon... I hope so! (the person who told me this said not to tell anyone, but I gotta post it here for posterity!)

What the heck is with this butter?! The tub claims it spreads well... it just doesn't spread well on bread compared to margarine! But then what else am I supposed to use it on? Oh well, I'll still keep it. Hey, the Canucks are in Minnesota tonight.. whee!

I find that I now miss having someone with whom to talk to during the day, who wouldn't mind my buzzing them with weird stuff. Sure, I had that before... but that was an experience in itself. Oh well... Corey thinks I should practice OKCupid hookups, but I disagree for obvious reasons! Maybe I'll leave my OKCupid screen on all the time, haha. I did get IMs from there, but not really anything which panned out.

Had a weird dream in which a few friends and I had to get a couple of ice cream cakes for AnjyB and her two kids. One of the cakes looked quite nice, up until you got to the cake topper decoration: it was of two naked angels! We quickly decided that it wouldn't be kid-friendly, so we stashed it in the freezer. After that, my brother got hungry, so went into the fridge to raid the mix of muffins, vegetables, and drinks in there. He threw out all the green onions, declaring that they weren't any good since he'd seen newer ones at Chinatown. After figuring that AnjyB would get back with her kids soon, we discussed what to do with the offending white ice cream cake. Since we knew that she was somewhat of a prude, we decided to eat that whole cake at once. The funny thing was that it tasted like a Chinese dessert and NOT ice cream at all! No, we didn't get it at those funky shops in Chinatown, either! Once she and her kids were in sight, the dream ended. Interesting...

Horrible NHL hockey injuries and murder! / Accents / Drake's Devil Dogs

Today's Physically Sickening Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Clint Malarchuk is a former Canadian ice hockey goaltender who played in the NHL between 1981 and 1992. He is probably best known for an injury sustained during one of the most horrific in-game incidents in sports history. The notable incident occurred during a game on March 22, 1989 between the visiting St. Louis Blues and Malarchuk's Buffalo Sabres. Steve Tuttle of the Blues and Uwe Krupp of the Sabres collided at the mouth of the goal, and Tuttle's skate caught Malarchuk on the throat, slicing open his outer jugular vein. With pools of blood collecting on the ice, Malarchuk somehow left the ice under his own power with the assistance of his team's trainer, Jim Pizzatelli. Many spectators were physically sickened by the sight with seven fainting and two suffering heart attacks. Local television cameras covering the game instantly cut away from the sight of Malarchuck. Malarchuk spent only one night in the hospital, and was back on the ice with his team two weeks later. After Malarchuk's injury, the NHL instituted a policy requiring all goalies to wear neck protection.

Culled from: Wikipedia
Generously suggested by: JenHas

If you'd like to see the gruesome incident for yourself, be my guest!

And here's a photograph as well, for good measure.


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Wretched Recommendations!

VoodooMarie has a fascinating book recommendation for us!

Thoughts on the Death of Little Children by Samuel Irenaeus Prime

"I found very possibly the darkest book the other day. It's entitled The Death of Little Children and was written in 1856, so unless you're lucky, you probably won't be able to find a copy. If nothing else, it is a dark look into a time when infant mortality was high and deaths were expected. What makes this little gem fascinating is the fact that it contains such rational for a child's death as: 'The creature so dear to you may have been taken from sad reverse of fortune, or from the commission of some great crime, which might have endangered his salvation. To secure this, God has removed him from temptation.' As a parent, that would be the last thing I would want to hear. The rest of the book is filled with hymns and poetry designed to reconcile the parental soul to the death of its child. The author was Samuel Irenaeus Prime, and the copy of the book I have is a fourth edition, which means that this genre had a market. I thought you might appreciate hearing about this example."

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"My Brother's Brush With Morbidity" by Tim

"[My brother] worked up here in South Daytona at 'Marcell Gardens' a few years back. He got a complaint from a bottom floor that some kind of red fluid was flowing through the roof! He went to the apartment above to ask what he was doing... the guy was panting, but very cordial, and he said it was photo developing fluid. So my brother went on about his work. He was very busy and is probably too trusting! The next day, the police were there and they found out it was a murder. It was 'Gugliomo' and he had murdered his wife and cut her up in pieces in order to carry her out. That was the blood that flowed through to the bottom floor. He dumped the head somewhere in Georgia and the rest of the body along the way, but they did catch him and my brother had to testify at the trial. I said, David, talk about a red flag!"

Indeed! And what sort of non-morbid mind would not suspect blood in the first place? Certainly none of us would miss a clue like that.

Yup, I've heard about that injury before. I'm not going to look at the video, but trust me when I say it was very bad. :P

I've done maybe about half my project, which is pretty good. Yay for that community not being very active lately? heh

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary," but when you step away from the Great Lakes, you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The Midland
North Central
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Drake's Devil Dogs

Here's a clone recipe for a favorite East Coast treat that could even fool Rosie O'Donnell. The snack food-loving talk show hostess professes her love for these tasty Drake's goodies all the time on her daytime show. And who could blame her? It's hard not to relish the smooth, fluffy filling sandwiched between two tender devil's food cake fingers. I'll take a Devil Dog over a Twinkie any day of the week. For this clone recipe, we'll make the cakes from scratch. This will help us to create a flavor and texture closest to the original, although the color will be much lighter than the real thing (the miracles of food coloring). But if you're feeling especially lazy, you can certainly use a devil's food cake mix in place of the scratch recipe here. Just make the filling with the recipe below and assemble your cakes the same way.

Cake
1 egg
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Filling
2 cups marshmallow creme (1 7-ounce jar)
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons very hot water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl... blend together the egg, shortening, and sugar with an electric mixer. Continue beating while adding the milk and vanilla.
3. In another bowl... sift together the remaining cake ingredients: flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, and beat until smooth.
5. Spoon about a tablespoon of the batter in strips about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the cakes are done. Cool.
6. In another bowl... combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Dissolve the 1/8 teaspoon of salt in the 2 teaspoons of very hot water in a small bowl. Add this salt solution to the filling mixture and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until the filling is smooth and fluffy.
7. When the cakes have cooled, spread about a tablespoon of filling on the face of one cake, and top it off with another cake. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Makes 20 to 24 snack cakes.

Eating, butts, and the Booty Logo!

I should go out and buy some discounted Halloween candy, but I think I may end up spending too much money. Then again, I just had a phone conversation with my grandma which mainly consisted of her telling me to come over and eat. (perhaps she wants to see me for longer than one second on a crazy day, haha) So maybe I can get HER to buy it for me! Mwahahaha... problem solved! ;)

Hahaha, Steph and Eric both responded to my email earlier about bottles and butts. (with the lovely subject line of "Would you like to drink from my butt?") Actually, Eric asked me at 3:30 whether I'd received his reply since he didn't get any confirmation that it was sent: yes, but I hadn't looked at it then!

Steph said, "I need to fix my email filters, coz this should have gone to JUNK!!!!!!!!! Eww!" Then Eric responded: "Man, I nearly barfed when I saw that subject line. I believe I received this message in error. Please tell me how I can not be a friend of good standing so I can stop receiving such emails. I'm not sure the question "Would you like to drink from my 477 litres?" makes any sense. 477 litres of fragrance? 477 litres of chocolate sauce? 477 litres of jelly? What do you mean? :P Eric."

After that, Steph just answered: " *insert Booty Logo here* " HAHAHA, we should have saved that thing to scan and post on the Internet! :P (I do remember drawing it in a fit of inspiration one day, and then showing it to my sibs... they then showed it to Dawn and Eunice during a family dinner, waiting until Dawn's little brother Geoffrey was out of the room!) At any rate, I've now composed a suitable reply, hahaha. (something to do with GWAR and anal vapors :P) Cower in fear! :P

Community management

I know! I'll do a lot of tagging and such over at 5000survey to keep myself occupied! (the GJ version, not the LJ version) Email should keep me occupied, too... I just emailed the Richmond Crew something about butts that I got from useless_facts, haha.

That'll be a doable project, and maybe I'll do games later!

Vampires and tuberculosis! / THE AUDITION

Why am I up so early? Oh yeah, I went to bed earlier than usual. Perhaps if I stay up really late tonight (and possibly stave off boredom by playing Scumm VM games), I can get my sleeping schedule back to normal. That, or I can post the archives of Morbid Facts... but that would take far too long. (I remember trying to start a project like that, and then abandoning it) Maybe I'll just read them instead, haha. Then again, I could eat these noodles and be all right for sleep... that happened to me once whilst talking to Spoz at 5:30 AM, heh. Must restart the computer after this post goes through, as well...

Also, someone said Joule's server had some kind of disk hardware failure. Wonder how they know... o_O


Today's Perfectly Preserved Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

When some kids went sliding down a muddy incline in the town of Griswold, Connecticut, one Sunday morning in 1990, they had no idea the 2 skulls that fell behind them from the hillside would lead to a vampire's resting place - in New England, of all places. The bones would not only clear the way to a 19th century graveyard of 28 normal corpses but also to one perfectly preserved skeleton, re-arranged in a skull-and-crossbones pattern with the initials J.B. on the lid of the decayed coffin.

"After he died, someone went into his grave and re-arranged him, covered him back up, and left," says Nick Bellantoni, Connecticut State Archaeologist and leader of the cemetery recovery project. "Our first hypothesis was that maybe this was some kind of vandalism," he adds. But after noting that the other 28 graves contained absolutely no valuables of any kind, other theories had to be explored.

That's when some researchers working with Bellantoni stumbled upon a newspaper account from the 1850's telling of a strange and gruesome practice that was taking place around the same time and only a few kilometres away. "The story goes into the burial of Henry Rae who had died of tuberculosis and was still thought to be spreading it to living family members," recounts Bellantoni. "It gives a whole description of how they went into his grave, broke into his chest cavity, and removed his heart." The practice was bizarre, but undeniably associated with countless similar European vampire cases.

After a careful inspection of the bones of J.B., Paul Sledzik, Curator of Anatomical Collections at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., was able to link the vampire hypothesis with a telltale clue. "From the lesions on several of J.B.'s bones, it was clear that he suffered and likely died of tuberculosis," says Sledzik. "It's very likely someone from the family mutilated the body to cause disruption of the corpse."

While not a pleasant task, it was one that vampire lore from Europe suggests was one of a number of ways of stopping the torment of those still living - in this case, plagued by tuberculosis. Other methods included driving a stake through the heart of the corpse or tying the dead body up in a rope with hundreds of knots.

Culled from: Discovery Channel
Generously submitted by: Shelley

**********************************************************************

Hey, in those days they mutilated bodies to stop the spread of disease; these days, we put antibiotics in tissue paper. Who can say which is the more effective method? But I do know which one is the more fascinating!

*******

Wretched Recommendations!

Lindsay has a film recommendation for us:

The Audition (Japan 1999)

Amazon review: "If you want the full sledgehammer-to-the-stomach effect of Audition, stop reading this review now. Just watch it and take the consequences. At first glance, Takashi Miike's jack in the box of a movie works like a romantic comedy: amiable widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) decides it's time to find a new wife, and a friend suggests holding a fake audition to find the right girl. It soon becomes clear that there is something wrong with Aoyama's choice. This is no ordinary Fatal Attraction-style thriller, however; Audition slowly and carefully builds into a wrenching exploration of both deep male fears and the stereotype of the cute, submissive Japanese woman. Audition is by no means an easy movie to watch -- even hardcore horror fans may have trouble -- but it will stay with you for a long, long time."

"When I finally got my hands on a copy of The Audition, I had already heard great things and was expecting the unexpected. Now only is this a great story with well rounded characters and complex plot, it also contains some of the most disturbing torture scenes I have ever watched. It starts out as a romantic movie about a lonely middle aged man and slowly turns into a nightmare. The direction is excellent, never giving too much, always throwing in the unexpected. The story draws you in slowly by unraveling the murky past of a beautiful, demure girl. Just like the main character, by the time you know the whole story, you're already in hell."

Dr. Ruth's Almost as Good as Sex Cheesecake

I'm so bored that I might as well go to bed early, haha.

The Canucks lost 3-2 to the Predators tonight, and tried coming back from a 2-0 deficit. Not good. Then again, I also get this INVALID YEAR crap when I try to update LJ today... what the heck is up with THAT?! GRRR!

My grandma wants to pay me to spend time with her. No, it's not as bad as you might think. I'd spend time with her even if I weren't being paid to do it, but my mom thinks she has no idea of what "personal space" means. This translates to Grandma following Mom around all the time, and wanting to go out all the time. She can't hire anyone for $10 an hour or whatever! So I guess we'll see about the day of the week I do this, haha. (I could use the money, but this isn't about that... spending time with her is cool, too)


Dr. Ruth's Almost as Good as Sex Cheesecake

Servings: 8

Crust:
5 oz Graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons Sugar
5 tablespoons Butter melted

Filling:
16 oz Cream cheese softened
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
Salt
2 large Eggs
3 tablespoons Chambord liqueur

Topping:
8 oz Sour cream
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1 tablespoon Chambord liqueur
1 cup Raspberries fresh

Preheat oven to 350 Deg. F. To prepare crust: mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press mixture firmly into bottom of 9" springform pan.

To make filling: mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt at medium speed with electric mixer. Add eggs, and mix until well blended. Using a fork, gently fold Chambord into batter. Pour mixture into crust. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown. Loosen cake from rim of pan. Let cool and remove rim of pan.

To prepare topping: mix sour cream, sugar, vanilla, and Chambord. Spread evenly over cheesecake. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm. Top with fresh raspberries just before serving. Chambord is a French liqueur.

I can't believe I got ID'ed at the liquor store!

Hey, there's a Morbid Fact of the Day, the MFDJ archives, My Brush With Morbidity archives, The Morbid Forum Du Jour, The Morbid Fact Du Jour Discussion List, and The Library Eclectica! They are all good morbid fun. :D (no, this is not my newsletter - I just love it so much that I want to advertise it, haha!)

Very nice... courtesy of Janina, who got it from Alicia. This is the stuff I'm into, har har. :D


I just got back in from shopping some more, since I forgot the butter / margarine yesterday... I could get a $10.93 reimbursement because I forgot my Save-On-More card yesterday too. Seems I was going to cash a cheque at the bank, but I forgot! At least I paid my hydro / phone bills online before I left, and scheduled a recurring monthly transfer of money from my chequing account to my savings account... this will help me save money, perhaps! This is what I bought from Save-On, Shoppers, and the liquor store after I went to the bank to get some cash (partly to pay my bill at the dentist's):

* whipped Foothills butter from Calgary that says it spreads 35% further than regular butter (250g... Corey's right about the non-chemical stuff coming in tubs, and it's next to the margarine)

* some Olivina margarine which I'd been wanting since that Safeway food shop with Roman last December (it has extra light hydrogenated olive oil)

* some bottled water and salad (I needed the salad so I can use up my Honey Dijon mustard salad dressing!)

* 500mL of Belhaven Wee Heavy Scottish Ale, and NO whiskey bottles... I figure it's time to learn how to use the bottle opener I got in February! (and then I got ID'ed at the liquor store! I know Asians look younger than they actually are, but really...)

* some Arm&Hammer Whitening Pleasures Icy Mint toothpaste (I had a coupon for it to save 50 cents!)

* some Kozy Shack original rice pudding

* some dark chocolate Cadbury fingers, yum!

* some Milk2Go Coffee Commotion (if they don't seem to have Starbucks frappuccinos in bottles, this will do from now on since it has Italian espresso!)

* some Mr. Noodles, mushroom flavor (they didn't have it at Save-On, but did at Shoppers)

* 12 Vancouver postcards and a bubble-wrap envelope to gear up for holiday_wishes again this year!

* some SWEET Canucks merchandise!


Percentage of being a consumer whore: maybe 20% today. ;)

"This is handcrafted Scottish ale best before November 2007 with 6.5% alcohol. Belhaven (est. 1719 in Dunbar, Scotland) Wee Heavy has a rich deep flavor that derives from the greater proportion of malted barley to hops which characterized Scottish ales of the 19th century. A beer to be sipped, savoured, and respected."

I saw some people in costume, too... a witch lady in purple and black, a fairy girl, a pumpkin woman, etc. So cool. :D

Dream of fake ID card with Jyrki Lumme on it, and a market with pineapples

I had a dream which involved my hanging out with Jon, Mom, and a bunch of our friends. We were on a crowded bus, and someone else wanted us to use a fake ID card of Jyrki Lumme, of all people! (former Canucks player) Fair enough, but then the real ID card had Markus Naslund and Pavel Bure on it. Needless to say, those didn't work with the bus driver. After we got off the bus, we went to some market-type place. We were looking at all these pineapples and durians, and I was hanging around with the guys. They wanted to know what day a certain date in the future fell on, but I didn't know. Mom tried to teach us a shortcut since the day was only eight or nine days away, but we were having none of it. I told Eric that I had to get one of those mini-calendars from the card shop / dollar store next time I was there, so then I could answer just such a question next time it came up. One of the workers at the market told us that we couldn't get those at the market... NO DUH?! The dream ended when we'd banished Mom somewhere and were just in a crowded area of the marketplace, having to lean against each other for support and to ensure we didn't get lost. Weird stuff of my subconscious... o_O

Speaking of my mom, she's just emailed me something about New Zealand honey with a load of attachments. Why? I have NO IDEA! *is confused, and figures I shouldn't have opened it anyhow*

Oh, and why is the LJ tags field so freaking LONG now? That will just confuse me! Way to go, LJ. :P

Happy Halloween! / DoubleTree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Note: LJ Lucky Charms blogquiz, by Tanner.

Happy Halloween!

Corey as a zombie a few years back:




Sean as a girl and Adela as a guy in 2003 for Halloween:




A closer-up look at Sean's aforementioned girl costume:




Two random pics I yanked off a Google Image Search:






DoubleTree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

When you check in at one of 240 hotels run by this U.S. chain, you are handed a bag from a warming oven that contains two soft and delicious chocolate chip cookies. This is a tradition that began in the early 90s using a recipe from a small bakery in Atlanta. All of the cookies - which weigh in at an impressive two ounces each - are baked fresh every day on the hotel premises. Raves for the cookies from customers convinced the hotel chain to start selling the chocolaty munchables by the half-dozen. But if you've got an insatiable chocolate chip cookie urge that can't wait for a package to be delivered in the mail, you'll want to try this cloned version fresh out of your home oven. Just be sure to get the cookies out of there when they are turning light brown. This way, they'll stay soft in the middle when cool. For even better results, you can chill the dough overnight before you commence with the ceremonial baking.

1/2 cup rolled oats
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 eggs
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth.
4. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Spoon rounded 1/4-cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. You don't need to press the dough flat. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep soft. For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies. Makes 20 cookies.

Which Famous Artist are you? Wassily Kandinsky You're like Wassily Kandinsky and his work. Wassily Kandinsky was a man whose art was mainly abstract, and a lot of people never found it really appealing because of his use of almost chaotic lines. Most of his work came from his mind instead of landscapes, people, etc. which made things look random and hard to follow. When he did use landscapes, he didn't pay attention to complete detail, and chose to see only what he wanted to... unlike so many other artists.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

YAY FOR BEING RANDOM! :D

Finally throwing away the white bread! / Tricking Grandma / Benching people

I'm getting into Tri-Peaks again. Fun stuff, except when you lose a whole bunch of money in a crappy hand. :P

Today, I got some healthy stuff from the store: granola, flaxseed bread, 12-grain bread (both from Dempster's), yogurt, and soy milk. I think it's time for me to be more conscious of what I put into my body, though I know it's nothing without exercise. Too bad I forgot the margarine, but it's too cold now to go out again to buy some. However, I did remember Chung and Karen's wedding card... and I got to throw away the white bread my mom gave me! I know it might seem wasteful, but I really don't eat that stuff either... one of my mom's suppliers at work gave her the Dempster's loaf, so at least it's not like she bought it herself! (but I might probably have done the same thing, truth be told) After I got home, I took a long five-hour nap... very much needed, heh. Reminds me of when Vivian said Norman was gross for having one of those, but might as well get it while you can! ;)

Why is my Awana uniform STILL in my knapsack? I don't get it... but Tom Cochrane is LIVE on the radio! Yay for that! Heh, my sister said that Grandma's still under the illusion that Mom works Saturdays and Mondays, when in fact she's just on-call and doesn't really work anymore on fixed shifts. I think she decided to go to Dressew today to further that illusion, since apparently Grandma follows her around all the time when she's at home! Too much stress, I suppose...

Corey just told me: "At the moment, my team consists of Ghost Rider, The Human Torch (and since Mephisto's dimension is full of fire, their immunities to fire helps), Spider-Man, and Iron Man. :P Wolverine and Captain America are also on my team, but they're on the bench right now." That amused me and made me think of hockey just because he used "on the bench," so I had to explain benching players in hockey (pools) to him. He still doesn't understand, but whatever. It was quirky! :D

He explained the game thusly:

[20:23:16] Corey: yeah... what does that have to do with a term?? you do that for a whole game or season or whatever
[20:31:48] Corey: now I'm using Thor, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and Wolverine :P Thor isn't on my team, but I did just add Dr. Strange and Ghost Rider to my team officially... we're headed to Asgard, so I'm bringing Thor along too, even though he's not on the team :P
[20:32:55] Flami: Stupid grammar errors are my major pet peeve!: I just like it :P
[20:33:15] Flami: I thought you were doing like Marvel Comic characters.. now you're in Norway?!
[20:41:19] Corey: Asgard isn't even on Earth!
[20:41:59] Corey: and right now we're in Doctor Strange's house in New York, but after I talk to people here we're teleporting to Asgard, where I'm sure we'll have to fight Loki and the Enchantress
[20:50:16] Flami: I thought it was in Norway!
[20:50:32] Flami: what game is this?
[20:59:40] Corey: uh, it's like heaven for Vikings, so people that believe in it are in Norway, and similar areas :P this is Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.. which has tons of big Marvel heroes and bad guys all in the same game.. Dr. Doom rallied all the bad guys to cause some major chaos, so Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. rallied all the heroes together to stop them :P
[21:01:01] Corey: and it has Blade in it, even though he's way more popular in movies than in comics... he really sucks in the game... he just has a sword and a gun and no real super powers :P compared to being Thor or Iron Man where you can kill 5000 people at once with some mega blast thing... Blade takes forever to kill anything

Dolly Madison Zingers (Devil's Food)

Ugh, I got less than six hours of sleep today. On Saturday night, I got ten hours of sleep WITH the time change. I think I'll need a nap after I get home from grocery shopping...

Dolly Madison Zingers (Devil's Food)

Former U.S. President James Madison's wife did not create this baking company, despite the fact that her name is on every carrot cake, crumb cake, and Zinger that comes off the production line. It was instead company founder Roy Nafziger's brainstorm to use the former first lady's name, since she was notorious for throwing huge shindigs featuring a fine selection of desserts and baked goods. Nafziger said his company would create cakes "fine enough to serve at the White House." While I don't expect you'll be treated to a tray of Zingers on your next stay in the Lincoln Bedroom, I will agree that these little snack cakes are a tasty way to appease a sweet tooth.

You can craft a version at home by making little cake pans out of aluminum foil that is wrapped around an empty prescription pill bottle. The cake batter is easy, since you just use any instant devil's food cake mix. I like Duncan Hines, but you can use whatever you want. As for the frosting, it may not come out as dark brown as the original since the recipe here doesn't include brown food coloring (caramel coloring). But the taste will be right on. And I think Clinton would agree that as long as the sweet little treats taste good, appearance is secondary.

Cake
Duncan Hines devil's food cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup oil
3 large eggs

Filling
2 teaspoons hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups marshmallow creme (one 7-ounce jar)
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash salt

Tear off a bunch of foil pieces about this size. These will be your mini cake pans after folding two times and wrapping around a pill bottle. Empty prescription medicine bottles are actually good for something. Use a toothpick or skewer to dig three caverns in the cakes where the filling will live. Later, you will cleverly hide these holes with frosting.

1. Prepare the cake batter following the directions on the box. If you use Duncan Hines brand, you will need 1 1/3 cups of water, 1/2 cup of oil, and three eggs. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. To prepare the cake pans that will make cakes the size of Zingers, tear off 20 pieces of aluminum foil that are each about 8 inches wide. Fold the foil in half and then in half once more so that you have a rectangular piece of foil. Wrap this piece of foil around a small prescription medicine bottle. Tuck in the ends and take the bottle out, leaving the foil open at the top. This will form a little pan. Flatten the bottom so that the mini pan stands up straight. Place this into a baking pan and repeat with the remaining pieces of foil. When you have arranged all of the foil pans in a baking pan, spray the inside of all the pans with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each little pan about halfway with cake batter. Bake cakes for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely.

3. To make the filling, combine the hot water with the salt in a small bowl and stir until the salt is dissolved. Let this mixture cool.

4. Combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Add the salt mixture to the bowl and mix.

5. To make the chocolate frosting, combine all the frosting ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer until smooth.

6. To assemble your snack cakes first poke three holes with a toothpick or skewer in the top of a cake and swirl around inside the holes making little caverns for your filling.

7. Use a pastry bag with a small tip to squeeze some filling into each hole. Careful not to overfill, or your cake will burst open. Sure, it's exciting, but this mess won't make for a good clone.

8. Once the cake is filled, use a butter knife to spread frosting on top of the cake over the holes. Drag a fork lengthwise over the frosting making grooves just like the real thing. Makes 20 snack cakes.

Church, Quizno's, AGM, coffee shops, Dallas Souvlaki, and pumpkin carving

Note: LJ Pirate Ship / LJ Kingdom Hearts / LJ Swearing Since Starting The Quiz blogquizzes. (by Brad, Tanner, and Janene)


I got 8 out of 16 on the Art or Crap quiz. How about you?

I've been out all day, so let's see if I can make this short since I need to sleep soon. Eric picked me up this morning, and quickly determined that the Pretenders' Brass in Pocket was not a Christian song. Luckily, he turned it to the praise station and we were in the zone with good music. He raised a complaint about my Purell smell... hey, he's lucky it's SCENTED! (I was going to say "flavored," but realized that it wouldn't work) Then he reminded me that some people have issues with scent, and that they might die or something if exposed to it. So I asked if he was that kind of person: no, it just gave him a headache. Fair enough!

Once we got to church early, I went downstairs to see what Hannah and Priscilla were doing. My sister was talking to them about running and some "enemy song" that Chris taught them. When my dad came up to tell her something, she asked the girls if they wanted to sing it for him: of course not! Those sisters are cool, haha.. I told them not to end up like me and RUN A LOT. (I'd be wheezing if I ever started running!) The Chinese service took A LONG TIME to get out, so we consoled ourselves with thoughts of the new church building's long hallway / courtyard eliminating the crowd problem that we have now! (I reminded Jeremy about this when everyone else was discussing the hockey pool - Hannah and Priscilla were just listening to us, heh) When we finally sat down, Mike T. called me from the next row: "You! How are you doing?" Haha, I know he means that in fun / friendship... I was just surprised that he meant ME, haha.

Service was okay, but they had a lot of sound issues... Mike told us that it wasn't HIS fault! We believe you, har har. I asked Mark (Jeremy's brother) what he'd done last night: the family had gone to the BC Lions game (we won!) and then to Steamworks later on. Jon asked Jeremy what his mom had been doing while they drank beer: "oh, she was just there!" Haha, gotta love that! Andrea said Elaine had flown in this morning at 7, wanted to go to service, and then had to make Ellen's wedding at 3-ish. I didn't know she was getting married... I remember her, of course! Should have kept in touch, but things were kinda hard for her with her dad dying (maybe that was what cracked her relationship with Mike Wu) and everything else that happened. I got to talk to Elaine for a moment after service: she said Ellen was getting married to a guy named Robin who wasn't from our church, but they'd been dating for a long time. Good news, then!

Since we got out so late, we only had a limited time to talk before Sunday School. Jon joined us five minutes into that, and I asked what he was doing for lunch: Louis Garden, he said. Eh, I was up for that! After Sunday School (little Sean cried, and I met Auntie Fonda's husband Kevin!), I went to find my friends. Eventually, a bunch of us decided to follow my parents to Mui's (another name for Louis Garden), but then they decided to go to McDonald's. Jon, Christon, Eric, and I went to Quizno's and ordered subs to go... but then ate them in the restaurant while talking about the upcoming meeting and such, haha. We had a LOT of time left before the meeting started, so we made a 7-11 run once we got back to church. Bumped into Steph on our way back: yes, candy and chips are the norm for getting through the meeting! Jon noted the irony of that when thinking about this morning's sermon and a point on how Americans spend $22 billion annually on junk food. (and similar numbers on Botox and such)

Jon read his Bible during the meeting (he has to read a few books by Wednesday), I signed some birthday cards, Steph started on the 21-foot-long Sudoku that Michelle gave her (and had her entire row stretch it out over the pew before the meeting started), Joey looked stuff up on his laptop, Michelle did physics homework (and asked Joey / Steph / Eric for help), and Christon did some Fluid Mechanics studying. (he can't wait to get back to work in January!) Everyone passed candy and stuff to each other, and Daniel even gave me half a box of Smarties afterwards: he trusts I'll finish them, since he'd had enough chocolate already! Since my grandma wanted to go early, Steph had to drive her and Mom home to Richmond, then go right back past the church to Burnaby! Actually, it would have been better if Grandma had waited a few minutes, since the meeting was done early! (but she gets impatient: when she wants to go, she has to go RIGHT THEN!)

Nobody asked any questions on the material presented during the meeting, which was a VERY GOOD THING. Usually, we have people asking (stupid) questions, which takes up at least 10 minutes, depending on what they're asking. My sister was sorta pressured into acting as one of the year-end financial adjustors, and my brother (along with the other nominees on the ESCC / CSCC / Deacon Board) was elected onto the ESCC. There was plenty of bylaw revision talk and material about the church building project. My brother HAD to blow the entire congregation a kiss while he was being introduced by Uncle Sam and Katherine... "just like Kim Jong-Il and dictators!" he joked later. Since Eric was one of the ballot counters, we asked whether anyone had been elected unanimously: nope, so Jon joked that Dad hadn't voted for him because "[my] son's so stupid and doesn't know anything! Cheh!" He's the youngest (AND fresh blood) on that commuttee now...

Later, we were talking to Rich about people with the same name in our church: there are a few people! We refilled our water bottles (at church expense, but we give back what we take!), talked to the teens about their Kids Night preparation ("Pie Emily Night for two hours!" my brother joked), and talked to Joey and Sam about stuff before they left. Jon said that Jeremy would meet us at Café Deux Soleils on Commercial and that Jen would meet us later, so off we went. The staff there didn't seem to care that we didn't order anything for a few minutes, but Jon and Jeremy DID split a Storm IPA before we left since they closed at 5. So then we walked on Commercial for 15 minutes... it was SO COLD out! (we couldn't understand why Jackie wore flip-flops, or why Quan wore an off-the-shoulder outfit) We went to J.J. Bean, where Jeremy met someone who used to work with him at the furniture warehouse. The staff at that place didn't seem to care that we didn't order anything, though Eric ordered a San Pelligrino water just in case.

We talked about Jon's Greek take-home test, his casual attitude toward that course (if he passes, it's good enough!), his midterms (he's not hanging out on Kids Night!), Jeremy's Passport to Beer book (the Father's Day edition wouldn't be good for his dad since all the coupons are for local places, and he lives in Kelowna!), potentially getting phone calls from work at 4 AM to come in right then, junk food vs. health food, how good Jon and Jeremy were at interpreting gay people's signals (working at THAT warehouse and being in the music program? sure...), Jen's trip to Toronto, and other things before splitting off once we got to the Dallas Souvlaki House. Eric popped in to say hi while Jeremy just kinda waited by the door, and Jon and I sat down and ordered beers. The dinner was good: I got to talk to Dylan some more about the Bible Study change and some new-ish guy called Martin, told Jon that I might go to ping-pong (since Karen was bugging me about it, I told her that I'd come barring Armageddon or something similar... ugh), learned exactly WHY Karen is so anal when it comes to detailing / planning things, and tried helping Dylan with his planning skills when it came to remembering dates! (Karen thought Dylan said "long-term dating" at first, haha!)

Vania told Jen and me about her experience with weird people in the middle of the night: don't trust ladies who hate Vancouver and go on assorted spiels about it at the Skytrain station! I SAW DAWN THERE, which was a very good thing as the caps indicate! (not sure where her birthday card got to...) It was nice to talk to her for a bit... we don't see her often anymore! After that, Jon called Dallas to tell him that he'd be at Vivian's dessert night: Vivian said that he didn't get her humor, so might have been put off by something she told him on MSN recently! I wondered why that new dude Martin was invited while the white dudes Eric and Jeremy weren't when Viv's known them for longer: Martin's only been here since maybe the summer, and only at Fellowship! (according to Dylan) But hey, it was Vivian's party...

We got some pita bread to take home with us, and we were off again. Citrus and Danielle said that they'd drive us if we went to pumpkin carving at Melia's, while Karen said she'd drive us if we went to the dessert night. Since our rides were at pumpkin carving already (even though Jon thought it was on the way, it wasn't), we went with the Lemon Lime Orange Man and Danielle. Jon thought he should call Dallas to let him know that we sold out on him, even though he knew the people at the dessert night. Too many parties, which Nathan wasn't at because of Ellen's wedding banquet! We told Citrus and Danielle about our weird family nicknames, and the WRONG pronunciation of my name... UGH! Then we discussed Winter Conference as a MEAT MARKET... oh yeah, I bet it is!

Pumpkin carving was FUN! We arrived to find Pat, Vanessa, Eric, Melia, Angus, and Steph already busy with their pumpkins. Angus told us about how he and Karen Grace used to draw a certain male body part on people's notes if they'd fallen asleep during class: THAT WAS SO HILARIOUS! Apparently, Erin also drew one once, while Karen would only go for the mini versions! They'd call it "getting DONGED"... so embarrassing if your notes were on the overhead! Pat and Vanessa's 24 pumpkin looked really good, Eric's design was trickier than it looked, and Steph's old-time Canucks logo / evil Powerpuff Girl seemed neat too! Melia and Angus had a weird face on theirs, while Citrus and Danielle did the baby pumpkin: a tribute to the time Steph went skiing at Manning Park and almost bit her tongue in half! ("Hey, look! The tongue's almost falling off!" "Thanks, Citrus...") Good times, haha.

Melia wheeled her grandma out to see what was going on. Steph waved to her, while Angus said hi to her. I asked him if she knew who he was, and he said that she should... but he hadn't been there in a while, so he wasn't quite sure! She wanted to hold my hand, so I let her. (I told Phil about this later, and he said that it was because I acted so loving toward her... well, sure! He asked her if she loved me, and she indicated yes, heh.) We watched some FAMILY GUY and AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL before opting for Joe's farewell DVD since Melia and Angus hadn't seen it yet. Jon was busy downstairs getting his reading done, though Steph worried that he felt left out. Phil's ant farm looked really cool with the blue LCD backlight!

Once the pumpkins were done, someone suggested putting tealight candles in them and seeing how they looked outside so we could take pictures of them. I went outside too (Melia tried feeding Grandma some stuff - which Angus said smelled like congee - but that didn't go over too well), and it was COLD! Angus mentioned that it was -2 degrees, while Steph said it was frosty out... I wasn't surprised! Those pumpkins looked REALLY good with the front light turned off, especially Pat and Vanessa's! After some time spent shivering outside, we all went back in to get some pumpkin seeds and go home. Melia let Steph borrow a particular hilarious sweater for her UGLY BETTY (ABC sitcom) costume on Tuesday: the hearts on that thing accentuated certain features! It made the girls laugh, while the guys just covered their eyes in (mock) horror, heh. Steph wanted to make plans for post-Christmas gingerbread houses (they're cheaper!), so she can make a gingerbread CTU... she also wants to bake 24 cookies for her 24th birthday. Eric said that he got into it when HE was 24 because my mom and sister practically dragged him over to the townhouse, haha. (so maybe Citrus will get into it when HE's 24 too? haha)

Eric thought I was going home with him when I was already in my siblings' car. Well, I might have moved, but it was SO COLD OUTSIDE that not even the potential humor was worth the effort! (I am SO lazy, haha!) Maybe next time, haha. As it was, my siblings and I rehashed the meeting, Vivian S. not coming to pumpkin carving or being invited to the hot pot, and Mom's stress / resentment at having Grandma back for good. My sister wondered why I was so shocked that Teresa would ask me over for dinner at some point: I wasn't expecting it, and it surprised me a lot! Steph also seemed weird because I wasn't sleeping over, but I have an early shopping appointment tomorrow! Speaking of, it's time to sleep now so I can be reasonably awake at 10!

European Union
Ireland

Leslie

68% Irish: Leslie is allowed to stay in Ireland for the forseeable future

Passport

The Irish

Sleep plans / Survey on 1995, smiling, and more / Dive! S'mores

I'm pretending that I posted this just after midnight, since I just took some Nyquil. Yeah, yeah, I know... we GAIN an hour to sleep / play on the computer, but I'd still really like to SLEEP instead of playing on the computer as I have in past years. (not likely it'll happen, but you never know!) I also just talked to my grandma on the phone: it was a VERY short conversation, but at least I did the courtesy thing, haha. Steph's apparently helping Eric with the Powerpoint tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. I left her a message, too. (I remember that last year, baby Amos and all the kids were really whacked out with the backwards time change... just wait till you get older, kiddies!)

Eric's just popped on MSN to say that I may potentially want a ride to church tomorrow, according to Jon. They're taking him early to GCBC... and why didn't my mom tell me that when I was JUST ON THE PHONE WITH HER?! Maybe she didn't know, but now I have Eric telling me to calm down: there's no need to blow a gasket. haha. For that, he gets a weird metaphor about water and squalls! He has "a desire to see a ministry of healing" between me and my sister, and Jon's now popped up on my screen too! Brother assumes Eric will pick me up, which will be cool enough!

Corey gave me an update on Jane: seems she phoned him from the hospital, and he figures that they've put a temporary pacemaker in (since she doesn't know the English word for it), with plans for a permanent one later. Her heart wasn't beating fast enough, so it's no wonder she's felt drained and tired for a while now! The lousy phone connection combined with the fact that he'd stayed up since 9 or 10 PM last night made things very fuzzy, but he could understand what she was talking about. No clue what caused that, but she'll be in hospital for another week or so.

Here's a survey I stole from the latest posts page... I don't think I've done it before:

1. WHAT MADE YOU SMILE YESTERDAY? Seeing how cute Gwyneth and Evelyn were. Yeah, I'm easily satisfied sometimes...
2. WHAT WERE YOU DOING AT 8 THIS MORNING? Sleeping!
3. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 15 MINUTES AGO? Talking to Grandma for the first time in a few months.
4. SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED TO YOU IN 1995? I got my first Hotmail account, haha.
5. LAST THING YOU SAID ALOUD? "Oh, crap!"
6. HOW MANY DIFFERENT THINGS DID YOU DRINK TODAY? Water and iced tea.
7. WHERE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND(s) RIGHT NOW? At home, I'd guess.
8. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR TOOTHBRUSH? Blue and white.
9. LAST THING YOU BOUGHT? Blueberry-lychee bubble tea with pearls and coconut jelly from Dragon Ball.
10. LAST GIFT YOU RECEIVED FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY? Zen Tazo tea from Andrea.
11. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR FRONT DOOR? Brown.
12. WHERE DO YOU KEEP YOUR CHANGE? Everywhere. Bad habit, I know.
13. WHAT IS THE WEATHER TODAY? Sunny and cold.
14. BEST ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Cheesecake!
15. SOMETHING YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT? Vivian's dinner and / or the pumpkin carving at Melia's. Leaning toward the dinner, as me around knives is NOT a good idea! (and not for the murderous reasons, either!)
16. LAST RAINBOW YOU SAW? Long time ago.
17. WHAT SIZE SHOE DO YOU WEAR? 7.
18. DO YOU HAVE ANY SISTERS? Yes... one biological one, and many spiritual ones.
19. ARE YOU VERY RANDOM? Yes.
20. HOW DO YOU WANT TO CUT YOUR HAIR? Eh, longer than it is right now.
21. ARE YOU OVER THE AGE OF 25? Yes.
22. DO YOU TALK A LOT? Sometimes.
23. DO YOU WATCH THE O.C.? No.
24. DOES YOUR SCREEN NAME HAVE AN "X" IN IT? Yes.
25. DO YOU KNOW ANYONE CALLED STEVE? Yup.
26. DO YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN WORDS? Sometimes.
27. ARE YOU TICKLISH? Yeah, I guess so.
28. WHERE'D IT GO?
29. NAME A FRIEND WHOSE NAME STARTS WITH THE LETTER "D": Dianne.
30. NAME A FRIEND WHOSE NAME STARTS WITH AN "A": Alan.
31. 4TH PERSON ON YOUR MISSED CALLS? Uh... probably Eric M. when he wanted to get in here on Sunday.
32. WHAT DID THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE YOU RECEIVED SAY?: N/A.
33.: DO YOU CHEW ON YOUR STRAWS? Sometimes.
34. DO YOU HAVE CURLY HAIR? Sorta-kinda.
35. WHAT IS THE NEXT CONCERT YOU'RE GOING TO? No idea.
36. WHO IS THE COOLEST PERSON IN YOUR LIFE? I have no idea.
37. WHAT SAYING DO YOU SAY A LOT? "Yeah, sure... "
38. WHAT IS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Vegetable soup.
39. HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOVIE DONNIE DARKO? No.
40. DO YOU HAVE WORK TOMORROW? No.
41. EVER BEEN HUNTING? No.
42. IS MARRIAGE IN YOUR FUTURE? Probably not, the way this is going now.
43. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAID "I LOVE YOU" AND MEANT IT? I tend not to use that word.
44. WHAT SHOULD YOU BE DOING RIGHT NOW? Getting ready to sleep.
45. DO YOU HAVE A NICKNAME? Sarne, Dragon Lady, etc.
46. DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? Not really.
47. ARE YOU A HEAVY SLEEPER? Somewhat.
48. LAST TIME YOU USED A SKATEBOARD? Never.
49. BEST MOVIE YOU'VE SEEN IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS? N/A.
50. WHAT KIND OF CELL PHONE DO YOU HAVE? A non-existent one.
51. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Children of Bodom.
52. ARE YOU CURRENTLY DEPRESSED? No, just tired.
53. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? No idea.
54. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG? Too many to choose from.
54. COOLEST MUSIC VIDEO: See above.
55. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW? Glasses, shorts, long-sleeved shirt, underwear.
56. CURRENT ANNOYANCE: The way my hearing seems to be going downhill.


Dive! S'mores

You don't need a campfire, wire hangers, or long sticks to make this popular marshmallow, chocolate, and graham cracker dessert. Steven Spielberg's Dive! chain of theme restaurants is the inspiration for this recipe. You need only four ingredients, an oven with a broiler, and a serious sweet tooth to put together this delicious dessert previously enjoyed only on camping trips and at beach parties.

2 whole graham crackers (4 sections, not separated)
two 1 1/2-ounce Hershey milk chocolate bars
16 large marshmallows
2 tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup, in squirt bottle

1. Preheat the broiler. Arrange the graham crackers side by side on an oven-safe plate (such as ceramic). You can also use a baking sheet.
2. Stack the milk chocolate bars side by side on top of the graham crackers.
3. Arrange the marshmallows on the chocolate in 4 rows -- 4 across, 4 down.
4. Broil the dessert on the middle rack for 1 to 3 minutes, or until the marshmallows turn light brown on top.
5. Remove the dessert from the oven. If you used a baking sheet, carefully slide the dessert onto a serving plate. With the squirt bottle, immediately drizzle the chocolate syrup over the marshmallows in a sweeping back-and-forth motion. Drizzle the chocolate diagonally across the dessert one way, and then the other, creating a cross-hatch pattern. Allow the chocolate to overshoot the dessert so that it creates a decorative pattern on the serving plate as well. Serves 2-4.