The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

My Cinnamon Chocolate cookie recipe is not quite perfect yet - the first batch didn't have enough chocolate (4oz semi-sweet bakers chocolate) and was prone to falling apart, and the second batch had a little too much chocolate (eighteen tablespoons of cocoa and six tablespoons of oil, the equivalent of 6oz bakers chocolate) and was really prone to falling apart. To the point where I had to leave them to cool on the cookie sheet before I could transfer them to the cooling racks. Part of the problem was the chocolate - the other part, I think was that Erik hadn't crushed the almonds enough.

The look on his face when I told him how one is supposed to crush almonds was priceless. "There has to be an easier way!" I told him we could use a hammer instead of the wooden rolling pin, but the wooden rolling pin is easier since it has a much larger surface area. He amuses me greatly at times, especially in the kitchen.

But - they taste perfect. And were a resounding success at the party. Mark-who-is-a-god-with-wood loved them, so we made him take a bag home. I still have about seven dozen of the original fifteen dozen left.

The small angry orange badger who's taken up residence in our house was very, very happy to see us. Terrifyingly so. All night long. The swings between violent and manic kitty rampage to cute and cuddly "pet me pet me!" kitty were...impressive. And apparently continued after we went to bed - my copy of Avaryan Resplendent is rather the worse for wear this morning, despite the fact that it weighs about three times what she does.

Damn. Clann an Drumma is playing at PARF this weekend, and I can't go because of the VARF staff meeting on Saturday. And I probably won't be able to do MDRF on Sunday, either. Damn.

It's such a lovely week so far, too! I need to be outside, ideally reading in a hammock. I don't yet have a hammock - that's #1 on the list of spring projects. Hopefully by spring we'll have enough of the underbrush cleared out that I'll be able to get to the trees to hang up a hammock. Hammock stands suck.

And damn! Speaking of clearing the underbrush, I forgot to get Terry's chainsaw this weekend. Damn! We'll be going back down there eventually, but the weather's finally going to be cool enough that we don't have to worry about snakes in the aforementioned underbrush (if you can really call eight foot tall milkweed surrounded by briars "underbrush"), and that chainsaw would have made things much easier.

I'm traumatized by the fact that my sister's moving to the Better Coast. Less than an hour from Seattle, and taking Michael with her. If all babies were like him I'd be less terrified of the whole kid thing.

eBay sellers of the world take note: If you don't combine shipping, you had damn well better send me each item in a separate box, or you'll be getting negative feedback. You're not going to be making much of a profit off me, bastards.

Ooooo.... I must have some. This is a very, very bad website, and you can blame it on my mother. I don't know how she found it, but she picked up one of these (I've decided I need two - one for home, one for work), which arrived shortly before we did, and the teas....Oh my. It's the real thing, with some of the most impressive teas I've seen in a long time. We'll just say that my first order with them (I think I'll be placing it on Friday) is going to consist of two of the ingenuiTEA starter sets (to maximize my tea sample goodness), a 4oz canister of the citron green, an 8oz sampler of the christmas tea...and eleven other "samples." At least. Free shipping won't be an issue. I do love my tea, and this is some amazingly good tea.

Erik thinks that the white monkey tea both looks and sounds like a drug. He'd know better than I would, I suppose.

Hell is hearing the phrase "supersonic containment" and "factoid" used in the same sentence. I won't inflict the context on anyone, because it was so amazingly stupid. Fu-Master's Revenge.

[EDIT] There's going to be a Princess Ai movie!!?! Ow. Ai Yazawa is hot stuff right now, but, alas, she had nothing to do with the writing...