The packing’s done, and tomorrow we head into Boston for the third annual PAX East. Gonna hook up with some folks Saturday night for the tweetup, and I will be floating around here and there with my jewelry in tow. I’ll have my D20 necklace supplies too, and I plan to hit the Chessex booth pretty hard. XD If you pick up any die that you want necklace-ized, just hit me up!
Because I’ve been going a little confectionery-crazy lately, Peter decided to let me splurge on a nice mixer to add to my kitchen arsenal. I went with the KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer, and let me tell you, this thing is a BEAST. I’ve had a workout just arranging it on the counter and tinkering with it as I read through the instruction manual. It weighs 20 pounds, easy.
I went with the Imperial Black color, which isn’t as glossy as some product images implied, but that’s OK — I like the feel of it, since it’s kinda like a thick powder-coat type paint, and I know that it won’t show smudges or scuffs like the smooth finishes will. It reminds me of a well-used, well-seasoned cast iron skillet.
My first project will be these espresso chocolate chip shortbread cookies that Peter and I have become addicted to. They’re insane. Here’s the blog post on Use Real Butter, which is where I found the recipe, and it links back to the original recipe on Smitten Kitchen. They vary a tiny bit, but the Use Real Butter version/method has worked out amazingly for me. It’ll be extra nice not to have my arms and hands cramp up from mixing them manually!
Seriously, bookmark that recipe. You’ll be making them repeatedly, and in increasing frequency. XD
The neatest thing I’ve built in a while. 🙂 Ingredients:
I’m going to add a screen and some fireplace tools, so it’s not quite finished yet, but it turned out so well that I wanted to share!
(You can see it in Riowa’s Lion’s Mane Suite [non-status], South Qeynos, Crushbone server.)
No good deed goes unpunished.
The box is gone. 🙁 No sign of it anywhere.
I drew a few words in the sand, but I’m not sure they’ll help: “PLEASE BRING THE BOX BACK”
My faith in humanity has been restored.
On our way out to the reservoir this afternoon, Lola and I passed the same couple we’d seen yesterday as they walked the opposite direction. The guy stopped me and said, “You know, that was a real nice thing you did out there, picking up that trash and leaving the bags.” I said, “Oh, the bags are still out there??” He replied that they were, and that the trash situation had gotten out of control recently, and he was glad someone cared enough to try to clean it up.
I got all misty!
I half expected to find my plastic box and its garbage bags and work gloves to be trashed themselves, or even stolen, but nope, there they were — although moved to a different rock nearby. Someone had obviously taken at least one bag of trash out of there (a trashed lawn chair was gone, along with pieces of lumber they’d used for the campfires), and there was another half-full bag that I added a few items to and took back with me. The entire area was MUCH cleaner than it had been; it was very nearly completely garbage-free.
I guess sometimes a little nudge is nudge enough.
