Today I got a job. Go me! It's temporary going into permanent, if everything goes smoothly. I bought my first suit for the job interview, and was way overdressed, as apparently they do jeans on Fridays.

Also, I got my violin back from the shop. It is fixed, restrung, and cleaned up. Yay violin!

And, I have an Android phone in the mail to me today.

Hurrah for new things! _

I tried to make meringues, and they failed to fill with air. I poured it down the sink, tried again, and wound up with egg yolk in my whites. So now I have given up. Poor meringues. _

Woo...new awesome phone has been ordered. Excited Tori is excited. (Enough to speak in LOLcat.) _

The dogs knocked my external harddrive off the table and now my computer won't see it. I'm feeling pretty pissy. My sister has been trying to make me see how it's not as big a deal as it could have been, and stalked off when I snapped that I just wanted to be sulky about it for a while. _

We had no trick-or-treaters. We weren't really expecting any, living down a dark alley as we do, but still. It was kind of disappointing. And my sister didn't even get Snickers. _

I ordered the Suzuki violin books 2-4 from Amazon (Book 4 is as far as I ever got before we totally branched away from Suzuki), and Amazon being Amazon, they decided to ship them each seperately. Book 4 showed up today, and I started looking through it and panicked a little. Probably a good thing I got the earlier books too. _

Did everyone trick or treat on Halloween as kids? We did until we moved to the Harrisburg area when my mom and stepdad got together. They trick or treat on these totally random days, just about always before Halloween. It's totally strange. One year, trick-or-treat night was different in three towns, where I lived, where friends of my brother's lived, and where a friend of mine lived. We had so much candy that year, it was a little nuts.

It is my vague understanding that they allegedly don't trick or treat on Halloween because they want it to be a Thursday, in case of high school football games causing traffic. It was also always from 6-8 exactly, and people would throw little hissy fits if you rang their doorbell at 8:01. They also insisted that it was to help keep it from being too dark while the kids were out, and Halloween could wind up being after changing the clocks. Not that it wasn't dark by 7 ish anyway, but...I suspect that, actually, it was Central PA's terror of Devil Worship. _

I have lent my iPod to my mom for her long carride this weekend, so she can listen to The Age of Innocence that I downloaded from librivox. I feel so strange, being iPodless for the weekend, even if I don't actually need it. I think my violin is done at the shop, and it seems so strange to think of taking the T without it. _

From Food

I get excited when guests come over, because it is an excuse for me to make dessert. I love making desserts. I had thought I would make lemon limoncello cupcakes, but my stepdad's not home and he would be the one who really like them, so, at my mom's suggestion, I made grasshopper pie.

From Food

The idea of grasshopper pie was entirely thrilling. It is a piece of childhood nostalgia--we had grasshopper pie at most birthday parties for years and years. I am often a food snob, and into gourmet fancy desserts (I was going to fill the cupcakes with homemade lemon curd), but there is something thrilling and exciting about the idea of marshmallows, whipped cream, oreos, and alcohol. At some party in college, we made grasshoppers, the cocktail, and I kept creme de menthe and creme de cacao in my dorm senior year. When we did Prank, I had made a Snapple bottle of grasshopper, which my brother (we pulled in high school siblings to be fake prospectives to trick the underclassmen) on tasting said "it tastes like grasshopper pie!"

From Food

My biggest cooking fear (besides an absurd phobia of reaching into hot ovens that I have mostly gotten over) is folding. (I also hate sifting, but mostly because I find it tedious.) I am always constantly terrified that I will collapse my egg whites or whipped cream or whatever. But it turned out (as it just about always does) just fine.

From Food

Grasshopper pie. Totally awesome dessert. Also easy, just make sure you have freezer space. The recipe, from my mom and dad's box of index card recipes:

Ingredients
For the filling:
32 large marshmallows or 3 c mini marshmallows
½ c milk
¼ c crème de menthe (white works, but green is dramatic)
3 Tbp white crème d cacao (doesn't have to be white, but it's prettier)
1 ½ c whipping cream
green food colouring (optional)
For the Crust:
1 1/2 rows of Oreos, crushed
4 Tbps. melted butter

Melt marshmallows and milk over medium heat, stirring constantly. When marshmallows are melted, remove from heat, and let cool until thick (in a cold kitchen with a granite counter, this took about an hour and a half).

Meanwhile, assemble the crust. I crush oreos in a food processor, then put them in the crust with the melted butter and pat into the pie pan.

Blend liqueurs into the marshmallows. This can be tricky, since the marshmallow has basically resolidified. If you have an immersion blender, it's hugely helpful.

Whip the cream, then fold into the marshmallow mixture. Pour into prepared crust, and decorate with oreos, if you want. (I actually prefer the inside cream to the crust and oreos, but it's prettier this way.) Put in freezer, and freeze for at least 4 hours.

Jamie and I have been plotting ideas such as rather than melting marshmallows, we use fresh marshmallow goo, without letting it dry. (I make awesome marshmallows.) We also started talking about mudslide pie, with Kahlua and Bailey's instead of creme de menthe and creme de cacao. She also suggested ideas like using vanilla Joe-Joe's and amarretto, but I think that might be extremely sweet. I'm working on creating an idea of a frozen smore's pie, but I'm not sure how to incorporate the chocolate. _

The Age of Innocence is rapidly becoming the only book I've read for my book group that I've enjoyed. Even if I don't really like the main character. Are you supposed  to like Newland Archer? _

Sorry about the double post. Don't quite know why it happened. _

Ben was damp and shivering, so he is doing his best joey impression:

From Dog Pictures

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Ben was damp and shivering, so he is doing his best joey impression:

From Dog Pictures

_

Mmm...Bisquits. My sister is making bisquits. I can't make them. They turn into crackers. I have tried to make them from Bisquick, and they don't rise. I have no idea what is wrong with me. _

I have whole wheat bread rising and a butternut squash roasting. We're having butternut squash frittata for dinner. It feels very autumnal, even if most of the day didn't. (Tomorrow, the high is predicted to be 68, Friday's high is 49. Boston is weird.) _

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I signed up for a Boston library card yesterday. This may potentially be dangerous. I did it for a few reasons which are:

• I may never actually read Gilead. I thought they might have the book on tape and then I would listen to it. All of it. Before book club tomorrow. They do have the book on tape, but not at the local branch. Hm. Probably not well thought out.
• I want to read Her Fearful Symmetry rather a lot, as I loved The Time Traveller's Wife, but it got fairly abysmal reviews, so I didn't want to buy it in hardback. Nor wait for the paperback. So, library.
• Also, there is a sweater I want to knit, but I don't want anything else in the book. It is in the Boston library system. So, now, when I have a job and can buy sweater yarn again, I can also get out the book and knit the sweater.

I am bad a libraries. I used to run up huge fines, and that terrifies me a little. I knew all about Amnesty weeks, and the magic of having your good friend's mother check your books back in. And I swear, everytime I move, that I'm not going to do the library thing, and then I do anyway. _

The snow makes me want to curl up with The Long Winter. _

There are giant globs of snow mixed in with the rain. It is October. New England is weird, and I had gotten used to Virginia, where there might be a little bit of snow in January-March, causing general panic. (Not nearly as much panic as there would be in Texas, where they panic at flurries, according to my mom.) _

If my bed weren't centered under a window, I would want to put this over it. _