Several hours later, I have a new pair of jeans, two new shirts in bright colors (all I ever seem to wear is black, and I realized I only have three shirts in my "casual shirt" rotation for Fridays at work), and I have replaced my missing frosting tips. Hurrah. My feet are cold, because the jeans I wore were too long and one of them worked its way out of being tucked into my boots and got all wet and all over my foot.

And now I am home, considering what I am going to do with my evening. I restarted The Hamlet Project last weekend, and wound up watching Mel Gibson's Hamlet in two parts (I got tired, and went to bed when he went to England). At some point I am going to write up my thoughts on it. But I don't think I'm up for starting the Brannaugh Hamlet this evening, or even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

My purple sweater is now so close to completion I think I will have it done by the end of this weekend, so I want to put something relatively mindless on TV and sew it together. I have wine colored yarn with shots of sterling silver through it that has been calling me for nearly a year. I have promised myself that I am not even balling up the yarn until the purple sweater is done, but it will be turned into a lovely lace cardigan I have already named Lleu, which is a joke that is so obscure, there are only two of us who get it.

Maybe I will find someplace that will bring me sushi. And or fresh rolls. _

Most days, I don't mind the carless thing. And then I decide to run a series of errands in Everett, which Google Maps says is 11 minutes by car, but ~1 by public transit. ((sigh)) _

The weirdness of Facebook is news from cousins: two days after Christmas, I saw one cousin and his wife on the way to the hospital and then two hours later a "welcome baby x" message. And found out another cousin is engaged this afternoon. Via Facebook. Several hours later, I got an email from my dad with a forwarded message from my aunt and uncle that includes things like the girl's name. _

In a fit of productivity this morning (or, really, early afternoon) I went to Whole Foods. Because I am making a gluten and cow's milk free quiche (potato crust, which I had all the igredients for, and goat cheese, which I didn't) for my fit of sociability this evening. But. I want to curl up on my couch all covered in blankets and knit and watch reruns of Bones through Netflix on the Wii. ((sigh))

Also, I bought a hair straigtener. Hm. _

Temptation is: gorgeous red yarn shot with silver sitting at home, tempting you, despite the promise to yourself that you're not taking it out of the plastic bags until the purple sweater is finished.

I am so close with this purple sweater. I really want to wear it. _

We asked Subhash last night what language he dreams in, and after we haltingly described dreams ("you know, when you're sleeping, how you see things?"), he told us that there was no talking in his dreams. Weird. I have never heard of people only having silent dreams. Just, you know, black and white dreams, or not remembering their dreams at all. (I don't remember my dreams, almost ever, but when I do remember them they are in color. Also, I have totally read books in dreams. I remember reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet in a dream and the ending was different and I had some perfect dream logic of "oh, I must have read it x number of times which changes the ending." This is not to mention the Benedryl induced dream I had while trying to read the Book of Kings sophomore year. This is why I don't take Benedryl. I should have skipped that seminar.) _

When we started an hour ago, there were three of us trying to put the saran wrap stuff around the windows. Subhash has waved us off and is trying it himself. Hm. I suspect that the stuff isn't long enough for our windows; we really should have measured. My blow dryer is out, I will blow them dry. We are still not finished with the first window

(This is the stuff you put on your windows to prevent cold air from getting in, not the anthrax and duct tape scare of ten years ago.) _

It's nice when you know gifts you gave are appreciated; my brother figured out what I got him as soon as it was handed (wrapped) to him, based on the size. (I got him custom playing cards, with the Brew Gene logo on the back; he knew I was getting him Brew Gene something, but not what.) Last night I got a text from my stepmother telling me they'd just finished Sherlock, and how could they find season 2. (Wait, I replied. They are working on it.) _

I am sitting here, ordering my favorite Harney and Sons' teas online (because you can buy them by the pound online, and they have the Valentine's Day blend all year round), and their website is warning me that they are no longer able to ship in time for Christmas, would I like to buy a gift certificate. ha ha ha...Time to change your message. Or, of course, get better delivery service, because if you can't ship me tea by Christmas 2011, I will go track down a store where I can buy my teas in person. _

Because Tania asked

My basic marshmallow recipe is:

Ingredients
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Instructions

• Combine the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.
• Meanwhile, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat.
• With the mixer on low speed slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
• With a sieve, generously dust an 8 x 12-inch non-metal baking dish with confectioners' sugar. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top and dust with more confectioners' sugar. Allow to stand uncovered overnight until it dries out.
• Turn the marshmallows onto a board and cut them in squares. dust them with more confectioners' sugar. I find that cutting them is easiest with a pizza cutter, if you have one (but if you don't, it's not the end of the world).

I think my recipe was originally from the Barefoot Contessa. When I was making marshmallows before the party, I did 2/3 size batches, so I used two envelopes of gelatin instead of 3. That's not hugely important, except you ought to know that I always use way more vanilla extract than recipes call for. Plain vanilla marshmallows are delicious. Flavors are exotic and fun.

The easiest variations I did were the honey vanilla and the candy cane. For the honey vanilla, replace the corn syrup with honey, and follow the recipe as stated. Easy peasy. The candy cane flavor is 1 Tbsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract (peppermint extract goes a long way); you can taste and add more if you want. I added a red food dye swirl, but that was all for effect. Last year, I used crush candy canes with the powdered sugar on top and bottom, but they melted and got crunchy and kind of ruined the whole light and fluffy marshmallow thing.

The salted caramel are also pretty easy. Replace the white sugar with brown, and cook to 230 instead of 240, since brown sugar reaches soft ball about ten degrees lower. (If you cook to 240, they will not get as fluffy.) Also, instead of using a tiny bit of salt, I used like a teaspoon of salt, because I was shooting for the sea-salt caramel flavor rather than the super OMG so sweet caramel flavor. I split the amount of flavoring, and you use half vanilla half artificial butter flavoring (it smells kind of like a movie theater.) Other than that, easy.

Gingerbread marshmallows had the most changes. I replaced the white sugar with brown (so, again, cook to 230 instead of 240), and replaced half the corn syrup with molasses. I cooked gingerbread spices in with the sugars, using 1 tsp of cinnamon and ginger, 1/2 tsp of cloves, and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. I thought about adding no extacts, but I decided to use 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 tsp of cinnamon extract.

Anyway. They were all delicious. I also might try making them at some point replacing the corn syrup with maple syrup. We shall see. _

I should just not look at depressing articles about attacks in the Ivory Coast. It just makes me sad.

But I also still giggle inside about the numerous times a coworker in Virgina asked me if the Ivory Coast was in Senegal. _

This morning, I followed Cassie's directions on how to muck about with my Kindle so I could change the pictures it shows, added some pretty new ones, including some random subway maps (beacuse I have a thing about maps). And also, I found out that Heidegger's Glasses is available for free for the Kindle, and I have had that book in mind for something to read when it comes out in paperback since I read a review of it in early November. Hurrah.

And, I talked Tracy into turning her anime Greek Gods into lineart, for more pretty Kindle pictures. _

This weekend, while flipping through a book edited by Dave Eggers, my step-sister-in-law said "the only funny part of his book was the copyright page."

Me: "You mean A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius?"

Her: "Yes. It wasn't funny."

Me: "It wasn't meant to be funny."

Her: "It wasn't funny."

Me: "But...oh, never mind."

What do you do in situations like that? I mean, come on, the title tells you it's heartbreaking. (The title doesn't warn you about the rambling pages about how awesome The Real World was, or whichever early reality TV show he rambled on about, or how hipster meta it was. But, if you were expecting a book to be funny, and the title called itself heartbreaking, and the blurb talked about parents dying of cancer, would you expect it to be funny? Because I wouldn't.) _

I am torn between wanting to just tear through the rest of Princess Tutu as quickly as I can, or wanting to savor it. Because it is awesome. And there wasn't much of it.

(Probably, in the end, my crush on Fakir will win out and I will just watch _

I haven't picked up my knitting since I left Somerville. I spent at least an hour agonizing, going through yarn and patterns, and setting on some absurd cobweb weight lace brand new project for travel knitting. I don't know why that seemed like a good idea. I got frustrated on the bus on Thursday morning, probably because I didn't have stitch markers, and so I have been watching Princess Tutu on the bus instead. At least now I have a real excuse, it has been dark since before this bus got off Manhattan and my overhead light doesn't work.

Also, Princess Tutu is awesome. But I feel like I should be knitting socks, or something. (I think I knit a pair of idiot-proof socks when I watched it with Tracy. And the socks I'm wearing today are really finished, there is a giant hole in the toes.

I think I am approaching Hartford. That means I can probably watch a few more episodes before we get to Boston. I figure I will stop when we make the stop in Newton. _

This afternoon, my sister and I sat at my grandmother's table going through her collection of loose coins. I was going to call it a coin collection, but it really was just a collection of loose coins. The task we originally thought we were taking on was to just sort by denomination, count, roll in paper. But my grandmother is the sort of person who is always convinced that if you do that you will wind up losing your incredibly rare copper 1943 penny or whatever and lose thousands of dollars. So, we found a website that basically said "these are rare-ish" and "these are worth face value."

I looked at thousands of pennies. I found copper pennies from 1944 and 1942, and a rusted over steel/zinc 1943 penny. The steel/zinc penny is now mine, because it is cool. I just need to figure out how to clean up the rust. An eraser perhaps? I found a 1925 penny. I got excited more than once that something was really super exotic, but it turned out to just be Canadian. (Also, Duetschmarks. I don't know if those are worth anything anymore. Isn't Germany on the Euro? Maybe they are collectable since they are out of circulation?) I am serious about the thousands thing; we counted $20 worth of pennies, and I went through the bulk of them while Jamie took on the easier job of trying to determine if any of the dimes were silver. (I don't think so. I found two silver quarters, at least one of which I found by sound.)

Arg. Coins. My back hurts from being all bent over coins carefully examining them for being from 1943 or having a double date stamp from 1972. _

There is so much wind. My grandmother's garden lamps are buried in snow, but there is also grass showing. I am snowed in in Philadelphia. _

Tomorrow, I take an 8 am bus from Alewife to New York, and then I switch buses in New York to get out to Bethlehem. I was telling one of my coworkers this, and he just gave me a look and said "um...How are you going to do that? Don't you hate mornings?"

I do. I despise mornings. I am exceptionally bad at dragging myself out of my bed before 7:50. Really really bad. (Maybe I shouldn't keep my laptop next to my bed.) I figure pack tonight, figure out all my travel entertainment, which always seems to involve winding thousands of yards of laceweight yarn into nice balls at 1 am (I don't know why I seem to feel this need to bring new projects with me on trips. Maybe because I'm always paranoid that I will finish en route and then what will I do? Horror of horrors.) I will even leave my clothes out for tomorrow, like a little kid, including socks so I don't wind up in a what to wear crisis in the morning. That should help.

Also, Alewife instead of South Station. Incredibly helpful. And I can always try to sleep on the bus. _

When I try to explain in my head things like solstice, I revert to Ptolemey and a geocentric universe. I feel occasionally rather odd about this, but it made such pretty logical sense. _

I don't really feel like having this explosion in Cassie's Facebook group for Overeducated Adults Who Read Children's Fantasy Novels, or whatever she called it, but okay:

"are set in a ragged, fictional future in a nation called Panem,  which has sprung up in a North America that saw today’s countries crumble amid war. The government forces children to fight one another to the death on television"

Why? Come on, seriously, guys. <i>Why?</i>

That is all. My rant is done. I'm going to go back to reading about the Trojan War. _