Saturday morning

Nothing new on tap. Coffee has been drunk and self fed. Pups have eaten and are now dozing. It’s a cloudy, breezy fall morning, with winds expected to pick up later in the day. Here’s hoping the power stays on. It went out for a couple of hours yesterday. I wasn’t home at the time, so the pups had to contend with the beeping UPS. They don’t like the beeping UPS. They were happy to see me come home.

Grocery shopping to be done. And later, cookie baking! Ginger-spice. The house is going to smell very Thanksgivingish.

Hawks lost last night to the Flames, dammit. I blame Canucks hangover. I think that rivalry burns a bit hotter than the one with the Wings, but that’s just my opinion.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Мои твиты

• Пт, 13:37: Got home for lunchtime pupcheck just as power went out. Strong winds must have broken something. Hope things are back to normal by tonite.
• Пт, 16:33: Came home after work to find power restored. Much relief in Mudville--the weekend can commence!
• Пт, 21:22: I think the Hawks are suffering a post-Canucks letdown. #blackhawks
• Пт, 22:45: Join me on @Kiva. A $25 loan can change a life! http://t.co/qXzdh8H2 via @Kiva
• Сб, 08:49: Saturday morning http://t.co/o167ilTK

*spla*

Lots of recipe/food discussion. Be warned.

The initial plan, formulated this morning, was a simple one. Buy the few things needed for Thanksgiving, then come home and write.

So. On the way to the grocery store, I stopped by the hardware big box to look for a nice shelving unit. I am trying to salvage the three hanging basket lavender plants that I bought a month or so ago by wintering them indoors, but the things are freakin’ huge. They didn’t fit on the small shelving unit that I had set in front of the one window in this house that has decent southern exposure, so I looked for different shelving. Found a nice chrome wire unit, like those you see in walk-in pantries–OMG, do I want a walk-in pantry some day–and snapped it up.

Then came groceries, which included all the fresh veggies for the Turkey Day not-a-turkey. I’m making beef short ribs this year, with buttermilk mashed potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts, and I didn’t want to wait until the last minute to get what was needed.

Home. Fed pups. Fed me. Assembled shelving unit. Moved large lavender baskets onto same. Yea, they fit, as do the other herb pots. Then I saw the mess atop the dining room table, and something in me snapped. Culled catalogs and sorted receipts, bills, notes, and all the other effluvia–it’s not perfect, but it’s a hella better than it was. Some order achieved. I can take clutter for a little while, but at some point I need to regain control of my space, that’s just how it goes.

Then I made marmalade. At least, I started making marmalade. It’s a two-stage recipe. First stage consists of boiling the sliced fruit in water, taking it off the heat and adding the sugar, then letting the mix sit at room temp overnight. Tomorrow, I cook the stuff until it’s that rich orangy-brown color. I’m not trying any fancy additions like whisky or liqueurs for this first effort. I just want to see if I can make something that tastes better than the store-bought stuff, which just doesn’t thrill me. I didn’t use Seville oranges or Meyer lemons, just navels and plain ol’ little lemons.

Then, I made cookies. My standby ginger cookies.** As usual, I substituted white whole wheat flour for half the all-purpose. I usually wind up with a drier dough as a result, but this time I ended up with something downright crumbly. In the past, I added additional molasses to moisten things up, and wound up overwhelming the ginger and spices. This time, I just worked with it as is. The warmth from my hands was enough to soften the dough balls so they held together, though I had to handle them carefully. But the resulting cookies were good, a little crisp outside and very light inside.

I was finally able to sit down a little after 7. One load of laundry’s in the washer, another in the dryer. Hockey on in the background. Pups are asleep. My feet hurt. I need more coffee. Time to write.

Where in hell did the day go?

**If it seems as though I make a lot of Ina Garten recipes, well, I do. Her food is basic, relatively simple to make, and tasty.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way

Originally posted by write_light at BAD Internet Laws Heading Your Way

From the flist: 



Spread the word, even you're not a US citizen, it is important for everyone!! It easy to do and it can change everything. More info by clicking on the banner.
<center><a href="http://americancensorship.org/"><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/justmyb0nes/pic/002q4gwp"></a></center><textarea>

Website Blocking

The government can order service providers to block websites for infringing links posted by any users.

Risk of Jail for Ordinary Users

It becomes a felony with a potential 5 year sentence to stream a copyrighted work that would cost more than $2,500 to license, even if you are a totally noncommercial user, e.g. singing a pop song on Facebook.

Chaos for the Internet

Thousands of sites that are legal under the DMCA would face new legal threats. People trying to keep the internet more secure wouldn't be able to rely on the integrity of the DNS system.

Read this analysis from boing-boing.net

Get on the phone and call your representative. Express your disapproval. Tell him or her exactly how you feel, and that you don't support this. Tell your friends to call their representatives, their Congressperson, and complain. Mention that you are a registered voter that takes your civic responsibility seriously and that you will use that vote to express your feelings about this.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_60/Internet-Companies-Boost-Hill-Lobbying-210345-1.html?pos=olobh

“We support the bill’s stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting,” the Internet companies wrote in Tuesday’s letter. “Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action and technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites.”  The chamber-led coalition in support of the bill includes Walmart, Eli Lilly & Co. and Netflix.

Google and other opponents of the legislation argue that restricting the Internet in the U.S. sets a bad international precedent and that the language defines infringing too broadly.