I am so made that I cannot believe.

My life according to Rufus Wainwright.

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:26:38 GMT

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My life according to (band/artist name)." (Via ceruleanst.)

• Pick your Artist:
Rufus Wainwright

• Are you a male or female?
Damned Ladies

• Describe yourself:
The Consort

• How do you feel:
Ups and Downs

• Describe where you currently live:
Hometown Waltz

• If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
In A Graveyard

• Your favorite form of transportation:
I'm Runnin'

• What did you get on your last Birthday?
London

• Your best friend is:
A Rose That Needs Some Water

• You and your best friends are:
Waiting For A Dream

• What's the weather like:
Clouds

• Favorite moment:
Tranquil Rest

• If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
This Love Affair

• What is life to you:
The Tower of Learning

• Your last relationship:
Foolish Love

• Your fear:
Do I Disappoint You

• What is the best advice you have to give:
Go Ask Shakespeare

• Thought for the Day:
Everybody Knows

• How I would like to die:
In A Graveyard

• My soul's condition:
Ashes

• Most Faithful Companion:
Evil Angel

• My motto:
Go Or Go Ahead

Scented Candles--Input Request

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:12:04 GMT

Does anyone have a favorite holiday-themed scented candle (or three)? I had one from a couple years ago (I think it was a Yankee Candle scent) that was perfect, but it's been discontinued. It was that brilliantly wonderful smell that pervades tiny antique/gift shops that seems to be the product of all the scents in the store blending together with the herby, woody smell of fireplaces and tea.

Non-foody scents are preferable. Fruit scents and such are fine (using Apples & Oak right now...) but I don't particularly want things like Sugar Cookie, Fruitcake, or Plum Pudding. Gingerbread might be okay if it's more spicy than foody....

listening to "Ian Bostridge sings "Silent Noon" from "The English Songbook" on Blip

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:05:34 GMT

RT @Cearbhaill: "..when twofold silence was the song of love."My favorite line, ever.

listening to "Coldplay - Cemeteries of London" on Blip

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:33:51 GMT

RT @mark_till: Coldplay – "Cemeteries of London"

listening to "Supersister - Coffee" on Blip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:58:53 GMT

#PopCandy -- Adorable, no deep thought required. Supersister: "Coffee"

listening to "Ingrid Michaelson - Keep Breathing" on Blip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:56:49 GMT

#PopTherapy -- Cathartic. Ingrid Michaelson's "Keep Breathing."

listening to "Ingrid Michaelson - Empty Bottle (blip.up)" on Blip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:54:57 GMT

Ingrid Michaelson - Empty Bottle

listening to "Robots In Disguise - The Sex Has Made Me Stupid (Original)" on Blip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:49:54 GMT

#PopWisdom from Robots In Disguise: The Sex Has Made Me Stupid.

listening to "The Magnetic Fields - Absolutely Cuckoo" on Blip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:47:24 GMT

Priceless and adorable--a Magnetic Fields classic.

listening to "Rufus Wainwright - Peach Trees" on Blip

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:32:04 GMT

Rufus at his best--beautiful, poignant, and not (too) over-the-top.

listening to "Wainwright, Rufus - Spotlight On Christmas" on Blip

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:11:17 GMT

#MusicMonday Rufus Wainwright's contribution to the non-traditional Christmas kitty:

listening to "'Tom Waits' & 'Peter Murphy'-Christmas Sucks" on Blip

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:07:07 GMT

Well, not *really* Waits & Murphy, but a brilliant, bitter bit of parody:

listening to "The West Clare Wrenboys" on Blip

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:35:03 GMT

re: prev Tweet--In case you don't know what a wren has to do with the holidays, this is a bit of Irish "wrenning." (It is also practiced elsewhere.)

listening to "Steeleye Span - The King" on Blip

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:31:34 GMT

#MusicMonday In the spirit of the coming holidays: "The King" (aka "The Wren") performed by Steeleye Span.

I post this every year...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:19:39 GMT

and this year is no exception. A couple days early, here's Lincoln's speech declaring Thanksgiving a national observance, made in October of 1863.

This entry was originally posted at http://ivymcallister.dreamwidth.org/. LJers who don't have DW accounts can still comment there via OpenID.

Apple Cobbler Cake

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:21:42 GMT

My cousins showed up with a ton of apples and sweet potatoes (their last harvest of the year, thank god--they need a break) that I've split with my parents. I'm saving some of the sweets for Thanksgiving, but I'm going to get some of the apples out of the way tonight or tomorrow in an Apple Cobbler Cake.

So, so easy. Make your favorite apple cobbler and assemble it upside down in a large rectangular cake pan. (Preferably glass, but whatever.) In other words, put down a layer of cobbler topping, then pour the apple filling on top of it. *Then* pour in your cake batter. Yellow cake, spice cake, apple cake--whatever--and bake as you would the cake, alone. Let it cool a bit, and turn it out onto a cookie tray, or whatnot. Top with ice cream, whipped cream, caramel sauce, etc.

I'm going to try a bundt pan, and add some raisins to the cobbler.

Sweeeeeeeeet.

This entry was originally posted at http://ivymcallister.dreamwidth.org/. LJers who don't have DW accounts can still comment there via OpenID.

listening to "Magnetic Fields - Old Fools" on Blip

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:36:04 GMT

Okay, @tadghcearbhaill -- here's a neat little bit of maudlin charm: My beloved Magnetic Fields – Old Fools.

listening to "Kamakawiwo'ole,Israel - Coney Island Washboard Woman" on Blip

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:45:50 GMT

A great loss... But oh, what fun: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole – Coney Island Washboard Woman

listening to "Jonathan Coulton - W's Duty" on Blip

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:25:45 GMT

And offering #2: @JonathanCoulton--W's Duty

listening to "The Divine Comedy - Becoming More Like Alfie" on Blip

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:23:07 GMT

Since I missed #MusicMonday, here's the first of a couple late offerings: Divine Comedy--Becoming More Like Alfie.

Convection Oven + Bacon = Perfection

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:58:59 GMT

Seriously. I thought I'd figured out the formula for perfectly crispy bacon, and while it was a bit involved and wasn't 100% reliable (due to differences in brand, thickness, etc.), it usually produced crispy (yet *extremely* dark) results. While the BF had always maintained that the crispy factor was all that mattered, the new convection oven has prompted him to reevaluate his standards.

In all seriousness, the bacon I've produced in the convection oven is amazing. It's perfectly crumbly-crisp but nowhere near over-dark, and the slices tend to stay very flat, instead of curling up and forming a dozen little reservoirs of grease. For my next trick, I'm going to have a go at the thick-sliced stuff, and see how that fares. If it's even *close* to the last couple batches, I think we'll have a winner.

EDIT: FWIW, I'm perfectly happy with the lower-end convection oven. It's over $50 less expensive than the next model up--the 31199R--but I still can't find a significant difference, and mine has been performing beautifully. If I really fall in love with the whole convection thing, I'm more likely to replace my actual stove/oven combo with a convection model than I am to buy a more expensive countertop unit.

So, yes: countertop convection oven + bacon = perfection.

This entry was originally posted at http://ivymcallister.dreamwidth.org/. LJers who don't have DW accounts can still comment there via OpenID.

Twitters.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:30:03 GMT

22:41 Sharing the new loveseat with Autumn. twitpic.com/pb5gp #
22:43 Mr. Squeek is on the ottoman. twitpic.com/pb5o6 #
23:03 The nearly endless possibilities life offers are nothing compared to that scant handful of things I'll never do again. #
08:45 @omgnowai Baby!Monkey loves her teddy bear: bit.ly/Lo7wQ (Yeah, it's the DMail, but the li'l monkey's still cute.) #
21:08 Drunk!Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! :P #
21:09 Sleep now. #

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Twitters.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:30:02 GMT

10:08 Wash. DC might approve gay marriage, so Catholic church threatens to deny services to DC's needy. bit.ly/3LjICw #
10:23 RT @scifirules 'Wolverine' to play 'Rocky' in a robot boxing movie? #scifi bit.ly/tOw1m #
11:58 Caffeine intake: inadequate. Weather: chilly, grey and rainy. Family: remains tolerable. Boyfriend: is as god. Must: do some work for uni. #
14:51 R.I. Govnr's veto denies Gay & Lesbian couples the right to make funeral arrangements for one another. bit.ly/4baCo9 #
16:55 RT @jamesmoran: Handsome, broody underwear models who sparkle in sunlight are not vampires. #
16:59 Caffeine: am on decaf for the evening. Weather: remains drizzly, dark & dreary. Family: eh. Boyfriend: god. Day so far: productive. 8 of 10. #
18:05 @atl Same here. I have a mid-term tomorrow, so no frolicking for me--just tea, cookies, and my Mac-hacked netbook doing the studying thing. #
18:09 V isn't high art, but damned if I'm not enjoying it. It's not on a par with BG, but then, I'd lost interest in that before the final season. #
19:11 @scottEweinberg re: 2012 -- A shame. I dearly want to like anything Oliver Platt touches. #
20:41 ...There was a Boondock Saints II? #
20:53 Good grief. <5 mins after my previous Tweet, @BoondockII was Following me. Sometimes this social media shit creeps me out. #
21:06 @scumberland Must be something like that, because I'd hope most humans would realize that the relevant Tweet wasn't exactly complimentary. #

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Twitters.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:30:02 GMT

14:33 Returning the countertop convection oven I ordered through Amazon, as the box shows the correct model but the contents tell another story. #
15:20 Packaging on frozen rodent shipment flawed. Dry ice was sealed in plastic, which was ripped open.Fingers of left hand thoroughly ice-burned. #
17:36 Remind me why I do this again...? Oh, yeah--great sex. Sometimes wish I hadn't sold my stock in Duracell, because it was so much easier. #
17:39 RT @Eva_Smith RT @LandscapeJuice: Beware the log-in Twitter scam bit.ly/3sfSSc #
20:25 Caffeine intake: excessive. Weather: cold, damp and drear. Family: watching FOX News, I imagine. Boyfriend: a distant deity. Overall: 6of10. #
22:09 A.) *Brilliant* parody, or B.) worn by one who finds hats w/fake ponytails the height of sophistication? bit.ly/31JWO3 #

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Twitters.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:30:03 GMT

15:41 I'm done with WalMart and their affiliates. Done. www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/11/07/16449 (Link via @firinel.) #
15:58 (re: prev Tweet) I think this--tinyurl.com/yj6pn64--calls for a new trending topic. #WalMartSucks #WalMartSucks #WalMartSucks #

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