feel for faith

I've said before that I don't like cherry pie, which is probably due to the fact that most of the cherry pies I have been exposed to were made with canned, store-bought filling, and they tasted very meh.

Today I was catching up on reading some of the food blogs (reading food blogs and gazing at all those amazing pictures requires much less effort than actually cooking all those foods, and it's almost as satisfying) and I came across a recipe for cherry brown butter bars. Now, this is not a pie, and I decided that using up the rest of my cherries to try this would be a great idea.

I don't have a cherry pitter, so first I tried removing pits using a paper clip, but I couldn't get the hang of it, so I rummaged through my kitchen drawers for something better. It turned out the tip of a potato peeler (the little round thingie for getting out potato eyes) does a decent enough job, though it was a little messy.

I used a little more than a pound of cherries, and I baked it for a few minutes more than the recipe says. It was delicious. The thing that makes is so good is that the bottom layer is crusty and the top layer with the cherries is soft and all together it's fantastic.

Cherry brown butter bars

Since it's your birthday, here is the cake for you:


( and here are the flowers: )


Happy Birthday! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Once I gave up on a plan to do anything productive, today turned out to be a wonderfully lazy day. I read fanfic and watched movies and did absolutely nothing of any significance with a satisfying feeling of a job well-done.

And I got hooked on a British tv show about a fictitious five star hotel in London, Hotel Babylon. It's based on a book written by an industry insider who exposes things that go behind the scenes in the world of luxury hotels. I enjoyed the book, but it has more of a non-fiction feeling to it, while the show is developed with character-based story lines, and it expands well beyond the situations described in the book. I'm four episodes in and I want more more more.

One of the lead characters and the narrator is played by Max Beasley--his face looks so familiar, but when I looked through his profile on imdb I didn't see anything I've watched before. It's driving me crazy, because I can't stop thinking, "Where do I know him from?" Also, in spite of all the het sex his character is having, somehow he's just begging to be slashed.

( pic )

My boss is on vacation this week and I don't have any deadlines, so it's going to be a stress-free week. (I hope.)

Really, all weekends should be three-day weekends.

I came across a link to this website by accident, and then I couldn't stop scrolling down and looking at the pictures and reading the comments. It's beautiful and sad and so full of love.

"This site is a journal.

An ongoing record of my father, and of our relationship.

For whatever days we have left together."

Days with My Father


(it takes a while to load)

Spreading around a link to four naked guys doing crispbread dance on Sweden's Got Talent, posted by msilverstar.

In other news, my online banking website has a photo on it that features a woman who looks like Evangeline Lilly. I killed it with adblock, because I don't want to look at it every time I log in. I don't mind some nondescript, stock photo faces of babies or happy old couples next to my account balance, but a familiar face like this--no, thank you.

I went to Costco and bought a pack of three whipped cream cans, the sweetened ones. I needed only one, but I was there and it was there, and it was cheaper (not cheaper than one can I really needed only *g*), so I bought the whole pack. I can resist buying things at the store, but once they are in my cupboard or fridge, I have no will power whatsoever. Question: How do I stop myself from eating it all straight out of the can?

Bonus question: What's for dinner tonight?

Answer: whipped cream

Originally, the idea was a response to the May photo prompt at drabblechalleng, but it refused to be contained within a drabble.

Title: M is for that which is Mine
Pairing: Dom/Viggo
Word count: 250
Notes: Thank you to themoononastick for the beta.

( Their gazes meet and Dominic can't stand how clear and blue Viggo's eyes are. How honest. )

Today is the perfect day to stay at home and surf the net, write, and sip ice coffee.

Unfortunately, work gets in the way of this awesome plan.

I'm thinking about buying a juicer. I remember when I was little, there was this place that served fresh fruit and vegetable juices my grandma used to take me to. Back then I would refused to drink anything made from "weird" vegetables (beet juice? parsley juice?), but I loved carrot juice. I still love carrot juice, but I would not be so adverse to a nice glass of mixed veggie juice either :). And I hope the boys will like it too.

I've done some research and comparison on Amazon for juicers under $100, and I'm leaning towards this Breville one. Others that have good reviews are Hamilton Beach and Juiceman.

Do any of you own a juicer? Any words of advice?

I hope it won't be a "hurray, fresh juice!" for one week, and then it will turn out too much work to make the juice the clean up. I'm thinking of keeping I on the counter (because I really don't have place to store it) and also because if I put it away, it probably would turn out too much work to take it out to make a glass of juice.

I never thought I would write this pairing again, but this morning I got a sudden inspiration to finish this fic, which has been sitting in my WIP folder for, oh, about two years.


Title: Moments of Weakness
Pairing: Viggo/Bean
Rating: PG13
Word count: 745
Summary: In two weeks Sean will be gone for good, and Viggo won't be able to resist
Notes: Big thank you to themoononastick for editing. Title comes from Viggo's poem "Communion."

( If you could shag any one of them, which one would you shag? )

Happy birthday, geminigrace! I hope it's a good one!

Apparently, quite by accident, I have somehow gotten myself into reading the new Star Trek fic, and Kirk/Spock, of all. I swear, I have no idea how it happened, apart from the fact that I have a weakness for men (?) who repress their feelings (and also have pointy ears.) I really liked Karl's character in the movie, but I didn't find him even a tiny bit slashy.

However, no matter what, I am NOT going to watch the original series (or any other for that matter), because ... just ... no.

This, too, shall pass. But in the meantime, can somebody please tell my husband to stop laughing already?

The concert last night was awesome. AWESOME.

He started with "Dance Me to the End of Love" and played for full three hours (plus an intermission). That voice... at 74 he sounds better than he ever did. The set list was more or less the same as the one on the Live in London album, except for one or two songs and for the encores.

I wanted very much to hear two songs that are not on the live album, "Partisan" and "Famous Blue Raincoat," and we got them both for encores! "Famous Blue Raincoat" was the last song, and when he sang "Sincerely, L. Cohen" it was so so satisfying and so perfect for the closing that I almost wasn't sorry that the concert was over.

We got so lucky last night. Our seats were in the very last row, on the aisle. About ten minutes before the concert was supposed to start a guy walked up to us and asked how we felt about moving a little closer to the stage. It turned out he was the manager and had some seats in the reserved section that he wanted to fill up. He swapped our tickets and we ended up very close to the stage, in row 11!!! (Our original row 48!) :D

Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor venue and last night was cold (56 degrees), and it started raining heavily just before the concert started. The assigned seats are under the roof, but there were a lot of people with lawn tickets, sitting there out in the rain, under umbrellas and raincoats, but I don't think anybody was complaining.

This was definitely the best concert I have ever been to ♥♥♥!


(On a side note--the average age of people in the audience was at least ten years older then me, lol. Also, during the intermission the line to the men's room was longer than to the ladies room O.O)

Those vacuum cleaners at gas stations? I'm convinced that they are evil are all timed in such a way that no matter how much you hurry with your vacuuming, you will always run out of time before you are done. So then you have to drop another five quarters in (and since when is it $1.25?! I used to be $0.75!) just so you could vacuum that last floor mat.


This is where I don't write an obligatory paragraph about Dreamwidth.

Moving on.

Yesterday they finished installing the new phone system at our office. It's a very fancy one, plugged into our network, so that you can use software on your computer to keep your contact list, make calls, and all kinds of features. Yesterday I also had a 2-hour webinar where I had to dial in for the audio. When I tried to type up a note, I discovered that while those new phones look pretty and modern, they are horrible when you try to hold the receiver with your shoulder so that you can type with both hands. And I mean, horrible--the receiver is almost flat and it just slips out of the grip. And because of that flat shape even holding it in your hand is harder and more tiring because it doesn't fit well into your palm. It's fine for shorter calls, but holding it for two hours yesterday was a pain.

Eight days to Leonard Cohen.

Message for Dominic:

Your hair called. It apologized for any pain it might have caused you in the past and asked to please give it another chance. It promised to do anything in its power to make the relationship work again, if only you take it back.

( For the sake of all the fun times the two of you had together... )

Happy birthday, kiltsandlollies! I'm sending some very special men wearing smashing suits and white shirts delivering very special birthday wishes to you, but to start your day, have some cake with your morning coffee: