Choc Cake
LAZY WAY (came out great)
1-1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
350 F, greased pie plate
35 - 40 min
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Friday, May 10, 2024
Three Useful Movie Quotes
From three of my favorite movies come principles that have occurred to my memory at useful moments.
1) Batman Begins
Rachel sees Bruce acting like a spoiled wastrel while she's trying to clean up corruption in the city.
In shame, Bruce tries to tell her that's not who he really is.
She says:
"Bruce, deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."
"Bruce, deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."
Rachel asks Batman who he is, and he says, "It's what I do that defines me."
It's true. We should go by what people have done recently, rather than sentimentality and nostalgic excuses.
2) Flight of the Phoenix, the remake
I love this movie, esp the characterizations. Elliott, the aircraft designer, is just about the same degree and style of autistic as I am. I very feel that particular character - capable of occasional brilliant solutions, but generally not going to do very well in life because he doesn't want to admit how much the outcome depends on the emotional reactions of other people.
That's unrelated to the quote I want to share :-)
Here is a thought that sometimes helps me along when the going gets tough. It certainly sustained me through those dark twenty years when there seemed to be nothing to hope for and no dreams.
"I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can't give him that, then give him something to hope for. And if you can't give him that, just give him something to do."
3) Open Range
One of my top favorite movies, right up there with The Mummy Returns - and I've gotten some weird looks for claiming The Mummy Returns as my favorite movie, but it is! For several reasons! Not for any great quotes, though.
Open Range is packed full of cowboy wisdom. "You're men, aren't you?"
Here's the quote I like so much: "Most time, a man will tell you his bad intentions if you listen, let yourself hear."
SO VERY TRUE and as I look back over some of the psychos I've had to deal with, there was almost always a verbal warning. Usually, there's a warning, and then a laugh, as the listeners "realize" they didn't mean it and are just being shocking or making a joke.
No, they mean it. They're telling you their bad intentions. The question is whether you will let yourself hear.
Let people define themselves, and then have the grace to believe them.
Bonus: 4) Unforgiven
A movie I only watched once, and didn't like. I prefer the sentimental, black and white, Zane Grey version of the West.
But my darling asked what this blog post was about, and is glad to offer his favorite quote from a Clint Eastwood western.
"Well, he should have armed himself if he was going to decorate his saloon with my friend."
Now that's a quote! -- he says.
Monday, January 8, 2024
A few posts from Twitter/X
X isn't much of a name. I'd say the new owner should have left it alone. "Twitter" was a thing; although previously an English word, it wasn't used much and was very googleable. How do you search for "X"? It'll have to be explained for the rest of its life.
In fact it seems to have already settled down into "Twitter / X"
I had some hope with the new owner, and went back to give it a try. First it made me pick a new password, then asked why I'd changed the password, and none of the options were "because you made me".
Then it wants me to select my pronouns. The problem is that I speak English, and in English the singular object doesn't get to pick his, her or its own pronoun any more than two or more persons or things have any choices besides "they".
I went away in mild annoyance.
But the app was there on the phone, and one night I had something to share, and thought I'd try just ooooone more time!
It does seem like there should be a platform for sharing. My stuff goes on my space, but other stuff that I've found floating around - well, it seems presumptuous to put that on my space as if it was mine. It's not mine.
Argh for the particular, the persnickety, the punctilious ones of the world. What can we do? Everything should be just so, but often isn't.
So I posted a couple of links on Twitter / X, intending to go back later when I had a keyboard and add my comments.
Found out there's a one hour window for editing your own posts.
They can be deleted, so that's what happened.
Here's what I posted on Twiiiii - X and then removed.
Happened across the trailer for The Beekeeper, and my darling for some reason thought I'd be interested, because, "I thought you liked Jason Statham?"
1) not like that! I used to need to like random movie actors, but those days are over because I like my darling! and 2) not necessarily although there were a couple of his movies, Parker, most notably. It took me a while to think of the other: Spy! That was just bloody funny. I don't necessarily approve, and yet I've watched it several X. The part where the fat lady kills a guy and then barfs on him... yeah, NO, hahaha. And Ford's over-the-top boasting was so perfect. Don't we all know a guy like that? He's been everywhere, done everything, and now lives to tell you way too much about it.
And Wrath of Man was okay. Somewhat.
But I watched the trailer, and of course immediately ran to do "what any sensible person would do", with honey and fire. Conveniently, there was already a fire going, so I dribbled some honey on a flat piece of kindling and put it in the flames. It wouldn't light. After some time it eventually bubbled and carmelized, but didn't burn. So I hit the internet and was amused by this article. "'Honey is natural napalm' is another of Hollywood's lies along with 'ventilation ducts are always large enough to crawl through' and 'people can walk away from explosions without flinching'"
The article says burning is a test of real honey - real honey burns, sugar water carmelizes - and that jar said "raw, local, natural" honey! Isn't there anything you can trust?
I also belatedly observed the distinction between flammable and combustible, which is so basic that I'll add it to my list of things I've learned after age 40 that I really should have known before. Funny how I'm still coming across those.
People in the south when it's freezing
This amuses me because I'm that neighbor, or aspiring to be. Now that I've learned to get out of bed when the bedroom is twenty degrees and get the fire started, I can at least show off, which is little consolation but at least SOMETHING. Humans get used to things. If I'm used to the cold, that means I'm tough and awesome! Right?
A lady playing O Holy Night on handbells, and besides gorgeous, it's just mind blowing the level of calm and coordination she demonstrates.
UPDATE April 2024 - whoaaaa seriously???
Okay I take it all back and now I'm gonna be a Twiiii - X fangirl all the way. Wow! Big Brother of Australia orders big tech to REMOVE reports of a factual thing that actually happened and THEY ALL COMPLY??? Including the American ones! Except Twitter / X.
Just in case you don't think 98% of "reality" (everything we think we know that didn't happen right in front of our eyes) is a fabricated lie.
They don't say this preacher did not get knifed by a guy screaming Muslim slogans, they simply don't want anyone to see it - because it's TOO DISTRESSING.
Too distressing to whom? In the opinion of whom?
"We're not calling for censorship, only for common sense."
They prefer people to have nicer, warm fuzzy feelings, by simply not knowing what's going on. Hmmm. Well, that isn't just like every sci-fi mind-control-society movie ever, or the book 1984 (which I read in 1984 when I was 14, and was very upset by it) AT ALL, is it.
Ugh.
Don't have time to rant much right now :-) okay, more later.
See you on Twitter or whatever the new owner wants to call it! Where I'll be posting everything I can think of and clicking the ads, too!
Monday, January 1, 2024
Twenty Below
It began to get cold while we were down in the valley, shopping. It's usually ten degrees warmer down there, but it was getting shockingly cold.
One of my favorite things while shopping is to leave Darling to check out like an adult, while I take the dog and run on to the next destination.
But the wind chill was terrific. I had winter gloves, scarf, hat, etc, but my cheeks felt like somebody was scouring them with sandpaper. I didn't even make it out of the parking lot. I turned around without a trace of shame and dived back into the truck. My face hurt so badly that I put hand cream on my cheeks, which helped a bit.
"I'm not one of those wussies who wants to be dropped off at the door" ummmm, yes, I actually am. When I was done shopping, I called to be picked up, and waited inside the building.
When we came home it was minus 4 deg F; by the time the groceries were unloaded it was -6, before bedtime it was -10.
Jeff didn't go to bed.
I put two down comforters on the bed and two long fleece robes on myself before I got in. No worries about waking up sweating. I was just warm enough, and slept well.
I woke up at 4:30am, and my poor husband was on the couch wearing his big coat and wrapped in blankets, keeping the woodstove blazing, and it was 42 deg in the living room.
He went to bed and I fed the flames. If that stove wasn't going hard, it would get very cold in here.
Jeff had some old wire crates that he kept just because they were cool. They're now very handy for carrying firewood inside. We usually burn through two crates' worth in 24 hours. That's with letting the stove go out when we go to bed.
The last few days we've been burning around the clock, and filling those boxes around the clock.
Okay, I'm impressed. It's not Alaska - SING WITH ME --> "When it's springtime in Alaska, it's fortyyy beloooowwww"
But this is the coldest I've ever felt. Nature is not joking around. Earth doesn't feel hospitable. We wouldn't last very long out there. Can't take gloves off, def can't touch anything metal with your bare skin or it will keep you.
Last winter when we camped out here, I woke up one morning to 20 deg inside the trailer. I remember a sensation of fear. We're afraid of things that might kill us, and the air felt like it was trying to kill us.
Jeff put up skirting which helps a bunch, and he's been adding insulation in every crack in this RV. The window blinds are a thick textile that trap air, so they're kept pulled down.
He tried to run the generator, but it wouldn't run. Too cold. This model of generator, if it had been sold in Canada, would have had a cold weather kit installed, but it wasn't so it has bluetooth remote control instead, so we can turn it off without going outside. Thanks, that's so helpful! The only problem is that we can't turn it on because it doesn't work in the cold.
The trailer batteries have gone dead, and we have candles. It is really pioneer days now, except for watching movies on our phones haha.
Today I went out twice, as briefly as possible, with as much warm clothing as I could pile on. Firewood is my job, and I had to throw the stick a bit for the poor doggie so she doesn't go nuts. But she's not as eager to be outside as she usually is, and she's glad to come back in. Her black fur coat isn't enough today.
I don't have any trouble sleeping. The cold itself is exhausting. Jeff stays up to keep the fire going until I relieve him so... nighty night! About 9pm.
That's what I wore to bed, plus a scarf. I dashed out to pose with the thermometer because yay, and then straight back in again. "Getting dressed" implies a moment of being dangerously UNdressed, and that's a NOPE. I'm wearing the same long robes daytime and nighttime, just like they did in the middle ages.
Jeff says it was -22 in the middle of the night.
Do I look happy? Well, I'll tell you what's missing. There's no self-doubt, there's no intrusive thoughts, there's no regrets, no bad memories, no toxic chatterbox in my head right now. I just don't want to freeze. I'm tryna stay warm. It makes things pretty basic and it's a relief!
Anyway who wouldn't be as happy as a piglet when there's light white and dark white, light brown and dark brown, and dark green, and sunshine and blue sky? The snow makes it all very, very quiet.
I gotta tell you about a great bit of clothing / equipment I made! It was an old sleeping bag of a straight square shape. I trimmed off the ends to make into sleeves. It's much too fat to fit under the sewing machine. I hand stitched some of the seams with heavy thread, and others are still safety-pinned, but it works fine :-)
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It is a game changer and attitude changer. It's like a suit of armor against the cold. Just step into it, wrap the front around and there's instant protection from that freezing environment. I can move around enough to do basic work, and it's large enough to get dressed inside it!