anchovies

Hey, I just noticed that my friends Reid and Luisa posted on the blatherchat! Luisa's right...she IS the one that converted me to an Anchovy Person. She will never convert me to spaghetti and ketchup, though. Gross.

Speaking of yummy snacks....Jeff brought home a bag of dried apricots. Nice, healthy snack. Needed chocolate, though. So I went out and bought a package of white chocolate squares and dipped the apricots into microwaved chocolate. I accidentally burned the chocolate, but it still tasted great. In fact, I may have created a new taste sensation! Well, perhaps not. Lots of white chocolate left in the bowl after I finished dipping the apricots. I couldn't let it go to waste, of course.

Hm, now I'm wondering if I should have asked Jeff before corrupting his apricots. Maybe he won't notice.

A, J & I practiced last night for our library concert. We're having another practice on Thursday night. Our tentative playlist: We're Urban Tapestry, Life Is A Bowl Of Oreo Cookies, Yakko's Universe (from the Animaniacs), Friendship Song, Terebithia (Allison's song, based on the young adult book by Katherine Paterson), I'm Going To Fly To Florida, Interplanet Janet, Neurotic Love Song (in which I humiliate myself once again), All The Pretty Little Ponies, It Said What, Interjections.

For those interested, the young adult concert is at the Downsview Public Library from 2-2:45 p.m., 2793 Keele St., North York (416) 395-5720. You can pick up free tickets at the Children's Desk starting at 1:30 pm.

chocolate apricots

Hm, my Blatherchat has been spammed. I have to wonder how they got there...are they searching for 'add your own message' bulletin boards? They must be making a lot of enemies fast.

Joel Polowin has a WONDERFUL idea for apricots: "Make an incision in the side of a dried
apricot and then cut a pocket, as if it were a pita bread. Stuff with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Microwave for just a few seconds, until
the chocolate is warm and squishy. If you keep the incision small, the gooey chocolate won't leak out. " Yum. I have to try this out.

Jeff still hasn't noticed the Enhanced Apricots.

Sent out Inklings today. Over 28,000 subscribers...new subscriber rate seems to be picking up a bit. Rand has an article in this issue (he interviewed screenwriter Michael Druxman).

babysitting

Site of the day: Fancyclopedia. Everything you every wanted to know about fandom. I don't agree entirely with their definition of "filk" ;-), but then again I don't think there IS a definition which everyone agrees with.

Had a good practice last night. We're looking forward to our library concert tomorrow!

Did some babysitting yesterday...Annie's got the flu, with a temperature of 104. :-( Normally super-active and grabbing at everything, Annie lay in my arms like a limp rag doll when I picked her up. :-( To give my sister a break,
I took Sara to the Eaton's Centre and bought her a small doll which she immediately named Marigold. On the subway home, Sara sat in my lap and played with Marigold, talking to her and moving her arms around.

ME, pretending to be Marigold: "I was lonely in the store. Will there be any friends for me to play with when we get to your house?"

SARA, to Marigold: "Yes, you can play with my sister Annie. (shaking head) She's not very gentle. She'll pull your hair...like this!" (demonstrates by yanking on Marigold's hair quite violently several times. She doesn't notice some of passengers on the other side of the subway car snickering.)

I am very behind in email at the moment, sorry (yes, I am always behind, but right now I'm VERY behind). Thanks for your patience, if you've written me.

children's concert

Our children's concert at Downsview Public Library went well, and was a lot of fun...very enthusiastic audience! Younger crowd than we expected, but we just modified our playlist and lyrics a bit. Allison has pointed out to me that the only lyrics we had to censor/modify were MINE. :-) Anyway, many thanks to Doug Crane for inviting us. The concert even got a small blurb (okay, a VERY small blurb, but it was still there!!) in NOW magazine.

Finally got my hair cut today...I say finally because I was starting to have difficulty seeing my monitor, so I figured I couldn't put it off any longer. I don't enjoy haircuts. Anyway, halfway through, the man on the next chair (I guess he must have been staring at me, but I couldn't tell because I had taken my glasses off, another reason I hate getting my hair cut) said to me, "You know, I think you're the first lady I've seen in here." I get my hair cut in what is basically a barbershop for three reasons (1) haircuts use up less time and less chemicals (2) more reasonable prices than a regular salon (3) Jeff gets his hair cut there and recommended one of women as being someone I might not mind cutting my hair (he knows how much I hate having to smalltalk).

Anyway, I decided to colour my hair blue on a whim. Don't worry, I choose a nice robin's egg blue, nothing too obnoxious.

Okay, I'm just kidding.

office purge

Wow, I'm amazed by those on Blatherchat at how many people cut their own hair. I used to try, but abandoned the attempt after a particularly catastrophic experiment that took weeks to grow out again.

I am in the middle of doing an Office Purge. I tend to do this every few months when I get too claustrophic from all the piles of papers and books and such around me and can't find things. I NEED MORE SHELF SPACE! Most of my books are packed away in storage, and it looks like I'm going to have to pack more away to make room for the new ones. :-( Jeff and I have different approaches to office organization. His always looks like a photograph from Elegant Home Office Decor. Mine usually looks like a scene from Twister. I wish I had a digital camera so I could take a before and after picture, oh well. Anyway, I'm finding all kinds of interesting things whilst rummaging through my ancient piles and forcing myself to throw stuff out (I am of the pack rat mentality, you see)...I'll scan interesting bits over the next while to show you.