PhysicsGirl's Ex-cellent adventure

Last year, I went back to the CNE after an absence of many years to pig out try various fried foods for Science. I don't know if the Ex had that lunch deal this year, but they do have a $5 after 5pm deal, so the DC and I went last night.

As happened last year, we had rain during the day and threatened thunderstorms. The rain cleared up, or so we thought, by evening and we biked off to eat more fair food and introduce the DC to fried butter.

In which PhysicsGirl goes to the prom...

We got in. Maybe we should dance before we get besieged, bedeviled, or beheaded or something.
--Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "The Prom"

Last Friday was my first year at Fake Prom, and sadly it would also be my last, unless someone takes it over. It was a tonne of fun. Prom without all the teenaged angst. No judgy-judgy. Awesome.

The theme this year was "Enchantment Under the Sea" and costumes are encouraged. We saw the Titanic, lobsters, mermaids, quite a few jelly-fish, several Aqua-men and Marty McFlys, and at least 20 Steve Zissous, as well as quite few people who just glammed up for the evening. I went for themed but pretty.

Breaking out in red spots...

The reason I bought Butterick 6582 was that I was going to be in a dance routine that meant dressing like a 50s housewife. The routine hasn't happened yet, but no matter. I've gotten 3 pretty dresses out of the pattern: the Easter Parade dress (still to be blogged, because it is still to be lined), the Diner en Blanc/Fake Prom dress, and finally the long-planned dancing dress.

Steath posting

First of all: 5000 views! I know they can't all be Aged P, so thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Second, I have been stealth-posting some older tales and starting my recent London trip posts. Waaaay back in April, I went on the first Cupcake Ride of the season and the inaugural Toronto Easter Parade: Cupcakes and Easter Bonnets.

In June, I went to the Cambridge Butterfly Observatory: In which PhysicsGirl is covered in butterflies and eats bugs.

I've also started writing up my adventures in London this past July. I know, right?
Tuesday in London: In which PhysicsGirl, though jet-lagged, tries to find a cream tea

I have several things still to write up, but that should be enough to be going on with. School is starting in a few weeks, and you know what that means.


Business as usual, actually.

Pancake of the month: Peach poppyseed sour cream

I have a confession. The main reason I chose to do the sour cream pancakes last month was so that I would have sour cream on hand to make these. They are from the August 2006 issue of Chatelaine.

Peaches? Good! Poppyseed? Good! Sour cream? I have learned, is good! These pancakes sound perfect. The only difficulty was making sure I had enough peaches on hand, since I tend to scarf them down quicker than you can say "Peach cobbler."

The verdict? The recipe says they are perfect on the dock at the cottage. We had these at my friend E's cottage on Lake Huron and, while there was no dock, they are indeed mighty tasty. They cook up nice and fluffy. The poppyseeds give a slight peppery taste to the pancake, but it is sweetly balanced by the peaches. The peach thing is a little labour intensive, and it might be worth trying canned peach slices if you want them in a hurry.

The recipe says it makes 14-16 pancakes pouring 1/4 c. at a time; I got 16 and a half. My advice would be to quarter each peach, and further cut each quarter into four thin slices for each pancake.

By the way, this is the same cottage of the aborted plan to bike 240 km - both ways. That was a bad plan. I did bike part of the way this time: the DC and I took our bikes on the bus and biked the 15 minutes from Tiverton to the cottage. This was a good plan.

In which PhysicsGirl dines in white

Last night I went with my friend D to Dîner en Blanc, a top-secret (except for all the publicity about it ahead of time), impromptu (except for the weeks of planning and making of things that went into it) flash mob dinner, where 1400 of my closest friends dressed all in white descended on a secret location for an elegant dinner. And now you know the purpose of the white dress.

Physicsgirls in white dresses...

...but no blue satin sashes. Although I could easily add one.

The Saturday before I left for London, I woke up really, really early. I had much to do, but not a lot of it could be done at that early hour. Going back to sleep was not an option. Naturally I decided to make a dress that I didn't need until two weeks after I got back from Paris. I pulled most of it together that morning, but I didn't get around to hemming it until this week.

You say either, I say either

I was reading the comments on a blog^* and someone used the expression "potato, potato" and I was thinking how silly that must seem to someone who doesn't know the song. I mean, when you read it, you say it in your head the way you would usually say it, so all it looks like is someone writing the same thing twice.

^*Ordinarily I have to bang my head against the wall to remind myself don't. read. the comments. but these comments are generally very funny because so is the blog.

By the way, The Bloggess was in town today, and I did not see her. I am sad. I was wrestling with tulle^** and lost track of time.

^**For reasons to be explained later.

July Photo a Day and tantalising vacation tidbits

Here is July's photo a day challenge.



I usually present these without comment, but I would like to talk about a few of them, because when I was in London I would often forget to check the prompts before I went out for the day but then I would get back and discover that I had a great photo for a particular prompt. "Animal/Insect/Pet" is a statue of Hodge, Samuel Johnson's favourite cat. "Eyes" is me trying to get a gruesome shot of one of the Olympic mascot statues that popped up everywhere in London overnight and which are, frankly, very weird^*. "9 o'clock" was taken shortly before I finally got to hear Big Ben chime. None of those photos were instigated by the prompts -- they just happened to work.

In Paris, I was much better about planning to take the prompt pictures, but the last day I forgot all about it and only managed to get a related shot for "Cup" by sheer luck. Mostly because I was giddy about buying the dress in "Last thing you bought." I wasn't planning on buying any dresses in Paris, but a) it was on sale for 30 euros and b) check out that detail!

Speaking of London and Paris, I hope to get the over 1000 photos renamed, sorted, and annotated in much less time than it took me to do the 2010 trip. I'm planning on blogging the trip, timey-wimily, as I put the pix up this time. And I really will go back and finish blogging the old trip. Really.

August prompts are here. It's been a whole two months since Lucy has been featured... I think she's due for a closeup.

^*Overheard in Regent Park by some Londoners walking past the first of two of these statues at the beginning and end of a very short path: "What are they meant to be? I mean, I know they're supposed to be the mascots, but what are they?^**"

^**They have been formed from drops of steel, obviously.