I do believe I have established, from past escapades, that I am somewhat insane. To further drive this home, I decided this year to make all my Christmas gifts. I've been crocheting hats and scarves since October with my able assistant Lucy*, and I lovingly crocheted mistakes into every piece.**
The original plan was to crochet something for family, then something for me, and keep alternating so I wouldn't get bored and resentful (the Selfish Seamstress called this "Sewing With a Grudge"). That worked until about the beginning of December when I still had several hats and scarves to go. My projects were generously put aside as I crocheted scarves until my fingers bled.
I've been waiting for 5 months to try this recipe. I figured it would very appropriate for the Christmas holidays. Plus the DC, my official taster, really, really likes gingerbread.
It comes from the 2004 October issue of Real Simple, for a change*. I wasn't exactly sure how to work this, since it calls for 1 cup of pancake mix. Which I'm not buying just for this recipe. I used my basic pancake recipe as the base. It comes from LaVarenne Pratique, which is on my mom's bookshelf next to her Julia Childs.
I foolishly decided to make all my Christmas gifts this year, so I have been really busy crocheting hats and scarves since October. Which means that I have been avoiding almost all stores except the yarn store, which means that I haven't been getting my seasonal dose of Christmas carols. I also haven't been watching any TV, which means I haven't seen any Christmas commercials. All of which means I haven't been getting very much into the Christmas spirit.
The DC and I took care of this by going to the Christmas Market at the Distillery. Pro tip: it's much more fun to go with someone else than by yourself, at least from a mulled wine aspect. Although I always feel guilty about taking someone shopping with me; the DC has a great deal of forbearance.
Side note: when we came here for the staff lunch in June, I noticed a pair of earrings for $100 that I really liked but couldn't justify spending money on before my trip to Europe. I said that if they were still there when I came back from Paris, I would buy them. I didn't see them when we came for brunch in August, but they're there now. When I have completely wiped out my clothes budget for the next month or so. Argh. Somebody please buy those earrings and remove them from temptation!
Ahem. The Distillery certainly gives you a lot of pretty for free:
Our ultimate goal was mulled wine and sitting by the fireside. The first was easily acquired, the second required some patience. We finally grabbed two seats, only to find that they were vacant because they were in the direct path of the smoke. Oh well.
We lingered over our mulled wine and eye-watering fire, then it was time to go. We almost stayed even longer; the furniture store we popped into was showing Christmas specials. We caught the end of Charlie Brown and the beginning of the Grinch, until it became clear that I was reciting along with the video and we didn't really need to stay and watch it.*
More pictures, as usual, by clicking on the name and scrolling forever:
*Or even the Friday after that, which is the one the crazies are worried about.
Yesterday was the first Thursday of the month, and the topic for U of T's Astronomy public lecture was debunking the apocalypse. Anticipating a large turnout, they moved the lecture from the McLennan building to the new-since-my-time Bahen Centre. They were right to do so; by the time we got there, the room was packed and we had trouble finding seats. They even had an overflow room.
First of all: so the Mayan long-form calendar is coming to an end. Big deal. When our calendars come to an end, we don't freak out; we put up a new calendar. I'm sure the ancient Maya figured that, at the end of 5000 years, somebody would get around to making a new one.
You can see more debunking at www.2012hoax.org. I strongly suggest you read the first page at least, which explains why it is so important to debunk this crap. Think of the children, people!
The talk was excellent, and I found myself making notes for future lessons based on some of the topics (using Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation to show that the force of gravity between us and Sagittarius A** is less than that between us and the Moon! Earth's magnetic field won't disappear during pole reversal -- which will take about a thousand years anyway! That it would take a Mars-sized object to come past and cause a physical flip of the axis**! Also stuff for the optics unit.
It seems that the apocalypse is a very useful teaching tool.
Anyway, after the hot chocolate (with real, add-your-own-marshmallows***) and cupcakes, the DC and I made our way back over to the McLennan labs to see the telescopes. We had no luck with the night sky this time either, but I remembered my tripod and got some better night shots of the cityscape.
We also went up to look at the large telescopes. There wa quite a lot of people queuing to look at... nothing, actually, since there were so many clouds. Next time I'll check the weather forecast first.
The next public talk is in February. You should go! They have hot chocolate! And after all, we will still be here. Might as well learn something.
UPDATE: NASA has done the timey-wimey thing in reverse; they've posted this "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday" video a week early.
More pix by clicking on the name below and scrolling:
