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Sailor Take Warning...
Jan. 27th, 2007 08:10 am'Twas ominous this morning, as dawn broke o'er the evil thicket...
( Bad Omens... )
( Good Omens... )
( Bad Omens... )
( Good Omens... )
The Trouble with Truffles...
Dec. 22nd, 2006 10:52 pmLordy, do I suck at dipping candies, even worse than I suck at wrapping presents. I've been making truffles based on a recipe someone (Beathen, I think) posted at b.org a couple of years ago. I made the exact recipe (for mocha truffles) last year, and they were well received, so I decided to experiment with different flavors this year. I have mocha, dark chocolate, peppermint, and coconut. The centers are all done, and I just finished dipping the mocha and peppermint in dark chocolate. I even bought dipping tools at A.C. Moore. The dipping went well enough, but I put them on a wire rack to set up, and most got stuck to the wires as the molten chocolate dripped down through the grid and hardened. Almost every one I picked up wound up losing a little grid-shaped patch of coating from the bottom. I redipped that side, but they look lousy. Eventually I got smart, and just turned the rack upside down and pushed them out of the grid. I'll do the rest (they get milk chocolate outside) in the morning.
I watched my tapes of A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Wish for Wings That Work while getting most of my non-food wrapping done. Have had to change two presents at the last minute. It turns out I still need to get something for evil niece, because I can't find the present I thought I had for her. I'd bought it a couple of years ago for a different niece, who then requested something specific, so I saved the original present for a rainy day. Now it's raining out, and I have no idea where it is. Bother. I'll get something tomorrow.
The other misfit present is a copy of Terry Pratchett's Where's My Cow? that I bought for cutie patootie niece thinking it would be a nice story about making animal noises. It only arrived from Amazon yesterday, so I flipped through it last night, and while it's a perfectly wonderful book, halfway through the key question changes from "Where's my cow?" to "Where's my daddy?" and given that cutie patootie niece's mommy and daddy have split up, I think I'll save that one for someone else. Or keep it for myself, given that if I put it aside, I probably won't be able to find it ever again. My niece will get the wooden pull-train with blocks on it that I found when I was out today. It's a lot like a toy I've been meaning to make for one or the other of my nieces or nephews since forever, so it's a fine substitute.
Pratchett featured in another oddball present this year. I came home the other day, and found a package in the middle of my front yard, as though the letter carrier had just flung it there like a newspaper, which is very unlike my usual letter carrier who always leaves packages on my stoop. Anyway, the package was from an Amazon associate seller, and I knew I'd bought what ever it was for myself, because I recognized the seller's name, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what I'd bought. My short term memory really has been spotty lately. I was watching TV last night, and someone said something that made me want to look something up on Wikipedia. A click later, the wikipedia main page opened, and I'd totally forgotten what it was I wanted to look up. Still don't remember. Anyway, my surprise Christmas present to myself turned out to be a hard bound copy of Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens. Cool!
Still to do tomorrow morning: 1) Dip rest of truffles, 2) prepare food baskets, 3) install Nero on the computer so I can 4) burn some Christmas music to listen to on the 5) drive to Jersey.
I watched my tapes of A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Wish for Wings That Work while getting most of my non-food wrapping done. Have had to change two presents at the last minute. It turns out I still need to get something for evil niece, because I can't find the present I thought I had for her. I'd bought it a couple of years ago for a different niece, who then requested something specific, so I saved the original present for a rainy day. Now it's raining out, and I have no idea where it is. Bother. I'll get something tomorrow.
The other misfit present is a copy of Terry Pratchett's Where's My Cow? that I bought for cutie patootie niece thinking it would be a nice story about making animal noises. It only arrived from Amazon yesterday, so I flipped through it last night, and while it's a perfectly wonderful book, halfway through the key question changes from "Where's my cow?" to "Where's my daddy?" and given that cutie patootie niece's mommy and daddy have split up, I think I'll save that one for someone else. Or keep it for myself, given that if I put it aside, I probably won't be able to find it ever again. My niece will get the wooden pull-train with blocks on it that I found when I was out today. It's a lot like a toy I've been meaning to make for one or the other of my nieces or nephews since forever, so it's a fine substitute.
Pratchett featured in another oddball present this year. I came home the other day, and found a package in the middle of my front yard, as though the letter carrier had just flung it there like a newspaper, which is very unlike my usual letter carrier who always leaves packages on my stoop. Anyway, the package was from an Amazon associate seller, and I knew I'd bought what ever it was for myself, because I recognized the seller's name, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what I'd bought. My short term memory really has been spotty lately. I was watching TV last night, and someone said something that made me want to look something up on Wikipedia. A click later, the wikipedia main page opened, and I'd totally forgotten what it was I wanted to look up. Still don't remember. Anyway, my surprise Christmas present to myself turned out to be a hard bound copy of Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens. Cool!
Still to do tomorrow morning: 1) Dip rest of truffles, 2) prepare food baskets, 3) install Nero on the computer so I can 4) burn some Christmas music to listen to on the 5) drive to Jersey.
Thank God for the weekend, despite the fact that it's muggy as can be. The plague seems to finally be easing up on me. The fact that I drugged myself to sleep with Nyquil the last couple of nights no doubt helped.
I finished Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy omnibus just before I left for California. It consists of two collections of short stories (Murder and Magic and Lord Darcy Investigates, plus the novel, Too Many Magicians. The high concept behind this alternate history series is that Richard the Lionheart survived his arrow wound in 1199, instead taking it as a sign that it was time to settle down and become the best ruler of England and France ever. To this day (the late twentieth century) Plantagenets hold the throne of the Anglo-French Empire, and the nobility still live in castles. Technology is about that of the late Victorian era, i.e., trains and telephones, in part because magic exists, and the laws by which it operates were worked out in mathematical detail some centuries ago. It's an interesting idea. I don't buy any of the alternate history, mind you, but it's interesting speculation.
The short story collections are okay, but suffer from the fact that Garrett has to repeat the origins of this universe along with showing how magic works in every one. Lord Darcy is the chief criminal investigator for Richard, Duke of Normandy. In the early stories, he's very Sherlockian in both methods and demeanor. He's assisted by Master Forensic Sorcerer Sean O'Lochlainn, who explains the way magic works in great detail in every story. The stories are often reminiscent of other mysteries. For example, "The Napoli Express" is a takeoff on Murder on the Orient Express, and "The Ipswich Phial" reminds one of Have His Carcase, along with its pun on The Ipcress File. Another problem (at least for me) that develops as the series proceeds is that Garrett relies more and more on Polish Secret Service (the Polish Empire is the chief rival to the Anglo-French in world affairs) to be his villains, so Darcy becomes more and more a spy chaser as we go along.
That being said, the novel, Too Many Magicians, is excellent. Again Garrett borrows other peoples' characters and and situations. A master sorcerer is found dead in a locked hotel room at a magicians' convention, and Darcy must team up with his cousin, the Marquis of London, the chief investigator for the King. De London is a noted herbalist and gourmand who rarely leaves his London townhouse, and is put off by flummery. His assistant is Lord Bontriomphe (good win, get it?), whose speech patterns, unlike anyone else's in the book, are those of a midwesterner transplanted to the west side of Manhattan. There are other such borrowings. The Grand Master sorcerer, a tall, thin man with a prominent nose, is called Sir Lyon Gandolphus Grey, while one of the minor characters is Neapoler Einzig. Meanwhile, Darcy's character gets a much needed makeover. Now he's much more Peter Wimsey than Sherlock Holmes. There's even a Dowager Duchess on hand, although she's a stand-in for Harriet Vane, not the DD of Denver. The whole thing is great fun, and the mystery is well presented. Recommended.
On the plane out I started Pratchett's Guards! Guards!, another Vimes book, the one in which he meets Sybil. It's quite a bit sillier that the later books I've read. It also seemed to take awhile to get up to speed, although that may also be the result of my having only four hours of sleep before I started reading it. Finished it during the F2F, and I enjoyed it.
Next up was a reread of The Trouble Twisters, a collection of Poul Anderson's early stories about David Falkayn, Nicholas van Rijn's chief scout and troubleshooter. I'd forgotten how much of a horndog Falkayn was. Fun stuff.
Last night I started Foul Ball, Jim Bouton's tale of his crusade to save an old ballpark in Pittsfield, MA, from the wreckers ball.
I finished Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy omnibus just before I left for California. It consists of two collections of short stories (Murder and Magic and Lord Darcy Investigates, plus the novel, Too Many Magicians. The high concept behind this alternate history series is that Richard the Lionheart survived his arrow wound in 1199, instead taking it as a sign that it was time to settle down and become the best ruler of England and France ever. To this day (the late twentieth century) Plantagenets hold the throne of the Anglo-French Empire, and the nobility still live in castles. Technology is about that of the late Victorian era, i.e., trains and telephones, in part because magic exists, and the laws by which it operates were worked out in mathematical detail some centuries ago. It's an interesting idea. I don't buy any of the alternate history, mind you, but it's interesting speculation.
The short story collections are okay, but suffer from the fact that Garrett has to repeat the origins of this universe along with showing how magic works in every one. Lord Darcy is the chief criminal investigator for Richard, Duke of Normandy. In the early stories, he's very Sherlockian in both methods and demeanor. He's assisted by Master Forensic Sorcerer Sean O'Lochlainn, who explains the way magic works in great detail in every story. The stories are often reminiscent of other mysteries. For example, "The Napoli Express" is a takeoff on Murder on the Orient Express, and "The Ipswich Phial" reminds one of Have His Carcase, along with its pun on The Ipcress File. Another problem (at least for me) that develops as the series proceeds is that Garrett relies more and more on Polish Secret Service (the Polish Empire is the chief rival to the Anglo-French in world affairs) to be his villains, so Darcy becomes more and more a spy chaser as we go along.
That being said, the novel, Too Many Magicians, is excellent. Again Garrett borrows other peoples' characters and and situations. A master sorcerer is found dead in a locked hotel room at a magicians' convention, and Darcy must team up with his cousin, the Marquis of London, the chief investigator for the King. De London is a noted herbalist and gourmand who rarely leaves his London townhouse, and is put off by flummery. His assistant is Lord Bontriomphe (good win, get it?), whose speech patterns, unlike anyone else's in the book, are those of a midwesterner transplanted to the west side of Manhattan. There are other such borrowings. The Grand Master sorcerer, a tall, thin man with a prominent nose, is called Sir Lyon Gandolphus Grey, while one of the minor characters is Neapoler Einzig. Meanwhile, Darcy's character gets a much needed makeover. Now he's much more Peter Wimsey than Sherlock Holmes. There's even a Dowager Duchess on hand, although she's a stand-in for Harriet Vane, not the DD of Denver. The whole thing is great fun, and the mystery is well presented. Recommended.
On the plane out I started Pratchett's Guards! Guards!, another Vimes book, the one in which he meets Sybil. It's quite a bit sillier that the later books I've read. It also seemed to take awhile to get up to speed, although that may also be the result of my having only four hours of sleep before I started reading it. Finished it during the F2F, and I enjoyed it.
Next up was a reread of The Trouble Twisters, a collection of Poul Anderson's early stories about David Falkayn, Nicholas van Rijn's chief scout and troubleshooter. I'd forgotten how much of a horndog Falkayn was. Fun stuff.
Last night I started Foul Ball, Jim Bouton's tale of his crusade to save an old ballpark in Pittsfield, MA, from the wreckers ball.
It's been awhile since I've talked about what I've been reading.
( Thud! )
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( Night Watch )
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( Murder in E Minor )
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( Starburst )
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( The Naked Sun )
( Thud! )
---
( Night Watch )
---
( Murder in E Minor )
---
( Starburst )
---
( The Naked Sun )
