Thursday night

[mrissa]

The bars are cooling, and the Cambodian food was tasty, and it was good to see people again, or (in one little blond case) for the first time.

I have a story picked out to read, if I end up doing a reading -- they don't seem to have the reading schedules posted in advance this year, so I don't know one way or another whether the people scheduling them even got my e-mail, much less decided to act on it. This is suboptimal, but on the other hand it's replaced reading jitters with a vague unsettled feeling. Also this way if I don't end up reading, porphyrin doesn't get to kill me because it won't be my fault. But if you're going to be at Minicon, can you please look and see if I'm doing a reading, and if I am and you're not doing something different then, come? I'd appreciate it. I'd give you firmer parameters if I had them. I promise.

I am trying to decide what Hel's voice sounds like. I am equally convinced of two mutually exclusive options. Also I don't know which goddess's head is best to haul around. Made-up goddesses, so it's more along the lines of "sea goddess vs. huntress vs. patron of cheese" than "I'd rather have Athena's head than Demeter's any day/not me, I expect Demeter would at least know how to shut up." This will take some pondering. I can ponder while brushing my teeth, though, so at least there's that.

You know when little kids (and puppies) are really tired, and they won't stop wandering around, and you can't tell why not, because really they would be happier if they'd just lie down and go to sleep already? Umm. Yah. That.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

patron of cheese. definitely.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Northerner.

[(Anonymous)]

Southerner here, also supporting the patron of cheese.

Today is my birthday! Can I be the Cheese Goddess for my birthday?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, whoever you are! Definitely be the cheese goddess, if you are so moved. Eat aged gouda, the kind that's had a chance to get all crumbly. Go about with a slicer. Melt all over someone. It's your birthday!

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Yes! Patron of cheese! You're Scando, do you know of any? I've always wondered why there are corn goddesses, and deities of brewing and distillation, but no one could have invented cheese without supernatural aid.

[hilarymoonmurph.livejournal.com]

I have a story picked out to read, if I end up doing a reading -- they don't seem to have the reading schedules posted in advance this year, so I don't know one way or another whether the people scheduling them even got my e-mail, much less decided to act on it. This is suboptimal, but on the other hand it's replaced reading jitters with a vague unsettled feeling. Also this way if I don't end up reading, [info]porphyrin doesn't get to kill me because it won't be my fault. But if you're going to be at Minicon, can you please look and see if I'm doing a reading, and if I am and you're not doing something different then, come? I'd appreciate it. I'd give you firmer parameters if I had them. I promise.

Marissa, I feel your pain. I just wrote to Michael asking him to call me if he saw that I was scheduled for a Friday reading... I have gotten no response from Minicon programming on this.

Hmm

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh! I think things are worse for you than for me: I already intended to go up to the con midafternoon, so I'd be present for a reading if any was scheduled for me. Good luck! (And see you soon!)

[hilarymoonmurph.livejournal.com]

Yes... I was planning on going into the con on Saturday. Unless Michael tells me I'm scheduled for a reading today. Then I am going to beg babysitting from someone and just go...

Gods, I hope that I don't have a reading today.

You know, you and me and Michael Merriam and Naomi Kritzer are all in the same boat. I think that it is time for a joint letter of complaint to Minicon programming.

Grrr...

How do they expect us to have readings if a) they don't tell people WHEN they are reading, and b) don't include us in the program book so that other people can find out when we are reading?

Hmm

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was not particularly pleased, no. And it was everybody -- pameladean (who asked them for the schedule first thing, when they only had one copy) had no idea when she was scheduled.

My parents' church conditioned me against complaining to volunteer organizations, though: you complain, you get put in charge for next time, was drummed into my head. Eep.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

Goddess of Butter, obviously. So you can unsettle people with your butterhead. Brrrr.

If that's not an option, I guess Cheese is closest. And if you run into the God of Wine and the Demigod of Crackers, you could have a right good party.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No, no, I already wrote the butterhead story. It's passé.

[greykev.livejournal.com]

I too vote for the patron of cheese. We I have ordered a book entitled "Making Artisan Cheese" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592531970/sr=8-1/qid=1145029636/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7183275-2923802?%5Fencoding=UTF8) for the library. I was told by one selector, in no uncertain terms, that gourmet cooking does not check out in Sioux City. Hmm, smacks of self-fulfilling prophecy to me: we don't buy gourmet cooking books, so our selection sucks in that area, and people don't bother coming to the library for gourmet cooking guides. Neat how that works out.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Also, nobody browsing the cookbooks picks up something gourmet, because there's nothing there, so their recipes don't expand, so everybody says Sioux Citians have limited palates. Whee, fun.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to note that since I have Good Friday off from work, I'm making Passover dinner (though not a real Seder) tonight, and dessert will be your pear crisp, suitably adapted.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! Enjoy!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

...now I want some.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

One of these days I may ought to make it according to the actual recipe. I think the first time I made it, I used matzo meal instead of oats because I had it on hand, and this time I'm doing so because it's Passover. I think oats would be better.

On the other hand if you consider that Passover rolls generally make better projectiles than food, "tasty" is a definite improvement even when it's not "optimally tasty".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Enlighten the Protestant: is there something about oats that's bad for Passover? I know it's a feast of unleavened bread, but there's no leaven in oats that I know of, so are we running into some other holiday prohibition? Or is it just that the matzo is more holiday appropriate?

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Mostly it has to do with spending hundreds of years studying one book and pulling out all the possible implications of each word. This varies a bit among Jews; for instance Sephardic Jews eat rice, while Ashkenazic Jews don't. But for thos of Ashkenazic background like me, it's no grains at all unless specially monitored by a rabbi to make sure there's absolutely no way they can rise. Also no legumes, for reasons I've never fully understood, and nothing made from grains like noodles or beer or corn syrup or maltodextrin.

I don't keep Pasadic, actually, because I'm not that observant and because it would be very difficult to find appropriate foods out here, but for Passover dinner itself I do try to keep the rules.