Spice of life

[mrissa]

My momma always told me that the way to catch a Norwegian boyfriend was to daub almond extract behind your ears. (Apparently this works for Dutch as well.) I have no idea what flavors of person one would find trailing behind if one went out smelling of almond extract, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon extract, but that's what I smell like this morning. I got a little reckless with the baked goods. ("Stop her! She's not using the measuring spoons!") I will shower before I go out, just in case.

Other possible uncontrolled substances for use today: dill, paprika, rosemary, basil, garlic, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves. How many of those I get to will partly depend on how badly the writing and household tasks (particularly phone tasks, YARG, hate the phone, HAAAAAATE) go. If the house smells like the spice aisle at Byerly's, that probably won't be a good sign. On the other hand, having the house smell like someone cares about it is always a helpful thing.

And who knows? I figured out where to put a bit that needed to go into Sampo and had been plaguing me for months, so I may get the smell of rosemary and decent writing progress. Stranger things have happened.

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Phone bad. Phone EVIL! *hiss* *spit*

[songwind.livejournal.com]

The vanilla portions of the program definitely work on German-Irish guys. ladysea wore primarily vanilla perfumes for years, drove me nuts.

The stall where theferret sells soap has a bar that is apparently based on some classical aphrodesiac recipe, and the best description I could come up with is "that smells like an x-rated ginger snap."

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

It's a good way to get me to follow you around....

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Plus, there is the joy that you can actually smell all those things, and all those things smell like themselves. After dysosmia, the smell of the spice aisle is a wonderful thing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This is very true!

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

This morning, spices made me sad.

I'm on the tail-end of a cold, and when I made my coffee this morning, I decided to make spiced coffee. I couldn't smell the black cardamom or cloves or even the ground coffee. Oh well.

I hadn't gone smelldeaf until today. Maybe this means I'm almost over the bug.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I hope it doesn't last long!

[voidmonster.livejournal.com]

Happily, it's already improving.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

You're making me hungry...

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

What's cookin'?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

So far, banana bread (Hilton variation). Potato salad and cuke salad are coming up for sure for dinner (the potatoes and eggs are boiling for the former), and other possibilities include rosemary buns, various pesto types with garden harvest, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal pancakes, banana muffins, and, if I get really annoyed, apple crisp. Almost certainly not all today.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Vanilla is reportedly the most common scent for men to react to. Sadly, it smells terrible on me. I suppose I will have to "settle" for a Scandinavian. (Not a problem as I consistently find people of Scandinavian heritage attractive, even when I don't know their Scandinavian. Even when they aren't brawny or blue eyed or blond.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

One of the nice things about living in MN is that people understand that "you look Scandihoovian" is not the same thing as "you have blonde hair."

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

One more bit of evidence that I'm not Norwegian -- almond extract would *not* be the right pheremonal lure for me. Very much not. Real almonds are okay, sometimes, but extracts and flavors and such are mostly not at all.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Vanilla and almond together I've done, that was more for me though!

Now, you've reminded me of cardamom again.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm not terribly contrite, I'm afraid.

heh. Mis Not Contrite. And I not surprised..

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

.. but then you knew that. Nor need to be very good thing. Does the saying connect with cookies at all? Because that is what I think of.

Re: heh. Mis Not Contrite. And I not surprised..

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Contrition makes you think of cookies? Or lack of contrition does?

Contrition or cookies

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

No.

Vanilla and almonds. The first is in most of the family recipes (not the cream cheese dough.. tho) and together they are in our cut out cookie recipe. So vanilla makes me think of baking and kitchens, and especially cookies. And, vanilla and almond, of Christmas.

(The little bit of time in Iceland it was cardamom and almond.)

Contrition doesn't have a scent for me. ;)

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

I'm giggling happily at the thought of catching a Norskie-boy with almond extract. I was tring to describe the Caf's Almond Pie to people at my Mom's wedding over the weekend. Her sister got it (Scandihovian half of the family), but Richard's family (Japanese) just didn't understand the appeal.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I made my auntie so happy when I told her I'd sold a story about spritz.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

In other circumstances, I might take someone describing marrying my friend the_overqual as losing somewhat amiss.

And Momma didn't say that I ought to try to catch a Norwegian boyfriend. She just gave me the information she felt I needed to do so if I chose (or to avoid it, one supposes). She also didn't tell me I had to get pregnant, but she told me how that works, too, just in case it became relevant at some point.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

Did she tell you how to catch a girl, in case it became relevant?

(Yes, I already know the answer here, and am just being a pain.)

So he's "your friend" now, is he? I feel like my parents with their "Well, she's *your* daughter" comments whenever they wish to abdicate responsibility for me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No, as I noted to Jym, my mom usually limited herself to things she actually knew about, and she's never had any practice with snagging Norwegian girls. She also didn't teach me anything about astrophysics or Australian aboriginal legends. Many were the gaps in my education when my mother was done, but I've managed to limp along all the same.

It's the opposite of your parents and my great-aunt and everybody else who disclaims responsibility when they're frustrated: if you're going to describe marrying him as losing, we'll take him here. He needn't sleep out in the snow. Etc.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

As I said, I already knew the answer.

It isn't so much frustrated for them (or for many of them) as pretend-frustrated. It is often in fact a sort of begruding proud frustrated.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ahh. With my relatives it isn't. Not that Aunt Ellen, for example, didn't still love Great-Grandma when she referred to her as "your mother-in-law" to Uncle Phil, but she was genuinely frustrated at those moments.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

I of course am bothered by the subtext, by

1.) Mommas suggesting ways to catch boyfriends

2.) Mommas implying that boyfriends should be caught

3.) Mommas implying that boyfriends who should be caught (or not caught, I s'pose, depending on how the advice was taken/meant) should be Norwegian.

But then I have always tried to live in my own silly idealist world, and gotten grumpy when reality interfered, as it is wont to do.

My mother always told me I'd never get married if I didn't learn how to cook. I told her 1.) I didn't want a guy anyway and 2.) guys could do their own darn cooking.

We both "lost." I got a guy and he does his own darn cooking (and much of mine, too).

Please don't say Lutefisk

[jymdyer.livejournal.com]

=v= What should I put behind my ears to catch a Norwegian girlfriend?

Re: Please don't say Lutefisk

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My guess is almond extract. But my mom is not an expert in catching Norwegian girlfriends, and my dad was sort of bashed over the head and dragged back to Mom's lair.

This is a time-honored technique for acquiring mates of any sex, really.