Five random things (and one serious thing) make up an entry

[mrissa]

1. I no longer like milk chocolate. I am still willing to eat a frozen Reese's Peanut Butter Cup once in a blue moon, but that may be it. I still have to try a Marabou hazelnut milk chocolate bar to be sure. But when we were in the Toronto airport, I spotted the lovely Quality Street packages and bought some. I enjoyed them two years ago. I loved them two years ago. I ate one and thought it tasted funny, so I thought maybe I was coming down with something. Waited a few weeks. Tried another two pieces for lunch today, different flavors: um. No. Not at all, in fact. There was clearly nothing wrong with them. They were just...milk chocolate. Which I don't like now. At all, apparently. I mean, it's not spit-it-out gross to me, but...it turns out I'd really rather not.

I had some inkling of this when I was in the car dealership waiting for several hours and they had a vending machine. I thought, "I will get myself a treat!" And I looked, and they didn't have anything I would classify as a treat. It all looked like it would be a chore to eat, and that's no good on any axis, so I didn't get anything. And I thought I was just being a snob about mass-market American chocolate, because I have been known to be a snob from time to time, you will be shocked to hear. But then this with the Quality Street, which, okay, is still mass-market. It is not the finest milk chocolate British chocolatiers have ever produced. But it was awfully good just two years ago, and I don't think Nestle is what's changed. I think it's me.

So I have two tiny bars of Green & Black 70% for in the airport and/or on the plane next week. Just In Case. What if there's a storm? Who'd want to be stuck on the tarmac in Detroit without chocolate? Uff da, what a thought. (I will also have my own homemade mix of dried fruit and nuts. Hypoglycemics travel prepared. Hypoglycemic snobs, doubly so.)

2. I am the Death of Plants. The Death of Rats says, "SQUEAK." I don't know what I say. "C55H72O5N4Mg," probably. (The subscripts are all elevated to the same line, making it the equivalent of all-caps for a chemical formula, right?) One of the people I love most in the world gave me a living stick for my birthday. It is now a formerly-living stick. I misted it with the laundry bottle! I misted and misted! But it is crunchy. I am no expert on plants (which is surprising, given that I am their Death, but there you go), but I am given to understand that crunchy is generally bad. This makes me oh-for-three for the year when it comes to plants. Naming them doesn't help: I killed a pothos called Porthos. Not naming them doesn't help. Nothing seems to help. I am just the Death of Plants.

Crud.

3. We don't have the material for new kitchen curtains. I looked at everything they had, and I wanted none of it. We do, however, have books, because I went into the used bookstore next door and salved my feelings about the whole curtain business with a biography of King Christina and a book about the exploration of Australia and, oh, several other things. As the leaves fall, my back-door neighbors will be able to see directly into the kitchen when I sit at the kitchen table and drink hot chocolate and read my books. I suspect that the world will keep turning. (But I will go look for fabric further afield after I get back from World Fantasy anyway.)

4. I also do not have Ha'penny, nor my Mammals CD (not featuring elisem: different Mammals), nor my Kurlansky book, nor timprov's Dar Williams Live DVD, nor yet my Veronica Mars Season 3 DVDs. And yet I have not run down to the mailbox to collar the mailbeing and demand them. Because I am a mature and reasonable individual, and also because I didn't see when the mail came yesterday.

5. I have now written more short stories than I've sold this year. Although no one should feel constrained from tipping the balance back again. I was saying elsewhere, in response to a locked post, that periodically I feel the need to "clear the decks" of short story ideas so that I have fewer half-finished short stories wandering around my brain. This process is always good for me, but never in the intended way: writing all those short stories gets me thinking about Things, and those Things get me thinking about more Things, and pretty soon I have a bunch more short stories started. This is as though putting away groceries made you think of food and go have to write half a dozen more things on the grocery list so you can make them later.

Wait. I do that, too. So it's an ongoing theme in my life, is what we're saying here.

And the one serious thing: Someone in my close extended family (if that term makes sense: close to me personally but not by legal reckoning) has fallen and broken her hip. (Probably the reverse order, given how these things tend to happen with elderly bones.) She's in a lot of pain, and a previous medical problem means that she's not entirely mentally clear on the world around her any more. So pain and confusion. We're hoping the doctors can keep her comfortable while they fix the hip, but if I seem preoccupied, that may well be why. I'm perfectly willing to talk about more details on e-mail with those of you who have reason to want them (those who know my extended family members, for example), but when I'm not clear on where someone wants privacy, I don't want to name her publicly. Still, she's in my thoughts.

Comments

[sensational.livejournal.com]

You probably already know about Repro Depot (http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/), but if not, now you do. I love a lot of what they have.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, awful person, you would have to send me to a source for Merimekko!

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'm amused by this one (http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/rkymtqt.html). Quilt-bert!

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your plant - I love plants, and the fact that I live in a basement duplex unit right now makes me sad because it means I can't have plants in my home. I have to make do with plants everywhere at the office.

"Crunchy" most often indicates not-enough-water. Some plants just want more water than what's normally recommended. If the plant is located near a source of heat (really close or in a window, or next to a heating vent/grate/radiator), it's going to want more water.

However! Sometimes, crunchy "on top" can actually mean too much water, which means the roots "down below" are rotting away. Easiest way to tell is to lift the container the plant is in - if it feels heavy, that's a sign that it was getting too much water. If it's very light, it probably means it was getting too little.

On the subject of chocolate - can you still tolerate regular hot chocolate? Or are you now buying the dark chocolate varieties?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It was hanging in the window, but the way a "living stick" is set up, there's no container it's in to begin with.

I am finding some regular hot chocolates too sweet, but I can still drink them. I'm drinking the dark chocolate varieties whenever possible, though.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I am no expert on plants (which is surprising, given that I am their Death, but there you go)

Actually, that's not in the least surprising; Death Himself is very far from being an expert on humans, after all, despite being the Death of us. Book after book, he devotes himself to demonstrating how little he gets it...

Also, I don't have kitchen curtains (they get all grungy and greasy and yuck!), and my house looks directly out onto the sidewalk (or, more commonly, the sidewalk looks directly into here). People stare, when they see me cooking...

Also-also, pain and confusion are a horrible combination. I'm sorry.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know, Death is portrayed as being pretty wise in some books. Hmm.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Very sorry to hear about your friend who broke her hip. Pain and confusion is indeed a horrible combination, and I hope she gets better in both departments quickly. (Um, without actually expecting it, given previous medical condition you mentioned).

And I will have your milk chocolate. Thank you. Good dark chocolate is well enough, and sometimes exactly what's needed (like for dipping ginger), but people are starting to eat baking chocolate, which is just absurd! I've had pleasant 70%, that's not inherently too dark, but it can be.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You may indeed have a substantial portion of my milk chocolate, and you're welcome.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I prefer dark chocolate to milk, but I agree, there is such a thing as too dark.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I seem to have outgrown milk chocolate, too. I still like the occasional Snickers bar (where the chocolate is not the point) or Reese's Cup (ditto), but mostly: the darker, the better, please.

Perplexing, but there it is.

I hope your family member is less pained and confused ASAP.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I read an article that suggested that women in their mid-20s often shift towards a taste for more bitter foods. I have been the poster child for that.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I don't seem to like milk chocolate either anymore. If it's lighter then about 68%, I do not want it, thank you very much.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I just said this to Hannah above: I read an article about women in their mid-twenties shifting towards a taste for more bitter food. Mine started around 22 or 23 and has just intensified from there.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Totally understand about close extended family, and best wishes for a full recovery to the person.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I know US chocolate is generally awful, but for Quality Street to come out as a treat and tasty joy by comparison is rather disturbing, though to be fair they're better than they used to be. Green and Blacks all the way for me now though :)

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I'm only interested in milk chocolate if I'm really interested in the combination of chocolate and something else (chocolate and peanut butter, chocolate and raspberry or strawberry, etc etc). Then milk chocolate is acceptable, but always less preferred than dark chocolate.

And white chocolate? I don't get the point. At all.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I went through a phase when that first paragraph would have described me as well, but apparently now I'm out of it.

[laurel]

If you ever need any good dark chocolate, we still have a rather, um, large quantity left over from Convivial. I imagine it will be making the rounds at Minn-StF events and parties for a while now.

Marimekko is the best. Our shower curtain and towels (that match) are one of the Marimekko patterns from Crate & Barrel a few years back. So not what I think of as especially Marimekko-y but pleasant pattern and color combo.

I have, in the past, searched eBay and the web for Marimekko stuff so can offer advice/links in that area. Ikea also has some fabrics that are much cheaper but which fit in the same category style-wise.

I'm still looking for fabric for kitchen curtains for our kitchen. '40s or '50s style in colors to match Fiestaware and/or red/yellow are what I'm looking for, so I spend a lot of time looking at vintage curtains on eBay and Craig's List. Most pre-made curtains of this era suck, as I'm sure you know well.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Maybe you need our old curtains...

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

At least you finish yours off. I tend to just torture mine for years on end, leaving them no worse off, but not much better either, and with a wide range in between those averages.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

1 - I no longer like milk chocolate either.

May I recommend Richart chocolates? They have lovely dark chocolate petit truffles in yummy flavours such as curry praline and cinnamon ganache. You can order 'em online...OR if you chance to be in the vicinities of Boston, SF, New York, and soon LA, you can visit the boutiques.

2 - I FAIL at plants. FAIL.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

I once killed a cactus. And before anyone says, "oh, that's easy to do- they're sensitive to overwatering" let me point out that I managed to underwater it.

I also "killed" a silk plant once. In my defense, before I made those waterspots all over it, it was VERY realistic.

I am with you in the Black Thumb Corner.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I stole your plant talents. I did not know, when I was picking out my future superpowers, that if I wanted to be able to fill my windows with green, others would then lose that skill. I am sorry! I REP... okay, I do not REPENT, but I am struggling not to suggest plants for you to try.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, thanks for undergoing the struggle. I know I can ask lj if I want plant suggestions, but I don't.

[pameladean]

You are the Death of House Plants, maybe. Keeping those guys alive is a completely different skill from gardening outside.

As for chocolate, woe is me. I adore milk chocolate, and I can't have any.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't do the gardening outside. Outside I only kill things. markgritter is the one who keeps them alive.

[redbird]

My sympathies to you and your relative on her injury. And yes, close extended family makes sense; if you can choose who counts as family, there's no rule that limits that to people who aren't blood kin, if you want to include, say, a second cousin once removed.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

1. I go back and forth between preferring milk chocolate and preferring dark, but the baseline chocolate bar that I keep coming back to is the standard Hershey bar.

2. "biography of King Christina and a book about the exploration of Australia"

That would be Christina of Sweden, I'm guessing? And which book about the exploration of Australia? You can't just leave us hanging like that. (Well, okay, you can, but you'd be a big meanie if you did.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I won't leave you hanging, but I tend to report on books when I've read them rather than beforehand. The Australia one is The Dig Tree by Sarah Murgatroyd, and the one about King Christina is Christina Queen of Sweden by Veronica Buckley.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Here's a curious find...
Plug the Chlorophyll formula into a google search. Observe the Urdu in the 3rd hit from the top. Now we know how geeky people get on occasion...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Urdu was second for me, and Chinese characters fourth.