Today is the longest night of the year!

I've got my Solstice candle lit and it will keep the light going through 'til dawn. I'm still working out a lot of things about my pagan practice (and probably will be for the rest of my life) but lighting a candle on Solstice is something that my Mum started doing when I was a kid, and it's a tradition I like to maintain. It makes me think of Egyptian mythology: the Sun god Ra going through the underworld every night and fighting against the serpent Apophis ("Dead false god," says Teal'c), and the priests who would pray all night to help him in his journey. Tonight is the longest night of the year. Ra can use every little bit of help.

(*Sidenote: my spellcheck thinks that "Apophis" should be "Sophism". What are you trying to say, computer?)

Today the sun set at 4:17 (I checked the exact time). And it was fairly clear today so it was actually still pretty light out when I was out getting groceries at 3:30. The other day it was so overcast that it seemed like it was getting dark around 2:30 - so this was a good day.

I made sure to get my candle lit as the sun went down. It was still fairly light outside even though it was not in my apartment.



Then I started making myself a Solstice Feast! Someday I think I'll have people over for a Solstice celebration. But for now it's good to work things out on my own. For dinner I got myself a small lamb roast and made carrot soufflé and Yorkshire puddings to go with it. Very successful:



It was my first time making Yorkshire puddings, but I had my Dad's recipe and it turns out they're dead simple. I replaced the sesame oil with olive oil because I didn't have any of the former and they tasted great to me anyway. I should definitely make them again. I've made the carrot soufflé before, although I think this is the first time I've done it with an electric mixer. In theory it should have been fairly simple too, but I cut the recipe in half (since there is only one of me) and I don't think that turned out as well as it could have. Still tasty, but not as good as it's been in the past.

Things I forgot: mint sauce and gravy.

Overall it was a great success despite my tiny kitchen.

Also - Raspberry porter (Made by the Tree brewing company) is just as good as it sounds.

I was going to make some apples (fried with brown sugar and brandy) for dessert, but after six Yorkshire puddings and almost half of a lamb roast and a carrot soufflé I'm rather stuffed in the best possible way. So I'm having mini candy canes for dessert instead. :)

And I got myself a tiny Christmas tree!



Happy Solstice everyone!

Today was a long day.

I had my Sanctuaries final this morning which is almost four hours of my life I'll never get back. It was pretty much exactly what I was expecting it to be, which doesn't mean that it was good. But it is was it is, and most importantly it's over.

So after that I rewarded myself with McDonalds for lunch and then headed to the bar with the crew to watch the Canucks-Hurricanes game, although I had to leave early to go and play my own hockey game.

Today was the last game before Christmas break for me (there's one next week too which I'll be missing), and it was a lot of fun. I ended up getting about 24 shots on net according to our score-keeper. Which is probably not counting all of them. For context this is on par with the number of shots which NHL goaltenders see in a typical game. Except that NHL games last much longer than ours do. The final score was 2-1 for them in the end (and the score-keeper said that we got 6 shots), but it was a good game. Needless to say I'm feeling tired. Also I got the Ice Bird which we hand out for player of the game every week!

Now I'm eating a whole box of Kraft Dinner from the pot with ketchup and hot dogs, because I'm classy like that. ;) And also watching the original Tron which is loads of fun. And soon there will be sleep.

I don't remember what made me think of it, but a week or two ago I decided that I really wanted to make some Mocha Maple Chocolate Cake. (If you get the reference I will love you forever.)

This is from my favourite kids book ever - Sleeping Dragons All Around by Sheree Fitch. I made my Mum read that to me pretty much every night before I went to sleep (and she still likes it too!). So I went asking my friend the internet for a recipe - I figured there had to be one out there. How could you go wrong with Mocha, Maple and Chocolate?

Anyway, the closest thing I could find was for Mocha Maple Carob Cake and as you might expect it had loads of other health-nut type things in it. I decided to try and make it anyway - I used cocoa powder instead of carob powder and used more all-purpose flour in place of the whole wheat flour. And for the icing I decided to just use some off brand Nutella instead of dealing with the cocoa powder and almond butter and adding the other things to it.

Things I noticed when I was making it:
- You don't have to worry over much about creaming the butter and maple syrup together if you use a cup of hot coffee (and it doesn't say to use cold coffee) because the coffee melts the butter.
- It's possible I put in too much cocoa powder - either that or not enough Maple syrup and coffee. It's hard to taste the latter. Also it's not very sweet (I suspect this is another product of the health-nut type of cake).
- I really do suck at making icing. It should be easy - I follow instructions even. But this is not the first nor the last time I've screwed it up to the point where I think I might not bother using it.
First Corollary: When she said "powdered coffee" in the icing recipe I don't think she meant coffee grinds - my bad.

Whatever - it's still a success if only because I danced in the kitchen and didn't do the dishes!

Things that were on my to do list and are no longer:
- Finish reading my book
- Bake Mocha Maple Chocolate Cake
- Dance in Kitchen
- Don't do the dishes
- Dinner with Dad
- Care-package for L

In other words I've done the fun things... typical me. But now I'm heading off to post the package for L and do my taxes - so I'm not completely hopeless.

Tonight - Game 6 Chicago @ Vancouver. C assures me that we've got it all wrapped up - no problem. It worked last time, so I'm feeling good (oh god that's a lie - I am stressed! Stressed about hockey!) about a win. GO 'NUCKS!

Roasts were on sale at the grocery store, so I got a nice little roast that should last me several meals, and some little potatoes and cooked them up for dinner tonight. I decided to just cook everything in the same pan in the oven. It turns out though that even little potatoes (cut into tiny pieces) take longer to cook than a roast beast. So I've got slightly underdone potatoes and slightly overdone beef. It's still good, but it's frustrating to know that it could be better.

Speaking of better, today I finally put up that poster in my Ancient Philosophy Class. This class is in the Chemistry (for reasons that escape me) and there's an enormous poster of the periodic table on the wall. Weeks and weeks ago I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if we put up Aristotle's elements next to it?" And I finally just did it. So next to all that "science" we have a nice little diagram entitled "The Elements" with Earth, Air, Fire and Water, Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry. Which looks almost exactly like this linky linky.

I am so clever!

MMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMM Wontons........

And The General - you are spicier than I remember. Good thing C left a bunch of milk.

Still sick and feeling congested.

BUT!

Today I got fish! And a barbeque!

(These two purchases are not related.)

I got three Mickey Mouse Platies who have a varying level of red/orange on their backs and black spots on their tail-fins that look like Micky Mouse. I have yet to decide their names, but I think I'm going to give it a few days for them to get used to the ew tank and show their true personalities. I still want to name one Snoop Dog for C's sake (because he kept telling me to name my fish Snoop Dog) but I'm not sure that any of them are spunky enough for that. However this might just be new tank jitters.

At least they've moved out from behind the fake plant.

And the Barbeque is just one of those little table-top ones that run off the little camping propane canisters, like the one that's clamped onto the rail of my Dad's sailboat (only without the clamp part. And it looks significantly less like a spaceship), but it's not like we need anything bigger than that.

I think I'm going to buy myself a ice steak when I go grocery shopping soon. (I really need to go grocery shopping soon, but I don't feel like going tonight.)

Anyway: Yay!

That's right no more Imperial Russia for Aderam. Today was the final exam and also what would have been the last class if we weren't having the exam now instead of during the exam time.

I missed the bus this morning by about 30 seconds (I watched it go by but could get to the stop fast enough) and had to walk to school. Luckily I had enough time and my iPod, so I was able to walk and listen to the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Daft Punk and the Russian Navy Hymn from the Hunt for Red October (to get me in the spirit of things). Then when I arrived I found out that my Prof had forgotten to send my exam to student services and I had to walk across campus to pick it up and then walk back to write it. And then of course the exam took me way less time to write than I was expecting. It was the same length as the mid-term and it did take me about the same amount of time to write but it always unnerves me when I take 45 minutes on an exam that we're given an hour and a half for (this is not counting the extra time I get because of my learning disability). But I went over all the answers again twice and re-read the instructions to make sure I wasn't making a mistake, and seeing none I handed it in and came home. Still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth though.

Of course the bad taste is always cured by feeding me stew. Last night I made beef stew, so of course that's what I'm eating for lunch today. It may also be dinner since I'm not feeling very creative at the moment.

In any case now to reward myself by watching the new episode of NCIS.