Sententiae Draconis

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!

Our landlord just brought candy to our door. It's like reverse Trick-or-Treating!!!!

#Best Landlords Ever

Halloween related things that are also awesome: The Canucks' mascot Fin, an Orca, dressed as a banana for Halloween! Evidence from the Pumpkin carving at Canucks Place (Apologies for small photo, it was the only one I could find). Yes that is a man dressed in an orca costume, wearing a banana costume on top! - It's very meta. :)

M and I are just finishing up dinner dishes (her - I did the cooking) and then we'll be heading over to Ir's place to watch Hocus Pocus with Bette Midler and a very young McGee from NCIS as Thachary Binks. It's going to be sweet.

And tomorrow: Buying as much cheap candy as I can carry!

I went on a longer-than-anticipated walk around Stanley Park today because the weather was so lovely. It was longer than anticipated because I was being conservative in my original plans for how far I would go, and then didn't want to stop yet when I got the the easy place to turn back. So naturally I kept going, and naturally the pit stop place was further than I really wanted to go. And even more naturally the nearest bus stop was on the other side of the Park. So I walked all the the eastern seawall, from near the Yacht Club up to Lion's Gate Bridge, had to back-track to find a trail that would take me up to the café - which was up a cliff from the seawall walking path - and then walk the length of the Park along the causeway to get to the bus. Needless to say I stopped for food at the café before trekking back to the bus stop. It was a glorious day for walking. But I think next time I might try for something with easier stopping points. According to the map I got to almost 5km around the seawall. I have no idea how long the causeway was, but I think I walked about 8k today, in roughly three hours. Not bad for a day's work.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I'm going to head to a pub with one of the other people from my department who's not off elsewhere at the moment. I'm looking forward to it actually. I don't hang out with her all that often because her desk is on the other side of the Reading Room, but I think she's really cool. So it should be nice to spend a bit more time with her. Hopefully some other people will come too. New Years is best with more people.

New Year's coming also means that the author reveal for Yuletide is just around the corner. Before that happens, I thought I'd do a little round up of what I've liked best. I'm by no means done with the archive yet, and I haven't hit up anyone else's recs lists yet either.

Things that were awesome about this year's Yuletide:

- the Archive is awesome. I'm so glad everything's been switched over now. I think it's really easy to navigate and the comments are set up very well. Also the Kudos button? Amazing. I always feel like I don't get what I actually want to say across in comments, or I have no idea what to say at all, so the button is great because it's an easy way to say "I liked this a lot!" without having to worry about what to say.

- I finished! This was probably the busiest I've been right before the Yuletide deadline, so I feel like this was a great accomplishment for me. I even thought about not signing up this year - Grad School will do that to a person. But I succeeded, and I've been getting some good feedback so far.

- My Gift Fic! It's All in a Day's Work, a RED fic about William Cooper. And it's pretty much exactly what I wanted from that fandom. Danger and excitement mixed with bizarre humour. I especially like the conversations Cooper has on the phone with his kids.

- On the Burning Deck, Swallows and Amazons. It's Nancy in the London Blitz, and it's wonderful in so many ways! I love it. It took my breath away in places, and just generally filled my heart with glee in others. I didn't even know I was looking for fic like this. I especially like the use of sailing metaphors, and the way the author brought in all of the different characters. Normally I don't bother going back to see who the authors were after the reveal, but I'm secretly hoping that this author has been prolific in fandoms I know, but who I've never read before so I'll have lots of new things to read.

- Mariposa Grove (A Caelo Usque Ad Centrum), Santuary. The Five being awesome with each other. Love the scope of it and the glimpses of the characters as they change.

- The Dying Gaul, Highlander: The Series, the Sculpture. This is putting Methos in the centre of things as part of the origins for one of my favourite statues. It brings together two of the things I like best: Methos and Classics. There needs to be more Methos in Rome fics out there, seriously.

- The Fic Your Fic Could Be Like, Old Spice Commercials. This fits the bizarre tone of that commercial so well. It made me laugh.

- Mountains, Molehills, Lilo and Stitch. Post-movie awesomeness featuring David (and everyone else too).

I was a little surprised that there wasn't any Blood and Smoke Series by Tanya Huff fic this year. Usually there's a good contingent, I even contributed to it a couple of years ago. But there was nothing at all this year. Very strange, but I suppose that's how these things go.

So have you read anything in Yuletide? What did you like best?

Happy Easter to all those who celebrate and happy Easter chocolate to everyone else! (You know I actually didn't know until two years ago that there was such a thing as "Easter Dinner" where you went and spent time with family and had a feast, usually with ham. No one has ever accused me of being a good Christian. Of course being a Pagan might have something to do with that...)

Normally Easter means nothing more than some chocolate and other candy-goodness in association with two days off of school. Although lately it's been the start of Spring exams (oh gods, my brain has been taken over by Latin. Just as I was typing that I thought to myself "hunh, that's an x so it counts as two consonnents and that means that the e is long" this of course only applies when one is scanning Latin poetry to find the metre. I am such a nerd). But this year we found out that all the families on our street do an Easter-Egg hunt every year. We just got in from going out and searching to find all the eggs that were hidden in Tall places that the little kids couldn't reach, and it was GREAT. I love my neighbourhood. Our awesome neighbours who organized it and got everyone to donate candy also gave us the unwrapped candy that they got because they didn't want to put them in the eggs in case they got wet, "for while you're studying for exams," she said.

What a great idea!

Also we got a big snowfall last night so everything is white even though it isn't cold and it makes finding colourful plastic eggs just that much easier.

Also Also I got some virtual candy on my LJ. Thanks hobbitbabe! It's always nice to get candy from your (other)mother. Hope you're having a good holiday!

Hallowe'en is so the best holiday if only because it's the only (okay maybe one of only a few) day of the year when you can be passed by a knight in shining, full aluminium foil plate mail on roller blades, who stops to wish you a safe journey home.

I'm fairly certain that this man was at the same party as me, but I'm even more certain that I don't know him at all. I love my nerd school, and this excuse for awesomeness.