Happy birthday amelia_seyroon and staroceanss~!

What's this? A recipe for something other than sweets? Zen has successfully made some actual food! ^_^ My dad was eating them right off the pan when they came out the oven, so I'm quite happy with how they turned out. Thanks to the marinade, they remained very moist after being well-cooked. Working with raw meat is not fun, though.

( You know they're good--they're covered in butter! )

I really wish I had a microphone or video camera on hand a moment ago when the cat was shrieking just outside my room.

On Monday, I played some racketball (racquetball?) with Zedka and la_menthe--and it was an awesome time, except that I'm somewhat of a stranger to physical activity and so the next day I was staggering around like C3P0 about to keel over (or maybe KOS-MOS or an AGWS would be more appropriate, since I'm replaying Xenosaga? XD). I was pretty much in great pain from my thighs to the middle of my back and in my entire right arm, with the occasional aching in my calf muscles and ankles.

This morning was the first day it was all gone (unless I flex certain muscles, and then they just feel a bit strained), but now I've gone and almost killed my hip. XP Since of course whenever I make something, I always seem to require at least one ingredient from the highest shelves, and so I'm up and down the stool to get it down and put it away again, and I guess that didn't agree with my joint. I had been planning on walking to Shoppers to get a phone card and some whipping cream, but that might not be a good thing right now. Stuff like this makes me feel old!

On a side note, I've posted a recipe for shortbread.

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Also: 2 WEEKS! Well, less than that! XD

Apparently I can't sew, and neither can my mom, which was...news to me, actually, because I was sure she could. ^^; But it would appear that we don't have a working sewing machine anyway, which renders that kind of moot. So I guess that just means I'll be going as...myself? An anime fan? XD

And now I must decide whether I want to read the Slayers REVOLUTION manga summaries, or try and ignore them until I can see the series...I probably won't be able to resist. XD; But I think the series didn't really impact me as much as it could have when I finally got to see it, seeing as I dug up every detail of every episode that I could get my hands on way ahead of time. Well, I'll give ignoring it a try! XD

It's been a while since I was able to make something, since I had been feeling somewhat ill for a while (which I began to realize may have been the result of too many painkillers. Whoops.) and then we had tons of treats in the house already, so there was no point in making more. Monday was my mom's birthday, so we got her flowers, a gift card, and some chocolate from my favourite chocolate shop (I must remember to bring earthstar_chan one of their giant peanut butter cups to Anime North! ^^ They also have the best chocolate truffles.). She also got more chocolate from some of her friends, and surprisingly enough, no alcohol at all. XD My sister got a pretty tasty cake with a key lime filling for her.

Anyways, yesterday I did make some cookies since nobody was home to complain, and I decided to try some simple sugar cookies. They turned out very nice, and everyone seemed to like them (with the exception of my dad, who always complains about everything, so we don't really care <<;). They were called Amish sugar cookies, and they were really easy, since they were just drop cookies.

My mom says she's getting fat, but once the air conditioning is on, I won't be able to bake at all. And there's still so many recipes in just the one book, plus once we get two more ramekins, I want to make molten butterscotch cakes. Maybe I need somewhere to donate some of the things I make.

Also: Funny thing! My sister is moving...to a house just up the street. My dad couldn't believe it, but out of everything they looked at, that was the one they liked best. XD

kunpuu fun conversation between Ion and evil!Flonne:

Ion: By the way. I heard you persuaded Florian to try and eat people's heads. Is that true?

It took me a moment to stop laughing so I could reply. XD

Happy birthday travitaemorte! Hopefully even in the middle of all your assignments you had the time to sit back and have a slice of cake.

Weather is goooorgeous today--like, mid-20s gorgeous, so I've already gotten into my shorts.

So, I was worried that my shorts weren't going to fit me before, right? Turns out I was right, except for one little detail...

They aren't too small. They're too big.

Happy birthday to both the_flowergirl and earthstar_chan! I hope you have lots of fun!

I've had lots of trouble sleeping lately and I've been waking up with headaches, but the answer finally hit me last night: My pillows are shot. I've had them as far back as I can remember, so at this point, they're just not comfy anymore. So I think I just need different pillows, though that will take some getting used to as well.

A whole winter went by without me getting sick, but alas, now I've got...something. XP I've been feeling sick to my stomach all day, and for the most part it was okay if I wasn't standing, but I'm starting to feel pretty off just sitting in my computer chair as well. I decided to take tomorrow off of work in case I'm still sick tomorrow, and since my shift was first thing in the morning, it was best to make the decision today while they could find someone to cover. Debbie agreed to take my shift but only under the condition that I work for her next Saturday, which is sort of unfair, but oh well. I just won't be able to come in until after my exam is over, and they better not schedule me to open the next morning again, because that always seems to happen when people want me to take their Saturday midnight shifts.

One exam down, two to go! My first was math exam last night, and I've got chemistry next Wednesday and German next Saturday. I...have no idea how I did on the math one. Hopefully closer to the mark I got on the second midterm. <<;;

Anyway, la_menthe came over today for a few hours! It was awesome to see him, and he's back in town for good now. ♥ We made cookies. XD It was really fun, so we'll have to do it again sometime though we made a mess haha. And the cookies turned out great as well! I've had my eye on the recipe for a while and finally decided to make them today. They were orange cookies (more citrus, hee XD) and I've already got the recipe posted if anyone wants it. ^^ There's really so much tasty-looking stuff in this book that I want to try.

Yesterday morning I made my lime cornmeal muffins, and they turned out excellent! I was very pleased. The recipe made a dozen, and there's just one left now (I so have dibs on it <<). Maybe sometime I'll try the alternate version to make blueberry cornmeal loaves, but for now, I've been looking up recipes to use up the almost-full jar of tahini that we've had since I made those sesame cookies, and I found something called "Halvah Cake" that sounds good.

Anyways, if anyone wants the muffin recipe, it's over here. ♥ They were really quick and easy, though I've learned that small limes are a pain to juice.

Ah...the oral exam is over and I feel so much better. I ended up deciding to go second so I could get it over with, and though I stuttered like hell, I don't think it went too bad. I think something I like about my German class is that everyone is pretty much the same level. In my French classes, there were people who had taken French immersion or were actually French, so I guess I tended to feel like I was doing really badly. ^^;; But everyone in my German class did about the same, I think, so I guess that makes everyone feel a bit more comfortable.

Sometimes I think I should do something about my nervousness in these kinds of situations, though, except I don't know what. But I'm a bit afraid that if it continues like this, I'll end up like my grandma.

Anyways, I think tomorrow I'll make those muffins. For those who like the recipes, I'm now posting them in my community forsweetteeth, so all my recipes will go there. ♥

Also, I made macaroni and cheese for supper last night, and it turned out very well! The only issue was that there was too much pasta and not enough cheese, but we just added more cheese to the leftovers. I guess that means I can cook actual food too. :P

Just a little meme to distract me from my essay for a moment (I decided to use baking as my subject XD).

Comment to this post with a subject for a top five (ships, songs, books, etc) for which you would like to see my answer. I will post my answers in a separate entry. Be as specific or as broad as you'd like.

I just heard my parents ordering take-out again. It kind of makes me want to cry, because at this point, I despise fast food. T_T

Uh, kind of on that note, I've apparently gained weight. I need to lay off the chocolate or else my shorts won't fit this summer.

My TA emailed me back and said he'll send me a new value for the unreacted zinc and give me an extension until Friday (since reports are normally due Wednesday!). That's excellent, so now I don't have to worry about not being able to do that report.

In other good news, I did got almost 20% higher on the second math midterm than on the first. Good news indeed, and I even did this week's webassignment and written assignment.

So on my list of schoolwork I need to get done:
-study for German test today
-lab report for Friday
-chemistry assignment for Monday
-chemistry pre-lab for Monday
-German Aufsatz for Monday
-finish translating Onkel Fred
-translate Tolles Tempo
-German oral exam next Wednesday

And I think (and hope!) that's all. I really hope I'm not working on Sunday, but who knows when they'll put up the schedule. XP

Anyways, once that's all out of the way, I reallllly want to join polychromatic, probably as Gourry. It just looks too fun!

Dang. So, for lab #8 of my chemistry class, we reacted some zinc with some iodine and have to write a report for it. Seemed simple enough, and it should be.

Except I have a glaring problem. The amount of unreacted zinc I have left over I weighed to be 0.52g, while the total zinc I had initially was weighed at 0.51g. Which...means I had negative 0.01g of zinc react, and that is very clearly very wrong. I've emailed my TA to see if there's anything I can do about it, because without a proper measurement, I can't do anything for the lab report.

Oh, I did figure out the answer to my molarity problem from before, though. Apparently we're supposed to "assume" we have 100g. Why did high school teach us to never assume?

I don't suppose anybody knows how to get the molarity of a solution given only the density, molar mass, and percent by mass...?

/wishful thinking.

Happy Birthday, ixoutofxiii! Have a fun day!

Don't worry about that bakery, Wakaba. Yuiko and Flonne will make sure it's smooooth sailing. ~.^

So, my cat now insists on sleeping in my room all day every day, to the point where she screams until I get up, have breakfast, then retreat to the computer. She actually forced my door open this morning since her screaming wasn't getting me up.

But anyways, it makes it very difficult for me to do anything in here...because I break out into giggle fits everytime she snores. XD