May Snowflake Jake bring you spices upon spices!




Also, happy anything else you might be celebrating right about now. Hope you have a terrific festive season.

And never forget Jake's wise words: Specificity be the enemy of unity!

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***Snowflake Day is celebrated with the exchange of care-satchels, the ceremonial lighting of the snowman, and the celebratory Snowflake Day cabbage-patch dance. Traditional foods include lamb tacos, bite-size wieners, and jerky balls. The central figure of the holiday is Snowflake Jake, a cheery pirate who gives spices upon spices to good little boys and girls, traveling the world on a pirate ship. Children listen for the cannonballs that signal his arrival. Obvs.

And if you have never seen this episode of Clone High, I pity you. Truly.

Thanks for listening to me prattle.

Your comments are much appreciated.

I have been boiling cinnamon and water all day.  It has masked the bad smell, whatever it is. Thanks for caring.

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Garrison Keilor? And the pussy grabber still has his job? What gives?

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Woman asked to leave Abbotsford mall stabs security guard, police say

Being asked to stay IN  a mall makes me feel like that...

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Look at this dream kitchen:



I bet you could make all kinds of gawdawful jello things in there.
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These guys probably wouldn't  stab anyone at the mall.  Probably.

One month.

ONE MONTH!
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wendelah1  asked for it, so here it is!

Even worse jello!


Oh, I think we can all agree, this is pretty awful.
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Another episode of When I am Hired as an NHL Coach

It's 3-2 Washington vs Toronto, with one minute to play, so OF COURSE Toronto's pulled the goalie.

I've seen this work ONCE in 50-odd years of watching hockey. 

Bet it doesn't work -- oh wait - now it's 4-2

Why does no one listen to me?  Why??

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The light bulb on my sewing machine blew.  I have had that machine almost 30 years.  This is the first time its gone.  I should not complain.  I still might. 
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Facebook thinks I care - and care deeply - about the upcoming Fifa World Cup.

Facebook is very, very wrong.
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Here's a puppy!

It was sunny and surprisingly warm (12C).  It was also crazy windy.  How windy?  My backyard is full of oak leaves.  The nearest oak tree is almost two blocks away. That is crazy-windy.
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Don't these look cool?



They are music boxes you build from bits.  (Awesome description there, Amanda.  Why didn't you go into technical writing, again?)

I wonder who in my life desperately needs one of these for Xmas. I wonder if it is me.

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IKEA was the usual rollicking good time adventure of excitement and fun it always is ... when it's not the weekend. I went to get a duvet and some storage boxes  I got a duvet, some storage boxes, and three new toilet brushes.  I somehow resisted all their holiday stuff, which I've never managed before.  It's probably because they didn't have Christmas trees for sale in the parking lot yet.  The smell of evergreens is fairly intoxicating.
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Alton Brown in on the tv making delicious-looking chicken and dumplings...in 2010. Yes he's making me hungry for food that is at least 7 years old. TV is a time machine. 

Now he's making catfish ceviche.  The man is a wizard.
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I did inventory of my cookie making ingredients so I'd be prepared.  I have 6 bags of icing sugar  - 6 kilograms! Why???? I cannot imagine.
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Puppies gossiping about me having 6 kilos of icing sugar.
   

It's been trying to snow all damned day. I have a feeling it will eventually succeed. 
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Best headline of the day:

France wrestles with the line between seduction, harassment

You don't say? That's a wrestling match that's been going on a long time now.  I'll be sure to let you know when they've got a clear winner.

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I really want to make this.  I am not going to, but I sort of want to.



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Tomorrow is the 70th wedding anniversary of Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. 70 years.  That is a lot of years. That is a lot of married.

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I am hosting a Make, Bake, and Take cookie party again this year. I started two years ago because I thought it might be fun to be involved in a Christmas activity where I was not in charge of EVERY DAMNED THING+THE CLEANING UP.  While looking for inspiration, I ran into this simple step-by-step guide to really cute cookies.



They are simple the way that sub-atomic particles are simple, but they are super cute, nonetheless. Also, I often find the issue with heavily iced cookies is that the icing is too sweet or really unpleasant to the taste or both. There must be a happy medium.
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Apparently the must-get must-give gift of the season is an electric vegetable spiralizer. 


It's so versatile! Not only does it spiralize your vegetables, but it turns your vegetables into spirals!  How have you lived this long without one? Are all your vegetables lumpen clumps?  

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Hubby is off to a week of business meetings in Montreal. Which is where they generally keep the snow.  I will miss him, but not enough to want to be where the serious snow is.

This guy's expression perfectly captures my feelings re: snow.

There was some sunshine at 7 am...I thought it was a hopeful sign...but no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Duchess of Cambridge reveals Princess Charlotte’s favourite colour

Really? Really really?

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I love mid-century modern design.  I want to make a gingerbread house that looks just like this:


I especially like the Life-Savers curtain wall. Or whatever it's called.

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I have nothing good to say today! I mean, even more so than on the other days!

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Have a contemplative puppy in leaves!

Sunshine! I need sunshine!!!!

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See this?



It's very cool.
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FDA approves digital pill that tracks when patients take it

I can see the potential positives, but am I the only one who thinks this sounds like a dangerously slippery slope?

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It's the 131st anniversary if the hole punch!

Imagine what life was like before...go on, imagine it!
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There was snow out there this morning.

Why does it come as a surprise every damned time? 

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Tomorrow if all goes according to plan (vis the weather and the border patrol) hubby and I are going here to see this:

 

I expect it to be amazing.  I will let you know.

I may also be late.

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Today's episode of "who saw that coming?":

O.J. Simpson booted from a Vegas casino for drunken belligerence

Go fig.
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And also this:

Small knives will be allowed on planes, but baby powder banned: Transport Canada

Reminds me of the time they confiscated my folding sewing scissors that looked like this:



But let the guy ahead of my with the five inch hunting knife through because, and I quote, "It's a hunting knife."

Makes perfect sense.

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My page of Xmas recommendations is having some issues, and I think it's been hacked because I can't get in. Internet, you are one damned disappointment after another.  
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Who decided Unicorn SPiT would be a good name for a product? It appears to be cool stuff, but the name? no...

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Basket of puppies!

LJ and dreamwidth keep telling me today is zinnia03's birthday. It's a sad reminder we lost her just a few weeks ago. I didn't know her well, but she always seemed to be one of the 'nice' people in the XF fandom (as opposed to the markedly NOT NICE people.)

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It was beautiful today - sunny and about 11C, so I spent about two hours tidying the garden. I cut down oh so much mint, harvested the last of the tomatillos, and gathered up the last of the tomatoes. Here's a picture of the flower that was supposed to bloom for July 1st (part of the Canada150 collection, obviously) but November 3rd is good, too.

Anybody want to guess what kind of flower it is?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?

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Why is it so damned hard to post pictures on Dreamwidth? Why?

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Are you one of these people?  Do you go to the grocery store, approach the cashier with three full carts, and then say, "I know you do price matching here. Bob's House of Food has this on for 2 cents less this week.  Wait, let me call it up on my phone and...and... hmm...it's loading really slowly. Okay, well, we'll come back to this one.  Now Cyril's Cereal Superstore has Ryce Checkies on for 3 cents less, let me call the ad up...oh, it's loading slow, too. Hang on, because I think Marty's Maximum Meat Market has these sausages on for 0.78987 cents less..."

If this is you, stop.  I will mail you the 8 cents, just so I don't have to stand in line behind you willing myself not to break your phone. Or your arm.     

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The MacGyver reboot is on.  It's terrible. It's always been  terrible.  Now it's terrible with bonus actress who speaks something similar to, but nothing like, English.  She should also eat a cookie. 

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So they've identified a 'new' species of orangutan. Based on hardly any evidence at all.  I remain skeptical. 

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Mini chocolate bars - entirely too many. The curse of Halloween rolls on.