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Some nice news, the Red Nose Day drive that we did has raised £77 for Comic Relief, which is about $125. This is enough to enable a family in Africa to start a small business and become self-sufficient. Or, as I observed, dude, we're givin' people giant gourds!

Anya also wrote us the epic, fabulous poem of Askworld, The Lovesong of A. ROFLd Truesock. I nominate it for best use of "incipit" in a rhymed couplet.

It's been a quiet weekend for the most part but I got a lot done; this afternoon I'm going to do some fanfic work, and settling to mess around with the Lucky Book some more.

BUT FIRST. CARAMELS.

Between those and the pitas yesterday, my flat smells like a bakery exploded in a sweetshop.

It's too soon to tell if they'll set up properly, but the slightly runny caramel goop that I poured into the buttered parchment looks promising. I've always been a bit afraid of candy-making, mainly because WTF "soft ball" and "hard ball", that's the kind of shit you learn after doing this for thirty years. But I have a candy thermometer now, so everything juuuuust got easier.

I love salted caramels. I might even roll them in chocolate if I'm feeling especially ambitious.

( Salted Caramels )

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I was standing in the kitchen making myself a cheese sandwich for lunch earlier, and I opened the kitchen door to let some breeze in. My kitchen door opens onto a fire escape, because my building is Old, but I stood there eating my sandwich and staring out the door and I thought...you know, I never really had a solid idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I knew what I wanted to have -- a cool flat in a nice place to live, with all its little quirks and weirdnesses, and to be able to do essentially whatever I wanted.

Which...this isn't precisely what I had in mind, but it's pretty damn close. I love the sound of the train going past my windows and I love that I get to ride a train to work every morning. I love that my street has lots of trees on it! The evening of the 4th I stepped out onto my fire escape and could see three different fireworks displays: Uptown, Buena Park, and Wrigleyville. (And then a canister from a Buena Park firework landed on my fire escape, so I went back inside, but still.) I can see the lights at Wrigley Stadium and the Sears Tower from my front window, and I can smell the lake on breezy days. It took me a long time to love Chicago -- not like Boston, instant and instinctive -- but I do.

There are things I'd change -- a different job, a nicer kitchen, some plumbing that isn't cranky -- but on the whole I didn't want much and I've pretty much got it. I like this life. :)

Though I am having indecisive angst about what to cook or possibly purchase for dinner. :P

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A QUICKIE BEFORE TOMORROW

THE CHILDREN OF EARTH DRINKING GAME!

( Do a shot! )

NUNC EST BIBENDUM* guys.

* Loosely translated as "Now we drink", more accurately as "Now we MUST drink." OH THOSE ROMANS.