in my life

Three people at work have had birthdays, and I am on my fifth piece of cake. That would be separate cakes, not five pieces of the same cake. I'm dying. They are all delicious beyond words.

Last night, I woke up at 3AM from a rather uncommon thunderstorm. I have an a/c unit right next to the window over my bed, and woke up initially from the sound of water just drilling down on it like crazy. For the next two hours, lightening kept going off at the rate of paparazzi and the thunder was basically one non-stop ongoing roll, and I finally managed to fall back asleep around 5AM, into the most bizarre dream about The Good Wife.

I dreamed it was late season 6; I had accompanied the law firm on a trip to LA where Alicia met her new lawyer boyfriend who enjoyed riding his bike along the grassy hills, and now the entire firm, along with Peter and myself, were on a corporate retreat/vacation on a gorgeous rooftop beach hotel. I did a walking tour of the place, saw the pool, the fancy catering, the sunset, then somehow found myself in Alicia or Kalinda's bedroom where they were... talking? Or maybe Alicia was talking happily with her boyfriend? And then everyone was called to the restaurant/lobby where Cary was sitting with a bunch of associates and Kalinda at the main dining table, and they were dramatically revealing this epic corruption conspiracy that had apparently been building since season 1, and this entire time they had been working undercover to solve; it framed both Peter and, surprisingly, Alicia's boyfriend. Then we (I am honestly unsure who "we" were at this point) went grocery shopping for snacks at night.

.....I blame the thunderstorm? Actually, I blame the fact that so many people I know IRL have been catching up - my sister's started watching from S1, my coworker started watching S1 maybe three weeks ago and has just caught up with the S5 finale, so I've been surrounded by this fandom and... really enjoying it.

Meanwhile: I haven't watched Supernatural in years, but I had to watch their 200th episode, titled 'Fan Fiction', which took place with Sam and Dean investigating disappearances adjacent to a high school production of Supernatural: the Musical!, a drama club fan musical based on the "fictional" novel series based on their lives tat exists within the show. I don't come with any baggage regarding this show, so for me it was a super enjoyable hour of television made up of meta and fanservice and genderbending and fangirls and ~subtext~ and hilarious lyrics, including my new favorite song about "a single man-tear rolling down my cheek".

MEANWHILE IN HOCKEY: like, okay, I enjoy Patrick Kane with frustration tears as much as the next person, but I'm okay with the Hawks starting to play like the champions they are IN THEIR HEARTS again. So like, if they could win tonight, that would be super great.

*

LAST, since we are heading into winter which is banana season*, a question: so when you were a kid, what were you taught about the brown spots in bananas? On the bananas themselves, not on the peel. Were you told to eat them or not, and what they are made of?

*in Israel, bananas are a winter fruit. As are strawberries and oranges. I know this will be weird for some of you :-) I still can't fathom strawberries as a summer fruit in some places, what even.

1. I have the house entirely to myself and so nogah is spending the weekend over. We two usually interact by email around 4AM, so it's a mystery to me (or alternately entirely understandable) that we collapsed by 10:30 on Friday night, and went to sleep before midnight. This also meant I woke up naturally this morning before 10AM. It's very mysterious and wonderful.

2. nogah is the most self-sufficient houseguest ever! It's awesome. I'm not so much hosting as providing a space for her to lounge around in. Like, I love hosting, but I also have some things I need to do this weekend, so it's very convenient. Yesterday she spent the afternoon watching a Gilmore Girls marathon on TV while I baked cream puffs.

THAT'S RIGHT, I BAKED. Instead of having my sister do it. I was sure it'd take me like an hour tops, but it ended up taking almost three, that included severe menial labor! Apparently you need to be in shape to bake. You know, if you're stupid enough to whip eggs manually instead of using the mixer, that is. (For the record, I am.)

nogah suggested I fill them with vanilla instant pudding and I thought no! I will make crème pâtissière like the cookbook says, and I made it and it turned into a freaky chunky globby thing that ended up tasting just like, GUESS WHAT, vanilla pudding /o\ I then spent forever squeezing it out of a tiny nozzle to get rid of the chunks and I will spare you the process photos, but in the very very (very) end, it turned out all right:

( 3 pics )

And then I realized I'd accidentally made a double batch of the creme, so nogah had it on toast for dinner. This is what they call the Good Life.

3. According to Yaron Kafkafi's website: His musical "David" is planned for production on Broadway in New York and is currently a work in process.

GUYS. THEY ARE TURNING DAVID INTO A BROADWAY PRODUCTION. NOA TISHBY IS PRODUCING IT. ALSJKDLS;FLDSLKJ;;FLDK.

For those of you who weren't around, David is an Israeli musical from the early nineties about King David, one of my favorite Biblical characters, and his many affairs. It's a semi-modern production that explores the question of why David, in his will, commanded to execute Joab, who'd been his second in command for so many years. It includes, as canon, the following pairings: David/Jonathan, David/Michal, David/Bathsheba, David/Joab, David/The Rest of His Wives. AND IT'S A MUSICAL. AND IT'S AWESOME.

A few years ago I got my hands on the text and CD of the musical and made a mad squee post with e detailed synopsis, if you want to check it out. So yeah, BROADWAY \o/ Please let this happen amen.

I was going to post about work today or something but I fear most of this post is going to be about Bandom again /o\ No wait, okay, today I:

1. Didn't wake up in the morning. Made it to work on time, but wow do I need a new alarm clock stat.

2. Learned where the bathroom on our floor it. It is the most newbie-hazing bathroom I have ever scene, oh my god, located in a hallway between three supply closets where all of the doors are identical and unmarked. They don't even have handles. You just walk along the hallway awkwardly pushing until the secret toilet reveals itself. MASTERED.

3. Had lunch at a really nice restaurant that was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and I want to be all mocking "hi hippy place that thinks it's subversive and cool" but really I was just all *__* pretty. And also Christmas music! So pretty.

4. Learned more about the job.

5. Got cake put on my desk? For someone else's birthday. I work in the open space area in the middle of the floor. And then my boss came out and made an announcement reminding everyone that the Cake Desk was My Desk now, so please keep your crumbs elsewhere thank you.

6. Walked into the office to hear Darren Criss crooning Soul Sister from someone's laptop :D :D :D. For the rest of the day, not 30 minutes went by without hearing someone start whistling or humming the song to themselves. Darren Criss your chipperness is contagious.

...yes, I totally set that up to be able to segue into skintightsocks's amazing But Seriously, How So Hot? A Darren Criss Primer. Or maybe picspam, I don't know, it's kind of RIDICULOUSLY GORGEOUS I can't stop staring. Have I mentioned that Darren was my new dream!Panic member? Because he is. My scenario used to be that Spencer gets jealous of him and Brendon and is all sulky until it ends with a threesome, but now I don't know since clearly Spencer is in love with Adam Lambert, so they could just be split up nicely. Or hell, this is Panic, you know how it always ends. (Group sex. It always ends in group sex. I'm not sure why that needed a clarification.)

Meanwhile in MCR Land, Frank has cut his hair! More importantly though THIS PIC HAPPENED, holy christ Frank. Link accompanied by an appropriately NC-17 ficlet if you scroll down :D If you were at that show in Toronto, I imagine that really, the only thing that could possibly have made you drag your eyes away from Frank would have been GERARD'S PURPLE UNDERPANTS. I'm not sure whether the question there should "how low are your pants?" or "how high are your underwear?", but either way lol keep doin' what you're doin', Gee, thanks.

And okay I have to point this out because omg: so a while back, tieleen wrote two ficlets about Johnny Weir being the third Way sibling. Johnny, the Littlest Way! HE IS MY FAVORITE. When he was eight, Johnny's big brother made him a comic book for his birthday. In the comics Johnny was a Russian Tsar who was friends with aliens, and he fought crime and skated and wore the most amazing fur coats. I heart it so much. And suddenly. SUDDENLY we have these MCR lyrics, and they go: Johnny won't you come back home?" ( Is there really any other way to interpret this? )

PS I made this for dinner! With, like, other stuff. It was really good, though not as amazing as I hoped it'd be from the photos; I changed the recipe a little, nixed the capers (sorry, NO) and used olive oil instead of butter. Because APPARENTLY THE BUTTER SHORTAGE IS REAL. I never eat butter so I have no idea what's going on in the world of buttertry, but apparently there is a GRAVE SHORTAGE and my mom is guarding our single stick of butter with her LIFE, forbidding its usage on anything other than bread. Because all the grocery stores and supermarkets are out. The horror D:

THEY'RE LIKE SWEET BABY HAMBURGERS. Uh, this holiday needs to be over. Or maybe go on forever. I can't decide. Fillings included vanilla, dulche de leche, and jam.

Today I lit candles* with The Technionians, the group of friends which I am on the outskirts of who are all Very Smart Engineers. This means that when I asked "So what are the chances that a dreidel will land on four different letters in four subsequent spins?" a) no one laughed at me, and b) it provided a whole minute of very enthusiastic conversation! Another cool thing is that they were all utter geeks who actually like singing the songs, which, like, is rare. I think. Even when I light candles at family gatherings, and the adults in my family are holiday song freaks, there are those who want to rush through it or skip to the food; in the few occasions I've lit them with friends, it's always been just a number of songs, small and awkward, because we are ~not in kindergarten anymore hello. Here, though, they actually wanted to go through every single song we could think of. Enthusiastically. Saving the canon one for last because it's so fun they have a tradition of singing it over and over again. I enjoy this pastime :D

I have no offerings today. Except, I guess a rec for this Kings vid by obsessive24. hannah recced it to me, and I mentally shrugged it off because I haven't been in Kings fandom for a while and it's not nearly as interesting to me now that the canon is closed, but then I watched it and it's a gorgeous vid about Jack.

So, happy Day 7! And tomorrow morning I have a job interview bright and early. I... hope I wake up. *crosses fingers* *sets alarm*

( *pic ahoy )

I had this vague idea that I'd post fannish content for each day of Hanukkah (like some people manage to do) but pfffft that's not gonna happen, so instead, have photos of tonight instead:

( 15 photos. Food food food food food dreidel. )

Aw, look what my mom made me!



Chicken soup! Noodles! Soup almonds! "Vitamin water" juice! (because I really, really hate water /o\). Oh, and some coffee Ben & Jerry's! :D

This morning she was all, "Maybe I'll make you some soup and drive over!" and I said, "Mom, no, you really don't have to," and she said, "Whatever dear, I'll think about it." And then an hour ago she warned me that her ETA was 20 mins. "No, really, you don't have to!" "I already made the soup." ♥

(It's only fair here to mention that marina's been trying to force feed me chicken soup for the past two days I kept turning her down. I'm sorry! I don't like to be spoiled in these things; my mom and grandma get special allowances.)

But you know, while I'm here, how about some photos from Italy? I am being all organized this time and dividing into subjects, and desperately hoping Firefox doesn't crash as I compose this post because that would suck.

Warning: um, about 100 photos under the cuts. Some of them just to tell the story of where I was, most of them just because I like them. We all know I'm obsessed with this photography thing by now anyway.

( General, chronological, landscapes, snoooow )

( Apres ski: tour of the town )

( Statues )

( Skijoring (aka the horse photos) )

( Food, beverages, nom )

( Folk procession )

I do not have a pretty picture to wrap up with, but, you know. If you scrolled through this I'm pretty sure you've had enough anyway :-) I had an amazing time and I had fun taking photos and, five days later, I'm still a little sore and bruised but I can lift my arm above my shoulder line now! So, score. Thank you for reading :D

I should be studying for my exam tomorrow morning, so... I am posting this recipe for pea-mint soup instead, or peappermint, if you will (the pun also works in Heb. Afunana! Shut up.)

Ingredients for, say, 6-8 servings:
1 bag of peas (800g)
2-3 sweet potatoes (depending on size) cut up
1 onion, chopped
3 cups of water
big handful of fresh mint, chopped

Directions:
Cook peas, sweet potatoes and onion in the water for about 20 minutes. Toss in blender/use hand blender to mash them up, adding in the mint. If it's too thick, thin with some more water. Season with salt/pepper/little bit of sugar to your taste. THE END!

I love this soup. It's awesome as just regular pea soup, but adding the mint gives it this unique, unexpectedly awesome flavor.

And to make a delicious cabbage salad:

Ingredients: white cabbage, olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, sunflower seeds (or any other kinds of seeds)

Directions: For the salad itself, just chop up as much cabbage as you feel like eating, and lightly roast the sunflower/pumpkin seeds/pine nuts/whatever. For the dressing, use equal amounts of olive oil and soy sauce, and a slightly smaller amount of vinegar. I use 3/3/2.5 tbsp for half a cabbage, but ymmv.

....back to pretending to study which will hopefully still squeeze some material into my brain.

OMG new camera I am excite! So we had a "Thanksgiving" dinner this evening, a bunch of friends, and I spent all day cooking, by which I mean chopping whatever my friend the hostess told me to chop and washing the dishes and playing around with my camera trying not to be (but not really) too much of a nuisance.

Anyway I'll just get down to the point, which is fooood, and me being obnoxious taking too many pictures of it, but whatever.

( Image heavy, not safe for vegetarians or for people who really like chickens (that are not dead) )

Eeeee, both House and HIMYM are coming back tonight! (Or, well, tomorrow morning.) PAR-TAY. Sadly, I have to work on school stuff tonight and won't be able to watch until tomorrow night at the earliest, so all I can do is hope and pray that people keep their spoilers under cuts.

For lunch today, I ate the last tongue leftovers from the holiday. My sister: "You know that's like kissing a cow, right?" WHY, why would she do that to me? I managed to get over the image of eating tongue when I was five, I don't need to go back to those entire ten minutes in my childhood when I thought it was gross. (Apologies to vegans/vegetarians reading this, but nom.)

Um... I have nothing to say today. Ex-roommate sleeping over again (yay!) for work (boo).

Wordcounts on all fics I should be writing and not: 241.