Five Things on a rainy Friday

[melannen]

1. I have now made butterscotch from scratch! LOOK OUT, WORLD!

(I made those puffed rice butterscotch treats from the 1920s cookbook I mentioned a week or so ago; they came out less like Rice Krispie treats than I expected - they look like them, but the texture is very different - but they are yummy. Also I have gotten over the fear of making melted-sugar candy that my mother passed down to me, so the sky's the limit now. Mmmm caramel apples...)


2. In mildly related news, I am seriously considering throwing a Halloween party this year. Mostly because it's been a really long time since I've given a party at this house, and awhile since some of my local friends have gotten together at all.

(also, I am tempted to make it "gaslight" themed - as in the time period, not the movie. I will be dressed as Miss Madelyn Mack Detective, of course, and there are plenty of other costume possibilities, and I have all of these Edwardian cookbooks, and an antique book of parlor games, and we could play with a Ouija board and table tapping and magic lanterns if we got really bored, and put on some old silent horror films and scratchy cylinder recordings...)

I want to poke some people about feasibility first - including you guys. Anybody local-ish who wants to come to a social-awkwardness-expected, all-ages-welcome party at my place, probably the Friday before Halloween?


3. WHFS is back! WHFS was the alternative music rock station in the Baltimore area for most of the 1990s, and it went off air, suddenly and without warning, about the time I left college. I was never the sort of person who identified strongly with a musical subculture, but that was the station I listened to as a teenager when I was just starting to figure out music. Also I used to listen to Loveline late at night under the covers, which I had forgotten until just now, and probably explains a lot.

But it's back now, even if it's at 97.5 instead of 99.1. It is so weird to be able to turn on the radio and hear my subculture's music anytime I want. When I wanted to feel cool I'd been making do with WRNR, the Annapolis indy station, when I could get it, and '90s nights on the oldies station (which is just depressing.) And listening to a lot of NPR and PRI and classic rock. (WRNR is still cooler, but it only comes in sometimes.)

4. Also for some reason I have been watching a lot of QI the last few days. The "Girls and Boys" episode still has its issues, but I really really want the historical/dystopian AU where Stephen Fry and Sandi Toksvig are married and Sandi dallies with the servant girls and brings home strapping young stevedores for her husband, and together they are the terror of the smart set. Why isn't there more QI RPF? Every episode is full of possibility.

5. Actually I started listening to QI while cleaning out the sewing/crafts room. Why do I have so much crafting stuff? Another whole rubbermaid tub's worth seems to have appeared while I wasn't paying attention.

While I was at it I made a list of the crafting projects that I have in progress - not "I would like to do someday" like the comic-book flowers, not even "I have this planned out in detail and have all the supplies" like the QUILTBAG or "I promised people this would be finished years ago" like the poetry books - but "this is over 1/3 done, I really need to finish this before I start anything new". Here's the list, in a vague sort of order:

1. Finish the quilt with the embroidered flowers.
2. Finish the ten-year-old hand-pieced patchwork I started in college.
3. Finish the cathedral windows quilt we got in pieces from Mary
4. Quilt one of the hand-appliqued quilt tops from Mary
5. Machine-sew the red-white-and-blue patchwork top that is all cut.

6. Finish current scrap yarn crochet afghan (rainbow waves)
7. Finish next scrap yarn crochet afghan (fudge swirl)
8. Make more crochet spinks
9. Finish pattern for Daleklings!!
10. Put heads on & trim crochet turtles

11. Make pattern for beanbag spinks
12. Finish/trim bog dress
13. Finish embroidery on velvet jacket
14. Empty mending basket (again)
15. Finish embroidered shawl

16. Make more fossil jewelry
17. Christmas presents?
18. Finish pink-striped shoe laces for new army boots
19. Finish green netted bag
20. Spin up the last of my roving

...which really isn't that bad, all spelled out like that. *facepalm*

Comments

[petra]

QI! QI > so much of reality right now.

[melannen]

QI makes everything better! And more interesting! :D I am just worried that if I re-watch the whole show too many times as a palliative, I will spoil it for myself. Luckily, there's a new episode tonight!

[petra]

But there is quite a lot of it, so it takes a good long time to run through it all and wear it out. Especially with the XL episodes.

Presently I am eyeing E is for Empire and adoring the cosplay.

[pocketmouse]

Where in the MD are you? I live in the DC-metro area and don't drive -- and, frankly, don't know my schedule yet for that Friday because that's how theatre works -- but am curious as to if getting to where you are is actually feasible. Feel free to DM or email if you don't want to share in-post.

[melannen]

I live in Severn, which is near Fort Meade about halfway between Baltimore and Maryland up 295, but I always extend a general offer to arrange pick up/drop off at the New Carollton metro station from DC (and the Glen Burnie light rail station from Baltimore,) and to stay the night if you want to stay past the last train. ... and I could do the Arundel Mills or BWI bus stations if anyone wanted to, I suppose.

(Getting to where I live is feasible by transit only if you are coming during MARC train hours, we're about two miles from the Odenton MARC station and there's a local bus route that's synced to the trains, but MARC hours are useless for anything fun. Otherwise there are some really byzantine bussing possibilities, or arranging a pickup.)

[pocketmouse]

OK. Well, like I said, I don't know my schedule for that night yet -- might not until the 16th or so -- but if I am free I'd definitely think about it, so long as costumes aren't required.

[melannen]

Costumes always encouraged (and broadly defined) but never required.

[zlabya]

Oh, every crafter/needleworker has a list half a mile long of unfinished projects. And the crafting stuff does tend to breed and multiply (you're lucky it spawned a Rubbermaid container for the new stuff!)