Weekends
Last weekend was Fanime, which was a gigantic letdown, really. Waited in line for two hours on Thursday, and that was the pre-reg badge pickup. I have never, ever seen it that crazy. Friday was actually pretty fun, since we spent it hanging out with Jake's Gear people. The lack of a printed schedule was annoying, but manageable. Saturday was just boring and underwhelming. I wandered around, took some photos, and ended up finding a corner with free wireless and turning on my netbook.
I started to write up everything that went wrong, and then realized I didn't care enough to waste my time doing so. Suffice it to say the lack of printed schedules, the understaffing, and the dearth of guests combined to make one really boring con. We didn't even bother going on Sunday or Monday. I don't know whether we'll go next year, either.
Sunday I spent mostly in my pajamas. We watched Dr. Who and Tiger and Bunny, and then I got dressed enough to go out and plant some more starts in my garden. It was the one sunny day of the weekend, so I made good use of it! :D After dinner I made myself a cake - was trying for strawberry, but it went a bit weird. In the end I made a milk/semisweet chocolate ganache and dumped it all over the cake, because chocolate fixes most baking snafus. The ganache actually set up, too, which I usually have issues with. Hurrah, small victories!
Anyway, this weekend we went scampering off to the north countries, in particular to eat cake (LOTS OF CAKE) and give the Sister Person a waffle iron. Oh, and shoot guns. :D Sister Person and I have been meaning to target shoot together for a while now, because I have the best little sister in the world. So, Saturday we dragged cake components over to the Ancestral Home, where I discovered the cake had gone a bit squiffy, and proceeded to put it together anyway. It ended up a little deformed, but pretty good. Mama had also made a cake, and even with six of us we couldn't even finish off half the cakes.
I think I'm swearing off fancy cake recipes. They never work right for me, and I still like the plain old Burnt Sugar cake recipe from Joy of Cooking the best. Icing, however - my quest for tasty icing continues.
It was POURING RAIN all morning, but it cleared up after lunch - just in time for us to get out the guns and ammunition and set up a bit of cardboard in the field. I got to try the 7mm magnum out - in conclusion, OW. The kick from that gun feels like getting hit REALLY HARD in the shoulder by a piece of hard plastic. I ended up with literal bruises on my collar bone - they're kind of faintly yellowish today, and still a bit swollen and tender. I only fired the gun six times! I felt like a bit of a wimp, until Daddy mentioned that he didn't really like the gun either, and had a really hard time not flinching in anticipation of the recoil.
The .22 rifle is much more fun. No kick to speak of, (which I knew already, but hey, after the 7mm, it was a bit of a re-revelation,) and such a quiet little report. Jake finally gave in and fired a gun, for the very first time. He showed us (me, Sister Person, her boyfriend) up a bit, really - pretty good accuracy, and a nice grouping of shots.
Sunday we mostly spent hanging out with Jake's family, but in the morning we visited the Grandparents. They were looking better than I expected, which was heartening. Granddad laughed with great good cheer when we told him Jake had fired his first ever shots with the rifle Granddad and his brother had bought each other seventy-six years ago. Granny gave me a bunch of gorgeous Italian decorative papers, and an assortment of needlework books, which was nifty. The papers are so pretty - I'm trying to figure out how best to use them.
For dinner we made DELICIOUS STEAKS with Jake's family. :D I haven't had steak in a long while, so it was a nice indulgence. It was too wet to set up the grill, so instead we tried pan searing them and then oven-cooking them at high heat, and I think it turned out better than grilling.
This morning I got to make delicious tea (Golden Yunnan, because my sister gave me a gift certificate to the local tea shop ^_^) in my new teapot. Mmmmmm..... And then I made myself bread pudding with some leftover Vietnamese French bread and leftover egg yolks. It was a good way to start the day.
Entry originally posted at annoyedwabbit on Dreamwidth.org
I started to write up everything that went wrong, and then realized I didn't care enough to waste my time doing so. Suffice it to say the lack of printed schedules, the understaffing, and the dearth of guests combined to make one really boring con. We didn't even bother going on Sunday or Monday. I don't know whether we'll go next year, either.
Sunday I spent mostly in my pajamas. We watched Dr. Who and Tiger and Bunny, and then I got dressed enough to go out and plant some more starts in my garden. It was the one sunny day of the weekend, so I made good use of it! :D After dinner I made myself a cake - was trying for strawberry, but it went a bit weird. In the end I made a milk/semisweet chocolate ganache and dumped it all over the cake, because chocolate fixes most baking snafus. The ganache actually set up, too, which I usually have issues with. Hurrah, small victories!
Anyway, this weekend we went scampering off to the north countries, in particular to eat cake (LOTS OF CAKE) and give the Sister Person a waffle iron. Oh, and shoot guns. :D Sister Person and I have been meaning to target shoot together for a while now, because I have the best little sister in the world. So, Saturday we dragged cake components over to the Ancestral Home, where I discovered the cake had gone a bit squiffy, and proceeded to put it together anyway. It ended up a little deformed, but pretty good. Mama had also made a cake, and even with six of us we couldn't even finish off half the cakes.
I think I'm swearing off fancy cake recipes. They never work right for me, and I still like the plain old Burnt Sugar cake recipe from Joy of Cooking the best. Icing, however - my quest for tasty icing continues.
It was POURING RAIN all morning, but it cleared up after lunch - just in time for us to get out the guns and ammunition and set up a bit of cardboard in the field. I got to try the 7mm magnum out - in conclusion, OW. The kick from that gun feels like getting hit REALLY HARD in the shoulder by a piece of hard plastic. I ended up with literal bruises on my collar bone - they're kind of faintly yellowish today, and still a bit swollen and tender. I only fired the gun six times! I felt like a bit of a wimp, until Daddy mentioned that he didn't really like the gun either, and had a really hard time not flinching in anticipation of the recoil.
The .22 rifle is much more fun. No kick to speak of, (which I knew already, but hey, after the 7mm, it was a bit of a re-revelation,) and such a quiet little report. Jake finally gave in and fired a gun, for the very first time. He showed us (me, Sister Person, her boyfriend) up a bit, really - pretty good accuracy, and a nice grouping of shots.
Sunday we mostly spent hanging out with Jake's family, but in the morning we visited the Grandparents. They were looking better than I expected, which was heartening. Granddad laughed with great good cheer when we told him Jake had fired his first ever shots with the rifle Granddad and his brother had bought each other seventy-six years ago. Granny gave me a bunch of gorgeous Italian decorative papers, and an assortment of needlework books, which was nifty. The papers are so pretty - I'm trying to figure out how best to use them.
For dinner we made DELICIOUS STEAKS with Jake's family. :D I haven't had steak in a long while, so it was a nice indulgence. It was too wet to set up the grill, so instead we tried pan searing them and then oven-cooking them at high heat, and I think it turned out better than grilling.
This morning I got to make delicious tea (Golden Yunnan, because my sister gave me a gift certificate to the local tea shop ^_^) in my new teapot. Mmmmmm..... And then I made myself bread pudding with some leftover Vietnamese French bread and leftover egg yolks. It was a good way to start the day.
Entry originally posted at annoyedwabbit on Dreamwidth.org