{{{Ivory}}} 
Yes, I’m up at 4:30 AM… pulling an all-nighter, it’s starting to look like. Blurf.
{{{Soapy}}} Healing thoughts and prayers headed out to both mom and dad.
taxi I second (third?) the idea of fresh peaches for the cake. If you must, instead of CW, use fresh whipped cream. A dollop of that on top of that cake with peaches sounds most nummy to me!
I forgot to say this, but LiLi I made your cake this weekend, yet again. 
As per usual the topping was fresh strawberries and real whipped cream. Once again, it got raves. Heck, even BIL, the pickiest eater evah, loved it. Ya gotta believe me when I say that’s a compliment. I still want to try it with fresh peaches and whipped cream. I get all drooly just thinkin’ about that.
We had a biiiiiiiiiiiig storm this afternoon. Matter of fact, I came home a little early due to this bein’ Men’s Night at my church and almost made us late cause I had to dredge pine straw out of the pool. It was so thick with pine straw! GRRRRRRRR… I don’t have pine trees in my yard but all the neighbors do. I had to get it outta the pool then take the blower and blow it all off from around the concrete decking so that wouldn’t blow back into the pool in case it got windy again.
I hear thunder! Looks like more tboomers on the way. I’m glad for the rain but the dang wind blowin’ pine straw everywhere can just stay away.
Anywho… Men’s Night was fun. Steak good! Broiled asparagus good! Sallit made with all kinds of fresh veggies good! Biscuits good! Beerverages consumed with meal especially good!
Ok, Ima go nitey nite now.
Good thoughts for daughter, FCM!
All-nighters suck, No1. I don’t think I’ve done one since undergrad - not even in grad school. Well, unless it involved partying.
I feel like I’m coming down with a cold or something. :: looks suspiciously at Mindy ::
For those who want to turn their cat into a hat, click here. 
Oooh, ShermanAter’s shy, but he sent me a nice sounding nanner bread recipe so I’m posting it for him!
I shall make it and let you all know how it comes out–I have 8 totally ripe bananas that are thawing as I type! I might put in some chocolate chips, haven’t decided yet…
{{{Soapy}}} Man, wouldn’t it be nice if things could just space themselves out a little bit? Health thoughts beaming your way to bounce out to parents!
The only inappropriate peeing I get from my cats is that Stiggs is a very much outdoor kitty who has to do his bidniz in the great outdoors–this winter if we didn’t let him out soon enough he’d tag the exact same spot on the bathroom contour rug where heedless human splashes land. Can’t fault his aim, really. A box of litter put down there at night cured that, and now he’s back to meowing at the door instead of just standing there hoping we wake up. Silly cat. Oh, and Pratchett tagged my chair once, but to be fair Himself had not cleaned his box in an unconscionably long time. :dubious:
I had some good news–SpaceDawg went to the vet and apparently her paw is fine but she did something to wrench her shoulder out, probably playing and wrestling with the small dogs. Vet was very nice and she liked him in spite of getting muzzled (my advice!) and he put her on pain meds and NSAIDs and we’re to bring her back in two weeks for an x-ray if she doesn’t improve. She might have arthritis in there, it’s quite likely–she has joint problems and arthritis isn’t such a stretch in an 8 year old large breed dog. She’s back up to 115 lbs, we need to diet her back down to 100 to reduce the stress on her legs. I feel much less like a terrible mom now!
Thank you for all the good wishes, thoughts and hugs-
no news, but we remain hopeful.
{{Ivory}}
I have the hiccups.
That is all.
99 44/100ths–I hope things improve for both your parents, soon.
Hope both your parents get healthy quickly, Soapy. (And hi, and welcome to Moment Slayer; we are not imaginary - several of us can attest to that, actually, having met IRL; we should probably do a 6-degrees-of-separation exercise sometime and see how many of us have been proven to exist :D).
Yay on the job prospect for the Perfect Child [sup]TM[/sup]!
I got home early and had a really busy evening, doing laundry, finalizing plans for a field trip on Saturday, putting away laundry and NOT painting). I’m hoping to be able to come home early tomorrow to paint.
It is WAY WAY WAY past my bedtime. Guess I should pretend to be sleepy.
I know I missed lots and lots of people. I’ma have a hard time keeping up this week, so here are some hugs in advance!
GT
{{{Ivory}}} – fingers crossed for good news on both parents!
**Rigs **-- I’d fail your 6-degrees-of-connection within Doperdom, I’m pretty sure I have never met another Doper IRL.
**Haze **-- all-nighters that involve partying aren’t all-nighters. They’re… parties 
At the office, after about 1.5 hours of sleep. Several handbaskets already lined up on the platform, ready to go… :smack: :rolleyes:
Glad to hear the doggie is getting better, Aleq!
I think it’s the weather + the monotonous nature of my work, but nowadays I really just feel like lying around and doing nothing. Too bad no one pays me to do that. :smack: It’s Tuesday and already I’m in zombie mode. I did have some time this morning to vent my feelings on my guitar. Made me feel a bit better, anyway.
Okay, I made ShermanAter’s 'Nanna bread and messed about with it a bit and it turned out FABULOUS! So maybe when McUne puts the original into the blog it might be beneficial to add my amendments:
First off, I had a lot of very ripe frozen bananas to use and a camping trip coming up so I tripled the recipe.
I reduced the overall amount of sugar by maybe a quarter cup, also I used three different kinds of sugar–it worked out to 2 c white sugar, 1 1/4 c dark brown and 1 c raw sugar. I like using raw sugar because it gives a neat taste and adds a bit of crunch to the top crust.
I used 2 c white flour and 2.5 c of whole wheat “white” flour–just wanted a bit more fiber.
I added a couple of teaspoons of really good Ceylon cinnamon.
Since I had only 8 bananas and a triple recipe should have 9, I took a can of apricot halves, drained them and put them through the blender until they were nice and smooth and added that along with the bananas.
I sprinkled Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips on top. I omitted the nuts because they are too darned expensive at Slaveway!
I found that by using an electric mixer and beating the hell out of everything that I ended up with a very fluffy, almost stiff batter. This translated into an extremely nice crumb in the finished product, which is very moist and almost cakelike.
Although I tripled the recipe I ended up with enough batter to make three 8 x 4 loaves and one 9 x 5 loaf. I think it grew in the mixing or something!
It is mindbendingly yummy, I heartily recommend! I ate two slices and Himself abandoned any pretense of it being “bread” and hacked off a chunk that looked more like a piece of birthday cake, then put a token pat of butter on top. If I interpreted his facial expression correctly then I suspect there was a moist spot in his pants after the first bite…
Haze sez BRAAAAAAIIIINNSSSS!!!
So that’s what happened to my brains… them was eated by The MMP Zombie! :eek:
[/Scarecrow mode]
Hope the Parental Ivory Units get better soon, Soapy
I think one of the problems with translated poetry, or simply with poetry in languages “not one’s own” is that the rules of poetry change a lot, both between languages (I was stunned when I found out about “poetry feet,” no such thing in Spanish - rhyming rules are also different) and between the normal and versed versions of a language. You find different grammar, spelling and even pronunciation in poetry than in normal language: stresses out of place, broken-in-half diptongs… if it’s “your” language, you know how it works. If it’s not, your brain is busy enough trying to make heads and tails out of it that it can’t spare the energy to marvel about the rythm.
I tend to like poems that tell a story; this means I’m more likely to like a Lope de Vega play (or the translated version of a Shakespeare’s, as in the original I just don’t get half of what they’re saying), a song or a romance (a form of poetry that’s very common for ancient stories in Spain) than most of what comes in poetry books. Mom can go through a box of Kleenex with Rabindranath Tagore, I’m bored by the second page. Then again, I don’t like the works of RT’s translator to Spanish or of her husband, either…
One of my favorite, shortish and a love story, is this Romance del Conde Nuño, which is old enough to have half a dozen versions floating around:
Conde Nuño por amores
es niño y pasó la mar;
a dar agua a su caballo
la mañana de San Juan.
Mientras el caballo bebe
él canta dulce cantar;
todas las aves del cielo
se paraban a escuchar,
caminante que camina
olvida su caminar,
navegante que navega
la nave vuelve hacia allá.
La reina estaba bordando,
su hija durmiendo está:
-Levantáos, Albaniña,
de vuestro dulce folgar,
sentiréis cantar hermoso
la sirenita del mar.
-No es la, sirenita, madre,
la de tan bello cantar,
sino es el Conde Niño
que por mí quiere finar.
¡Quién le pudiese valer
en su tan triste penar!
-Si por tus amores pena,
¡oh, malhaya su cantar!
y porque nunca los goce
yo le mandaré matar.
-Si le manda matar, madre,
juntos nos han de enterrar.
Él murió a la medianoche,
ella a los gallos cantar;
a ella como hija de reyes
la entierran en el altar,
a él como hijo de condes
unos pasos más atrás.
De ella nació un rosal blanco,
de él nació un espino albar;
crece el uno, crece el otro
los dos se van a juntar;
las ramitas que se alcanzan
fuertes abrazos se dan,
y las que no se alcanzaban
no dejan de suspirar.
La reina, llena de rabia,
ambos los mandó cortar;
el gañán que los cortaba
no cesaba de llorar.
De ella nació una garza,
de él un fuerte gavilán,
juntos vuelan por el cielo,
juntos vuelan a la par.
Count Nuño, who was in love,
as a child he crossed the sea
to come water his horse
morn after Midsummer’s Eve.
As the horse drinks his fill
a sweet song the child count sings;
all the birds up on the sky
would stop for him to hear,
walker walking on the road
forgets the path that he walks,
sailor sailing on the sea
turns his ship and sails around.
Embroidering the Queen was,
sleeping her daughter was:
-wake up, white child,
from your sweet dreams
the mermaids out from the sea
are singing beautifully.
-that’s no mermaid, Mother,
who sings so fine,
it is the child count
who my hand wants to request.
Ah, that I could back him up
and help him in his distress!
- If for your love he’s in pain,
oh, let his song be damned!
and for him to never enjoy them
I shalt have him executed. - If you get him killed, Mother,
together you’ll bury us.
He died at midnight,
she as the cocks greet’d the sun;
she being the daughter of kings
was buried at the altar’s feet,
him being the son of counts
was a few more steps behind.
From her a white rose was born,
from him birthed a white thorn,
and one grows and grows the other,
and together they both grow;
the branches that touch soon hug,
and those who can’t sigh loud.
Furious, the queen both got chop’d;
the woodsman cried as he cut.
From her a crane was born,
from him a strong sparrowhawk,
together they fly the skies,
together always they go.
(((((Ivory))))) - sending good thoughts your way.
Shadow was very inappropriate when we first had him, he was also a rescue cat who’d been abandoned by his family. They had two kittens and kept the female one, they didn’t want Shadow and just booted him out of the house. Then they moved away and just left him. He was living on the streets before he got picked up by someone who couldn’t keep him because they’d got other pets, so the guy emailed around his workplace and it got picked up by a friend of mine. She sent the email (and accompanying pics) to me, she knew what would happen!
He was ok for the first few days, then he started peeing on our bed. Very inappropriate. I must have had the cleanest duvet in town after the number of times we took it to the launderette to have it cleaned. It’s a king-size so it’s too big for the washing machine so we were having to take it to the cleaners every weekend. We had to mess about trying to keep him out of the bedroom, which in turn upset Ophie because she was used to being allowed in there to sleep.
He did settle down a bit when he’d been neutered but it took many months before he was allowed in the bedroom unsupervised. Now he’s a perfectly happy mog, and has no problem sleeping on our bed without feeling the need to pee everywhere.
G’morning all, up and caffeinating.
{{{{{{Soapy}}}}}}; healing thoughts sent to both of your parents.
Good thoughts also being sent to FairyChatDaughter for a great interview -and- job offer.
It’s Tuesday, that’s all I’ve got. 
{{{{Soapy}}}} Sending prayers your way.
Recipe has been blogged. I’m tired so hopefully it looks ok.
I’m up. Yawn I hate it when I’m sleeping so good and then the alarm goes off and I wonder what that in the world that sound is.
zooom
‘mernin’
laterz
moooz
Mornin’, y’all.
I am filled with grrrrrrrrrrr! this morning. My health insiurance company sent me this nannygram telling me that by their records, I’m a naughty boy for taking my cholesterol med 80% of the time.
Honest to Og, I called them and told them, “Fuck you. Strong letter to follow.” The customer service girl was shocked , then laughed at me.
I’ve been stewing all night on what I write to them telling them where to shove their prescription compliance program, but I’m afraid it will have to go to The Pit.
What say you, Mumpers? Post it here, or put it in The Pit with a link?
{{{{Soapy}}}}