Patron Saint of Falling Over Things

They're mowing the block next door today, twelve months and one day since we got Baggins back from the vet for a snake bite from the snake that the last mow drove inside the house. I am a little nervous. (A LOT NERVOUS: I've been at work for two hours and have only just discovered that my shirt is on inside out.) lilacsigil and I closed all the windows last night and blocked them with towels. She packed gauze under the screen doors, because she saw a reasonable sized skink push himself under the screen door last week, and a baby tiger snake of that size could easily do the same in a panic. (Which is what we think happened last year: Read snake story here.) The house is stuffy because it's summmer and the windows are closed, but hopefully there will be no snakes.

I think we've been a little traumatised by the whole thing.

ETA: I started writing this yesterday. Current status: no snakes, have tentatively opened some windows.

Catch up news: I made it through NaNo, with an amazing come-back:
.
[Word count chart which curves up sharply towards the end of the month]

Surprisingly, when I'm not stressed out of my brain and flat-out exhausted, I can actually write quite quickly.

I have a Yuletide draft, and now must seek a title and a summary. (Insert obligatory titles are haaaaaaaard whine here.) ETA: Have a fic posted! I will still tinker with it, but lilacsigil came up with an excellent title. I am pleased.

I am finishing off Christmas crochet projects - I have discovered cotton, and made my psych a spa set with a face washer, a shower mitt and a soap bag. It was so ridiculously daggy and awesome. I was proud.
ETA: Finished a set of 20 washable makeup remover pads and a little net bag to keep them in. It's so cute omg!!
( Reusable presents save the planet! )

Media report:
Claws
I have watched the first episode (because Carrie Preston is in it) and I am so confused but I love it. It has ladies protecting ladies, it has loyalty kink for miles, it has lgbt characters and different body types and non-NT characters. I want to say it's like Breaking Bad set around a nail salon? But I have never seen an episode of Breaking Bad so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. I love it. I just don't really know what I'm watching, you know?

Alias Grace
This was amazing. Everyone was amazing. I don't do well in stories with unreliable narrators, but I stuck this one out because it was beautiful and dreamy and well acted and well directed. Um. I don't have much to say, really? Honestly it was less wracking than most things Sarah Polley has had a creative hand in. (I like Sarah Polley, but wow, her stuff is hard work for me.)

Lucifer
I've just finished Season One. Ahaha, this show is delicious trash and I love it.
( Spoilers swan around being fabulous )

Black Sails
I just finished Season 2...
( Spoilers be under here, Arrr )

Tiny Linkspam
From miss_s_b
Does Peppa Pig encourage inappropriate use of primary care resources?. It's in the BMJ. This is what happens to medical people around Christmas. This kind of thing becomes acceptable.

- Five on Brexit Island Inevitable, really.

- xkcd: Seven Years. Randall gets the thing about cancer in relationshops. TW for, well, cancer things.

- Still my fave from radchaaipopsongs: Fruit-Stained Hat

I have had the audiobooks on repeat for a while now, and I have many thoughts. Like, when I read, I see Seivarden as a tall, blondish space lesbian. But when I listen, I see a tall salt and pepper beardy person. IT IS QUITE STRANGE. Also, when you audiobook, you don't know how to spell any names. Also, Adjoa Andoh makes some really interesting accent choices, like Geordie for Awn, and South African for the Tanmind.

Cat update
( Generally good news! Some vet medical stuff )

Snake Update
We found experts! They came up from Geelong on the day that I called them, it was awesome. They were massive nerds like us, loved our nerdy bookshelves and the nerdy names we gave our cats and considering they had to go right through everything in the house, it actually felt much safer and familiar than you would think. Social anxiety and snake anxiety aside, it was about as good as that experience could be. If anyone of my Aussie flist needs a rec for a local snake team, drop me a PM because I'd rec them.

( more snake specific than some people might want to read )

Quick Recipe Friday
You'd think I'd had no time to bake, wouldn't you? Ha! Every time I picked up a spatula, drama did happen. It was eerie. (Or I pick up a spatula very frequently.)

Something I cooked recently:
Ottolenghi’s Lemon-Semolina Cake

I made it in muffin form, I made the olive oil variant, and they're really good. But my oven cooked the tops really, really quickly, so next time I'm putting the temp down and the time longer. I will never learn, with my terrible, terrible oven, but I can't stand the idea of having tradies in the house right now to put in a new one, so I have to suck it up. Under the over-brown top though, they're nice and moist, are keeping for longer than muffins would, and the lemon taste is really good. Definitely a good GF option for a small, snacky/tea time cake or muffin thing

ETA: After lilacsigil said that the muffins were a little grittier in texture than she expected, I have discovered that semolina is not polenta. I like the slightly gritty texture, but perhaps next time I'll try actual semolina flour rather than polenta. But I thought they were the same!!

Trail Mix Energy Bites
I made these on Sunday, and Baggins started getting sick right in the middle of it, so I forgot to put the rolled oats in. They actually came out okay - but more of a confection than a snack food, if you know what I mean. They're nice! They're not technically a FODMAP friendly food, because of the honey and the fruit. And the pretzels, of which I had none so I smushed up some Ritz instead, but when we needed something sweet for our shocky little selves after the vet visits, they were awesome. Salty-sweet and satisfying. I will be trying them again with the oats in this time.



Something I have concrete plans to cook soon:
It is gnocchi weekend! It's nice and cool today, so I'm going to be roasting potatoes and making... Omg, I didn't bookmark my gnocchi recipe. *freaking out* It was a roast potato one, it worked really great, omg, I shouldn't even need a recipe! But I am a bad granddaughter and do not know it by heart, ohnoes.

I will use this one from the Guardian: How to make the perfect gnocchi though it be filled with terrible copy.

And I'm going to scoop out some of that potato mash and making this potato focaccia I linked last Friday.

I've got a bottle of passata that I'm going to oomph up with some fresh herbs, and bake the gnocchi in that - eat some, freeze some for Christmas meal time, and hopefully all will be good.


Something I'm idly planning to cook in the future:

Shredded chicken, cucumber and noodle salad
I'm still craving weird things, and single-ingredient foods, like, apparently cucumber. Also this looks nice and summery.

Walnut pesto
I have a bulk bag of walnuts, and I'm still looking for a good sandwich condiment that I can keep the garlic out of.


Yay getting back on track with posting, yay for a better cat, yay for a (probably probably) snake free house.