Barely even anything at all.

Absentee! Sorry. Everything got sort of stressful for a little bit there. It has all worked out though because...

Big news!! I got a job. Not a temp job and not a mostly volunteer job and not a soul-suckingly shitty job. A real nice permanent normal person job, related to my college degree. Not embarrassing to disclose, I don't have to say "but I am also a (whatever) on the side". Great, right? I can go to the dentist without having to take out a bank loan. I get paid holidays. It's not expensive to catch a cold. All those shitty temp jobs finally paid off. I have a cubicle of my very own to decorate now.

I gotta watch it though, this job is making me fat already and I only just got here. There are a lot of delicious snacks floating around this office, no Sunterra salad bar, and the gym is far away now, as opposed to being right downstairs like at my last gig... I have already started to notice the flabalanche threatening to cascade over the edge of my waistband and I have only been here for 6 weeks. I am going to have to ask some of the other office ladies if they are up for lunchtime workout club.

I have also quit smoking since I last posted, which made me every single different kind of crazy (see bitchy last post, it only got worse from there. My sincere apologies to everyone I have spoken to in the last month.) That is also contributing to my new flab. I am not very good at being fat, despite the fact that every couple of years I have a bizarro weight fluctuation and have therefore had PLENTY of practice. Some people find their sass and seem better for it, but not me. It makes me antisocial and meaner than usual. So I haven't been doing anything much lately except for starting a bunch of projects that will hopefully keep me occupied until at least the middle of winter so there is not a repeat of last year's frozen despair. (It wasn't really that bad. I just got crabby and lazy and bored, along with everyone else.)

We'll make it through this one. I am determined.

Check out these ladies. It took a couple of listens before I was sure, but now I really like them. I have to admit, the fact that they play shows with John Maus (swoon) helped make up my mind. The fact that they are babes and sisters didn't hurt either. Fun fact #1 - They are singing in a made-up language! What a couple of nuts! Fun fact #2 - These sisterbabes were raised Hare Krishna, which explains a thing or two about their music.:

I also like this guy quite a lot:

Also, I like this!

One of my fall/winter survival projects: I was commissioned to make a kimono-style dressing gown for a friend, which has been fun. I made a pattern from a kimono that I own (I am using the work kimono loosely, it is TOTALLY not traditional at all, made out of obnoxious red satin covered with palm trees) and donated my first attempt to the silent-auction fundraiser for The High Level Bridge's jaunt to the Sundance Festival. I kind of thought it would go for like, you know, twenty bucks or something, but someone actually forked out a nice chunk for it.

In true Amelia fashion, the fabric sat on my sewing table untouched for a week while I procrastinated:

I don't know if you can tell, but she picked out this beautiful dark green fabric. She's got dark hair and eyes and this is going to look beautiful on her.

I got this hot tip about cutting delicate fabric. If you trap it between layers of paper, it doesn't slide around and you don't end up with gnarly edges. It's true! It works!

I will post photos of the finished product once I have put all the trim and everything on it. So far so good though!

I am also working on a stop animation project. I am pretty excited about it. Despite the best of intentions, I haven't done any animation since the Rice Rocket video that Doug and I made in like, 2008 or something, so a follow up is well overdue.  (Here's Rice Rocket, in case you didn't see it when I bragged all over Facebook about it back then:)

This one is going to be on paper, which, based on how it is going I think will take approximately 200 years to complete, but I am scoping out some technology to hopefully make the process a little quicker. It is going to be very cute, featuring hobos and bunnies, with soundtrack by The Elf.

Hey, check out how awesome this is. This person bought a vintage camera online and it came with undeveloped film in it from the 1940s:

http://riowang.blogspot.com/2011/09/hiroshima-souvenir.html
What an amazing find. I have score envy. Those photos are so beautiful, even that camera on its own is a great score. Those photos make me want to visit both Hiroshima and the 1940s.

So I went to Mr.'s parents' place for Thanksgiving and when I asked what I could bring, his dad had the most bizarrely specific request: Orange peel biscotti... Weird, right? Is that even a thing? Is that something that people crave?

Anyway, I was not about to disappoint my prospective pops-in-law so I did a little research and apparently it actually IS a thing, and even weirder, there are people out there who actually do things like candy orange peel themselves. And now I am one of those people. New job, new life. New cooking skills that will probably be used a total of once in my entire life.

Anyway, the recipe isn't terribly difficult and even though orange peel biscotti is not something that I would ever think of making on my own, they were actually pretty delicious. The orange peel/syrup in the batter gave them kind of a floral flavour in addition to the obvious citrus. Here is the recipe in case you want to play along (I lifted this from a blog called Brownie Points. I get slightly weird about anyone who identifies as a capital G Good Girl right off the hop, but I can't argue with those recipes.):

*Put on a frilly vintage apron for this, and some nice red lipstick. If we are doing this Betty Crocker shit, we'd better look the part.

Candied Orange Peel Biscotti

In a saucepan combine:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• julienned orange peel from two oranges- no white stuff attached
 

It is also important to pour yourself a wine spritzer at this point. This recipe is a bit of a time commitment (at least compared to most things that I make, being a lazy and hurried cook), important to stay hydrated.

 Also, maybe not a terrible idea to put on some goggles (extra points if they match your apron), as I discovered that removing the outer peel from an orange involves squirting a bunch of orange oil in your eyes, which is pretty uncomfortable. The upside is that your eyes will smell delightfully citrus zesty.

Please use the leftover HUMILIATED oranges for something nice. They look so sad. Sorry, guys.

 One hundred years of chopping.

Stir to help begin dissolving the sugar, then cover with a lid and let the heat do the rest of the work.
Bring the mixture to a boil and gently simmer for 20 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes in the pan and spoon the orange zest into a strainer (chopsticks work very well too). Let the orange flavored sugar syrup drip back into the pan (save this for the biscotti batter), and move the strainer of zest to hover over a piece of wax paper. Spoon granulated sugar over the syrupy zest while fluffing the zest with chopsticks. Continue to sugar and fluff till the zest bits are adequately coated and not too clumped up. Spread out on a cutting board and chop into small pieces.
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Set this aside and combine:

• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 2 Tbs of softened butter
• the syrup from candying the orange peel

Mix till the butter sugar combination is well incorporated. Then add while mixing:

• one whole egg
• one egg white
• 1 Tbs vanilla
• the chopped candied orange peel

Scoop in the dry ingredients a bit at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides and bottom once.
Using a spatula, scoop the batter out onto a cookie sheet that is either covered with parchment or lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Form the dough into a log using a spatula and lightly flour dusted fingers, and squish down to about 3/4 inch tall..
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet half way through.

While you are waiting, why not snuggle a puggle?

I had no photos of the last part of the recipe. I got really stressed out about the consistency of the batter (which turned out to be correct, so don't freak out) and forgot to record the process.

While the biscotti is cooking, twirl around the kitchen, make your man a dry martini, smoke a Lucky Strike and give yourself a Lysol douche. Justkiddingjustkiddingjustkidding! Don't do that last thing.

Remove and let cool. Using a serrated knife, slice 1/2 inch slices from the loaf, on a diagonal to ensure nice long slices. Lay the sliced cookies out on the cookie sheet and bake again at 200F for 30 minutes total (flip cookies over after 15 minutes) if hard cookies suitable for coffee dunking are desired.

Also, for extra cuteness, I drizzled some dark chocolate on them. They were yummy!