I then baked some oatmeal for breakfast for the week, and made macaroni salad for a few days of lunch, and then for dinner, I made angel hair as planned, though when I actually read the recipe, it was not anything new to me - it was what I always do for a super quick tomato sauce, except they were adding chile crisp to it, which I guess is the thing nowadays - every recipe I read has chile crisp in it, but I'm not really a chile crisp person. I have the heat tolerance (in terms of spiciness, though I also don't like my food super hot temperature-wise either) of the whitest baby you know.
Anyway! It is a super easy but delicious meal and if you don't mind waiting a few extra minutes, you can do it all in one pot. Boil your pasta - angel hair is best for this, imo - and reserve a cup of pasta water before you drain it. Return the pot to the stove over low heat and add in a nice glug of olive oil (2 tbsp if you need a measurement), and then add a whole can or tube of tomato paste to the oil (so between 4 and 6 oz). Stir it around and season it as you like - I used garlic and onion powder, oregano and red pepper flakes and salt, but if you want to get fancy, you could probably saute a diced shallot and some minced garlic in the oil for a minute or two before adding the tomato paste - for 2-3 minutes, until it's all hot and sizzling. If you are so inclined, add chile crisp to suit your taste. Then add the pasta back, and about half the reserved water and toss it until the pasta is coated. I only used 4 oz of angel hair, so if you have more, you might need more water. Then put it in bowls and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. If you are in an even bigger rush, you can sizzle the tomato paste in a frying pan while the pasta cooks and then combine it all back in the pasta pot. The couple of minutes you save isn't worth having to wash an extra pot to me, but it might be to some people.
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- Music:Cruel Summer = Taylor Swift
- Mood:
productive
**
Title: in the darkness with you
Word count: 4,233
Fandom: ιι | Guardian (TV)
Pairing: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Rating: Mature
Content tags: Blind Zhao Yunlan, First time, Hand-Feeding, Finger-Sucking, Clothed Sex, Zhao Yunlan's oral fixation, Episode Related, Episode 21, Missing Scene, Blindness Arc
A/N: Many thanks to
Summary:
Zhao Yunlan woke to the smell of citrus, sweet and strong in the air. Without fully turning his face out of the pillow, he slitted open a sleep-heavy eye - to complete, unchanged darkness. Reality came crashing down like a landslide. Right: still blind.
I also made dressing for coleslaw, which I've never done before - always just bought the pre-made deli version - and it's ok, not great. Not tangy enough, tbh. I wonder if replacing some of the mayo with buttermilk is the way to go. I ate some with a steak I pan-fried for dinner and that was nice. I don't have steak very often, but sometimes it goes on sale and I get it.
We're supposed to be getting between 12"-18" of snow tomorrow/Monday (wait, I just checked, and the current forecast is 39% likelihood of at least 18" if not more, wow), and I'm supposed to go into the office on Tuesday, so I guess we'll see what actually materializes, whether the streets are cleaned, and how I feel on Tuesday morning. Supposedly we're getting a free lunch, but I don't know when the consultant who is supposed to be buying it for our in person meeting is flying in, idk what is going to happen. There was some back and forth on Teams today about the storm and they are notifying everyone to be remote on Monday, which is the smart choice.
Anyway, my menu is not very cozy - I was planning on making that lemony macaroni salad for lunches, and some baked oatmeal with cherries and chocolate chips for breakfast. I do have bread, milk, and eggs, so there could always be French toast! Though I did make that on Wednesday when I realized it was Ash Wednesday (and that I'd completely forgotten Shrove Tuesday). I'll probably have pasta for dinner tomorrow regardless, since it's Sunday.
Today, I watched Batman Ninja, which features the Batfamily time traveling back to feudal Japan (but so much Joker and I am so tired of Joker), and then its sequel, Batman vs. the Yakuza League, which I enjoyed more because it has Wonder Woman in it and she's fantastic as always. It also features ( I guess this is a spoiler ) It was weird to me though that we got 4 Batboys (Jason's feudal Japan headgear is HILARIOUS), but no Cass or Babs at all, and I didn't love the art for Selina. Someday we'll get an animated version of Wayne Family Adventures and the girls and Duke will get their due!
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- Mood:
pleased - Music:So Far Away - Carole King
The much-revised slipover or sleeveless pullover is okay for shoulder/yoke/mid-torso, which means it'll be sloppily fine otherwise. Though its neckline is larger than I'd intended, it's similar to how the pattern's model wears the official sample; adding the pattern's edging near the end will pull it in a bit. That's so much better than my earlier tries with other patterns, which followed conventional measuring instructions and then wouldn't let my arms in.
The current slipover's editing struggles may've bestowed enough info to allow knitting myself summery sleeveless or cap-sleeve tops. Then perhaps I can see about editing saddle-shoulder tops with sleeves.
Post-shingles, I may even be able to wear summery tops, now that thermoregulation seems slowly to be righting itself, and now that stuff beneath my skin is no longer upset by sunlight. Going out in the sun has been good for other reasons; I'd keep all those times if there were magically a chance to redo. But I'm glad I'm past when there wasn't enough air sometimes to speak properly, overlapping it.
The only link that came to mind while I wrote this post is Cocoon Chokki, which looks lovely and would never be drop-shoulder on me. After knitting several oversized drop-shoulder garments that weren't, I can quit trying it as a workaround for garment drape/fit, heh.
Fandom: The Long Walk
Music: One Foot In Front Of The Other by Walk The Moon
Characters/Pairing: Ray/Peter; ensemble
Summary: Taking this one step at a time.
Warnings: graphic violence
Here on AO3
(Except that these guys mastered jumping WAY faster than I did.)
It's hilarious and delightful to me to watch people having an experience of Dark Souls which is not wholly unlike mine. In a weird way I feel kind of #represented.
In later vids, they have (like me) discovered the joys of the halberd as adaptive technology for people who are bad at spacing and aiming.
Hilary Knight with the game-tying goal with 2 minutes left and the goalie pulled - she became the all time leading US scorer at the Olympics! GOATed! (She also got engaged yeserday{? I think it was yesterday? to a lady speed-skater} so she's having a time in Milan!) And then Megan Keller won it in OT - right through the 5-hole on Desbiens (who I do feel bad for - she had herself a game today after getting pulled in the previous US-Canada game)! What a sick goal!
(I don't think the overtime in a GOLD MEDAL GAME should be 3-on-3, but at least they were scheduled to play a full period - no shootout in the gold medal game.)
Of course, I was supposed to be working so people kept emailing me and calling me and I couldn't be like, "Don't you know the US women's hockey team is in OT against Canada in the gold medal game!??!" so ugh. work.
In other news, last night I was struck with a mighty strong craving for an Orange Julius, and i had an unopened 11 oz bottle of OJ in the fridge so I stuck it in the freezer, and then this morning I pulled out the blender to make it, and I think the part that defrosted enough to get scraped into the blender was all water, because it had only the vaguest of orangey taste. But I have the other half of the bottle left, so I will try again tomorrow. I'm sure nostalgia is playing a part, but there was something so amazingly good about an Orange Julius at the mall when I was in high school.
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- Mood:
excited
( Spoilers want to watch meteor showers as well⦠)
- Location:
- Mood:
contemplative
1. I had the dentist today, so I took the day off, because I am always so exhausted when I come back from the dentist. It's rarely bad, but trying to breathe through the cleaning is always an adventure I do not enjoy and it makes me tired. But I told them that the crown I got in December is mostly fine except if I try to eat almonds or other hard things, so the dentist did something to it "fix the bite." He also said it didn't look like anything was wrong either in the examination or on the x-ray, and to let him know if it didn't get better (or even got worse), so I guess we'll see.
1a. I arrived about 30 minutes early for my appointment - it usually takes much longer to get there so I allowed an hour - but they took me in right away since I was only scheduled to be there for a cleaning, and I was home before noon.
B. I was excited to see ZIBANEJAD score the tying goal for Sweden, but then Quinn Hughes won it for the US in overtime. I have to admit, I don't like 3-on-3 overtime (or shootouts!) for the Olympics. Just play another sudden death period.
iii. This past weekend, Baby Miss L went to her first princess tea party event at the Riverhead aquarium (or near there?) and the pictures of her holding court among the princesses are amazing, but my favorite picture is the one of her making a very excited "oh wow!" face at the plate of desserts in front of her. She was ready to dig in!
d. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are coming to MSG in May!!! Tickets go on sale this weekend! I will probably not try to get them, even though MSG is pretty much the 2nd most convenient venue he could play. (Forest Hills Stadium would be the most convenient for me, but would never happen.)
5. I've reached The Butcher's Masquerade in my DCC reread, and I think it might be my favorite of the books? It has a couple of my favorite scenes in it, anyway, including ( spoilers ) I definitely prefer the more open-world type floors than the stuff like the Iron Tangle (and I did find the cards so fucking tedious in book 6; otoh, ( spoilers )).
Though This Inevitable Ruin is also a strong contender, since I fucking love ( spoilers ) There's a lot in it that I enjoyed and that also makes me so curious about what happens next, both in the dungeon and outside of it. I am definitely writing up an epic post based on notes I'm taking on rereading, which will eventually get posted. I hope. *g*
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- Mood:
thoughtful - Music:I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - u2
I saw this on Reddit, but I don't know how to run it (I am not tech-savvy at all, like if you tell me what to paste into the command line I can do it but you need to hold my hand).
I tried to see if this tool could do it, but I can't get it to open (even after telling my Mac's security to let me go ahead and open it, it just bounces in the dock and disappears).
Calibre's batch-download stuff downloads files the way AO3 permits: just the work, no comments.
Time keeps slipping away from me again, and I keep thinking of things I want to post about, but when I finally sit get to down and open DW, I've forgotten all about it.
But I remembered the New Year, at least! *g*
Here are a few things that I have on heavy rotation.
TWS has released the Korean version of the Japanese debut song: λ€μ λ§λ μ€λ [Nice to see you again (Korean ver.). The original Japanese version is one of my favorite TWS songs, so I quite enjoy the Korean version too, once my brain got past the inevitable linguistic confusion of hearing a different version of a familiar song. They did a short round of promos on Korean music shows, and it was fun to see how they added small easter eggs to the choreography for each performance.
Dokyeom and Seungkwan, the two main vocalists of Seventeen, released a unit album last month. It's packed full of songs to show off their voices. The title track is Blue. I also quite like Seungkwan's solo track, Dream Serenade, and the b-side, Prelude of Love.
I've also being doing a deep dive into all of ILLIT's 2025 music, and I really missed a lot! I really love their entire June 2025 EP, bomb, but if you need a more specific starting place, try λΉλ €μ¨ κ³ μμ΄ (Do the Dance) or bamsopoong.
I'm also listening to NMIXX's Blue Valentine.
What are you listening to lately?
- an arrogant, wealthy, evil and very slutty fop of a sorcerer who gets Whumped Intensely by Even Worse Dudes who make Archive Warnings Apply to him, heavily
- a kind, brawny paladin who begrudgingly saves his life a lot even though they're enemies and the sorcerer kind of ruined his life
- they smooch a lot
The most recent story (which I just finished finally editing, woooo!):
- Sweet Honey, Loathsome | 20k, Complete | M/M, Explicit | Vaunted, a kind paladin, opens his door to find that his longtime enemy, the evil wizard Wrathbyrne, has been stripped of his powers and placed under a curse: Wrathbyrne has to get fucked once a day or he dies.
Previous stories, all of which are standalones that each exist in their own little universes, slightly "canon"-divergent from one another:
- Lord Wrathbyrne's Highly Unpleasant Year | 72k, WIP | M/M, Explicit | An evil wizard gets non-conned by a bunch of other evil dudes and then rescued by Fake He-Man.
- Roadside Attractions | 5k, Complete | M/M, Explicit | A cartoonishly evil wizard and his heroic, good guy foe are handcuffed together in a sitcom predicament. Then they get dosed with sex pollen.
- Reformation | 13k, WIP | M/M, Explicit | The Good Council of Good has a soft-spoken death cleric attempt to rehabilitate the evil wizard and turn him into a good man. Obviously, this is just an excuse for whump and Archive Warnings To Apply to the evil wizard, who hopes local hero, Vaunted the nice paladin, will save him. Even though the nice paladin is the one who arrested him in the first place. Oops.
Anyway, if any of this sounds up your alley, I hope you check 'em out, I love my little guys. <3
I also spent some time yesterday watching more Pluribus and I find myself arguing with myself about it. ( spoilers )
So I still am not sure how much I like it as a show, but I am definitely curious to see where it goes (no spoilers past "HDP" please!).
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- Mood:intrigued
- Music:Work That - Mary J Blige
https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/transadultspsp/
The focus is identifying priorities for future research, specifically related to "non-surgical, transition-related healthcare for people aged 18 and over", and they're starting with a survey.
Funded by Gendered Intelligence, led by a steering group which is half people with lived experience (in fact more than half, as some of the healthcare professional members also ID as trans), one of the two co-leads is a trans woman, and they're partnered with TransActual and GIRES, so this looks like real genuine co-production.
archive.org/details/frankenstein-designed-for-one-another
Title: Designed for one another
Vidder: littlecatk
Fandom: Frankenstein (Universal Monster verse: Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Son of Frankenstein (1939), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein meets the Wolfman (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944)
Music: Bride by The Mountain Goats
Summary: The Frankensteins: fathers, sons, daughters, mothers and brides
Warnings: Physical triggers (quick cuts/flashing lights), suicide, death including death of a child