Archive | February 22, 2015

Let the Good Times Roll/Forgery, a story of Fae Apoc for Thimbleful Thursday

Feb22

Set in late February, 2012

Carmelita knew a handful of things.

She knew that it was Mardi Gras and she was, by strange coincidence, in New Orleans.

She knew that her hometown was burning, crushed, and flooding, all at once, which was not, to her way of thinking, a very good state of affairs.

She knew that she was twenty-one and, possibly more importantly, that at the moment almost nobody anywhere was going to ask her age.

And she knew that, despite everything, despite everyone, despite the war and the so-called gods and the even-less-likely-called saviors, New Orleans was still running, still partying, still rolling.

She leaned over the edge of the balcony. “Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler!” It wasn’t real French. It didn’t need to be. The burgundy in her glass wasn’t real burgundy, either, no matter how many times the man had told her it was. And it didn’t need to be, either.

“Sweetheart, come back inside.” The man had ideas, of course. He’d bought her the fake burgundy. He’d paid with stolen credit and thought she hadn’t noticed. His accent had changed three times in the four hours they’d been together. “Come back to bed, lovely Carmel.”

Of all the nicknames you could make from her name, she disliked that one, often also used to describe the color of her skin, the most. “It’s not ‘back to,'” she told him, a little more crossly than she might have, under normal circumstances. “I haven’t been there yet.”

“Come to bed, then. There’s more burgundy,” he coaxed her, his voice smooth as the not-really-silk sheets. “There’s Camembert and crackers.”

The streets were calling her. “Eat, drink, and be merry,” Carmelita muttered. The man was less interesting than he had been, once you saw him up close, like any forgery. “I’m not dead yet,” she called over her shoulder, and jumped into the street.

For this week’s Thimbleful Thursday: Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/901781.html. You can comment here or there.

Poll! A Sponsored Continuation or three

Feb22

Sooo, I found in my archives that I had forgotten a donation <.< Specifically, one to do whatever I want or needs continuing.

But I like making you guys happy, so I’m going to open a poll now and leave it open until the end of February or until something is a clear clear clear winner. What stories should I continue?

I’ll write approx. 1250 words to the first-place winner, 850 to the second-place, and 400 to the third.

If you don’t have a DW account, leave your vote in the comments.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/901529.html. You can comment here or there.

Today’s Bread…

Feb22

…is Cook’s Country Anadama bread, a molasses-and-cornmeal yeasted wheat flour bread. It’ll also be next week’s bread, because someone forgot to half the recipe before she got started <.<

I like Anadama bread not just because I looooove molasses, but the story is fun, too:

An apocryphal story told about the origin of the bread goes like this: Every day a local worker would find cornmeal mush in his tin lunch pail, despite asking his wife for an occasional piece of bread. One day, because of weather or other circumstances, he came home just prior to lunch time. His wife, Anna, was out. He sat down and opened his lunch box to find the usual cornmeal mush. He sighed and said, “Anna, damn her,” as he resolutely reached for the flour, molasses and yeast which he added to the cornmeal mush. His resulting bread became a local favorite.

It also reminds me of the dog in the Wrinkle in Time series, Ananda (see here), which I just learned “was one of the principal disciples and a devout attendant of the Buddha.”

Well. I do find making bread to be calming, a good place for thoughts, and enriching, as well as tasty.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/901236.html. You can comment here or there.

Come To Ithaca… Some Other Time (blog Post)

Feb22

“Why does Ithaca hate Christmas?” my friend asked, as our already-delayed Christmas visit was delayed YET Again due to impending bad weather and a lack of salt (Surprising; I didn’t know they actually salted the roads around here. (that’s slightly tongue-in-cheek, but we’re not all THAT good at clearing roads in this area.))

“Visit Ithaca Go see the Keys!” Ithaca’s tourism site said last week.

And I can’t say I blame them. We’re up to our chests in snow, we’re out of salt, and – until today, where it’s going to be ~31-33F – we’re freezing.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful here. A Google Image Search will tell you how pretty a frozen waterfall can be. And I actually like winter here – it’s a nice time to sit inside and get some crafting, writing, or cleaning done. It’s a good excuse for layers. It’s a very good excuse for tea and soup and warm bread.

Oh, yeah. Bread! I was going to make some of that.

You can have some, if you come visit…

…maybe in March? Better make it April or May…

I find it funny that the icon I had made for my “blizzard” setting is getting far more use for… near-blizzards.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/900890.html. You can comment here or there.