We're All Fine Here, Thanks. How Are You? - The FanFic Social Thread

That sounds awesome! Youth groups were always fun.

 

Good morning! (later than usual because today I'm starting work late)

TrakNar, I'm sorry to hear about your sister-in-law. I guess there must be one of those crazies in every family, but it's really annoying when it's someone close to you. I hope the BroNar stands his ground.

I didn't realize that Halloween is something people plan for a month ahead. In Greece the closest equivalent we have is the carnival season, but it's just about wearing disguises, not about being scary. It's good fun though, I'll post pictures in the winter. Oh, and a foodie's question: do you actually eat the pumpkins, or are they solely for decoration?

Have a nice day!

 

You can make pie out of them, and there are other recipes for them, so yes, we eat them. The flesh is the best part, and you can bake the seeds. The stringy innards get tossed into the compost, and even after the jack-o-lantern has sunken into a rotted clump, you can dump it on a patch of soil and grow more pumpkins.

Jack-o-lanterns were originally carved out of turnips. When the tradition was brought over, pumpkins were used as they were already hollow. They were originally carved to scare away bad spirits. I like to carve them as it allows me to unleash my creativity as I savagely cut holes into a large gourd. My carving tool of choice is either a good paring knife or a buck knife. If the blade is short and sharp, I have better control.

 

I used to live near Morton, IL, which bills itself as "the pumpkin capital of the world." (That's open for debate, but they are the headquarters for Libby's, one of the biggest makers of canned pumpkin). Morton has a great pumpkin festival every fall, where they serve all kinds of pumpkin based foods, mostly baked goods, it also surprisingly tasty pumpkin chili and soup. The pumpkins also get used as projectiles in "punkin chunkin'," where people build catapults, trebuchets and canons and see who can shoot a pumpkin the farthest.

My M.O. For decorating pumpkins is to paint them, as I can't be trusted with sharp knives. This year's pumpkin is going to be a My Little Pony.

 

Shooting pumpkins... And here I thought the Scottish were weird for throwing tree trunks

Pumpkin chili sounds interesting, do you have a recipe?

 

For mavjade and Chyntuck, this is the video I took of Brading Roman Villa:



I'll be uploading the next one either tonight or tomorrow. My internets are poop so it takes ages.

 

Thanks moosemousse

So I come home after a day of non-stop meetings to find out that the Greek government called for a confidence vote on Monday (as a side note, this government is so unbelievably idiotic that they might collapse under the weight of their own stupidity.) So I rush to the laptop and read the news, and now Mr. Chyntuckopoulos is in full Greek-male-with-mommy-issues mode: "Stop chatting with your Jedi friends and take me out to dinner! I'm leaving to London tomorrow and you look like you don't care!"

Maybe I should tell him that his trip to London means I'll finally have time to write that dare challenge fic. Then again, maybe I should keep my mouth shut and take him out to dinner instead.

PS: You have nooooo idea how ridiculous "Jedi friends" sounds in Greek.

 

Woot! I'm a Jedi Friend! So I am a Jedi!

 

I would ask the same question...

 

The BroNar and I are talking about classic sci-fi and how our teachers would never recommend such things to their classes, and then the exceptions in terms of stuff we've read in class. Weird Nathaniel Hawthorne stories, Ray Bradbury, The Monkey's Paw... And then the English Lit classes in college... BroNar's class was about women suffering that the professor claimed to be pro-feminist stuff, and mine was taught by a conspiracy theorist alien nut, so our reading was weird. I'm into weird stories, but these stories were an annoying weird, and BroNar is a feminist, but the stuff he read rubbed him the wrong way.

 

Well, I FINALLY got my tax forms from the accountancy firm, who are going to presumably e-file the lot tomorrow.

 

Woot! I like being a "Jedi friend"!

So, I know nothing of 'Murican taxes... but isn't the due date in like April?

My date actually ended up going oddly well (those that have been around for a while will remember my epic fail of a date with, who I dubbed "vomit-date-boy", so any date compared to that is good). We are already planning on maybe seeing each other again.

 

And I FINALLY finished this after letting it sit unfinished for almost a year.

 

Crocheted. I don't know how to knit and my crocheting skills are pretty much limited to blankets and scarves.

 

"Jedi friends" is such a cute description. Glad your date went well, Briannakin! Nothing wrong with emergency show shopping Findswoman Very nice crocheting, TrakNar!

It's my birthday today so I decided to take the day as annual leave. However this morning I got called in to sit in on a meeting with a client so had to go in, and this afternoon I got a call from another client wanting something urgent done, but needed final approval from her boss so I have to wait for her to call me back before going ahead with it.

The best laid plans, eh?

 

I love Grimm. I got to meet the actor who plays Monroe (Silas Mitchell Weir) this summer. He's a real sweetheart and even better looking in person than on the show. Since the convention I attend has invited him now -- I hope that they will continue and invite more of the cast over the next few years. He pointed out that they are the only show that started out 4 years ago and is still on the air from that batch that year.

 

Happy Birthday @JadeLodus ! That sucks that your plans did not get fulfilled, but I hope you enjoyed your day regardless.

 

Thanks! I still have dinner with my family tonight, so I'm looking forward to that.

 

I love to crochet --- it's my way of relaxing to watch TV and so I don't snack while doing it. My favorite blanket is the Fisherman's Star
http://web.archive.org/web/19990508064123/http://www.caron.com/daz_fishstar.html
Here's the link if anyone is interested in it -- BTW they say not to use vari-gated yarn -- you can - it just makes the stars a little bit harder to see --- but after one washing the stars tighten up and you can see them. I also do this blanket with only repeating the pattern row 3 times for baby blankets and don't put on the fringe as baby's tend to chew on it. I have also doubled this pattern to make bed spreads.

Once you have done the pattern a few times it's quite easy and the pattern is mathematical.

But knitting -- can't do that --- I don't hold my tension correct and it just gets tighter and tighter till I can't get into the holes anymore. Now my Mom can knit --- she knitted me 7 sweaters the year she retired in the first year.

 

Να ζήσεις JadeLotus και χρόνια πολλά,
Μεγάλη να γίνεις με άσπρα μαλλιά.
Παντού να σκορπίζεις της νιότης το φως
Και όλοι να λένε: να μία σοφός.
(May you live long JadeLotus, and happy birthday,
Until you grow old and white-haired.
May you spread everywhere the light of youthfulness,
And all will say: here's a sage.)

Good morning!

Don't get too excited about being called "Jedi friends," everyone. After all, it was pronounced "Tzendai"

Goodwood, please don't use the word "taxes" when I'm around. It's become my worst nightmare

I dropped Mr. Chyntuckopoulos at the airport this morning and came straight to the courthouse. And there, miracle of miracles, my client's case was the first on the list. But then, of course, the defendant's lawyer asked for the case to be postponed under some lame pretext, and, of course, it was postponed Amazing how human rights cases are ALWAYS postponed.

Anyway, so here I am, all dressed up and nowhere to go. My desk has been taken over by a consultant, so I guess I'll have to take a bunch of files and work from home.

EDIT: Change of plans. My niece was born during the night. I'm going to meet her

 

Talk about best-laid plans...

 

That sounds like something the Vong would say. How would you say that phonetically? Is the T silent? How about the 'ai' at the end. I am imagining it sounding like 'Te-send-ah-ee' which is probably totally wrong.

 

I'm thinking a soft J (zh) and the ending sounding like a long I. Zhen-dye.

And I got some grocery shopping done and bought another Halloween decoration. This one is a bird skeleton.

A very anatomically-incorrect bird skeleton.

But, then again, only I would notice such things. I just bought it for the head, and i almost got a canine skull, but it had more wrong with the anatomy than the bird skeleton.

Bah. Time to find a taxidermy and see if i can get a skull or two...