I am super, ridiculously excited to announce that my comic, the aforementioned Wonder Women and the Space Crocs of Nikszkelion, is now completed.  I have drafted, inked, scanned, cleaned up, and lettered all thirty pages of it.  Actually, I think it came out long than that, as I have vague memories of saving some pages as 16.2, and 16.8, but nevermind.

The main thing is that I am DONE.  And I am so thrilled and so thoroughly overexcited to share it with you all.

*dances around in a nervous but happy fashion*

The Hooded Utilitarian is hosting a multi-week celebration of Wonder Woman classic's William Marston & Harry Peter run.  There's a whole bunch of awesome posts over there and I recommend them to you all.

Aaaaaaaaaand is also has my little comic.  *bounces*

You can read it here!

Does anyone know of a different email client?

I need the following:
Dark (non-white) inbox, with email messages having a line between them.  (I used to use themes in Gmail to keep the inbox list of messages dark, and I'd like to keep that if possible, so that the only pale color is the message itself--I don't want my entire screen screaming white--it gives me a vicious headache.)
Boxes around conversations, not this horrible swimming white space.
ABSOLUTELY no chipper random icon.  HATE THAT.
No flashing ads, vids, etc. (so, hotmail is a no)
Something that saves my chats in a format that I can search, save, and use (this is how I write).
Words instead of flowers, shapes, or funny boxes on action buttons.

I am happy to pay.

Yes, I asked for assistance on the Gmail help forums.  They told me that the HTML only look would suit me.  It does not.  I said as much and was told that they'd been told it worked well for people with visual issues.  Isn't it nice to be told how well something works when you've just said it doesn't?  Certainly other people know me better than I know myself.  

I just wanted to say a huuuuge thank you to everyone who commented on my wii post, offering suggestions, advice, experiences, game ideas, and so on.  It helped enormously!

I bought a wii and balance board a few weeks ago and have begun using it.

I couldn't be more delighted.   As y'all know, I've got some fairly tricksy joint issues, including arthritis, which means no impact no siree but at the same time, I need to keep up strength, body condition, and exercise endorphins per doctor's orders.  

Here's my experience so far:
( Read more... )

Which of these newly acquired books should I read?

Poll #1825030 tell me what to read
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

Which book should the VM read and take copious notes on next?

Does anyone have one of these?  Do they like it?

I am still in a holding pattern for workman's comp and I'd like to find a way to exercise that will improve my balance gently but which is doable on my current schedule, aka I work nights so classes are Right Out and many of the exercise videos I used to use are just plain too high impact.

I don't own a wii, so I'd need to spring for the console as well as the balance board. 

I used a balancy board doohickey in PT and it helped me a lot, so I was thinking that perhaps the wii fit would be similar and as you know bob-flist, I am very fond of yoga. 

What I'm hoping for: Tell it I want to work on balance for the next twenty minutes.  Tell I want to do 25 minutes of gentle yoga. 

Will it do that? 

ETA: I am reliably informed that Wii Fit Plus is better, so I'd be getting that. 

1.  I talked to my dad this weekend.  It was deeply stressful.  When my brother visited the other weekend, it was interesting to hear him talk a little about dad (my brother hasn't spoken to him for nigh on twenty years now) and for his extremely optimistic girlfriend tell me that she'd initially dreamed of convincing him to reconcile and that there could be a happy ending.  Then she heard about a particular story and decided that, no, really, it was TOTALLY FINE for him to never see him again ever.  She leaned in and said, anyone who's had to go through that has the absolute right to make up their own mind as to whether they see that person again.  I quite like her.  She's thoughtful and sweet and I can see why he's head over heels for her.  It's mutual, and very endearing.  

2.  I've been working hard to craft a gentler, sweeter life for myself.  See that sentence?  Feel the irony?  Working hard to relax, baby.  Yeah.  This is how I roll.  I am not good at: taking time off, asking for help, relaxing in general.  So, I have been trying to get myself to take a slightly different approach.  I had a wonderfully healing weekend in Chicago with a great good friend of mine.  We spent most of the time in pajamas, writing fan fic, when we weren't out shopping for homemade pie or giggling over pictures of smiling dogs.  I've started taking a little of that joy and setting aside a little time before bed to listen to something silly or watch a calming movie or take a soothing bath.  My sleep has been more restful.  

3.  I am working on writing up a newly released Super Awesome dog book for some buddies of mine.  It's based on Science and I loff it like burning.  As some of you know, the Pook has a genuine bonda fide anxiety disorder, which is what happens when you take a working line shepherd puppy and abuse him.  It's a good thing I'll never get a chance to meet his original owners.  Nobody likes a felony record.  *cough*  Anyway.  I love this particular system because it works great, it's extremely effective for the dog, and it's easily customizable to each individual dog.  It's also fairly complicated to review because I want to lay out how the mind works and how anxiety functions and how it's usually approached, so it's taking me a little while. 

4.  I have succumbed to a new fountain pen and some new inks and have been writing with nothing but my new Namiki Falcon for three weeks now.  I was fraught when I had to leave it at home to go on the plane.  Heh.  It is so smooth, you guys.  I write with my hand and arm, not my fingers, which is a bit unusual in this day and age.  (Old old handwriting is done with the arm and hand; my mom was taught to write by nuns.  Fortunately, this is very good for artists.)  Anyway, modern pens usually favor a much more upright style of writing and some pressure, whereas I just ghost the pen over paper with nearly no pressure.  My Lamy Safari has always written well as has my old Mont Blanc.  Unfortunately, the Mont Blanc, while lovely, has a steel barrel which my hands react to after a while and the Lamy has this good-for-others but lousy-for-me ergonomic shape which forces my hand to hold the pen in a very uncomfortable way.  So I sprang for the Namiki from RichardsPens, with the idea of using it strictly for drawing, as it is a semi-flex nib.  Instead, I am using it to write all the things and draw all the things and scribble all the things.  I have blown through a pack of cartridges as well as several testers of new bottled ink from Goulet.  Um.  Whoops?

5.  The Pook's health is getting a bit tetchy.  I boarded him for the weekend that my brother was in town, as his girlfriend is phobic of dogs.  As I think I mentioned before, his joint supplement was discontinued and I haven't been able to find him one that doesn't set off his IBD.  My best beloved vet of vets suggested we try him on Adequan injections, and in the last week, he's had his first two.  It's way to early to know whether they will help, but he has been having trouble climbing into the car, for example.  In any case, this weekend, he came down with what sounds to me like a cold.  He keeps sneezing (regular sneezes) and he also did some of that alarming reverse-sneezing that dogs sometimes do.  When I walked him last night, he came in and had what sounded to me like an honest to god asthma attack.  His chest kept heaving and he made truly alarming noises.  He was hunched over, eyes shut, and focused just on getting air in and out.  He leaned against me when I came up, and I could feel his whole body tremor with effort.  It passed, thank god, but dammit.  Thankfully, he's due his next shot today at 10:30, so I'll ask her then.  There is no getting around it, however.  My grand old gentleman is finally starting to show his age.  He's about 93 in human years. 

I have returned from my holiday if not suntanned at least with the occasional new freckle.  I had practically no net access and spent my time aboard an honest to goodness yacht at sea in the tropics. 

It is disconcerting to spend Christmas surrounded by brightly colored flowers, vines, and coral reefs, but it was quite delightful. 

I ate a great deal of delicious food, sketched in my Moleskine, and caught up with my sister and family. 

My favorite was snorkeling--I drifted over the coral, peering down at the most amazing sights of coral, fish, and spiky urchins.  It was a whole new world.  I had a couple of disposable underwater cameras so I hope to have pictures to show for it, but if you have seen pictures or videos of coral reefs with unlikely bright tropical fish, that's what I got to see! 

We also went on an ATV up a mountain, past goats and cows and horses, to see honest to goodness indigo, sugar cane, and gum trees.  Beautiful! 

Also at one point, I was briefly covered in green monkeys.  Yes, really.

There was an unfortunate snafu in the plane ride home, so I spent New Year's Eve in a shoddy Quality Inn in North Carolina, but overall I had a great time. 


I have not read my flist or my email and my work desk looks like a small papermill exploded all over it, so if you have any pressing news to share, send me a link or drop me a line here.  I'll be working my way slowly back and through. 

I hope everyone had as enjoyable a winter festal season as I did.  Life has been rather rough in the VM household as of late, but I feel much more rested and relaxed.  I think 2012 will be a better year.  

This past weekend, my beloved aunt worsened, and on Sunday, she passed away, surrounded by as many people as could fit in the room.  They held the wake Tuesday night and the rosary and funeral on Wednesday.  Because of the weather, they decided to have a small funeral and then have a celebration in her name in the summer. 

I wasn't able to go, but my uncle Greg put it on speakerphone and I was able to hear part of the rosary--it's hard to describe how beautiful it is to hear over a hundred of my family members chanting, rich and deep, the words of our past to heal and to comfort and to send my aunt over, surrounded by prayer and song. 

Other things happened in the past week or so, but they're not real important. 

I just wanted to write that out and then to let you know that I am heading out for a holiday in the sunshine.  

Sorry for the massive radio silence.  My terminally ill relative is now in hospice and we're reaching the end.  I'll spare everyone the grim details, but that is chiefly why.  Apologies.  It's been very hard. 

I'm still writing the management notes, but uh, I keep saving the drafts on my work computer and then forgetting to post them.  I suck.  But I will get them done!eleventyone I promise. 

In other news, I did move this past summer, so if you were planning to send me a card, you may have the wrongity address.  If you need the new one, let me know and I will PM/Email you. 

New Tricks( Read more... )

Friday Night Lights( Read more... )
FNL is a bit more drama and heartache than I'm up for right now, but I enjoyed what I did watch. 

Cooks' Illustrated Betrays Me
( Read more... )

If you'd like a card, please give me your address if I don't already have it.  Reminders of addresses are always good, as I try to write down the addresses in my book, but I do sometimes forget. 

Comments are screened.  If you prefer, you can PM me the deets. 

As some of you know, one of my relatives is terminally ill.  We've recently found out that she's worsened.  In between doing research on end of life care, I'm doing my best to be supportive of my mom, who is losing her dearest sister. 

I'm looking for distracting movies, audiobooks, or TV shows to watch with mom.  She likes Terry Pratchett (we've read/watched them all), Tomb Raider, some fantasy (Lord of the Rings, yes, Star Trek, no), British dramas, Jane Austen (original books as well as movies), certain kinds of anime (Howls Moving Castle yes, Fruits Basket no), old fashioned stories like Anne of Green Gables or the Secret Garden, and documentaries (one Christmas, we watched a documentary about a Norwegian mens choir--I don't even know, man).  

She dislikes comedies, gore, sexual violence, and people dying of cancer. 

Does anyone have recommendations?  Ideally, I'd like to find something restful.

Netflix has some David Attenborough documentaries, which I've heard are very good, but I don't want to show anything that is all The Earth is DYING DYING I TELL YOU if you see what I mean.  Sharks eating seals would be fine, though. 

Suggestions?  Anti-recs?

Continued apologies for delay on Org Management posts.  The next one is 1700 words long so far, so it's coming along, but I've been very under the weather (dear real sudafed: never leave me). 

In the meantime, it's that time of the year when I get to Cook All The Things and feed people that I love (my personal favorite hobby).  It will just be my mom and the Pook this year, but I love to read what others eat to celebrate, and so I thought I would share our menu for tomorrow:

• A Campo Lindo farms chicken (roasted my own way, with various good herbs and spices under the skin and potatoes roasted in chicken fat)
• Green bean casserole
• Joy of Cooking's Becker Brussel Sprouts
• Roast fall beets, parsnips, and pears
• Pecan encrusted sweet potatoes
• Salad of romaine hearts
• Roast leeks
• Stuffing
• Gravy
• Toasted bread and butter
• The traditional pickle and olive tray, this year featuring a pickle that I made myself (mixed, various homegrown peppers, cukes, carrots, etc, in a sweet and very red turmeric spice)
• Sparkling water mixed with rich berry juice (neither of us can have liquor)

Followed (usually a couple hours later) by spiced pumpkin pie with whipped cream. 

I wasn't able to find any Bush Delicata Squash (the Pook's favorite), so he will have to make do with chicken and potatoes and his regular deluxe gourment low-fat duck food. 

It's our family tradition to take a long walk in the crisp fall air, take some family photos, play board games, and/or go see a Big Screen sort of movie (Star Trek, James Bond, Harry Potter, LoTR).  When it's mom and I, we often like to listen to an audiobook and sip tea. 

What are your traditions, if you celebrate?

I'm working on Yet Another Organizational Management post.  This one includes lots of thoughts on best practices, how to successfully review work, how to review employees, how to reduce toxicity and/or improve employee satisfaction, strategic use of people, and more.  At first, I started writing these because of questions friends were asking about nfps and the OTW issues, but I've gotten more feedback about them as general explanations of workplace unhappiness and how healthy management works. 

Please feel free to ask questions about management in general, and I'll do my best to answer. 

I'd like to reiterate, by the way, that I like the OTW as a whole and while I think the organization needs some help (especially in terms of strategic management), I am very fond of the people in it.  Many of my friends are members.  None of my comments should be taken as condemnation of those in OTW as bad people; on the contrary, people who volunteer a ton of their time to charity are awesome.

In the meantime, I'm having a bit of chronic pain flare, so the upcoming post may take a while. 

People Skills.  It's all about People Skills.  (Hey, I had to get in a fandom reference somewhere.)

This is Part Two. 

From my observations of the OTW fiasco, I have to say that they appear to lack even the most fundamental organizational management skills.  Uh, sorry. 
( What a manager does )
I have to take a break now, but is this helpful?  Does anyone have questions?

Disclaimer and intro: I don't belong to OTW, mostly because I'd never seen their pledge drive and because I usually give my charity money to a few other projects near and dear to me.  I've seen a lot of talk about the elections and the board and the inner workings, however, and I have answered some questions for friends about how these organizations normally operate.  And I have also expressed a few comments of 'They're allowed to do that there?  Holy shiiii-' variety.  I'm making a couple of posts for those who are interested in an outside perspective of how these systems normally work in a healthy organization.  Questions are welcome.  I cannot comment on the inner workings of OTW, as I've not seen them, but I can comment on public statements and/or public policies.  I'm going into some detail about my own workplace, but keeping details confidential, so please don't share its name if you know it (the broad org type is fine). 

OK, let's start at the top.  So what the fuck do I know?  I'm a manager and a good one.  How do I know this?

Evidence based decision-making: Retention and user satisfaction

This post is Part one: Retention
( Cut for those not interested in organizational management and/or the OTW )

I tried out the 'new look' of Gmail, which everyone is supposed to get, whether they like it or not. 
( I am really cranky today, so I'll cut for the capslock of RAEG )
....so I hear hotmail's good?

1.  LJ's been giving me grief about signing in and giving lots of varnish errors again.  Hope this goes through.  Arrrrgh.  Also, I have a sinus infection and a bad earache, so I'm thin on the ground until I can get this cleared up.

2.  Etsy apparently is the new Facebook.  According to a recent (not well named, I must say) email, unless you act before October 18th, they're revealing your legal name instead of your nick on communications on their site.  You need to remove your legal name from your account in order to not be revealed.  It's auto-opt in.  I sent them a ZOMG WTFBBQ email to legal, but really.  Come on, I just want to buy crafts.  I don't want wank with my cookies and poetry prints, jeez.  Since I live under a rock, maybe everyone else knew it was coming, but I mention it in case not.  My legal name is pretty uncommon, so I try to be very careful with it. 

So I have this mini-comic I am working on right now.  It's sort of something I got an idea for from talking withyhlee about drawing and inking some time ago.  

I haven't done anything substantial since I finished up the Wallace Stevens piece this summer, but boy did I have a great time doing that.  My goodness, it was fun.  I don't know how much eraser dust I generated, but it was a lot.  

I decided I'd just do a fannish thing, based on something I wanted to tackle aesthetically.  Not approach it like work or even like fanart, but ask myself what I wanted to work on as an artist (I should maybe don a black turtlenecks instead of my orange and pink koi pjs, heh). 

Right now, I'm really interested in:
the human figure (especially in motion, twisting, turning, and hips)
linework and pen/ink (gee, you're shocked, right?)
my colorwork with markers, which I haven't worked on much in a lonnnnng time
patterning (like flowers, lines, crosshatching in swirls, etc)

I've got a basic plot down and some visual ideas, but I'm curious if there are obvious style things that I do that people expect or enjoy seeing in my work.  Or what would you enjoy seeing more of?

Alternately, what are you working on, as an artist (being a writer counts!)?  Are you looking at sentence structures?  Characterization?  Thinking of style or plot?  Looking thoughtfully at various inks, watercolors, maybe obsessed with the way light plays on water or how to draw a nose?

I have a post up at the HU about Avatar the Last Airbender.  It is spoiler free.  I think most folks here have watched that show, but if not, it's on Netflix and available streaming!  Highly recommended.

So I finished up the second Sister Jane audiobook (Hounded to Death) and ran smack into another infidelity moment.  ( cut for very mild, unspecific spoilers (nothing about the mystery) )
I dunno.  Maybe it's not something that will bug anyone else.  But I found it annoying enough to take some of the shine off the rest of the story.  The horses were still good, the subplots kind of interesting, and the reader was a delight, but eh.  I think I'm done with this cozy series (also the rest are read by the author, which is usually a mistake.)  YMMV.

Murder at Monticello, Rita Mae Brown.  I admit I haven't finished this one.  It's got a cat and a dog (a corgi) who solve mysteries.  It's mid-series, but I chose this one because it occurs at Monticello, which I love.  The main narrator is a postmistress in a small town and they discover a dead guy at Monticello and then other dead bodies pile up and stuff.  It's all related to Thomas Jefferson owning slaves, which is fair enough, but when one person (I forget who) said that back then, the races were actually closer, I cocked my head to one side like the RCA dog and had to rewind to make sure I'd heard correctly.  I had.  Wut.  I listened to most of the rest of the mystery, but honestly, I kind of tuned out and focused on my knitting for a lot of the time, and I'm not sorry. 

Thomas Jefferson is one of my personal heroes.  He was a great man.  But you know, he was also fucked up.  It happens.  There's no shame in saying that he was a great guy who also fucked up.  Sheesh.

Moving on.

The Cat Who Knew A Cardinal, by Lilian Jackson Braun.  I had to check the publication date on this one, twice, to make sure it wasn't written in the sixties, because it has some very old fashioned notions.  Somebody actually says, "It's a gas."  Lol wut.  The plot is basic cozy mystery with cats.  There's a theater club and a play and there's an awful lot of talk about an octagonal barn (I've actually visited an octagonal barn--they are quite cool) and its restoration.  Honestly, I sometimes felt like I'd accidentally slipped into a 40s mystery.  Which is not a bad thing.  I fell asleep while listening a couple of times and didn't bother to go back and it all turned out fine.  Recommended if you're looking for sleepy, rainy-day amusement without much thought and/or like Siamese cats. 

The Tell Tale Horse, Rita Mae Brown.  This is another Rita Mae Brown, because I'd heard such good things and this one was supposed to have talking foxhounds and horses (it does) and I am into that kind of thing.  I haven't finished it yet, and so far I'm enjoying it more than I did the cat book.  The heroine is what would normally be a little old lady, but in this book is kind of a Crone Mary Sue of Awesome.  She's wealthy, talented, very tall, and has had her share of lovers.  She'a a belle of the ball and top of her game, and she's seventy.  Which is cool.  I may have a certain fondness for tough women who are in charge and own lots of tough-to-handle animals for obvious reasons. 

I've noticed already that Rita Mae Brown seems to have a theme about fidelity being kind of not the human way and that most marriages of long term end up being friendships and the principals have lovers on the side, kind of as a default.  I don't actually buy that.  I'm sure there are circumstances under which I might conceivably be unfaithful, but I went for nearly a decade of not even dating because I got distracted by other things and forgot.   I have a whole essay in my brain about female-female friendships and the weird ways of past descriptions of lovers relationships that would and wouldn't count, blah blah blah, but that is not what brings me here.  So, fidelity, infidelity.  It's just an interesting point and kind of a cultural thing, in my view. 

I do enjoy the discussion of foxhounds and kennels and horses.  Brown obviously know her dog behavior, which is a fucking relief let me tell you.  She also has strong ethical beliefs about those same animals, which I'm also enjoying so far.  I'm sure lots of folks would find it infodumping of the most annoying sort, so YMMV.

I also finished relistening to the Student Prince read and written by fayjay.  It's pretty awesome. 

I love owning my own land at last.  I've been digging in this clay soil from one end of the county to the next county over, always planting, never keeping the soil I've created.  She's mine now, though.

I went to a local hardware store sale where they had many bushes and trees and perennials on sale at half-off.  I scored:
An honest to god cranberry bush
A good, solid grape vine (American, not European)
An elderberry bush (black lace variety)
A lightly squashed (and therefore on sale) mum
Some violas
A peony

I know that all of these varieties are extremely hardy, because they sailed through the 103+ plus heat wave while living in a parking lot and receiving semi-indifferent care. 

I'm going to spend a big chunk of tomorrow digging out a cranberry patch, somewhere, and deciding where I want my elderberries to go and what a good matching variety will be, etc.  I'm very pleased with myself. 

I also did a bit of reading about apples today and how to grow them organically, and I am ever more appreciative of my local apple orchards.  

I need to find a buddy for my elderberry and I also need to figure out whether the cranberries also need buddies or not. 

It's always been part of my plan to grow more of the food for my family--it's something I've been doing since I was a kid, and I feel more and more need to put up what I grow and provide more and more of the table.  I see the produce prices rising and rising and it's too important to leave out.  Besides, it's just who I am.  Kind of a modern move toward liberty and independence, for me, removed from the threats outside whatever they might be. 

I never got to learn much math, because I went to a wretched highschool and never took math in college.  I find it interesting and relaxing so I sometimes pick up teach yourself math books.  I worked through Headfirst Algebra (interesting, but not great), for instance.  When telophase posted about the Teaching Company's big sale on classes, I looked at some of the most popular ones and found a really neat looking class called The Secrets of Mental Math.  All about learning how to do math in your head!  I'm super excited.  I've downloaded the first couple of videos and gotten myself all psyched up.  I can do it!  (Or maybe not, but I aim to try.)

I also splurged and got myself a course on the great pharoahs of Egypt, who I've always always wanted to learn about.  That one I got the DVD for.  Wheeee!

This weekend Autumn came in and slammed down her fist.  It was hot (103) on Friday and on Saturday, we'd climbed up past 95 and then the storm arrived, right on time, and the temp careened down twenty degrees like Nature had switched a dial.  Loud thunder, huge lightening, crashing buckets of rain.  Dramatic.  Evening temperatures stopped being 76 and started being 59.  *love*

I went out with B to a new to us Korean place.  It's called Sobahn.  She got the galbi and I had kimchee stew.  Their rice was OK, but not great.  The rice at Choga is better.  More fragrant, better texture.  The kimchee stew was good but not as spicy as I expected; I mean, it was kind of spicy, but it wasn't really spicy, which I thought was odd.  B's galbi was tasty, but she said Choga's is better.  We both liked some of the banchan, but weren't wowed by it.  Their zucchini was nice, but I make that at home, and I found their radish and cabbage kimchee kind of bland.  The tofu had too much fish sauce for my allergies, but B liked it.  Neither of us ate much of the other ones and the portions were really tiny.  I mean, maybe two bites total. On the other hand, they had actual decor, fancy plates, metal chopsticks, and so on.  Their service was incredibly slow, but pleasant.  I think Sobahn is a place to take my brother or other visiting relatives; Choga is a bit more hole-in-the wall, but their food is so homey and delicious and their staff is so sweet, I love it to bits and I think B and I will flee back there toot sweet, as they say.  

And now for the apples.  I have been researching apples so that I can order some for my back yard.  It's very complicated, but I love it.  So far I've decided to focus on heirloom varieties.  My climate is more Southern than it is Northern, so those are the apples I'm concentrating on.  I've decided to get a Cox variety, probably St Cecilia for the longevity, and definitely an Arkansas Black.  

Has anyone had any other fine old apples they'd like to recommend?  Especially of the Southern character, like Staymans or Wolf River?

Also also, I have not updated any further ice cream adventures because I have become briefly obsessed with the banana and then got distracted when mom made homemade gingerbread in honor of fall. 

But I did make a crock of dill pickles for the first time, as well as three jars of mixed bean and pepper pickles.  I'm quite excited about the dills.  They smell exquisite.  I used a pickling spice of my own devising and used oak leaves, as suggested, to keep crunch.  They've begun to bubble and show action.  We have fermentation!  I always feel so connected when I put up food.  My family has been doing this for many generations and I feel like my feet are more and more grounded into the dirt as I walk about. 

The jarred frig pickles are a disappointment so far.  I don't think the recipe is good (not dangerous, but not accurate either) despite being written by a canning book author.  I won't link until I'm done deciding, pro or con.  *frowns*  I had high hopes for the flavor, too.  Grrr.  Still, it's cooking science and I do love that.  

So, how about y'all?  Any good produce your way?  New books?  Favorite apples?

So while I was surfing about, hither and yon, as one does, I came across a recipe for a one-ingredient ice cream.  Naturally, I had to try it.  FOR SCIENCE.  As they say. 

Ahem.

I fully expected it to not quite work, or be difficult, or kind of sort of work but not really since I don't have a food processor.  But no!

I am pleased and thrilled to report that this ice cream was a complete and utter success. 

Here's what you do.  Get some bananas.  Ripe appears to be better.  Slice them and lay them on a pan and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours.  When they're good and frozen, take em out, and blend them up.  That's it!  I used my little Braun hand-blender, by the way, and it worked fine.  No ice cream machine needed!

I got the recipe here.

My mom is working with a nutritionist and so I've been experimenting with more whole foods.  This one was a huuuuge hit.  Next time, we're going to try adding a bit of chocolate. 

Oh, and I used three bananas for two people.  Next time, we're using four.  Or possibly five.  *sheepish grin*

We enjoyed it most as soft-serve style, but I can see how it would be good fully frozen and harder.  I'm going to try making it for mom's nutrition group soon.