The News from South Philly

I made a Schadenfreude Pie this morning and took it to a baby shower. It was well received. The parents-to-be are both big John Scalzi fans, so they appreciated the gesture. John Scalzi invented the Schadenfreude Pie. I tweaked the recipe a bit (four eggs instead of three, 1/2 cup corn syrup instead of a cup, some buttered graham cracker crumbs to sprinkle over the top). Here's John Scalzi's original recipe with hilarious prose: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/09/26/how-to-make-a-schadenfreude-pie/

And here's a photo of my Schadenfreude Pie.



I was not laughing maniacally at the misfortunes of me this afternoon, though, when I discovered that my Nopalxochia had received far too much sun and not enough water over the past few days. Several leaves have turned an unappetizing liver color and have dark ugly pits. A mess of them are shriveled, too. I gave it a thorough watering and waited more than an hour before pouring off the excess. It was a relief to see parts of it slooooowly rehydrating. Many leaves are goners, though, and the plant is going to require a severe haircut at the very least. I'm relieved that I grew a new plant from cuttings so that if the mother plant turns out to be a goner I haven't lost it entirely.

Several times over my lifetime I've attempted to read Tolkien's Silmarillion with only partial success. So many character names, complex interrelationships, and place names -- and no pegs to hang any of the stuff on. Well, I'm trying again. I have a big hardbound copy in the bedroom, a paperback downstairs and I just added it to my Kindle. Yesterday, I also went trawling through the internets and I found a map! of the Hobbit/LOTR part of Middle Earth, the Silmarillion part of Middle Earth, including vanished Beleriand, and the Undying Lands to the west. Finally! when Tolkien says that so-and-so went from Point A to Point B I can visualize where so-and-so was going. And with that, the pieces are starting to fall into place. I don't think either J.R.R. or his son Christopher, both accomplished cartographers, ever drew this mashup. Indeed, I'm not aware that J.R.R. ever drew a map of the Undying Lands. So this may or may not be completely accurate. I don't care. I'm able to hang character names on place names, see the interrelationships, and make sense out of the narrative.

Here's the map I found -- on Flickr, imagine that! There's a really really really big version there.

Well, almost. I'm waiting for Roy to get back from his errands to go out to the Acme and get various baking supplies etc. Then there will be snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies and gingerhobbits and such. And I'm almost recovered enough from the near death springerle experience to mix up another batch, except for the serious egg shortage...

All the gifties that actually need to be in hand before Christmas are in hand, with only two remaining to be wrapped. Last year I set up a wrapping station in the basement, away from the curious eyes of the giftees, and that has worked well, so I've done it again this year. I found the Word file that prints gift labels on Avery 5160s, and the one that would print gift tags on business cards if I had any card stock left. All that remains is to locate all the recycled gift bags for the stuff I don't feel like wrapping because it's an odd size.

I was scheduled to do tutoring today. I thought about that long and hard. Yeah, I'm going to spend the last half hour before second graders are released for Christmas break trying to get three kids, one totally ungovernable, to sit still and read. Did I mention they'd have to be pulled out of their class party to do it? Oh, that would work out well. So I called the school, spoke to the teacher, and suggested that this may not be a good idea. She said I could come in if I wanted, but she clearly didn't much care. One of the volunteers in charge of the tutoring program has asked for feedback and I plan to give him some...

The skies are gray, and although it's not actively precipitating at the moment and although it's too warm, it looks like snow -- which is nice for Christmas time.

And so there's not much else for me to do right now until Roy gets back, except to go wrap those two presents and rummage in my Christmas swag looking for other bits of decoration.