I'm getting a sugar headache from all this dessert. I kinda miss when I had a tolerance for it, Back then, I had the best ice cream in rural Russia- tasted like it was some sort of nut ice cream, with no chunks. Light, not rich, very refreshing. There was a place in prague where I used to get similar fruity sorbets in wee little scoops in a tall glass. And a tom collins.

Now just give me a tart or tangy fruit with minimal sugar syrup and I'm happy.

Dessert: creme brulee. Preferably with berries around the top. Except for the times when only chocolate will do.

As to bugs, am I the only one who's superstitious about crickets? Couldn't kill one if my life depended on it. Not sure why.

Alias: Ew!Ew!Ew! and what the fuck did Jack just dig out of his hand?!?

And Alias brings on the EWWWWWWWWWWWWW once again.

Hee: exposty Ewwwwwwwwwww

Damnit, Jess, you haven't watched the show yet! Stop reading the whitefont!

I remember that article, Hil. And it's so true -- if you go by restaurant menus, seared tuna is native to every cuisine on the planet. (Not that I'm complaining, because, hey, seared tuna! But it's funny.)

I used to have a major, run-screaming-from-the-room, panic attack, nausea-inducing phobia about spiders. Turns out it is a marker for clinical depression, so thanks to the drugs I don't have a phobia anymore. Still don't like them. and I used to believe that they knew when I killed one.

I've had both ladybugs and grasshoppers munch on my hand and leave a freckle that lasted a few years.

I flipped on my kitchen light early this morning and surprised a big brown spider in the middle of the wall. I used the tumbler-and-card method to catch her and was both delighted and horrified to make my first brown recluse ID. I wanted to get a picture, but she was too agitated to risk lifting the glass. The violin-shaped mark on the cephalothorax is much easier to see than I expected. I took her well outside and let her go.

Oh, and the best chocolate dessert I ever had at home was my mom's Texas Cake, so-called because it was made in a huge sheet pan. It was basically a slightly cakier brownie with an awesomely rich nutty chocolate cream frosting. If she hadn't lost her recipe box when she moved out East, we'd still have the recipe for it.

Hey, my mom used to make this all the time - exactly like that, with the nuts. She called it Texas Chocolate Cake. I didn't realize that other people called it that. Yum.

Alias: As always, but even more so tonight I have the big Dixon love. Excellent. I am not all together thrilled with the secret. btdt And once again SpyDaddy!!! Sobbing here. I want it to be next Wednesday.

I had a friend in grade school who'd mom made the BEST Texas sheet cake. Rich and gooey. I have no idea where she lives now but it would almost be worth tracking her down.