Huh. I really did fall asleep after all that time awake! And now I feel materially better than I did before.

I'm torn -- should I keep The New Practical Home Repair For Women book, pub. 1966, 1972, with a foreword by the wife of the author? There's a blurb from Modern Bride on the cover!

I do love Hell's Kitchen - I felt sorry for Julia (the waffle house cook) - she COULD fry an egg properly. And what was up with Aaron - he kept crying - I don't think he's going to last long. But they keep promising that something really, really dramatic is going to happen this season - aside from setting Gordon Ramsey on fire, or going after him with a cleaver, I think they've already done about everything they could.

Toddson, maybe somebody will be swept overboard by a rogue wave?

Man, I love Gordon Ramsey. The thing this ep reminded me, and that I'd noticed in other seasons, is that for all the shouting and berating - when someone's really on the edge, or actually injured rather than belly-aching about tiny kitchen burns, he switches gears instantly and 100 percent. And no passive aggressive "fine, now I have to take care of you" overtones. It makes the rest a lot easier to watch because it makes it so clear how much of these people's distress is their own self-indulgent BS.

It's kind of amazing to see in action. He's very, very good at pulling people back, calming things down, getting to the bottom of things.

I don't know what the fuck was up with all that nastiness towards Julia, but I was very impressed with how Melissa handled things. She's got a decent BS detector her own self, it looks like.

Brenda I agree with you about Gordon and I think if someone had made comments about Julia not being worthy to be on the show because she worked at Waffle House he would have ripped that person a new one. Also I think the "fireworks" promised are the guy who called him a Shar Pei getting cocky with Ramsay and trying to "give back". Ramsay's arrogant and rants but he's earned the right to be like that. This guy hasn't earned that.

&*&*(&#(*@@)!!!

I had a Dr. appt. with E this morning that I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT!!

It is and important consult and I have a call in to see if we can get squeezed in later today or re-schedule for soon.

OMG not enough suck in the world for me right now.

Anybody around who speaks German?

I took a year of German in high school, about 30 years ago. So I might be able to figure out something that's really, really simple.

I had a couple of years of German in college, which pretty much means that I can order beer.

OK. I'm trying to translate a handwritten cookbook that belonged to my grandmother. Her family owned a restaurant in Germany before the war. So in addition to trying to translate a language I don't really speak (I can fake my way through it a little, but not much), there's old-fashioned handwriting, and old-fashioned ingredients (I'm pretty sure this is from when she was a teenager, and she was born 1909.)

Anyway. I've got a recipe starting (as far as I can tell):

1/2 # mehlgenebt
1 Ei mit wenig Wasser verfuiels indire mitte der mehlen geben

I've got that as 1/2 pound something-flour, 1 egg with a little water something flour something.

1/4 # butterflocken
160 g zucker
auf der Rand der doehles geben

1/4 pound butterflakes (huh?), 160 grams sugar, on the edge of something?

Any guesses as to what the "something"s or question marks could be? I'm not positive I'm deciphering all the handwriting correctly, either, so a few letters could be off, which is making dictionaries somewhat unhelpful.