Not really related, but I just booked a room at Mandalay Bay for $65 for the night, + $100 cabana credit! If anyone wants to join us, I'll send you the email so you can book the extra cheap way and not the +$25 way.

I'm currently in love with Hunt's pain (I don't know what's good for me--probably best I'm single) in a way that Burke had nothing similar to offer. Should they get together properly I will re-evaluate.

Speaking of catching up, ita, if you are around, did you get to see the Miracle Job?

HAH. Nice crosspost.

Yes, I did rewatch it! I still think it's not that weird for Hardison to be able to kinda take one guy down. Other than Parker, he's the only other one I can see doing that. And he is pretty buff.

Oh, I loved those big brown eyes he flashed at Nate in The Juror Job. Would have broken me.

I don't know that it's weird, but it is a fairly big change from being the computer geek, unless you assume he's been getting training. Which if he has been, I kind of want to have seen.

Perhaps I'm speaking as a computer geek. And it wasn't that good fighting. Not for TV. Just passable.

msbelle, Fandango showed me the whole lineup at Kauffman, if you couldn't get it.... Are you guys going to be over here?

Hey, remember how my uncle's house burned down in the San Diego fires a couple of years ago? Was it really that long? Anyway, they just moved into their new house! In the middle of torrential rains! (My mother said, what's next, locusts?) Good news for them.

Very good for them, Jesse.

Any time I watch Without A Trace I can't help thinking Danny Taylor should be being played by Danny Pino. Much better than Enrique Murciano.

Hey Plei, if you're around, do you have a recipe for apricot preserves? I'm just starting to make jams and jellies, and Kristen wants apricot.

I'd suggest getting a decent pectin (I like the Pomona's Universal, because I can do a good low sugar one, and because I can get it at my coop) and starting with whatever recipe they have for apricot. It's a pretty good starting point, and I mostly go from there. Once I've done a basic with a fruit, I'll branch out to other styles, but I usually start with a good old fashioned jam or preserve recipe that's just fruit, pectin, and sugar.

Oh, Plei, I have another question. I know you saw a lot of problems in the Leverage episode that dealt with [spoiler]. What were they?

Ahahaha. What weren't they? I mean, I'm making a list of what WASN'T wrong, and it starts and basically ends with CK's character having naughty sex against a wall, Parker being adorably weird, and Hardison being made of love and sparkles. But the actual horse racing stuff? Wronger than wrong. Couldn't handwave it wrong. Watch through my fingers screaming "THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS" wrong. I think I detailed it all somewhere. Possibly in email. But that's not how it works. 1: any two-bit claimer on the track is going to be able to claim racing royalty a few generations back. I mean, we're talking Inbreeding City. 2: primary ID remains lip tattoos in the US, although they've recently introduced chipping as a possible. Some places use freeze branding (I think Australia does?) as their main ID marker. There is no Global Unified Studbook. There are many Studbooks which agree to operate under basically the same laws. Blah blah blah, EVERYTHING WAS WRONG.

Ahem.

Psych, on the other hand? Totally got it right, which shocked me. I mean, small handwaving, but they got the tone of the track right, and wow. I loved them.

I have been having Stove Fail all weekend. Last night, I had to send my parents to turn it off (we'd just dropped Lillian off on our way to Coraline, when we realized I'd left it on, ruining a perfectly good homemade stock), and tonight, while attempting to heat oil to fry chicken, I turned on the wrong burner and heated my cast iron skillet for about 45 minutes while I tried to figure out why my oil wasn't heating fast enough.

Umm.

I should be able to close the windows soon. At least I was able to season it while it was hot? (Even if my kitchen attempted to announce a pope.)