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.)

Ahahaha. Thanks, Plei.

There is wrong, and there is wrong, and then there is that episode.

Which, you know, doubleplus wrong.

But still. naughty dirty wall sex. Parker. Hardison. It all kind of evens out in the end.

It was the for TV part that threw me on the Leverage fighting I think ita. Hardison was the computer geek who couldn't fight, except for the wounded.

It's TV, people aren't supposed to have layers.

I'm so annoyed that yesterday's showing of The Two Horse Job started late so my recording missed the reveal. And that was one of their most complicated. What with Stirling and everything.

I can't help but feel you should tell John Rogers. He means well.

But hey! Cranky Parker and lovely Hardison.

There is wrong, and there is wrong, and then there is that episode.

AHAHAHAHA. You were in my mind the whole time I watched it. I feel your pain. And the southern accents? Also doublepluswrong. Not that they even try very hard with Sophie, but even the supposed native southerners? Ow.

Hahahaha. I laugh at you people, looking for realism(tm) from Leverage. Oh, you are so doomed to disappointment. Just relax and let the implausibilities nibble at the dead skin on your toes!

Today I will most likely get to see Coraline again, so I'm basking in the thought of having a fun goal for my day as well as class in the evening.

(Yes, they scheduled us for a holiday night, what with the class work being seriously behind schedule. It hurts less than missing a day of Boskone to be in class on Saturday, though.)

I have class tonight too, which stinks.

Yeah, most shows get the whole horse racing/breeding/ dog show/dog breeding stuff all wrong when they do it.

To me - Leverage was just one more example of the wrongness. You know there was a real giant betting coup related to exotic betting and the Triple Crown not too long ago. They could have done something ripped from the headlines of the DRF for that instead.

Technically, this is a holiday for me. And yet I am working. Bah.