Every time I visit, I reset my brain about how the standardized sizes really aren't so much ideal as just average.

yeah, and sometimes the heights don't change for a while. The "standard" bathtub size hasn't changed since the early 1900s.

I found a cake that I want to make for Thanksgiving, but it's a bundt pan recipe. I don't have one, and won't use one enough to buy one. Any ideas on conversion?

I've seen disposable bundt pans in the supermarket before - that might be the easiest route.

Vortex, I'm surprised at what you don't have, for a foodie. But I'm more a gadget acquirer than a proper cook. I do love my bundt pan, though. It makes such pretty cakes. Can't recommend the silicon one, though. It just didn't come off slickly enough. But the teflon one is great.

Jessica's idea is much more practical than I am. I tend to buy a cake tin if I can see using it twice in a year or two. And I can always make that case.

Right. I have to get ready to go to my evening class. Oh, and at some point I have to write an essay for it. Neither of these is a serious priority at the moment.

The Girl just brought me Yorkshire Tea and chocolate teacakes. She's fab.

There are two things about Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that tend to drive me nuts. First is the kids rooms: the design process seems to be basically, "Hey, you like skateboarding?" "Um, I guess." "OK! Here's your room, with 100 skateboards nailed to the wall and a skateboard ramp coming down from the top bunk of your bed!" Or, very frequently, built-in kid-sized furniture for kids who are going to outgrow it in a year or two. Second thing is the Dead Person Rooms. Whenever the family on the show that week has had a close relative die recently, which was what led them to being on the show (like a woman dies and her parents get custody of her kids, in a house that doesn't have room for that many kids), the new house will always have a room that's basically a shrine to the dead person. The room will be covered with photos of the person, filled with that person's stuff, things like "Hope" and "Memory" painted on the wall, and it's all just entirely creepy.

Vortex, you can't borrow a bundt pan from jack?

This past season or two, EM:HE has had a special celebrity guest each week who helps out and has a learning experience about what an amazing family this family is. (Frequently getting into "ugh" territory.) Usually, it's a country music star -- the ratings consistently show that people in the south and midwest love this show and people in the northeast and west coast almost never watch it. This past week, though, the special celebrity guest was David Duchovny, because they found out that the mother of the family loves him. (This family, the mother had cancer, and then while she was recovering, their house burned down.)

Vortex, I'm surprised at what you don't have, for a foodie.

I cook, I don't bake.

I cook, I don't bake.

And cook you do.

I have more patience with baking, for some reason. I used to cook for guests every week when I lived in Montreal, and I'd get quite fancy, but I fell out of the habit and since then will pretty much only bake for people. I hate cooking for other people and will barely cook for myself. If it weren't for financial reasons I might not. But baking is still fun.