The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by paula Helm Murray:

A lot of big tasks can be made easier by breaking them into small attainable goals. That way you don't just look at it all, go 'to hell with it, it's impossible,' and give up.

The friend I work for at RenFest taught me that years ago and it has served me well.

Xopher @928, my sentiments exactly.

I tried to respond to a friend on LJ and got told my post has some bad unicode.

I'm praying for all I'm worth on this. I've seen the ill effects of stokes both in a beloved great uncle and my friend Pat Taylor. I know it's possible to recover from one, but repeated strokes are very bad.

I've already had a very bad 24 hours. Heavy sigh.

John D. Taylor, longest continuous paid member of KaCSFFS and long-time supporter of SF Fandom passed away 11/13, a bit before midnight.

I think a few folks here knew him and his wife Pati, who preceded him in 2007.

He fought the good fight and will long be remembered in the hearts of his friends.

Joel @#750: then there's accidentally leaving a butter lick block on the counter. One of our first cats, though tiny, would get up on the counter and hoover down the butter. So we learned to keep it under cover and/or in the fridge.

Fast forward many years, said tiny cat is gone, we got back in the habit of leaving it out. None of the cats we had even attempted to get on the kitchen counters.Then we got the new kids.

Siegfried is large enough to stretch up and touch the top of the counter with his paws. And leap up there in one bound. And then lick up the butter.

Retraining of humans ensued.

Michael Roberts, I am in the same boat except our big party was today. Last piece of cleaning included taking a vanload of unwanted stuff to Goodwill.

Party was a smashing success and fun was had by all.

Now for de-cluttering the kitchen and my room/office/workshop. Onward and upward.

Some years we don't prepare and get lots of trick-or-treaters (and LInwood Super Foods is not the place to buy that kind of stuff...), and some years we over-buy on candy and get bupkis. This year was the latter. We saw two, maybe three trick-or-treaters in one clump at the first of the evening.

On the other hand, we are hosting an informal wedding reception and the Hallowe'en decor is going to stay up for it. And our house is clean and more decluttered. (well, mostly, reception is at 3, I need to drive a van-load of Goodwill stuff to the charity and clean bathrooms/litter boxes.)

Feeling sore but accomplished. Plus I got my annual flu shot at U. Kans. Medical Center's annual 'Drive-By Shooting'. Spent two hours in line in my car, got my shot and was away, apparently they ran out of vaccine and had to close early. I'm taking care of someone with cancer so it is important I don't get the regular flu, and we're both in the non-danger age for H1N1.

John Houghton @65, that is a fun video. I added it to my YouTube music collection. Thanks!

yok yok yok.

Happy Halloween, though. And Happy Samhain!

blessed be!

Lucy, I'm going to have a go at cooking turnips the way you suggested. I have a sneaking suspicion that my mother probably cooked the hell out of them. which can concentrate the sulphur in the cabbagy plants.

After all, I hated her brussels sprouts (little, nasty, stinky grey cabbages), but like the ones I cook...(mine are still green and a little crunchy, I like quartering them and sauteeing them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Or roasting them.

hmm, might try that with turnips.

Lucy @ 187. My father wanted us to know what surviving poverty was when he was growing up and part of that was serving turnips at the table.

I'm okay with them raw. I like the spiciness of them. But cooked they're a nasty trick. I feel the same over rutabagas. (couple of years ago someone had an unlabeled dish at our SF club Thanksgiving dinner that looked like potatoes and stuffing. It turned out to be rutabagas and stuffing. I'm glad I only took a tablespoon or so, it was a nasty trick for me.)

Nightsky @716, I was driving when I listened to the story on NPR and almost drove off the road at that reported comment. Holy crap, what an arrogant.... grr.

I was reading before kindergarden. And my first exposure to SF was when, in second grade, father asked me what I wanted from the library so I could read it while we were on vacation in the Bahamas.

I said something like, "I think I'd rather not have a a book with any pictures."

He brought home a Jules Verne Omnibus that I had to read with a pillow in my lap to prop it up. I'm thinking it had 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon and Journey to the Center of the Earth but I'm not positive on that, And I expanded my vocabulary by a ton of words,

I had find a pad and jot down words I didn't understand, because the resort didn't have a library with a dictionary. And I think he had to renew it three times before I finished it. It made me feel 'Very Grown Up to actually read a book without illustrations.

It expanded my vocabulary by several hundred words. And it instilled in me a desire to find books that inspired a sense of wonder in the future, in space, heroic fantasy, etc.

Fast forward to about 1991 or 1992. He commented while I was home for Christmas that he couldn't fathom why I was so into Science Fiction. I reminded him of the Jules Verne, and he kind of went, "but you want to write, and hasn't everything been done that can be done?" I then reminded that I had been paid well for the short stories I'd sold already, and hoped to make more.

He never, EVER brought the subject up again.

I'm such a frequent flyer at my Home Despot (less than five blocks from my 1912 home) that they have no choice but deal with me.

I've more often had a problem just FINDING a knowledgeable sales helper. If I have to solve a problem I don't know the details of I either go to Strasser's or the Ace Hardware at Westport. They have smart folks working for them who can help with complex projects.

And do not get me started on how they sort out the shelves of stuff at Home Despot.

On the other hand, my "become invisible" and/or "I'm not here, don't try to speak to me" usually work both at our local RenFest and at SF conventions. We have one of our creeps (the only person ever fired from ConQuesT/Contra conventions for issues he wouldn't stop) come by our booth at the Renaissance Festival every year. He either goes outside around or goes through without seeing that we are here and we are people he ostensibly knows.

Julie L, thanks for sharing. I lurves the bean-based sweets. Our favorite* place for DimSum serves a steamed coconut-paste covered sweet bean paste dessert balls that I would die for. I usually order two and take one home.

*Bo-Ling's on the Plaza has DimSum on Saturday and Sunday for a form of "Brunch." Various groups meet there in the holiday season to gorge on DimSum. it is always an adventure, one of the ladies in the SF club makes sure we get ONE plate of duck feet and the other group pretty much eschews anything that odd.

I'm doing daily caring for a person with terminal cancer. I am trying to figure out where I can get the shot cheapest.

I'm glad I don't have anything. We finished our Renaissance Festival season with a bang, and a lot of cold, wet weather until the very last day, Between losing a bit of weight and having enough under-clothes, I managed to dress nice and appropriately for the weather. (losing enough weight that my good, period clothing looked okay with the padding...)

I have often gotten ill when the seasons change because folks come out without concern about their own health. AND we used to have a fall convention at a hotel with an, well, questionable atrium. The supports were all wooden, and when all was said and done, they had to condemn that atrium/pool/hot tub area because all the wood was seriously rotten due to the water.

The con moved to a successful spot, though it isn't as much fun as the open atrium hotel. On the other hand, I don't get sick anymore after that convention, so I love the change.

Most cheese curds are squeaky when consumed. We can buy cheese curds at cheese outlets here around Kansas City and in some grocery stores.

I loves some poutine. but I"m not making it myself, so it will have to wait until another visit to Canada.

Thomas, I have a friend who lives in Antelope Valley. Her comment about 'but it's a DRY heat:" is unprintable.

I'm not that far from Laina. It's a crappy evening, matching my mood. The gloom and rain is oppressive.

And last weekend was teh suck, I'm out at a Renaissance Festival, it's a three day weekend because of Columbus Day, and it was freaking freezing cold. At least we have a wall between us and the north wind. This next weekend is our last one, and it looks like the temps may be raising. And we might see that bright yellow thing in the sky instead of clouds.

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