Today I baked....

• Pecan shortbread cookies
• The chocolate crinkles I mixed up and refrigerated last night
• A sour cream pound cake

links for 2007-12-22

• Face value | The accidental innovator | Economist.com
  Great article on Evan Williams and how innovation happens.
  (tags: Twitter Blogger Evan Williams)

links for 2007-12-21

• Walk the Half Marathon
  training plan for walking a half marathon.
  (tags: marathon walk)

One of the mysteries of the universe

So you may remember that a few weeks ago, in fact, before Thanksgiving, I had to have a man out to fix my refrigerator. And it turned out something was wrong with the thermostat and the I don't know what, and to fix it, he had to disassemble the entire freezer, including the icemaker, and replace some part and put it back together.

And what I may not have mentioned is this: For the past 4-5 weeks, since the moment this repairman left my house, the automatic ice dispenser in my freezer door has only dispensed crushed ice. There are two ice settings, crushed and cubed, and no matter which one you chose, you got crushed.

First I thought, well it's clogged up or something. So I selected cubed every time, thinking it just needed to get cleared out. Which didn't really make sense, since the refrigerator had been unplugged and the freezer entirely defrosted during the repair process, and there was no ice in it at all once the thermostat was fixed.

So I quickly moved on to my second theory, which was, he re-wired something funny and now it can only crush ice. Which made a lot more sense, because I kept testing the cubed button about once a day or so, and it continued to reliably crush ice just as well as the crushed button.

Until tonight. At which time the cubed button started spitting out perfect cubes of ice once again. It's done it on two separate occasions now, and frankly, I'm scared to try it again. I should note, I always loved crushed ice, until two years ago when I bought this refrigerator that crushes it for me, and now I much prefer cubes. So I will be very sad if this cubing ability is short-lived.

Ideas??

links for 2007-12-20

• Railroaded Revisited | Nashville Scene - Pith in the Wind
  This just blows my mind. The CSX train company continues to park its trains across the only entrance to a small Nashville neighborhood. No one can get in or out of the 'hood for extended periods of time. Is it going to take a house fire to fix this??
  (tags: CSX Nashville Sadler neighborhood)
• In Tikal, Temples in the Mist
  (tags: guatemala tikal)

Every time I do a meme, I say, I never do memes

So Linda is writing about being the last one to get around to this Christmas meme. Linda is one of the smartest people I know, so I think I must just be late in getting to this.

Feel free to join in if you, too, are late.

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Wrapped, with handmade ribbons. Gift bags are of the devil.

2. Real or artificial tree?
I have done both but I far prefer a real tree.

3. When do you put up the tree?
This is hard to answer. I went for years doing the tree Christmas Eve, or maybe the 23rd. Now I'm at the other extreme, sometime in the week after Thanksgiving. I will say, now it's far less about choice and far more about, when do we have a free night?

4. When do you take the tree down? 
Right around New Year's. The only time I've failed at that is the year I was pregnant with the 8yo. The tree -- a real 11-foot tree -- stayed up until February. We just closed the door to the room it was in. It was a source of great stress to me, but being 5 months pregnant, there wasn't a lot I could do about an 11-foot tree.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Blech. I hate all things with eggs. I don't like any custardy things. So no, this isn't on my holiday wish list.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
A 10-speed bike. I still remember coming down and finding it next to the tree. At about 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning, because that's how I rolled as a kid. I must have given my parents serious anxiety.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene?
I have five I can think of off the top of my head. I love Nativity scenes. I would like more. And I'm not a stuff-you-must-dust kind of girl.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
There are bad Christmas gifts?

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail. I have gone the way of the Christmas letter, then more recently, the way of the photo-of-the-kids-with-printed-signature card, but I still mail these religiously.

10. Favorite Christmas movie?
It's a Wonderful Life.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Typically, July. This year, after Thanksgiving. I'm still not done, and I'm feeling about this like I did about that 11-foot tree. Except this is totally my fault.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Homemade candy: Fudge, caramel, divinity, chocolate-covered cherries.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Colored. I'm easily swayed by the idea of a tree with white lights, but I bend to nostalgia when it comes to decorating my own.

14. Favorite Christmas song?
O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Also: O How a Rose E'er Blooming. And In the Bleak Midwinter and Night of Silence. And Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. Is that too many?

Oh, one more: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. [Doesn't go with the rest, I know. And it's killing Newscoma to see that here, I suspect.]

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Funny, I was just telling a friend tonight how we always stay home, but this year we're traveling. That, too, is beginning to cause me stress.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
In my sleep, baby.

17. Angel on tree top or star?
Angel, but I sometimes wish I had a star. On the other hand, I love angel ornaments. That's it. I want angel ornaments but a star on top.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
I grew up opening them on Christmas Eve. And then Santa had come when you woke up Christmas morning. Also, Santa does not wrap presents, people.

The past few years, we've done the family presents whenever the 8yo is here, since she spends every other week at her dad's.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The need I feel to do everything.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
People really do that?

21. What do you leave for Santa?
People really do that?

22. Least favorite holiday song?
Mele Kilikimaka

23. Favorite ornament?
My Metropolitan Museum of Art sterling silver snowflakes.

Triple yuck

  A pan of horrific sweetness 

We were looking for some interesting cookies to make to send to the 8yo's teachers. [Having sent Hershey's kiss cookies to some last week.] And I thought these gumdrop cookie bars sounded fun. Really, I should have re-thought that.

* The recipe called for an extreme number of eggs and too much sugar, in my opinion. Did I let that deter me? Oooooh no.

* The recipe said it made 2-3 dozen, yet you used one 9x9 pan. Still forged ahead.

* And finally, this recipe came from a cookbook that's been proven to have many, many mistakes in the recipes. And still, I cooked the gumdrop bars.

Sigh. You'd think I'd learn.

Here's what I wanted: Thin, slightly crispy and otherwise chewy bars -- buttery, even -- with the gumdrops as a fun topping.

Here's what I got: Fluffy yet dense ginormous bars, more cake-like than cookie-like, so sweet as to be inedible, even in the 1-inch test bite I cut.

Here's the lesson: When there are thing that sound off about the recipe, they probably are. Don't waste your gumdrops, people.

links for 2007-12-15

• Up From the Mines in Tennessee - New York Times
  Interesting....about the re-creation of a corner of Tennessee once obliterated by pollution from mining.
  (tags: pollution Tennessee mining)

links for 2007-12-12

• Insights: Anorexia May Be Tied to Hormones in Womb

links for 2007-12-11

• Harvard's Aid to Reach High in Middle Class
  I say, Go Harvard! My older child is 8 and I spend far too much time worrying about college tuition. Also about how to replace my HVAC or get a new car. Just waiting for the subsidies for those....
  (tags: college financial aid harvard)