Last night was fun!

[vg_ford]

My friend Donna, irysangel and I went to the Red Arrow Diner, which is a NH Landmark. It's a 24-hr diner that has some of the best food ever (we did get cheese fries. We resisted the deep fried sourdough french toast with bacon, though). We talked writing and novels and characters and stuff for about 3 hours, and then Donna and irysangel went back to Nashua, and I went to WalMart in Concord.

I got the cutest little Bissel vacuum - it works on hardwood floors AND carpets, is bagless and is SO light. I did most of the stairs and the living room today. YAY! A vacuum that works!!!

This morning, Evil Jocelyn met me at the Dartmouth DOC House, which is where we're holding Baronial Yule this year. It's a pirate theme this year (shocking, I know, since I'm running it and all) and I think we're going to have a BLAST. Then we went to lunch at Lou's (whole wheat grilled English muffins, topped with sliced tomato, steamed asparagus, two eggs over easy and melted fontina cheese, with fruit salad on the side) and then, once we were full, we went over to the King Arthur Flour Bakery Store and Outlet to browse. Um. Deadly. I got a tea strainer that just sits in your tea cup (so cool!), a gluten-free cookie mix, a gluten-free gingerbread mix and a bag of almond bark. Not bad, really.

I'm going to make the cookies and gingerbread tomorrow and bring them in for our team meeting, to see what people think. Jocelyn and I talked about a bunch of stuff to do for Yule, and one of the things I want to do is cookie decorating. lysystrata, are food colorings okay? Can I just use the little tubes from the regular grocery store, or do I need to get special ones? Thanks in advance!

Jocelyn talked about maybe doing a pirate castle out of gingerbread - I'm thinking that would be cool for the kids to decorate - maybe they could trade it for Father Christmas? Hmm, ideas!

There's a super hill for sledding too - I hope we have snow. I'd love to see the final battle for Father Christmas be a snowball fight.

Tomorrow, I'm going to print out Belladonna Dreams and start working on revisions. It's eating my brain - I can't help it.

Now back to beading.

Comments

[lysystrata.livejournal.com]

Food colourings generally aren't good- but there are lots of other options. Cherrybrook Kitchens does a great frosting, and marthastewart.com has a terrific-looking frosting for whoopie pies that might work well too. Yum!

So- a safe frosting, and something like shaved chocolate, or nuts would work

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

Cool - good to know. I found some gluten-free food colorings online - I might try those. And the frostings will definitely be free.

[aishabintjamil.livejournal.com]

Lou's is a great place. I used to go in there after school back in
the dark ages when I was still in high school. They did the most
wonderful chocolate cake. Sadly it doesn't look much like it did
then. They used to have the walls all but covered with framed
autographed photos of various well known persons who'd eaten there.
It gave it a real sense of history that's missing now.

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

That sounds really cool, with the photos and all. I liked seeing the menu from 1947 - that was neat. Although why it was framed and hung in the bathroom... :)

I was told the maple crullers are to die for, but alas, they were sold out by the time we got there. :(

[irysangel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for dinner! It was fun. :) I hope I didn't monopolize the conversation or anything (sometimes I have a tendency to do that).

See you soon!

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

You didn't - it was fun! I learned a lot!

Have a good flight back!

[ltbloodrose.livejournal.com]

What's the date on Pirate Yule again? I may have to come up for that.

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

December 15 - I'll be posting something in the Fleet calendar as soon as I can.

Let me know - we have some crash space, and we can arrange more.

More pirates would be FUN!!!