Hobbit Appreciation Day

Other known as Bilbo and Frodo's birthday. In honor of this day I tried to eat 6 meals (hobbits usually eat 6 square meals a day), but failed on meal #4. Oh well.

Traditionally hobbits eat:

Breakfast
Second breakfast

Elevensies

Luncheon

Afternoon tea

Dinner
Supper

And I took pictures of each meal in its turn.(Well...for the most part. I forgot to take pictures of first breakfast, but got some of second breakfast. And I have to leave at 10:30 AM for work, hence some of the meals got off schedule.)

First breakfast (sans picture) was eggs and bacon. Pretty simple.

Second breakfast was toast with nutritional yeast:

Don't judge the nutritional yeast.

Elevensies was half of a cinnamon-sugar pie crust (sort of like a homemade elephant ear):

Luncheon was apple/cheese/bacon pie (something I've wanted to make for ages):

The crust was rolled out rather thin, so the warm pie pieces were mangled something terrible while getting cut out of the pan. (On a side note, the pie was very....ah....salty. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of chicken bullion, and that was way too much. I'll halve it next time. Otherwise it was pretty delicious.)

And afternoon tea was marshmallow/mint tea with molasses cookies:

Now I don't eat much on a good day, and by this point I was stuffed. It didn't help that I've been sick with something for the past few days (coughing a lung up tends to dull one's appetite), so I eliminated dinner and supper. But it was a decent shot.

Can you all tell that I'm freakishly excited about and obsessed with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and suchness? :3

Next post: the apple/cheese/bacon pie experiment!

Benjamin Isaac!

He's here! :D I have a few pictures of crappy skype quality, but first, funny story.

Yesterday I went to a bonfire party thing, and in the midst of munching on Funions and hot dogs I got a text. (This was around 10:00 PM.) Upon seeing that it was a picture, the only thought going through my head was 'who would sent me a picture this late?'

Unfortunately I can't get the picture off my phone. But it was of Lydiana holding a baby, with the caption 'Benjamin Isaac!' underneath it. I literally screamed and had to show everyone at the party the picture because I was so excited. :3

We skyped with everyone tonight for a while, and I got four pictures. They're of dubious quality, but they get the point across.

Baby Ben is VERY quiet and docile. He dozed or slept almost the entire time we skyped--this was only one of about 3 times that he even opened his eyes.

Wade had just knocked his head about 5 minutes before this, so there's a bruise forming above his right eye--poor kid. :/

Apparently he thinks Ben is a kitty, because he talks to him the way he talks to the neighbor's cat, and tends to pet his head. I'm not sure if he know what to think of him yet...I'm wondering how many days it'll take before he starts wondering when the baby will leave. XD

:D

Mom and I are going down in a couple of weeks for a week, mostly to see Ben and distract Wade. I'll get some 'real' pictures then, but for now these will have to do.

The Hobbit Trailer!

 *freaking out*

Click for trailer, because my website won't let me embed the right video

Every time I see information on videos, news, or anything related to the Hobbit movies I have a little (okay, a large) freakout moment. And it lasts a while.

Just know that I can't WAIT for this to come out. :3

Antiques?

I was going to post some pictures of antique treasures that I found a couple of weeks ago...but since I neglected to take any pictures of said treasures and my feet hurt too much to get up and take any pictures, you'll have to imagine what I got instead (with the assistance of Google images).

Item no. 1: a jar full of buttons. Imagine one of these, but full of little metal buttons instead of a colorful variety:

I'm an unabashed button freak. I just need to find a way to use them all.

Item no. 2, a pair of rather well-made spats. They're far too small (curse you, anorexic ankles of yesteryear!), but still look very cool. Mine are like these below--same style and color, but without the buckles:

Items no. 3 and 4, little square glass bottles. Each holds roughly an ounce, maybe a bit less. One has a cork and currently holds my attempt at perfume (essential oils splashed into some olive oil and glycerin). It smells good, but doesn't last for more than 15 minutes. Sigh.

And item no. 5, a little bottle of ink with a built-in inkwell. I'd never seen anything like it before:

Mine has the brand 'Skrip' on the lid, and is completely full of black ink. I have yet to try it out yet, but I'm sure it's still good for writing. And it's dang cool to boot.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In other news, I'm off to see my brother's girlfriend tomorrow...she's going to cosmetology school and needs a model for hairstyling, washing, etc. I'm her lucky guinea pig. And it ought to be interesting. Her mom is picking me up at 6 tomorrow morning...hence more interesting (or just sleep deprivation).

Mom and I have been walking in the mornings since last Wednesday. There's a lady my mom used to work out with, and we've all fallen off the fitness wagon (as it were) so we're trying to get back into shape. For the past week we've been walking from 6 to 6:30 (that's AM, not PM *sobs*) and may start jogging this week. There's also some bike riding in there somewhere. And I DO enjoy it once I get moving...but it's been freakishly cold these past few days, coupled with it being very dark that early in the morning, and late nights, and it's just not that pleasant to begin with. Sigh. Maybe I'll get used to it. After a couple of years of 'sleeping in' til 7:30 or 8 it's been rough on the old sleeping pattern.

 Umm...what else...I've done a couple drawings for a Hobbit fanart contest, but I'm stuck for a bit between lack of time and agonizing over if they're good/not good/whatever. I'll post them eventually along with pleadings to vote for my drawings before they go up before the official judges. *gulps* So far I have one of Bilbo (on a HORSE!), and one of a random Goblin-town goblin. He's pretty mean-looking.

I'm not sure what else to talk about, so I'll leave off with a question: If you could request anything to be drawn from The Hobbit (creatures, characters, weapons, or places), what would it be? I'm debating doing the spider den (or just a couple of spiders by themselves) for a location...but I want to hear what you all would want to see. I can't guarantee anything, but inspiration is wonderfully welcome.

A (Surprise) Visit

Okay. So first, some background information. 

A very dear friend of mine is engaged to my brother's wife's brother, who lives down in Florida. So somehow I'm related to her fiance. Through marriage. Or something. But anyway, the point is that a couple months ago I got a text from Obi (the Florida fiance) asking how Emily would react if he randomly showed up for a surprise visit. I said that I thought it sounded like a fantastic idea, was sworn to secrecy, and began helping him figure out what airport to fly into, what day to come, etc. 

(After being sword to secrecy I found out that he told several people. So I guess SOMEONE can't keep a secret. XD)

Yesterday we--meaning Mom, Dad, and I--went to get Obi from the airport. Emily and her family were at Old Threshers for the weekend volunteering in the log village, and the plan was to get Obi and drive over to Old Threshers for the evening. By this point everyone and their brother knew that he was coming, and Emily was the only one who didn't.

And there's the man himself, before we disembarked from the vehicle to hot-foot it across the camping grounds to the log village...

Before I continue, I should warn you that the following pictures are pretty blurry. This is because of a reason two-fold: one, it was getting pretty close to dusk and any jostling from myself resulted in blurring; two, we saw Emily as she was walking away from us and Obi took off in a dead sprint to catch up with her and I could barely keep up and take pictures at the same time. *deep breath* So here goes.

This was pretty funny because she had no idea we were even there or when we were supposed to be there. So Obi went running up, grabbed her from behind, and the look on her face was absolutely priceless.

 

The ladies behind them in the building were in on the whole thing and started clapping when Obi caught up. It was pretty great.

I thought she was going to burst into tears or fall over at this point...

:D

"How long can you stay?"

"Til Thursday!"

*ecstatic smothering*

It was a pretty awesome surprise to be in on...even if we didn't see much of them afterwards. ;)

And that was about it...while they puttered around the village the rest of us went down to where the others were camping and partook of some really excellent food and music and conversation...it resulted in a late night, but was completely worth it. 

Needless to say, this was a really fun surprise. (Though I'm not sure how I would have reacted if I were in Emily's place...more screaming and maybe a little flailing, perhaps.)