CYA: Marian & Taylor Get Started

NOTE: if you did not jump to this chapter as a result of the Choose Your Adventure story, please go here before reading any further!


"i'll contact hermione," taylor said as his thumbs started tapping at his iPhone.

marian's fingers were dancing over her laptop. "i'm looking up where in boston the phone experiment took place...got it! boston university!" she beamed. "i'll text this out to all the other teams so they'll know where to go."

"smashing good work, duck!"

"hi, taylor!"

they turned and saw hermione granger placing her wand in the back pocket of her jeans.

"hi, hermione," taylor greeted her, stepping forward. "thanks for coming."

"omg, it's really you!" marian pulled out a notebook. "can i have your autograph?"

hermione frowned. "taylor, you didn't tell me there would be muggles here. she saw me apparate! i'll have to erase her memory now." she reached back for her wand again.

"what?!" marian yelped. "wait, taylor's a muggle, too! don't put a spell on me!"

"taylor's a vampire. that means he's from the magic world, not the muggle world." hermione explained.

"he's not a real vampire!" marian retorted. "he's like a vampire squib!"

"hmmm...good point." hermione put her wand away and picked up the notebook. "to whom do i make this out?"

"marian elfman," marian told her excitedly. "your biggest fan!"

"to my biggest fan, marian elfman," hermione recited as she wrote. "lurve, hermione granger."

"she said lurve!" marian beamed, yet again.

"girls," taylor muttered, shaking his head at how quickly they went from enemies to friends.

"so, what's the emergency?" hermione handed her the notebook.

"our friend benjamin franklin is stuck in 1876," marian told her.

"we need your time turner thingie to go back in time and rescue him," taylor finished.

"i can't do that!"

"we don't mean give it to us. you can take us there and bring us back," marian said. "it'll be an adventure!"

"you don't understand," hermione shook her head. "i can't do that because the time turner doesn't work like that. i can only take the user back to a time in his or her own past. we can only go back to 1876 if one of use was alive at that time." she looked at taylor dubiously. "i don't suppose you're that kind of vampire, are you?"

"er, no," taylor admitted sheepishly.

"then i can't help you," she told them apologetically.

marian stomped her foot and wailed. "this sucks! i don't want to be the only team that fails. isn't there anything you can do?"

hermione shrugged her shoulders. "i'm sorry, but i'm from the magic genre. i think you need someone from the science fiction genre if you want to travel through time. i can only zap you to the magic world and back."

marian's face brightened. "would you?"

"please?" taylor pleaded. "at least it will look like we're doing something."

hermione smiled. "sure, why not? where do you want to go?"


Click here for Marian's Choice

Click here for Taylor's Choice

The Best Blondie Recipe

you (all 5 of you) may recall that i tried the new best recipe's brownie recipe recently, to much success, so today i decided to try the blondie recipe. however, the recipe called for both semi-chocolate and white chocolate chips, and i didn't have the white chocolate chips. so, i make half of them with just semi-chocolate chips with no nuts, and the other half with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, and nuts. what's interesting is that the brownie recipe emphasized that the nuts should be placed on top--to keep them crunchy--rather than mixed into the batter, which would cause them to become soft; the blondie recipe has you simply mix them into the batter. is it because they prefer softer nuts in blondies and crunchy nuts in brownies? they didn't say. i'm guessing it was a different group of test chefs and they didn't coordinate their findings. it's a letdown to come to that realization, so i'll force myself to believe that the texture of the nuts is not as important in blondies as it is in brownies. i placed them on top in this version, however, since not everyone is a nut fan. the result? they're okay. the crazy ones with butterscotch and peanut butter chips are too sweet (i'll take the blame on that since they weren't part of the recipe). but i think maddog has made better blondies, especially these fabulous snickerdoodle blondies! thumbs sideways.

The Best Baked Potato Recipe

i feel silly. yes, the new best recipe has a recipe for baked potatoes. so, why not try it? it will be hard to tell you about it since i have a policy of not giving away the actual recipes from the books i use (ostensibly from copyright concerns, but mainly 'cause i hate typing that stuff out). let's see, you preheat the oven, then place potatoes inside until they're done. i won't tell you the temperature so as to protect the integrity of the recipe. i will tell you that they tested many variations, to include pricking and not pricking the skin, high heat vs. low heat, placing a metal skewer inside, wrapping in foil, coating with oil, etc., and found that the best approach is simply scrubbing the potatoes, drying them, and placing them in the oven directly on the rack and baking. the primary hint they give is that you must cut them open immediately upon taking them out of the oven in order to maintain fluffy white insides. if you don't, steam will build up inside and when you finally cut the potato open, you'll have firm, muscley-textured potatoes. so, i followed their recipe to the letter, and came out with tender, fluffy potatoes. toppings are up to you.

Rock 'n Roll Jesus

my sister joined the party and recommended that i listen to kid rock's latest cd, "rock 'n roll jesus." now, i happen to like the kid. in small doses. i like how he's over the top. i have said for many years, to anybody who has cared to listen (a very small number), that i think rap and comtemporary mainstream country music are basically the same genre. no, it's true. i realize they may sound different, and the lifestyles that they glorify may not be the same, but it always seems to me that most of the songs are about glorifying the singer's lifestyle. the rappers brag about sex, and bling, and killing people, and selling millions of CDs, and making lots of money, and try to make us think that we wish we could be like them; the country folk talk about what a simple life they lead, how they don't have a lot of money but they love god and family, how they drive a pick-up truck and wear jeans, and try to make us think that we wish we could be like them. i'm not saying that's the only type of song you'll find among rap and country, or that none of the self-glorifying songs from either genre are any good, but....there's too much of it for my tastes. i prefer songs that tell a story. so, there's my theory. now, along comes kid rock and proves my theory--he glorifies his lifestyle with both country- and rap-inspired songs on this CD, along with southern rock, blues, soul, and gospel numbers, too. a true renaissance man :) i really like the big hit from the CD, "all summer long." it's fun and catchy--and it's a story song! i really like "new orleans" as well. it's boogie-woogie rootsy sounding and, while it doesn't tell a story, it gives you a taste of new orleans. the other songs on here are mostly listenable-to, with a number of good moments, but i don't think any of them are as solid as those two. the couple of times he goes back to his rap ways fall pretty short of his previous stuff, and while his other attempts at country or other musical stylings are admirable....they fall a little short of the mark as well. so, i give "all summer long" and "new orleans" a solid A; i give him a C+/B- for the rest of the album, which had some pretty good moments in it. thanks for the recommendation, kunk!

The Eyre Affair

our friend maddie suggested that i read a novel called "The Eyre Affair" by jasper fforde. i'm so glad she did, because it was a rollicking good read. it was also kinda depressing because, well, it's a book that i should have written, only i didn't. i mean, it even reads as if i had written it. absurdist detective fiction about a literary detective named Thursday Next who is called on to investigate the kidnapping of jane eyre. yes, a character in a novel was kidnapped and brought to the real world. the world in which this novel takes place is bizarre, comic, and tragic. it sounds like a world i would make up. the authorship of shakespeare's plays is a topic of debate there taken as seriously as health care reform here is. there are characters with great names like Thursday Next, Archeron Hades, Runcible Spoon, Victor Analogy, and Jack Schitt :)
oh, and Filbert Snood, of course! dodo birds have been brought back from extinction and are popular (and quite intelligent) pets. time travel is commonplace, and complicated. why didn't i write this book?! oh, yeah...'cause i'm a lazy writer who will never finish a book. oh well, as long as somebody wrote it, that's all that matters. and it's apparently a series, a couple of different series, i think. but i think i will wait a bit. as mira and i were discussing one day, this book is like a super-rich dessert--it's a treat, but a treat you can only take so much of at a time. you can't eat triple chocolate-caramel-pecan cheesecake everyday. thanks, maddog, for recommending the book. i will read more of mr. fforde's work, after a break. besides, i think ben is going to loan me a copy of the book that lauren had recommended, The Alchemist.

Lost: The Lost Episode

gavin cardigan walked into the pub and called out a greeting to the owner. "hey, danny! what's on the menu tonight?"

"carne guisana," replied danny from behind the bar, already pouring an ale for his best customer.

"thanks, hoss," cardigan accepted the beer. "i don't know what carne guisana is, but you've never been wrong."

"gavin, come here!" marian elfman anxiously waved cardigan over to the table where his friends usually sat. "burkie's giving us a chance to figure out where we are!"

"really?" despite the mention of burkie's name, cardigan was intrigued. like the others, he was frustrated by their handsome creator's refusal to identity the place where their story took place.

"burkie created some clues for you guys to figure out where you are," special assistant hepzibah explained.

"clues?" cardigan's irritation with burkie continued to escalate. "why can't the bloody fool just start one of these chapters with 'cardigan entered the pub, closing the door behind him to shut out the biting chicago wind' or something like that?"

"why does it always have to be cardigan, anyway?" sierra charles wondered. "why can't one of us start off one of these chapters?"

"that's a good question," danny blake agreed as he delivered cardigan's carne guisada and flour tortillas. "why can't a story begin with Mysterious Lurker or somebody else, hepzibah?"

"um, well, i think it's because burkie likes the name gavin cardigan." she tried to think of a more reasonable, er, reason. "plus, it gives gavin something special to do. you know, since he's not a vampire or dead guy or anything."

"confound it, woman, i am not dead!" benjamin franklin slammed his pint down on the table. "how many times must i explain this? i am not dead!" he snatched his spectacles off his nose and began to rub them furiously with a cloth, glaring at burkie's assistant.

cardigan took an bite of his carne guisada, letting the tender beef and bold chile flavors pacify his emotions. "so, what are these clues?"

marian spread out a sheet of paper with three clues on it:

E + R

A target for bullies

It's the real thing on Wall Street

"that's it?" cardigan drained his beer in annoyance and signaled danny for another.

"E-R..." sierra charles mused. "erie, pennsylvania?"

"you could do a lot worse than pennsylvania," benjamin franklin said proudly.

The Lurker shook her head, her fingers twisting her blond locks around. "no, that's not burkie's style. if it were erie, he'd probably give us a clue about prince charles or van gogh."

"too bad," tucker lamented, strumming a D-minor chord on his guitar. "lots of rhyming potential with 'erie.'"

"thank buddha," danny muttered. "erie sounds positively dreary."

"see what i mean?" tucker grinned.

"wasn't wall street one of the clues in the movie National Treasure?" taylor young wondered out loud. "what was the name of that church located there?"

"trinity church!" marian exclaimed. "is there a city called 'trinity' somewhere?"

"not a well-known city," sierra answered. "but there's a trinity university in san antonio, and burkie is from texas."

"there's also a trinity college in connecticut," taylor pointed out.

"and in florida," The Lurker added.

"and dublin," tucker noted.

"oh, ireland would've been fun," marian pouted.

danny dropped off cardigan's second beer. "what about the bully's target? a wimp? a wuss?"

"i was thinking a nose," said The Lurker, whose own nose was growing out to pinocchioan proportions. "you know, that's what a bully aims at when he hits you, right?"

"we have an ear and a nose," cardigan pointed out. "and...trinity?"

"it's Haiti!" marian jumped up and starting doing her victory dance and making all kinds of jubilant faces. "there's a book called The Faces of God: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti!"

the others stared at her incredulously.

"haiti?!"

The Lurker started giggling. "can you imagine the black darter skulking around haiti with his blow gun? i almost wish we were in haiti."

"i didn't know you giggled," danny looked at her with surprise. "i took you for more the smirking type."

"it's not haiti," s.a. hepzibah informed them as she stood up to leave.

"then what is it?" taylor asked.

"that's for you guys to figure out."

"how are we supposed to do that?" sierra complained. "we don't exist once burkie logs off his computer."

"sure you do...somehow," hepzibah shrugged. "you can leave your guesses in the comments section. see ya!"

cardigan drained his beer. "why can't anything be simple?"

william shakespeare came over to bus the table. "as i always say, sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."

marian rolled her eyes at him. "you didn't say that; dr. seuss did."

"the man was a genius," shakepeare acknowledged as he carried the dirty dishes away, muttering lines under his breath. "to be or not to be/to flee or not to flee/a bee is not a flea/but i will flee to be..."

The Best Creme Caramel

last month at TNS, michelle's first thursday challenge was to stretch our culinary skills, so i followed the time-honored formula that french food = difficult. and....i failed. miserably. my sin was trusting the usually reliable book's guildelines for cooking times when making the caramel, rather than trusting my instincts when watching with growing alarm as the color sped past golden to amber to scorched in about half the time it was supposed to take. so, this month's first thursday challenge is to make something romantic, since valentine's day is this month. so, with pepe le pew as my muse, i followed the time-honored formula that french food = romantic. and yes, this one also is a caramel-featured dessert: creme caramel (or flan). it is, in fact, featured on the cover of the book, so it must be good, right? to make it even more romantic, i used heart-shaped cake pans. awww. ain't it purty? (sorry about the bad photo, worse than usual, but the soft focus makes it more romantic, right?) this is easy stuff to make, and really no different in terms of technique than any other flan i've ever made (except for the tip of placing a SilPat on the bottom of the water bath pan, which added nice stability). and it's good--quite good. the best? no, i don't think so. it's kinda sweet. my personal favorite is the even-easier-to-make kahlua flan recipe by emeril (it uses sweetened condensed milk). but perhaps that's kicking creme caramel up too many notches for the classic recipe. this one is good, and the book stated that some tasters preferred a less-sweet caramel, adding the option to make it with less sugar. i'd do that next time.

CYA: Gavin & Foxy (and special guests), ZOMG! 2

NOTE: if you did not jump to this chapter as a result of the Choose Your Adventure story, please go here before reading any further!


foxy gasped as they spotted the object of their pursuit before them. "mr. franklin! we found you!"

cardigan noted that mr. franklin was not alone. "is that you, your honor? congratulations on finding him first!" he walked forward to shake judge st. bishop's hand.

"this isn't the real ben franklin, gavin," the judge started to complain, but was interrupted.

"i most certainly am the real ben franklin, you scoundrel!"

the judge sighed. "you see, since mr. franklin invented time travel, he became a member of the ChronoGuard. so, this is really mr. franklin, and he & i are trying to rescue him before he makes a huge mistake in his first time-travel adventure."

cardigan lay his head in his hands, mumbling something about hating time travel under his breath.

foxy turned toward cardigan. "gavin, should we join up with the judge & mr. franklin?"


Click Here To See Them Team Up

Click Here To Follow Gavin & Foxy On Their Own

Click Here to Follow The Judge & ChronoGuard Ben on their own