Peanut-Butter Candy
This is actually a kid recipe, but I seem to be addicted to the stuff. The idea is to make a kind of edible playdough. Somehow it never gets that far.
1 c. peanut-butter
1 c. powdered milk
1 c. honey
Mix until smoothish. At this point you are supposed to put it in the refrigerator for a couple hours, then form it into balls or other shapes, then roll the shapes in powered sugar. Around here we just eat it.
Bony Apatite
Alice
Testing 1 2 3
This is a Mr. Linky thing. Hope it works:
Let’s test it. Go ahead and put in your blog link to see if it will list you.
Alice
Suzie’s House 37: A Dark and Balmy Night
“Sean! Wait up!” Joseph jogged down the night-darkened street toward his brother. He had muttered some lame excuse to Christina and hurried out of the bar. The urgency to warn his brother, to wring from him some sort of promise overwhelmed him.
In a way, the feeling tied in with Christina. Something about her sent up red flags. Sean accused him of being paranoid because he had so many premonitions of doom. Maybe he was, but he was also alive and not in prison. That wasn’t true for most of his friends. As they say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
Sean had a good two-block head start on him. When Joseph yelled, Sean glanced back at him. Then he hurried up, the guilty little worm. Joseph thought about attracting unwanted attention, but it was dark and the traffic on Johnson Street relatively light. He broke into a jog, then a run as Sean darted across the street and headed toward Lake Mendota. He caught up with him on the edges of James Madison Park, near the bathrooms.
“What do you think you’re doing? Why are you running from me?” Joseph put a hand across Sean’s back and guided him through the park to the water, which gently lapped the shores with a fishy stench.
“It’s about the deaths, isn’t it,” Sean said. “You think I’m to blame for them.”
“What deaths?”
“The people who got caught in one of my little road games. Some of them didn’t survive – a couple of cab drivers in Chicago and a little girl in Saint Louise.”
“Pft! I don’t care about that. It’s your getting caught I worry about.”
Sean stopped, ducking out from under Joseph’s arm. He turned to put them face to face under one of the little decorative sidewalk lights and put his hand on Joseph’s shoulder. “Joe, bro, tell me it isn’t so.” He grinned in that annoyingly knowing way at the use of the phrase he coined while they were boys. Joseph shrugged his hand off. Sean’s grin never dipped. “I know what I’m doing. I can handle it. They’ll never find me.”
“Oh sure. You hijack someone’s wireless and think that makes you safe. Well it doesn’t. Someday you’ll jack into some hacker’s system and he’ll turn you in.”
“And so what if he does? By the time the Feds have traced where I was, I’m gone.”
“They already have traced you. If I hadn’t taken out the agent in the red beret, you’d be in lock up now. They might still nail you if I can’t get to his partner.”
“His partner? You told me about him, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Remember, the house on Jennifer Street? He wasn’t home at the time.”
“Oh, yeah.” Sean nodded. “Where the kid lives.”
“Kid? What kid?” A rising sense of panic gripped Joseph. He didn’t like going into situations like this cold. Cold could get you killed.
“Nice kid. I watch him catch the school bus now and them. Me and Mac Lamar.” Sean nodded.
“Tell me you haven’t talked to the kid.”
Sean’s head slumped forward, a sure sign he knew he was in trouble and didn’t want to admit it. “I may have offered him a ride.”
“You don’t have a ride to offer.” He suspected he already knew what Sean would say.
“In your new Jeep. I sort of took the keys and borrowed it. Um… here.” He dug into his pocket and came up with Joseph’s spare car key.
Joseph sighed in exasperation. Great. Now he would have to kill all of them – the federal agent, the woman he lived with, and their kid too.
Thursday 13 Links
I’m not sure what the deal is with WordPress, but I can’t do a thing with my previous post, so I’m going to put my links here. Maybe it’ll work and maybe it won’t. It’s worth a try.
1. Jen
2. Jennifer Shirk
3. Debbie Mumford
4. Paige Tyler
5. Kaige
7. Heather
8. Ericka Scott
10.
Thursday 13 No. 1 : Reasons to Join Thursday 13
| Thirteen Things about Alice Audrey 1 – To give me something to write on Thursdays. Hey, this daily blogging business can be a challenge. 2 – To give me a way to tempt the ladies of Romance Divas into checking me out. 3 – To make me get out of my shell and meet people. 4 – To help me organize my thoughts 5 – To find out just how hard it can be to come up with 13 of anything. 6 – To placate the goddesses who seem to have a thing for the number 13. 7 – To creep myself out over the number 13. 8 – To give me another way to entertain the ladies of FanLit Forever. Hi all! 9 – To introduce myself to the nifty use of bullets in a blog. I meant the dot kind, not the pull the trigger kind. 10 – To see how long I can keep this up. 11 – To give me another way to find other people’s blogs. 12 – To give other people another way to find Alice’s Restaurant. 13 – Because cup o noodles and Tara Nichols said I should. Alice Links to other Thursday Thirteens! |
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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By George! What a Naughty Little Prince Can Do
When we left off, Mr. Al hinted that George’s next “true love” would not be a goody-two shoes like Miss Hamilton. Boy was he right. Take it away, Mr. Al.
****
The lucky lady was Mrs. Mary Robinson. She was the beautiful daughter of an American whaling ship captain and an Irish actress. Dad abandoned the family when Mary was quite young to set up a whaling station in Canada and live with the Eskimos.Mom took Mary to London and enrolled her in a dance academy while she continued her acting career. Mary’s dance instructor noticed that she seemed to have a certain something, acting wise, and brought her to the attention of David Garrick, one of the most famous actors of the English stage. He auditioned her, gave her some small roles, liked what he saw and finally offered her the role of Juliet.
She was a hit. Before the season was out she was the toast of the London stage. She was also, unbeknownst to most people; a former jailbird and a lady who collected rich lovers the way others would collect snuff boxes. The stint in jail wasn’t her fault. Her high living husband got himself into a jam over gambling debts and went on the street to get the money to pay them off.
Bad mistake. When he couldn’t pay THOSE debts off, he was tossed into prison. Back in those days it wasn’t considered Christian to separate a man from his loving family just because he was naughty. So they threw Mary and their infant daughter into the jug as well. By the time they got out, the couple seemed to have reached an understanding. Mary was going back on stage and she was going to have rich boyfriends. Hubby was going to keep his mouth shut and disappear when she was entertaining said boyfriends.
Mary discovered the Prince’s intentions during a Royal Command performance of “A Winters Tale” She had been cast as Perdita. At one point she was standing at the edge of the stage, directly beneath the Prince’s box. She heard him make the most complimentary statements about her. Jeepers! She was flattered to distraction! What she hadn’t considered was that, standing where she was, the Prince had an unobstructed view of one of her more notable physical features. I’ll bet he said nice things about her!
After the usual flood of letters, notes and messages sent through trusted friends, the Prince and Mary began to see each other, secretly, they thought, throughout the winter of 1777-78. Nothing about the Prince stayed secret for long. Soon the relationship was the talk of London. This didn’t bother the Prince overly much because he soon got bored with Mary and began to look for another True Love.
Before their final parting, however, the Prince went and did something really stupid. He promised, verbally at first, then in writing when Mary insisted on it, to give Mary 20,000 pounds sterling when he turned twenty-one. She held him to it when he tried to break up. He tried ignoring her. She went to the King. The king was appalled. The Prince still tried to weasel out of it. Mary threatened to have his love letters published. That did the trick. No pun intended.
Mary finally settled on 5,000 cash upfront and a 500 pound annuity for the rest of her life. That annuity would continue to be paid to her daughter after Mary’s death to the tune of 250 pounds per year. All this while the Prince was still sixteen. Mum and dad were fit to be tied. Dad, true to form, sent his son a long letter on the subject of proper behavior while he lived under their roof. Basically, the Prince was under house arrest.
****
And she actually got the money? Amazing.
Alice
A Modern Day Jane
Uh-oh.
Looks like Jane took exception to something in the news. Watch out world!
Alice
Sweet Potato Custard
Several of us are going on diets. I’m not sure this counts as diet food, but it came from SparkNet. I guess I can count it as a healthy dessert?
Sweet Potato Custard
Serves: 6
An interesting but tasty dessert!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup cooked sweet potatoes, mashed
1/2 cup mashed banana (1 medium)
1 cup evaporated 1% milk
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup raisins
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together sweet potato and banana. Add milk, blending well. Add brown sugar, egg yolks, and salt, mixing thoroughly.
2. Transfer mixture to a non-stick one quart casserole pan (or light oily pan).
3. Combine raisins, sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over top of sweet potato mixture.
4. Bake in a preheated 300° F oven for 45-50 minutes or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
NUTRITION INFO
Calories: 143
Fat: 2 g
Carbohydrates: 28 g
Protein: 5 g
Alice
"Can I Write?"
Writing a short story is like running a mile. Writing a novel is like a ten mile hike. Writing a novel others would like to read is like dancing the same ten miles with a genuine smile the entire time.
Hip replacement
Two Patients
Two patients limp into two different medical clinics with the same complaint.
Both have trouble walking and appear to require a hip replacement.The first patient is examined within the hour, is x-rayed the
same day and has time booked for surgery the following week.The second patient sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment,
then waits 8 weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn’t reviewed for
another week and finally has his surgery scheduled for 6 months later.
Why the different treatment for the two patients?The first patient is a Golden Retriever. The second patient is a senior citizen.
Next time take me to a vet
Sigh for Suzie
It’s been a bad day. There’s no way I’ll get Suzie up anytime soon. I’m going to shoot for next Friday.
Alice
Suzie Sucks!
Seriously, I finished it last night, took a look and just cringed. It has no GMC, no theme, barely moves the story forward and not in a clear direction. It has no point at all. No way I can post something that bad on the blog.
I am very sorry, but I’m going to have to make another go at this thing, and I’m thinking it’s going to have to come from the ground up. With any luck I’ll have it up sometime today.
*grumbling* This is what I get for procrastinating until Thursday.
Alice
By George! – A Proper Education
If you thought the way George the III kept his heir in baby clothes until well past the point where he could speak was bad enough, wait until you hear about the way he was raised from then on. Take it away, Mr. Al.
***
It didn’t help matters that dad considered children other than his brother to be totally unsuitable companions. Any adults around the Prince also had to be carefully screened for moral suitability. The outside world was a horror show of vice and debauchery and the King was not going to let any of that reach his boy.
The key to that was to keep him busy with morally uplifting tasks. And the key to making sure the lessons stuck was to beat him, and his brother, whenever they seemed to be slipping. They apparently slipped often because they were beaten often. According to one of the princesses, “They were held up by their tutors to be flogged, like dogs, with a long whip.”
This came about after D’Arcy returned from Europe and decided that certain vigor was lacking in the boys educational program, and lasted until the Prince was thirteen, at which point D’Arcy resigned his post, claiming his subordinates were undermining him. The subversion was causing the Prince to hold him in ill-concealed contempt. The man deemed responsible was one Cyril Jackson. He got the sack. Then Doctor Markham got the sack for defending Jackson.
D’Arcy was replaced by Lord Bruce, who got the sack in pretty short order and was replaced by his brother, the Duke of Montagu; “One of the weakest and most ignorant men living.” Was one contemporary source’s take on the Duke. However, he was said to possess a “formal coldness of character.” This, in turn, made him “uncommonly well fitted for the post.”
Doctor Markham’s replacement was Doctor Richard Hurd; a stiff old bishop that the King hoped would impose an even stricter regime than the boys had already been subjected to. The Bishop wasn’t a total wash. He was said to have courtly manners that “”Endeared him highly to devoted old ladies.” With Hurd’s appointment, Smelt got the sack. His replacement was Lieutenant- Colonel George Hotham. There would be no more lollygagging by the Prince and his brother.
As stern as his education was, it accomplished what dad had set out to do. The Prince, at age sixteen was far better educated than dad had been at the same age. There were other differences also. The Prince was an extremely handsome sixteen year old, with thick chestnut brown hair and bright blue eyes. He had the manners and poise of an experienced courtier. He was very charming, easygoing and affable.
Most people, the ladies in particular, were very impressed. The Prince, at sixteen, was a chick magnet. Not everyone was pleased with the social graces the Prince had acquired. Along with his capacity to charm, the Prince had also acquired the capacity to lie through his teeth to mom and dad about his social activities. Even though he was still living at home, he had already started running with the wrong crowd.
Much to the King’s chagrin, that wrong crowd very much included the Prince’s uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester. Why is it that whenever uncles are encountered in English royal history, it’s always as the heavy. It hardly seems fair, but there it is. Uncles are not going to get much good press in this account because they don’t deserve any.
Where was I? Ah, yes. To say these gents were drunkards and wastrels would be to point out the obvious. They were Hanover boys; and Hanover boys that did not sit on thrones found other ways to entertain themselves. Not only did Cumberland run his house in Pall Mall like a casino; it was widely rumored that the Dukes wife was teaching the Prince the joys of other men’s wives. A habit that the Prince would cling too till the end of his days.
Yes, leading the Prince of Wales down the path to perdition was a favorite pastime of the lads uncles, but they couldn’t do it alone. As essentially good as the Prince was, he had a knack for picking VERY bad people to hang out with. It isn’t that some of these gentlemen, and ladies, were indifferent to the social mores of the day. It’s just that they were actively, sometimes violently, opposed to anything that would stand in the way of their having fun.
Not all the people the Prince hung out with came from the Better Sorts. Most, if not all, of the men did. Not that the Prince had anything against the Lesser Sorts. He talked with people from all stations of life with an easy familiarity. While the men were of rank, the women, as we shall see, could be from any old where.
There were profound differences in the way the Prince was perceived by others at age sixteen. Where the ladies saw charm, dad saw vanity. Where the Prince’s friends saw an open, generous nature, dad saw proflagrancy. If the boy took some time off from his sunrise to bedtime regime of official activities to relax, it could only be because the Prince was willful in his rebellion to the Kings wishes.
Dad was not inclined to cut his son any slack. Unfortunately, neither was he inclined to spend any quality time with the lad. What the Prince got were orders transmitted through royal functionaries. What dad got was a son who grew to bitterly resent his father’s intrusions into his personal life. He also bitterly resented his father keeping him on such short rations. How could he behave like a true prince when dad refused him a decent allowance? Kids! Some things never change.
At least there were a few hobbies he could busy himself with while waiting for his ship to come in. As mentioned earlier, other men’s wives could always be counted on to enliven an otherwise dull night at St James Palace. For example, there was the wife of one of the kings grooms. Said Fraulein Charlotte Albert, one of the Queen’s German attendants, This wife was, “A great slattern, and more low and vulgar than that class of people usually are.” One wonders how she became such an athority on “That class of people.”
The prince didn’t see her that way. Or perhapes he did but didn’t care. Either way, her husband was promoted from the stables to a job in the house so that his wife’s comings and goings from the prince’s bedroom would draw a minimum of attention. And wouldn’t you know it? Fraulein Albert didn’t approve of HIM either. “A dressed up horror, impertinent and disgusting.” Some people are just sooooo hard to please.
But this sort of tomfoolry was only practice, as it were, for what would become the Prince’s lifelong advocation. Falling madly, and I do mean madly, violetly, in love with totally inappropreate women. The first was Mary Hamilton, daughter of the third Duke of Hamilton. It was the first time the Prince had fallen in love. It was also the last time he would fall in love with a woman who could be considered respectable. Miss Hamilton was twenty-four at the time. She thought the Prince was a nice enough fellow, for a sixteen year old. Good looking, to be sure. But much, MUCH too inpetious.
His declarations of love, there are 75 surviving letters from the Prince to Miss Hamilton, did not have the desired effect. Rather the opposite, not surpriseingly. Mary told the Prince that any romantic notions on his part were not acceptable to her. She had also heard some rather unsavory stories about the Prince’s activities. Party boys did not impress her, prince or no prince. She would be happy to be his friend, but that was all. Period.
If the Prince cared anything for her at all, he would stop getting his undies in a bunch over her. And he did! Just as soon as he found another female to fixate on. Fortnately, as far as the Prince was concerned, this one would prove to be a very different kettle of fish, Girl-wise, than Miss goody-two-shoes Hamilton.
***
Thank you Mr. Al. I had no idea the Prince Regent has such strict teachers. I’m looking forward to next weeks installment. Hint, hint.
Alice
