Party pooper LJ!

[wiseheart]

Well, folks, it seems that LJ has decided to crash our birthday party - the original post is no longer visible. But I still have most of the comments in my inbox, and will re-post the original entry and list the available comments with the simple mentioning of the names, if it's all right with you. If not, tell me, and I'll delete yours.

We won't allow LJ to crash our party!

Original post

Hi folks! *waves*

Time is flying by, isn't it? It's that time of a year again - I'm getting older. In this case, I'm turning 56 on October 9, which means I'd have been retired for a year already, back under the old regime. Women could retire at the age of 55 back then. So I've decided to ignore all that fantastic headway we've supposedly made towards democracy in the last two decades and have considered myself retired for the last year, blithley overlooking the fact that I'll have to work another 6 or 7 or only God knows how many years.

So, let's party! Last years virtual birthday party yielded 943 comments on 7 pages, which won't be easy to top, but we're good, aren't we? WE CAN DO IT! WE CAN BREAK THE 1000-COMMENT-BARRIER! So, let's give it a try! In the recent years, it has always been great fun, so let's have fun again!

You're all cordially invited to help yourself to a slice of virtual cake of your choice. If you want to post your favourite recipe in a comment, be my guest. If not, just drop by and say hello.

Cheers!

Note: The party will be closed on October 9, at midnight, sharp.
Join us and have fun! Feel free to start any thread, any topic you want; we can discuss it, mock the general stupidity of life and laugh at it.

Last count was 1328 comments on 6 pages.

NB: Shoud the original party post mysteriously reappear, I'll delete this one.

Comments

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

altariel:
I think we should now be safely at 300!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
Actually, almost 760 by now. This is an amazing party.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

altariel:
But I'm not sure when we'll get to page 3...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

It is quite fitting that this comment ends up on page 3 the second time around, don't you think? :-)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

rcfinch:
I just ate an ice cream instead of cake, does that count?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Definitely! My computer's put up a little steaming coffee cup icon, so
I'm off to have an espresso, and I'll be counting that too.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
If they stopped adding completely unnecessary features, things would work
a lot better. Now it seems to be doing the same thing to me. Drat, this
is the third time today!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
My shiny new bed has come!

A weak earlier than expected - I was standing in the middle of the flat,
still in my nighties (at 10.30 a.m.), thinking about starting to prepare
myself to going to work (had the afternoon shift), when the phone rang
and Nice Guy from the furniture shop told me that my hed has arrived and
thy were bringing it within 30 minutes.

You can imagine the hectic that broke out. Mum and I tried to get dressed
and threw everything out of my room (which is barely 7 square metres), so
that Delivery Guys #1 & #2 could a: get the old bedroom monstrosity out
of it and b: get the new bed into it.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if I actually responded to this the first time around, in the bustle of the joyous party. To make sure, I will post a new comment here and say: Yay, bed! I hope you have many, many restful nights in it.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
We also baked with the kids!

The walnut buns had turned out very well. I'm now dead on my feet, but
supremely content. Or I were if only LJ would stop acting up.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

badly_knitted:
The walnut buns sound delicious, I'm very fond of nutty things.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

solanpolarn:
Another book thread Because we need more top-level comments and
because I am curious: What is the latest book you read?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

and jenn_calaelen replied:

Currently reading: Lord Of The Rings

Before that: Beauty and the Werewolf - Mercedes Lackey (fun, light series of stories in a fairy tale world where a force tries to shape people's lives to tales... and Godmothers and other characters try to control their own lives... ;) - very much comfort light reading...)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Four hundred replies! Does a little dance :) We're not doing so well on
the pages though.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

solanpolarn:
At espresso_addict urging: The tea thread What is
your favourite tea? Do you drink it with or without milk, sugar, lemon
etc?

[sammydragoncat]

Re-post:

Blackberry tea, with a little sugar or if I need caffeine a specific brand of Earl Grey with sugar and lemon.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

solanpolarn:
In honour of wiseheart's birthday bed: The furniture
thread What is your favourite piece of furniture? This can be
something you own, something you have seen elsewhere and would like, or
indeed just something that exists in your mind.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Then I bragged by posting a photo of my bureau and saying:

This is my favourite piece of furniture: an Art Deco bureau with a bookcase with glass doors. When I moved to my current flat there wasn't room for a desk so a friend of mine suggested I look for a bureau instead. I was going to find out about second hand furniture shops in my area on the internet, which lead me to finding this one for sale of eBay. I feel in love with it straight away and when it arrived it was every bit as lovely as I thought it would be from the photos. :-)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
Since we had repeated Trek-related discussions: what about your favourite
Trek aliens?

My list of favourites: - Vulcans (Duh! Despite what "Enterprise" did to
discredit them); - Andorians; - Deltans; - Romulans; - Bezites (the only
really interesting 24th century aliens);

I like the Bajorans, but they are too human-like for my taste to really
count as aliens, and the Trill were never really explored as a species.
Cardassians are interesting but too creepy, and Ferengi are just
annoying.

Your turn...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

rcfinch:
Very close to page three now.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

solanpolarn:
and past 500 comments! Yay!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Just clicked past 500 replies! We're going strong!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

sammydragoncat:
oh my - reached 500 before the third page.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

solanpolarn:
If I have counted correctly this should take us onto the third
page...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Yay, three pages! Go us!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

rcfinch:
Is that a problem?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

rcfinch:
This is going too fast for me...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
So, folks, we've done great! So, in agreement with the lovely espresso_addict I'm calling it a night for today - it's less than
half an hour left from the day anyway. Good night drinks and sweets are
served by Mr Jones, also known as the Coffee King of Torchwood (he also
serves tea, though).

Thanks for coming and contributing, we'll no doubt see each other again
in a few hours.

We will, won't we?

(Actually, this year's party is even more fun than the previous one.
Never did we have so many interesting and delightful threads.)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

solanpolarn:
Fresh mint tea for me please, Mr Jones. And are those baklava I see? I
will have one of those too if you don't mind.

Sweet dreams to you all and see you tomorrow!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
The Your Favorurite City thread.

Since I'm at work, having an hour-long break and a computer that isn't as
painfully slow as mine is (it hasn't Norton), I use the opportunity to
start the requested thread.

My favourite city is Vienna. I've seen a great deal of cities, and
Budapest, the one I live in is absolutely gorgeous, but for me, Vienna is
the best city on this planet. It's a lot like my home town, due to the
old Monarchy, but different enough to be exciting, and it has a unique
flair no other city I've ever visited seems to have.

Historic places, fantastic chocolate, amazing coffee and very friendly,
charming inhabitants (well, most of them) - what else could one wish for?

On to you...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:

The Magic Chocolate thread. This one is for solanpolarn - specifically, but by now means exclusively.

I've visited this summer the Chocoversum of the chocolate factory
Hachez (sp?) in Hamburg. It was a fantastic experience. They had us taste
every single phase of the cocoa bean processing. Have you ever tasted the
cocoa fruit? It's surprisingly yummy, a bit sour and spongy and all. The
beans are the actual seeds within it.

So, now I'm a devout fan of Hachez chocolate. They only produce from the
highest quality cocoa beans, about the same level as Lindt. Although, I
must admit that I'm very fond of Milka, too - especially the kind where
alpine milk chocolate is filled with dark chocolate mousse.

And don't even let me start on Ferrero: Rocher, Cappuccino, Roundnoir and
the likes.

So, what's your favourite blend?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I replied:

Oh this is definitely a thread dear to my heart! I collect fridge magnets and a good proportion of them are about or depicting chocolate. The real thing is obviously better though, and I used to stock emergency chocolate in drawers in the lab at my previous job.

My favourite chocolate is a raspberry dark chocolate truffle from a chocolatier called Anneli K in my former home town of Uppsala. Whenever I go back to visit I always make sure to stop by that shop and pick some of their chocolate pieces up; they generally have a good selection and I vary what I get; the raspberry truffle is always in the mix though. Out of more main stream chocolate my favourite is probably a tie between Green & Black's dark chocolate with currants and hazelnuts and Divine's dark chocolate with raspberries. I also love pretty much everything I have bought from Hotel Chocolat; their chocolate logs for example are a fantastic treat.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
And this ought to be the magical Comment #600. We're doing very well.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
I'm beginning to think we might actually make it to a thousand!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

rcfinch:
This is going really well, isn't it?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
Oh, yes! We seriously rock!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

espresso_addict:
Someone start a new content thread -- I'm running out of ideas.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

badly_knitted:
Okay, new thread needed! Ummmm.... Anyone know any good jokes?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

wiseheart:
The Magic of Spices thread

Some of you've already briefly discussed spices. This is your golden
opportunity to go into depth with the topic. What spices do you use for
cooking? Or for healing? Or for simply burning them to relax?

I had two interesting experiences with spices as an atmospheric tool. One
was the fairly godawful Bollywood movie, The Mistress of Spices -
despite of its basic badness plot-wise, the visuals of the Spice Bazaar
and the beautiful woman tending to it were breath-taking. I wished we had
scent television. *g*

The other one was my visit at Spicy's
Gewürzmuseum in Hamburg, this summer. It's basically a small
spice museum, where you can try and smell (and buy) an amazing variety of
spices, drink spiced tea or coffee, see really old spice-processing
machines, and generally have a good time.

It's in one of those old storge houses, surrounded by shops selling
oriental rugs and stuff - a fantastic atmosphere.

[sammydragoncat]

re-post

Cooking - I use a lot of different herbs and spices depending on what I'm making, as for baking Vanilla gets used a lot, but ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg are almost always used.