The family story is that my Aunt Cathy found this recipe in a magazine 30-odd years ago, but whenever people would ask her for it she’d gravely intone, “I’m sorry, it’s a family recipe”.  Unfortunately, i can never remember if this calls for evaporated or condensed milk (and buying the wrong one would produce results drastically different from expected), so i’m posting the recipe here for the whole internet to see — but mostly for Andy and me to have access to it when we’re standing in the grocery store trying to remember which type of milk we need.

(I originally included this in Paragraph Girl #0, so you may remember it from there¹.)

hot fudge sauce that isn’t really “fudgey”

1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
2 cups sugar
3 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

* Note:  This recipe can be halved.  I’ve been lucky to find 5-ounce cans of evaporated milk in my local grocery store, which means i don’t have to save or waste 1/2 a can of evaporated milk if i want to make a smaller batch.

1. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan.
2. Warm over medium heat until chocolate has melted and sugar has dissolved, stirring regularly.
3. Continue warming (and stirring) sauce for 5-10 minutes to thicken.

1. LORD, how did that zine come out 9 years ago??? [↩]

Instructor:  “And i hope you find the class interesting.  I’m never quite sure of everyone’s reasons for taking the class, and i just hope they find something that interests them.”

Me:  “I’m really interested in the tensions of how societies and cultures contact and conflict, and i think looking at how language responds to that is very interesting.”

Instructor:  “Yes, yes, that’s exactly what draws me to studying pidgins and creoles, too!”

Me:  [bursts into a million sunshine sparkles]

Years ago i worked in the UW’s Registration Office.  Every spring, i’d get parents who’d ask, toward the end of the conversation, “And are the cherry blossoms out yet??”  Every spring!  Over and over, the same question!!  I didn’t work anywhere near where the cherry blossoms are on campus so i had no idea.  Moreover, who cares if there are cherry trees blooming on campus??  I love blooming trees, don’t get me wrong, but come on.

Then i switched jobs to an office that was closer to the Quad, which is where the much-heard-about cherry blossoms are.  The 1st spring that i worked there i decided to randomly walk thru’ the Quad on my way home, just because it was one of the 1st nice days that year — a sunny day, warm enough to not need a coat.

I walked across Red Square.  Past Suzzallo Library, past Kane Hall.  Toward the steps up to the Quad….

And BAM!!

I came to a dead standstill for a few seconds.  Then i started walking around, near-breathless.  Getting giddier and giddier.  Getting practically tipsy.

These pictures are crap — tho’ today was sunny the lighting in the Quad was horrible, and i was just using my phone anyway.  But, y’know?  I really don’t know how to convey to you just what an amazing experience it is to stand there in the middle of the Quad surrounded by trees that are just bursting all over with light-pink flowers.  It’s like you’re walking amongst clouds.  You’re practically floating.  And the scent!  It takes you a moment at 1st to realize that the air is different, and then you slowly realize you’re smelling millions of tiny blossoms.

It is sublime.  It’s transcendent.  It leaves me buoyant.

If you are ever in Seattle in early spring, you must — MUST — visit the UW campus to see the cherry blossoms in the Quad.  Bring a blanket and a picnic (but no sake — it’s a state school, so campus is dry).  Make an afternoon of it.

…. i found my Snoopy pin:

For various reasons i’ve been not displaying my Portland Zine Symposium poster collection.  The long wall in our study has long had nothing on it because i’ve been mentally decorating it with my letterpress and PZS stuff.  The letterpress stuff finally went up back in august when i bought my press.  Today, the zine symposium posters finally went up.

And i am really, really happy that i finally put them all up.  As Andy noted, the colors brighten up the room immensely.

From the left:

-  Blue/white block of 3 posters:  Symposium 2002.  This was the 2nd year of the Symposium and the 1st year i went.  It is not an exaggeration to say that this weekend changed my life.  The posters that year were a set of 4 where each poster was designed by a different artist.  I am still missing one.  Contact me if you have a spare!!

-  Red/white poster:  Symposium 2003.  I love the red on the poster, and the typewriter.

-  Green/black/white poster:  Symposium 2004.  It was a sort of summer camp theme that year.  We should have had a s’more-making workshop!

-  Gold/black/white vertical poster below the 2004 poster:  Symposium 2006.  I skipped 2005.  For some reason i was just not at all in the mood for the Symposium the whole summer/week leading up to it.  Then, middle of the afternoon on saturday, i suddenly knew i’d made a horrible decision and that i should have been there.  I suppose we could have hopped into the Jeep and gone down, but we didn’t.

-  Orange/black/white:  Symposium 2007.  The awesome poster with the giraffes!!

-  Blue/white/black:  Symposium 2008.  Another awesome poster with a sort of M. C. Escher effect going on.

After that, the Symposium didn’t have any posters for sale at the merch table.  Or i was too slow to grab any.  Which, in the long run, is fine since i have the perfect amount to fill out my wall.  ;D

-  Brown/green/white:  This is from the ZAPP fundraiser in 2010.

The thing next to that is a Tibetan-style papermaking frame which i made myself during a papermaking class the other year.  The stuff on the right, above the file cabinet and the press, is my collection of letterpress-related posters.

The big blank spot will eventually hold my poster from Short Run 2011.  I haven’t put it up yet because i have tentative plans to attend Canzine West in 2 weeks and, who knows?, i might get a poster there!

Oh, and in the middle of everything is my very awesome clock.  It says “It’s a fine time to read!”  It’s a clock from Cornish College of the Arts and was decommissioned when Cornish moved from its old Capitol Hill location to its new downtown location.  The clock means a lot to me because i was working at Cornish (my 1st job in Seattle!) in the summer of 2002 when i attended that 1st Zine Symposium.  Working at a creative place (albeit in a non-creative job), attending a creative weekend, spending the rest of the summer reading everything i could get my hands on about zines — it was a really wonderful, formative time for me.

I just wish the damned clock still worked.  Anyone have a retailer they could suggest where i could get a new movement for it??

Oh, it's those concrete bollards.

Oh noes! That's no bollard -- IT'S ACTUALLY A DALEK!!

Emergency! Emergency!!

Oh, good, exactly what i need!!

I sure hope it's bigger on the inside, tho'.

Footnotes:

1. For the record, i was not involved in creating these Doctor Who instances at all.  I was merely lucky enough to happen upon them walking across the University of Washington campus one day this past week.
2. When i showed the TARDIS picture to Andy, he actually said, “Must belong to a pretty skinny doctor”.  The only possible answer to which is obviously, “But sweetie, it’s bigger on the inside.”  I mean, honestly, what kind of Doctor Who fan IS he that he walked straight into that one??