Well, according to my chemistry-cooking book, use butter rather than shortening and cool the dough before cooking. High protein flour will also soak up the water and make it dry and crispier, and darker. Corn syrup (subsituting as little as 1 tablespoon for sugar) will also make a browner, crispier cookie. Use baking soda instead of baking powder.

Already using baking SODA, butter, chilled dough. This is the first attempt: [link] They're a little too cakey. I want more nilla-wafery.

Try the corn syrup--it's the secret ingredient in at least one chocolate chip cookie recipe I really like, to make it crispy.

Ah jeez. My cousin is getting married Easter weekend and we're using the occasion to do a family reunion. In Omaha. There's no way I can get a flight under $400 NOW. Gnrg. Thing is, it is convenient to the MN immediate family? The rest of us, nsm. Including his sister near me. Maybe should talk to her and see if they are doing a drive to an airport more direct to there than BWI.

What is direct to Omaha?

Who's doing an Advent Caledar this year? We just started our Playmobil calendar last night and Matilda is jazzed about it.

Noah has (two) Star Wars advent calendar(s). One is going into storage for next year. Grace has a wooden calendar with ornaments and her own tiny advent tree.

This weekend? I need to get a new winter jacket. I need to clean like whoa, as the kitchen floor displeases me. I need to start writing Yuletide and also start Christmas shopping. I should login to work for a while. Maybe I'll make a vat of vegetarian chili.

And somewhere in there I want to drink some fancy gin and sleep forever. I guess I'll get started on the gin.

Nothing?

Grandma Karin always used to send us swedish advent calendars. Spoiled us for advent chocolate, that's for sure. Man, probably haven't done one of those since high school.

I saw this at the toy store yesterday. It's a box full of rocks. There's also some paint and stuff to decorate them, but seriously. It's a box of rocks. [link]

And, clicking through the links from that page, it looks like there are about 20 different books and kits to teach kids how to paint rocks. I'm fairly certain I painted some rocks as a kid, and I'm equally certain I didn't need instructions.

When is Easter this year? I'd wait a bit and check flights again. Southwest goes to Omaha (through Midway mostly) and they may come up wit a better deal soon enough if you really want to go. Also, it supposedly best to check flights on Tuesday mornings.

I'm flying tomorrow to Florida for mini vacation. So excited!! The plan for Sunday is to hang out in our (swank!) hotel room and read the Sunday Times that will be delivered to our door. Awesome!

And I'm not going to think one bit about the PM who can't read email or the blame avoiding roadblock of a client!

Hell, my cats favorite toys are paper and qtips, kids ain't much different! Somebody capitalized on that. If it sells, power to them. (Loki is playing right now with Thing on a Stick. Which is a tightly rolled bit of brown paper on a wire. Yes, I paid money for it. Bite me.)

During my swim, I figured out why witnessing MK's death in clinical detain seemed so important. There are a few close deaths I didn't see proof of. A family friend's mom, some of my childhood cats. One of my grandparents. And those deaths took a long time to seem real. Hell, I still expect to turn around and see Lorraine, and that was 21 years ago. The first cat I considered mine (we had to hand feed him, he was so young. I was 3) literally died in my arms when I was 9. I saw my grandfather's body carried from the house by EMTs. Open casket for all by my Grandmother Karin, no service for her. That one took a lot to accept. I still don't really feel my aunt is gone. I needed to believe it for MK, where I had the control. Still sucked.

ION, holy crap, my coworker sounds like Beyonce. Same voice.