Currently Reading Chaucer's House of Fame; The Poetics of Skeptical Fideism. By Sheila Delany see related

The Boar's Head Feast was this evening! The menu was as follows:

Piggys (meat "hedgehogs")
Foyles (thin pancakes with ginger)
Pipefarces (wine-battered, fried cheese sticks)
Asparagus boiled in wine
Papyns (poached eggs in a saffron-honey sauce)
Leeks cooked with Walnuts
Rota (barley and fruit soup)
Blak Perys (pears with carob cream)
Salad with mint
Bread, cheese, fruit, nuts
Mead, wine, cider

I think it was the best feast yet. M. L., J.f ., and (briefly) A. S. came, and besides that there were around 25 or so students, including my dear supportive friends. Jess and I were an hour late because of cooking. Finally we got there, and after everyone was seated Kirsten, Jess and I came in singing the Boar's Head Carol, with me carrying the boar's head. The boar's head was really cool, by the way. Jami made it out of clay over a frame of chicken wire. It had tusks and a spine at the back of its head and Aristotle coming out of its mouth, and it sat on a tray in a bed of ivy and apples. After dinner there were readings. I read an ubi suntish passage of Beowulf (2247-2266) and "Lo ferm voler" by Arnaut Daniel. Raechel read Deor. Jess read "the Lay of the Chevrefoil," and Kirsten sang "Greensleeves." Afterwards we danced a brasnle to "Bache Bene Venies" and "Heartsease" and finally "Toss the Duchess," that perennial favorite, which got nice and rowdy as it always does. As far as I can tell everyone had a good time--I know I did. My last Christmastime feast at Bard...well, I'm going to do one more feast in the Spring, with Senior Project readings and horses.

Me: Argh, I hate how my purse is always slipping off my shoulder.
C: I have the same problem with my M-16.

CINNAMON ALMONDS

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 egg white
* 1 teaspoon cold water
* 4 cups whole almonds
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Lightly grease a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan.
2. Lightly beat the egg white; add water, and beat until frothy but not stiff. Add the nuts, and stir until well coated. Mix the sugar, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the nuts. Toss to coat, and spread evenly on the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, stirring occasionally, until golden. Allow to cool, then store nuts in airtight containers.

Other things to make:
Cranberry sauce
Mulled wine/mead
Christmas cookies?

I think I'm also going to make some rose liqueur over intersession. I'll get some rose petals and infuse them in vodka.

I took my GRE General today. 750 verbal, 510 math. I really freaked out about that math score, but I called my advisor and he said it's nothing to worry about and that lots of people in the humanities get really bad math scores. Except for the math section and the stress it was actually pretty fun. Dave and I left early to eat at the Everready beforehand. I had a tomato, basil, and mozzarella omelette with potatoes and toast and a fruit cup and tea, a good proper breakfast. I read aloud from The Inimitable Jeeves and by the time we got there we had gotten through all of the chapter entitled "The Metropolitan Touch." Afterwards we went to a restaurant in New Paltz for some dessert--bananas foster for me, apple pie for Dave.
Oh, I've got so much to do! I have to write my first senior project chapter and my personal statement by next Wednesday, and I'm tutoring 15 people between now and Saturday. I'm cheering myself up by starting with the Christmas cheer. I'm playing my Christmas Revels cd right now and I've drawn sprigs of holly on my dry erase message board. If I ever have time to get to Red Hook I'll buy some real decorations. I'm also going to start cooking holiday things, like cinnamon almonds and cranberry sauce. It snowed last Friday; I can't remember if I wrote about it or not. Well, anyway, it was wonderful.l It made everything feel so perfect and cozy and wintery. It's all melted by now, though.

Currently Reading Pnin (Vintage International) By VLADIMIR NABOKOV see related

When I have drunk naught but the seemly grace
Of my fair love, then farewell discontent!
Light from that pleasing goblet doth sanctify
My mortal breast. It is a well of mercy,
And I herein a drunkard.

...damn melancholy!
I would make merry this night; tempt me, goblet,
Lest our torment come soon. (composed on election night)

Perchance the ghost warrants a wanton question,
Tales to dream through winter; death deceiveth.
Fair lady, a wherefore doth quench a trifle,
And discontent for haste strikes out foul measures.
Say what you please, but never thus woo fortune.

Every saucy man is a loathesome peasant.
Every vulgar woman is a vile wench.
Farewell, my bawdy friend. (composed by Mr. Jeremy S., Esq.)

Ok...this weekend I have to:
1. Write a draft for the first chapter of my senior project
2. Write a draft for the personal statement for my grad school applications.
3. Take a GRE Literature test on Saturday.

I just found out that my first grad school app (for UVA) is due December 3, which means that I have to finish it before Thanksgiving break so I can spend time with C. while he's on leave. Then I've got three more due on Dec. 10, 14, and 15, and finally the ones due on Jan. 3. I feel somewhat as if I've dropped the ball, but I guess I'll be all right. I always do manage. I've just left a probably distressed-sounding message on my adviser's voicemail--so many things to talk about! Rescheduling our project meeting because of my GRE test on Tuesday, scheduling my senior project midway board, my grad school application, including my personal statement and recommendation letters. Oh, I've been very bad to put off requesting recommendation letters for so long. I'll surely burn in Hell, or at least spend an extra century in Purgatory for it.

Currently Reading Life With Jeeves: The Inimitable Jeeves, Very Good, Jeeves!, and Right Ho, Jeeves By P. G. Wodehouse see related

Þæs ofereode; Þisses swa mæg.

Oh, if only my beloved would call! It's 10 PM now, so I guess he won't call tonight.
I've had a quiet day. I got up at 9:30 and spent the morning working on my Beowulf Manuscript reasearch project. It was really fun, actually--after only a couple of hours of reading from books and articles and examining manuscript facsimiles I learned so much that I didn't know before--for example, that there's only one Beowulf manuscript in existence as far as we know (just imagine if it had been more severely damaged or even completely destroyed in the Cotton library fire of 1731!) and that a stoke over the last letter of a word in an Old English manuscript is an abbreviation for a final m or n and that what looks like a "7" is an abbreviation for "and" which comes from the shorthand system devised by Cicero's assistant M. Tullius Tiro.
So after that I worked on The Gift by Nabokov, and then I read through the Parliament of Fowles section of A. C. Spearing's Medieval Dream Poetry. And now I'm rereading the Parliament of Fowles itself; I've just been taking notes on the section at the beginning that summarizes the Dream of Scipio (Cicero again!). I'll finish The Gift tonight and write in my motif analysis journal about it.
In between all that work I really didn't do much but eat and take a couple of naps (catching up from Friday night, when I got to bed at 4 AM and slept really poorly). I did talk to Mom and Dad on the phone, which was really nice. Now if only I could talk just a little with C.

I forgot to mention this, but my fountain pen ink cartridges came in. I'm using the green one right now. It's really nice.

Guess what I just ordered online? A Shakespeare-themed magnetic poetry kit! It's going to be great--even if Old English would be the coolest, Shakespeare is pretty close, and I have to admit it's probably better suited to the magnetic poetry format.
I'm participating in a spelling bee at the Bard cafe at 8:30. Between now and then I'm going to get some senior project reading done. I was so stressed out this morning about everything that I didn't get much done at all aside from some GRE study. I just really needed to wind down, so I went to Red Hook with Jeremy and Thea and we went to the White Rabbit Cafe and the bookstore and then we went to Jess's apartment. As a result I haven't done much reading, but I feel a lot better.

Currently Playing Philip Glass: Glassworks By Philip Glass, Michael Riesman, Jon Gibson, Jack Kripl, Seymour Barab, Maureen Gallagher, Lois Martin, Sharon Moe, Linda Moss, Richard Peck see related

As I was writing my Invitation to a Beheading paper last Thursday night my computer started freezing up and I discovered that it was full of spyware! I think my problems are more or less resolved now, though. I renewed my Norton Antivirus and bought their Internet Security package and downloaded the latest version of adaware and switched from explorer to firefox. Liz and Jess looked at my computer and Jess cleaned out some registry keys. Things are much better now, though not perfect. When I hibernate my computer instead of shutting it down it often doesn't really turn back on well--it won't give me a start bar so I'll have to hold down the power button to turn the computer off. But I'm glad I have a functioning computer again. I'm really enjoying firefox--I've just been setting up my bookmarks in different folders and exploring the firefox crew picks.
My computer isn't the only one who hasn't been feeling well. I've felt really worn out lately and my cough has been getting worse. I think I'll skip orchestra tonight and reschedule my senior project meeting for later on in the week.

Currently Reading The Gift (Vintage International) By VLADIMIR NABOKOV see related

I just checked the status of my ink cartridge order (for my fountain pen)--it said back order, no shipment date set. Very sad. I should have enough ink to last until the shipment comes, but I've been so impatient to try out the new colors I ordered, like green or pink.
Well, Fall break is drawing to a close. I finished Piers Plowman (and read the introductory material by A. V. C. Schmidt), got started on A. C. Spearing's Medieval Dream Visions book and Landscapes and Seasons of the Medieval World, took 3 1/2 pages of notes on Piers Plowman, read 150 lines of Beowulf, read 50 pages of Nabokov's The Gift, and wrote the first three pages of my paper on Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading. (Oh, and I finished Lemony Snicket's The Grim Grotto, too.) Tonight before bed I hope to turn my Piers Plowman notes into at least 3 pages of writing and read another 50 lines of Beowulf.