Why butterscotchvix is great

(I'm doing these in the order they showed up in my comments, btw.)

I've only met butterscotchvix twice in person I think, both times at cons, and in fursuit. The impression I got from the vixen in costume was always warm and friendly. I mostly started reading her journal because she was getting to be close to my friend cloverr, and I wanted to get to know her a bit better for that reason. She's been an amazingly good thing in Cloverr's life, at a time when she really needed wonderful things to happen to her, and I'm really pleased about that.

She's obviously a good hearted person who works her tail off, and still tries to make time for her friends, and I really respect that. Plus I am boggled and impressed by anyone who can drive a big rig. (I get in trouble with a Toyota Prius. :P) My Saggitarian wanderlust envies her ability to travel all over the country as part of her job.

I hope we can hang out more at a con sometime!

Cravings

So, lediva got me a book for Yule, as she usually does. It was about food, as they often are. This one was Candy Freak , a engaging book, which though marred by not very interesting diversions into the author's political beliefs and fears of cancer, mostly focuses on one topic: chocolate bars. I always find reading these kind of books a bit strange, as there are always layman's descriptions of things like production lines that are very familiar to me as a food industry person.

But in particular, one thing this book did was to remind me of some things I'd forgotten from my youth, such as the Marathon bar, a loose braid of caramel enrobed in chocolate, in a red wrapper with a ruler on the back. Steve Almond says that all adolescent boys who came across the bar measured their penises with it. I used to use it as a gauge of how much candy I had left. (I was a hoarding sort of candy eater; my sister used to regularly steal my stash after finishing her own, claiming that I obviously didn't want it or I'd have eaten it already. She may have been right, in some sense -- I often let things go bad by mistake by holding them too long. I remember rock hard gumballs and bloomed chocolate confections, hiding in my closet.)

The other thing it reminded me of is that I never got around to acquiring some Valomilks to try. Valomilks are a confection from the 1930's that came out of a batching mistake in a candy factory -- a batch of marshmallow wouldn't gel right because too much alcoholic vanilla extract was added. The runny stuff got poured into chocolate cups, and it was a hit. Apparently the company got bought out in the seventies, and the new owner shut the Valomilk factory down in 1981. Six years later, the old owner decided to resurrect the company, using his grandfather's old equipment and methods. They are making the liquid marshmallow in a Hobart mixer, and tempering their chocolate by hand! Rumor has it there is no actual way to eat these neatly. I think they may be right up my alley.

Having been reminded, I had to get some. I decided to buy a sampler chocolate pack from favoritesof.com, and thus also get myself some Goo Goo Clusters (which I've had, but not in years), some Moon Pies (which show up here occasionally, and which I do like), and a few other things. Reviews here once the box arrives.

Did I mention that I don't actually seem to be planning to lay off the sweets in 2005?

goodluckfox makes me smile!

goodluckfox is World Tree's first and original fanboy, and we love him for it! He tried to buy a copy of our rough draft of the book back in 1998, well before we were prepared to send it out for publication. (I'm glad we didn't give it to him, I cringe to think of that early version out in the world.)

When we finally published the book, he was on the line to our publisher immediately, trying to get them to FedEx it to him so he didn't have to wait. He developed a World Tree MUCK based on the city of Treverre, and ran the first online WT game on it. He's been a great player at our con demos. He bugs us regularly to finish all the stuff we've got back burnered for the game, especially the skyboat rules. He's planning a World Tree themed Flash animation. (I'm not rushing him to do it since his Flash keeps getting better with every project.)

Hats off to goodluckfox! It's people like you that make it a real joy to be a creator.