Chocolate Cake, Ballroom Dancing and Yoga

First, important stuff, here's a three minute microwaved chocolate cake I tried from a recipe on Ravelry, a knitting site. Yes, I know, unlikely, but there are some good cooks on there. I mean, it's not like getting a recipe out of Plumbing and Pipefitting Journal. Though I did get a great cornbread recipe out of Bird Fancy years ago, definitely good enough for human consumption.

Blogista Minimiss is one of the great Ravelry cooks, though I think this one is not her recipe, and there are other suspects, too. Anyway, I thought I'd try it out on HS when he come for dinner tonight. There will be other stuff, too, such as spicy chicken, jasmine brown rice, etc. But I have to wait and see how the cake comes out then. So here it is, on a seasonal Chrissy plate. If we like it, I'll let you know.

The yoga came about from having some time to spend at the libe yesterday, and figuring I'd catch up on some magazines, including one on yoga. Some lovely peaceful features about breathing and getting calm and all that, which were great, but oh well, they were situated right in the middle of heavy duty advertising about expensive high tech equipment guaranteed to make your yoga better. I know they need advertising to keep solvent, but, as I say, oh well. Irony abounds.

Ballroom dancing is evidently coming back into fashion, if today's radio program is anything to go by, and I guess Dancing with the Stars, which I've never seen, is part of the fashion, and there was on today a funny pro-am couple (no, really they do have pro-am just like in golf!) talking about it and what fun they have and how her day job as an academic fits in with getting all foofied up in chiffon and heels and makeup for her dancing life.

It reminded me of tv shows from my youf in the UK, early days of tv, when there was a lot of ballroom dancing on. I imagine it was a pretty cheap production, since the events were happening anyway, and they had to fix lighting and cameras and the entertainment was gladly laid on by the dance community, as they call themselves nowadays.

Have you noticed how everything's a community? the blogging community, the left handed crocheting community, the three minute chocolate cake community, even if the people have never met each other, wouldn't know each other from Adam. Or Eve.

Anyway, the ballroom dancing: my totally favorite couple, who won all the time, with the same fixed smile and tilted head and she had these great big teacosies of chiffon swirling around her partner, who vanished into her dress, they were Violet Barnes and Sid, I think Higgins. Anyway, her name just blew me away and sticks with me till now sixty years later, she came to mind while I was listening to the pro-am dancers on the radio.

Since all my coordination is eye-hand, with none left over for things like knowing where my feet are without looking down at them, I fall back in amazement at people who can dance, fast, on slippery floors, and hardly ever fall down.

Did I mention that in those days all tv was live? and now and then a couple did come to grief, skidding across the floor in a welter of chiffon, spike heels flying, patent leather shoes flailing to get a grip, while the band played stoutly on and the sparkling turning globe overhead knocked hell out of the camera lenses which in those days couldn't handle sparkle. And of course all this excitement took place in black and white, color not having advanced to the general consumer market yet.

Speaking of color and excitement: a wonderful Christmas gift arrived yesterday, perfectly lovely hanks of merino handspun, one in pink with sparkles (!) one in a green/ochre/yellow variegated. Currently making a little gift with the green variegated, which I'll show off when it gets t the point where you can see anything. Ash, thank you! such a treat to have firsthand yarn, beautifully spun, and dyed. And a surprise, too.