My quiltsMy 2001 Grant ProjectSociety for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake

Saturday, December 03, 2005  

This just in from Bill:

I Love My Mac - The Song

(Or check out the video) Thanks Bill!

Written at: 9:15:00 PM


 

I needed a change, needed to use some rye starter so the yeastie boyz feel appreciated or something, so I decided to try a different rye recipe from St. Hamelman. This time St H's "Light Rye". Pretty simple, mostly white flour, 15% pre-ferment (all whole rye) and not bad at all to work with.

And that was with splashing a little more water into it while mixing. Guess I'm over my fear of sticky dough.

Two big loaves as promised (mit seeds of course!) and it smells so good that I can barely stand not cutting into it. But I.will.wait. the crust has gone from super hard to nicely crunchy. Next time I'd do a little egg wash there but you know how it is - first time out you follow the directions!

Baking bread at the same time as making pizza is pretty good time management. Both start the night before as you make the preferment or starter or poolish. I try to look at the rising schedule of the bread to see which gets started first. Pizza is basically a two hour ferment with a folding in the middle. Then you have to look at how long in the oven. This worked out great tonight. The pizza came out and the bread went in. If you want to be really efficient about it, make something that needs a long slow bake so the oven is on to make everybody feel warm and fuzzy and growing.

Written at: 7:24:00 PM


Thursday, December 01, 2005  

A little eye candy for you today. Check out the blog and website of Renske Helmuth, Canadian quilt artist.

Another day of being sick. This really stinks, let me tell ya. I'm tired of being sick. OK, and I'm just tired. Sick of being tired and sick.

But there is good news.

Some of the stuff I ordered at lunch on Monday from Lee Valley for holiday presidents - arrived today! Now that's pretty great stuff. A big box of a lot of little great stuff. Yeah Lee Valley - I'm never disappointed.

I also ordered what will no doubt be a crowd pleaser.

I'd like to say more but you understand that I cannot. More on this in a few weeks. I can say no more.

Written at: 1:48:00 PM


 
December 1st is World AIDS Day, a day to reflect on those we have known who died of AIDS and to think about what needs to be done to gain control over this disease. One way to act is to speak openly about how people get the HIV virus. There are many ways: sharing drugs, unprotected sex with untested partners, transfer via bodily fluids including blood, transfer to fetus in the womb. Here are two sources of information and resources:

An observance of World AIDS Day
in the personal web publishing communities

Rudy's panel in the Names Project Quilt # 3678

Written at: 12:00:00 AM


Wednesday, November 30, 2005  

My little online group has been having fun this week looking at webcam shots all over the world - quick look - here's a great sunrise - here it's snowing - here it's not - etc. Since it's snowing in many of the places we actually are, it's nice to see that it's snowy in many other places, and see what else is out there in small towns and big parks across the world.

There was even this other cat cam which was pretty cool, although I've yet to see any of the promised cats.

On my own webcam, yours truly made a rare appearance as I snuck up and gave boopsie a little pedicure. Like all good pedicures, it was quick and painless and makes you feel better than you started out.

Here are some other web cams in the Albany NY area, including one in Averill Park.

Written at: 8:43:00 PM


 

I did have my design notebook out last night but didn't have it in me to fiddle around with some of the ideas in my head yet. So I settled myself down to re-read part of Twyla Tharp's great book "The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It for Life". This book is now available in paperback folks - go get your own copy.

ooops! My bad. Apologies folks and thanks Deb for making me go back and check. Looks like it's supposed to hit paperback the end of December 2005. (Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 27, 2005))Sorry to get your hopes up, but it will be worth the wait!

Written at: 11:37:00 AM


 

Wherez MB?

Home sick at the moment, no doubt with some offering given to me on Black Friday at the mall. Let's just say that it involved a little sumptin-sumptin called hard chills on Monday night. Jolly. I'm off to the health care provider in awhile to see what's happening. In the meanwhile, the cats are refusing to help make me soup or coffee and basically are just short of entitled about the extra warm-bed time. Grateful is not in feline vocabulary, really.

Because of this I missed the record high temperature experienced in this neck of the woods - 66F at Albany NY's airport. I think between that and the internal temperature thing going on I had no need to reset the programmable thermostat off the low-low daytime away temp. I guess if I didn't notice, it's not a bad thing.

Finally, there must be a few of the "free-range" guinea hens still in existence. My neighbor has this notion about keeping free-range birds. He started with chickens: 20 or so Rhode Island Reds which lasted a summer. Now there's a smaller flock of guinea hens. So far one has gone to a dog, and two apparently to cars. It seems guinea hens know less about traffic than chickens. Anyway, free-range around here is somewhere between suicidal and abuse. There are foxes, coyotes, free-ranging dogs and of course motorized vehicles that are willing to weed out the weak at every turn.

But this morning, I heard the call of the females and then the call of the lone male. Perhaps they'll figure this out before it's too late. Or not.

Written at: 11:26:00 AM


Sunday, November 27, 2005  
Even Ziggy gets a bit of the fruitcake action. Tis the season! (Thanks Mom!)

Written at: 12:51:00 PM


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