Pictures from a quiet, rainy day at home

Exactly what it is. Making mole, doing laundry, chatting with you all.

Listening to some music; YoYo Ma. D.H. cooking.

Kind of mundane, pleasant. New black chair in living room looks like a question mark. Or some sort of strange punctuation.

Not especially edifying. A new school picture of my New York nephew on a shelf with stuff. He wrote on the card by himself! Now, that is remarkable.

Onward! Christmas cactus blooming and more stuff sitting around in my studio.

What else? Small frog outside in rain.

And me, grinding spices! Might post more later. It's very dark outside. Think I'll go practice tai chi form for awhile!

Looks like a very pleasant day!

It looks like a very relaxing day.

I forgot I posted these! That's how relaxing it was!

Yo-Yo Ma is good music for cooking.

I missed this, along with several other new threads I see.

My Christmas cactus is blooming too. Nice to have happen.

Just had to mention somewhere that it is 11 degrees outside tonight. That's cold.

7 here, supposed to go down to -4

Well, if we're mentioning temps, I just came home from my first 'full' night at my new job, at 1:00 a.m., and it was -1 degree. Brrrrrrrrrrr! (By the way, I think I had a really good first 'full' night at my job, and I liked it a lot!).

Congrats on the new job and glad it is starting well!

The weather report says it is 1 degree here right now, but I am not going outdoors to verify it.

I'm glad the job is starting out well, Brenda! Last night or early this morning, it was 2 degrees here! Very cold for this early in the winter. We got almost no precip. in Santa Fe but the southern part of the state got tons of snow! Very unusual. We had something like hoar frost on our windows this morning. I can look out the window to my left and see smoke from the neighbor's wood stove and from ours. Today we will make biscotti.

Roybird, you keep making foods I LOVE.

It's so tempting to start baking, but .... I MUST get to work translating.

Uh oh, Miss Piper is "rearranging" her bed. Gotta go.

Glad you had a good first night brenda. It makes a huge difference in getting started on the right track. I started a job a few months before another guy my age with a similar level of education and capability did. I was given a project and the bosses were too busy at the time to get back to checking on my progress until I had figured out what to do and was doing it. So they mostly left me alone and trusted me with projects from then on. The other guy started at a time when the bosses weren't busy so they checked on him before he had a chance to get going. They decided the project wasn't the right one (as opposed to not giving him enough lead time) and gave him another one. They again stepped in too soon and decided he couldn't be trusted on his own. The other guy decided it was in his best interest to get another job.

It was cold here too. We were in the teens last night. Warm by more Northerly standards, but cold for us. I wore my hat today.

Huge whistley blizzard here. LOOK OUT MT HERE IT COMES! http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/

Picante, when it's this cold baking and cooking is much more appealing to me! This morning, however, I've been moving furniture around and now my back is sore. I should know better. Think I will dress up super warm and get a walk before the biscotti. Dave, I've been wearing my hat since September, I think! I have not had a "regular" job in so long I forget what it's like. I was reminded about the joyous world of retail the other day as I stood in line at The Vitamin Hut ( not it's real name which I forget). The man in front of me was going in to a hissy fit because he insisted that Vitamin Hut no longer donated money to Habitat for Humanity. The clerk kept showing him a list and saying, "It's the first one!" But the man was having so much fun being offended and angry that he couldn't listen. By and by, he heard what the clerk was saying, shrugged and huffed off. Then the clerk was all frowny and slamming things. Brenda, I was thinking that people are generally happier when they are drinking. L.O.L. ( At first, anyway.)

Dahlia,
I suppose that must be why the wind is blowing hard right now here. Batten down the hatches!

I think people are generally happier when they are not reactive. Alcohol can increase reactivity, so it may not be the best choice as a form of anger management, ha!

Snort, the wind blows hard most of the time in Ennis! But yes, battening is in order.
Or if you're a dog, curling up with nose tucked under tail.

Back from a brisk walk. Now 25 degrees. Slightly windy here. I checked out a "food porn" site called thisiswhyyou'refat.com. I don't know how to make a link. Just google it. I found it quite creative! BTW, I consider food television to be "food porn" so don't worry. Yeah, I'm not sure alcohol is good for anger management. How about butter?

Butter? Used how?

Picante, yes, it does blow hard a lot, but it had not been doing that until just before I wrote that it was howling out there.

Curling up in a rocking chair with a soft blanket and good book is also a good approach to wind, except I am painting today and not doing that. Yet. Maybe this evening.

Butter. The Chef's secret ingredient. In cookies, on potatoes, in sauces! Use your imagination! Combines well with sugar and starch. Who could be angry eating buttery sweet potatoes? for example. Probably somebody could, I guess. But, not me!

The thing that alcohol does for anger management is that it helps people who manage their anger too tightly let it out. Not the recommended approach.

Roybird, you seem quite focused on a baking related mission. Do you need any people to convert?

I'm already a believer in butter.
Chocolate, too.

Mission accomplished with the biscotti! We made almond/hazelnut. Classic. Now, I've eaten too many. Dave, You sound like a willing convert! D.H. says he will not be involved in any more food projects until he's out of school Wednesday. He is trying to finish his screen play. So, I won't be online as much this weekend. But, I intend to do some more baking. Still making hand cream, as well. 'Tis the season.

mmmmmm biscotti mmmmm We have beautitous curlaceous drifts now but too whistley still to go out. It's supposed to blow through by tomorrow so I'll try to get pics. I'm curled up with In A Unicorn's Garden by Judyth A. McLeod about medieval gardens. http://medievalhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/in_a_unicorns_garden_book_review

That sounds like an interesting read, Dahlia, is it? Thanks for the good wishes on my new job. Now I just have to get enough shifts! Also, there will be an adjustment to working nights, but I can deal with that.

Alcohol is definitely NOT good for anger management... because you cannot manage your anger effectively when drunk. This is proven over and over again. And of course, different alcohols have different effects on people... rum usually creates a happy effect, gin brings on what DH calls "boozer's gloom" the next day, which involves trying to remember who you need to apologize to, and of course tequila, which not only can make your clothes fall off, but can also cause you to utter absurdities that have been known to ruin relationships. According to my 'research' at the bar last night, good whiskey makes you talkative, relaxed, and then very sleepy. Sounds like my personal red wine research, LOL!

I just broke into this book today but I am luving it so far Brenda cuz it has alot of history. So happy you are liking the new job and I do believe you may be our new official researcher on refreshing beverages; pros,cons. I roomed with a bartender and she always said it was a whole different perspective being sober while the world whirls around. Of course I am totally convinced that I am in the 'refreshing beverages make me more brilliant' league ^_^

Just finding this lovely thread..... Roybird, how nice~ to see you in your native habitat doing your life.... very nice. And I loved the smiling frog. Well, all of it actually.......

I have to say, the 20 degrees we have here is quite cold enough for me, thanks very much, the very thought of any fewer degrees in the air makes my blood run cold hahaha

Brenda, good show on having a good start to your job! May it continue in that vein! And may you stay safe from any of the unfortunate facets of alcohol, may it be warm and cozy and friendly..... for real!

My housemate baked spice cupcakes last night...... I got to eat them, yum. Something to be said for this housemate thing.....

a rainy day would sure be nice.......

My kingdom for a roybird biscotti and a cup of tea!
Is there butter in your biscotti? My recipe doesn't have butter. Maybe that's what's wrong.

Kyla, I had housemates for over 20 years. In Bozeman, I lived close to the university, so they were mostly students. I had great ones! Some of them even liked to clean!

Only a couple of really strange ones ... I think one of them had Tourette's syndrome. She would occasionally let loose a string of profanity and tell me where to stick it. But eventually I realized that she could not remember doing so. It seemed to be an involuntary tic. Other than that, we got along!

It's screamingly funny in retrospect.

Thanks, Kyla. It's up to 32 here today. A regular heat wave. I managed to do something interesting to my lower back moving furniture yesterday. Re-decorating hi-jinks due to being indoors too much. Today I practiced two hours of chi gung and tai chi, which is helpful but I had to be somewhat circumspect in my range of motion. Darn. Today I think I'll make chocolate chip cookies. I'm going to take a good walk first. If I keep with this holiday baking jag I'll end up becoming a hippopotamus. Which could be o.k. if I were a real hippopotamus but not so good in this current incarnation. Not much water here.

Hi, Picante! No butter in the biscotti. That's just as well. Love to have you over for tea!

OK, you've inspired me. I'm going to make an almond cake.

*drooooool*


Hmm. Tourette's syndrome, eh? My, that does strike me as a very handy excuse for some totally unedited venting. hahahaha is there such a thing as late onset Tourette's syndrome, I wonder???


My housemate also makes health juice and is doing so right now. She juices up greens, apple, lemon, beet, carrot, ginger, parsley, cilantro celery cucumber ---- and then she shares! Goodness mercy me. I chip in a bit and it is my juicer at the moment til she gets a good one (mine is a thrift store find actually, better than none!) but I would not do this complicated thing, probably, ever at all, so it is wonderful to have the benefits of it!

But the thing is, I have lived alone for so long it is just shall we say interesting to learn all the places where I get surprised by the presence and differences of another being in "my" space, LOL! smells sounds how the blinds get opened you name it I seem to have a preference. sheesh.

coyote has something to say about adapting to new circumstances:



This message was edited Dec 5, 2009 12:08 PM

Picante. Almond Cake!!!? Is it light and chewy with egg whites? If so, that is my favorite cake! I request it as birthday cake every year. I like it with fruit and whipped cream and coffee. I wonder if it is the same cake. Kyla, nice portrait! It is interesting to adapt to the presence of others. I am o.k. as long as I have some alone space. Actually quite a bit of alone space. Here is a picture I took yesterday morning or the one before when the temps dropped and we had ice inside the window!

Sheesh, I am not about to bake anything, but I think I will tour all of your kitchens, tasting everything. Yum!!!!

I did not sleep too well all week and got up today at 6:45 a.m. and just spent the day at the high school judging debates in a massive tournament with kids bussed in from everywhere. I once upon a time was a championship debater, so I thought this would be something I could contribute when Jen told me they were having trouble finding experienced debate judges and asked if I might help. I like encouraging the kids to apply themselves this way, so I did it.

But I am one tired puppy now.