Sunday, late morning

Ok, I was up quite early.  And, I took pictures!

Mostly I goofed around on the web while listening to Robert Jordan’s second installment in the Wheel of Time series, The Great Hunt, performed by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer.  Then, I watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and worked on my granny blanket project.

After this, I will be prepping my teaching materials so I can goof off the rest of the day.  It feels like a good day to mess about on my novel and do a data backup!  Wouldn’t want to lose all that hard work…

Maybe I’ll even get a walk in today–the sun is warm so maybe the roads will melt off enough to head out!

Seeing as it is Sunday, let’s try something traditional:  giving thanks for the daily bread.  Doesn’t it look yummy?

Fear not: Jonathan Swift said it was OK!

Source: Uploaded by user via Kaitlyn on Pinterest

How literature comes again to the rescue:  A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, 1729

What an eventful day

Of course, that title is an absolute lie.

I didn't do much of anything important.  I woke up and ate croissants that my sister brought me from Rachel's Bread.  [Yum!]  And then I graded some papers.  Then I procrastinated while watching Hulu.  And then I graded more papers.  Then I swept off the back steps so the sun could melt the ice and the dog would not go plummeting down to his death.  And then I graded more papers.  Then I watched more Hulu and procrastinated.  And then I graded a few more papers.

Then it was time for Facebook.

And of course, that brought about great wads of kicking myself because I still hadn't finished grading papers.  [At this point, it is dark.]  Then when I finally get the papers done, the participation grades still had to be figured and discussed.  So I worked like hell to get that accomplished.

Students are happy.  School isn't going to send little disapproving notes to my inbox.  So, more Facebook.

Now, it is quarter after 11pm and I realized I haven't eaten anything since this morning.  Damn my procrastination!

Miscellaneous

So today is Friday the 13th. 

I am considering taking the blog over to WordPress and I am testing it out.  I've been so used to Blogger and its easy familiar style that WP is a bit of a shock.  I need to figure out how to futz with their templates in HTML.  I don't like set-in-stone fonts or sizes.

So for the time being, I will post on both and see what happens.

[I'm still procrastinating!  Grades are due tomorrow...] 

Everything else

It is easy to forget writing.  Ten thousand other tasks loom up as the sun rises:  pay the phone bill, don't forget to water the plants, get those dirty dishes out of the sink and into the dishwasher.  These little tasks are like dreaded pop-up ads.  Only you can't just click the X to make them vanish.  They perpetually lie in wait.

I am a procrastinator.  I push things off until they can't be pushed off any more.  I procrastinate grading papers.  I procrastinate doing laundry.  I procrastinate mowing the lawn.  I even poke along at writing.  Heck, I am procrastinating this very minute!

What could I be doing instead of flapping my fingers here?  Writing.  Grading.  Dishes.

I need to continue with something similar to the NaNoWriMo habit of writing X number of words per day.  Surprisingly, even if I didn't really know what I would be writing that day, something always showed up and in a fairly compact amount of time.  I had plenty of time for procrastination afterwards!  This is the butt-in-chair process.

Have I practiced it since?  No.
Have I made any serious progress?  No.

So it is clear that my priorities are going to have to change.  Writing first.  Then all the other crap.

Future yummies

Guess what came in the mail yesterday?  My Seed Savers Exchange catalog!  [I linked to the page where you can sign up for a mailed copy or you can download it with no need for snail mail.]  I've had my 2012 Baker Creek catalog for a few weeks.  Both stores are amazing places to find heirloom veggie seeds.

I drool over the pictures.  I imagine growing wide swaths of vegetables and having them appear on the table fully prepared.  The canning shelves stock themselves with gleaming jars of summer love.  No more shipped-in veggies at the grocery store.  Food abounds!  Imagination--everything is magic. 

I am trying to be practical and realistic in my planning.  These traits being antithetical to my nature, I find this an exercise in overcoming wild flights of fancy.  I'm an idea girl.  Once I gain an understanding of what is required and how it is accomplished, I'm over my obsession.  But, this garden is one obsession that I feel is important.  [And each garden is brand new so I can't get bored or feel I've learned everything!]

I've still got seeds from my order last spring--things that I planted and others that wouldn't sprout or I didn't have room for.

1. French Breakfast Radish
2. Bull's Blood Beet
3. Rocky Top Lettuce Mix
4. Crnkovic Yugoslavian Tomato (pink)
5. Goldman's Italian American Tomato (red)
6. Ananas Noire Tomato (striped)
7. Black From Tula Tomato (purple)
8. Leutschauer Paprika (hot)
9. Black Hungarian Pepper (hot)
10. Quadrato D'Asti Rosso Pepper (sweet)
11. Red Cheese Pepper (sweet)
12. Eagle Pass Okra
13. St. Valery Carrot
14. Parisienne Carrot (an "extra" from Baker Creek)
15. Delikatesse Cucumber
16. Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean
17. Rattlesnake Bean
18. Purple Podded Pole Bean
19. Mayflower Bean
20. Musquee de Provence Squash (C. moschata)

There are still a few other veggies and varieties that I'd like to try and squeeze in as well...

Idiots in the Kitchen #2: Guac on toast

Ok.  So today in the kitchen I was joined by my idiot sister.  Actually, she is more Julia Child than idiot.  Me, I'm like Quasimodo.  I am all thumbs and have little concern for making the "pretty" with my food.

If you want to eat it, don't play with it.

We were out to eat yesterday and tried the newfangled gimmick where the server makes the guacamole fresh at the table.  It was infinitely better than the blended spoon-shaped glob usually served in a bowl at chain restaurants.  Plus, we got to control how much of each ingredient went into the mix:  I'm all about the tangy lime; Little Sister wants the spicy melt-your-brain experience.

So of course we went right out and got all the stuff to make wonderful guacamole for today.  Yummy with the avocado!

And then we proceeded to argue like cats in a bag about how to go about making a fun recipe of our own.  It's ok.  We're professionals.

We decided to go the Italian route.  Or maybe it's just Mediterranean.  Who cares what you want to label it--we're allowed in the kitchen with sharp knives.

We sliced and diced.  Well, Little Sister went Ginsu on the chilies and onions.  She burned the snot out of herself when she forgot that hot pepper juice is not friendly to any facial orifice.  So there was much hopping up and down, crying, and laughter.

I handled the less hazardous slicing of the bread, dousing of the olive oil, and spreading of the cheese.  I then tossed it into the oven and watched Little Sister make a mess.

Here's what it looked like in the end before we stuffed our faces.

The quick and the messy:

1.  3 avocados (aka Alligator Pear)
2.  up to a cup of diced tomato
3.  1/4 to 1/2 big fat white onion the size of small baby
4.  4 de-fanged Serrano chilies (no seeds)
5.  1 fist of cilantro
6.  salt/pepper to taste
7.  as much lime as you can get away with

Mash the hell out of the avocado and other veggies with a pastry cutter in a large bowl.  Please make sure your bowl is big enough to accommodate the sludge you are making.  Taller is better.

1 French baguette not stale enough to kill the chef
a bag of shredded cheese of your preference
olive oil

Slice up the bread in thin little slices and paste with olive oil.  [Don't skimp on your olive oil, people!  Get the good stuff here.] 
Toss on your cheese.
Ovenate on broil--take care to not turn the bread to dust.

Chuck the cheesy toast on a pretty plate, pile on the green goo, and make with the pretties like Little Sister.  It shall feed you and whomever you might wish to jealousify.  You can tell them you learned how to do all this from two idiots.

If I was French, I might say Bon Apetit!  But I'm not.  So stuff your gullet while you got it.

A year to visit the classics

As I write this I am also watching the first episode of the second season for Downton Abbey on PBS.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first four episodes last year and I am anticipating much the same for this season.  I highly recommend the series.  God bless PBS for actually making movies and shows that I actually have a desire to watch (because Hollywood sure isn't!)

So what I am thinking of doing this year is reading some classics that I didn't have the opportunity to tackle during my school days.  After being forced to read specific works during school courses, I disliked looking too closely at the literary canon.  In fact I shunned it.  I purposely avoided anything that looked more than 50 years old after I graduated.

Now I believe I am ready to return to those authors and novels that are part of the literary canon.  I want some wildly romantic stuff.  I want darkness and treachery.  I want saucy language.  I want uptight drawing room conversations.  I want farmers, kings, and merchants.  I want peasants, ladies, and brats.  Anything with a broad vocabulary will suffice!

Authors I'd like to tackle:

1.  George Eliot.
2.  Sir Walter Scott.
3.  Alexandre Dumas.
4.  Mary Shelley.
5.  Charles Dickens.
6.  Jonathan Swift.
7.  Thomas Hardy.

There are quite a few books under those names which I have not yet read.  And, maybe I'll even revisit those I read a long time ago.

It would be noticeable that I did not post Melville on my list.  Why?  Because I would rather stick a fork in my eye than read such dry, ponderous amounts of nothing.  I made it through my entire set of schooling without having had to pick up Moby Dick--a fact of which I am immensely proud!  And, unless the planet goes spinning off into the void, I never will. 

I think I will start with Ivanhoe.

Sunday Sunday

I woke up this morning.  It was one of those days where you open your eyes and say "Hello, world!" because you aren't groggy or muzzy or snerty.  But, it was dark!  I thought, hey, I must be up extra early.  Nope.  It was 7:30am.

Winter mornings here are like an extra special kind of hell when it is overcast.  It can stay dark all day, but you can begin to see bits of light around 8 or 8:30.  Grrr. 

I am a daylight person.  I need sun to function.

I still have hope that the sun is going to break through the clouds this morning.  It already looks promising...

First Friday or whatever you call your town shindig...

In trying to beat the closing time to my LYS to pick up my ordered yarn, it never occurred to me that yesterday was the first Friday of the month.  The roads were blocked off to the store and I had to park a few blocks away in order to get to my destination.  The town celebrates the first Friday of every month year round.  [Had I remembered, I would have brought my camera!]

For the first time I attended the relatively new (three years?) First Friday shindig.  It was the Fire & Ice Festival--which means that there were ice carvers working on ice-art all over the place and a group did a fire show.  Even though the name is majestic, the events are completely local and without super fanfare or special effects, but that's ok.  Downtown was packed and it was fun.

It was awesome weather for walking around, too.  A warm day in January--even when the sun made way for a clear night and a bright gibbous moon.  [This does not bode so well for the longevity of the ice sculptures.]

I forgot how much fun these little get-togethers are.  Bands, vendors, local shops, people.  It's very homey and makes you feel like you actually belong to the town.

Something new:  I discovered a WINE BAR!!!!

Yarn!

I love color.

Around here [and much of this region], the houses (and people) share an overwhelming preference for beige.  Houses are varying shades of neutrals.  The interior decor is dominated by neutrals--just "in case" the homeowners want to sell.  Bah humbug, I say!

If you must keep your neutral wall color, make everything as bright and garish as you possibly can.  After all, we live in a winter dark environment.  Even at mid-day, the sun is so far tilted toward the south that it shouldn't be considered "overhead."

I rebel against the beige-people! 

What is the most garish and non-"Martha Stewart aesthetic" thing a family can have in its possession?  A granny square blanket.

That's right.  A zillion color mash of yarn.  Nothing says love like a granny!  [If you don't believe me, go check out this blog and see if you don't LOVE the wild colors.  They make you happy.]  Traditionally, these are made to keep the family warm during the winter, but also to use up yarn leftovers--kind of like a crazy quilt uses leftover fabric scraps.

So I have a bunch of "I love this yarn!" from Hobby Lobby and am doing my own wild color mash.  I planned on creating a granny square that kept growing without binding off to small 5 or 6 round squares because I didn't want to stitch them together.  While I hit the end of my first color-go-round, I briefly considered making blocks because this was going to get very large...

These pictures were taken a few days ago and the blanket has grown several rows since then.  But I absolutely adore it.  There is no rhyme or reason in the color selection, I just grab a yarn and run with it.  It is going to be wonderful!

I also am headed to my local yarn store (LYS) this afternoon because the yarn for my Selbu mittens came in.  Yay, new yarn!

The demise of the writing group

The first Thursday of the month:  writing group.  I've been a member of a local writing group that met over the last year and a half.  Unfortunately, due to multiple factors in the life of everyone in the group this has become almost impossible to coordinate.  We've all had other obligations or scheduling conflicts that impeded the meeting dates.  And so, on Tuesday, our founder dissolved the group.

Am I sad?  A bit.  I met some amazing writers and funny people with whom I enjoyed spending time.  I got a lot of writing accomplished.  I read some great work.

So what would I like to see in any writing group I choose to join in the future?

1.  Flexibility.  Coordinating a group of people in diverse careers and family situations requires the ability to change days, times, or locations in order to keep the meeting.
2.  Tech savvy.  We should make great use of the technology we have available.  For example, Skype is a handy tool by which to have the meeting via conference call.  That means no extra travel time to squeeze into your day.  You don't even have to be in the same state!
3.  Frequent meetings.  I am the type of person that procrastinates if there is too much lag time.  It also means that I am less productive than if I am to be held accountable for my turn-out every week. 
4.  Well-read members.  I would like to know that, in addition to writing, the writers also are readers.  I like hearing new book suggestions.
5.  Different specialties.  I would like to see members with different preferences and specialties.  For example, I was trained as a poet (complete with MFA!) but am now writing novels.  I can't write a short story to save my life, but I really appreciate learning from people who can.

I don't know if such a thing exists or if it is all doomed to fall apart in the end.  I hear about the occasional long-standing group and I wonder how they manage to keep it chugging along.

Ok, novel.  It looks like it is just you and me on the long slog through revisions...

What do we think about now that it is snowy?

The garden!

Yes, it seems a bit contrary to discuss gardening with freezery wind and snow on the ground.  However, spring is right around the corner!  There is MUCH to be done.

Last year I had my first real garden (meaning I had more than just a tomato plant).  I had tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, peas, beans (snap/dry), lettuce, carrots, and radishes.  It was not a smashing success.  The bells were stingy and the tomatoes were finicky.  I discovered I hated the snap beans and the radishes kept dying. The carrots didn't do so well, but a few seeds got loose and I had wild little carrotlings in my flowerbed.  The hot peppers went gangbusters, the lettuce was amazing, and the peas wowed!  It wasn't a total loss.

Yummy peas!

And I now know the joy of handpicking bean beetles off the beans and drowning them in hot soapy water every morning!

New garden plan.  I just discovered a new website that helps you plan your garden and takes into account all the food you need to feed your family!  It is really amazing.  Not only does it allow you to design the shape of your garden, but you plug in existing plants from the list (or add to their growing database).  The program will plan out the spacing of the plants according to your layout.  It is amazing.

You can find the garden tool here:  Smart Gardener 

I named my plot "Garden of the Clueless" because, well, I am.  But it has to get better, right?

Idiots in the Kitchen #1: Chuck-It-All Veggie Soup

I decided that Tuesdays will be "Idiots in the Kitchen" day.  I'm not a wizardy super chef or anything.  In fact, I'm a "There's nothing to eat because it takes too long to cook" chef.  It's time to change that.

It's winter (complete with snow and everything!) and I felt like having some warm soup to cozy up with.  It also helps with the sniffles.  To that end, I put some dry beans on to boil last night.

Dry beans are the dust catchers of the kitchen.  We buy bags of them thinking, Hey, I'll make something with these this weekend!  We don't.  Well, at least I don't.  So they linger in my kitchen, sad and forgotten in a back cabinet.  I dislike dried beans for one reason:  the instructions are overly optimistic when they say that soaking them overnight and cooking them for an hour or two will be enough to make edible beans.  Liar-liar-pants-on-fire!  What works for me:  Boil the beans the night before you need them (at least two hours), leave them to soak overnight, and then boil/bake them again in whatever you are cooking to make sure they are done.

I'm a big fan of "toss it in" soups.  This makes a good meal and cleans out the fridge and cupboards in one swoop.  Leftovers?  Toss it in.  Wilty salad?  Toss it in.  New groceries?  Toss it in.

I started simmering the soup on low this morning and the smell has been wafting through the house all day.  Here's what I tossed in:

Chuck-It-All Veggie Soup

1/2 bag of mixed soup beans
1 jar of Northern Beans
1 large white onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 c. beef broth
1.5 c. (estimated) rice
1/2 c. John Cope's dried sweet corn
1 c. frozen peas
1/2 bag of salad greens
3 handfuls of baby spinach
Misc. salad fixings:  carrots, peppers
Spices:  Ms. Dash spicy mix, dry mustard, black pepper, celery powder, chili powder, Tabasco sauce, thyme

Feel free to toss in any meats you have as leftovers (browned ground beef or sausage would be lovely!) or even new stew meat or chicken to add a bit of meaty-goodness.  I only had a couple of giant roasts--still frozen--and I wasn't going to thaw them out for just this.  

I also hopped to Panera and got a few bread bowls to serve it in!  Yes, I admit, I am a cheaty-pants.  It's ok.  Sometimes convenience isn't a bad thing...

 Note to self:  In future, do not use diced tomato with chiles added.  Spice it by hand.

Oh, snow.

Yesterday, the temperature dropped all day and we had a smattering of snow and rain which caused a lot of slide off accidents on the roads.  And today, I woke to find this...

While it is not the end of the world, it is enough to make me put on a sweater and snuggle in a blanket!  What a good day for hot cocoa... 

And a good book!  I pledged to read 40 books this year for Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge.  I managed 42 last year (my goal was 40) so I feel it is solid goal to aim for.  I'd like to hit 50, but I'll consider that a bonus.

I've got the second, third, and fourth audiobook in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  I just finished the first book, The Eye of the World, before Christmas.  Those should kick off my challenge quite nicely.  There are a total of 11 before Jordan died and the series is being closed out by Brandon Sanderson who has completed two novels and a third is due out some time this year.  That should cover at least 13 of my 40.

Robin Hobb also has a Rain Wild Chronicle book coming out this February.  I am jumping up and down for this like a little girl!

OK.  Off to do some writing...

PS.  You will note that my camera still thinks it is yesterday.  Apparently it was having far too much fun on New Year's to consider a new date...

Happy New Year!

It is 2012!  Yes, the year the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end (according to some.)  However, I am not at all inclined to believe that there is some giant apocalypse waiting for us in December.  I think it was just the end of their marking cycle and things would re-set--not unlike us opening a new calendar for a new year...

I have a lot to accomplish this year!  I've got two complete novels in first draft and a third about half done.  I've got a granny square afghan sucking up all my crazy yarn.  I've also decided to learn how to knit socks from the cuff down (and two at a time) and that is coming along slowly.

What do I want to learn in the year to come?

1.  I want to learn to make crusty bread from scratch.  The kind of bread with the thick crust and yummy good inside.  The kind of bread that needs soaking in soup.
2.  I want to design and finish a pair of selbu mittens (and a set of socks).
3.  I want to learn to like raw onion on things.
4.  I want to start painting again.
5.  I want to cultivate a daily butt-in-chair routine for writing.

I think that's enough to get on with for now.

Ok.  It's 40ish and gloomy here right now at 9am on the first day of the new year, but we're supposed to drop temperature through the day and have a good bit of nasty weather tonight.  So, before the looming rain (and eventual snow) begins to fall, I think I am going to go for a walk!