On my way to work Friday morning, I passed the Beth Shalom Synagogue on 3rd street. Above it hung a waning crescent moon, and across the sky streaked a shooting star. It was a beautiful way to start the day. I soon forgot about it, though. It wasn’t until I looked at APOD that I realized the Quadrantid meteor shower happened over the weekend.
Month: January 2008
Not So Bad Dog
Not So Bad Dog
Word of the Day: Labyrinthitis
A coworker told me she was suffering from labranitis. WTF?! After listening to her describe it, I think she must have meant labyrinthitis.
Speaking of Cake…
This is what happens when you forget to put your cake away.
Bad Dog
I left the cake I baked sitting on the kitchen counter. Harriet got into it and licked the frosting off two pieces.
(Yes, I know that chocolate is bad for dogs, but there wasn’t enough of it in the frosting she ate to hurt her.)
Other Milestones
It’s my three-year blogiversary today. That sort of boggles my mind a little bit. Three whole years!
In other news, I got up and put a batch of lentils in the crock pot. I was out of any variety of tomato product—both fresh and canned—but I did have a bottle of V8 juice in the cupboard, so I used that instead of water. Hopefully, it’ll work. It smells good, at any rate. It ought to be nearly ready for onions and garlic and whatnot. Mmmm.
I really love lentils, which is weird, because I didn’t like them when I was a kid. Tastes change, though. I didn’t like avocados or cheese, either. Or refried beans, or real butter, or eggs, or oatmeal, or salsa, or brown rice, or dried fruit, or, or, or… You’d think I was a picky eater or something. Ahem.
I also baked a cake last night. A box cake, no less! I never, ever, ever buy mixes. It’s not only that it’s cheating, but it’s just not much more complicated to make a cake from scratch. However, I was stuck in a Saturday-before-the-semester-starts traffic jam in the baking aisle of the grocery store, and I got captivated by the cake mixes. And the jars of frosting. I justified it by pointing out to myself that next weekend is my birthday, and dammit, I should have cake-from-a-box if I want it.
I ended up getting some sort of triple fudgey chocolate concoction with dark chocolate frosting. I made it last night (early, yes, but I can have my birthday cake early if I want, right?). It’s not cockeyed cake, but few things are. (Cockeyed cake, by the way, is a standard in our family. It’s cheap, easy, fool-proof, vegan, and it’s one of those things you can bake when you are out of everything.)
Catherine’s Scrapbook
Scrapbook 1915-1925
I’ve had this scrapbook for some time now. It belonged to Catherine, a family friend who died a few years ago. The scrapbook was done in the late teens through the 1920s, and it’s chock full of magazine illustrations from the period.
Catherine was determined to teach me a thing or two about fiber arts. She took me to a couple of quilting workshops, gave me an old workhorse of a sewing machine (one of those indestructible, all-metal ones that weighs 500lbs), took me to visit a local weaver’s studio, and even taught me how to weave. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, at least, not as much as I should have. I’m glad I had a chance to do those things and wish I’d taken better advantage of the learning opportunity.
(This is not the best image, but it was the 5000th from my little Kodak camera, so I thought I ought to mark the milestone.)
Paint
A coworker has been helping her mother clear about a million years of accumulated junk from her home. She’s been bringing me some of the art-related items, in hopes that I can use them. I have no idea if these paints are any good, but I thought the tins were beautiful, so I brought them home. I figured, if nothing else, I’ll photograph them a few times before taking them to toxic waste disposal.
Organization
I Reqires It!
I’ve been looking for some sort of DIY or hackable planner. Most of the printable calendars I’ve seen have been pretty ugly, and not so useful for my needs. It’s not that I have a lot of extracurricular stuff to schedule, but that I have a variety of projects and both long- and short-term goals I want to keep track of.
And then, while perusing my Flickr groups, I came across a post in the Notebookism group for a moleskine hack. I’m not a moleskine fan, but I think that if I use a larger notebook, this will work very well for my needs.
This is also a good reminder that when you want something, just ask The Universe.
Morning Belt of Venus
It was crystal clear and cold this morning, which made for a lovely sunrise. From my desk at work, I can see the morning Belt of Venus over the business building. (You almost can’t tell that our windows are caked with dirt.)
Battery Low
It was ass cold this morning (down near zero, and I don’t want to think what the windchill was). My car was not happy about starting and very nearly didn’t turn over. My car is a 2002, and I’m sure the battery in it is original, so it’s no wonder the poor thing is being grumpy.
Number 1 on the To Do list: replace car battery!
red paper boat 