For Nica. There’s still a part of me that’s hoping it’s not true, because it seems so completely, utterly unreal.
Littest Birds by The Be Good Tanyas
The Littlest Birds
Littest Birds by The Be Good Tanyas
Month: January 2011
Littest Birds by The Be Good Tanyas
Paneer
I had some odds and ends of milk products to use up (skim milk, half-and-half, and buttermilk), so I thought I’d try making cheese. It is easy and fast, and the only ingredients are milk, lemon juice (or some other acid to curdle the milk), and salt. No fancy gadgets are required, either–just a piece of cheesecloth or a thin, lint-free towel, a saucepan, a couple of plates, a colander, and some kind of weight to press the liquid out of the curd.
Curdling the Milk
Straining the Curd
Strained Cheese Curd
Pressing the Curd
Finished
iTunes Shenanigans
A couple of months ago, I installed iTunes on my laptop. I should have known better, because the last time I did that, it completely corrupted my operating system to the point that Windows could not load. I had to wipe the hard disk and reinstall Windows from scratch. You can imagine how happy that made me.
So I knew better. But I had a handful of songs in AAC format that I’d bought from iTunes that I wanted to convert to mp3. Installing iTunes temporarily seemed to be the easiest solution. I did, and it worked fine, and I immediately uninstalled it. Everything seemed to be functioning properly, so I thought I was in the clear.
Today I tried to rip some CDs and found that my computer couldn’t access music CDs–it kept telling me the drive was empty. Data CDs worked fine, so it wasn’t the drive itself. I was NOT AMUSED. And then I remembered my little adventure into iTunesland. And, more important, I looked through my recently installed programs and that was the only thing I’d changed since the last time I’d (successfully!) ripped a CD. Therefore I was 100% positive that iTunes had caused the problem, but I didn’t know how to fix it. The only thing I could think of was that maybe something didn’t uninstall properly, so I re-installed iTunes, rebooted, re-uninstalled iTunes, and rebooted again. Et voila, everything was back to working properly.
Hrmf.
Would someone please remind me of this if I EVER consider installing iTunes again? Because if I do, I’m sure no good will come of it.
Crucifix
I have a weakness for tacky Catholic stuff, so my mom picked this up for me somewhere. It’s a bracelet, and each of the little rectangular sections has a different saint on it.
Endpaper Notes
I don’t often get interesting stuff to catalog. That’s the nature of government documents. Occasionally, though, one of the old, crumbly books that come across my desk has marginalia or notes that catch my eye. I don’t recall the title of this one, but it was a collection of memoirs of 17th century Dutch traders in Ceylon.
But I shall be a clever woman
Endpaper Notes from The Mill on the Floss
Staff Meeting Doodle
Rivet
A coworker thought I might be able to use this in something arty. I thought it was a game token at first, but it’s actually a rivet from a pair of jeans. A very cheap rivet from a very expensive pair of jeans.
Moong Dal and Taxes
Taxes are done, done, done! And it only took 27 minutes. I went ahead and filed both state and federal electronically, but my understanding is that federal returns are going to be held up because of the late changes to the tax laws. So I guess we’ll just wait and see how long it takes.
Laundry is almost done, too. I wish I could say as much for the house, because it looks like a bomb hit it. I didn’t get any cleaning done this weekend, unless you count emptying and (re)filling the dish washer, and I’m pretty sure you can’t.
And now for a gratuitous food photo.
Moong Dal, inverted lens macro
Crankypantsing, Ahoy!
I paid my cable bill online, but of COURSE, it got messed up somehow, and I didn’t get a confirmation number. The last time that happened, they lost track of my payment and shut off my cable. Hopefully that won’t happen again. Hrmf.
And then there’s my upstairs neighbors. The first few months, they were very nice and quiet, but now they’ve turned into The Mad Bonkers. Their bedroom floor is really creaky, so when they go at it, it wakes me from a dead sleep. And they always seem to have sex late at night. Last night it was around midnight, but the night before they woke me up at 2am. Which would have been bad enough if I had a normal schedule, but I usually get up around 4am, so I was super duper Not Amused.
Which is to say that I have been severely sleep deprived lately. Today I slept and slept and slept, and then I thought I might sleep a little more, and then I took a nap. I think I might be caught up now, but I’m sure they’ll wake me up again tonight, and all that lovely sleeping will have been for naught.
red paper boat 