"Please don't bake anymore," lamented my roommate yesterday.
A couple of weeks ago I baked my first carrot cake. It was pretty good but it's got nuthin on my chocolate cake. And as winter has not quite departed from the Northeast I'm stuck indoors for another weekend and I've decided to hold my own bake-athon. My roommate took half the carrot cake into work and one of the women there is paying me to make another carrot cake. So I'll do that. And I'm going to bake another carrot cake where I work on tweaking the recipe to see if I can't get it to be a little bit more "knock your socks off." I'm having serious visions of grandeur right now. Even though I've rarely baked anything beyond potatoes -- I want to out-do myself. I want to bake a cake that leaves me weak in the knees. Red velvet might be a bit out of my league (meaning it's above me, way above me). But the fact that red velvet seems romantic, delicious, and possibly out of reach makes it the ideal candidate for my overly ambitious, highly competitive self.
Time to consult THE CAKE BIBLE by Rose Levy Beranbaum.
Time for my roommate to buy some pants with an elastic waistband.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Waterbar?
I freely admit that on March 14th I had no idea what a waterbar was.
And if C hadn't received an email from the Commonwealth asking her to install a water bar to prevent erosion on a recently harvested tract of land, I might never have known what one was, much less have found myself creating the darn thing.
As we all know there's Google and the internet and as soon as I heard that a waterbar was needed two things happened. First I groaned, "More work?" Second, I Googled "waterbar" and the first hit was a pdf file explaining what a waterbar is, how to construct one, etc. Next thing I knew I was looking forward to heading to the land and getting to work. (Yup. The ditch digger in me is alive and well.)
Sadly my life is so freaking out of balance that I tore into building the waterbar with all the enthusiam I can't seem to drum up for sitting at a desk. I would say I overdid it but it felt great and what's a few sore muscles? Nothing a soak in a hot bath can't fix.
When the bar was done I felt renewed. I know that I'm not meant to be a Parks Ranger but I've spent so much time in the built environment this past winter (the office and the apartment) that my body is craving the outdoors and being more physically active.
Luckily warmer weather is around the corner. And there will be flower and vegetable gardens to tend. And I just might have to be content with that for the next few months.
And if C hadn't received an email from the Commonwealth asking her to install a water bar to prevent erosion on a recently harvested tract of land, I might never have known what one was, much less have found myself creating the darn thing.
As we all know there's Google and the internet and as soon as I heard that a waterbar was needed two things happened. First I groaned, "More work?" Second, I Googled "waterbar" and the first hit was a pdf file explaining what a waterbar is, how to construct one, etc. Next thing I knew I was looking forward to heading to the land and getting to work. (Yup. The ditch digger in me is alive and well.)
Sadly my life is so freaking out of balance that I tore into building the waterbar with all the enthusiam I can't seem to drum up for sitting at a desk. I would say I overdid it but it felt great and what's a few sore muscles? Nothing a soak in a hot bath can't fix.
When the bar was done I felt renewed. I know that I'm not meant to be a Parks Ranger but I've spent so much time in the built environment this past winter (the office and the apartment) that my body is craving the outdoors and being more physically active.
Luckily warmer weather is around the corner. And there will be flower and vegetable gardens to tend. And I just might have to be content with that for the next few months.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Not only does it seem like time is running out but time is actually running out.
Now that I'm over the hill I find myself having conversations like the following:
in the workplace:
me: I don't know about you but my time is important to me. I can't watch The Social Network because no one can give me back the 90 minutes it'll take to watch that movie.
co-worker: you can fast forward through the parts you don't like.
me: I have more years behind me than in front of me and I plan to go to my grave not having watched The Social Network.
lunch with vendor:
me: Life is short and I'm not going to spend one minute doing anything I don't want to do or spend time with people I don't want to see.
vendor: I agree.
And in the midst of this I've been thinking that I've been extra blunt with folks lately (this relates to the life is short philosophy). I checked Miss C's blog and had to laugh. She posted this quote from me to her:
"Did you wake up today and look in the mirror and tell yourself that you're going to be an idiot today, because that's what you are."
Now that I'm over the hill I find myself having conversations like the following:
in the workplace:
me: I don't know about you but my time is important to me. I can't watch The Social Network because no one can give me back the 90 minutes it'll take to watch that movie.
co-worker: you can fast forward through the parts you don't like.
me: I have more years behind me than in front of me and I plan to go to my grave not having watched The Social Network.
lunch with vendor:
me: Life is short and I'm not going to spend one minute doing anything I don't want to do or spend time with people I don't want to see.
vendor: I agree.
And in the midst of this I've been thinking that I've been extra blunt with folks lately (this relates to the life is short philosophy). I checked Miss C's blog and had to laugh. She posted this quote from me to her:
"Did you wake up today and look in the mirror and tell yourself that you're going to be an idiot today, because that's what you are."
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