Life

It's true. I haven't blogged for awhile. First, I was too pissed off about what's been going on Wisconsin (and Michigan, and Ohio). You don't even want to get me started. Then I was too shocked and saddened about what's been happening in Japan. Then I got busy weaving again. And I still don't know what to say. But I'll try. Honest I will.

I Am a Risotto Master

Risotto Bianco - pg. 105

No kidding. I am a risotto master. I knocked off risotto bianco tonight, along with a loaf of no-knead walnut and raisin bread. Of course, I can't resist screwing around with recipes these days, I'm getting so cocky in the kitchen. So, I added chopped brown mushrooms to the onions at the beginning and tossed in a few fresh shrimp toward the end. It wasn't very "bianco," but it sure was good. (Roxanne W. Furrperson got a cooked, chopped shrimp after our dinner. She loves shrimp.)

I've decided that (1) risotto is easy, and (2) risotto is my new meat loaf. (1) I didn't even bother measuring anything to make the risotto bianco since you judge everything as you go along by taste and texture anyway. How easy is that! (2) Like meat loaf, you can put any weird stuff you have in the frig into risotto. Whatever odds and ends of cooked veggies, meat, cheese you happen to have on hand. Just toss it in. I certainly wasn't sure about combining mushrooms and shrimp, but it was delicious.

I'm so into this risotto thing that I just ordered Vialone Nano rice and Carnaroli rice from igourmet. It would be fun to have a dinner party comparing risottos made from these 2 rices with some made with Arborio (which is easy to find locally; the other 2 are not).

Otherwise, as we wait for massive explosions and/or meltdowns and radiation releases from 6 (count them: SIX) stricken nuclear reactors in Japan, I tied on my red chenille warp. Tomorrow I weave! Yeah!

96 recipes completed; a mere 209 yet to make

Big Week for Cooking

Moroccan Carrot Salad with Ginger - pg. 246

Earlier this week we hosted our neighborhood foodies for a north-African themed dinner. This involved days of menu planning, shopping, and cooking. I loved every minute of it.

I made bread, a total of 4 loaves so guests could take some home, too. Served simply, family style, were lamb tagine, curried cous cous, and carrot salad with ginger. Numerous bottles of wine and sparkling water littered the table.

For desert I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache and frosted with Mexican chocolate frosting. Tom brought a nice dry champagne to go with.

As you might imagine, everyone went home with cupcakes as well as bread; and we've been eating leftovers ever since. What a way to go!

95 recipes conquered (more or less) and 210 left to tackle

It's All About Japan Right Now

Apparently I'm the only person who has had trouble tearing herself away from the TV and what's been going on in Japan and around the Pacific Rim. We are one earth. These things impact all of us. I remember 3-Mile Island. Southern California is way overdue for a Big One. The question is not "if". The only question is WHEN. Are we paying attention? Are we learning anything at all from Japan's experience?

A Day of Round Two-its

Oh, you know what I mean. All those little niddling tasks that pile up all over the place. The ones you don't want to do right now. So, you'll do them some time when you get a round to it. Today, I did a lot of round two-its.

Boxed up stuff in the garage that will be donated somewhere. It's all in boxes in the car, which is 90% of the battle. First donation drop-off I pass gets it.

Cleaned and slightly reorganized several drawers in the kitchen. As I'm getting more and more into cooking and baking, where things should be stored is becoming more obvious.

Resolved a bunch of pending projects in my closet. (Where should this go? Where should that go? Fix broken earring? Nah, toss it. Put jewelry back in appropriate places. Dust -- that would be a verb, not a noun. Etc.)

Put stuff away in my studio. (There is always stuff in my studio that needs to be put away.)

How on god's green earth can this stuff take all day? I haven't a clue, but it does.

Rice Again

Plain Rice: Absorption Method One - pg. 100

I tell ya, I've just about got this rice thing under my belt! Tonight I poured Trader Joe's green curry tuna over short-grain rice, prepared by Alice's first absorption method. I can also make pilaf and risotto, so as soon as I make "boiled and baked long-grain rice" and risotto blanco (I always make gussied-up risottos), I'll have this whole rice conundrum conquered. No small achievement for a girl who was brought up on Minute Rice. Heck, that was the only kind I made for decades. I mean, decades.

Otherwise, we shopped today for our neighborhood foodies dinner next week. I made a shopping list in the morning. We went to farmers market, lunch, our new favorite winery, Trader Joe's, and Home Depot for blocks to extend our upper retaining wall. Farmers market yielded red-leaf lettuce, strawberries, green onions, fennel, cilantro, and flat-leaf parsley. We found a nice organic cauliflower where we had a not-so-impressive lunch. Mostly I wanted the cauliflower for the Blue Bunny label....

Our new favorite winery is Dubost on the west side out of Paso Robles. We bought Reserve Syrah and Zinfandel after tasting a variety of red wines and one chardonay. I'm feeling sad tonight, though, since I've learned that the family's 34-year-old son and head winemaker was killed in a vehicular accident just 6 months ago. What a terrible loss for many people.

Well, life goes on and so did we. To Trader Joe's for most of the rest of what I need, and to Joebella for coffee. Truthfully, I almost always get chai lattes these days. They are especially good at Joebella.

We picked up our blocks, came home. Randy placed the blocks. I made dinner. And here we are. Basically, that was the day. A good day to be alive and a beautiful day on the Central Coast.

P.S. I also made glazed carrots for dinner. Randy, who is not a big carrot fan on the best of days, said they were the best carrots ever. Yeah!

94 recipes down and 211 to go, more or less

Boy, Am I Steamed

Steamed Sole - pg. 331

Yeah, well, besides the bullshit that's going on in Wisconsin and Ohio.... Don't even get me started.

Other than going to yoga and the grocery store, I literally spent the day in the kitchen. I'm searching for a good lavender cupcake. Tried 2 different batches today, although neither one was the lavender cupcake of my dreams. Topped them both with a lemoncello frosting which seemed a good complement for the lavender flavor. ...Not to mention that I washed all those same dishes 3 times!

And I finished and baked my second no-knead rye loaf. This one came out much better than the first rye loaf. I just let that sucker ferment away for a full 48 hours! Nice to know you can mix the dough and just ignore it.

For dinner, I tacked steaming fish, dover sole in this case. This was somewhat difficult since I don't really have whatever appropriate equipment you're supposed to use to steam fish, but it was still okay. And quick. And seems pretty fool-proof. Served with oven roasted butternut squash and potatoes. And the rye bread, of course.

Whew. I'm pooped.

93 recipes down; 212 recipes to go (100 recipes down or bust!)

Carcass. I Love That Word. Carcass.

Turkey Soup with Kale - pg. 254

The first ingredient in this recipe is "1 roasted turkey carcass." Alice says this is "a good soup to make the day after Thanksgiving." Alice, apparently, thinks I make turkey for Thanksgiving. Alice is wrong. What I make for Thanksgiving is reservations. For which I then proceed to give thanks. However, I happen to have a meaty chicken carcass left from the recent French Chicken in a Pot. More importantly, I have everything else I need, so Poultry Soup with Kale it is.

I can't say this is the most exciting thing I've ever made or eaten. Alice seems to have a fondness for thin, light soups. I have a fondness for soups you eat with a fork and knife (almost). But, it's in the book and I've made it and I can now check this recipe off the list.

92 recipes completed with a mere 213 recipes to go

Tuesday was Shopping Day

I don't often get in the mood to shop. But it hit me yesterday. Must be that first-of-the-month thing when I'm feeling flush.

#1 Petsmart for cat food, kitty litter and pill pockets.

#2 Costco for assorted groceries and a memory foam contoured pillow since I've taken to stealing Randy's when he's out of bed before me in the mornings.

#3 New Frontiers for bulk rye flour and whole wheat flour. And organic lavender. I want to make lavender cupcakes.

#4 Two black T-shirts from the sale rack at Chico's. My uniform of choice these days on top of black jeans. Or blue jeans.

Topped with a movie and dinner with my dear friend Laurel. We laughed out loud all the way through "My Dog Tulip". Ya gotta love British humor. Dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Palace.

This morning it's back to the gym since I ditched yoga yesterday for shopping. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. Although I did start another loaf of no-knead rye bread before I left home yesterday morning. That counts for something, doesn't it?

TGI Monday

I've noticed lately than Mondays seem to be lost days for me. I just don't seem to get anything accomplished on Mondays. This is NOT a good way to start a week, since it's all downhill from there as often as not. Soooooo, I made an extra effort today to have a plan and to stick to it. It worked.

#1 NO HOUSEWORK! Housefrauing can quickly eat up a lot of time, plunging the day into creative darkness. Housefrauing NOT done!

#2 Clean the rug loom's canvas apron. It had fallen pray to what appears to have been a large kitty hairball of the soggy type while it was in the garage at the old house. Desperately needed a thorough cleaning. And I do mean desperately. With Chlorox spray cleaner followed by lots of water and sunlight. Done!

#3 Clean and set up the little 8-shaft Harrisville floor loom. It needed all of its pieces and parts thoroughly dusted and put into their proper places, wing nuts tightened, that sort of thing. Fortunately, it survived its years of inactivity and the move to the new house in better shape than I had feared. It's all ready to warp. Done!

#4 Unpack, sort, and organize weaving tools. Some went into what I now call the Ba-Bye Box. Everything else is cleaned and put in appropriate places. Done!

#5 Finished a loaf of no-knead rye bread. Oh yum! Done!

#6 Went to the Paso Robles Kennedy Club for my favorite yoga class, Chai Ball. (I know it sounds weird, but it's wonderful. Trust me on this.) Done!

Damn, that was good.

Fennel!

Sauted Fennel - pg. 306

Fennel is becoming one of my new favorite vegetables. Who knew it was so easy to saute and so tasty with a little of our local Pepper Plant Sauce and a healthy squeeze of lemon added right before serving?! This was another of Alice Waters' recipe in TAOSF.

I also made French Chicken in a Pot from America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated. You can google it. Best chicken I've ever had, and chicken au jus. I've never had chicken au jus until tonight. OMG.

And we ate the last part of The Perfect Bread. (Rise, rye dough. Rise.)

And I did housefrau stuff today since I am NOT, NOT, NOT doing any cleaning or laundry this week. No, no, no.

And I spent too much time on the computer.

And life goes on.

91 recipes completed and 214 yet to tackle

At Last! Bread!

I've kneaded bread in the traditional way. I don't care to ever do it again. I don't have the arm muscles of a cross-channel swimmer. I am a confirmed bread machine bread baker. I love my Zojurushi. But still, I have lusted after that perfect artisan bread that usually costs a small fortune at fancy bakeries, if you can find it at all, which, in San Luis Obispo County, you cannot. It's that crunchy-crusted round full of holes that you rip apart and dunk in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It's the bread of my dreams.

So, months ago I purchased Jim Lahey's book, "My Bread." It's a no-knead, no-work (no kidding) method that yields that bread of my dreams: the Perfect Bread. I've also been prompted, by Jim and my other cooking experiments, to invest in 3 covered cast iron pots, all of which get used a lot these days. Friday I finally got my courage up (my cooking courage has grown immeasurably in the intervening months) and started a loaf of the basic bread.

The key to Jim's method is a very slow rise using little yeast. Twelve-18 hours normally. Since it's been a bit nippy here, I let my first rise go nearly 24 hours, which was just fine. The second rise was increased from 2 hours to about 4-5. My point is that if you don't get around to whatever the next step is right away, it's not a big deal. After 2 rises, and NO KNEADING between, you just dump the dough into a hot pot and bake.

Out of the oven came . . . ta-da . . . The Perfect Bread. OMG.

Since it takes all of 10 minutes, even for pokey me, to get a batch going, I've already started a rye loaf. Even my picky, picky, picky, highly critical husband says this is the bread of his dreams. And, believe me, he is impossible to please.

So, get the book. Read it. And make bread. I know, I know. The recipe is on the internet. However, as is the case in many things, the information on the internet isn't necessary everything you need to know to get The Perfect Bread. Believe me on this one. Plus, Jim's book tells you all about both the science and the art of The Perfect Bread. And, he gives you lots and lots and lots and lots of other ideas and recipe connected with the dough. Pizza! Focaccia! The sandwiches of your dreams! And what to do with any leftovers that get stale, as if that will ever happen.

Rice! Another Peak Experience!

Plain Rice: Absorption Method Two - pg. 100

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've never been able to cook rice. It's been a bloody mystery to me. I was heartened to read this from Alice: "Cooking plain rice used to seem mysteriously difficult to me...." If Alice has struggled with rice, it's okay that I, a mere kitchen mortal, have endured the same struggle.

But tonight! With Alice's guidance! I have triumphed! I used her method of pre-washing the long-grain rice to remove excess starch and then soaking it before adding heat. And now I know to let rice rest after cooking, too. It worked! Nice, perfectly cooked, fluffy rice. Seriously! A triumph!

I just topped the rice with a Trader Joe's find: tuna in green curry sauce. Sounds a little weird, but it's really good as are most things from TJ's.

Next I will track down some short-grain rice and try absorption method one. And the boiled and baked long-grain rice. This rice study is really paying off for me. My confidence is soaring.

90 recipes completed and a mere 215 to go...

Awww, Nuts

Roasted Almonds with Herbs - pg.216

Leftover Red Rice Pilaf for dinner tonight, followed by an apple crisp which I've been meaning to make for about 6 weeks now.... But I'm still on a roll! What else new can I make from TAOSF? There is a chapter called "A Little Something..." which includes some stuff that looks pretty ambitious to me, but the chapter starts with roasted nuts. I have nuts. I have fresh sage leaves. I'm good to go.

Alice says to roast the nuts in the oven. No way, Alice! I know that roasting nuts can go over the edge into charcoal land in a flash, so I did mine on the cooktop where I could watch them like Fannie Foxtail watches finches on the birdfeeder. I mean every second. I'm not sure what the point of the fresh herbs is, since those went off into charcoal land pretty fast. But the final product, a mix of pecans, almonds and walnuts, was scrumptious. We inhaled them with our leftover pilaf.

Otherwise... Have I mentioned how much I love my Chai Ball class, which is one of my yoga classes? Yoga resterday. Chai Ball today. Restorative yoga tomorrow. Love it, love it, love it.

Then I went on a hunt for 7/8" ID plastic tubing. Nothing locally, but darned if I wasn't able to track it down in an instant on Amazon. No shipping. No sales tax. I'll get 6 feet of the stuff when I only really need 18", but at least I'll have it. Shopping in the 21st century.

Still unpacking rug loom parts. Thank heaven the heddles are in good shape. I have to get all new heddles for the 16 shaft Macomber which is going to cost a fortune. And, I fished out the Harrisville brochures, so I hope I can get that one up and running in the next few days.

89 recipes completed & 216 yet to tackle!

I'm On a Roll (or Maybe It Was Leftover Herb Bread)

Red Rice Pilaf - pg. 102

I've always struggled with cooking any rice other than Minute Rice. I make Randy do it when I need rice. Alice, however, has an entire chapter just on rice. Shoot (and that's not exactly the word I am really thinking). I gotta do this. I gotta cook rice. Sooooo, I started the rice chapter with Red Rice Pilaf. The rice is actually sauteed in olive oil and already-sweated onions before you add the liquid which, in this case, is chicken broth. This might help me.

The other thing that's cool about this recipe is that it calls for a bunch of stuff I happen to have: leftover chicken, a couple Roma tomatoes, and some broccoli. You could make this recipe using any weird leftovers, however, which makes it a great go-to dinner.

Long story short, it turned out GREAT! I know enough to leave the lid on, since I've looked too often many times before. And I know enough to let the damned thing just rest for awhile after the heat comes off, although Alice has you do that, too.

I am a happy camper. I cooked rice. Randy was amazed. So was I. And I hardly thought about politics all day.

88 recipes completed; 217 to go

Back to Alice Waters and The Art of Simple Food

Herb Bread - pg. 60

Good grief! It's been 2 months since I've cooked something from my TAOSF project. I've taken a lot of side trips during that time. To Cooks Illustrated. To The Barefoot Contessa. To Martha Stewart. To Fine Cooking. To recipes discovered on the internet. And to some of my own creations.

Today I made Herb Bread for dinner, along with a salad. Actually, Alice uses the same recipe for both herb bread and pizza. So, I made something half way between, a gussied-up herb bread topped with sliced roma tomatoes, whole kalamata olives, chopped sage and parsley, and lots of shredded mozzarella. It was amazingly good. It's a dough with character, provided by the inclusion of rye flour. Plus, I got to use my Breville stand mixer to mix the ingredients (which took seconds) and knead the dough.

I'm amazed at how much I actually have learned about cooking since I started this project a little over a year ago. I read. I watch the Food Network. I talk about cooking with other foodies. But ultimately, nothing substitutes for doing it. My confidence is building. I'm feeling more in control in the kitchen. I'm understanding the science of cooking more and more. It's quite an adventure.

Otherwise, I'm getting all the pieces of my rug loom unpacked, cleaned, and assembled in my studio. It's going to be quite the jigsaw puzzle to put it all back together. Tell me it will happen. I'm filled with doubt.

87 recipes completed; 218 left to explore

Busy Day for the Brain in My Head

Stuff I've been thinking about today. And it's only 3:30 p.m.

It occurs to me that because she reads my blog, my mother-in-law knows more about me than anyone. (She certainly knows more about me by now than does my husband!) Well, this is true with the possible exception of my friend Giana/Georgiana/Georg.

I've been thinking about which is more important: the message or the messenger. Do you dismiss an important message because it comes at a time when it isn't truly relevant, or via a messenger you don't like?

What IS the "mainstream media"? NBC/CBS/ABC/Fox? CNN? MSNBC? PBS? NPR? The New York Times? The Los Angeles Times? The Washington Post? Newsweek? Time? People Magazine? Star? Which ones are owned by corporations? Which are owned by individuals? Which are owned by us citizens? How do you define "mainstream media"? And what, if anything, is wrong with "mainstream media"?

Has political discourse EVER been civil and well mannered? Ever?

What IS the purpose of government? The people banding together to do for themselves and their fellow citizens what individuals cannot do singly or in very small groups? That's what I think. Or should we leave most of those tasks and obligations to civil groups or religious groups or individuals and just band together for national defense and leave it at that.

When did our government become The Enemy to so many people? Why did those people turn their backs on their own responsibilities to keep that from happening? Or is The Enemy just a convenient boogeyman to blame when life is tough (and it always is)?

What will it take for the middle class in the USA to start standing up for itself?

I'm thinking of how proud I am to have been part of the public employee labor movement in Wisconsin. I was the first Grievance Committee Chairman, married to the first President, of the only public employee labor union that successfully struck in the entire history of the state of Wisconsin. Man, how I wish I were in Madison right now to add my voice to those at the Capital.

How do I know if my stand mixer is really kneading dough properly?

Will I be able to figure out how to set up my looms? And weave? It's been so long. I'm more scared right now than eager.

What should I do about the quilt top I just finished that has the wrong yellow (it's too green) in the setting strips? Ignore it? Toss it (send it to Goodwill)? Finish the quilt anyway, since it won't be the only weird quilt I've ever made?

How do I know if bread dough has been sufficiently kneaded? If all those little glutens have been sufficiently developed?

Why is there a chicken over there?

Progress, or Lack Thereof...

I guess I'm just hard on myself, but I never seem to have a truly productive day. So this morning I made one of those lists with priorities A, B, and C, and a few other things. Well, son of a gun, I actually got A, B, and C all accomplished. And nearly all of the rest of it, although "the rest of it" consisted of such thrilling things as laundry and ironing, repairing a shirt of Randy's, and cleaning litter boxes.

Dinner was excellent: whole wheat spaghetti with kale and shredded chicken. I'm sometimes quite amazed at the progress I'm making with my cooking skills. Passing up all those prepared-food type recipes in favor of "from scratch" approaches to cooking is really paying off. The flavors and textures are worth the time investment.

But still I wonder: will I ever grow up? or just grow old?

Red Velvet

But first another word about my toenail fungus! (Appetizing thought, isn't it?) Over the years I've tried knocking it out with Vicks, Miranol, vinegar, bleach, and many bottle of tea tree oil. Plus, vigorous clipping and filing with sterilized equipment. All the over-the-counter and witch-doctor self-help ministrations known to man. I'd say that slow progress has been made. The good news is that my nails and nailbeds are actually in pretty good condition as a result. Except for the stubborn fungus. #$%^&@*&!

What finally drove me to the podiatrist is that one nail has become so raised and misshapen that I can't wear normal dress shoes anymore. This is not necessarily a big problem now, but it might be when I am truly geriatric, God willing I should live that long. If I ever become truly elderly, I may not physically be able to care for my toenails as thoroughly as I do now. I want to go forward in time with my body in as good a condition as I can get it (given my love of food and fat... ahem). That's why I had my hiatal hernia fixed. That's why I joined a health club and do lots of yoga.

Another reason I saw a podiatrist is that the FDA has recently approved laser treatments for toenail fungus. However, after discussing all the pros and cons of various approaches with the podiatrist I decided to follow his recommendation to try oral medication. What the heck; why not. Tea tree oil. Pills. As of now, I'm doing both simultaneously. My concern is more with results than it is with method. If I can't get that one misshapen nail under control now, it might eventually have to be removed altogether. Ick. Don't want to go there at all.

So, yes. Right now I am taking oral antifungal medication AND continuing my use of tea tree oil, at least twice a day, as a topical treatment. (Stuff stinks, though.)

On to Red Velvet! Cupcakes, that is. I finally used my new Breville stand mixer (which I now love, love, love). Last night I made nearly 2.5 dozen red velvet cupcakes using Bobbie Flay's recipe. This morning, I made his cream cheese frosting and finished the little cakes. YUM. I'm looking forward to making more cupcakes, which I love, love, love; and using the Breville again and again. It's a gem. Very intuitive to use. Very easy to clean.

Oddly, the potluck group where I took the cupcakes was not impressed. I didn't think Randy and I could eat 2 dozen cupcakes on our own. So, I stopped at one of my favorite eating spots, Fig Good Food here in Atascadero, and shared them with the staff and customers there. Got good reviews, too.

Another hot event today was the Central Coast Weavers' first Pay-It-Forward event. Members who wanted to participate brought books, yarn, equipment and supplies they no longer wanted and took home new stuff that other participants no longer wanted. No money was exchanged at all. Several looms changed hands, lots and lots of yarn, some spinning fibers, and a wealth of books and miscellaneous stuff. The only firm rule is that you had to take your own stuff home if no one else took it.

As you might guess, I was thrilled with the stuff I brought home since it all speaks immediately to things I'm interested in right now. My first pick was some fine mohair weaving yarn that is of a quality I don't think you can even buy anymore. It's a rich golden yellow color, and used to belong to the grand dame of our guild, Ena Marston, who passed away a few years ago at nearly 100. I want to weave a twill scarf with this yarn as a memory of Ena and the encouragement she gave me, and many others, as a beginning weaver.

Which reminds me. Ena's mother was pregnant with Ena and living in San Francisco at the time of the Great Earthquake there. A pretty cool memory.

More Surgery! Wow! Yippee!

You know that I'm a frustrated health care provider. I get a big charge out of being a one-woman medical experiment. In fact, I even did that for real once and would do it again. (The drug in question that time was giving us test subjects neurological problem, so the study was ended abruptly.) As it turns out (who knew?!), the older you get, the more opportunities you get to be a medical test subject. It's just one experiment/experience after another!

At age 62 I have a family physician and a physician's assistant, a dentist and an oral surgeon, an ophthalmologist, a general/vascular/thoracic surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon and a physical therapist, a pulmonologist and a gastroenterologist, a menopausal medicine specialist and a nurse practitioner, and -- now -- a podiatrist! (This is in addition to the women who cut my hair and give me pedicures.) (I used to have a psychologist and a psychiatrist, but now I take pills.) For extra measure, I'll throw my pharmacist into the mix since I consider him a valuable and valued member of my health care team. Good lord.

Which brings me to the podiatrist. In an effort to get on top of health issues before I get really old and decrepit, I saw this guy to see what could be done about the toenail fungus (ick!) that I've battled for a very long time. I will soon be taking more pills for that. He says the outlook for me is good. While he was at it, he noticed that I have a large toenail that is prone to being ingrown. I've battled with that one since I was a little girl, but it hasn't bothered me in a long time so I've taken to ignoring it. "That," he informed me, "could easily be permanently fixed with a little 'procedure'." I LOVE how they call whacking your body up with sharp things "procedures." I'm game! So, in 6-7 weeks I'm in it for more surgery! Yippee! Also, turns out that Dear Hubby had this same "procedure" when he was a teenager. Who knew? He doesn't tell me anything, but that's another story.

Otherwise, yesterday I attended my weaving guild's study group meeting. I didn't learn all that much, but got to eat brownies and knit, both of which activities are hard to do at home since Stuart loves to see what I'm eating and to run off with my yarn. And, I went to the second meeting of my Islam class, a lecture and discussion about Mohammed. Our rapidly expanding class met in a local movie theater so we had the option of buying popcorn. I admit it. I bought popcorn.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.