jaeleslie

That's what my dear old dad used to say. So I'm not doing too well with my Plan for World Domination today. Besides the usual routine, the only thing I got done was to order plastic bags which our group needs to stock the art fair booth, a task I have been putting off for oh six months now give or take. Then I got an apa in the mail and started reading that.

Why don't I have a place on my Plan for cooking dinner? or working out? or starting to read another damn thick book? Because those things butter no parsnips, as it were. Maybe I should call it the Plan to Butter Parsnips then. No that's just silly. I don't even like parsnips that much. I'd better get on with the World Domination.

Now that I have finished reading that 700-page tome on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I think I need to say the words Energy and Power about three thousand times each to counteract the bad word repeating in my head. This occurred to me while I was climbing the stairs from the gym floor today, feeling little better than usual, but not hearing the same inner remarks as I have the last few weeks.

Someone had set the chest-press machine (again)(as usual) so that in the resting position one extended the elbows too far back, very bad for the shoulder joint, I don't know why anyone would want to hyperextend that way, and it makes me crazy. So after my first set (at 60 pounds) I changed it. Then during the second set it occurred to me I was rather slacking off on my weights if I could do that exercise in such a bad position. I had read somewhere (the muscle magazine that comes into the house periodically for the whey-protein consumers among us actually) that one trains for Power lifting with 70 or 80 percent of one's maximum (one-time) weight. I have not actually tried to find my maximums as I am just a sick old lady trying to maintain some remnants of mobility... So then I put on 90 pounds and lifted that half a dozen times. Hmm, must raise workout weights. What is it, the weather?

Or Unbreakable? I think not.

I am at this moment baking a British recipe for non-dairy, non-gluten cheesecake. I'll have you know I have never separated an egg since I learned how, much less whipped them or folded them in since the procedure was shown me, literally decades ago, but that's how much trouble I am taking! (And to answer the perplexed, the yummy part of this no-cheese-cheesecake appears to be the ground almonds.)

Here's the question: the oven temperatures given are 200 C. and then 180 C. (excuse please my lack of degree symbols), but my American oven is naturally in Fahrenheits. Is this one of those things where you start at 400 F? to poof and brown the sugar and meringue portion? and then turn down to medium 350 F? to cook the runny parts? By the time the oracle gives me the answer, I will have either succeeded or burnt it anyway. Yeah, I should have looked it up first. Had to get it in the oven before the guys come back from the gym and take over the kitchen to make their protein fruit shakes.

Thanks to brisingamen for showing me how to measure ingredients in ozzes on the scale instead of cup volumes! What a production! The timer is going off now. Must tell that oven to clean itself sometimes soon -- every time I turn it on the house fills with smoke and the smoke detector goes off, courtesy of a peach cobbler that ran over a couple weeks ago.

Time to move on. But stay with us. After the break: barbecue sauce, with the last bit of a jar of blackberry jam...

Peace is not a whole round summer fruit
that weighs the branch to bend into our reach
It's swallowed bitterness...

http://www.fotolog.net/maryread/?photo_id=8201474

These calligraphic works are not exactly what the site is for, but I have a bunch of scanned jpgs on hand so at least I can upload them regularly. I suppose I'll have to start an entirely different photolog for actual photos! Just got the images from Writing on Bodies at WisCon. I have quite a number of those, but maybe another site would be better, suggestions?

Today I made fresh salsa. Then I made a new kind of condiment, sort of a slaw or relish out of grated black radishes poached in orange juice with some other good stuff (a touch of sesame oil, celery seed, cilantro). Then I made a pitcher of lemonade. Then I mixed up a honey spice cake. Then I sprinkled secret blend* of herbs & spices on chicken breasts and put them in the oven as well to roast on a bed of garlic scapes. Still to come, peel & slice kohlrabi crudites, steam broccoli, and mash potatoes. Later there will be chicken stock.

Possession by the Domestic Goddess.

*It's a secret because the jar doesn't list what's in it.

For those of you who are not up to the minute with Madison weather, last night there was a big tornado type or possibly straight-line wind (the meteorologists differ) out on the west side that did great damage. Mr S' brother lives on top of the hill off Segoe Road near where the broadcasters showed an entirely demolished house and warned all the tourists who wanted to look at the damage to stay out of the area.

So at Al's I hear there is a branch through the roof -- it's still raining -- and the electrical service is entirely ripped out. Mr S went out there this morning with a saw and whatnot to help get a tarp over the roof and assist with preliminary repairs. All the trees in the area are "shredded", and Al's insurance agent who is older than dirt is not answering. I am the message service in case the tree guy calls back. I bet he's pretty busy too.

Crispix does not stay crisp in milk. Even in rice milk. Chewy maybe, but not actually crunchy or crisp. Another illusion shattered.

Another day consumed by the minutia of life. Nothing grand accomplished. Nothing even complete. I wrote a couple of things in my studio notebook, one rather badly, with colored ink, which is notoriously poor as a broadedge writing fluid. I am a professional, do not try this at home.

Dropped off a trunkful of clothing at Goodwill, and have dredged three, make that four boxes of quart canning jars out of storage, which are now being claimed by two different parties on the CSA discussion list.

Today I am embarking on a couple of weeks without wheat products, just to make sure, which is something of an annoyance but one which I am well prepared to tackle. It added some interest to grocery shopping this morning, reading all the cereal boxes. Tried mallwalking, which was just a bit too much for me today, but I did find the kind of handsoap Mr S has requested on sale. Got home in time to be on call when Number One Son needed to be picked up from his driving class. Then drove over to pick up apas, in preparation for writing a bunch of comments before next month when I will not have time.

While I lounge on the sofa between such tasks I'm very pleased to have maintained enough concentration to be reading the 700-page tome on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME, and making good time through it, which is excellent because it's astonishingly demoralizing to read and I'll be happy to finish. Even though I am continually thanking my lucky stars I'm not as sick as some people. Even though that doesn't seem to be my problem (I keep telling myself) and I don't have any kind of diagnosis anyway, there's no real medical model for what causes it, so play suspenseful music here. Today I went so far as to Google some of the major players, for the Rest Of The Story, and I'm sorry to say medical science has advanced not at all in the field since 1995 when the book came out. Still officially one of those Only In Your Head problems.

Must go make chicken soup now. It seems suitable to the weather.

I think I mentioned Chris and Marcia came over for papermaking last week. I have had this piece of blue and green handmade paper on my desk with some relief texture on it (from a plastic doily laid in while it was pressed) and was thinking about how I could maybe put some gilding on the high spots, besides the dark blue lettering I did, it needed a little something more. And Chris made this interesting remark about how she had read somewhere about using wax as a gilding adhesive.

So what kind of wax do I have on hand? I thought of trying crayons although they seem a bit too dry. Mr S used all my canning paraffin (for sealing tree pruning wounds) and what he has left is full of dirt. No beeswax on hand. But I have this wax for the layout waxer that I hardly use anymore, and bigger (newer, whiter) blocks of wax from a friend whose agency went from industrial-strength waxer to all DTP. Not being one to make a lot of tests (the work is the test!) I tried it on my latest little book, not melted but just the solid block rubbed over, and the metal leaf stuck and it looked pretty spiffy. Kind of rough, the application was not very even, but that fit in pretty well.

So I rubbed it on the handmade paper piece anyhow, laid on some wild composition gold, burnished it down a bit, scrubbed at the edges and low spots with a brush a bit. Got it just how I want it, so then I stopped! The bluegreen part of the metal actually matches the paper rather well, and there are kind of comet-like flames running through the piece of leaf I used. And there is a bit more embossing in the paper all round that, and blue-green sparkly bits in the paper too.

Now that I did it of course I have started worrying about the archival properties of the wax, as waxed layouts tend to dry out and fall apart after a few years in the files. This is not paper to paper, tho, and the weight of the schlagmetal is practically nothing. Ah well.

Something simple, I said to myself. Yeah, sure. I said to myself, back to gouache, no more of this struggling with acrylic and waterproof inks and weird mixed media surfaces, I said to myself. Right.

Edit: okay, okay. Here is where you can see what I'm talking about. As usual the gilding doesn't scan very well at all, which is why I was yammering on about it. http://www.fotolog.net/maryread/

I dreamed I was at a writing workshop in a grand house. I was waiting for the rest of the tour of the house and grounds, which had in somewhat disorganized fashion disappeared down the main (state) street for a shopping expedition. Standing in the garden, another writer (one of the real writers I suppose) accused me of being a tourist, just taking up space in the workshop. Guiltily I felt this was somewhat justified, but defended myself: "I have a piece of fiction in progress set in a castle. I have been to dozens of castles, in several countries. So I would like to see the basement now."

When I woke I had to work out whether I was overstating a bit about the castles. I don't know about the piece of fiction, although I wouldn't be surprised to find it lurking about. Here are the castles:

Chillon (as in Byron's "Prisoner of")
Gruyere
Grandson
Louvre (rehabbed)
Versailles (and Petite Trianon, unfortified)
Cardiff
Caerphilly
Chirk
Edinburgh
Blair
Urquhart (ruin)
Dunvegan
Hampton Court
Warwick