Duck

The trail of links from Bitsy's about the croissants led me to this recipe for bread. I was suspicious of the claim that bread made without kneading would, well, would do anything bread-like at all, really. But the rest of the recipe was appealing... the small number of ingredients and the long rising are both qualities I like and trust in a bread recipe. And indeed, it worked out. And was so easy!

I don't have a 6-8 quart pot that can go in the oven, so I split the dough into two and put each half in a heavy ceramic pot. This made tiny funny loaves, and I think next time I might just use one pot and see what happens. The bread didn't spring up enough for me that I feel it's likely to overgrow my pan.

Now I have bread! And can stop worrying about whether it's safe to put the ceramic casseroles in the oven, and at what temperature, because 450° is about as hot an oven as I ever use.

So last night I went to take the bus home from the contra dance, kind of early because I had to proctor an exam this morning. I was about half a block away and across two streets and saw the bus and pretty much dismissed any possibility of catching it. But then it was just sitting there. And there was this woman crossing the street with me, also obviously trying to get the bus, so I started running in a hopeful matter. And then the bus pulled away.

(Another bus had pulled up in the meantime, so I think it was that there was supposed to be a connection there, which my bus was waiting for.)

And then a cab pulled over, as cabs often do when I wait for the bus at this place at night, so I waved him on, because, you know, I'm fine standing there waiting for the next bus. Much more fine than I am paying for a cab. But he kept insisting he would take me to catch the bus, it would be free, he was on his way home. So, he was insistent enough that I got in the cab and he did take me to catch the bus. A nice surprise!

Anyway, I just wanted to record that happy moment.

Also I'm not sure how it would be used for marketing. Phew!

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In chronological order:

one duplex in Shorewood, WI (aka Milwaukee)
two houses in Shorewood
one house in Worthington, OH (aka Columbus)
two houses in Shorewood
one dorm room in Northfield, MN
two rooms in college houses in Northfield
one dorm room in LaCrosse, WI
one room in a college house in Northfield
one dorm room in Corvallis, OR
one homestay in an apartment in Budapest, Hungary
one dorm room in Northfield
two apartments in Chicago, IL

to prove I can count:
5 places in Shorewood
1 in Ohio
5 in Northfield
1 in Lacrosse
1 in Corvallis
1 in Hungary
2 in Chicago

Well, so I can count to five. Go me!

Least favorite is clear: the only things Ohio had in its favor were a particular ice cream shop and these woods near our house. The woods were less awesome than the Arb, and the ice cream shop less good than any random custard shop, as long as you don't count Culver's. And it was a freakily new house. (It was probably not that new, actually, but freakily new for my family.)

Favorite is hard. I'd like to move back to Corvallis, though not the dorm room and probably I would dislike the failure to have a proper winter. I liked living in Greenhouse, though better when Dana was there to be responsible. And Northfield and college were wonderful. I liked Hungary, and I like where I'm living now, quite a lot. I liked a couple of houses in which I grew up, though I admit I'm not so keen on Milwaukee.

I shall go for a tie between Greenhouse and my nice quiet studio apartment.

Mmm, today has been one of those days where I just kind of want to go to sleep, constantly. Despite having slept a perfectly reasonable amount. For awhile I was thinking "ooh, maybe I have swine flu!" in kind of an excitable way but then I realized a more likely/ less hypochondriac reason is that I have one of these days on a monthly basis, corresponding exactly to... today. So probably I am just slightly anemic and crampy.

I went to talk to my adviser today and told him what I was confused about, and he said "Oh, I can show that!" in just the same tone that a classmate would if you approached them about a homework problem. You know, with some surprise in it. Which would make more sense if this weren't a topic he requires that all his students know. Meaning, I expect, he gets questioned on it with some regularity.

Somehow that's all I have to say. Except, I guess, I'm thinking about buying a camera, and maybe people have opinions? I would like it to be fairly small and give me access to fun controls. The guy at the camera store seemed to feel these were mutually exclusive requests.

I can flip pancakes in the cool way! Well, crepes, really. Pancakes might be harder.

I'm not sure I have anything else to say. I told Agnes I'd realized over the weekend that logic is involved in my decisions only afterwards and in kind of a hampering way and she laughed at me and said "You only just realized that now?" Well, I'd realized it before, but I just now decided to stop trying so hard to change the situation. But I have no idea what Agnes is referring to, unless she means everyone's decisions are that way. So I'm wondering.

- laundry! I meant to do that!
- other silly little tasks, like actually putting taxes in the mail and calling about that broken window
+ I have a copy of Goerss and Jardine's book in my apartment right now! You have no idea how happy I am about this. Suffice to say, it is unreasonable.
+ This is because they had it at the Loyola library. On the way back from which, I found an Easter egg. With candy! The Easter Bunny is real, if a little bad at timing.
~ sugar high. I should keep less sugar in the apartment, but it is tasty.
+ feeling positive about math
+ lots of contras this weekend
+ no longer feeling awkward about the contra people. much.
+ Mike can talk like a normal person again.
- new annoying health worry: my mother. Hopefully nothing is actually wrong. Will know Friday.
+ sunshine and flowers
+ puppies and kittens and unicorns. Well, not really. They just wanted to go with the sunshine and flowers.
- There really is a lot of laundry I mean to do. And other stuff!
+ and no time in which to do it. Why? Because I am busy doing fun things.
- or being on the bus to Hyde Park, I guess.
+ actually, I rather like the bus
- that hat I was trying to make seems to want to be done shrinking, and it is still enormous
? what should I do with all these knitting projects that I don't really want the finished objects of?
? Sarah, where are you moving to?
+ ending sentences with prepositions.
+ peanut butter chocolate cake from Blind Faith Cafe
+ cooking
+ cooking recipes from that Hungarian cookbook, which means reading Hungarian, which is surprisingly feasible
- which makes me miss Hungary/ Eva/ Mike/ Katie, even. Silly people who do schoolwork and suchlike.
+ Rachel Ries. And my unreasonable crush on her.
+ I talked to a stranger in a bar. I feel that is a Crucial Life Experience. Which I can now put behind me, or do more of.
+ I had this entertaining dream about the contra people, where I could tell it was meant to be the contra people, by the interpersonal relationships we were discussing, but none of the people were actually who they were meant to be. It was like a play. In my mind. Which, obviously, was acting out the processing it needed done. It was great, because it was so easy to interpret.
~ I tend to think of myself as a cautious person, but maybe this is not quite so. I'm not sure what to make of the reflections I've been having on this subject. Maybe I'm afraid of strangers in the wrong ways; I will pretty much get in the car, but I'm still iffy on the talking thing. That seems backwards.

Also unwise: pouring the water in which you have been boiling potatoes on your hand.

I took an exam and did my taxes. I have to xerox forms and send them in when I get back from break. My printer is out of black ink. You'd think it could use the other black ink, but apparently you'd be wrong. That's the special black ink.

I'm pleased about the taxes, because I was worried I should have paid estimated taxes, but it seems that wasn't necessary.

I'm less pleased about the exam. I spent about 8 hours on it. I think I was intended to spend more, as I answered perhaps 1/2 of the questions completely. I partially answered all of them, but there were some computations that I couldn't see how to make work. Possibly because I still don't understand calculus. (Which is getting old, yeah.) But I think he should have compassion about the computations, after the Poincare Lemma Debacle.

Anyway, I clearly did enough work to not get thrown out of the program or made to take another analysis class, which is the goal.

I haven't been to any sort of dance in a couple of weeks. I missed tonight's by working on that exam. But I have been to a couple of fairy events, which are also sanity-producing, if in a different way. Feelings! Are good for you.

You know, I'm sure there's a mechanism behind this, and I'm sure it lives in my head, but that doesn't mean I have to find it convenient.

If the weather's good, I do get to go for a walk in the woods Sunday, which sounds exciting.

If you were me, what would you do with a bottle of red wine?

Keeping in mind that, as me, you don't in fact like to drink wine. But cooking with it is good.