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new posting. posting new stuff. alert! attention! actual use of weblog may occur below this announcement...


er, or something near that.

so let us see. now outside of city. renting part of large-ish professor on sabbatical house. lovely yard. greenery everywhere. walk to work. life could be worse.

but what is there really to write about?

made a chocolate pudding over the weekend:

3cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 tea salt
1 capfull vanilla
2 tab butter
1/2 bag chocolate chips, melted


whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt in pan. add milk and whisk. keep on medium heat, stirring occasionally with increasing vigil as liquid thickens. melt chocolate in separate pan, put aside to cool slightly. when milk mixture has thickened remove from fire and add vanilla, butter. stir until butter is melted. stir in chocolate. continue with an occasional stir until pudding is cool, refrigerate.

to have vanilla pudding omit chocolate. almond extract can also be used in place of vanilla or really any extract.

depending upon the quality of your ingredients this can taste like box mix or something extraordinary.

farm life

i suppose the only way to start writing again is to write.

i've spent the past week at a sheep farm upstate in genoa, ny. a coworker and her husband own the place. it's also a woolen mill with pre-WWII equipment. this place is just loaded history and cool stuff. sheep, a goat, chickens that try to steal the dog food. a cat with brain damage that is as sweet as can be. oh and chicks! little baby chicks that have to be cared for and checked up on.

we go to diners for breakfast and drive around in a vegetable powered old benz. on memorial day the town of moravia had a parade that had more people following it than in it.

barn swallows with their forked tails are in the barn and lizzy, the dog who protects it all has killed at least two groundhogs and maybe a baby skunk while i've been here. every time she's awfully proud of herself.

one of the sheep is due to lamb any day now and her newborn will add to the boy triplets and a girl lamb named thistle.

i got the idea that i wanted to make ethiopian food and looked online for recipes. you be surprised how limited and awful some of the recipes are. when i looked for ethiopian cookbooks on amazon there was a total of one book. a book that is out of print. so i've pieced together some dishes and any day now the injera will be fully fermented and i'll attempt an ethiopian meal. if i don't fall over dead i'll post here about it.

things are pretty alright. still haven't found out if i'll be going to sea for the summer but hopefully i'll know soon enough. i'll either be spending six weeks in the middle of the pacific or i'll do some timesharing between berkeley and baja. i would love to be in new york for summer, with all its free cool outdoor activities but the heat, humidity and general stink make me miss berkeley all the more.

so we'll see. if my boss is fine with the telecommute then i'll put my stuff in storage, bow out of my month to month lease and live the rent-free life of home and baja.

so i just realized, after looking at my itinerary, that i'm flying home on the 19th... bad news because it means one less day in california, but good news because i'll make it back to new york for work's holiday party! yessssssssssssss.

tonight was a baking night. i made peanut butter chocolate chip pecan oatmeal cookies. yes. that's one cookie. five dozen were made and close to five dozen still remain. they'll be brought in to work tomorrow as part of my sneaky sneaky plot to lure people away from their diets.


and if i were truly a blogger at heart i would've taken a picture to post

[here].

you're dirty and sloppy

our fridge is amazing. the cheese and meat drawer is awe inspiring. we actually make meals. well, at least once a week we make a meal, but those last a few days if not half the week. of course last week when i made pork tenderloin of course i cut my finger chopping potatoes. i think i can take the band aid off soon. never complain that your knives are too sharp. yesterday maire made chicken paprikash. ukrainian food tastes good.


so the schedule for this weeks is all 6am starts and i think it might kill me. ok, so i'm not going to die over it but i get ridiculously tired. i need to put the job search in overdrive but it's so hard to get motivation. and really, cover letters totally impair me. i mean, what do you say, what tone should it be in, how 'real' should you be? i'm horrible at marketing myself. never wanting to gloat or promote my abilities, well, at least not in a serious manner. so, it's me, working at a grocery store, sorry, a unique grocery store, not able to pay all my bills and not having my period in over three months. stressssss.

but not to worry, i still have the highlights of life intact:

flossing
the meat and cheese drawer of my fridge
eye cream
reading on the subway
vicarious living
shapeless, shiftless non-direction


okay, 7:41pm, almost my bed time. yeah, early to bed, early to rise. oh and tomorrow is halloween. oh and we're allowed to wear a costume tomorrow... yeah right, like i'd humiliate myself like that. interacting with the public blows.

12pm

half cup of plain nonfat yogurt
overflowing spoonful of blackberry jam
water

day one

plain yogurt with blackberry jam
small cookie
100cal ritz crackers
slice of pizza
half berry danish
veggie sandwich
candy bar
popcorn
water