Category Archives: doing it wrong

On day #2 of maximum productivity I’ve spilled my tea on my desk twice. I now have papers and my mousepad spread out all over the floor to dry. Maybe I should go back to maximum slacker.

Because I’m getting a crown.

I think I’ve written about this before but whenever there’s something wrong with my car and I have to take it in, I always expect it to cost $600. That way if it’s $600 then I can think: I knew it! And if it’s more, say $800, well, that’s not too much more than I expected.

And if it’s less then I can think: whew! at least it isn’t $600.

This is exactly what I was thinking as the dentist ground down my old broken tooth and fitted me with a temporary. When I found out that after insurance I would probably owe $450 (due now), I thought whew!

On the bummer side, when I was planning my day of amazing productivity, spending 3 hours at the dentist wasn’t in the equation.

Today’s my first day of being fabulously organized and focused for writing and so far I’m failing spectacularly. Also, I just broke a tooth.

I’m attempting to systematically eliminate distractions. Last night I deleted several series recordings from my TV shows and cleaned out my Google Reader. There are a lot of sites that I enjoy, like the Slog but every time I log on there are a million posts and it wastes too much time. Good-bye Slog.

I’m still subscribed to all my regular real people blogs. I told angelawd I was going to update my links soon and soon is probably not anytime soon. I don’t know. If I can master this fabulously organized and focused thing, maybe soon.

I also deleted my Usenet reader. I’ve read alt.gossip.celebrities for such a long time I’m too embarrassed to name the date. I’ve tried to quit twice before but I think this one will stick. Do they make a patch for that?

We had a fabulous weekend in Seattle and I’ll write more about it when I get the photos organized. There aren’t a lot of photos because we took Bob’s camera and he got to hold it so I didn’t get to capture every interesting crack in the sidewalk like I usually do.

A few last quick notes: I had to scrape ice off my car this morning and there was no traffic on the way in. I guess Washington is on Spring Break this week.

And finally, there were some young people on the radio talking about going to an Eighties party and what to wear and what their research uncovered. (“They wore Izod shirts in different colors and … “) I have never felt older.

This is my yard around 9:30a.

I should probably talk about this photo but don’t know what to say about it. Eons ago I ran across a website by a woman who made incredible collages. I thought it would be fun to try and I collected colorful paper scraps and cardboard and bought some Modge Podge and brushes and then it sat on the floor of the closet for the next several years.

A couple weeks ago I got a wild hair and clipped and glued and put together that thing. The process was fun but I was disappointed with the finished product. It’s actually a square but I’m too lazy to do multiple scans and blend them together. I like the way it looks in the scan.

How Not To Write is keeping a list of writers going to Clarion West this summer.

We’re getting ready to head out into the grim weather — right now there are very slushy snowflakes falling from the sky — for our fun getaway weekend in Seattle. I remember when I bought my new coat I thought it was overkill for how much I would be using it. HA HA. I’ve needed it almost every day since November.

Dancing with the Stars. I’ve never watched this show before and decided to check it out last week when they did the two night premiere. It was fun but I didn’t get into it enough to follow for the whole season. Poor Monica Seles. I’ve seen ironing boards that could move better than that.

Over the weekend I got a fortune cookie that said: “A good movie would be a great way to relax this weekend.” My brother-in-law’s response: “That’s not a fortune. That’s a suggestion.”

Miracle face product: there was a TV commercial for a face product that would brighten, smooth, plump, moisturize, age-defy, lift and minimize pores. If it would empty the dishwasher they’d really be on to something.

In my head I always think that the computer is what sucks up most of my free time so two days of computer-free would translate into piles of time to get to those long ignored projects. HA HA.

Friday I did errands and made the brownies and thought I’d clean out my kitchen cupboards. You know where you take everything out and wipe them out and find all sorts of treasures like dried up macaroni and measuring spoons you thought you lost? I got less than halfway through and had to run off to an appointment and by the time I got home I had time for a snack and then we got ready to go over to Priscilla’s to have dinner with Steve and look at photos.

Saturday I read a little bit and got organized for the writers meeting, then the gang arrived and when we were finished I took advantage of the sunshine to weed and rake and clean up in the yard. Then it was time to get cleaned up and go to Priscilla’s again for more time to visit with Steve and look at more photos.

Now I’m sitting at the computer not sure what to do with myself.

By popular demand: here’s more info on my buttermilk bread from an earlier post. (Here, if you missed it.)

This probably isn’t a good recipe if you’re new to bread baking. If you’ve never made bread but want to try, it’s never going to get easier than the no knead bread recipe.

If you want to learn more about bread baking, I recommend The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book by Laurel Robertson. It’s the perfect beginner book and she explains a lot of these steps in great detail.

Laurel’s Buttermilk Bread

2 t. active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

3/4 cup very hot water
1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup cold buttermilk

5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 t. salt

2 to 4 T butter

Dissolve yeast in the warm water.

Mix together the hot water and honey (I never measure, I just squish a bunch in) and add the buttermilk. It should be slightly warm.

Stir the flour and salt together and make a well in the center and then pour in the liquid ingredients and stir from the center outward, incorporating all the flour. The bread is lightest if the dough is slightly soft. (I wish I could annotate this direction, but honestly, all dough seems soft to me.)

Kneed about 20 minutes adding the butter in cold bits at the end of the kneading time. (I’ve done this with and without the beloved Kitchen Aid. The machine is easier, in case there was any doubt in your mind. When I did the bread making class the teacher had a cool way of kneading, he did a sort of wrist flip and swung the dough around so it slapped on the counter, as if you were trying to smack the water out of a pair of heavy socks. He made it look like poetry. I flipped my wrist and had to pick up my dough from the floor.)

Form the dough into a ball and place it smooth side up in the bowl. Cover and keep in warm place. After 1.5 hours gently poke the center of the dough about 1/2 inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill up or if the dough sighs, it’s ready.

Press flat, then form into a smooth ball and let it rise like before except check it after 45 minutes. If you use quick-rise yeast, cut these times in half. Ideally, you’re moving from step to step by the way the dough feels and looks. I’m not that talented and usually just hope for the best.

Press the dough flat and divide in two. Round it and let it rest until relaxed. (I’m not sure how to tell the dough is relaxed. Maybe after it finishes its cocktail and cigarette?) I let it rest for 15 minutes. You can shape for loaf pans, or even better, shape into round balls and put it in greased pie plates and they make the cute loaves from the photo.

Preheat the oven to 325 while you do the final rise. Set the loaves in a warm place until the dough slowly returns a fingerprint. Bake 45-60 minutes.

This bread tastes fabulous cut into thick slices and spread with cashew butter and Nutella. One time I ate almost half a loaf fresh from the oven with butter. Then I couldn’t eat my dinner.

This last time I misjudged my timing (and probably several other steps) and had to pull it out of the oven a tad early so it ended up damp and heavy.

Even goofed up homemade bread is better than store bought so I keep trying.

This evening we went to the grocery store. Neither of us wore a coat into the store and it was monsooning when we were done. We ran across the parking lot in a gusting downpour, drop-kicked our groceries into the trunk and were in the car buckled-up in record time.

I had a recipe I was thinking of making for Easter. We don’t really celebrate Easter but I thought I might make a nice dinner. When I clipped the recipe I thought it was a “toss in slow cooker and forget it” type of recipe and as I was writing down what I needed I noticed there was stuff about browning and setting aside and a bunch of steps with aluminum foil on and then off and then a reduction sauce and I could sense that this wasn’t the type of recipe I was up for so it was abandoned and I’m guessing now we’ll have frozen pizza and salad.

We’ll see how I feel.

I did a lot of computer work at the office this week and my neck, shoulders, back, arms and dried little eyeballs are telling me that they would like a break so I’m going to be on a severe computer reduction diet for the next couple of days.

One thing I cannot get over is people talking on cellphones in public places. I want to accept this as it is clearly here to stay and I’ve thought a lot about it. If two people are walking through the grocery store having a conversation, this doesn’t bother me. But if someone is pushing his/her cart through the dairy aisle with one of those ridiculous cordless earpieces and jawing away in a one sided conversation, I want to rip his or her tongue out.

My biggest peeve is people yakking on public transportation. I get it, it’s dead time. Why not use it to catch up with friends or family? But I have to share an enclosed space with that person and I want to read my book or stare out the window without one or more people yelling into their phone in the background. Especially inappropriate interpersonal disputes like the woman at the (different public space) library (!) complaining to someone I am guessing was her spouse about being stuck at home with the baby.

Yesterday the woman next to me was doing the psycho call and as a woman who has made a number of psycho calls in my lifetime, (but thankfully, not for eons) I wanted to feel some compassion for her misery. At the same time I was super uncomfortable and trying to act like I couldn’t hear when everyone at the front of the bus could totally hear her in the midst of making The Call that is never a good idea.

The psycho call is the call you make after a relationship is over and the other person has clearly moved on but you have not. You make this call with the idea that it will accomplish some sort of closure, that you will have the last word, that you will show that you are the bigger person. In fact, you will probably say some of these things during the course of the call. But what you are really doing is being a psycho loser who wants an opportunity to say out loud all the nasty things you’ve been thinking about this person since the breakup.

Example from yesterday, “I’m glad you have a new girlfriend. No, really, I am. I hope you two are happy. A rich girl is just what you need until three months from now when you start lying to her. … No, I’m not bitter.”

Also there may be more than one call. In this case there was a call when she got on the bus which terminated during the bus ride but then she flipped open the phone and dialed and flipped the phone shut about 30 times (are you getting a sense of where this call gets its name?) and then resumed the call again near the end of the bus ride.

I should have grabbed the phone out of her hand and hit her over the head with it.