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When in Doubt, Bake!
Dec. 12th, 2017 09:17 am I'm not even sure what I'm planning to make as the meal that goes WITH the oatmeal bread I just started, but, I don't know if you've noticed, fellow Minnesotans, but it's [bleep]ing COLD out there. The cold weather always makes me want to hunker down and bake bread. Oatmeal bread seemed especially hearty. I've made this recipe before. It isn't overly sweet. Maybe I can just make tunafish sandwiches or some such.
Mason is home sick today. I think that, while he does have cold/flu symptoms, he's run himself down. His schedule has, as has been reported, is pretty grueling. I'm not surprised he feels like crap. He needs way more sleep than he's been getting.
The big thing on my list of things to do today is decorate the porch. Of course, today would be the day that the windchills are -2 F / -18.9 C. The last thing I feel like doing is futzing around on the unheated porch for several hours. BUT, I do love the lights once they're up, so I'll just have to bite the bullet.
I finally got FB to work so here's a picture of our tree this year:
We put up a combination of a lot of Solstice ornaments (birds, the Solstice spider, the sun, an orca, several fish, etc.,) and classic blown-glass. Our newest cat, Buttercup, is fairly convinced THOSE BIRDS are for him. This morning we discovered him "gutting" and gnawing on a pine-cone nested bird ornament. When we took that one away, he tried to get another bird. So, I found a sacrificial bird (ironically? A white dove) to give him. Hmmm, yeah. So. The symbol of peace has been mauled in 2017. TELL ME THAT'S NOT SYMBOLIC. Especially since I foolishly offered it to him, knowing what would happen. :-)
Work was good. Apparently, I was sent to North Saint Paul's library because Mondays are their school visit days. So, when I arrived to this very tiny suburban library, it was filled to the brim with countless screaming argonauts (as They Might Be Giants might say.) I spent the first hour catching them up on their shelving, since the staff has to spend a lot of time corralling the youths. But, as soon as the waves of children was over, North Saint Paul settled into its usual quietness. I found a manga for when I finally finish all 21 volumes of Nana.
While I was pulling this new one (it's called I Hear Sunspot, about a hard of hearing college student,) I got to chatting with one of the patrons who was sitting in the YA room (at North Saint Paul the teen room is very isolated, and a lot of people end up using it as a quiet room during the day). He's moving into the neighborhood and was looking forward to making this little place his new library. Maplewood is just a little out of the way for him, though he liked it a lot, and I asked him if he'd ever been to Roseville. Turns out? His girlfriend DIED after falling down the stairs there.
What's especially weird about this is that I remember coming in the night, maybe two years ago (?), when everyone at Roseville was really shaken up because a woman had fallen down the stairs. She had left there alive, but, according to this guy, she developed complications because she was on some medication or other that thinned her blood. Worse, because he was only her boyfriend and not a relative, even though she'd called for him, they apparently wouldn't tell him everything that was going on with her. (This gave me flashbacks. It never happened to us, but I used to be terrified of being denied access to Shawn before we were legally married--which is why we always had a medical power of attorney in our back pockets.) But, anyway, it was heartbreaking story. I felt so bad for him. But, being an awkward Minnesotan, all I ended up doing was saying how sorry I was.
What else can you really do?
Yikes.
Right. So. On a happier note, I think I will check on my bread and decorate the porch. I should at least try to get the lights strung.
Mason is home sick today. I think that, while he does have cold/flu symptoms, he's run himself down. His schedule has, as has been reported, is pretty grueling. I'm not surprised he feels like crap. He needs way more sleep than he's been getting.
The big thing on my list of things to do today is decorate the porch. Of course, today would be the day that the windchills are -2 F / -18.9 C. The last thing I feel like doing is futzing around on the unheated porch for several hours. BUT, I do love the lights once they're up, so I'll just have to bite the bullet.
I finally got FB to work so here's a picture of our tree this year:
We put up a combination of a lot of Solstice ornaments (birds, the Solstice spider, the sun, an orca, several fish, etc.,) and classic blown-glass. Our newest cat, Buttercup, is fairly convinced THOSE BIRDS are for him. This morning we discovered him "gutting" and gnawing on a pine-cone nested bird ornament. When we took that one away, he tried to get another bird. So, I found a sacrificial bird (ironically? A white dove) to give him. Hmmm, yeah. So. The symbol of peace has been mauled in 2017. TELL ME THAT'S NOT SYMBOLIC. Especially since I foolishly offered it to him, knowing what would happen. :-)
Work was good. Apparently, I was sent to North Saint Paul's library because Mondays are their school visit days. So, when I arrived to this very tiny suburban library, it was filled to the brim with countless screaming argonauts (as They Might Be Giants might say.) I spent the first hour catching them up on their shelving, since the staff has to spend a lot of time corralling the youths. But, as soon as the waves of children was over, North Saint Paul settled into its usual quietness. I found a manga for when I finally finish all 21 volumes of Nana.
While I was pulling this new one (it's called I Hear Sunspot, about a hard of hearing college student,) I got to chatting with one of the patrons who was sitting in the YA room (at North Saint Paul the teen room is very isolated, and a lot of people end up using it as a quiet room during the day). He's moving into the neighborhood and was looking forward to making this little place his new library. Maplewood is just a little out of the way for him, though he liked it a lot, and I asked him if he'd ever been to Roseville. Turns out? His girlfriend DIED after falling down the stairs there.
What's especially weird about this is that I remember coming in the night, maybe two years ago (?), when everyone at Roseville was really shaken up because a woman had fallen down the stairs. She had left there alive, but, according to this guy, she developed complications because she was on some medication or other that thinned her blood. Worse, because he was only her boyfriend and not a relative, even though she'd called for him, they apparently wouldn't tell him everything that was going on with her. (This gave me flashbacks. It never happened to us, but I used to be terrified of being denied access to Shawn before we were legally married--which is why we always had a medical power of attorney in our back pockets.) But, anyway, it was heartbreaking story. I felt so bad for him. But, being an awkward Minnesotan, all I ended up doing was saying how sorry I was.
What else can you really do?
Yikes.
Right. So. On a happier note, I think I will check on my bread and decorate the porch. I should at least try to get the lights strung.