Sunday-2:30pm

Good afternoon!

Between cotton clouds and blue skies there have been some moodier skies, too.

And we had such a sudden and violent downpour early one evening that a couple of swallows used our porch railing for refuge until the deluge passed.

The birds rarely ever try to perch on our railing because of the flapping makeshift screen... 

...so Karma sat glued to the spot watching them until... 

...the last one finally left.  If you click to enlarge you can glimpse the outline of Miss Karma sitting at attention there at the bottom of the porch door.  It got very dark in here, but didn't dare use the flash because I didn't want them to be scared away. 

My art desk was calling to me.  

I played around with a few more backgrounds (in that manila envelope journal I made for a 21 Secrets workshop). 

Still using watercolor crayons on gessoed and non-gessoed paper. 

I used the baby wipes, then a wet brush, and then gesso on the different spreads to blend the colors. 

The cheap drawing paper I used for this journal doesn't do well with being wet, but I guess it will do for experimenting. 

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Leah brought by her yeast (still old but a couple years younger than mine--LOL!) and some wheat flour.

I didn't use the wheat flour yet, because yesterday I decided the try the white bread recipe they have in the front of the Oster booklet that tells step by detailed step what to do.  And I made my first loaf of machine made bread!

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It has a hole in the bottom from the paddle blade...   

...and it didn't want to come out of the metal basket very easily.  Had to use a rubber spatula--it said metal is bad for the pan--but it came out.  Tall loaf! 

Bread guts stuck to the paddle.  Soaked it and it came right off. 

I used the medium crust setting and did the full 3 hour setting. 

Such funny shaped loaves! 

That was lunch for me yesterday...a giant slice of fresh piping hot bread.  

The crust was so hard that I sliced this piece not five minutes out of the machine!  The bread is good, but this machine bread has crust all the way around the loaf--LOL!  I think I will try the light crust setting next time and see what happens.  Or maybe...just shape-wise...you could even set it to make the dough for you and then bake it in the oven yourself?  I saw a dough setting?  I'll have to read more.
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Had a slice of toast this morning and it is so big that sideways it still sticks out of the toaster--LOL!  But it made excellent toast. (I do love my toast!)

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Anyways, I am very happy with mechanical bread already.  I shall make more and more, that's for sure.  This is perfect for anybody who, like myself, can't physically knead the dough anymore--or just doesn't have the time to mess with all that but really likes homemade bread.  The apartment smelled wonderful!  And the bread machine doesn't heat up the whole kitchen like the oven does.  Thumbs up!  :)

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My folks are making their annual trip up to visit us next weekend.  They'll get to see Dagan and Leah's new house!  I'll have to ask Dagan and Leah to remind me to take pictures.  (I'm notorious for forgetting about the camera when people are around.)

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I finished another of The Cat Who books and have been watching George Carlin specials on Netflix streaming.  They have around a dozen of them on there.  I get such a kick out of him!  :):)

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Still been mid-80s.  Today is sunny...so far.  They're saying we could have a thunderstorm again tonight.  Who knows?  The storms seem very random and scattered lately.  (Are you  thinking of the Hippy Dippy Weather Man right now?  LOL!)

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This morning I filled out the form for my 45th class reunion (that I can't attend, of course) down in Minneapolis.  Forty-five years!  Wow!  Fridley class of '68.  How time has flown.  And I wouldn't trade away a minute of it--good or bad.

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Well, ladies and gents--have an awesome week!  :):)

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"Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town."

George Carlin

Wednesday-2:15pm

I know.  I usually blog earlier in the day, but better late than never, right?

One day it rained all day long...was it Monday?  But today we have blue skies and fluffy clouds again...90 degrees with thunderstorms expected to roll in later tonight.  Supposed to be almost 100 tomorrow!   

Okay--the old yeast that expired in 2009--LOL! 

Well, it bubbled a little...after a very long time.  This isn't the best shot.  I wasn't thinking.  Should have taken it from the side so you could see that instead of 1/2 inch of foamy bubbles this was just covering the surface of the water--maybe 1/8 inch--and a lot of the little yeast granules were just floating on the bottom like sunken little yeast corpses.

Now if I was making the bread from scratch myself I could just give the dough extra hours to rise, you know?  But a machine isn't sensitive to yeast decrepitude.  So Leah is dropping off her younger, spryer yeast tonight after work.

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I have been reading and puttering.  Finished the next two Cat Who books on the stack--tada!  My "fun" puttering has been to put some Daniel Smith watercolors in the porcelain palette now that I can cover it with the food tray.

You can see the red food tray over the palette on my rolling taboret under my folding art table. 

Ah!  My art table. 

Everything sits waiting patiently for me to return to play with backgrounds.  Notice I am using the egg cup plate as a paperweight to hold down my dry baby wipes and paper towel pieces against the wind of the fan circulating the salvation of cool air from my wall AC. 

I also have been cleaning out fountain pens that I haven't used for a few months.  And my leg didn't go numb!!  Whoohoo! 

And where is Karma right this very moment as we sit here chatting?  Well, she was trying to burrow under the folded throw until I finally got the hint and covered her up.  She's been under there for a couple of hours now.  Maybe she's not as much a fan of the AC as I am--LOL!  But it's too sticky hot outside even for Miss Karma today.

Oh, the reptile pooper scooper!  I had a lot of questions about this.  Here's the link where I bought it on Amazon--reptile pooper scooper.  You couldn't really use this as your only cat litter scoop unless you had a really strong back and an abundance of patience.  I use my newish regular cat litter scoop (love it!!) all the time--including before I use the reptile one because it is plastic, I want it to last a long time, and Karma can make some weighty waste.  I will only use this reptile scoop as the small-pieces-that-got-away backup cleaner about once a week.  It works fantastically though!  You have to scoop and then shimmy everything side to side until all the pieces gradually make their way through the little holes.  I feel like I'm panning for gold and I should have my donkey nearby resting in the shade.  I hope that clears up what I am using it for and how I am using it.

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Boy!  You really never know what I might talk about, do you?  ROFL!

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That's it!  Happy hump day!  

I should have bread to show you soon!!  :):)

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"I am, therefore I thank."

Cindy Lubar Bishop

Saturday-12:45 pm

I know!  Hard to believe I'm back again already--LOL!  We had a really creepy sky yesterday that reminded me of tornadoes, but it blew past us before we even saw any rain.

Today--back to the usual... 

...hanging around 90 degrees, sticky, with the possibility of scattered thunderstorms.  That's the prediction for the next three days. 

I don't have any new bookmarks to show for the Artist's Playroom challenge.  I hardly have any of my own bookmarks left because I have given almost all of them away--LOL!  But here are a few so that I can participate this week--if I'm not too late already.  :)

Karma is snoozing by her toy box.  

Too muggy, even for her, this morning.

Well, the long awaited party platter arrived... 

...broken. 

Cracked in... 

...two places. 

Obviously not strong enough for what I wanted to use it for, so I am going to have to go through all the red tape to get a refund.  Oh well.  Such is life.  I guess I'll order another sturdy red food tray.  Like Leah said, it doesn't have to fit the exact size of those palettes.  I just need a strong buffer.

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Holly came by with my library books!!  Eight new books to read as many as I can in four weeks.  The top one is an inter-library loan and due in four weeks, so that's when somebody will be back.  What fun, eh?

And I forgot to show you the cool double-walled cup Leah gave me!  It has a screw on cover and a hard straw that come with it.  Cool!  Perfect for my raspberry tea! 

And I also forgot to show you another one of the weird purchases.  I love the huge metal scoop (I almost said shovel) that I got for my cat slave duties, but the slots are quite wide and little bits are always falling through.  So, former pet shop assistant manager me--I ordered a corner litter scoop... 

...that is actually made for reptile sand--LOL! 

It has smaller holes and they're usually fairly sturdy--so I thought I'd give this a go once in a while to get the smaller pieces out...as an attentive to detail cat slave would do, of course.  ;)

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Just a quick pop-in.  I am obviously feeling better than I was.  Things are on the upswing!  

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Oh, and BIG FAT DUH!!  I can test the yeast in some warm sugar water!  I truly am completely out of the swing of baking from scratch.  I should have thought of that!  Leave it to Leah to remind me of what I already know--LOL!  So, think of me smiling as l test the yeast today...and make a smoothie...and read... :):)

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"Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still."

Chinese Proverb

Friday-11am

I thought I'd be able to read on the porch yesterday (hence the pillow I use to prop up my book because I can't actually hold one with my bum arm) but it was too hot and windy for me.  Karma soaked up the heat all afternoon.

When she finally came in for the last time she was exhausted and didn't want me bothering her with my camera.  You can see that she could barely open her eyes to register complaint--LOL! 

Conk! 

 I had a package come from the mailman and one from UPS yesterday.  Remember I told the mailman about my missing Priority mail package that arrived in Fargo on the 8th?  Well, he must have gone searching for it like he said he would yesterday because it is listed as "out for delivery" today--tada!  

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I have more odds and ends to show you.  A four inch wide roll of burlap and some 12 X 12 sticky-back canvas sheets.

A small package of muslin and some cheap, thin chipboard. 

I had seen online that people said you could use the Zutter Bind-It-All Owires for the Cinch and they were cheaper and come in 6-packs--so I got the 1", 3/4", and 1/2" Zutter Owires.   

My kitchen/entryway rugs are getting old and have been washed so many times that they are becoming a serious danger to me and the Cashwise delivery guys so I am going to try some rug tape.  And the industrial strength velcro is to reattach the porch screen along the bottom because it came loose over the winter.

I have these old plastic double-walled tumblers that are one by one starting to crack and fill with water. I have become very spoiled by my first double-walled tumblers/glasses (thanks Bonnie!) because they don't sweat in the summer and keep your hand from freezing.  So, I got one big Tervis tumbler to try out this brand before I order a set of four smaller ones.  I figured this would be my giant smoothie glass!

We can't forget Miss Karma, of course.  She got a couple packages of the UTI treats that she goes nuts over--but can only have two a day.  Maybe the scarcity has something to do with her crazed reaction to them?  Either that or they put catnip in them--LOL!  Regardless, I don't want her that sick ever again!  :)   

I went to dig out my jar of dry yeast in the frig door and it expired in 2009!  The sad and undeniable proof of how long it has been since I have made even pizza dough from scratch.  There hasn't been a tremendous amount of incentive to do a lot of cooking and baking when I live alone--until now with the weird ingredients thing to contend with.  Anyways, I think I am going to wait to make bread--LOL!

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I did make a giant smoothie for dinner, though.  (You can do that when you live alone--have a smoothie supper.)  And when I went to take pictures I was shocked at how far off the color is on my camera!  I knew it was a bit off, but this smoothie and that giant straw were actually purple!  

Dagan and Leah found the jumbo straws for me someplace (Costco?) and brought them to me a couple weeks ago.  They're perfect for these!  I bet you could get a whole blueberry up these straws--LOL!  Not that I'd need to with my new Osterizer!  But the smoothie looks pink and the straw looks blue!  They were purple, honest.

Anyways, it was delicious and filling.  Mixed berries, greek yogurt, soy milk, and bananas!  More like a shake!  Yummy!  I will probably be having some sort of smoothie for a meal every day until I run out of ingredients--LOL!  ;)

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Pam, the head of our library outreach, emailed me and said a volunteer named Holly is bringing my books this afternoon.  So, I shall meet somebody new today...and have a stack of new books to read.  I think one of them is A Tree Grows In Brooklyn!

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Karma is half-asleep between my legs under the laptop table here in my recliner with one leg reaching out as she can from under the table restraint.  She paws at me once in a while--just to remind me she is there and wants me to stop typing and pet her every so often.  Apparently it was too sticky even for her this morning.  It's already 85 degrees and expected to get to 95 with thunderstorms.  Maybe the steamy porch was just too exhausting for her yesterday--ROFL!  What a rough life, eh?

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Have a great weekend, my friends!  

Stay cool or warm as the case may be.  

Life is good!  :):)

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"A friend is a present you give yourself."

Robert Lewis Stevenson