A message from the demander

Reading Wandering Heart's blog today reminded me why I'm not allowed to bake expanding breads. Not long ago (back around my birthday) my mother-in-law gave me a bag of starter and a recipe for Amish bread. It seemed easy enough from the instructions and it was the gift that keeps on giving so I thought I'd give it a shot. Problem was we were going out of town that weekend and the bread batter needed to be burped and fed each day. So I packed it up and brought it with us. Of course the night before we left was the very night that the bread batter needed to be fed and separated making 4 new bags of batter. So I did that and baked one batch. I'm not sure how I managed it. I followed all the instructions and I certainly wasn't trying to be messy but I just kept finding batter and flour in various places. When I went to take DH a slice of bread after it had cooled from the oven. He was amused by pointing out the various places on my person that I had gotten batter and flour. I had it on my rear (goodness knows how, it's not like we have a place to sit in our kitchen), I had it in my hair, I had hand prints on my shirt and a slotch on my glasses. I was a mess. The kitchen was a mess. But hey, at least the bread was good. But it made waaaay too much for just two people. So when we went out of town the next day I took the bread and the batter with me and left it all with my mother, with the instructions and comforting words of "it will not hurt my feelings if you throw this away after I leave". I think she probably made one batch too and got rid of the other bags. But who knows. The Amish bread may be making its way through my hometown as we speak and then on to bigger and better places. It just keeps growing and growing....

But it is just too messy for Mrs. Messy herself.
(that would be me if you are wondering).

I've always identified with this book:
Billy Brown Makes Something Grand

The bread incident was no exception.

Artist/writers/ whatevers block

I just can't pull it together. This use to come easy, but I'm worn out. I can't think, my brain is tired. I'm at the spot that I wanted to be in and now my ideas seem to be putzing out. Or at least tonight they are. I have one of my very few and far between opportunities to do creative work at work and I can't think of a thing. My mind is an almost blank. It isn't totally blank. I have ideas but I just can't seem to get them to work out in a cohesive fashion. I miss school! I never thought I'd say it but I do. I miss the sitting around drinking soda, eating donuts and having brainstorming sessions in a creative inducing environment with other creative minded people. I miss feeding off of everyone elses ideas until we each had gleaned something that we could present. Some design firms do that very thing, but it seems to be against the religion of newspapers. I've tried it with DH but we think too differently and brainstorming sessions seem to work better the more people that you have. The more backgrounds, the more useless knowledge and ideas that are thrown, in the better they work.

My brain has now switched off of the assignment at hand (or rather assignments as I've picked up another freelance gig which I also seem to be brain-dead on) and I'm now trying to figure out how I could start a website for people who want to brainstorm. How would it work? See the problem with bringing people together online would be that they are all working on different projects and want to brainstorm about different stuff and then there is the possibly of competitors running into each other. But there has got to be a way to provide this service to people who need it but don't get it where they work. Hmm... any ideas on that guys?

Anyone know of any great moments in history involving newspapers working together with the people? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Okay I think I'm going to do something mindless for while and maybe something will come to me. In the meantime, I would love to find a way to show my avatar beating her head against a wall but I can't seem to figure out a way to do that either. But that would best express what I'm feeling at the moment. At least I feel a bit better now that I've expressed the emotion in words.

Today's Question to Ponder:
Why does orange juice always make me feel thirstier than I was before I drank it?
I'm guessing it has something to do with the acidity.. but seriously that's annoying.

Random bits

• My good friend had her baby yesterday :D It's a boy and I'm estatic for her. Happy Valentine's day to A & S and their son whom I will from now one refer to as RC-Cupid :)

• I have discovered much to my non-suprise that I am not girly

• I don't understand why people "plant" fake flowers in their yards or in planters. Inside I kind of understand... but artificial flowers outside? I realize they are less trouble but really.. why not just not just plant the real thing or get a low-maintenance plant to go in its place. There are a lot of really pretty low maintenance plants out there. Surely they don't think the plastic sticking out of the ground looks real? Especially in the middle of winter?

• Been having dizzy spells lately. Went to my regular check up yesterday and mentioned them to the doc. He checked me out thoroughly and found out that I have a sinus infection. Said there is lots of fluid on my ears, which is probably the cause of it. I've never had a sinus infection where I wasn't stuffed up before. This is my first SI where I can actually breathe normally, but now I'll have to start using nose spray to clear out the passages. Lovely.

• I want to learn to sew again. I've forgotten how. I need instruction. My mother taught me when I was a kid but I lost interest and have now lost the knowledge. It is not like riding a bike apparently. Unfortunately I'm having trouble finding somewhere or someone to give lessons that don't take place for hours at a time during the middle of the day.

• Why is it that places around here that offer lessons in things that I'd like to learn or get better at ( such as cooking, sewing, scrapbooking, knitting, cake decorating, Tai Chi...) always offer them in the middle of the day. Do they not think that the people who work regular office hours would like to take a class occasionally? Can't they do a Saturday occasionally? *sigh* oh well.

• It is very cold but there is no snow here.

• We are going to the chocolate fest and an advertising awards banquet this weekend. Somehow I don't think my healthy eating is going to stay in tact.

I'm not sure why, but this illustration reminded me of Farmwife. Maybe it's the hair. Or perhaps that the character is expecting... or maybe it was all those bulb catalogs she got me hooked on ;)

Ponderment of the Day

Why does bottled water have an expiration date?
When does water go bad?

Sucked in Again or Relating to the Past

It was just a simple question. Just a curious, simple question that a friend of mine asked. This happens occasionally, you work for the media people and hear about stuff quickly and have access to other forms of media and people start asking you if you know about "such and such". Plus this friend knows I'm an avid history buff and story listener so she figured I might know. She asked about a building downtown, if I knew what it might be. I didn't.

And that's where it started.

Of course since I didn't know, I felt compelled out of helpfulness and curiosity to find out what it was, so I started some online research. And then I found a website with newspaper articles on this town's history. I still haven't figured that one out, but I've learned some fascinating stuff. I've been completely sucked in again just like when I was a kid back in Middle TN. I'm completely absorbed in the history of this town now. I've been reading that website for the last 2 hours. I needed to be working on an illustration or a couple of other things I had on my list to get done this weekend. But instead I got sucked in... just like I did in childhood. I tell you this because I'm shocked at myself. Of course it probably didn't help that my husband is sitting in the other room watching Citizen Kane it kind of added to the atmosphere of what I was reading. I have already seen the movie but he had never seen it so he rented it. This is why I am in here, and he is in there alone. I had to watch it in Civics class once or was it English? Anyway I had to watch it in high school so I don't have fond memories associated with it. But husband seems to have an odd fondness for old movies (something I didn't know when we married - but have found I really like about him). But I digress... what was I talking about? Oh yeah!

Now, if I thought it would make money, I would be looking into how much of an investment it would be to get one of those trolley buses (because I just learned this town use to have real trolleys) and start a history tour business of downtown. Because that is one of my long forgotten dreams. But since this town isn't exactly a tourist destination and I know nothing about running such a business. I suspect it will remain just a long forgotten dream. But if I ever become independently wealthy I may take that up as a hobby. Man, oh man is my history loving blood pumping. And that hasn't happened for a really long time. I may never look at the area around where I work the same way again. Maybe I'll start a photography project! Using the old photos and information from that website and stand at corresponding angles in present day and re-take the photo for comparison. I've always wanted to do that too. Maybe when it is warmer.

What is it about history?? Why am I so fascinated with how things were in comparison to now. Why does it never cease to amaze me how much things can change over a relatively short period of time and how much can happen - how many stories can develop in that space, before things do change. And why did I just find myself teary-eyed over a dog who died over forty years before I was born?

I think the answer is community. I never cease to be amazed at relationships. And I never cease to be amazed by how much things change but yet essentially, deep down, stay the same. Wow. What a fascinating creation community is.

Freeee -dom!!!

A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought you all would be interested as well - of course the donations have a cap.. but even when the cap is met you can get a free pasta cookbook:

Barilla (pasta) will donate $1 to Second Harvest Foodbank for every download of their free cookbook with pasta recipes from celebrities. You can even choose which foodbank you want your donation to go to. It's really easy and only takes a few seconds. The download is an Adobe .pdf file, is less than 3MB and 34 color pages if you choose to print it.

Barillaus


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Then you can go send a Free Pretzel and E-card to your Valentine from Aunt Anne's
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