Not a Weather Blog...

I swear there will be more substantive posts in the pipe but in the meantime I had to share some my daily amusement.

Tuesday morning woke to birds signing and warm sun shining in. I stepped out to 70 degree weather, green grass, and clear signs of spring.

Tuesday afternoon, some clouds had rolled in a bit, and there was pretty stiff breeze and it had dropped to a comfortable 61 degrees.

Tuesday evening, black clouds horizon to horizon, entered kenpo class it was windy and a little chilly but not bad, and hour later I walked out into a monsoon.

Wednesday morning (early), woken by bizarrely cold breeze from my mostly shut window. Quick glance outside shows about 6 inches of snow on a lawn that was bare yesterday.

What happened to "In like lion, out like a lamb?"

~~~~

Oh, I passed my Kenpo test with only one flub. (I did the yellow belt technique that was similar to the orange belt one I was supposed to do.)

Purple belt looks to be interesting with over twice the number of techniques, twice as many katas and a lot more ground work. Sometime in the past I've done grappling (at this point I forgotten which system it was whether Capoeira or Kung Fu San Soo) so the re-introduction to ground movement was relatively painless. Well my knees hurt a bit...

Ye instructor also made noises that probably by the end of summer I should have my green belt, and would be allowed (if I wished) to instruct yellow and orange belt provided I can "pass" the tests again.
This is because every belt test from here on out I will get tested not only on the current belt but the previous techniques as well. Therefore, I am expected to know all of the techniques previously covered to the same degree of skill as the ones currently being worked on. You'd think this wouldn't be problem, but a quick glance at yellow belt (only two months in the past) and I firmly remember 1/2 the techniques and the others I probably know...

This will also be more and more... challenging ... as most of the belts will have similar number of techniques as purple by the time you hit brown your test consists of 300+ techniques. But, I think it will be good because the repetition will only serve to reinforce the techniques.


Anywho it's 5 am, and I need to be up in 4 hours to go play with fire in metalsmithing shop. so back to bed for me.

Grrr...

So... I finished my assignment at 3 am. Wonder of wonder that means I get 6 hours sleep.

Which was great until I had a panic-attack inducing dream about my design that I forgotten something. I have no idea what it was... but it woke me.

So here I am at 5am waiting for the adrenalin surge to recede so I can go back to bed.

Watching Anthony Bourdain in the mean time would normally be a bad idea because it has set up a powerful craving for whatever food he's raving about... in this case... lamb.

Fortunately... I HAVE lamb in the downstairs fridge.

Why you ask? Because thanks to Costco... a lamb roast is actually cheaper then steak or chicken. Last weekend I made Apple Cider roasted lamb and I still have couple of pounds of sweet succulent roasted fork-tender lamb meat waiting to be made into meat pie this weekend.

nom nom nom.

*Edit* I like Tony. Culinarily he and I normally see eye-to-eye. But he apparently love sea urchin roe. Which frankly tastes like fish flavored library paste to me. Bleh.

Back to lamb.

Busy busy busy

So as the semester draws to a close I am a little swamped with work. My final Architecture assignment needs to be done by Monday, with the jurying for my group occurring on Wednesday the 24th.

Couple that with planning for next year, my orange blet test, and trying to finish my cloisonné piece for metalsmithing...

Well I'm a bit swamped.

However in the near future you should expect to see pictures of my raising/sinking project (Baba Yaga's Chalice), the finished half-life bead necklace, my finished model from the last architecture assignment and my finished model for this final assignment.

Your patience will be rewarded.

Quick Note on the weather...

Sunday: Clear and sunny, with a high of 72 degrees
Monday: Clear and sunny, with a high of 72 degrees
Tuesday: Snow. High of 31 degrees.

Last night I went to sleep with the windows open because it was so flippen hot and I am awake at this unseemly hour because snow blew in the window and landed on my poor self.

Going back to bed now...

Cooking with my Grandpa. - Your input needed

The other day I was stuck.

I needed to cook something fast and easy, but something tasty. Naturally I reached for my Grandpa's cookbook....

You see, Grandpa lived a wide and varied life growing up in Alaska; He'd been an Alaska State Trooper, fisherman, soldier, farmer, and yes... a writer.
As he approached retirement from the Troopers, when asked what he was going to do with retirement he'd respond "Write a book."

Eventually he found himself retired... and people started asking how the book was coming. This of course worried him so he sat down to write... and nothing happened.

Eventually he got hungry and once in the kitchen genius struck.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I learned to cook out his first cookbook, Lowbush Moose; and since then all fourof his cookbooks have been what I reach for first when I need direction.

With my favorite food blog French laundry at Home winding down with only a few recipes to go... I found myself thinking what on earth could fill that void?

Eventually I got hungry and once in the kitchen genius struck.

I would write about my explorations of his cookbooks, re-read them all. Recipes, stories, even the index. All of it. As I did so I would share them with you. Hopefully members of my family would also take this as opportunity to share their memories of his cooking, his laughter and love for life as well.

Why does this concern you?

Well dear reader there are two options for blog creation. I can start a separate blog with frequent cross-pollination between the two or run is as a "special feature" under the umbrella of this blog.

1) Which would you prefer to see?
a) New blog, new artwork new everything man Bring it on!
b) Keep this blog and deliver them as treats

Also, I am going to shoot for at least weekly posts, is that too little and should I try and do two recipes? I've got about *math is hard* 450 recipes I would guess?

2)So, one post a week or two? Or should I just "do whatever I can?"
a) One Week, One post
b) One Week, Two posts
c) One week, One post with occasional *bonus material*
d) EVERYDAY

*Edit* I remembered. Would you rather see the posts chronologically, as we progress through the cook books, random, or semi themed... as in seafood, red meat, side dish, dessert... repeat.

3) In what order
a) This Week: Book One, Recipe One. Next Week: Book One, Recipe Two...
b) Book One: Random Recipe, when Book One is complete start Book Two.
c) Book One: I choose the order, when Book One is complete start Book Two.
d) All recipes, all random, all the time.

Now go post your opinion!

Yay for Antibiotics!

So I've been feeling crappy this week, with a sore throat, joint aches, and touch of nausea.

I had assumed it was the head cold that was still rampaging around campus and didn't worry to much about it.

However... Tuesday night I finished my project early and looked forward to a luxurious 6 hours of sleep. This was not meant to be. It seemed that every time I'd drift off to sleep my throat would close up and I couldn't breathe. In my sleep addled state I assumed it was my trying to breathe through congested nasal apparatus. But it quickly became apparent that I was free of any such problems. Lots of drifting off, suffocating, mild panic waking, drifting... etc ensued. I eventually got a whopping 2 hours of troubled sleep.

Last night, if anything my throat hurt worse. In spite of my attempts to go to bed way early (9 pm) several hours of discomfort led me to google "sleep apnea" which I didn't think I had but it was the only thing I could think of.

Apparently there is "transitional obstructive sleep apnea" which can be caused by... throat infections! Especially if you are borderline candidate for sleep apnea already.

Some digging around revealed that the only likely way I was going to get any sleep was to do it sitting up... so I spent an mildly uncomfortable night in my recliner , not fun but some poor quality sleep was had .

Tests this morning reveled I have ferociously swollen tonsils, and strep throat.

So I get cortisone and antibiotics.

I also got kicked out metals class when they found out I was sick but still came to class.

How geeky am I?

This geeky:



My first enameling piece.

If you get what game the symbol is from.... you win geek points.

If you know what symbol means from a physics standpoint... you win serious geek points.