2 years
Today was my 2 year mark at my job. My coworkers all decorated my desk with crepe paper, balloons, and Almond Joys (one of my favorite candy bars), and they all brought treats too! I had jokingly said yesterday that I expected a party, but I didn't really expect one, so it was a very fun surprise. And it stayed relatively quiet today as well, so that was appreciated too. I decided to start a new doily in my down time, given that I'm burning through books faster than I have been picking them up, and I got 7-8 rows done today I think. It's a small one so I'll probably finish in a few days.
My other endeavor today was making freezer jam! (Not my first time doing so, but exciting nonetheless.) I got a decent price on strawberries at Costco, so I got 8 lbs (enough for jam AND eating). My sister in law and her kids helped me make 2 batches of strawberry freezer jam, and then we experimented and made a batch of strawberry-raspberry freezer jam. I did things a little differently this time and pureed the berries instead of mashing them (to minimize chunks, per rhb's request) so I'm still waiting to see if it sets up normally - I think pureeing might mess up the quantity of berry stuff needed. We did one batch with 4 c fruit/3 c sugar, one with 3.5 c fruit/3 c sugar, and then the strawberry raspberry concoction was 4 c fruit/3 and a bit c sugar. We also strained the last batch though to get out all the raspberry seeds (lots of added work, but oh, it was pretty! So smooth and creamy looking almost) so that might have affected the amount too... it sure seemed like there was a lot more in the blender than 4 cups, even taking out half a cup or so of seeds. We figured it must have been air whipped into the fruit puree by the blender that then was lost in straining.
Anyway, now I have lots of lovely jam, and it all passed multiple taste tests, and I still have 2 lbs of strawberries left. Perfect! I'll try to post a picture of the jam tomorrow when it's set up, but you know how I am with posting, so.... yeah.
I've taken a bit of a break from craftiness lately in favor of reading, but I suspect the balance will shift back again soon. In the meantime though, I have read quite a few books:
The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujould - yes, all of them, there's about... 16 or something, and I averaged reading 1 a day for 2 weeks or so because I liked them so much. It all started because of Cryoburn, which is nominated for a Hugo this year, and since rhb is going to World Con in August, we have a chance to vote for the Hugos, so I figured I'd better read them to see what the fuss was all about.
So I've also read (most) of the rest of the other Hugo nominees for best novel, including:
Feed, by Mira Grant - Quite possibly my favorite of the nominees; definitely not what I expected going into it, given that it's about the zombie apocalypse/bloggers following the presidential campaign. However, it is done extremely well, and managed to be an action packed, emotion packed ride that left me feeling... somewhat drained, somewhat thoughtful, and rather stunned when it was all over. I haven't read the sequel yet, but it's on my list for sure.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin - I enjoyed this book as well, though not quite as much. It has some interesting stylistic choices that threw me for a loop at first, but it intersperses them with enough bits that are more traditional that I was fine with it once I got over the initial unusual feel of the book. The story and characters are well done, though I was a little hard pressed at the end to see exactly how this is going to become a trilogy like Amazon claims. Worth reading, at any rate.
Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis - I actually read these a while back before they were on the final ballot for the Hugos, but it deserves mentioning. I thoroughly enjoyed both novels (two halves of the same story), even though it was a bit daunting how long it all was at first. Her books seem kind of hit or miss for me personally; sometimes I get sucked in right away, and sometimes I don't - even though I enjoy the story either way. I've never not liked a book by her, but some take me a long time to get through. Not these though.
The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald, was really the only flop from the Hugo nominees for me. I got through about 12% and stopped; I was not finding it interesting at all. It has a denser feel to it, and is much slower paced; it almost feels like literary fiction to me instead of hard sci-fi like all the glowing reviews say. I honestly didn't feel like it was sci-fi at all, but maybe I just didn't get far enough into it. It's set a few decades in the future, an the only sci-fi thing that appeared so far was a greater abundance of robots that didn't appear to play a very big role in the book. Obviously a lot of people liked this book, but it was not a style that appealed to me personally.
And then I've been indulging in some fluffy YA fantasy now and again... I read Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr a while back and enjoyed it, so I picked up the sequels recently at the library. I've just read the second one so far; it's decent, though not quite as good as the first. Definitely more on the chick lit side of fantasy, given the vast quantity of times characters used the adjective "delicious" to refer to something other than food. (That's actually why I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first one... though maybe my selective memory is forgetting that about the first book.)
I also read Side Jobs by Jim Butcher in preparation for the next Dresden Files book to come out, and it was decent given that it's a book of short stories, and I don't usually like short stories. As short stories go, these were pretty good for the most part.
And that's all for now. Time to go punch down the bread dough so that the bread will be done before I crash.
My other endeavor today was making freezer jam! (Not my first time doing so, but exciting nonetheless.) I got a decent price on strawberries at Costco, so I got 8 lbs (enough for jam AND eating). My sister in law and her kids helped me make 2 batches of strawberry freezer jam, and then we experimented and made a batch of strawberry-raspberry freezer jam. I did things a little differently this time and pureed the berries instead of mashing them (to minimize chunks, per rhb's request) so I'm still waiting to see if it sets up normally - I think pureeing might mess up the quantity of berry stuff needed. We did one batch with 4 c fruit/3 c sugar, one with 3.5 c fruit/3 c sugar, and then the strawberry raspberry concoction was 4 c fruit/3 and a bit c sugar. We also strained the last batch though to get out all the raspberry seeds (lots of added work, but oh, it was pretty! So smooth and creamy looking almost) so that might have affected the amount too... it sure seemed like there was a lot more in the blender than 4 cups, even taking out half a cup or so of seeds. We figured it must have been air whipped into the fruit puree by the blender that then was lost in straining.
Anyway, now I have lots of lovely jam, and it all passed multiple taste tests, and I still have 2 lbs of strawberries left. Perfect! I'll try to post a picture of the jam tomorrow when it's set up, but you know how I am with posting, so.... yeah.
I've taken a bit of a break from craftiness lately in favor of reading, but I suspect the balance will shift back again soon. In the meantime though, I have read quite a few books:
The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujould - yes, all of them, there's about... 16 or something, and I averaged reading 1 a day for 2 weeks or so because I liked them so much. It all started because of Cryoburn, which is nominated for a Hugo this year, and since rhb is going to World Con in August, we have a chance to vote for the Hugos, so I figured I'd better read them to see what the fuss was all about.
So I've also read (most) of the rest of the other Hugo nominees for best novel, including:
Feed, by Mira Grant - Quite possibly my favorite of the nominees; definitely not what I expected going into it, given that it's about the zombie apocalypse/bloggers following the presidential campaign. However, it is done extremely well, and managed to be an action packed, emotion packed ride that left me feeling... somewhat drained, somewhat thoughtful, and rather stunned when it was all over. I haven't read the sequel yet, but it's on my list for sure.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin - I enjoyed this book as well, though not quite as much. It has some interesting stylistic choices that threw me for a loop at first, but it intersperses them with enough bits that are more traditional that I was fine with it once I got over the initial unusual feel of the book. The story and characters are well done, though I was a little hard pressed at the end to see exactly how this is going to become a trilogy like Amazon claims. Worth reading, at any rate.
Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis - I actually read these a while back before they were on the final ballot for the Hugos, but it deserves mentioning. I thoroughly enjoyed both novels (two halves of the same story), even though it was a bit daunting how long it all was at first. Her books seem kind of hit or miss for me personally; sometimes I get sucked in right away, and sometimes I don't - even though I enjoy the story either way. I've never not liked a book by her, but some take me a long time to get through. Not these though.
The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald, was really the only flop from the Hugo nominees for me. I got through about 12% and stopped; I was not finding it interesting at all. It has a denser feel to it, and is much slower paced; it almost feels like literary fiction to me instead of hard sci-fi like all the glowing reviews say. I honestly didn't feel like it was sci-fi at all, but maybe I just didn't get far enough into it. It's set a few decades in the future, an the only sci-fi thing that appeared so far was a greater abundance of robots that didn't appear to play a very big role in the book. Obviously a lot of people liked this book, but it was not a style that appealed to me personally.
And then I've been indulging in some fluffy YA fantasy now and again... I read Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr a while back and enjoyed it, so I picked up the sequels recently at the library. I've just read the second one so far; it's decent, though not quite as good as the first. Definitely more on the chick lit side of fantasy, given the vast quantity of times characters used the adjective "delicious" to refer to something other than food. (That's actually why I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first one... though maybe my selective memory is forgetting that about the first book.)
I also read Side Jobs by Jim Butcher in preparation for the next Dresden Files book to come out, and it was decent given that it's a book of short stories, and I don't usually like short stories. As short stories go, these were pretty good for the most part.
And that's all for now. Time to go punch down the bread dough so that the bread will be done before I crash.