Quick notes
Signs
The automatic doors into this building are broken, or at least not sensing things. They have handles, so they can still be opened, but it's manual operation only.
So far the solution used by (presumably) maintenance has been to put a strip of blue tape over the word "automatic" on the "Caution: Automatic Door" logo on the glass.
So now it just says "Caution: Door". I found this to be incredibly amusing.
Woods
With the weather being ridiculously warm and nice this weekend, I made it out to the woods for a walk, my first in several weeks. Thee were lots of people out walking their dogs, most of the ponds had only a little edging of ice, and I even saw a few gnaty-flies around some of the streams. The skunk cabbage seems to be considering spring already, though thankfully the frogs are still asleep. The greenest things in sight was the moss on the walkways.
This walk's big surprise was having a fat raccoon come trundling up to the path from a stream, looking as if it had every intention of coming my direction. It seemed utterly relaxed about my presence. I quite like the beauty and wonder of nature, but mom is a veterinary pathologist and I have heard enough of the statistics on rabies and raccoons. So while I may say that I'm out there to interact with the world and I sometimes look for messages in the woods, I mean this in a highly symbolic fashion only. So I clapped my hands and stomped my feet until it gave me a dirty look and hopped off into the woods, which is a healthier reaction, and if it was not just a raccoon and it was supposed to be a messenger from Nature, then Nature had better have its messengers start wearing badges and health certificates. I felt a little guilty, because I'm sure the raccoon was just trying to get on with life, but better safe than rabid.
Later I had staring contest with a doe and saw a deer carcass at another location, but the raccoon was a first.
Projects
I'm working on a 'quick' project to have something appropriate to wear to the steampunk lamplight brewery tour. It is being slowed down by the fact that I suck at projects (so far- cut the fabric wrong, sewn the wrong sides together). Still, I have a little time and no plans for next weekend, so we'll see what it looks like by the end.
Also, I may have to kill some of the cats. I love them dearly, but they do not mix with the craft room. Kemuri likes the feathers and will try to stuff as many of them into her mouth as she can. Jamie thinks the selvage looks like ribbon and should be gnawed out and swallowed (note: not that ribbon is any good for her either, and we've had that discussion). Jasper is more polite than either of them, but wants to hide in the closet to nap, and has been locked in once already.
Recipes
I've made the chocolate thing (I need to name this sometime soon) twice recently. The second time I tried using a melted chocolate layer the second time, which was too hard to cut through and ended up squishing the lower layers. I also used Baileys instead of Tia Maria, to use up the un-closeable bottle. I'd also tried making it in a bread pan, which I found was too hard to cut for the layers.
Third time I made a stupid mistake- divided the cake mix between too many muffin tins and the cake came out very dry. I have no idea why I did that. I also tried using more cream cheese in the cream layer, but I think I like it fluffier so I'll resort to the previous mixture.
Also, it would probaly be a good idea to start making it in smaller containers, because pretty much no gathering can consume the entire big container at once.
This is all the news at present.
The automatic doors into this building are broken, or at least not sensing things. They have handles, so they can still be opened, but it's manual operation only.
So far the solution used by (presumably) maintenance has been to put a strip of blue tape over the word "automatic" on the "Caution: Automatic Door" logo on the glass.
So now it just says "Caution: Door". I found this to be incredibly amusing.
Woods
With the weather being ridiculously warm and nice this weekend, I made it out to the woods for a walk, my first in several weeks. Thee were lots of people out walking their dogs, most of the ponds had only a little edging of ice, and I even saw a few gnaty-flies around some of the streams. The skunk cabbage seems to be considering spring already, though thankfully the frogs are still asleep. The greenest things in sight was the moss on the walkways.
This walk's big surprise was having a fat raccoon come trundling up to the path from a stream, looking as if it had every intention of coming my direction. It seemed utterly relaxed about my presence. I quite like the beauty and wonder of nature, but mom is a veterinary pathologist and I have heard enough of the statistics on rabies and raccoons. So while I may say that I'm out there to interact with the world and I sometimes look for messages in the woods, I mean this in a highly symbolic fashion only. So I clapped my hands and stomped my feet until it gave me a dirty look and hopped off into the woods, which is a healthier reaction, and if it was not just a raccoon and it was supposed to be a messenger from Nature, then Nature had better have its messengers start wearing badges and health certificates. I felt a little guilty, because I'm sure the raccoon was just trying to get on with life, but better safe than rabid.
Later I had staring contest with a doe and saw a deer carcass at another location, but the raccoon was a first.
Projects
I'm working on a 'quick' project to have something appropriate to wear to the steampunk lamplight brewery tour. It is being slowed down by the fact that I suck at projects (so far- cut the fabric wrong, sewn the wrong sides together). Still, I have a little time and no plans for next weekend, so we'll see what it looks like by the end.
Also, I may have to kill some of the cats. I love them dearly, but they do not mix with the craft room. Kemuri likes the feathers and will try to stuff as many of them into her mouth as she can. Jamie thinks the selvage looks like ribbon and should be gnawed out and swallowed (note: not that ribbon is any good for her either, and we've had that discussion). Jasper is more polite than either of them, but wants to hide in the closet to nap, and has been locked in once already.
Recipes
I've made the chocolate thing (I need to name this sometime soon) twice recently. The second time I tried using a melted chocolate layer the second time, which was too hard to cut through and ended up squishing the lower layers. I also used Baileys instead of Tia Maria, to use up the un-closeable bottle. I'd also tried making it in a bread pan, which I found was too hard to cut for the layers.
Third time I made a stupid mistake- divided the cake mix between too many muffin tins and the cake came out very dry. I have no idea why I did that. I also tried using more cream cheese in the cream layer, but I think I like it fluffier so I'll resort to the previous mixture.
Also, it would probaly be a good idea to start making it in smaller containers, because pretty much no gathering can consume the entire big container at once.
This is all the news at present.