serinde

One likes to have a new dress for Pennsic, but the more I advanced in my research, the more I'm convinced that I haven't any of the right fabric to make a summer-appropriate dress in my period, and I don't have time to fuck around hunting. So, I thought I'd just make some new underwear, because one likes to at least have a clean chemise each day. Cut out two of 'em, did one by machine and the other by hand. I just have to do the hemming and they're both done.

Then, as I got further along in my research, I was more and more convinced that this lining-the-bodice-only is entirely Wrong (and this is what I'm teaching a class on at Pennsic), and this combined with the fact that the lining on my ole trusty green wool gown isn't a great job, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, ripped out the lining, and started binding the edges with silk ribbon & scraps. (LOL SPOILERS: the neckline's done, the button side of the front is done with a few more buttons to sew on, haven't started the buttonhole side.) This has been time-consuming but I think it will be okay, although I may have to do a little frobbing at the top of the CF gore.

Minor project: I found a half-done foofy linen shirt, which I have no idea why or for whom I cut it out, but it must be fairly recent 'cause the work ain't half bad, and it's the right size and style so I'm going to finish it for August as it will go nicely with his kilts. Shouldn't take long, except that I keep having a twitch to do some blackwork on the collar and cuffs. STOP IT IT IS BOY STUFF HE WILL NOT CARE

Then, this morning, I got annoyed with the over-large necklines on the other new-ish chemises from, er, year before last? So now on the docket is to take them in because I hate throwing a shift over my head and having it immediately drop to around my ankles. Again, not huge, but fiddly work. And 2x annoying because I shouldn't have had someone else, however more experienced and knowledgeable, mark it for me. (I think this means I have leveled up.)

Following directly off that is that I was testing various sizes of chemise necklines to make sure they don't show around my gown's neck (because that is Not Done in the 14th c.), and was testing against my newish red wool gown, in which I am tolerably well-pleased; but now I'm hella annoyed that I cut down the sleeves to match the armscye, which I later determined to just be Wrong and Too Small. And I decided that this is something up with which I shall not put; so now on the docket is to cut out some triangles and fit them into the upper arms, and correspondingly embiggen the armholes. Again, not huge, but fiddly work. (WHER MI GREEK CHORUS) Of course, then I think, well, this shouldn't have a bodice lining either. And I could cut that out, and I probably could get away with just keeping the linen along the frontage, because the wool itself is a good tight weave. Though, this hurts, because I did such a damn good job on attaching the lining. It's all handwork and it's very careful and I'm proud of it. But it's still wrong.

Oh yes, and I'm gonna make a second bog dress/shmata to wear to the swimming hole &c. But that is about 10 minutes of machine work and hardly worth mentioning.

Farm share started up this week (along with a disclaimer letter about how the weather this winter & spring was terrible for crops, so we are likely to be low on fruit, particularly stone fruits. FEH). Amongst the haul were "garlic scapes", which I wotted not of; they're the long stems and seed pods that grow out of your garlic clove. These being an esoteric item, they kindly included some suggested recipes, including two different ones for pesto. Said recipe requires leafy greens, and oh hey! here's a small head of lettuce.

I didn't manage to take the stuff home til Wednesday, and it was all looking rather sad, so last night I figured I had better get on the stick. I rinsed the lettuce and left it to dry...and then started sewing and forgot all about it until I got up to make coffee this morning and saw greenery staring at me accusingly. Whoops.

1. Roughly chop most of a wee head of lettuce, throw in food processor.
2. Trim the ends off 6 garlic scapes, throw them in.
3. Process the shit out of, yo.
4. The recipes have wildly varying amounts of olive oil. Hmm. Pour a cup's worth into the measuring cup, and dribble into the (running) processor in a fine stream.
5. Stop when it looks about right. (This was about 1/2 or maybe 2/3 of a cup.)
6. Actually, it's a little too oily. Throw in a couple more lettuce leaves and one more garlic scape.
7. Add salt and the TJ's "flower pepper" you've scarcely used. Process more.
8. Oh hey! There's still the tail end of a bag of pignoli in the cupboard! Dump it in! (Maybe 1/3 cup?)
9. It's good and processed and thick (oatmeal consistency, I'd say) (it maybe should be a little more liquid but I hate getting pesto everywhere; this will work better as a spread and that's fine). Debate adding grated Parmesan, which one recipe calls for and the other doesn't. Leave it out for now--if we put this on pasta we can add cheese then.
10. Put in container, put in fridge, hurriedly wash dishes.

I did the finger test and it's pretty good and pungent. I'll be interested to try it in a day or two and see if the sitting made a difference.

I had put off thinking about most lifestyle arrangements until after moving, because how do you know what things will look like til after you're settled; and then until after all the California trips were done with, because ualeaualeualeualeaue; but all that's done and the apartment is mostly settled (although there was enough of putting that off to warrant a separate post), and although yes the stress is ramping up at work and I Don't Wanna Think About Being Virtuous, the fact is that I know I will feel better if I realign things. So, herewith, the long mental burp.

( Cut text working yet? )

Spinach Cat: MOW MOW MOW I AM STARVING MOW MOW MOW MOW

Me: At the rate you eat, this is about two days' worth of food. What's the problem?

Spinach Cat: I can see the bottom of the food dish and it scares me. MOW MOW MOW MOW MOW MOW MOW MOW

Me: *grumble grumble growl* fine

[f/x: dish filled]

Spinach Cat: OM NOM NOM

Spinach Cat, later: *blerk hork BLERRRRRRK*

Me: You know, I could have just wet down the kibble and spread it around on the floor if that's all you were going to do with it.

So, once upon a time and for many moons uncounted, I had a paid LJ account. Then the whole Time of the Random Banhammering came, and various & sundry other stupidities from the new overlords, and I did not want to give them of my moneys any more, so I dropped to a free account and moved my primary existence over to Dreamwidth, which can be neatly summed up as "LJ without the suck, and with some smart enhancements".

However, most people who are still active in the Foojournal-based worlds at all seem to still be on LJ, so I maintained my account there. And I was a little sick of only having six of my many icons, the rest being flagged inactive (except when you comment on someone else's post, where it gives you a choice of all of your icon library, and doesn't tell you which are active and which aren't); but what the hell, it's free, amirite? But yesterday I finally took note that you can just buy extra userpic capacity, so I went ahead and did that thing, $6 for the year being within my "fine you can have that much of my dosh" limits for another 15 icons.

You know what happens if you do that? It randomly chooses which of your icons to make active. Automatically. Instantly. No saving throw, and you can't switch it around. Your only option is to delete anything it chose as being active that you didn't want--which of course disassociates that icon from any of your old posts or comments you had used it in back in the paid days.

I was sure this was too stupid to be true, so I opened a support request. No, the Russians are oh so terribly sorry, but this is Just How It Works.

COME TO DREAMWIDTH. IT IS RUN BY SMART PEOPLE.

A possibly-homeless man, hands full of grocery bags, walking up 207th St. with a drinking straw stuck in each ear.

Misty haze over Spuyten Duyvil.

A kid in a leather jacket walking down the subway stairs, looking uncommonly like a very young, slightly blonder Corey Feldman.

(Where by "day 2" I mean "a week after day 1", on account of questionable weather + after-work commitments.)

First of all: backpack, massive improvement; no 20mph headwind, massive improvement. (Though I don't think the trip took much less time, if any.) However, in spite of the again-lower-40-degree temperatures and not wearing heavy clothes and a whizzo miracle fiber hiking backpack, there is still some sweating at the back. Presumably this will only get worse as the season progresses, so I had better take thought to that: either by having a complete change of clothes, or by offloading cargo to the bike.

In deference to $BOSS's warning that $OVERBOSS looks askance at jeans (though I have been wearing nice ones with blouse & jacket off-and-on the whole time I've been here), and also because I wanted to see how it did, I wore a skirt today, with a sleeveless knit top. I put my Layer of Authority in the backpack, along with nice shoes and my stockings, since I figure riding is going to be even harder on them than my usual thunder-thigh chafing. Not wanting to go commando, however, I dug out an old pair of leggings to keep the wind off of me. Attire was completed with pink sparkly socks, Skechers, and an embroidered stretchy denim jacket. I fear I looked too hipster for words, but the combination did work; I was comfortable for the whole ride, and my movements were not restricted. Nor was the load on my back too heavy, in spite of also carrying two apples, a quart of soup, and my usual impedimentia.

It is a beautiful, diamond-bright morning to be riding in the spring green along the blue, blue Hudson. Even the yucky industrial bits under the West Side Highway look picturesque. Another morning, when I have more lead time, I'm going to stop and take pictures along the way.

I have still not Let Go enough to lock my bike outside. Although there are many bikes there, most of them are beaten up, and I'm scared that my shiny new one will be the obvious target. Also, I think both of my wheels are quick-release, and I think therefore I need an additional wotcha to make sure no one walks off with the front one. (Does that happen? Would people steal just a wheel?)

I was originally going to make a sweet potato bread pudding, but lack of bread. (Then again, I was also going to do my hand-wash, rearrange closet space, and take out the recycling.) The answer is clearly to make sweet potato bread.

I found many and many recipes on the intarwubs, but at the end chucked them all in and started working off Grandma's banana bread, which saw me through my college years (as well as generating all kinds of visits from people on my floor when they saw me walking back from the Hartley package room).

1. Set oven to 350. Butter and flour your loaf pan.
2. Cream half a stick of butter with 1/2 cup of sugar (I cut it down because I had put some sweet in the potatoes already).
3. Add in 2 eggs (upped it) and the cup of mashed sweet potatoes (which had been already cinnamoned and maple-syruped).
4. Combine 2 c. flour (I'm trying half white, half whole-wheat), 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, and salt ynogh.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl alternately with half a cup of milk (original uses 3 T. buttermilk, which I haven't).
6. If I had pecans, I would have added them here, but I don't, so I didn't.
7. Put in loaf pan, bake for an hour.

45 min to go yet. So maybe I'll get something useful accomplished tonight.

I observe that my last several non-cooking posts were heavy on the stress and upset, so let me take a moment to reassure the Gentle Readers that matters are improving on most fronts. Ranger is in fine fettle and appears to have entirely recovered from his abscess. I have not yet been able to take him back to discuss the potential kidney issues, but he's eating, drinking, relieving, active (for age 17) and engaged; even his coat is looking better. I have been diligent in getting settled into the new place, and although there is still a dauntingly long list of Things To Do, it is definitely in a livable state. Not yet an entertain-able state, perhaps, at least not IMAO, but matters are progressing. And, I am finally reunited with all my STUF, including that which had been stored in sweh's garage for the last four years.

Work is still getting ahead of me. The first session of the leadership program was terrific, though intense (duh), and there's a lot of homework and what-not I have to do; the idea is that you take these principles and apply them in your daily work, and then you need to Show Your Work. So there's that, and then there's also the big software implementation project I am running; and when you add that to the day-to-day, plus me being gone for a week, then various other people being gone for training, and now I'm going to be out three days for training on said software...I feel like it's all getting ahead of me. I'm not as stressed as I was last year about this time, thank fuck; it's not spoiling my sleep and I don't have electric worms running along my nerves; but I have definite moments of EVERYBODY PANIC. Well, I knew it would be a tough spring. Keep on keepin' on.

I am putting out cautious buds on the creative front as well. A Super-Secret Knitting Project, which is using a number of techniques I've never done before, is going well and may even be done on deadline for a change. At the last minute (and I do mean the last minute) I put my blue, unlined GFD into the A&S competition at Mudthaw...which, to be honest, I thought was a display not a competition, or I might not have done it...and got tolerably good feedback, and in the course of discussion of it I somehow committed to teach a class at Pennsic and also at Southern Region War Camp; and I'm excited to get to work on the summer sewing. (Though I need to bung the spare room/sewing room into better shape before that can advance.)

The main stressor, other than direct work stuff, is that there's so much I want to do and there aren't enough hours in the day. I can win some time by managing my time more wisely, but I fear I am still going to have to re-engineer some expectations, and I hate that. And I haven't even started folding in workout choices--extra time/extra hassle if I start commuting by bike, or timing and logistics if I start going to the neighborhood dojo or yoga studio. But I know I'm going to need one or more of those in order to not go mad. I really love the local hang-out/cafe/bar; they have a quiz night, they have a KNITTING CIRCLE, they have good live music, but if I go there much I shall be in the poorhouse, let alone the time sink. And I want to chum around with the peeps who live up here. At the same time, I want to stay in and nest and bloody well finish Skyrim and catch up on TV shows and and and.

This working-for-a-living thing. What bosh.

I am starting to surface from the mental wharrgarbl of moving + work + work trips + life drama, and also the kitchen is in a reasonable state to be used, and I had a bunch of sweet potatoes looking increasingly questionable; so.

The four oldest ones I peeled, cut out all the ucky bits, boiled, and mashed with a little butter, a bit more maple syrup, and some salt and cinnamon. That's easy. You don't need me for that.

The two from the most recent batch were in better shape, and gave me more options; and since I have been feeling yearnings for salty crunchy things, I thought I might try making chips out of them. Thus:

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line baking sheet(s) with foil.
2. Peel the sweet potatoes. (You probably don't have to ordinarily, but I didn't have anything that would do to scrub them--and they needed a lot of scrubbing.)
3. Slice the sweet potatoes, 1/8" or less.
4. Toss the lot with about 1 Tbsp of olive oil.
5. Lay them out on your baking sheets. Each potato took up one sheet, so it was convenient that I have two of them.
6. Sprinkle with STUF. I did one sheet with garam masala + salt, and the other one with a randomly-discovered jar of Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic[tm] + a wee bit of extra cayenne.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes.
8. Flip all the chips (they now take up only about 2/3 of the sheet. SCIENCE!!) and sprinkle on the other side too.
9. Bake for another 5-10 minutes.
10. Take out, let cool, store.

I am unsurprisingly crap at making slices of a uniform thickness (and likewise at judging size in the first place), so it is equally unsurprising that some of the chips are crisp and chip-like while others are a little squidgy in the middle. They taste good, though. The garam masala is maybe a little too subtle. The other is...not. I intend to take them in to work, along with almonds and fruit, which when added to the cheese and oatcakes I usually stock should keep me from being gustatorily bored.

Now is to make headway against the terrifying list of Things What Have To Be Done. Which, I must confess, "dealing with questionable vegetables" was very not near the top of.