Success!!!

(Well, I did burn my ring finger slightly because I dropped a potholder, but still....) Aren't they lovely? Now, off to bed (and yes, I turned the oven off). 

Tonight

my roommate cooked a lovely meal, we had a good time watching 'Murdoch Mysteries' during dinner (it was the one with William Shatner of all people as Mark Twain), and I've finally gotten all the dishes either washed or a load running in the dishwasher, the linens are put in the laundry, and I've got the bread in the oven. Last week's bread dough was like cake batter when it came out, and I had to put a LOT of flour in it to make it work.  This time, since it's been raining this evening, I put about 2 oz. less water in it than the normal cup.  The dough came out much better, a bit stiff, but it rolled well into the coils and it rose reasonably well.  We'll see how it comes out. I've got another 13-15 minutes left.  I really, really want to go on to bed, an I just have to go that little bit of time before putting the bread in the upper oven to cool and turning off the lower one.  Just 15 minutes.  It seems like an eternity.  So here I am, whiling the time away on the Internet.

It was a good day. I got a lot done, including some things that were on the back burner but needed to be done.

I found a raw amethyst pendant at UK on my way home, set in a silver setting.  There wasn't anyone around and it was outside, so there was no lost and found to turn it in to.  It wasn't anything expensive, just maybe sentimental.  It feels like a jangly mess whenever I hold it in my hand, so if I keep it, I definitely need to cleanse it or something.  But it is nice.  I've had things I've found and lost again like this; I think sometimes things just go through a variety of hands over their existence.

Three more minutes. Actually, I'm going to check now, as the loaves are poufier but shorter than usual.  But if I don't blog any more tonight, have a wonderful evening.

Success!

Here are some pictures of the bread that came out of the new-to-me machine.  I think we're going to get along. 

2 am

So I just finished making the challah for the week as I got a late start tonight. But I think it will be worth it.

 Here are a couple of other pictures from the interim of no blogging. First, it pumpkin contest entry (we got second place, behind a Baby Yoda one) :

And finally, this year's Halloween costume:

Alright, good night! 

What a day

I had my first attempt to use the dough setting on my machine, followed by punching it down, one more knead by hand, my first try at braiding, brushing with an egg mixture, and baking for 25 minutes. The first picture is the braided dough before baking, the second is the final result. It was a recipe that did the two loaves I needed at once. I'm really looking forward to tasting it tomorrow. I even put a few sesame seeds on top to be fancy.

The bread was my crowning achievement for the day, along with getting in some information on a website in a timely fashion. Otherwise, I managed to 1) forget to take any of my medicine, oral or injected, 2) had my blood sugar fly up to the 340s as a result, 3) received a kitchen timer in the mail that didn't work per the instructions so rather than just returning it I unscrewed and fiddled with it most of the day, figuring out how to put it back together but unable physically to do so, and getting mightily frustrated, to the point where I just threw it away, since I couldn't return it, 3) slept most of the rest of the day, 4) had a recurring anxiety dream which began with Dungeons & Dragons (which oddly enough, as a gamer, I've never played) in the Patterson Office Tower at the University of Kentucky, and ended with a full-out musical number with Nancy Drew in that location.

I get a little off when my medicine's off. The dream was my anxiety, I was more frustrated than normal, my blood sugar was affecting my thinking and in general, I was both anxious and depressed.

But I made good bread, so that's going to be my takeaway. In the meantime I've taken all the meds I can at night (ADHD and water pill/potassium are the exceptions, as they're a morning thing). I've also had a bit too much caffeine today, and it's late, 1:35 am and I'm both tired and awake. I watched some 'Designing Women' with my roommate just now, though, so I feel a little better.

That timer was sort of a metaphor of my day. Non-operational, then wound too tightly, and you take me apart and the spring explodes and you lose the screws.

Lovely

So we had Sabbath dinner and the two challah loaves I made in the bread machine over the last couple of days exceeded my expectations immensely. It is rich and buttery, needing no spread but I'm sure it would go well with jam. My roommate said it was much better than what we've been getting at the bakery for $5 a loaf, special ordered. If I can keep this up he won't have to remember to order it on Thursdays, or go out on the bus on Fridays (it takes about 2-3 hours), and it'll save $40 a month. The bread flour is less than $4-5 a bag, and will make four or more loaves. So, I guess I know what I'll be doing weekly.

The recipe came from a book called Electric Bread. Here is the recipe, should you want to try it, for a large loaf [they call it that; they're smaller than a regular white bread loaf, and I thought they'd be denser, but they were incredibly fluffy]:

3/4 of a cup of water
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 half stick of butter [1/4 of a cup]
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons rapid-rise powdered yeast [my machine has a separate bin for the yeast that puts it in at the right time].

Up

I won't say early, because compared to the weekdays I've actually slept in, getting up right at 9 am. But in the 30 minutes that I've been up, I've started a load of laundry, started a loaf of bread making in the bread machine, gone out to the car to get some Diet Sunkist from my car, nicely chilled, and am now caffeinating. It's why I drink the stuff--I don't care for colas that much, preferring fruit flavour, but it's the only orange soda I've found with caffeine. That said, I know soda, in general, is not so good for me, particularly with artificial sweeteners (Diet Sunkist uses aspartame). So I have been exploring other options. I don't care for coffee or black tea. I've tried Mio Energy and Crystal Light Energy but they are artificially sweetened as well. So I'm still looking. And yes, I like water, but I need a little caffeine to get through the day or I'm like a zombie.

Also since getting up, I've also taken my insulin and Byetta (but not the oral meds yet--I'm at the end of my pill container and need to fill it up. I need caffeine before I do that, or I tend to put them in the wrong slot or even drop them, which is not good when you have cats, particularly a kitten, who is fascinated by all sorts of things dropping to the floor.

I did splurge just a bit yesterday, buying a Kindle book of a regular book that I have out from the library. It is called Orchid Modern: Living & Designing with the World's Most Elegant Houseplants By Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the Orchid Collection at the New York Botanical Garden. It's a lovely book, dealing with the history of orchid collecting, the different species, plant care, creating decorative projects like terrariums, creating a good environment for the orchids, etc., all in one substantial book and generously and beautifully illustrated. I really liked looking through it, but when it came to reading--and he has a good writing style--I found I was impeded by the relatively small typescript, no doubt small to leave room for the lovely pictures of orchids. So I got the Kindle book because while on my e-reader it would have been wasted, I normally read my books on my tablet now (which is not a Fire, but I use the Kindle application on an Android tablet. I say splurge because it was $10.99 and I don't have much money, and I am trying to get tyres soon. But it is such a lovely book. What can I say, orchids have a long history of causing mania, why should books about them be any different? Anyway, this way I can increase the text size to see what I'm reading. My glasses do correct to 20/20 both in general and with the bifocal, but the small print is still harder to focus upon. This, I think, is the most useful quality of e-books, that they can be manipulated in terms of settings so that anyone can read them who would normally have issues due to age or disability, and most books, particularly non-fiction ones, are not given Large Print editions. Also, you can blow-up images when needed on the tablet, something that the Kindle e-reader does not do hardly at all. Incidentally, I used to keep my Chrome settings at 95% and I knocked up the text and the rest up to a little above 100%. It helps immensely. No sense in getting eyestrain. I think the presbyopia is part of my hiatus from enjoying reading, so anything I can do to read more books is worth it. And I can also read on my laptop, which is a low-end 2-in-1 that folds back to be a very large tablet-like screen when you change to tablet mode and I have the Kindle application on it, as well.

Alright, I'm going to go get some breakfast. I'll probably write some more before I start my Sunday chores proper (although laundry is something I do on Sunday, that's for me, not the household, generally).

Happy New Year

I'd like to say that I have been enjoying a strange midweek day off, but actually, I've been in bed most of the day with a cold and have only come out to forage for food, get some more water, and go to the bathroom. I do have Stahist and Mucinex, so it's a little better than it could be, but I still feel miserable. But at least I can be miserable at home; I started feeling bad on Monday and then on Tuesday my symptoms were getting worse, but the other person I work with was off and I couldn't very well call in as I was needing to do her job and mine, and while we're back up for each other, no one else knows how to do it and we're currently between managers. So...I'm glad I went, as there was a surgery added on that at first didn't require authorization and then the post-op code did, and I'm not sure anyone else would have been able to know how to do the post-op codes and follow up, and the insurance will not allow you to put it in after the date of service. So all was good.

Still, I don't know about tomorrow. If I feel decent, I'll go. If not, I'll not...I don't want to spread germs any more than I have and it's just gotten so I'm more punky than I was. In any case, I have a rheumatology appointment tomorrow so it was going to be a short day.

I did venture out at one point and discovered we were low on bread. The Sabbath challah, which is two loaves, usually lasts a week, but money and food have been somewhat scarce this week and we've eaten more bread and peanut butter. So I thought I'd make some bread, but I didn't pull the recipe out and I was making it from memory with probably a low-grade fever. So I put too much sugar in it (just 1/4 a teaspoon, though) and what I thought was too much (1 teaspoon) of yeast, but everything seems to have come out all right. Then I remembered you add a teaspoon of yeast for the rapid-bake cycle, so the bread might be slightly sweeter, but otherwise should taste fine.

I got up for some water and to feed the animals and my roommate was sleeping as well. I took a shower after speaking to him briefly (the animals make a racket, of course, when you feed them, and that woke him up. I feel slightly better and that way I can probably skip one in the morning as it's late enough to work out as far as being clean. But I'd been sweaty and I hate the way I smell when I've taken Mucinex (guaifenesin). It has a distinct smell that affects all the mucous membranes and I've never liked it. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to it, but there you are.

I have been up long enough to get the bread out of the machine to cool, feed the animals, get some water, eat a mandarin orange, and take the shower. I'm actually starting to feel hungry; I wasn't so much earlier at all. I have had one banana, a baked potato, an apple, and the mandarin orange today, nothing else. Maybe I'm starting to feel better if my appetite is returning. But for now, I think I may crawl back into bed--I'm still very tired. By the way, I'm not coming up with any real resolutions this year, but I am going to try to write more. We'll see if that works.

Trying to get back on track

So I was sick for an entire week, and even weeks later I'm having sniffly noses and some mild coughing.  But I'm back to the routine at work, although we're oddly enough off Monday for Presidents' Day, so I took off yesterday for a long weekend.  I spent the whole day doing errands, but they were ones that needed to be done.  I started the day off with a phone, which had been alright the night before, basically becoming a brick.  When the screen was turned on, the emergency medical app would come on, and then the screen would go back.  I could slide up the Samsung Pay app from the bottom of the screen, but there were no 'desktop' or app icons at all.  Then it would turn off, try to turn back on, and repeat.  I waited until T-Mobile opened a couple of hours later, and that's all it did.

So the good news is I didn't have to upgrade to a new phone or spend a lot of money that I didn't have.  I have paid off the phone (it's about 2 1/2 years old, a Samsung Galaxy S7), but I've also kept insurance on it, and so I can exchange it for a new phone of the same model, and it'll just cost me $5 for a fee (I guess that covers their shipping it to the store).  It may come as early as today (I was at the store when they first opened, and it shipped quickly), but with the weekend and holiday it could be Tuesday, I guess, at the latest, unless UPS runs on Presidents' Day, I'm not sure about that.  So here's hoping it'll be today.  She said if it came it should be around noon, and it's a little after eleven now.  Of course, they'll have to e-mail me, or I also gave them my friend's number.

I also called the Lexington Public Library yesterday and spoke with the human resources director, as I have an application in and I was afraid they might call while the phone was out of commission.  So I guess it also shows interest.  It's a librarian position doing programming (as in events, not computers) for patrons.  Keep your fingers crossed for me; I'd love to get back into the library field, and I'm excited about this job.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to have my current job, but I love librarianship so much more.

I am working on the Doody's Core Titles again this year, as a librarian selector where I select and rate medical books based on my knowledge of Orthopaedics and Paediatric Nursing.  I've done it for many years.  I also just had another book review published.  So I am still pursuing librarian-related interests.

While I was T-Mobile, they talked me into a free tablet, with a $10 addition to my bill for another line but no money down for the actual tablet.  So I've been setting that up and I haven't felt too bereft without the phone. I shared something on Facebook to either message me on Messenger or call my friend's phone at the house if they know it.  I checked and everything's backed up with Google, including my contacts, so that's good.

Other things I did yesterday: I got one new windshield wiper because my passenger one had broken and was being held on with tape, and I also went to the credit union with my friend, and the pharmacy, two grocery stores, did his laundry (I'm working on mine today, after I bake bread).  Apparently, I shouldn't try to bake bread before caffeinating--I put all the ingredients in, set up the menu, but forgot to hit 'start'. I checked about an hour and a half into what should be the bread baking part of the cycle, and it was just sitting there.  Sigh.  It should be working now, though.  I also did the cat litter yesterday and brought the garbage containers back to the house after being emptied.

Today my main to-dos have been on getting a shower, then there's the bread, my laundry, possible trip to Fresh Market for more Belgian endives, possible trip to T-Mobile for the phone, and game notes.

It's sunny this morning and we didn't get the snow that they'd been predicting.  So it's been a good couple of days so far.  I didn't manage to call my doctors about rescheduling some March appointments (I've got 5, and while they're late in the day, that's probably too much to expect to be let off work.  I was going to reschedule a couple at least.  I'll have to call about them Monday.  Most of my appointments fell six months ago, but they were spread between September and October, and then my endocrinologist had to reschedule my January appointment, and it looks like a giant cluster within two weeks.)

So now I'm listening to Pandora (the Passenger station) and I plan on doing a little reading later and hopefully, I'll watch some of a DVD collection I have out from the library, the first season of 'The Librarians'. :)

Okay, I think I'll go for now.  I won't promise to write later, but I will do my best.

Happy new year!

Sorry, I wrote that and then was drawn away to mince onions, which means I have now retreated to the safety of the computer away from sulphurous compounds that irritate eyes and nose.  The last thing on my list of things to do while off is to back up the computers, so I'm backing up the desktop and blogging on the laptop.

I have been off since Friday and I've mostly either run some errands or relaxed, visited friends, etc.  Last night was a very quiet New Year's Eve.  We visited a friend who got us all Subway sandwiches, and then I hung out with the cats and watched the ball drop and YKWIA spoke on the phone with a friend in the Chicago area.

The following new year's resolutions are on track:

1. Reducing soda intake.  I drink way too much diet soda.  I'm going to limit it and try to transition to some coffee.  I did drink one today, but considering on the weekends I've been drinking two 2-litres and some days at work I have five out of the machine, I definitely need to work on this, both from a health standpoint and money one.  So I'm going to try to limit it to one a day, then taper off to coffee, and then taper that further over time.
2. Blogging!  No more waiting two weeks or a month between posts.  Granted I was sick a good portion of last month, but my blogging was pathetic.  I'd like this blog to flourish, and it really hasn't been of late.
3. Watching my blood sugar better--testing, taking medicine, and not eating so much out of the snack machines.  I did take all my medicine correctly earlier, but this will really get tested at work.

Today I have:

1. Done my friend's laundry.
2. Done all the dishes.
3. Made bread (in progress).
4. Backed up the computers (in progress).
5. Gone to Kroger (three times), once for sweetener, once for bread yeast, and now I'm going for a zucchini.
6. Bought a MegaMillions ticket.
7. Ordered a game for a friend who gave me his Amazon gift cards to do so (he doesn't have a computer, but he does have an Xbox One S, and I checked to make sure this Xbox 360 game, which is older, should work).

Well, I think I'm going to get wrangled further into cooking, as I've been interrupted about four times just writing this post.  But hopefully 2019 will be a better year all around and I'll have more to say about it than 2018.  I'm going to go now; I'll try to write later.

I'm pooped, and it isn't even game time

Today I've:

1. Laundered my bedding and clothes
2. Changed out the spring and winter clothes, put spring clothes away, packed up the winter ones, and prepared to take them to storage
3. Swept and mopped the floors
4. Cleaned the bathroom
5. Taken out the trash and recyclables
6. Cleaned the cat boxes
7. Started a loaf of bread

Yesterday I cleaned a very dirty shelf with magazines and did YKWIA's laundry, and that was enough to make my back hurt quite a bit, so I laid down for awhile while he helped a friend out at his house who is battling cancer.  They called me to go get Subway and we all ate and visited, then we got home about 8:30 pm.  I think we were both done in by midnight (he's been over several days in a row and took the bus out Friday, getting lost on the walk over there, and probably walked four miles back and forth until he found it), and we .were up by 7:30 am.  I have no real reason to be as tired as I've felt lately.  I've done some housework and of course, I worked at the medical centre, but still, I'm just tired all the time.  I've been up doing my stuff and listening to shows he's watching (he finished the 'Almost Human' DVDs and we watched a couple of episodes of 'Up the Women'.  I unplugged my tablet, which has been on the charger for two days and really needed to be unplugged and just turned off.  He's got a lot of documents to transfer to it and we're going to see if there's enough room once I cleaned my stuff off of the microSD card.  There's not much on it, now, just some basic applications and one from Adobe for reading PDFs and one for reading Word files.  That should suffice for him.  I haven't used my old tablet for some time.  I'm not sure it'll have the processing speed he'll need, but it's worth a try since neither of us can afford a newer tablet or laptop right now.

Today I'm looking forward to the game.  I'm kind of grungy and should go ahead and take a shower, but I'm just not up to it.  I'd like to lie down for awhile, but the bed hasn't been made yet.   I just feel a mess today. 

My strawberry plant that Brenda gave me is back outside after being brought in for a frost advisory last night, and it has two ripe strawberries and one that is turning on it.  I have lost three smallish African violets recently, including the two pink ones in the bathroom and a purple one in the bedroom.  I'm not sure what happened; they got puny and I tried to save them, but it was a no go.  On the other hand, one of the orchids has grown a new leaf and I have two that are getting ready to re-bloom.  Maybe orchids are more my thing, although I've had no problem with violets before.  The window seat in YKWIA's room is lush with shamrocks, an umbrella tree I just repotted, dumb cane, and philodendrons.  They love that window:

So overall, the plants are doing well.  Also, the orchid at work is putting out new shoots and buds.  I separated the stems out to give them more room:

It's the same colour as part of my mousepad, my pen holder, and my water cup, so it's coordinated to the checkout bay. :)  What can I say, I like it when things match.

Okay, I'm going to go check on the last of the laundry.  I realised I started the bread while still running the dryer (the bread machine is on the washer, as that's a good place for it usually when I'm not washing, as it has a tendency to 'walk' as it mixes, which is apparently supposed to happen, according to the manual.  But the vibration isn't good for rising bread.  I don't want to mess up this loaf.  I'm experimenting with all-purpose rather than bread flour, as I'm low on the other.  But the other day I forgot to put the yeast in until 30 minutes into the cycle.  While it was edible and looked fine, it was chewier than usual.  I can't believe I did that.  I was washing dishes and remembered suddenly, doing what I could to fix things.  It wasn't bad, but not ideal.  Hopefully, this one will come out fine; I definitely put all the ingredients in. :)

Had a productive day today

Work went well. I got all the things I needed finished. After work, I did the following once I got home:

1. Started some bread in the bread maker.
2. Went to the store for shallots, leeks, and half and half.
3. Unloaded the dishwasher.
4. Washed the dirty dishes by hand, as we're out of Cascade pods.
5. Fed the animals and let the dogs out and back in.
6. Put my laundry away.
7. Spent some time with a friend who's having a really rough day.
8. Emptied my travel sharps container and put the pen needles in a regular one. I use a large prescription medicine bottle as a sharps container when I'm away from home, but I have to empty it every other day or so into one of those red ones that are larger.
9. Got out some more insulin from the refrigerator to take in my bag.
10. Ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich (we're out of spreadable fruit).
11. Took the bread out to cool, then put it away once it did so.
12. Listened to some music.
13. Dried the dishes that were on a mat by the coffee maker so they'd be out of the way for tomorrow.
14. Cuddled with the cat.

Now I'm listening to more music before bed--Of Monsters and Men. The cat is on my belly, purring. The plan is to go to bed early. I need to do that before midnight, anyway, as I've had trouble getting enough sleep lately and I've been dragging in the morning as a result. I have a dental cleaning appointment tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well. Then Friday I have an early-morning appointment with my psychiatrist.

My fifty-first birthday is Monday. I don't know why, but it's bothering me more than the last one, which was the big 5-0. I guess with closing the library and the lay off, etc., last year, I was just too busy and distracted to freak out. :)

Okay, I'm going to bed. Good night!

It's so fluffy!

It was hard to get out of the pan. This is an extra-large loaf, expanding to the inside of the bread machine's lid itself, which is why the shape is a little off. But it smells great and experience would say it's very nummy.

Today was technically a holiday for work

but a couple of us came in and worked on the various queues to try to get them under control.  My boss brought her boxer, who is white with speckles and a brown spot around the left eye.  She's adorable.  We played a little, and after she got home, she sent us a text of her dog totally sacked out on the couch.  It was a nice, easy day.  We got to park behind the building, rather than over by the stadium, so there was no shuttling in.  I got home within 20 minutes of leaving work, and that included a detour, as the last road before mine was totally closed due to some sort of road work and I took a side road I'd never been down in the hopes that it would take me to the road that is parallel to ours, which it did.  It's beautiful outside, partly sunny and 72 degrees at the moment (and it was warmer earlier, I suspect).  There's a pleasant breeze.  Tomorrow it's supposed to be similar and 80 degrees--here, at the end of February.  It's not unheard of.  Years ago, in the 1980s, I remember living in an apartment where you couldn't control the temperature--the air conditioning ran in the summer; the heater in the winter, and we had temperatures in the 80s in February and were so hot that we had to open the windows.

Anyway, after the drive home, I came in, let the dogs out, found YKWIA stirring from a nap, which he promptly went back to, so I left him to it.  He's been studying very hard as of late and probably needed it.  I went ahead and prepared a medium-sized basic white loaf of bread and started the bread machine going.  One of my co-workers who wasn't there today was at the grocery and told me she'd like to get me some flour so I'd make her bread.  I told her the type to get, and she sent me a picture of it just to be sure.  So I'll make some for her tomorrow.

All in all, it's been a pleasant day.  It's a little while before time to feed the animals, although the cat does not believe that.  He's sitting here staring and meowing at me.  The bread will be ready about 7:45, probably, and the animals get fed around 7 pm.  I think I may take a nap myself since I've got an hour to rest.  Hope you had a good day, too.

Mmmmm....

Two loaves for our potluck tomorrow... Whole wheat, which is vegan (but tasty), on the left, and herb bread with dill and caraway seed, rosemary, basil, and garlic, plus dried tomatoes and peppers, on the right. The house smells divine, as the herb bread just came out.

Yum!

The wheat loaf came out well

Although, unlike normal, I had to extract the paddle from the bread, probably because it's denser.  But it rose well--just not as large as a normal 'XL' loaf, more like a large one.  At YKWIA's suggestion, I'm making a large loaf of herb bread as well, and everything's cooled down, so I've got that measured out and in the pan mixing and now probably rising as we speak.

In the meantime, I have put a heating pad on my back, which felt nice--whoever invented the things should be applauded--and I've put my laundry away from yesterday, which is good, as I'm bad about procrastinating that.  At the apartment, I often lived out of hampers because quite frankly, the closets were full of books.

Sadly, the cat did not come cuddle while I was lying down.  He stayed with his master, which I suppose is the order of things.    For the last two nights, the little dog has stayed in there with him, too, although apparently, she started out with me, per YKWIA.  I'm wondering if the fans on are too cool for her.  I have them on low (there are two in the library/my bedroom).  They're very comfortable for me, although way too cold for YKWIA to stay long in this room when I have them on, especially tonight, as I may have given my crud to him.  I just made him tea and rubbed his feet.  I've given the dogs their nightly peanut butter treat, chained the door, etc.  I'll turn the light over the stove out when I'm finished with the bread and head on to bed myself, but that won't be for another hour.

Must admit, however, that I am getting sleepy. :)

It was nice to be back to work today

We celebrated Mardi Gras with doughnuts and King Cake, and I've probably screwed up my weight loss by a couple of pounds today alone.  Tomorrow we're having a potluck to celebrate Valentine's Day and also our volunteer's birthday.  It being the day before payday, and with me having about sixteen cents in my account, and a slightly smaller cheque due to the lack of time off to cover everything (although it wasn't too bad--I was less than four hours short total, and it amounted to about $13 in pay after taxes, etc.), I suddenly realised last night that my best bet was to make bread.  So tonight I'm making two loaves--a wheat bread that is really good and completely vegan (one of my co-workers is a vegan), using applesauce or olive oil (I used applesauce) for the creaminess, and honey for the sweetener.  Later I'll try to make an herb bread as well.  We'll see how it goes.  I haven't made the whole wheat in a while.  I put together the dough conditioner just the other day.  I love the recipe and both the bread instructions and dough conditioner ingredients can be found at https://beanland.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/whole-wheat-bread-machine-recipe/.  The only difference is I use olive oil instead of canola, sometimes. I don't like canola oil, to be honest, and olive oil works fine.  But I used unsweetened applesauce this time.


So, with the bread making, I swept the floor in the kitchen and mopped it.  Of course, it's going to start raining soon, and it's supposed to rain for most of the week.  On Thursday I think the high is supposed to be 62.  In Lexington, we tend to have localised flooding, but up in the hilly areas to the east of us, schools have been closed and the flooding has been pretty bad.  So I wish we had a drier forecast, for their sakes, and for the sake of the kitchen floor.  But that's okay.

I am working this weekend for about four hours to help make up for the lost time, as well as Monday, which, as it is Presidents' Day, we are technically closed, but a few of us have permission to work on rescheduling the grids.  That way I won't have to use my very low personal time off.  My boss said she was able to use some of the extended illness bank for yesterday and part of Friday, so only part of Thursday wasn't covered.  But working will help offset the loss of personal time off, anyway.

After work today, I took a co-worker somewhere and she gave me a little money for gas, which was great, because I was on my gas light, and this should get me through to payday.

Now I'm listening to some music.  I may lie down on the heating pad for a little while.  It was great being back at work, but I am a little tired and my back is still hurting.  I think after that, I'll watch Netflix, maybe the next episode of 'Sherlock', because YKWIA is studying and reading tonight.  I think he was very happy to have me at work today. :)

The bread came out

so big, I could barely get it out of the pan.  I dented in one side of the top doing so (there tends to be a lot of air up near the crust).  Oh, well, it's not as pretty as when it was in the pan, but I'm sure it will taste wonderful.  Now to let it cool completely before putting it into the container.  And I put the dough conditioner together, too.

When did this happen?

One thing about being home so much is that I'm starting to get on YKWIA's nerves because while the first few days I was exhausted and asleep, as I began to feel better I tended to do lots of small talk and chatter, even though I tried to rein it in.  Apparently, I miss the interaction with other people, and he's been working on projects on the computer and studying, so there have been large blocks of time I've been on my own.  Yes, I've read, watched videos, listened to music, done chores, and I've taken occasional naps, but still, I'm kind of lonely and bored, and what I don't get is this is the hallmark of an extrovert, and I've always been very introverted.  I score INFP on the Meyers-Briggs, always very strong on the introverted side, although it's moved closer to extrovert over the years, as is normal (you tend to move closer to the other side of the spectrum as you age and experience life, if I understand things well).  Anyway, maybe this is part of my problem with reading.  Maybe somewhere along the way it didn't satisfy my need to interact with people rather than characters.  I also find watching the TV to be rather passive, although I do get immersed in the story, just as I do with reading.  Music I enjoy on a different level, both in terms of the actual sounds and the lyrics.  But still, somewhere along the way, I got to where it's harder to amuse myself--me, the kid who was always alone and felt unloved.  That's a little unnerving.

I cuddled with the cat for a while earlier, although I really didn't sleep.  He got right up on my pillow with his head up next to mine.  Then I fed him and the dogs, and he seems to be keeping this food down, so he's happier.

I'm not really sleepy.  I just ate something extra because my blood sugar went low despite taking my insulin back 20 units each time for the long-acting insulin [so 60 units twice a day, which I think is going to have to go down to 50 or 55] and keeping the short-acting one at 34 units for all meals, not 34-42-42.  I kept track of what I've eaten today.  Even with four little meals, basically, I've stayed under the recommended amount for losing weight.  I've been pretty full.  Today I've had two bowls of cereal with milk, a banana, some homemade cream of mushroom soup, a piece of bread, two little applesauce cups, two peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and I think that's all.  So I've had 1 serving of vegetables, 3 of dairy, 4 of fruit (there were raisins in the cereal), 2 protein, 6 servings of grain, and a bit of sweetener, for 1333 calories (an I've burned 2004 for the day) between my activity/steps and my metabolism.  It's not exactly balanced, but it's not bad. If I eat anything else today, I'll make sure it's a vegetable choice.  We've got a turnip-apple dish in the refrigerator, along with 'green rice', which is basically rice with spinach and onions.  So those are possibilities.  In the meantime, I'm making some more bread right now; we should have an extra-large loaf ready by 10:30 pm.

So the question is what to do now. I'm listening to the OneRepublic station on Pandora.  I could read.  I could watch another episode of 'Sherlock'.  I just don't feel like doing either of those things.  It's kind of annoying, actually, that I don't.  I don't want to go to sleep or I won't sleep well tonight.  Sigh.  Maybe I'll try reading. I'm not up to Julius Caesar himself, but maybe the book on his legacy on the landscape (called Caesar's Footprints: a Cultural Excursion to Ancient France by Bijan Omrani).  It might be good to read before tackling Caesar, as I'll have a better idea of the lay of the land for the Gallic War, anyway.  Actually, I should go to the library's website and check to see when each book is due, then come up with a reading plan.  I know the one YKWIA is reading is due on Valentine's Day, the next one that's due, but I think I should be able to renew that one.  I just renewed The Forgetting and The Oversight.  I just checked out Anatomy of a Genocide.  So that leaves Caesar's Footprints, The Landmark Julius Caeser, and La Belle Sauvage to figure out.  Okay, I guess I'll do that.

I went through three other gardening books

Which were mostly listings of various plants or some plans for some gardens.  I took pictures with my phone using CamScanner, which puts them into a PDF file, including an herb garden from Edible Landscaping and also a listing of various types of plants that are edible (and things that certainly aren't, like castor bean).  So I took a total of six books back, picked up the hold, so I have seven out, one of which YKWIA is reading, three of the others are fiction, one is a collection of Julius Caesar's writings, another a book on sites important in his travels, and then the Holocaust book focussing on a town and what happened there.  The fiction books are all fantasy; two are teen books, and they should be quick reads.  I'm hoping I can get everything read before time to take it back.  I'm going to focus on these before any others.  It was difficult to pass by the new bookshelf, which is right by the entry, without perusing the titles.  Also, I was very pleased to see the crowd turn out for the opening of the Tates Creek branch, which happens at 1 pm on Sundays.  I was there early, about 12 minutes till, and was the first non-employee to get there, as there was no one in the other cars.  But in the intervening time period, probably fifteen cars came in, and people were waiting at the door.  One man nearly ran over a woman as she was heading in.  I suspect the rush was to get to the computers. :)  But there were four other people looking to pick up their holds in that section.  Three other cars had dropped off books at the book drop while I had been waiting.  It was quite a crowd, and even though I don't work there, it warmed the cockles of my little librarian heart.

Okay, time for more caffeine.  Let's get these chores over.  At least the grocery run is finished--I got a few things at Kroger and then had to go to Fresh Market for radicchio.  Most things were for a salad--arugula, shallots, the radicchio, fennel, etc.  Of course, there was milk, and I got more bread flour because I miscalculated how much would be left when we did the last run.  I use between 3 and 5 cups of flour for each loaf of bread.  I really should get YKWIA to find his ginger for me and make some whole wheat bread, because I have all the other ingredients for the bread, including the soy lecithin granules and ascorbic acid for the booster you put in the bread to help it rise.  The ginger's part of that, along with cornstarch.  And you have to put wheat gluten in, but that's a separate ingredient.  It makes a lovely loaf.  I have an entire bag of wheat flour.  But I think YKWIA prefers the basic bread even to the oatmeal one I tend to prefer.  The basic white bread just takes flour, sugar, salt, dry milk, butter, and yeast, along with water, of course, and it's cheapest to make.  The oatmeal one has oatmeal, of course, but not the instant kind, but rather quick oats, and uses honey instead of sugar.  Both make lovely loaves.  I'll have to see about the wheat though so I can use that flour.  I think you still use a cup or so of white flour in the wheat bread as well, so I can't just make it if I run out of white bread flour, but if it gets low, maybe.  I get White Lily bread flour, which is made by a harder wheat than regular all-purpose flour, but I could use the latter in a pinch.  Because I use the rapid bake, I use a jar of Fleischman's rapid-rise yeast.  You use a little more yeast if using the recipes that came with the bread machine (the basic white and herb bread) or different amounts if I'm making the oatmeal bread, which is from the book Electric Bread, under 'Outrageously Oatmeal'.  It has good recipes, some a little odd but intriguing, and recipes for spreads as well.  It was a good find.  I think that was from a book fair at work. :)

Okay, really, I'm going now.  Have a great day.