The Newness of New Things!!

I am starting the year off with a ridiculous spending spree it would appear.

I've bought some music. I bought jeans (skinny jeans - I have succumbed to the convenience of not trying to fold and wrap the extra fabric into my new Christmas boots). I bought a completely unnecessary skirt.  I bought an accounting software program - on the loose premise that this will help me budget and thereby save money (hah).

I bought a new laptop. Ironically so that the accounting software would work properly. And also because I was running out of space on the other one. I had to remove a few programs so I could save a picture file. *heh*  And I accidentally got rid of my calculator in the process. >_<

It was on sale. It isn't Windows 8 - it was a demo model - and they needed to get rid of it. Seeing as I have no desire to fiddle about with Windows 8 just yet, this worked really well for me.
I have spent the past several days getting it set up and moving all sorts of files over. In fact, I am waiting patiently (or maybe not quite so patiently) for a bunch of those files to finish being copied over so that I can start to *use* this laptop for work.

I may not actually accomplish this today, but here's hoping!

The Rage of the Ellipses

Ok. I am a fan of using ellipses inappropriately. I lengthen out pauses, hint at hesitation, trail off without finishing, imply hidden meanings and significant looks, and basically use it like a giant repeating comma in all sorts of casual writings.

But it really, *really* bothers me when something that is supposed to be professional uses an ellipses that way.

If you are going to be professional - be professional. If you are going to be casual, don't expect us to take you seriously.

One more website spotted, dotted, peppered and broken up with repetitious periods, and I just might freak out.

And if you didn't know it was called an ellipsis: you are not allowed to use it at all.

Crusty crusty lovely bread

I found an amazing little recipe. For bread. No-knead bread, which wasn't really what drew me to it - I don't  mind kneading dough.

What made this one so awesome for me, is you put the dough in the fridge, and just bake one loaf at a time - at any size you prefer.
Which means that I can have fresh bread any day of the week, without having to worry about it going moldy before I can finish it, because I can make just a little loaf, AND I don't have to make a bunch of bread at once and then freeze and thaw and invariably re-freeze as I realize I'm not going to be able to eat it all in time.....

I found the recipe here,  and so far I have made 2 loaves.  The recipe makes enough enough dough for probably about 8 loaves at the size I am making them (a 'grapefruit' sized ball of dough at a time).

It is delicious.
And wonderful.
And I put 2 cups of brown flour in. And then I totally lost track of how many cups of white flour I had put in, and couldn't remember if I'd started counting back at 1, or kept going at 3.... so I mixed it, and it was dry, and I added another cup of water, and it seems to have turned out just fine.
^_^

But the next time I make it will be a whole new experience all over again.
^_~

Epistle to self:

Dear Clumsy Self;

Would you kindly not make any more messes? I wasn't actually planning on mopping the floor this evening.

It's a good thing we are all done making and eating supper now isn't it? That'll make this request a whole lot easier.

Also - you burnt my foot.

Respectfully yours, in the hopes that we can come to a non-violent compromise,

Self.

I made turkey burgers again. ^_^

I cooked them in a frying pan this time instead of on the George Foreman. There were a lot more juices.  Flipping the burgers became a messy and hazardous undertaking.

I also did not learn from my brother's experience and decided I could handle eating 2 of these.

O_O

Mmmm pasta!

I cook all my own meals now.

I only had to cook one last week.

Cuz it *lasted* all week.

O_O

Cross. Stitch.

I have a new way to spend my evenings, yo.

It's huge.

That's a 10 inch hoop.