rock band and family time

i want to make mention of the lovely time i had seeing my sister's band, goodbye gadget, when they came to seattle.  their charismatic ways charmed me both on and off stage.  

 

and of course it would be inappropriate to mention the night without also taking note of this:

but most of all it was great to hang out with both of my sisters at the same time, which almost never happens.

science fairs

a couple of weeks ago i went to my niece and nephew's elementary school science fair.  it was entertaining to see the projects which had obviously been done by the parents as opposed to the ones that were clearly done by the kids. for example, one 7 year old had two large pieces of metal with electric currents shooting between them, while another kid did her project on what would happen if you spit on five pieces of melon and left them out of the refrigerator for a week.  evie did her project on how plants react when they do and do not have sunlight:

that poor little plant on the left makes me feel so sad.  but she was very proud:

we also checked out the kindergarten class projects, since one of evie's friends told her that a kindergartner thinks she's "hot".  we wanted to scope him out.  she wouldn't tell us which boy, though.  also she doesn't know what "hot" means.   anyway, on the way to the kindergarten class i passed a drawing that lukas did of grover cleveland.

he looks like the man who called the computer "devil machine".  more on that later.

lukas did his project on which brand of gum blows the biggest bubble.

here he is being his usual charming self:

we had fun.  

that is sort of an abrupt ending, but i just got really tired and i want to finish the hound of the baskervilles before i fall asleep.  i will write more tomorrow maybe!

when will spring come?

today it hailed quite a bit.  that figures because yesterday i finally got around to planting grass seed along the side of the house, so that i could repair the damage the yard has suffered as a result of cole's enormous paws.  hopefully it was not for nothing.  i am very ready for spring - i have big plans for the garden this year.  last spring i planted 3 zucchini plants, a beginner gardener's mistake, which resulted in an over abundance of zucchini, literally 3 or 4 a day for a month.  this year i will plant only 1 zucchini plant, along with broccoli, carrots, snap peas, and hopefully potatoes.  i've already started the broccoli and snap peas from seed, in my mini greenhouses:

they are mini greenhouses on account of being covered with plastic bags, thus trapping the moisture and heat.  soon little baby broccoli and peas will appear, and it will be adorable.  if anyone wants one, please let me know.  we could trade vegetable starters.

speaking of adorable, cole and julius have become friends:

gustav feels left out:

in other cute animal news, cole's crate has been taken over by the cats.  we don't actually put cole in the crate anymore, since he's proven himself trustworthy enough to roam free in the house while we're away without eating the cats.  he does still like to hang out in there sometimes, though, just for fun. he will now have to fight julius and gustav for that right:

poor cole.  life is so hard.

also, i have been baking crazy.  

cupcakes with an almond frosting (i think maybe the most delicious thing i've ever made):

and hot molten lava cakes with a creme fraiche topping:

i would be happy to pass along the recipes if anyone is interested.  

experimental food

jesse prefers turkey pepperoni, i like pineapples.

delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough

blurry but good to eat

i also made a new sort of slow rising bread, which turned out way better than the rapid rise that i wrote about in a previous post.  

as you can see, this looks terribly wrong

the past few weeks

here are some things that have been going on:

on thursday, i will officially be working for the superior court. i am very excited, and feel so lucky to have gotten a job that i've wanted for so long. i am especially excited to be as completely non-specific as possible about what i'll be doing there, in order for my job to appear more mysterious and exciting. for example, if i am watching law and order with a friend, i will point to the television and say "that was exactly what work was like today...it was intense". and then my friend will say "what part?" and i will just point to the television and say "that part, like in the courtroom with those people". later, other things will happen in the show, scenes will change, characters will be in hallways and DA offices, etc. and i will nod my head and say "that's so true. that's exactly what work is like".

my job of course will not be exciting at all, but it is a foot in the door at the place where i want to be. i am happy.

at the moment i am finishing up a temporary job at a giant law firm. it is my second to last day and i have nothing to do, which is why i'm writing this. i wanted to include pictures of some of my recent cooking exploits on this blog, but the pictures are saved on my home computer. i will post sometime in the future. i made a homemade pizza dough which turned out ok, but wasn't rolled completely well and so became a bit too bready. i also made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which were delicious, and a minestrone soup that i butchered severely. my finger got terribly trigger happy on the food processor and i minced the vegetables to a pulp. jesse pretended to like it the first night, but we ended up with about a week's worth of soup down the drain. sad.

also, cole ate my left shoe.

officially domesticated

today i made bread for the first time.  i was initially inspired by isaac, but hadn't attempted it earlier because i have always thought of myself as a very ill baker indeed.  my cookies always taste like cakes with burnt crusty bottoms.  then jesse gave me a beautiful new mixer for christmas.  my beautiful new mixer came with a dough hook, and a dough hook can make anyone a good baker of breads i think.  

i was going to photograph the whole process, but i was so concentrated on correctly using the mixer that i forgot to photograph the main part of the breadmaking process: that is, the kneading.  so just pretend the mixer mixed the ingredients (yeast, flour, etc.), kneading on speed 2, and then it became a big dough ball.  then i cut the dough in half, and rolled it out into two loaves.  here are some photos of what happened next:

it was a special sort of bread which required refrigeration for several hours.

after refrigeration, i punched the gas out.  truthfully, it wasn't especially gassy, but it felt good to beat the shit out of dough, so this step went on for quite some time.  then i put it in the oven.

here is the finished product.  

truth be told, i have mixed feelings about letting a machine knead for me.  my bread will never know the touch of human hands lovingly kneading for halves of hours on end.   it knows only the cold and lifeless touch of a metallic hook.  i think in some ways i've done it an injustice.  my bread is soulless bread.  but it sure was delicious.  

it shouldn't feel like outside in the living room

seattle is terribly cold: perhaps the coldest it's been in the six years i've lived here.  it started snowing last night, which was quite fun, and tonight it's still all over the place.  this is cole's first snow, and it is pretty adorable to watch him prancing around and catching snowballs.  he's like a little kid:

and a lovely wintery picture of the house:

normally i don't mind the cold, but tomorrow i start a temporary job that involves sitting outside and counting people with a clicker in 20 something degree weather.  i don't know why they want me to count people, but there it is.  

i've borrowed jesse's wool socks and beanie, and i'll wear the mittens that laurel knitted me for my birthday.  if it's still unbearable, i will pick up some long johns, and put baked potatoes in my pockets.  deliciously effective i think.

jesse's brother and sister-in-law came to stay with us this weekend.   iris is terribly pregnant, just like jessie burg.  it seems to be going around.  jesse's brother, isaac, made 3 beautiful loaves of bread from scratch, as well as a delicious potato leek soup.  he also made a wallet out of duct tape, and this:

i am going to try to be this creative in the future.

also, i finally graduated.  i wish i could enjoy it more, but i'm in a financial panic and need a job very badly.  unfortunately, i've picked the worst possible time of the year/decade to be unemployed.  i'm torn because i'm aware of how terrible the economy is, of course, and there's a part of me that knows i should take whatever job i can - but i can't help feeling that i should hold out for a job that i actually believe in.  otherwise, what the hell was the point in going back to school to begin with?  oh sigh.  life's so hard.