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hey, it's monday!


posted 16 October 05 & filed under lots of links, techno-babble

in other words, some random thoughts:

i got raindrunk this weekend. never heard of that kind of drunk? well, it’s one that only afflicts ex-east coasters living in southern california. saturday night it rained, just twenty minutes of heavy rain, and i was all grinning and sighing. for those of you having days upon days of rain, i probably sound a tad bizarre, but really, you gotta experience at least five so. cal. summers and then you’ll get it ( i wasn’t like this last year.. but, no, i guess i’ve always been a bit of a rain freak. i used to love to swim in the rain. and i still always love jumping in puddles. hey, i’m a pisces, what can i say.)

after almost four years of carting around a soap-making kit, for some reason this morning i just put down the book i was reading, walked over to a clost, and pulled out that kit. two hours later, i had soap. or rather, something that promises to be soap but for now is highly caustic and poisonous(!). since it was my first batch of soap ever, i thought, what the heck, and added in some cornmeal (for exfoliating purposes) and attempted to add some color by marblizing the soap with some nutmeg-color. we’ll see what comes out – after saponification, the soap needs to cure for at least three weeks. (and then i got lost in soap window shopping ;) )

which is worse: talking to oneself on-and-off for hours or not talking for hours and then be totally startled to hear sound come out of your mouth?

i’ve been cooking a lot recently ~ i forgot how much i love trying out new recipes so it’s been really nice just going all into it again. i was in a very cheese mood yesterday so i made moosewood’s apple cheese gratin. it was good, but definitely would be better with some kind of bottom to it, like a cornmeal crust. still, gruyere and apples can never be anything but pretty delicious. ;) then, tonight i made some delicious cornmeal muffins. i also want to make some cookies tonight for a bake sale at school on tuesday, more cooking!

in spinning news, a fellow l.a. guild member is starting a knitty-for-spinners: Spindlicity! the first issue will be out in december, yay.

a few weeks ago, i installed tiger, the newest operating system from apple and i’m having a lot of fun with it. of course, the widgets, oh the widgets! here is my fav, a basic 5 day forecast. aren’t the images so pretty! and see what monday’s prediction is? (i love how as the weekend passed, the prediction got decidedly more rainy.) yay ~ bring out the umbrellas and moody music. excellent.

Comments

Love it all! I’ve never made soap before (all those caustic ingredients kind of freak me out) and your apple cheese gratin sounds incredible. I would have gladly gifted you our rain (although ME did get off easy compared to the rest of the northeast) but I think the sun is starting to peek out. Hallelujah.

~ Liz (Oct 17, 04:25 AM#)

I’ve always had a desire to make my own soap..I can’t wait to see how yours turns out!

~ Moni (Oct 17, 07:41 AM#)

HAHAHA…. Well I will gladly send you the grey, gloomy, three week longs stints of rain clouds if you would like. This weekend was the first time I saw the sun in three weeks. Not that we have gotten a lot of rain, but Ohio is good for looking like it will rain any second in the fall and spring.

Good Luck with the soap. I got really into making soap last summer. Made enough for everyone I know and enough for the next two years I fear for myself. Another fun thing to add is honey and dehydrated milk for a face soap.

~ Kitty Kitty (Oct 17, 01:42 PM#)

Hey Andrea! Thanks for mentioning Spindlicity! I’ve gotten a new writer through you…
—Janel

~ janel (Oct 17, 05:40 PM#)

Ach, soap!! Fabulous…
Could you please email me your address? I’ve managed to misplace yours. Your scarf is coming along, I am still hoping to get it finished by the end of the month, I hope you’ll forgive me if it is a little tardy.

~ Bethieee (Oct 17, 10:57 PM#)

Talking to yourself/not talking all day is exactly what the kitties are for! :) But I know exactly what you mean. I don’t have an answer other than to go wake up a cat from its nap and ask it about its day.

~ Heidi (Oct 18, 07:24 AM#)

there’s a sudoku widget which could possibly be the worst thing to install at work. and then there’s the ebay widget… i don’t have to explain the yarn consequences there!

~ MJ (Oct 18, 01:42 PM#)