It's hopeless

Trying not to snort at work.

Salt of the earth

My church does meals every month for a local women's shelter. We have a signup sheet posted (and it occurred to me last night: hey, in this modern age, why not do this online?) for folks to sign up for main dish, drinks, etc. I signed up for "bread" for tonight's meal.

I had intended to bake rolls Wednesday night. For whatever reason, Wednesday, which has no plans from week to week, never is actually productive. I think I wallow in the time and suddenly, it's 7:30 and G needs to get ready for bed, it's 8:30 and his light needs to be off, it's 10:00 and I need to turn the lights off, and--wait, what was I going to get done tonight? Rats.

So I realize as I'm turning the lights off Wednesday night that I can set up the bread machine for dough in the morning, and turn it on as I'm flying through before choir practice on Thursday. I measure out everything but leave the water in a measuring cup. I pour it in at 6PM, turn it on, and leave.

We come back to beautiful, high dough all ready for shaping and the last rise. I cut it with a sharp knife, assemble it in a greased 13x9" pan, and put it on the stove (with the oven on) for its last rise. They rise up wonderfully, looking delicious.

As I'm putting them in the oven, it occurs to me, Hm, did I put salt in this batch? I keep salt in a spice jar and it's been empty (I buy sea salt by the pound at the local bulk foods store). I don't remember raiding the salt shaker or anything. crap.

I bake them anyway--why not?--and start a new load of dough in the breadmaker. Then I call my sister and blame her, because she made bread without salt and told me how beautifully it rose and baked. Clearly, it's her fault. She's right, too: you have to eat it with salted butter and additional salt over the top. Bread without salt tastes like nothing.

Fortunately, I fall asleep very easily in general, so I set an alarm to wake up when the dough's done to cut and shape it as before, another alarm to put the risen rolls in the oven, and a last alarm to take them out. I was a little afraid I'd miss the last one and wake up to smoke in the house or seriously burnt rolls in the morning. Np, as Liz says; I woke up and set them out to cool, remembering to turn the oven off, even.

Delivered the rolls this morning. I hope they enjoy them. I do love me some baking.

remember the salt...

Hidden advantage

I was just perusing the posted "sample schedule" for Lair of the Bear, getting excited about going this summer (Oski Week 3! she pipes up in her best sorority voice), and noticed the notation about the staffer/camper inner-tube Water Polo match.

I played in this last year, subbing in as someone got tired, thinking, "Why not? I'm competitive and you don't have to actually float." I did OK, calling for passes, swimming with my hands and feet to make a run forward, and (because I am competitive and a bad person) doing my best to up-end a staffer's inner tube.

But this year? This year, I can actually pass, catch, and shoot a water polo ball. Yet another advantage of powering through this cheap ($15 per semester, plus 50 cents/class parking cost) class that is also building muscle. (Tuesday, my legs were all wobbly as I left the pool. I love that.)

Dude, we are so going to win this year.

He did it

I got back to the martial arts studio last night just in time to see my kid get presented with his white belt. He earned it!

This, after one teacher told him he had 9 holds and just needed to learn one more. Then he gets all obsessive about it, so I promise to find out what he needs to do to test for the belt. (I'd seen one sheet on the bulletin board that said to earn a white sash, you need to present the Pendekker* with a rose with thorns, pay a $25 fee, and some other things. I thought it was not the same as a white belt, but wasn't sure.)

*like a sensei

I called and was talking right to the Pendekker, who really stressed that I needed to communicate to G that this is a journey, etc. Sure, I can do that, but he's already obsessed. Apparently, we all did a great job, because two classes went by with no belt. Then, at Tuesday's class, he got it! He had learned 12 holds by then.

He got shown how to put it on and the rules about it (never wash it, don't let anyone else touch it without asking first, and you can always say 'no'), and couldn't stop talking about how proud he was of himself.

Then he says, "I want to make this a holiday, Mom. February 26." So there you have it. February 26, G Gets His White Belt Day. We're working on the name, obviously.

Our lives these days

G is doing martial arts now (I keep misspelling it as "marital"--um, no, not that). I took him to a local studio for a Parents Night Out thing--win-win: I get the night off, he gets a taste of their flavor of martial arts. He loved it. The office person emailed right away and said, "If he wants to do a free class, just call me and I'll set it up." So I had them set it up for the next Saturday's class, a mixed adult/kid thing for all levels, and he loved it. I ran an errand and came back to see him doing amazing things with an adult and a slightly older kid. Part of it was personal safety--yelling "NO! I DON'T KNOW YOU!" and part was breaking the hold the other kid had on him and turning it to his advantage. Amazingly cool stuff.

So he's signed up and has a gi and everything. It's not far from IKEA and JoAnne and Trader Joe's, so I can do errands while he's there. In a pinch, I can even jet back home and walk the dog or something. I do wish it were in town, though. That would be convenient.

As he starts on a new sport, I've been playing water polo for a few weeks now. It is amazing exercise. The classes are pretty sparse, but our teacher appealed to the department that it is a sports support class (or something), as Laney has a women's Water Polo team in the fall. We have as few as 3 or as many as 7, so we've never had a full scrimmage. I do remember scrimmaging against the team last fall in my lap swim class. That was fun (but of course humiliating, as they actually knew what they were doing). I figured at the beginning of the class that if it didn't kill me, I'd be in amazing shape. I do think it's helping a lot. I love that my legs ache when I get out of the pool. Great exercise.

G spent the day with my uncle and aunt last Saturday while I went to a knitting/crochet show and conference down in Santa Clara. I was a little nervous about spending too much money at the market on yarn I didn't really need, so when a free class came up, I jumped on it. I spent the class being Rita someone, but it was really interesting and geeky. Geeky knitting, what fun. And I pretty well stayed to my budget for the rest of the time there. My aunt apologized that they didn't get out and do more, but the weather was so crummy... hey, G got to play GameBoy the entire day. He was in heaven. (He conveniently "forgot" his GameBoy/Wii timer, on which he only had 3 hours left. My uncle said he played for more like 7 hours.) We were invited to beef-stew dinner and happily accepted.

Sunday, we pretty much putzed around after church until it was time for me to go to hockey. I made a bean soup and I thought of offering my friend Allison some of it... she called me yesterday to offer me some of hers! We laughed and decided to keep our own to make things simple.

Hockey was way fun, one of those games where everything feels good but we just don't manage to get the little lump of rubber in the nylon netting. I had some fun skirmishes for the puck and caught some nice passes and made some good crosses. Hm, I can't remember shooting more than once. I did catch a sweet pass from the face-off and sent it toward the net right away, but it was too wide. Dammit. We had 3 wing pairs for our game but it felt like we sat a lot. Then I came off once and Susan pointed out that I'd had two long shifts for my last two. Oops. I do have a hard time keeping track. I look for my wing pair usually, but I apparently need to be bonked on the head and told to scram. Dang, I thought I was getting better about taking short shifts!

I thought it was our last game but, yippee, we have two left! And both Sundays, so childcare is easier.

We're heading into March and I'm really looking forward to it. New hockey season, and a week off at Disneyland. What's not to like?

A new rhythm

Like Friday, we got up early today and got out of the house shortly after 7. This was so that I could leave work at 4 when I went to pick G up from his art-camp and not return. This early thing is new to us and it works well. It does leave me exhausted by evening time, though. I had to decline to go to my hockey game on Friday, having realized the previous Friday that I am toast by 8PM, much less ready to play a vigorous game by 9PM. This will end in late March (unless we sign up for another class!).

It is a little unreal to be up at 5:30 in the morning, and my early-bird boss is still a little tripped by me being at work at 7, but being done with work by 4 (today) or 3:15 (Fridays) is absolutely priceless. (Being tired by 8, not so much.)

Tonight, he'll go to a second martial arts class, this time in his new gi. He went to the regular (mixed age) class on Saturday and not only did he love it, but when I returned from picking up dog-allergy meds, I saw him doing great personal-safety stuff with an instructor and a slightly older student--"No! I don't know you!" and hold-breaks etc. Too. Cool. Makes me kinda want to sign myself up, too. The studio is run by Louise Rafkin, whose name I recognized from her Street Smarts book. I signed up for a first-month, unlimited classes, plus gi for $99. It's also in the area of IKEA, JoAnne, and Michael's, so I'm not complaining.

Saturday afternoon, after the class, I headed home to drop him off at a playdate. Close to the freeway, the car gave that sickening, all-too-familiar shudder. The 'gas' light had been lit for a few days, but I drive so little that I hadn't really thought about it. Crap. We were near 7th Street in West Oakland, which is very high on my list of places where I feel unsafe. Crap. I turned onto 7th, not knowing of a gas station on 5th, which was where the freeway would have put us, and drove along, coasting when I could and driving only when necessary. Just after the West Oakland BART station, a little mom-and-pop station showed up. I pulled in and hopped out to pump the gas. An older Asian man walked out and started to pump it for me. I panicked a bit and re-checked the sign to make sure I hadn't pulled into a Full Serve pump (when was the last time you saw Full Serve?). I hadn't. OK.

I asked him for 5 gallons and waited while he pumped it to go inside with him to pay. As I left the little office, I made a guess, and said "Gung hay fat choy" to the man. His head whipped up, smiling, and he wished me a happy new year, too. Then he called something to his wife, and she came out, broom in hand, and wished me a happy new year herself. I love it when I guess right. That was fun.

We made it home only 30 mins late for G's playdate, and I went off to Broadway Plaza to get a bunch of shopping done. I had a knitting book to exchange (Christmas gift from my stepmom, but I already have it) and a $50 Macys gift certificate to spend. I also wanted to poke my head into Pottery Barn, and as I drove in, I noticed the huge Cost Plus in the area.

I decided to exchange the book first, and after I'd finally found a place to park in the parking garage (which was free, at least), headed over. It seemed odd to exchange a book without checking in with the register right as I entered, so I walked over. The woman confirmed that it had been bought at a B&N (how do they do this?), but also said that if I didn't exchange it today, they'd have to, get this, mail me a store credit. That would be WTF? number 1.

WTF? number two was the absolute disarray in the knitting-book section. No rhyme or reason (by author? by knitting topic?), and lots of quilting and crochet books mixed in. There were a lot of books, which meant browsing was actually a total PITA. Great.

I grabbed one book I'd been interested in, and for balance, headed back downstairs to grab some knitting magazines to leaf through. There were a bunch of people looking at magazines in the Starbucks cafe upstairs, so that seemed like a good idea to me.

WTF? number three was that even though there's a huge sign that says "Starbucks," I could not, in fact, use my Starbucks card to pay for my iced latte (no decaf Frappuccinos today--annoying, but not a WTF?, quite). "No, we're a cafe serving Starbucks. If you have an account with us, you can use it, though." An account? Geesh.

I selected one magazine and the book, and headed downstairs after I finished my iced latte. Waited in the longest line in the world, and when I finally got to the front, oh my! was the cashier irritated. I explained that I was exchanging the one book and getting the other, and even that didn't seem to sit well. Then she went on to explain the new return policy that B&N will be using starting mid-March:

No returns without a receipt, and all returns must be done within 14 days of purchase.

How completely unreasonable. (WTF? number four, if you hadn't guessed). This means you cannot buy a Christmas gift before December 12, and even then, your recipient only has Boxing Day to return the stupid thing.

I expressed my annoyance, and the cashier said that some people treat the bookstore like a library. "There can't be enough abuse to warrant this kind of return policy," I protested. "You'd be surprised," she said. Bull.

I finally said that Cody's had changed their return policy to something completely unreasonable, too, and I've never shopped there since. (Theirs was 24 hours. Yes, really. If you bought a book at 7PM Tuesday, you couldn't return it at 7:01PM Wednesday. That's like having no return policy at all.) I asked her to relay my disapproval to those who made those sorts of decisions.

Then lovely Ms. Cashier got totally snippy with me. "We don't even talk to them; they're in New York." (which I believe has phones and email and even is open for a few hours while we are open, last I checked.) Oh, for Pete's sake.

It's not like I was a big B&N fan before. This did not help.

But I did get a book I wanted.

Next, well, let's just say that a giftcard to Macys was not the best choice. I'm just not a Macys shopper these days. I finally found a down comforter for $69.99. I'd brought in my Macys card and a printed coupon for 15% off almost anything if I used said card. I figured that even if I was charging the leftover $10 of a purchase that that would count. The very kind older woman who helped me jumped through hoops, I jumped through hoops, and she jumped through hoops again trying to reactivate my long-unused Macys card. I can't believe the information I had to give up (I do not like to use my SSN as identification; I think it's unsafe as ID and practically illegal for them to ask for as ID). And then, after it must have been 30 minutes of trying to do this deal, they finally said they couldn't charge it. A measly $14. Sheesh.

Kind Woman let me charge it on my MasterCard and still gave me the 15% off, bless her heart. (And the comforter is really great, so that's good.)

I didn't get to Pottery Barn (just wanted OUT of there by that point), but I did stop at Cost Plus to get more of the hobnail glasses I had bought and liked. A great afternoon off, courtesy of G's friend, and when I offered to take the friend for the evening and return the favor, she waved it off, as they were heading out to see Spiderwick with some friends. We had a casual evening of a little Wii and a little movie watching.

I like casual weekends.

I mean it!

Our last front-office person walked out the door just now, leaving me in charge, she says. I threatened to fire everyone and/or hold a fire drill, and she was OK with that. I don't think she believed me. Nobody takes me seriously!

You're all fired!

Kitchen Endeavors

It struck me tonight like Viv, I can certainly document my cooking triumphs and challenges here, too. Maybe even convert a few of you to the beauty that is pressure cooking.

Beef Stew
Case in point? Last week, I made a beef stew in 9 minutes. And that was actually one minute too long. Yep, preparing the stuff to go in it took longer than actually cooking the thing. I got the recipe from the Presto cookbook that came with the cooker, but modified it a bit, because I didn't have white potatoes on hand (I used sweet instead), and left out the cup of chopped tomatoes (because, tomatoes? In a beef stew? sounded odd to me; and I didn't have any anyway).

So the recipe was pretty much 1 pound beef stew meat, a couple of chopped potatoes, a cup of green beans (seemed odd to me, but tasted just fine), maybe 2 cups of baby carrots (hey ma, no chopping!), and some onion. Brown the meat in a little olive oil (in the cooker), then remove it; cook the onion a bit, add the rest and the meat, a cup of water, put the lid on and set the fire so it rocks gently for 8 minutes. I used 2 pounds of meat and very generous amounts of veggies, so I cooked it for 9 minutes. (Oops.) Quick-cool under a faucet, done.

Then I removed everything with a slotted spoon, whisked some flour into some water, heated the broth, and made delicious gravy. So yummy.

Risotto
Tonight, I made a sweet-potato risotto. The recipe came in my giant box o'sweet potatoes that I got at Costco. (Of which I managed to eat all, I must say, without having any go bad. Excellent.)

I somehow doubt they'd dislike me reproducing it here, as it promotes the eating of sweet potatoes...

Roasted Sweet Potato Risotto
2 med sweet potatoes
1/4 c olive oil
4 c hot vegetable stock
1/2 c finely diced onion
1 t minced garlic
1.5 c Arborio rice (12 oz pkg)
3/4 c white wine
1 T rosemary
1 1/2 t thyme leaves
3 T butter
2 T grated Parmesan cheese
1 t salt
3/4 t black pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel sweet potatoes and cut in half. Cut half of the sweet potatoes into 1/4" dice and set aside. The commentary starts already. What was the point, again, of cutting the sweet potatoes in half? If you're using two, why not just 1/4" dice one and continue with the other? Cut the remaining sweet potatoes into 1" chunks. Toss with olive oil and roast until soft, about 30 minutes. Note: I believe they mean for you to toss them with the 1/4 c olive oil and then drain off the olive oil into your large pan. That's what I did. Took a smidge over 30 minutes. Next time, I'll cut into 1/2" chunks. Puree in a food processor with chicken stock. Huh? No chicken stock listed. I used 1/2 c of the hot, well, chicken stock because I didn't have veg. stock handy. Also, note that prep of all the other stuff can be done while the sweet potatoes roast. Reserve.

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and sauté onion and small-diced sweet potatoes over medium high heat. Cook about 3 minutes until softened but not browned. Add garlic and Arborio rice and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in wine. Cook, stirring until completely absorbed. In the same manner, add hot stock 1/2 c at a time, stirring until each addition is completely absorbed and stock is used up. Note from Jennie: do not get distracted lest ye rice stick to the bottom of the pan and mad cursing ensues. Add sweet potato purée, rosemary, thyme, butter and Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy. I didn't add the salt/pepper; tastes great anyway.

Hockey (not a recipe)
Great game tonight. We were outshot but not outscored! 2-1 and an exciting game. And at one point, I kept the puck away from both Bridget and Nora, a big ego boost for me. And later in the game, Carolyn didn't quite have the angle on the puck at the blue line, and I did, so I grabbed it and ran. She was great, staying behind me and telling me she was there all the way in. And I lifted the puck! I was skating in, and thought, "If I have a chance in hell of getting this in, I have to lift it"--and I did! It didn't go in, and my rebound didn't bounce to Carolyn, positioned beautifully in front of the goal... it kinda bobbled off my skate. Well, others put the puck in and we all can celebrate. Aaah.

Um, is it?

Today after our water polo class, one of the better students said to me, "It's amazing you're sticking with us." Not "great," "amazing." I tossed off some comment about wanting to have more stamina and said good-bye.

Then I thought, Amazing because you're all guys? Because it's an aggressive class? Because it's hard? (all true, except for the one day we had one other woman)

Then, when I got to my car, I thought, Ooh, maybe he thinks it's amazing because I'm old. I don't usually think of myself as old, but in the context of the class, I've been the oldest in the pool except for the first day (there was a guy who was about65 maybe) and today (a guy my age who swims like a shark and is in amazing shape). I'm about the slowest swimmer and am still getting my head around that egg-beater thing, as well as how to throw the ball (not intuitive in the least).

But... amazing?