All Purpose

I can’t believe I’m on my last week at work. It did go by pretty fast. I’m winding things down now, finishing up the last few things, packing my office, doing errands on campus and then I’ll be done. YAY!

In other news, I’ve been able to add a bunch of new things since gluten, namely eggs and citrus. So of course I needed to make something to celebrate having citrus in my life.

I went for another Smitten Kitchen recipe, one I’ve done many times, the wonderful Margarita Cookies. I always get raves when I make these, they are simple, sound fancy and taste delicious.

I think this is basically a shortbread type cookie and you add lime and orange zest along with tequila and then you roll the dough in a sugar and sea salt mixture before baking and it’s the perfect combo of salty, sweet and tart.

Probably the hardest part of this recipe is rolling the dough into a log, but my laziness has helped me find an easy way to do even that.

Of course mine is not uniformly shaped, but it’s still yummy. Now it’s ready to be rolled in the sugar and salt mixture.

Then you slice and bake. You could totally make these and wrap them up pretty (in log form) with baking instruction and give them as gifts.

So citrus? Passed the test.

No Comments | In: baking, life | | #

So today is the day that I start preparing to get out of the way, which is just another way of saying quit my job. Today I sat in a meeting and heard how many positions our area has lost and how hard it’s going to be to replace anyone. It makes me feel bad. It makes me feel guilty that I want to leave at this, the worst time.

I know the organization won’t die without me, and in fact if they can hire a replacement then that person might really flourish where I have only floundered.

I guess I’m feeling a little like I’m giving up, or that I’ve failed.

So now I need to give some thought to my project in progress and figure out, what needs to be done to ensure the project is continued and what can I leave behind?

Also, I really wish I had not agreed to speak at TLA this year. I wonder if I can wiggle out of it…

No Comments | In: 9to5, life | | #

So today in a SXSW session someone said, “If you don’t like your job there is someone out there who’d love to have it. And there’s someone else somewhere that has your dream job and probably hates it. We just all need to stand up and move out of the way”.

This, along with a lot of other wise observations from the group made me realize that I need to get out of the way. I need to give someone the chance to do my job and love it. I need to give myself the chance to do what I love, or at least what I think I love right now. I need the chance to be a whole person, not one bound by pain or lack of confidence. I need to give myself a chance at healing.

So how do I do that? How do I do that and have us still maintain our life and continue to meet our financial goals? I am not quite sure, but I’m going to find out, and I’m going to blog about it.

I think SXSW just changed my life.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: change, life, writing. | #

So I’ve been slacking in the blogging department, I know. I’ve got a plan though to make this a more regular blog. I know I keep making promises. I really am trying though to make this part of my week at the least and hopefully I can get to the point I’m posting more than once a week.

I will be posting on some projects that I cannot discuss in detail, but that will result in much frustration and hilarity though. I’ll also be posting more when I travel. My first trip of 2010 is coming up, and it’s a good one.

I’m going to Mardi Gras! Yes, in New Orleans! I haven’t been since 2006, and that MG, while wonderful to experience, was not like the joyful and exuberant celebrations that I remember as a former resident of the city.

The other totally awesome and exciting thing is that I’ll be riding in a Krewe! I guess I’m technically now in a Krewe, which is cool. I’ll be riding with Tucks on Saturday February 13th on the traditional Uptown route. It will be so exciting and I’m really going to try to take photos and capture the fun.

So stay tuned for blogging from Mardi Gras…coming soon.

No Comments | In: life, travel, writing | tags: 2010, mardigras, neworleans, nola, trips, tucks. | #

I did it. I wrote a 50,014 word novel in 30 days, and while it is a very, very rough draft it’s something, something I’ve never done before so it’s pretty awesome.

So yeah, I didn’t really journal here did I? It was hard, really hard, the last week especially, so I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging. Plus, my body? It’s really pissed at me now for all that computer time, and typing (it really hated all the typing). So I needed to rest when I could. I probably shouldn’t be typing now because, frankly, it hurts. I have a massage in my future though so it’ll all be fine.

So I’m going to keep writing every day for 10-30 minutes, but I’m going to stick to exercises for the first couple of weeks and then transition into doing some character and setting work before I read the novel and starting revising it in January.

I have no idea how to revise a novel, but I’m just going to give it shot and I have a deadline for finishing (March 15th) so that should help.

I have a ton of stuff to take pictures of, but it’s so cloudy I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance. I’ll try though.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: 2009, fiction, nanwrimo, process, writing. | #

So I made gumbo this past weekend for the first time in like 5 years. It was ok, but I had just totally forgotten how I used to do it. I never had a recipe I used, so piecing it back together was a little rough. It was good though and now I’d like to (re)master that recipe so I’ll probably be experimenting with that over the fall and winter.

I will work on getting a better kitchen photo set up too so I can start documenting these kitchen forays a little better.

In other news I’m feeling ready to finally start running again (yes!). I’m going to start the Couch to 5K program next Monday. I’ll be starting NaNoWriMo on Sunday as well so November is going to be hectic for me. Wish me luck, and I’ll try to keep the blog somewhat updated.

I’ll be doing a knitting update later this week!

No Comments | In: 9to5, life, running | tags: 9to5, cooking, running, writing. | #

I’ve been MIA lately, I know. I’ve been sick since like August it seems. Nothing serious, just allergies but it’s getting old, really old. So I’ve done a few baking things and some knitting stuff and even some yard work.

I made croissants. Real croissants. From scratch. They were really good and our neighbor, who’s mother is French, said they were very close to real French croissants (I need to get a full report about what was missing).

So I got this book, Baking, a few weeks ago and it has great step by step instructions for all kinds of baking stuff. I think it could be a baking course on it’s own. Anyway, I’ve been wanting to do something challenging so I decided to try croissants. It’s a lot of work, and a lot of butter, but they turned out great and the instructions were good and easy and had photographs to go with, which I love. Anyway, croissants!

I also made bread a lot lately, including my Rosemary Olive bread and Chocolate Cherry bread, which I got from this book . I’ve been making these breads for a while so nothing new, but nice to have fresh bread. I hope to make bread a lot more as it cools down for fall/winter here.

I’ve been knitting a lot and just finished a sweater (post to come soon) and started a new one. I’ve also started the long process of cleaning up and preparing the yard for fall/spring gardening. I cleaned out my dead tomatoes and can you believe that the basil I planted with them is still alive and is at least 4 feet, yes feet, tall. We’re planning on harvesting it all over the next week or two and making some pesto.

I’m going to try to do the Sweet Potato biscuits tomorrow (for Tuesday’s with Dorie) because they sound yummy and I need to master biscuits. I’ve had bad biscuit mojo the last few years.

No Comments | In: baking, garden, knitting, life | tags: basil, bread, croissnats, tuesdayswithdorie. | #

I spent last week in the lovely town of Alpine attending a Writer’s Retreat. It was great, I’m motivated and I feel creative again. It was also exhausting so I feel like I’ve mostly been catching up on sleep this week.

We saw some fun stuff, like these cute donkeys. We were trying to figure out what donkeys were, and mostly we got it right.

Donkey’s can be interbred, but the offspring are sterile so while I’m not sure of the other two guys I took pictures of, this one is donkey and zebra:

We spent a lot of time on the Sul Ross campus where our class was held, and I saw something really funny there.

So he’s letting me get real close to get a picture and it’s not until I take this one that I understand that it’s a bug and not a pecan he’s got. Then it’s game time.

I saw this at the motel, very cool butterfly that I have been unable to identify so far, I guess a trip to the Life Sciences Library might be in my future.

We did go to Marfa on Friday and have dinner and poke around.

Then we went back to Alpine and stopped to see the lights. We did see them, but I could not get pictures. So small, so far away. I got this instead though.

It was great. I’d love to do it again next year!

No Comments | In: life, travel | tags: 2009, alpine, marfa, texas, travel, writing. | #

So the oak is dusting the city with pollen this week, and this year it’s really bothering me. I’ve been sick since Monday, really Sunday night. I guess working all weekend in the yard and garage while the pollen was flying was not a smooth move.

We did manage to get the rose bed mostly prepped (except the holes haven’t been dug and fertilized). And I got the side and big front bed cleaned up, again mostly. I planted all my little succulents finally. I hope they do ok, I need to check them today when I get home. Now I feel like I can start a new collection of small things again.

We still need to plant the roses and I need to decide what to do with all the beds (3 in front and one on the side of the house). We also need to figure out the veggie garden plan. M is also promising the removal of the Mimosa tree in front this year. That would really open up the front for some fun maybe next year.

So since I’ve been sick and missed most of Monday and some of yesterday I managed to do some knitting chores too. I frogged the FLS and rewound all the yarn into cakes for a second try. I managed to finish both front pieces of the Lush and Lacy Cardigan, and now I’m kind of wondering if I could finish this by the end of the month (making it my third sweater FO of 2009!). Gosh and then what could I try to do in April? I will need to think about that.

I have worked some on the Ribbon Lace Scarf, but not a ton. It’s just a fill in really for when I’m bored with the sweater and the socks (Leyburns) aren’t doing it for me. I love, love, love the Silkie Socks that Rock, and I love how the scarf is looking and how it feels, but I think we are already past scarf weather anyway.

The Leyburns, well I’m working on them but I’m really into the L&L right now so I’m picking up the socks less and less and since I have a better chance of finishing L&L in March the Leyburns will probably get finished in April. Only a month past the KAL deadline, so not bad.

The last thing I’d like to do before the end of March is to steek that Ribs and Lace tank. I’m still nervous, but I know that the yarn is still on sale so worst case I can buy new yarn and start over. The color is so nice though I really want this work. I think I’ll make the steek a goal for Sunday. Wish me luck!

No Comments | In: garden, knitting, life, work in progress | tags: steek wip frogging gardening allergies oak pollen. | #

to bring you some non-knitting content, brace yourself. Here are some of my favorite pics from the Alaska trip.

Stanley Park

Pulling into Ketchikan

Juneau clearing up

Orca (or killer if you want to be un-PC about it) whale in Lynn Canal (Juneau)

Humpback whale (we saw a lot of humpbacks and they came very close to our boat, and it was awesome)

Glacier Bay

No Comments | In: life, travel | tags: 2008, alaska, glacier, humpback, juneau, kethikan, orca, travel, whale. | #