Peter and I have agreed on a vacation plan for the second half of August, which he has already told his office that he will be taking off.
The third week in August, we will stay relatively local, probably getting in some dives at the Shores, and we might make an attempt to hike up to Deep Creek, where the trail is apparently open to clothing-optional hikers. Peter said he'll bring/wear a lot of sunscreen, especially in those places that don't often see the sun, and I suppose I ought to, as well, as it's no fun not being able to sit, I'm sure, from a sunburned bum. I told Peter he's lucky to have such thick hair (which I lack), as it protects his scalp from sunburn, which worries me and encourages me to wear hats. Unfortunately, the remainder of his body is covered with equally sun-sensitive skin (being, ancestrally and by birth from northern climes), so he needs to be (more) careful when out.
For example, we'd decided to brunch in La Jolla the other day, and we ended up spending the day walking around La Jolla, strolling down the main shopping street to the Cove, stopping into a couple of shops. The first storefront we went into was what Liz and Chris call the Surly Table, where we looked at their countertop ovens, as well as handheld gadgets and tools. It reminded me so much of Williams-Sonoma that I'd forgotten which shop I was actually in until I looked at some items with price tags, which have the name of the shop printed on them. I almost bought a spritzer for oil, but could not figure out whether it's a direct-action, or whether it's one that pressurizes and then provides a more even spray. I want to get one so that I can stop buying Pam, or its store-brand equivalents, at least.
Hmmm... I just found one on Amazon that looks good, but if I buy two (one for Peter and one for myself), that leaves $1.02 before I get free shipping...
Okay, that train of thought has departed the station, but I've returned to get back onto the train I'd originally intended to board.
So what are we doing for the last week in August? We will drive up to Monterey/Carmel, where we'd been once before. We will dive, once again, in, I think, Point Lobos State Park, which is rich in life (I love how big the anemones grow! And Peter loves nudibranchs), being near the southern end of the range of North Pacific species. I think they have open diving during the week, which will suit us just fine, since we will be heading back southward on Friday, anyway, to stay overnight and then go out on a dive boat on Saturday to the northern Channel Islands, I think. Then Peter will drive us back to San Diego. Should be a good trip.
We'll have the opportunity to encounter some (friendly) sea otters in Monterrey Bay when we dive around the breakwater. Since we're driving up, that solves a bunch of potential problems. We don't have to worry about buying another piece of luggage to replace the one that broke last year, though Peter wants me to get a bag for my drysuit (his new drysuit came with a bag, so he uses that) to make it more manageable to carry. I've also been considering buying a spare mask, though they're not cheap (I paid, for my current one, something like $100). I'm feeling rather poor at the moment since I just paid for the $5200 replacement of the A/C unit in my condo in Virginia, which I am renting out until I sell it (hopefully next year, depending on how the market holds out).
Speaking of the condo in Virginia, finding out that the A/C needed replacement came from the ironically-named management company, who promptly quit, since they actually would have to work for their monthly pay, and left me managing the condo myself. I had originally thought about contracting with another property management company, but I think for the one year (or what's left of it before next June), I'll be able to manage it. I will have the assistance of Rosemarie Johnson, who had helped me buy the condo in 2002. Wish me luck!
In the very near term, I will attend a Beginning Mandarin class this evening at the Language Door to see if I like the class and to make sure it'd be at the right level for me to start, at the beginning, essentially. I sat in on the second-level class last week, and it was a little difficult to keep up, though that is because I have near zero background right now. The teacher was very complimentary toward my efforts, though, which was encouraging. It might be good to get into a class where I'd have a head start, depending on the other students. If there are other Chinese-Americans, then our class might go faster than a more typical class, which would suit me just fine, as I'd be excited to learn and would welcome a faster-paced class, as long as it begins from the beginning, of course.
I appreciated that the teacher, who has a fruity nickname, went over the characters for the new words in the lesson. She said that the more complex characters are often made up of more elementary characters, so that by knowing the "root" of a complex word, one can take a stab at its meaning. Not so different from languages with alphabets, then. Just strokes instead of letters. And, just like letters, the strokes are drawn in a certain order. Down, across, down, across. I will want to practice recognizing the characters, though, as my visual recognition of objects seems to have diminished over time (and probably quite dramatically since my car accident, which occurred in December, 2006).
Well, it is about time to wrap this up for another day. There is carrot soup for K to have for dinner, and I will have some when I return from another step along in the adventure that is my life.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015
The Vicissitudes of Female Hormonal Fluctuations
Typically, I can tell where I am in my (somewhat, but not strictly) quasi-monthly hormonal cycle. I can sometimes tell if I feel especially frisky, tense, or just plain blue when I'm about to go through emmenia (I just learned this word; apparently, it triggers the spell-check). I can usually ride this out, sometimes barely even noticing it, but this month, I'm feeling rather down, and it's not just the circumstances, though they definitely played a factor in my overall mood:
Last Friday evening, I hosted a Meetup at the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery in La Jolla. It was a fun evening of hanging out with friends old and new. I am planning to start studying Mandarin again (we'll see how that goes) at the encouragement of Amy, one of the other dinner attendees, who told me that if I attend Jim's Thursday evening Meetups for the Chinese Language Meetup, that she will attend, also, to help me learn and develop my conversational skills, of which I currently have none. When I got home, and for the past few days, I've been watching Chinese lessons online. We'll see how it goes...
At dinner, I sat near the middle of the table, next to Amy (on my right). Peter sat across from me, Doug sat next to Peter, with Conway headed that end of the table. There was an empty seat between Conway and me, and we left our hats on that chair until it was later filled by Mustafa, who joined us after most had finished dinner and were just sitting and chatting over drinks.
Conway told us about a recent volunteer program in which he'd been participating but had recently left because there was some complaint (or something) that caused the director to ask him to leave. Strange. Conway theorized, though there was no clear indication, that a complaint had been lodged by a god-fearing receiver of services who somehow felt that Conway's atheism was a detriment to either the program or the persons he aided in his voluntary position. Conway was a bit disturbed by this, and we could really only give him sympathy, since none of us knew what was really going on.
That conversation led to a discussion of "law enforcement" action in general, and I voiced my distaste for border control agents who feel it necessary to harass drivers (and their passengers). Conway said that in the position of a border control agent, seeing an old(er) pickup truck, driving away from the Mexican border, with three passengers, was cause for suspicion, especially at around 2 am. I argued that it was not reasonable to assume that the truck was driven by a Mexican or a coyote transporting illegals into the US via California. We happened to have just attended a "star party" at an observatory that was hosted by Lloyd for his students. Mustafa joked that I could have looked like I was from Central America (to which I almost laughed), being on the darker side of the Asian population. I gestured toward Amy and asked, "Am I really that much darker?" and Mustafa said, "Yes!"
I guess that's what I get for enjoying the SoCal sunshine.
So, anyway, the next morning, Peter came back to bed after rising and reported that my car had been towed! I'd parked it against his garage, located at the end of a short driveway within his condo complex. He looked in the condo docs, to which he agreed to abide when he signed the lease, and found that cars are not allowed to be parked in front of garages... So it goes. Turns out it is the same towing company who tows cars from my condo complex. We surmised that the tow trucks troll at night at the various condo complexes they service, and just tow anybody who is in violation. During the day, there's legitimate business towing, but at night, when most people (especially in residential complexes) are asleep, the cars are just easily towed without argument from car owners. Well, that's a $352 lesson learned.
This morning, I started a batch of pastry:
about 3 1/2 cups of durum semolina (I used Bob's Red Mill)
a scant teaspoon of salt
one half cup of water
one quarter cup of EVOO
Into the KitchenAid with the dough hook, I let it stir and mix until the dough came together in a single cohesive mass. Then I took it out, kneaded it (flouring my hands and the countertop lightly), then oiled a bowl and dropped it in. It's now sitting, covered with plastic wrap (over the bowl, not directly on the dough itself). I will blanch some chard, chop it up, and mix it with some sautéed onion and garlic and feta cheese. I will need to run out and buy some parsley to go into the mixture, as well... Oh, well, I guess I'm not making the pastries too early this morning, after all, as I'll need to wait until the shop (the Poway location of North Park Produce) opens to go buy parsley, as well as some additional feta (I tend to use quite a bit of feta in pastries that call for it).
Oh, good. North Park opens at 8:30, so I just have an hour go to before going to buy those ingredients.
Oh, and I'll be picking up our CSA share this afternoon, as well. Oh, wait. Here's this week's list of stuff we will potentially receive:
Leeks
CarrotsCucumbers
Tomatoes
Blackberries or Strawberries
Lettuce or Spring Mix
Dino Kale
Cantaloupe Melon
Oranges or Grapefruits
Peaches
Flavor Grenade Green Pluots
American Parsley
Tomatoes, Heirlooms
Yellow Squash
Maybe I should wait to make the pastries until after picking up this week's share, since we might get parsley, as well as kale and leeks, which would go well into them.
Okay, I'll wait. The dough can wait in the fridge, after I wrap it tightly in plastic, until I'm ready to roll (some of) it out. I also have a recipe for another Greek pastry, a cheese, egg, and herb pie, that calls for several layers of phyllo. The dough I prepared is called a phyllo, so I might just use it instead of using store-bought sheets. It'll be fun.
Now that I have some durum semolina, I want to buy more (hopefully in bulk form, as Bob's Red Mill packages are not large but quite expensive) to try my hand at homemade pasta, for which I'll need plenty of eggs, as well.
On Saturday, I am attending a potluck picnic with one of my Meetup groups. I wrote that I'll bring curry cookies, the recipe for which I've only just written down the other evening. If they bake up well, I'll post the recipe here for others to try.
Last Friday evening, I hosted a Meetup at the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery in La Jolla. It was a fun evening of hanging out with friends old and new. I am planning to start studying Mandarin again (we'll see how that goes) at the encouragement of Amy, one of the other dinner attendees, who told me that if I attend Jim's Thursday evening Meetups for the Chinese Language Meetup, that she will attend, also, to help me learn and develop my conversational skills, of which I currently have none. When I got home, and for the past few days, I've been watching Chinese lessons online. We'll see how it goes...
At dinner, I sat near the middle of the table, next to Amy (on my right). Peter sat across from me, Doug sat next to Peter, with Conway headed that end of the table. There was an empty seat between Conway and me, and we left our hats on that chair until it was later filled by Mustafa, who joined us after most had finished dinner and were just sitting and chatting over drinks.
Conway told us about a recent volunteer program in which he'd been participating but had recently left because there was some complaint (or something) that caused the director to ask him to leave. Strange. Conway theorized, though there was no clear indication, that a complaint had been lodged by a god-fearing receiver of services who somehow felt that Conway's atheism was a detriment to either the program or the persons he aided in his voluntary position. Conway was a bit disturbed by this, and we could really only give him sympathy, since none of us knew what was really going on.
That conversation led to a discussion of "law enforcement" action in general, and I voiced my distaste for border control agents who feel it necessary to harass drivers (and their passengers). Conway said that in the position of a border control agent, seeing an old(er) pickup truck, driving away from the Mexican border, with three passengers, was cause for suspicion, especially at around 2 am. I argued that it was not reasonable to assume that the truck was driven by a Mexican or a coyote transporting illegals into the US via California. We happened to have just attended a "star party" at an observatory that was hosted by Lloyd for his students. Mustafa joked that I could have looked like I was from Central America (to which I almost laughed), being on the darker side of the Asian population. I gestured toward Amy and asked, "Am I really that much darker?" and Mustafa said, "Yes!"
I guess that's what I get for enjoying the SoCal sunshine.
So, anyway, the next morning, Peter came back to bed after rising and reported that my car had been towed! I'd parked it against his garage, located at the end of a short driveway within his condo complex. He looked in the condo docs, to which he agreed to abide when he signed the lease, and found that cars are not allowed to be parked in front of garages... So it goes. Turns out it is the same towing company who tows cars from my condo complex. We surmised that the tow trucks troll at night at the various condo complexes they service, and just tow anybody who is in violation. During the day, there's legitimate business towing, but at night, when most people (especially in residential complexes) are asleep, the cars are just easily towed without argument from car owners. Well, that's a $352 lesson learned.
This morning, I started a batch of pastry:
about 3 1/2 cups of durum semolina (I used Bob's Red Mill)
a scant teaspoon of salt
one half cup of water
one quarter cup of EVOO
Into the KitchenAid with the dough hook, I let it stir and mix until the dough came together in a single cohesive mass. Then I took it out, kneaded it (flouring my hands and the countertop lightly), then oiled a bowl and dropped it in. It's now sitting, covered with plastic wrap (over the bowl, not directly on the dough itself). I will blanch some chard, chop it up, and mix it with some sautéed onion and garlic and feta cheese. I will need to run out and buy some parsley to go into the mixture, as well... Oh, well, I guess I'm not making the pastries too early this morning, after all, as I'll need to wait until the shop (the Poway location of North Park Produce) opens to go buy parsley, as well as some additional feta (I tend to use quite a bit of feta in pastries that call for it).
Oh, good. North Park opens at 8:30, so I just have an hour go to before going to buy those ingredients.
Oh, and I'll be picking up our CSA share this afternoon, as well. Oh, wait. Here's this week's list of stuff we will potentially receive:
Leeks
CarrotsCucumbers
Tomatoes
Blackberries or Strawberries
Lettuce or Spring Mix
Dino Kale
Cantaloupe Melon
Oranges or Grapefruits
Peaches
Flavor Grenade Green Pluots
American Parsley
Tomatoes, Heirlooms
Yellow Squash
Maybe I should wait to make the pastries until after picking up this week's share, since we might get parsley, as well as kale and leeks, which would go well into them.
Okay, I'll wait. The dough can wait in the fridge, after I wrap it tightly in plastic, until I'm ready to roll (some of) it out. I also have a recipe for another Greek pastry, a cheese, egg, and herb pie, that calls for several layers of phyllo. The dough I prepared is called a phyllo, so I might just use it instead of using store-bought sheets. It'll be fun.
Now that I have some durum semolina, I want to buy more (hopefully in bulk form, as Bob's Red Mill packages are not large but quite expensive) to try my hand at homemade pasta, for which I'll need plenty of eggs, as well.
On Saturday, I am attending a potluck picnic with one of my Meetup groups. I wrote that I'll bring curry cookies, the recipe for which I've only just written down the other evening. If they bake up well, I'll post the recipe here for others to try.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Two in One Day!
This morning, I am spending some time doing some more domestic chores before the day begins. I poured into the stainless bowl of my KitchenAid:
3 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/4 c. room temp. water
1/4 c. EVOO
2 t. table salt
2 t. dry active yeast
And set it on "Stir" (the slowest setting) for several minutes until the dough came together in one, large, cohesive lump, thrown around the bowl by the hook.
I then covered the bowl with plastic wrap, and set it aside to rise for a few hours until I decide whether I feel energetic enough to turn it into grissini. The last batch of grissini I made, topped with the Japanese rice seasonings and nutritional yeast, was all but finished off by Kat (she left me a single small one in the baggie). I guess that means she likes those toppings...
I still have some of the cheddar shortbread that I'd baked the other morning. It's the dry half of the batter, since I'd neglected to add milk to that half of the batter before baking it. I added half of the amount of milk, as heavy cream, since I don't have dairy milk, to the remaining batter, along with some additional shredded cheddar, prior to forming it into a log and rewrapping it in plastic and placing it in the fridge to chill. When we finish the crumbly half of this batch of shortbread, I'll bake up the remaining batter and then we can have the recipe as originally written (I've included the recipe in a past entry here, many months ago now).
I am trying to decide which direction to head toward, in terms of what to pursue with DoR (Department of Rehabilitation) support, now that my medical records have been (or I assume have been) finally transferred from my GP's office to the DoR which indicate why it is that I actually qualify for "head-of-the-line" services from the Department. I will phone the Art Institute today to see if they offer fellowships or loans for students, as that will likely determine which path I take, since I really don't want any more student debt in my life (at least not from my own education).
The DoR requires an aid recipient to take loans prior to financial assistance for any educational track. I'd learned, from a man I'd met at a Meetup held in Hillcrest, that his DoR counselor knew someone who had internships (like apprenticeships) for people looking at culinary careers, so that was how he pursued his return to the workforce in that industry. The Organizer of that Meetup, also, told me that there are many jobs available for people in culinary fields, including, of course, high-end retail restaurants, but also other food service occupations, commercial and institutional cooks and bakers, and private chefs who can concentrate on individual needs of fewer clients.
So it looks more and more like I might be pursuing something about which I feel passionately, gaining more knowledge so that I might actually stat earning a living doing something that I already enjoy spending time doing anyway. Besides, it might present me with the opportunity to actually gain burn scars from a job rather than recreational activities!
Peter and I are planning a trip to Baja California (Cabo Pulmo, specifically) for our vacation this summer (hopefully, next month). We looked at a couple of places to stay, and looked at the website for a dive operator who takes people out into the Sea of Cortez for diving. The only potential disappointment is that the whale sharks will not be visiting at this time of year since they come during the shoulder seasons, mostly, which is not now.
Peter gave me a small nonstick springform pan, with which I can bake a single-serve cheesecake, made with probably a single brick of cream cheese (at most), one egg, and maybe one or two other ingredients. I'll find a cheesecake recipe and scale it down. It'll be a very cute cake, indeed.
I was looking at the Goodwill store in Poway (which seems to be very well visited by shoppers) at a couple of sugar bowls for Peter, as he currently does not have one and I take sugar in my coffee. I fantasized about using some cylindrical cups and bowls for soufflés, but then realized that I already have a set of six ceramic dishes that I'd bought specifically for making flans and soufflés. The only problem with soufflés is that they absolutely have to be made immediately prior to consumption, so it appears that I won't be making any of them anytime too soon.
So I'm thinking about making a little ricotta cheesecake, possibly, with the little springform pan. It'd be really, really cute, for sure! The upside-down cake I baked yesterday morning is halfway eaten, so I'll have space for it, at least (fortunately or unfortunately, that is)...
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