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A real Saturday...
Aug. 1st, 2009 08:36 pmI declared a day off today, and went to Durango with the kids. It gave grandpa a chance to mimic an assortment of characters for Mathew (not to mention recite poetry for the tyke while rolling through the aisles at Wal-Mart). Nobody seemed to pay much attention, even when I threw in a couple of stanzas of Eugene Onegin, in Russian.
I made two additional loaves of bread this morning, and drove over to the kids' place at around 8:45 am with one of the still-warm loaves, to share (which is where the whole day trip idea sprouted). I'm pretty sure my "grapefruit" sized chunks of dough are a bit on the small side, because the recipe for the dough I prepared says it's for four loaves, and what's left in the container after making three loaves is quite a bit larger than what I've been putting in the oven. I'm still traveling along the learning curve, I guess.
Feht came over yesterday, and we talked about stamps for a while. I've got a load of questions, that's for sure. I was, for example, wondering if a certain stamp I found among an accumulation of stamps from the early part of the 20th century had a centre très déplacé (noticeably displaced center), not realizing that the term didn't simply describe a poorly centered stamp, but one where the "center" part of the design was offset with respect to the "frame" part of the printing.
Poor centering, you see, decreases the value of a stamp; a displaced center, on the other hand, increases the value. That is, if all other things are equal, which they hardly ever are, because if the poor centering becomes so pronounced that part of the design is cut off by the perforations - so that consequently, a cut-off part of an adjacent image can be seen within the perforated area - then that's called piquage à cheval (literally, "on horseback," implying that the design straddles the perforations) and this also increases the value of the stamp. Go figure.
At any rate, I used my research and our conversation to compile the kickoff post of a new work project called Terminology Outpost, where I'll be using a WordPress blog as a showcase for explaining terms I run across from time to time.
To return to my muttons, so to speak, after his visit to me, I followed Feht home to look at part of his collection and some of his catalogs, and then he, his wife and I sat down to a very nice dinner, accompanied by something called "Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout" (the handle of the four-pack declares the brand's motto to be - no kidding - "Never say die!"). I cannot say it has a characteristic taste - to me, stout is pretty much stout - but it sure has a bit of a kick, as the alcohol content is 9%.
In growing-stuff-in-the-kitchen news, I had decanted some kombucha into smaller bottles and left them on the counter in the hope they would develop a little fizz over the past few days. That, they didn't do, but both bottles developed diaphanous "mother" scobys, which seems to indicate that the process continues, even if it's not fast enough for my taste.
In any event, as an experiment, I drank all but a couple of ounces (and the scoby) from one of the bottles and then added some out-of-the-bottle Lipton Green Tea drink, just to see if anything happens over the next week or two. I'd be interested in knowing if the commercial stuff can be used to make kombucha.
I started some alfalfa sprouts a few days ago, too, as the process is quite simple and I ran across everything I needed (except seeds, which I bought at the local health food grocery). They've developed quite well and I figure they'll probably be large enough tomorrow to put the jar in the sunlight, to let some chlorophyll develop. I do like sprouts in sandwiches.
Tomorrow shall have to be a get-down-to-business work day. No heroic efforts, just solid.
My goodness, it's August!
Cheers...
I made two additional loaves of bread this morning, and drove over to the kids' place at around 8:45 am with one of the still-warm loaves, to share (which is where the whole day trip idea sprouted). I'm pretty sure my "grapefruit" sized chunks of dough are a bit on the small side, because the recipe for the dough I prepared says it's for four loaves, and what's left in the container after making three loaves is quite a bit larger than what I've been putting in the oven. I'm still traveling along the learning curve, I guess.
Feht came over yesterday, and we talked about stamps for a while. I've got a load of questions, that's for sure. I was, for example, wondering if a certain stamp I found among an accumulation of stamps from the early part of the 20th century had a centre très déplacé (noticeably displaced center), not realizing that the term didn't simply describe a poorly centered stamp, but one where the "center" part of the design was offset with respect to the "frame" part of the printing.
Poor centering, you see, decreases the value of a stamp; a displaced center, on the other hand, increases the value. That is, if all other things are equal, which they hardly ever are, because if the poor centering becomes so pronounced that part of the design is cut off by the perforations - so that consequently, a cut-off part of an adjacent image can be seen within the perforated area - then that's called piquage à cheval (literally, "on horseback," implying that the design straddles the perforations) and this also increases the value of the stamp. Go figure.
At any rate, I used my research and our conversation to compile the kickoff post of a new work project called Terminology Outpost, where I'll be using a WordPress blog as a showcase for explaining terms I run across from time to time.
To return to my muttons, so to speak, after his visit to me, I followed Feht home to look at part of his collection and some of his catalogs, and then he, his wife and I sat down to a very nice dinner, accompanied by something called "Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout" (the handle of the four-pack declares the brand's motto to be - no kidding - "Never say die!"). I cannot say it has a characteristic taste - to me, stout is pretty much stout - but it sure has a bit of a kick, as the alcohol content is 9%.
In growing-stuff-in-the-kitchen news, I had decanted some kombucha into smaller bottles and left them on the counter in the hope they would develop a little fizz over the past few days. That, they didn't do, but both bottles developed diaphanous "mother" scobys, which seems to indicate that the process continues, even if it's not fast enough for my taste.
In any event, as an experiment, I drank all but a couple of ounces (and the scoby) from one of the bottles and then added some out-of-the-bottle Lipton Green Tea drink, just to see if anything happens over the next week or two. I'd be interested in knowing if the commercial stuff can be used to make kombucha.
I started some alfalfa sprouts a few days ago, too, as the process is quite simple and I ran across everything I needed (except seeds, which I bought at the local health food grocery). They've developed quite well and I figure they'll probably be large enough tomorrow to put the jar in the sunlight, to let some chlorophyll develop. I do like sprouts in sandwiches.
Tomorrow shall have to be a get-down-to-business work day. No heroic efforts, just solid.
My goodness, it's August!
Cheers...
