A load off my mind...

It was time to go visit the lawyer again today, and coming away from today's meeting, for the first time in my life, I have something a little more solid in place than a holographic will (an instrument many legal authorities feel is worth less than the paper an oral agreement is written on). Today's session reminded me a lot of a house closing, except that in today's case, no property changed hands (though the wallet is noticeably lighter).

Here's hoping nobody has to go read any of the documents Galina and I signed today, at least not for a good long time!

* * *I appear to have fallen into client prospecting mode lately, but I'm not chasing every will-o'-the-wisp that comes along. I still haven't heard anything from the New York agency that had expressed interest in establishing a relationship, nor have I signed a contract amendment with what used to be my best client that would effectively cut my rate by 25% without actually stating it that way.

Nevertheless, I've got a few irons in the fire.

* * *A slip of paper fell out of a pile of my late mother's documents, and it would appear to be an entire "document" unto itself. It appears to be a recipe of some kind, but there doesn't seem to be enough information there to actually end up with any product I can identify. Here's what it says:

2 cups flour
1/2 lb sweet butter
   chop
put 1/2 lb cottage cheese
cool + roll out
  pot cheese
  -strain
2 egg yolks with sugar
mix with pot cheese
put in stiff whites

I understand the part about combining the flour and butter, and eventually letting the mixture cool before rolling it out, but I'm confused about adding the cottage cheese. Wouldn't it make the result sort of lumpy?

And I understand mixing the pot cheese with egg yolks, but how might the result be combined with the stiff whites (presumably, of those same two eggs), and further, with the rolled out dough?

Then again, the question that I probably should have started with is: Does anyone have a notion of what end product these notes (upon further thought, one can't really call it a recipe) describe? Cheese Danish?

* * *A few days ago, LJ friend bdunbar posted an image from the Fire and Ice blog, of a poem by one Hamlin Garland that was found scrawled on the wall of a Marine combat observation post in the Helmand Valley of Afghanistan.

The poem is not long, but I found it to be a grabber.

Do you fear the force of the wind?
The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them,
Be savage again.
Go hungry and cold like the wolf,
   Go wade like the crane:
The palms of your hands will thicken,
The skin of your cheek will tan,
You'll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,
   But you'll walk like a man!

Folks are sometimes surprised that soldiers might take an interest in literature and poetry, but there you have it. Personally, I can tell you it's not that much of a leap.

Cheers...