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orbie

11:54 am - The Underpants Bomber

With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain’s leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet – able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world.

Instead, the son of one of Nigeria’s most important figures opted to make his impact in a very different way – by detonating 80g of explosives sewn into his underpants, and trying to destroy a passenger jet as it came in to land at Detroit Airport on Christmas Day.

Interesting news story on the background of the guy who tried to blow up a plane on Xmas.

orbie

06:31 pm - The Day After

Slept all day today and just finished getting the kitchen cleaned from the day of baking before Xmas. More sleep is needed, because I am still totally fatigued. But … Xmas was survived yet again!

I have a few funny stories to tell (and maybe some photos, haven’t looked at them yet), but I’ll save them for when my brain is fully functional or at least until after we have eaten something. I have to go get some fast food, because I am not cooking tonight.

Sonic, here I come!

Bill Miller BBQ, here Lin comes! He didn’t want burgers, and he was willing to go get it, so whatever. I’m just hungry and not doing any cooking. I’ll eat just about anything he decides to bring home.

orbie

11:11 pm - Day is Done

The day is done, and so is all that baking and cooking! At some point I’ll post some photos and babble a little about my busy, busy day.

Right now, I’m just trying to work up the willpower and energy to get up off my butt, take out the trash (brrrrr, outside), wash up a little, and crawl to the bedroom to pass out in a nice deep slumber.

Hope everyone who will be celebrating tomorrow has a safe and fun day!

orbie

03:02 pm - Up and Running!

Bread production is back in business! I think, with my current kitchen setup (no counters) and equipment (two large glass bowls and a variety of loaf pans), the most bread I could make in a day (when better rested than I am) is about 16 or so. If I had proper kitchen counters, more or larger bowls, and places to let bread cool that were cat free, I could probably make more than that. It’s going pretty quickly, once I get into the rhythm of it.

The initial 6 loaves are in the Box Room cooling, because they were still too warm and moist to wrap in plastic … and that’s the only cat-free place 6 loaves are guaranteed to go unmolested. It’s also the coldest room in the house. Almost as cold as it is outside right now. Should cool quickly in there! I need to get those cooled and packaged, because there are about to be 6 more loaves to do the same with! Even the Box Room doesn’t have enough flat space for 12 loaves of bread.

The kitchen will be a wreck once I am done, but I’m not going to even think about it until Saturday afternoon when I crawl out of bed. Though there aren’t going to be many dishes to wash, seeing as I am tossing the foil pans when done with them and I only have the two large glass bowls and a couple of utensils. Maybe I can at least deal with those before bed tonight. The flour coating everything will have to wait. I do not feel like wiping down everything and doing the floors on Xmas Eve.

The cats have been out of their minds all afternoon. They worked themselves into a total frenzy earlier and started fighting, and then … the puking began. Yes, that is just what I need while trying to bake bread. Cats puking all over the house! They seem to be settling down now and heading to the bedroom for their usual afternoon nap. Thank goodness, because all three of them have been unbearable today. The outdoor wild cats aren’t being much better either, as they are at the front door whining to be let in, which can’t happen. I have enough mayhem on my plate today. I do feel sorry for them being out in the cold wind, but they know how to get under the house, and it’s plenty warm under there, especially in the kitchen and laundry room areas. Just ask the resident possum!

Time to go poke the loaves rising in the pans and start on the next batch! Then the dip bowl and dip!

I think I could bake bread like this every day and never get grumpy about it. I love baking bread. So relaxing. The perfect thing to do before a stressful family Xmas trip!

orbie

01:47 pm - Bwha ha ha ha ha!

The engineers are at it with their cats again in this hilarious holiday video. Even if you don’t like cats, this one will make you laugh!

Pew! Pew! Pew!

orbie

01:25 pm - Half Way There

I’m about half finished with the bread baking, but I needed to take a break and have some lunch … and do something other than hover over bread in various stages of preparation. Oh, I’m enjoying myself, but my mind is not designed to do any sort of really repetitive tasks. I start making mistakes if I don’t take some breaks.

Looks like I’ll end up having to make about four batches of bread in order to get what I need. Though it’s not necessary for all the loaves to look exactly the same, I want them to be, and there have been a couple of oddball loaves that rose unevenly. Still beautiful and tasty, but not identical! Whatever extras I have will be taken to the neighbors’ doors later today when everyone is home. I’ll be spreading the bread around!

Once I get done with the small loaves and they are all wrapped up in plastic and ready to go, I need to make the one large round loaf for the crab dip bowl. Since a whole batch will be too much for that loaf, I’m going to make a few pretzels with the leftover dough. What’s Xmas without pretzels? OK, maybe that’s not a tradition, but I think I’ll start it this year.

While I usually get up super early on Xmas morning to make the crab dip, I think I am going to throw it together tonight in the glass bowl it will bake in, and then in the morning, when the bread bowl has gotten nice and cool and crusty, I’ll bake the dip and pack it into the bowl. That’ll give me an extra hour or two to sleep in, which will be nice. We have to get up early enough anyway to hit the road to get to my cousin’s house.

The wind is just awful today! Seriously just gusting and blowing like crazy. When I get around to transplanting my poor broken tomato plants, I’ll have to drag them into the laundry room to work with them. It’s insane out there. How Lin and I are going to get the plastic over the garden beds in wind like this I do not know, but we have to do so, because it’s going to be getting very, very cold. I don’t want to lose anymore plants, especially since some of the stuff in the garden is starting to look like it’s doing well (finally).

As tired as I am and stressed out about getting everything done that needs to get done by tomorrow morning (the bread, the dip, tending the plants, and also taking a shower and making myself pretty), I’m actually starting to feel cheerful and in the holiday spirit. Maybe it’s the wonderful smell of fresh bread baking all day! The house truly does smell fabulous right now.

I suppose I should get back to the kitchen now and press onward. Much to do! Much to do!

orbie

10:37 am - Stupid Orb is Stupid, Again

You know how they always say that before beginning a big project that requires many components and an airtight time plan to make certain –well in advance– that you have everything you need to accomplish your goal of project completion? And you know how smart people do just that? Guess who apparently isn’t so smart?

I had to run to the store to get olive oil and three more foil baking pans, and this was after I had already started the first batch of bread –beyond the point of being able to just let it sit there– so I was on a tight time constraint to get there and back.

Amazingly, I made it to the store, got the things I needed (plus an extra bag of sugar, just to be safe), and got back to the house with enough time leftover to bring in the trash bin, check the tomato plants (windy again), and wash the bowls from the first batch of bread. Go me!

Well, “go me” for getting the trip to the store done quickly, but not so much “go me” for being so stupid as to not check the status of my project supplies.

Having another problem as well. The recipe I used the last time I made the whole family bread must have made more per batch, though I can’t imagine how since the ingredients are almost identical. The loaves, they are looking really small in the small foil loaf pans. Oh well. Take it or leave it. Grumble about it or not. Still going to be homemade bread and tasty with the sausages mom is bringing.

orbie

08:21 am - Noooooo!

Last night, when the wind started getting high, I thought about my tomato plants. I thought about bringing them into the laundry room. I did think about it, but I didn’t really want to get dressed and go bumbling around out in the cold rain and wind … and they needed to be watered … and I didn’t think anything too bad would happen to them.

I should have brought them into the laundry room as soon as it got windy. Even though they were both staked, both of them were bent over completely when I looked out the window at them when the sun came up. I ran out there and tied and staked them carefully in hopes to save them somewhat, but the small one has an almost completely broken stem, near the base, and the large one (with four tomatoes on it) bent at the same location and now has a very weak stem (but not completely broken or split) also near the base.

I am heartbroken. Utterly heartbroken!

While I really, really don’t want to transplant tomato plants today on top of everything else, I am going to have to find the time to do so at some point. I have to bury the damaged stems well beneath the dirt level and then pray that works. Tomatoes will grow roots from the stem, if the stem gets buried, and I have successfully done this before, though with much smaller plants.

If I don’t get to at least eat those tomatoes and gather some seeds for spring, I swear you do not want to experience the whining, moaning, and gnashing of teeth that will be heard coming from me.

Can I not get just a little good luck in the winter garden this year?

Just a wee bit?!

orbie

07:32 am - Baking Day is Here!

Big and busy day on the near horizon, and naturally, I didn’t get enough sleep last night. The combination of stress, holiday excitement, and a polar blast blowing into the area with some VERY high winds left me unable to sleep. I’ll be running on coffee today as I make about three batches of bread (three loaves each), cornbread for tonight’s dinner, and the bread bowl for the crab dip. So glad I made a big pot of chili last night, so I won’t have to cook or leave the house to get junk food tonight. I suspect that shortly after eating dinner, I’ll be off to bed and falling asleep in no time at all.

In recent Casa de Orb news, the knitting project I have been having problems with (oh yes, problems, because the pattern –the one I paid money for– has mistakes in it), has been put on hold until the weekend. I wanted to have it done by Friday, since the person I am giving it to will be at the family thing (it’s for their birthday though, not Xmas), but we’ll be seeing that person again next week, so it will just be a little late. Nothing I can do about it. I can’t rewrite a pattern and do all the other stuff that needs to be done by Friday and get the knitting done as well. It’s going to be so fabulous though when it’s done, I suspect the recipient won’t mind at all. Not much to be done about it, even if they do get peeved about the lateness of the gift (which would be a rude thing to do, and I don’t think this person will be rude about it).

The new cell phones arrived yesterday afternoon, which is, of course, the biggest news of all! There are a few things about the new phone I am not 100% thrilled with, but luckily, I love the form factor and style of the thing so much, it sort of makes up for the problem areas. There’s always a big of buyer’s remorse after changing cell phones anyway. I recall I wasn’t 100% thrilled with my last phone either when I first started using it, but it didn’t take long before I really loved it. Oddly, it now feels strange in my hand, and I imagine in another few days I will have adapted and forget all about the old phone. Bottom line is the call clarity is good, it makes and receives phone calls, texting is even easier than ever, I love the way it looks and feels, and it has the ability to send emails, should I ever get the much lusted after data plan. So … good phone! Fits nicely in my back pocket (though the vibration when ringing isn’t strong enough to inform me my butt is ringing, which is one of the problem areas). Lin’s a little more disappointed with his (we have twin phones, as we always do), but I suspect he will get used to it as well. He’s just going to have to change his workflow.

The cats have had an early Xmas as well, with the arrival of the cell phones. They did come in a box with some large sheets of crumpled paper, and you have to know the cats are thrilled with their Xmas presents. They do tend to think the unwrapping is the best part of presents. Well, maybe just the wrappings. LOL!

And … I remembered to get the damn trash bin to the curb this morning. Phew. I stuffed as much trash into that thing as I could, and I still have a full kitchen trash can to clear out as soon as the trash guys empty the bin. Two weeks in a row is the absolute limit on how many times I can forget to put the trash bin at the curb on Thursday morning, but at least now I know exactly what the limit is, right?

I have a few phone calls to make this morning, so I better get to those, and then … the baking begins. Yikes, I’ll be making a lot of bread today!

orbie

10:41 pm - Have there ever been any power…

Have there ever been any powerful female cult leaders?

orbie

06:19 pm - I am totally sending this from…

I am totally sending this from my new cell phone! Love it!

orbie

12:38 am - Not Again

Though Democrat Jack McDonald never officially filed for an election, he announced he will not run for Republican incumbent Michael McCaul’s Congressional seat.

Oh, well, screw us then. I guess McCaul will walk right into the position of being my representative again. What the hell Democratic Party?! Get your act together! A Democrat could win that seat –maybe even some third party candidate– but you have to have someone running for the office! I knew I should have thought more seriously about running for public office. It’s a little late now.

Dammit. I’m stuck with a representative I can’t stand and who doesn’t AT ALL represent me.

Maybe someone will step up and run, but the deadline is January 4, so I’m sort of guessing that’s not likely to happen.

orbie

04:07 pm - Brief Update

The supplies are bought for the cooking and baking for the Xmas party. Yeah! Now all I have to do is bake about 6 loaves of bread, a bunch of cookies, make crackers, and, of course, make the dip as well. I will be busy, busy, busy in the kitchen on Thursday.

We finally have the cell phone contract renewed and the new cell phones ordered. Naturally, the only phone available with T-Mobile that I liked just came out last month, and it seems to be popular. Lin had trouble finding it, but now that’s all behind us and very soon I will have an even tinier and cooler flip-phone with an even better camera … the Nokia 3711. Very excited to get this phone! I’m usually a year or two behind on cell phone tech, because we always go for the free phones. This year, I hated all the free ones, and I won’t use anything but a Nokia, so we ended up having to pay something for it. I think Lin said it was $30, so really it was a bargain.

I made a huge mistake on one of the knitted gifts and have had to start over. This is totally stressing me out. While technically, it doesn’t have to be done by Friday, I really wanted to have it done by Friday. Well, I still have a couple of days, so maybe I’ll still be able to finish it. Still … massive stress about this.

I am also experiencing some stress involving a gift we need to buy yet. It’s also proving difficult to find, but at least we can wait until after Xmas for it. Who knows, maybe we’ll luck into a real bargain during an after Xmas sale.

On top of all of this, I have been feeling downright crappy the last few days thanks to the cedar trees entering their awful pollen season. If I already feel this bad at the beginning of the season, I don’t want to think about how bad I will feel when it gets into full swing. I imagine there will be about a month when I have to drug myself every day and become a worthless lump of flesh. I hate that, but the cedar does mess me up, and sometimes drugging myself is the only way to get through it.

The weather has been weird lately. Really cold one day and almost hot the next. I’ve been running around outside barefooted and in jeans and a tank top today. That’s a little unusual for December. It was nice to get outside and work in my pathetic garden for a while though. I really needed to unwind a bit, and the garden –even when it’s pathetic– does the trick. Who knows what the weather will be like on Xmas. It’s supposed to be wet and a little nasty the next two days, but then they say it’s going to clear up but be really cold. Here’s hoping the weather is good for our drive on Friday.

That’s about all I can think of to mention. It’s just crazy around here like it always is this time of year. I’m looking forward to the holidays being over and life getting back to its usual somewhat hectic routine instead of the utter insanity of the holiday season.

And now I need to go do dishes, clean the cat box, take out the trash, and get back to knitting (and panicking about everything else).

orbie

12:51 am - 9 Countries

On our return home, I transferred every bit of sound I had recorded onto my Mac laptop, created an archive of usable audio files and began the task of piecing together the sonic sculpture that would eventually become 9 Countries.

Recorded on location in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Tibet, India, Egypt and Greece by Tom Compagnoni, 9 Countries is a delightful example of ambient environmental sound recordings used to create music. Experimental music, to be sure, but the sort I tend to enjoy, and I have been enjoying it.

Did I mention you can listen to it online or download it for free? Well, you can, and you should. You never know, you might like it too!

orbie

05:43 pm - Silent Night(s)

Three days and no posts? All I have to say for myself is…

Look over there! We’re doomed! It’s Xmas, and it’s headed right for us at incredible speed! AAAACK!

orbie

09:59 am - Winter Tomatoes

I am so excited about these tomatoes! There are three on this plant now, and more flowers coming. So awesome! The other tomato plant is very small but growing slowly, and it will probably be ready to start giving me ‘maters in early spring, if not sooner. Thank you nature for giving me two gorgeous tomato plants! I can’t wait to have a nice salad with one of these.

orbie

09:56 am - Winter Garden

I might as well show you the soggy mess that is my winter garden. This one bed and a few radishes and carrots sprinkled here and there elsewhere are the whole of it. I never did get the other stuff planted, so I’ll be doing that in late January or early February.

orbie

09:36 am - Please, Yes!

Fox said it has for the past nine months attempted to “negotiate in good faith” with Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 U.S. cable operator, which serves some 14 million customers, and said those talks are ongoing.

But there is a “very likely possibility that Time Warner Cable may choose to no longer carry Fox Broadcasting, Fox Cable and Fox regional sports programing,” Fox said.

Just so I could hear the deafening roar of Fox programming addicts when they suddenly can’t watch it anymore, I would love it if these broadcasting negotiations broke down further and there was a sudden lack of Fox on my cable box. I can already imagine the communist/socialist/terrorist conspiracy theories people would come up with, because obviously it would all be Obama’s fault.

orbie

07:39 am - Me, Not the Phone

Mmmm. Morning coffee.

Mmmm. Morning! I think this is the first morning this week I have gotten out of bed in the actual morning. It would appear that my cell phone’s alarm function has been working perfectly, and it is me that is broken. Lin says it was going off forever yesterday morning, and I just wasn’t responding. This is completely new behavior for me. Yes, yes, I will hit the snooze button a thousand times, if I don’t want to get out of bed, but I am always aware of doing so. I don’t think I have ever just not heard the alarm or hit the snooze button after doing so. I guess I have been really tired and needing rest lately.

This morning, Lin poked me when my alarm went off the first time, which got my brain in gear. I still didn’t stop hitting the snooze button until 6 am, but at least I got out of bed eventually. And now I am having some sweet and delicious coffee. That’s the other thing that has been wrong all week. Since I haven’t been getting up early in the morning, I haven’t been having my coffee. I will now blame all my lack of productiveness this week on coffee deprivation.

On the agenda for the day is a trip to the craft store and grocery store, and more housework … and then … the frantic knitting of gifts.

orbie

12:43 pm - In The News

Texas is considering taxing gas by how many miles a person drives instead of how much gas one buys. I would just like to state my opposition to this idea, not because it wouldn’t mean the amount of gas tax I’d personally pay wouldn’t go WAY down (I only drive a couple miles a week), but in order to determine how many miles I’m driving, the state would have to be tracking that. First off, my truck isn’t equipped for that, and I have no intention of spending money equipping it so I can pay the state taxes on my mileage. Secondly, I am opposed to being tracked by the state just on general principle.

In local train news, Cap Metro recently booted the contractor who was making a mess of our commuter rail system (still not up and running) and hired two new contractors. Great! Maybe these people will know what they are doing! Wait, what? One of the new contractors –the one responsible for our commuter trains– has hired a bunch of the employees from the old contractor? Somehow, it feels like someone is scamming us. Why would these employees do any better a job with the new contractor? I’m guessing they won’t.

Senator Chuck Schumer is an asshole. I will not be regretting saying that, and I am not saying it under my breath.

Four-year-old Taylor Pugh, in prekindergarten at Floyd Elementary School, likes his hair long - just below his ears and along his collar in the back. He likes it longer in front. That length is outside the school district’s dress code so the boy has been having lessons alone in the library. And his mother says the district has said he will be kicked out of school completely on Tuesday.

It’s sexism, pure and simple. As a girl, I could wear my hair just about any way I wanted to when going to school. Long, short, tied up, hanging down. Didn’t matter. Boys should have the same damn freedom to do with their hair what they like … or all girls needs to either be required to wear their hair long or get boy cuts too.

Apparently AT&T has been annoying the subscribers of their unlimited data plan, and now there’s a flashmob-style protest planned for December 18 at noon Pacific time. Everyone who has a data plan will beginning streaming data in an effort to point out how weak the AT&T network is. I couldn’t care less about AT&T or it’s disgruntled iPhone users, but this caught my eye:

Note: Operation Chokehold may adversely affect AT&T’s voice network and block emergency calls.

It could, but then so could AT&T subscribers with data plans actually using their unlimited data plans, because AT&T –for all their talk of having the best network– has a crappy network right now. Just like a lot of web hosting companies, they have oversold their capacity. That always leads to disgruntled customers, but what do they care? They’ve already locked these people into those two year expensive contracts!

And in closing, some right-wingers are now trying to make the case that Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize is unconstitutional.