Bread and Life

WARNING: LONG RAMBLING POST AHOY.

I made a batch of sourdough the other day. Honestly, I was super nervous. All that confidence I had built making bread a whopping five times with my starter? Gone. I was unsure about how I was kneading it, unsure about the amount of flour, it wasn't rising well, I didn't shape it well, etc. etc. But it still came out quite tasty.

I'm currently toasting two slices to spread with peanut butter, and heating the kettle to try some Starbucks Via (instant coffee) that I got from a friend -- adding sweetened condensed milk to the mix. Is peanut butter normally quite goopy? I had to open a jar for the first time in about a year, as we're out of peanut butter, and when I was mixing in the oil, it seemed like there was too much oil! That the peanut butter was too thin with it added. Granted, it was also room temp and we keep our peanut butter in the fridge so that could have been part of the problem.

EDIT: The via is not bad. I added a big spoonful of sweetened condensed milk, some more sugar and it's quite palatable. :-P But there is still a bit of bitterness that is just pure Starbucks. I dont' know as I would buy via, but I'll sure take it for free from my buddy.

Speaking of room temp... my heat is mysteriously not on. The thermostat has been wonky (it's digital) and I'd noticed a few days back that the screen wasn't lit up, but it came back. Last night however, it was unlit, hasn't come back, and the heat is also not turning on when I'm pretty sure it should by now. Mister's also not sure if this is a problem on NStar's end, or if we need to call our landlord because the heating system is broken. I'm gonna have him deal with that, since I wouldn't know one way from the other, and NStar is in his name anyway.

Yesterday was the last day of classes, and a highly productive one at that. I had my Russian oral exam with a partner -- I wasn't the best, but I wasn't the worst. There was one awesome sketch that had my prof laughing the entire time. Couldn't understand a word of it beyond: "'Oh hey Ivan!' 'Do I know you?' 'It's Hamid, Sasha's my sister.' 'Oh I thought you were her friend.'" There was also a memorable bit where Hamid stood up to go, said good bye, and Ivan was like "wait a minute Hamid, I have something to ask you." I think he then asked if Sasha liked him, judging by the class's response, but I have no idea. The assignment was actually super hard: 12 questions with a partner, 12 each!, and you can't repeat questions. I honestly stumbled over some of the parts at the end, because I forgot to write down what I was to say and I never recognize the verb "to eat dinner". Never. So I'm like 'uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...' and my parter was like "dinner!" :-P

Then on to theory where I had a presentation. That went well. We had studied a few Bach fugues in class, and I found a fugue that was the inspiration for one of Bach's. Bach's is much better. :-P

In ear training, I gave my presentation Monday so I was all set.

And then before my 1:00 History class, I wrote a 5-page paper. I started it at 8:00, had three hours of classes, and finished at 12:34. Tada! I had been attempting to work on it Monday and Tuesday, and I had a mental block about it -- I have no idea why. I wrote a highly amusing "essay" at about 3 am while ridiculously frustrated, though. It begins with: "The Twelve Tables and the Magna Carta are both super awesome." You can tell that an essay is a winner, when it begins like that!

So I have two finals to prep for: my history final tomorrow at 11:30, and my Russian final Wednesday at 8:00. KILL ME NOW. Luckily, I've felt woefully unprepared for each Russian exam, and gotten As... so either she's a super easy grader, gives easy tests or I really know more Russian than I think I do (doubtful)... but yeah, I'm not expecting that test to go well.

I have a doctor's appointment today at 3pm which I'm super excited about. Not in the journey to the doctor's office, as it's far away, but that I get to talk to my doc about the problems I've been having. Yay!