Sourdough starter

Update: Both jars are doing great. You can see the red dot that even in the fridge, the yeasties be fartin'.  So far, not air tight lids and not iron heavy water seems to be producing better results than my last foray. You can see Iz named hers "Scully" and "Fox" is back there doing his thing. Soon we will bake!

Road trip w/Beth & J.

Somehow I got it in my head that I was gonna photograph the cherry blossoms in DC this spring. The concept included hang time with Lisa C. But alas and forsooth schedules did not mesh and I opted for Traverse City cherry blossoms.

The lake was cold but beautiful and we had a great time relaxing and tasting wine. 

Conned DarlingHubby and two good friends and we headed for Old Mission Point. We had fantastic weather and loads of fun. Best shenanigans were when Beth wanted to show me this cute shopping center.  As soon as she verbalized that it was an abandoned insane asylum cum TB ward I was all GHOST HUNTING! Wandering around buzzed on cherry cider at midnight we took the cameras back to practice w/low light. We scared ourselves a couple of times but sadly, no ghosts were seen.

The weekend was punctuated with excited texts from Guadalajara as Matt asked Fabi's dad for her hand in marriage and she skipped around sending us pics of the basilica and beautiful hacienda that will host their reception. She also chose her gown! Things are getting REAL! Very excited to plan our trip to Mexico to see the traditional Catholic ceremony. 

RiP Rose the Duck

Well fuck. This was less disgusting than the roadkill skunk in Feb. But it is a bummer. I honestly am more surprised and sadden by this mysterious duck death than I was upset over any of the three geriatric hens that passed this winter.

Where shall I start this saga? Did you watch LOST? Do ya remember Rose and Bernard?

For the past 8-10 years, a pair of wild ducks have announced spring by hanging out in my koi pond. Whoever saw them first would announce, "HEY! Rose & Bernard are back." It was a happy thing. Glance out the kitchen window and smile at the ducks. This spring either some of their offspring or just two new boys (I named THEM Hap&Leonard) have been lurking about.

 This morning after thinning the radish seedlings I peeked at the pond to see how Jesse and Mr. White were doing. The koi were fine. (hold that thought) But as I approached the pond I saw what I guessed to be an upturned rootball. I thought maybe the fish (who are quite a bit bigger this year at about 9-10 inches each) were going to start fulfilling the rumors I have heard of their will to rearrange things to their satisfaction. BUT NO! It was not a sodden mass of water lily roots. It was a drowned lady duck! AND SHE WASN'T DEAD YESTERDAY! 

SO... either a.) she just keeled over doing what she loved (that is-- floating in the pond) or as Izzy and I started to surmise, perhaps she met an untimely death. PERHAPS she was MURDERED! By  Bernard? He seemed a wee bit confused but casually hopped right back in the pond as if to say, "Oh good, my wife's corpse has conveniently disappeared." OR b.) having also heard stories of fiesty koi killing songbirds maybe Jesse and Mr White* are living up to their namesakes' reputations  OR PERHAPS... c.) Hap and Leonard have forsaken the TV characters after which they were named and instead of solving a murder mystery they have in some fit of jealous ducky mafia real estate war, took out the offending wench in order to claim the prized spot. (Nice dogs, lots of bird seed and leftover koi food)?  After a brief forensic prodding Iz and I are unable to explain this situation.  

*If you don't get this comment see "Breaking Bad".

May 15---

NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT GO TO THE DAMN DEMO SESSIONS AT kZOO!!

I don't know why I did this again. The topic seems intriguing and I convince myself that it will be a good expenditure of time. It never is. While I did learn about ExArch (or whatever it is called) last time,  and Cam's archery hands on was effing BRILLIANT! This year I had all I could do to not punch one of the speakers in the face. UGH. On top of forgetting that they are generally aimed at middle school teachers (no offense darlings, it is just not what I need!) I always flash back to my high school speech class.

This year there was a lot of mention of "FoodWays" which I had hoped would be leftover or trickle down from Leeds last year, but alas and forsooth, it was just another how to make skyr and oatcakes class. SIGH. Except, bees? NO. Guess who yanked my chain? I don't want to talk about it. Except bread? NO. She did the best job of the four and I have to admit handing out dried sourdough starter was pretty cool. In fact, I shall record Isabel's foray into REAL bread here. Step one, not using my iron heavy well water to get the wee beasties revived.

May 1st, end of Veggie Challenge

I easily survived my vegetarian challenge. I am gonna give myself an "A-".  I slipped twice.
1.) I confess taste tested the chicken paprikas I made for my father-in-law. I did not eat an entire portion, but I did want to be sure it was yummy before I fed it to him. It was!
So, one conscious bite of chicken thigh.

2.) Last Sunday during D&D-- Z brought me a plate of snacks. I was DMing and I distractedly nommed a prosciutto and mozzarella stick, which I swallowed before I remembered.  I am certain I could go 100% veggie and probably not really notice. I did lose 4.2 lbs but that could be correlational with a lack of Girl Scout cookies.

A couple of times lunch was running late and my habit was to swing into a fast-food drive-thru lane and grab a quick burger but I remembered, and guess what? I made it home and didn't die before I fed myself healthy stuff at home.  I never broke down and drove to Leo's for a coney dog. I didn't curl up and wither away without a pork chop.  I am a little over chickpeas at the moment but I can comfortably say, "I did that."