Quasijo - Supertiger

It was finally warm enough this weekend to begin cultivating a sourdough starter.  I put two cups of filtered water - at 120Ëš - and two cups of bread flour, by volume - because it doesn’t matter, in a Pyrex bowl.  That went on a dinner tray on my balcony covered with a paper plate punched full of holes.  It sat out there for six hours - after which time it was bubbling just a little, then came inside and sat in the sink overnight.  Now it’s rising like crazy and bubbling and fermenting.  I can definitely smell the yeast and attendant bacteria; the thing smells like sourdough and pretty good sourdough at that.

It’ll be a day or too before I know whether I picked up any nasty bugs that’ll make the sponge inedible. So far it looks like a success.  My house kind of stinks, now, though.  That’s a typical, temporary side effect of growing a starter; it’ll stop stinking in a day or two.  That’s pretty much the same time that I either throw the stuff away or pour it into jars and tuck it in the fridge.

Good times!

You can’t see it, though, because my camera is broken.  This time I made every mistake I know, but the bread blew up beautifully and tastes wonderful.  I have an idea that I made a couple of my classic mistakes more intelligently than usual.  I don’t care to elaborate right now (I ended up doing long rises in the refrigerator rather than at room temperature - oops, elaboration), but I’ll come back with more thoughts after my next loaf, which should be made this weekend, since I’m probably taking the rest of this one to work.

Shelly smells like maple and sausage - so that’s normal. Ciaran smells like a memory of cappuccino.

Also, Ciaran’s tail is broken or bruised or something.  It’s healing up very well and he still has feeling/mobility to the length of it.  There’s a crook in it, now, about four inches from the base.  That was hurting him earlier in the week, but it seems to be a non-issue, now.  He doesn’t complain when I touch it, and it’s moving more or less like a tail - go figure.  My big indicators are he still grooms it all the way to the end, it’s warm, and the end waves like grass in a gentle breeze.  Any of that stops and I’ll worry.

These two are fresh from the oven. The smell in my apartment is intoxicating. (more…)

How come Mississippi and Tennessee got snow, but I didn’t?  That’s not fair.  Stupid lake effect.

I met a nifty woman on OkCupid. Finally.  I’ve had an active profile on that site since 1998 when it launched.  I search it weekly.  In ten years, I have now met one woman I really want to meet.  Granted, I met a half dozen wonderful women out in the real world in that same time frame.  I’m just blessed all around, I guess.

I can’t tell what the cats smell like because my apartment smells like baking bread.

I got stood up on a blind date tonight.  It was arranged through an OkCupid spin-off called CrazyBlindDate.com.  It’s kind of a neat idea, and I’ll do it again.  That’s the second bunko date they’ve arranged, though, so I’ll be out of patience soon.

I baked a third loaf of bread today.  It was too big for the loaf pan, but it mostly grew straight up because of the way I slashed it.  Came out looking like a lopsided mushroom cloud.  You know I liked it.

Shelly smells like maple syrup again.

Ciaran smells like recess.

Someone pulled the building’s fire alarm at 12:30 this morning. I was still awake, of course. There was no fire; it was probably those punk kids who keep pounding on my door in the middle of the night. I practiced getting the cats into their carrier and outside, so it was a productive interruption.

I went biking this morning for several hours. A guy from work and I went to the Wakefield park to try out their trails. We started out on a mountain-bike trail that was uphill both ways. Crazy, right? My bike was not built for that kind of riding. Neither am I; I’m way too wussy to power through banked switch-backs. Maybe someday… We finished off on the Fairfax County Cross Country Trail. Rode a couple of miles down that to a small lake and back. The CCT connects a bunch of parks in Fairfax and also connects to a network of trails that will take you hundreds of miles all over northern VA. Pretty neat stuff. I’ll be biking more of it while the weather holds up.

Cat smells: They smell pretty much the same as after I bathed them: clean and a little musky. Ciaran’s ears are cold. They remind me of artichoke leaves.

Shelly just stuck his butt on my nose. It smells like maple syrup. No wonder cats lick their butts.

Back from another week of training in Denver, CO. That’s all the traveling I’ll do for a while.

Saw Live Free or Die Hard out there. It’s a good action flick, although they overplayed the computer hacker exposition. A note for screenplay writers: skip the expository tech speak. If the point is to make people feel incapable of understanding the technology involved, just have the hacker say they are performing deep magic. If a hacker is plugging an iPod into his PDA in order to access a satelite communications network simply have him say, “I think I can mod this stuff to make a sat-phone.” Everyone will be impressed and you won’t have said, “Oh yeah, hackers have been playing around in satcom for years.” No, we haven’t; we all know this and now we’re insulted that the Apple Guy has been. 4 of 5 pips.

Watched a bunch of flicks from Netflix last week. Beginning with Bandidas, staring Selma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. A comedy about lady bank robbers, the best part of this movie is Cruz’s trained horse. (Also, no computers.) I was advised to watch it on account of the trained horse, so I was pleased. 3 of 5.

The Maltese Falcon, Bogart. Twisted, suspenseful, breathtaking. The pinacle of Film Noir. Just go watch it. 5 of 5.

Eraserhead by David Lynch. I haven’t decided what this film is about, yet. I’m leaning toward Lynch’s fear of having kids. I should explain. Henry knocked up his girlfriend. When the maybe baby is born they are forced to wed. The E.T. baby never stops crying, especially when Henry’s new wife leaves him and he knocks up the lady next door. All the while, aborted fetuses pile up in the corners of the room. Amazing sound engineering. The story, though… I have no clue. I did like it, though. 4 of 5 pips.

After being gone for a week, my cats smell the same but they think I smell funny. I have cold nose spots all over me.

I spent a week in Seattle getting trained in useful things. Spent my evenings exploring. Went up the Space Needle for the first time. Ate excellent foods. Didn’t get to play in the Pier 59 Aquarium because they close early on weekdays.

On the way home I got on the volunteer list for bumpage in the event of an over-booked flight. I did get bumped and thereby upgraded to “Economy Plus” - which is the seat at the front bulkhead or exit row - and a voucher for a round-trip flight anywhere in the contiguous 48. So I get to visit somebody soonish, yay. The best part was that my itenerary took me through Chicago O’Hare where no flight is ever on time and half are canceled. As a result of being bumped, I was moved to a connecting flight from O’Hare - one of three such flights that weren’t canceled. So I wasn’t stranded and thousands of people were. Hahaha. I only laugh because it wasn’t me this time. I’ve spent enough nights on an airport floor to feel mirth at their pain. Especially since I got home and got perks. So great.

Upon arriving home I learned that I would be evicted on Monday. This is the last month in my current lease. When I asked if this month’s rent was prorated until the 23rd, the Resident Services rep said yes and told me how much. I thought it seemed low, but she confirmed the number three times so I finally wrote it down and went to Seattle. Seems she was mistaken. I got it all cleared up yesterday, but I still have to get to the accounting office tomorrow before they bring the Sheriff around. Fun fun fun! I’m signed on for another year with these folks, but I think it’ll be the last. Time to look for landlords who will call me when there’s a problem.

Update complete.

The cats smell the same as they did last time I mentioned them. I wonder what they were rolling in to change their scents.

Ciaran is alseep beside me and he’s snoring. I’ve been wondering what that sound was for weeks. He’d been sleeping on the armchair across the room until recently. From there, the sound was bouncing around too much and I couldn’t locate it. Now I know. Ciaran snores.

Ciaran smells like: I don’t know. I don’t want to wake him up with snuffling.