State of the Me - grab bag

[salixbabylon]

Man and Dog

G’s gone for the next 12 days to Burning Man (http://www.burningman.com/), a big festival in the middle of the Nevada desert. People make big art installations and it’s a huge party. I hate the desert, so I planned on staying home to babysit the dog.

Which turned out to be a good thing, because Hershey broke his leg 3 weeks ago, and he’s got 5 more weeks in the cast. As you know, he’s a pretty energetic big dog, so we’re having to sedate him so he will rest and let the bones heal. Not fun. :P



Work

Work has been super busy, but I love it. We’ve hired some more people, and I have two minions under me now! I work directly under the Editor-in-Chief and manage the department, keep all the editors and production assistants on task and on schedule. While I wanted to grow up to be somebody “important”, with a professional career and everything, I love working for a queer publishing company, and I love what I do. I’m really good at organizing and coming up with procedures, and taking care of business. It’s satisfying to be in a place that’s such a good fit.

It’s also great to work from home. At 20-30 hours per week, I get more done than I ever did at a 40 hours/week job, and still have time for myself. My house is tidy (well, mostly), and I’m currently going through all the cupboards and drawers and closets tying to get rid of crap.

Projects

I’ve put aside kitting socks for a while, and I’m crocheting a blanket. It’s going to be patchwork, with every other patch a sold square of variegated yarn, and the other patches rainbow striped granny squares, like a checkerboard. I hope it turns out to look good, but mostly I had a bunch of skeins of that supersaver acrylic yarn and this seemed like a good project to use them up. I’ll post a picture when I’m done.

Also, my friend is teaching a sewing class next month, and I’ve decided to enroll. Sewing usually makes me cry with frustration. Hopefully with eight weeks of sewing class, I’ll have an attitude adjustment. And since we work on whatever projects we want, maybe I can finally get all my mending and alterations finished. And make those quilts I have owed people for about 4 years…

Baking

Also, I have been baking! I made croissants!

It was a lot of work, but not difficult at all, just time consuming. You make the dough, don’t knead it, then let it rest overnight in the fridge. Then you put in the block of butter, let it rest for an hour in the fridge, roll it out, fold it, let it rest for an hour again, and repeat that 4 times before resting overnight again! Then you make the croissants, let them rise for 3 hours, and finally bake them. They were DELICIOUS! Not perfect-looking, of course, but fantastic, especially with some home-made strawberry jam.





I also took half the dough and made chocolatines/pain au chocolate – with a layer of chocolate in the middle. Heavenly!





Shoes
Also, I bought glitter-covered green sneakers yesterday! Yay!