29?

How is it possible that I'm actually 29??? Where did the last 10 years go?????

I remember, as a kid, friends who's moms would tell folks that they were "29 again", when asked about their birthdate. (Esp. when it was a couple of clueless young girls asking the question.) It was several years before I finally understood that these particular moms seemed to be perpetually 29. But my mom & dad have never been particularly sheepish about growing older. So maybe that's why I still don't get why telling folks I'm now 29 may be such a bad thing. Maybe it's just that I don't find 29 old. Maybe it's that I don't understand how all the sudden (or, even, not-so-suddenly) I wake up one morning and I'm a year away from 30. Where did the past 10 years go????

It's not that I don't have anything to show for the last 10 years. I've got a 10 year old daughter that I KNOW was born not long before my 19th birthday. I've got a hubby that I've been married to for 10 years (just after our daughter was born, we got hitched). I've got a house we "bought" 8 years ago. I've been a part of the workforce for 6 years now. I remember where I was working on my 26th birthday, and what kind of day that was...... But... 29??? How did this happen??? Most days I don't feel more than a couple of years older than these idiotic teens snogging in the shelves at work. And yet..... I AM. I'm a good 10 years older than most of them.

So, it's not that I'm ashamed of my age. I've got no problems being 29. I'm saying it here on Blogger, so I obviously have no problems announcing it to the world. And yet..... And yet I find it hard to believe that I actually am. As another friend kinda said, I'm an adult, and yet I still find myself feeling like a kid playing at being an adult, most days.

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Yep, I finally got some sourdough bread to rise properly. Got a couple more nice tall loaves of bread out of it yesterday. My sourdough must finally be strong enough to actually make decent bread. I'll have to cut into one of these loaves today to see if it tastes as good as it looks. I DID use more honey in this batch. Also placed it in the oven as the oven preheated, and brushed the crusts with butter as soon as I took it out of the oven. And I could feel that the top crust is considerably softer than the last loaf. So, we'll see if it tastes as good as the other did. I'm guessing that'll be an affirmative!



And yes, this is honest to goodness sourdough. I'd origionally started out a couple of years ago with a powdered packet of it that I bought. (It can be dried for future use, or frozen as a safety precausion against losing one's supply if the main batch goes bad). But I kept forgetting to feed that, and eventually it died. So I made my own from a touch of store-bought yeast, some flour, water & sugar, and let it sit for several days, feeding with a bit of flour every other day. I don't usually use much flour when I'm feeding it, if I don't plan on also using it. If I'm just feeding it every other (or every 3rd) day, I just use 1 to 2 Tbsp of flour, and an equal amount of water. Sometimes I'll toss in a 1/4 c of flour & water. Up till summer I was using sugar, but I stopped doing that and am just using flour & water instead. And this seems to be working better than when I was feeding it with sugar. I actually got those two loaves above (and that first, a couple of days ago) from just the flour/water sourdough. But yeah, I did use store-bought yeast to start it out. Of course, if you start yours during the summer, it's not necessary to use yeast at all. But mine was either late autumn, or winter when I started over again, and I knew that to get it going it needed yeast. And since that yeast wasn't going to be coming naturally (through an open window), then I'd have to use store-bought. Anyway. It's not hard to do if you decide to give it a go. Just pick a big enough jar to keep your sourdough in, and make sure to have a double thickness of cheesecloth (or a square of flour-sack dishcloth) to place over the top of the jar to allow air in, but not bugs.

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Also, DD and I got to go to Pagoda for lunch with Dad yesterday. He took me out for my birthday. I had yummy Mongolian Beef that I'm going to finish up for breakfast this morning. He also gave me a blowtorch for a present. *BWG* Yes, that's right. A blowtorch. Just what I've been wanting!!! *wink* Ok. So it's not an industrial blowtorch. It's a kitchen blowtorch for making crispy tops on creme brulee. Now I've got all the necessary accessories for making some for myself. I just have to find the time to do so. But ooooh, I've seen some yummy looking recipes for the stuff that I'm going to try out, when I have a chance. First, though, to master the basics. This may also mean picking up some real vanilla beans. Because a proper creme brulee has gotta be properly flavored, ya know!

DH and DD got me a couple of new floormats & a steering wheel cover for my car. They've got Jessica Galbraith fairies on them. He can't find properly sized seat-covers for my car, else I'm sure I'd have gotten those as well. (We've looked, in the past.) They also got me a small glass lighthouse figurine.

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I'm taking my application in today for that Library Assistant 3 position. I hope I get an interview. But, I've still got to get myself a story-time put together, and a sample business letter and sample event-flier printed up. My show&tell's, at it were. Proof that I know how to use the necessary computer programs for the clerical side of the job.

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I woke up this morning to an outside temp of 30 deg. F. That's ABOVE zero!!! It is, evidently, making the roads slicker than snot. DH said he just narrowly avoided an accident on his way to work. (By staying in the "merge" lane and letting a couple of jokers blow past him, resulting in THEM slamming on their brakes and yet rear-ending the folks who were already stopped in front of them, because of the slick roads.) So, I'm gonna have to leave really early today. After all, I DO still have to make it over to the borough building before going on to my own workplace.

Here inside the house, the ice that forms on the insides of our window frames is melting. So we've got water dripping down the INSIDE of our windows. Thus, towels are covering the inside of the windows where possible. And draped over items that shouldn't be gotten wet, when it's impossible to get the towel to stay properly balanced on the window frame. (It's hard to describe, but our double-hungs rise from the INSIDE, meaning that the lower frame emerges from under the upper frame, with a ledge that we sometimes balance towels on when the weather warms so much that it starts dripping.)

And, I think that about covers it.

Have a Blessed Day!