Not much going on around here, except for Cadbury playing with messy toys!
I got some things for Christmas that I had been wanting--new running shoes, a new spin video, and a breadmaker. The breadmaker is one I had selected after reading reviews on them. It's the Breadman TR875. It's a little pricey, but I've been wanting to do more with bread and this will eliminate all the tedious hand mixing. I really can't stand commercial bread (it tastes sour and chemically to me) and since I can buy five pounds of flour for the price of a single loaf of bread, it's crazy not to make my own. I'll be trying it out tomorrow or sometime during the upcoming week.
Christmas with my family went okay. It was a little fraught at times, but Dan and I got in and out in about four hours, which is pretty good, and we managed to avoid getting sucked into watching TV and movies. I don't know why my family is so screwed up, but they seem to think I want to get dressed up and drive all the way across town to...watch a video. Uh, no. If we're not going to talk to each other, listen to each other, and foster connections, I'm going home, thanks. I can watch a movie anywhere.
I did a 2.5 hour spin on Christmas day and still felt some lingering heaviness in my legs when I ran this morning. I only did fifteen miles, which should've been easy, but my body is long out of the habit of brick (bike-run) training and I suffered a fair bit for that Thursday workout. I'll probably compound the insult by trying out my new spin video tomorrow. Go for broke, right?
I have no big plans for this week, except to catch up on some sewing projects and housework. I finished the draft for my novel, so I don't even have a big writing project going on, just edits. It's a pretty clean draft and I expect to have it ready for beta readers pretty quickly. I have ideas for other writing projects, but I may do some short stories for a little while, just to give myself a break.
At any rate, I'm looking forward to a quiet week without a lot of time demands. Sometimes I feel over-scheduled in my life because planning ahead and sticking to the plan is the only way I can accomplish the things I want to do. A week of unstructured days will either spoil me or result in not much getting done at all.
We'll see how this plays out and hope for the best.
10 comments:
Hef had one of those toys too, I thought oh he;ll toss it around the cage, maybe nibble on it, the next morning it was in messy pieces too!
never understood the "get together and bond while watching TV" thing. Saw it happen at t-giving at a friend's, so we put our TV into "music playback mode" during our xmas bash....
We 'bonded' around the TV - hubby's brother got a Wii for Xmas, so he brought it with him and we all played Wii Bowling! The 80-yr-old mother-in-law whipped all our butts!!
I, too, am doing the sewing/housework thing.... well, more sewing than housework. The "dress" is in production - my niece wants it for New Year's Eve, and she's leaving to go back to the big city on the 29th. Wish me luck, because I was right to be afeared of that fabric.... :)
Those toys don't last long in this house, either :D
Hope you have a good week ahead! I'm usually not very productive during unstructured days, but they sure are happy days ;)
The tv thing at social occasions seems to be pretty common (same with my in-laws). It drives me nuts, but I almost wonder if we're in the minority in finding it an annoying distraction.
(I'd rather watch a cute bunny destroy his toys)
Toy rhymes with destroy, as my buns pointed out. Bread machine sounds great, I agree commercial bread is, well, commercial. Can you do sour dough cultures in those, or just yeast?
Don't get the "TV on all the time" thing, either. I think the thing ought to be left off unless someone's actually watching something.
I hope you have a great week off, my friend! Good luck with the edits, and that bread maker sounds cool! :-D
Great toy--my buns would love something that messy. Did it start out as a ball?
You've inspired me to get out my breadmaker and also to try the no-knead bread recipe from the NY Times--it takes 18-24 hours, but the yeast does all the work. You're right about the taste of commercial bread--I hadn't really thought about it that way. And as my sister points out, she can make a good, chewy and satisfying loaf for 37 cents.
Hang on here .. there MUST be some rule about all that exercise on Christmas Day.
Cadbury has it right ... play with the toys and then sleep!
This bread making adventure will be fun to follow.
Please do let us know how the bread machine works out. I'm curious to know your views on these machines.
arshimul - a pretty accurate summary of what happened when I tried to make bread in a bread maker. (Note to self: read up on wheat bread and gluten before trying this again.)
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