Month: September 2013

An Improvised Lunch: a Recipe

Don’t get up until 10 AM; once awake do nothing profitable, eat no breakfast.

Experience hunger pains and/or faintness; decide food is necessary.

Preheat oven 375; arrange premade biscuits on baking sheet.

Bake biscuits while doing dishes; gasp in horror half-way through the dishes when you remember the biscuits and throw open the oven door to make sure they are not burned to a crisp.

Finish the dishes.

Preheat oven 200; slice cheese and arrange on a biscuit.

Knit 1-2 rows on current project while warming biscuit.

Rescue melted cheesy biscuit from the oven; devour.

Consume left-over Flan from last night’s attempted dinner party.

Hope the afternoon will be better than the morning.

Comestible Encounter

My oven caught fire tonight, and it wasn’t even my fault! I was calmly and peacefully going about my evening, whipping up the meringues that I’ve been so anxious to try when my roommate announced that her sister-in-law needed to come use our oven. Apparently her oven is on the blitz, and since she lives less than a block away, it makes sense for her to come here. Ok, I thought, I’ll just put the meringues in the fridge until her cheesecake is done. 20 minutes later I open the oven door because smoke is billowing out and find a fire in the bottom. Baking Powder to the rescue! We put that fire out in a jiffy and went on with our cake-baking. Then the smoke started again. This time the fire was bigger. We ended up having to take the cheesecake out so we could cool and clean the oven before we finished baking it. It seems that if you let a fire burn in your oven it can kill your heating element. Who knew?

The cheesecake is done and back in its real home. The oven no longer smokes. My meringues are currently baking. I now know how to clean an oven. And that I should not let my oven burn…you know, original ovens used fire for heat…. Here’s hoping my meringues turn out. I’m told they’re rather temperamental.

011235813…

Sitting in church this past Sunday my friend started drawing an interesting series of rectangles, triangles, and squares. When she was done she connected them all with a gracefully-drawn spiral. I witnessed the depiction of Fibonacci tiling and the Golden Spiral. My friend is a Math Education major, and as her friend since childhood I get to call her a math geek with impunity. It’s not unusual to see her doodling in her notes with obscure math equations. Doodling, I tell you! Who doodles math??? But this time was different. I had heard of the Fibonacci series before, watched a YouTube video or two about it, and, frankly, it intrigued me. Do you remember what I said earlier about my new passion for knitting? Well ever since Sunday I’ve been daydreaming about knitting a Fibonacci afghan. I think I’m obsessed.

Fibonacci_Spiral_Art ~ love the overlapped spirals .....

9/11

I remember getting up that day, surprised to see my Father still at home. He had usually left for work before I even woke up. The TV was on, another phenomenon. Unlike most people, my family rarely watched television other than our daily dose of “The Big Valley” during lunch. When I saw the news reports and understood what had happened I didn’t really understand. I was young then, just shy of my 9th birthday. I could not fathom the magnitude of what had happened.

A few years ago for 9/11 my university encouraged each of the students to go by a desk in the residence halls and fish a name out of a box, the name of a person who had died in the World Trade Centers on that fateful day. They asked us to pray for that person’s family. The name I drew was one Shimmy Biegeleisen. Ever since then I have prayed for his family to be comforted and to come to know my Jesus as their Saviour. I have not prayed every day, but as they came to mind, and every September 11.

It is hard to believe that it has been 12 years since the Twin Towers fell. 9/11 has changed the world. I didn’t understand what it meant when I saw the footage replaying on my television screen that morning, but I do now. 9/11 has become a defining juncture for my generation. We will never forget the people who died in the planes, in the towers, in the rescue efforts, or in the war that followed.

The Man with a Plan

Today was my first day of work. Well, technically it was yesterday, but I haven’t slept yet, so it still counts as today. It’s always hard starting a new job, but it will get easier. I am a server in the dining room at a nursing home. The residents are so sweet and my coworkers are really good to work with.

You know, this summer I went traipsing off to Europe with no plan for when I came back. Sure, I intended to stay near my university, but I had no definite plans. Where was I going to live? Was I going to have a job? Would I be able to make ends meet? I worried about these and other problems all summer. But I didn’t need to. Because my God has a plan for my life. Halfway through the summer I got word that my housing problem was solved. I was going to share an apartment with 2 school friends. Praise God for providing! But I still didn’t have a job. Or a car. I have a job now. I am poorer as a result of living with no income for a month, but I’ll earn it back. I still don’t have a car, but God has a plan for that, too.

Seeing God provide for me has been a theme for me this past year or so. I have seen Him make the impossible possible, whether it was returning for school for my senior year, going on a fantastic and eye-opening tour of Europe, or starting life on my own. God is always there for me, and even when life doesn’t make sense I know I can trust Him.

More Interesting

Happy Monday!

Ok, you’re right. I’ll never say that again as long as I live. Forgive me.

Today was my first day of work, which means, o joy of joys, Orientation! Yay! I met some new (and very friendly) people, learned about my company, and they gave us free lunch. What’s not to like? *mumbles something about mind-numbing, life-sucking presentations about safety*

Well, anything is more interesting than Orientation, especially when that something is a wonderful handcraft like Knitting. Now some of you may remember a few months ago when I picked up some needles and knit myself a lovely grey scarf. This soon blossomed out to a pair of awesome wrist warmers, and a scarf I started for my roommate that I still need to finish. Over the summer I did not have the chance to practice my newly-acquired skill because I was traveling in Europe and suitcase space was prime real estate. I brought my tatting along instead. It’s rather smaller (yes, that was intentional). Now that I am back to the States, I am back to knitting. Be afraid. Be very afraid. My roommate is.

My camera is acting up today, so I will leave you with only 1 picture:Image

Washcloth with Basil, knitted with Peaches ‘n’ Cream in yellow on US 8 (?)

Anniversary

Today is my 2 year anniversary blogging. It’s hard to believe how the time has flown. I started this blog because I was inspired by a friend who started blogging. She was so funny and easy to relate to and had such a wonderful command of the English language. I visualized myself blogging blogging successfully just like her about funny things, sad things, normal things.

Well, she’s kept up with her blog a little better than I have (Ok, she’s posted almost every day since she started. Don’t judge). I still read her almost every day, and maybe someday I will be as cool as she is. Thank you, Risabella Rambler, for inspiring me. Here’s to another year.

But I don’t want to grow up!

This is the first September I can remember that I haven’t bought pencils and erasers and 3-ring binders and headed back to school. It’s weird, let me tell you. I am now a college graduate, and that means I have to be an adult now. Accordingly I have begun renting an apartment with a few friends, and Monday I start work.

Take it from me: living is expensive. You have to pay rent, which eats up a paycheck pretty quickly, and then there’s food. I highly recommend eating regularly in order to stay alive. Then there are phone bills and internet service, and occasionally one needs new shoes or clothes, etc. I never realized how good I had it as a child. Are you sure I have to do this whole adult thing?