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, ALONG WITH SEASON TICKETS FOR ALL OF THE BOUTS, AND YOU SHOULD BUY THEM BECAUSE I AM AWESOME AND SO ARE MY BITCHES. Thank you, and we now return to your regularly scheduled entry.***
I'm pissed at the thundersnow because the clap of thunder this morning (well, more a roll of thunder-- in my half-waking state I thought it was a basso profundo chord on a pipe organ) scared away Chita, who had been snuggling my face and purring and purring.
So sad.
I am going to be making Christmas cookies today, of at least two kinds. The cookies you roll and cut out have to have their dough refrigerated from anywhere between an hour to overnight. I have two kinds of roll-out cookie dough in the fridge now. One is the kind my mother always made, from Fanny Farmer's Butterscotch Cookies recipe. That dough is tastiest raw, and many happy childhood memories were made eating the scraps left over after cutting cookies out.
The other is Piparkukas, a traditional Latvian cookie that must be rolled out very, very thin so that it is crispy. The dough is very sticky-- there isn't much flour in it, or really much of anything except for spices. The ideal finished piparkuka (Is that the singular? I don't know Latvian) will be a whisper of crispy spiciness that melts into a sweet/savory suggestion in your mouth, and leaves a lingering spicy scent of Christmas about you.
Often when I make them they're too thick, though, because the dough is extremely hard to roll out. It's largely molasses and honey, and if it's warm enough to work, it is sticky and incorrigible. If it's cold enough not to stick, it is also the consistency of brick. I tried to cheat this year-- I spread the still-warm dough (the honey and molasses are boiled to start off with) out between two sheets of wax paper and have put it in the fridge to cool that way. Hopefully I'll be able to roll it out thinner if I start with a sheet instead of a brick.
I'm not too optimistic, however. I've been working out daily all month, because of the roller derby bout on the 3rd. I've missed probably three or four days all month. That's fine, that's good, that's OK-- I am dealing with sore muscles as I get them, and am enjoying the feeling of how strong my body is getting.
But shoveling snow makes for sore muscles. So my triceps are killing me on both sides, and yesterday while I was scrubbing the bathtub I noticed how much weaker I was than normal because I was so sore. It's not much better today.
(e:zobar) took a turn shoveling, so his arms are like noodles now.
And even (e:fi) shoveled a bit, and did something to one of her shoulders.
So of the three people in this house, none of us is really in much of a state to wrestle large quantities of obstreporous Latvian cookie dough into thin, meltingly-crispy submission.
Oh well. We're pretty much snowed in, so I haven't much else to do. Except oh yeah, maybe finish my Xmas cards.
snow is evil. especially when the plow driver drops an extra 3 feet of snow on your car.
Snow shoveling can be a lot more work then it looks like. I don't know how much stuff or area needed to be shoveled but I'll give a little advice from what I have learned.
1. Go out and shovel when it is snowing: The reason for this is that when snow is at 2 inches it is light and easy to do and you can open up everything and see where to toss the snow. It is easier to shovel shovel twice then to try to pick up wet heavy snow a foot at a time.
2. Don't do what a lot of people do and to one shovel width. you get two people heading towards each other boom. This goes back to when you open up every thing like in point one. if you do this then every time it snows and you toss snow that open area gets smaller if you have a drive way you won't be able to get out. This is also true when some ass hole parks across from your drive way.
3. This comment is so stupid not sure why I did it but I guess I'll keep it up. It is easy to think I'm tough and can shovel lots of snow but often what looks light becomes heavy so don't put to much snow on that shovel. I once broke a shovel doing so, I don't mean the plastic part I mean the handle.
4. Think of it as work and as fun: What I mean is, it is work, in that you don't want to do stuff that will make your work harder later. For example if you have a drive way you want to get all the snow all the way back if you put it on the sides then when you get 8 inches it will block the car door and get under the tires and you will get stuck. But also think of it as fun and a good way to get exercise. If you think negatively then it will never get done and you will be cursing and make the job that much harder.
well, if you need help with the quality control of the end product of the submissive dough, spread the word.