We got our air conditioning fixed today. It started dripping a bit and, being very pro-active, we got it seen to before it got any worse. So it turned out that the level of freon in the system had diminished (ooh, there's a nice word) and ice was forming on the unit, and it melting was what was dripping. Anyway, the maintenance guy topped up the freon (his words were, "I charged your unit." No you didn't. It needed its gas topped up. You don't charge gas. Americans are annoyingly loose with words and grammar. Ooh, another thing that seriously annoys me (because we've been watching a lot of Olympics) is when presenters say, "He medalled in swimming." No he didn't. He got a medal.) So anyway. It seems to be working much better now.
It does trouble me that the freon had vanished out of the system, though. Clearly we have a leak somewhere. And that's CFC simply pouring out into the atmosphere. It worries me. I think the guy just refilled it, rather than actually searching all the pipes and valves for a leak.
I can't think of anything else to say. Things are much the same as ever here. Ooh, I did make risotto for dinner today. It was yummy, but unfortunately I'm not so partial to al dente rice, so I ate it wishing for the rice to be a little softer. According to the internet it takes 40 minutes to get it really soft. 40 minutes of stirring is not my idea of fun for dinner.
Right. Bye so. I'm off to buy some blue thread to alter a pair of shorts which are too big.
31 July 2012
26 July 2012
Short Update
In the last week I've:
made berry frozen yoghurt (tastes amazing, needs about 15 minutes to melt a bit when it comes out of the freezer for good texture)
washed my hair with baking soda (going well so far, no greasy or dry hair)
fainted (whacked my knee on the table, pretty certain the dog had free reign to lick my face)
made griddle bread (just like Mammy used to make when we were younger - at least that's what my flawed memory tells me)
gotten loads of writing done (am 2/3 the way through the final, final edits - at least before a publisher gets at it)
Now. I get a star for productivity.
made berry frozen yoghurt (tastes amazing, needs about 15 minutes to melt a bit when it comes out of the freezer for good texture)
washed my hair with baking soda (going well so far, no greasy or dry hair)
fainted (whacked my knee on the table, pretty certain the dog had free reign to lick my face)
made griddle bread (just like Mammy used to make when we were younger - at least that's what my flawed memory tells me)
gotten loads of writing done (am 2/3 the way through the final, final edits - at least before a publisher gets at it)
Now. I get a star for productivity.
11 July 2012
Digestive Biscuit Experiment I
Aside: I found a cicada outside the apartment and I brought him in and put him in a ventilated jar with the stem of a hunk of broccoli. I think he's half dead, but he moves every so often. I hope he finds the broccoli and gets strong again. Either that or he's moulting and I'm about to have something massive on my hands. He already has wings, though, so I don't think he's moulting.
We went to a baseball game on Sunday (Arizona Diamondbacks vs LA Dodgers). It was really fun. It went on for about 3 hours but the time flew. I now understand a lot more about baseball and the lady beside me commented about how I was getting better at cheering at the right times - rather than just because everyone else was cheering.
Anyway. I got it in my head last week that I wanted digestives (McVities ones). But instead of just going two miles to the shop (Tesco have a food shop here - Fresh and Easy - which sells English stuff), I decided I wanted to bake my own. So I looked up the ingredients on a pack of digestives and off I went. Of course, in my case this means making out spreadsheets and looking up ratios and doing random calculations. Then I had to figure out how to bake them. Anyway. The first experiment was a failure. The only resemblance to digestives is that they are sweet and wheaty. I mean, they taste nice - I've been munching away on them all morning - but they are not what I wanted. So, for posterity, here's the recipe, and what I would do differently.
134g ap flour
44g wheat flour
39g sugar
scant 1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp dry buttermilk
40g canola oil
1/2 tbsp water
10g (scant 1/2 tbsp) golden syrup
First off, not nearly enough liquid. I had to add 3 or 4 tablespoons of water extra to the mix. The texture is too soild and the taste is not wheaty enough. So different flour - possibly cake flour, and definitely a coarse ground whole wheat (which I couldn't find in the shop). The sweetness seems about right. I think the next experiment needs more oil, possibly, and a marginally hotter oven (though the bottoms of the biscuits will get burned). Also people say to use white sugar for more crunch. Possibly more salt? You can sometimes taste the salt in digestives. Melted butter instead of oil, but the ingredients definitely list vegetable oil and not butter, so that's out. It's also possible I put in too much leavening.
Anyway. I'll get to that another day. I want to make dog biscuits for River too. so I'll do them on the same day.
I don't think I have any other news.
We went to a baseball game on Sunday (Arizona Diamondbacks vs LA Dodgers). It was really fun. It went on for about 3 hours but the time flew. I now understand a lot more about baseball and the lady beside me commented about how I was getting better at cheering at the right times - rather than just because everyone else was cheering.
Anyway. I got it in my head last week that I wanted digestives (McVities ones). But instead of just going two miles to the shop (Tesco have a food shop here - Fresh and Easy - which sells English stuff), I decided I wanted to bake my own. So I looked up the ingredients on a pack of digestives and off I went. Of course, in my case this means making out spreadsheets and looking up ratios and doing random calculations. Then I had to figure out how to bake them. Anyway. The first experiment was a failure. The only resemblance to digestives is that they are sweet and wheaty. I mean, they taste nice - I've been munching away on them all morning - but they are not what I wanted. So, for posterity, here's the recipe, and what I would do differently.
134g ap flour
44g wheat flour
39g sugar
scant 1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp dry buttermilk
40g canola oil
1/2 tbsp water
10g (scant 1/2 tbsp) golden syrup
First off, not nearly enough liquid. I had to add 3 or 4 tablespoons of water extra to the mix. The texture is too soild and the taste is not wheaty enough. So different flour - possibly cake flour, and definitely a coarse ground whole wheat (which I couldn't find in the shop). The sweetness seems about right. I think the next experiment needs more oil, possibly, and a marginally hotter oven (though the bottoms of the biscuits will get burned). Also people say to use white sugar for more crunch. Possibly more salt? You can sometimes taste the salt in digestives. Melted butter instead of oil, but the ingredients definitely list vegetable oil and not butter, so that's out. It's also possible I put in too much leavening.
Anyway. I'll get to that another day. I want to make dog biscuits for River too. so I'll do them on the same day.
I don't think I have any other news.
05 July 2012
Randomy Random Post
We got to see fireworks last night. They were cool. And we had a perfect view - about as close as you could get, without even realising it when we chose our spot. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I felt kinda bad as we headed out to the fireworks - even though I'd been for a 5 mile walk with River, but I guess I just felt we should have met up with some people. It didn't help that the day was muggy and overcast.
My crackers got finished off today. I'm going to make more, along with some digestive biscuits. I've set myself a challenge to make digestives exactly like McVities, so I started by getting the packet ingredients list and a random recipe for digestives and merging them. My only one bafflement is wholemeal. Is this wheat? Oat? Some other kind of grain? I'm afraid that oats will bake the biscuits turn out more like HobNobs. And while HobNobs are good, they are no McVities digestive. My caramel squares are almost gone too. The last few are in the freezer.
I renewed my driver's licence today. Kind of spur of the moment thing when lordkilljoy reminded me. So, if you get to the office just after it opens, the wait is only a little over an hour, rather than 3 at every other time. So I shouldn't have to do that again because this time it's valid until a year after my visa runs out.
Remember ages ago, I wrote a post proclaiming how I was totally finished Artificer? I totally lied. I've been working on it somewhat constantly since then and am now almost done with it. I'm 3/4 of the way through the final read through and have some 200 notes on changes and corrections that need to be made (a lot of which are simple typos, but one or two are whole scene rewrites).
I restarted the front panel of my crochet robot. I wasn't happy with it and figured it would only take a little while to do again. It will be cool when it's stuffed and sewed up.
I don't think I have much other news. This post was mainly procrastination for not doing the dishes.
My crackers got finished off today. I'm going to make more, along with some digestive biscuits. I've set myself a challenge to make digestives exactly like McVities, so I started by getting the packet ingredients list and a random recipe for digestives and merging them. My only one bafflement is wholemeal. Is this wheat? Oat? Some other kind of grain? I'm afraid that oats will bake the biscuits turn out more like HobNobs. And while HobNobs are good, they are no McVities digestive. My caramel squares are almost gone too. The last few are in the freezer.
I renewed my driver's licence today. Kind of spur of the moment thing when lordkilljoy reminded me. So, if you get to the office just after it opens, the wait is only a little over an hour, rather than 3 at every other time. So I shouldn't have to do that again because this time it's valid until a year after my visa runs out.
Remember ages ago, I wrote a post proclaiming how I was totally finished Artificer? I totally lied. I've been working on it somewhat constantly since then and am now almost done with it. I'm 3/4 of the way through the final read through and have some 200 notes on changes and corrections that need to be made (a lot of which are simple typos, but one or two are whole scene rewrites).
I restarted the front panel of my crochet robot. I wasn't happy with it and figured it would only take a little while to do again. It will be cool when it's stuffed and sewed up.
I don't think I have much other news. This post was mainly procrastination for not doing the dishes.
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