I *Heart* New Roma

New Roma is the name of my sourdough colony. And sweet lord, does she make excellent bread. That little colony makes the bread rise even more than commercial yeast does, all the while imparting a complex, subtly sour flavor.

I know some people who always add commercial yeast when baking with sourdough; they say the bread doesn't rise otherwise. I wonder what they are doing to their colonies. Maybe they don't feed them enough, or perhaps they never remove them from the fridge to warm up.

So. So. Tired.

Blog peeps, I am just wiped out. I don't know if my body is at last succumbing to the horrendous flus and sinus infections going around--I am not sick, but I am wiped out in that way of "fighting something"--or if it's the deadly 1-2 punch of 2 days of pouring cold rain making me sleepy, plus preventing me from getting out and walking. Oh, and working through last weekend with all the shiatsu activity. Maybe the answer is D., All of the above.

In any caszzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Super Tuesday!

It's so freaking exciting! Happy Primaries, everybody!

A Weekend in Food

On Friday we dined at Trattoria Toscana. We ducked out of cold sheets of horizontal rain into the cozy restaurant and nourished ourselves with a thick Tuscan soup with beans, carrots, and kale. We warmed ourselves with a cheery chianti and then laid into our pastas. I had a gnocchi dish with meat ragu. The gnocchi were edible pillows from heaven. The runner overheard us discussing politics as he refilled our wine and agua minerale, and he asserted his support for Clinton's more-liberal immigration policy. He was from Colombia, you see.

Oh, and then we topped off dinner with the best tiramisu I have ever eaten. It was creamy, richly coffee-flavored, and just sweet enough. Even the husband was enraptured, and he is not normally a tiramisu fan.
***

On Saturday, we had our omnivorous friends over for dinner. They are very enthusiastic about food, but don't seem to know much about it. This gives them a certain freedom, a certain culinary innocence that lets them think outside the box, and makes their enthusiasm infectious. They brought offerings to the feast: sesame dumplings filled with red bean paste (my favorite dim sum, as they knew) and a reisling.

We devoured the dumplings with the cheese and crackers we had put out. (When planning the meal, had we debated appetizers for a while before remembering the party these friends had hosted when they put out cheese without crackers. Not just hard cheese--brie. We decided that we must put out cheese and crackers, as an unspoken tutorial. Also, we were curious whether these random-but-enthusiastic eaters knew how to use crackers.

...They did.)

Our guests suggested we drink the reisling with appetizers, but I knew they would go perfectly with the baked golden delicious apples we were serving for dessert. I therefore limited the food randomness and held the reisling. It was glorious with the apples: serendipity.

In between, we had lamb pre-marinated by the good people at Trader Joe's. G. roasted said lamb with potatoes, carrots, celery, and pearl onions tossed in olive oil and herbs. It came out wonderfully, and went nicely with the tasty red wine (a rioja, G. tells me).

We had a terrific time, laughing, eating, talking, and playing a lively game of Apples to Apples. And it was so gratifying, I must admit, how appreciative and enthusiastic our omnivore-friends were about the cooking.

***
Sunday: leftover cheese all day.

Ironically, I taught a workshop about holistic approaches to IBS treatment feeling totally overstuffed with cheeses.

My Husband: Not a Solid

I take a sleep intermission every night. Get up for a few moments, use the ladies' room, sip a little water, give the kitties a snack. This is how I discovered the raccoon, but that's another story.

Every night when I return to bed, my dear husband has taken the shape of his container; i.e., there is no room left for me. And he steals the blankets while he's at it! Sometimes, if Luna Cat has not gotten up with me, she takes over the remaining bit of warm bed and lies there, dead asleep and much heavier than she is by daylight, like a rock-cat.

So I crawl in and squeeze myself into little sphere with one foot diameter, carving out a small space to use as my base of operations. Then, I yank some covers on to keep from freezing. Cat and husband groan in response, and sometimes I even get a muttered, supremely irritated, sleep-talking "Come on" from the human. Once securely in the bed, I began my expansion. I start by pushing the cat with my feet. This doesn't always work, so I have to shake her a little and call her name, which usually gets another irritated sleep-sound from husband.

Once I uproot the feline, I must shove the human from the center of the bed back to his side. Usually I accomplish this by lying on my side facing him and pressing my knees into either his kidneys or his knees, depending on whether he's sleeping on his right or left side. This gets a big "Harumph" and a dramatic flop as he rolls over and cedes my bed-territory.

Oh, that makes sense.

My career counselor had me take the MBTI. I've taken it before, but not with an eye toward career. And the results have been a little different every time I've taken the test, because I fall in the middle of the scale on two categories.

But, here and now, today, I am an ENTP. The official analysis provided with the results was very affirming. The pages seemed to speak: Yes, you are in totally the wrong job for your personality. It's not that there is anything wrong with you. But this is a bad fit. It's no wonder the last 6 years have been torture. It's gonna be OK, we'll find you the right job.

I can't share my official report here, but I did find other neat resources about ENTPs and their career needs.

Wow wow wow

Urban planning. I spoke with someone I found through my alumni network about his job--getting parks made for communities. It's awesome, part community work, part strategy, all innovation. I got high just hearing about it. Also, he gave me the names and phone numbers of everyone in the field to talk to, including the profs at the Masters programs.