WNBP: I'm Managing. How About You?

Lots of people tell me how lucky I am to have the day before Thanksgiving off.  They suggest that I am spending my day lazing about in my jammies and noshing on low-fat bonbons, resting up before the big day.

Well...OK.  I did a little bit of that.  Maybe more than a little, if the truth be told.  But I also got a lot done today, thank you very much!  We all have our part to play in the Thanksgiving revelry and mine is carb based.

In short, I've been baking bread.  Lots and lots of bread.  Probably more than we need, but I'd hate to think we were stuck with just vegetables or something horrifying like that.  Better to be prepared, I always say!

Since I'm still up to my elbows in flour, eggs and undissolved yeast, I'm thankful I have the Wednesday Night Bullet Post.  I can usually type that up with a minimum of fuss and still have time to punch down the dough and clean the keyboard.

*Yesterday, I bade a fond farewell to my students as they departed for the long holiday weekend.

*This is the first year in a very long time I've gotten a "Happy Thanksgiving" in response to my having said it and actually believed they meant it.

*Have I mentioned the bread?  I came home from school and baked bread.

*I cranked out about a dozen rolls last night.

*Then got kinda tense about the yeast situation.

*Master bread bakers do not run out of yeast.

*So I woke up at 3:00 this morning all stressed out about the yeast and couldn't get back to sleep.

*So then I was up at 3:00 in the morning cutting the cheese.

*For cheesy bread.  Not what you were thinking.

*Sheesh!

*Cheesy bread is my "thing."  I make it for lots of family gatherings.

*I've been told many times I can't come if I don't bring it and I'm pretty sure they're kidding.

*Except for that little part of me that isn't quite sure so I make it.

*I made six loaves of it today.  My oven is coated with blackened cheese.

*So there you have it.  I have five loaves of cheesy bread to bring to Thanksgiving dinner!

*Yeah.  You heard me.  Five.

*I am so totally not going to be without bread for my turkey sandwiches this weekend!!!

*Since I finished the cheesy bread before darkfall, I decided I had time to make a challah.

*So that is rising now and I figure I'll be able to call it done sometime before 3:00 tomorrow morning...

*The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty is not happy with me for taking his favorite spider plant to live at school.

*It was a rescue mission, pure and simple.  That plant was down to little spidery nubs.

*He is now trying to find a new plant to eat.

*Which means I suddenly  remember why my place isn't exactly well decorated.

*Every design decision I've made for the past twenty years has been based on what cat likes to destroy what object and how high I can hang things before I'm just putting everything on the ceiling.

*I took a nice relaxing bath Monday evening.  With all that baking in my future and one more day of teaching to go, I felt I deserved it.

*I emerged from the tub in a cloud of lavender scented steam, fully relaxed and at peace with the world.

*There was half a chewed up bamboo plant horked up on the living room carpet.

*Oh, and then there was this:

That would be the cord that charges my iPad.

*Not only is it the cord that charges my iPad.  It is the cord that WAS charging my iPad.

*The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty does not chew cords.

*That would be the other one.  The Very Complicated Kitty.

*Who actually seems a little smarter since Monday.  I wonder if that jolt he possibly took to the brain actually sped up the synapses...

*Baths no longer seem quite so relaxing.  I'm actually more tense, what with all the wondering about the goings on in my living room.

*And you don't even want to know how close it was with the rolls last night.

*Rising.  Cooling.  It didn't matter to the AGK.  He just wanted a taste.

*AGK is more of a carb fiend than even I.

*The VCK likes carbs too, but he isn't a fan of jumping.  He relies on his big brother to do the heavy lifting and get the food to floor level.

*The rolls were fine.  I kept an eagle eye.

*Thanksgiving prep is rolling along in spite of it all.

*I finished reading The Minority Council (Matthew Swift).

*I really do love this series.  Funny with a twist of YIKES!

*Sadly, I'm all out of them now.

*So I looked around the ol' digital bookstore and was pleased to find the a sequel to a book I enjoyed a while back.

*Blood and Silver (Deacon Chalk Occult Bounty Hunter) is on the short side, but it's a wild ride.

*Because who doesn't love a former tattoo artist turned occult bounty hunter who funds his operation through his lucrative strip club?

*That is just cool.

*It's been a couple of weeks now, so I feel comfortable in my assumption that everyone who DVRed it has seen it by this time.

*So I just have to ask...

*CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY KILLED OFF LORI ON THE WALKING DEAD?

*Did. Not. See. That. Coming.

*Totally.

*Carl: But she's my mom...

*Heartbreaking...

*A show like that is on my Official List Of Stuff I'm Thankful For.


Well, I do believe it's time to punch some challah.  I'd best go tend to that and make sure there aren't any lurking felines while I'm at it.  I'll leave you with thoughts for a very Happy Thanksgiving if you are among those of you gearing up for that delightful feast o' plenty.

May your loaves be well risen and free of paw prints.

SA