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Starkweather creek, from this morning's walk. |
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Sunflower and afternoon rain and wind today, dark enough at times for the garage lights to turn themselves on. |
'Scoakat' rhymes with 'Snow Hat'! - - Just my thoughts on music, humor, our life in Madison and anything else I feel like.
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Starkweather creek, from this morning's walk. |
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Sunflower and afternoon rain and wind today, dark enough at times for the garage lights to turn themselves on. |
Plus commentary, that is.
My wife and I spent time on separate chores this morning, mine at home and hers more unexpected and difficult. By early afternoon we were able to be done and go out for a nice, but very filling lunch together, then relaxed at a pub for a few drinks before coming home to watch the Brewers win their game and extend their lead in the division, league, and all of Major League Baseball.
'Chuffed' isn't a word often used here in the US, but seems to aptly describe our pride as fans of our small-market team doing so well. It's happened with our different Wisconsin teams at different times, but it's always really nice to look at the standings and see your team on top and enjoy it while it lasts.
That same day, Friday, I found the first crocus to sprout in our yard, in the bed along the dark side of the house. After taking this photo I went to the back yard where we get scores every spring and I couldn't yet find one. It's still March, though.
March Madness.
I've been watching a lot of basketball recently. My Wisconsin Badgers have been on a run in the B1G tournament and will play in the championship game tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully a great win and a good seed in the NCAA tournament, to be announce tomorrow evening. Go Badgers!On a side note, Cuba City won the division 4 girls state high school championship this afternoon, coached by my cousin. Congratulations, Cubans!
Before the games today I did a lot of housework and made some of my flatbread, which has become a staple in this household. Now, flatbread and pita are two very similar recipes but different cooking methods. My flatbread is dry fried in a hot pan on the stove, and pita is baked at high temperature on a baking stone. The last few of my flatbreads today did wonderful pita impressions, though, so I grabbed my camera.
After the break are photos of that last flatbread-posing-as-pita, and that batch.
Well, time to break the seal with the first new post of 2025. The holidays have come and gone, and we've settled back into daily life here. I don't have any big news or anything like that, and I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so time to start typing and see what spills out onto the page.
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A couple hawks with a snack, across the street yesterday. |
Then, at the end of the call, he brought up one piece of equipment we supposedly still had - one of their modems. I was pissed. I told him it had been several years since we returned that modem, so long ago I couldn't remember what year or where I returned it. He opened an inquiry and said it could take up to 72 hours. Meanwhile, I looked up when we bought our first modem from Amazin' and it was March of 2014, so I would have returned their equipment by early April that year at the latest, over ten years ago.
Thankfully, later that night, I received an email that stated they have "completed your equipment research request in alignment with your expectations." As far as I'm concerned, that better be the end of it. Fuck Spectrum, I'll never be a customer of theirs again.
Meanwhile, I've continued to make cheese pennies every so often. I'm finding it easiest to make multiple batches at once to have them available in the freezer. I baked most of the last of a roll of mild cheddar cheese pennies yesterday, and today for the freezer I made bleu cheese (for the first time), parmesan, and sharp cheddar with cayenne cheese penny rolls. (I've also made swiss cheese pennies before.)
Our first-place Brewers are playing the last-place Cubs this weekend. It's always fun to beat the Cubs, especially this year. Rain again last night and now too windy tonight for a fire, so I'm going to kick back and watch the game this afternoon and enjoy a quiet evening in. Have a good weekend, everyone.
I've been feeling much better this week but for continuing sniffles, since being sick the prior two weeks. It's just been going around as I've heard of several others being sick. It's no fun, especially since I was barely sick for several years due to changes that came with the pandemic, like masks and working from home. I'm around so much more people now than I have been in a long time.
New neighbors, late neighbor Dave's daughter and son-in-law, are still not moved in. The house was supposed to be done December 15, they told me, and they had to be out of where they lived January 31, so not sure where they're living now. At least they are getting $100 off the bill for every day past December 15, but I'm sure they'd rather it just get finished. In the early days late in summer and fall there was work being done maybe one day a week. Now, for the last several weeks there's work being done weekdays, weekends, holidays, and sometimes late into the night. Further exterior work will have to wait, they said, whether for weather or financial reasons I'm not sure. We've been thinking of putting a fence on that side like our back fence, and they may want to remove theirs before then if they want the metal posts covered with wood on their side of it, like the fence in the back. We'll talk to them again sometime after they finally move in, I'm sure.
The weather has been mild, kind of like March at the end of January/beginning of February and continuing. Early last week we again had morning fog on several days, including freezing fog in areas. Was like nothing I'd ever seen. Driving through one of the little squalls is a almost a whiteout of tiny snowflakes, with everything getting frosted in white with them. Otherwise, the snow has been melting so just a small mound here and there where it was deepest. And we had thunderstorms the other night, including a few tornadoes just south of here - the first February tornadoes in Wisconsin in recorded history. It feels like spring though the calendar says otherwise. I guess we'll find out if February will start acting like winter again or not. And anything could always happen in March.I came across a website that provides (for free) background noises, and you can customize and combine to make one to your liking. Noises Online is under those blue words, if interested.The last time I made baguette I used bread flour instead of AP and proofed them in the couche. I seemed to get bigger bubbles in the crumb but proofing them in a floured cloth makes the skin less flexible to expand when baking, thus they tend to split on me, so far. But I like mixing it up and trying new techniques. In fact, I'm even starting to reconsider getting a sourdough culture that I'll have to feed and keep alive in the fridge. Ugh! Anyway, they always are good bread no matter and I look forward to my next stab at it, probably next weekend.
Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. I do plan on watching the game, but only to try and catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift! Just kidding. I don't really care who wins, but I do like to see Patrick Mahomes whine so I may root for the 49ers. Mostly, I just hope it's a good game - and that my number$ hit!
However you chose to ring in 2024, I hope you enjoy the holiday today and all my best wishes for a wonderful new year.
The Packers just won with a fourth quarter comeback, and you can probably tell from the picture that I was much more attentive to the game than Hamish.
My wife and I both did some baking today, and often my Mom and I text during the games so I was sending her pictures as I made baguettes. They turned out pretty good though I've been experimenting with my technique, so I may share that here soon. Otherwise, back to the grind in the morning and fiscal year is just a week away so the headaches are coming.
We did go out for a fancy dinner with friends Terry and Becky last night. The parking lot was between the restaurant and the lake, so we parked right up to the lake and I got pictures of when we arrived and when we left that we found interesting, if not quite level. I'll put those after the break. Cheers, everyone.
The Badgers men's basketball team is still playing, even if it is just the NIT, and they played today at 11 a.m. Today is sunny and finally supposed to get above freezing again after another temperature plunge, so I thought I'd get out of the house and go watch the game at The Harmony Bar and Grill, that I've mentioned here in the past. A good neighborhood bar, and not too busy during the daytimes, usually.
We are in the throes of winter, stretches of sun and temperatures leading to thoughts of spring then snow, ice and cold again. The local groundhog, Jimmy, predicted 6 more weeks of winter for us on February 2nd, Groundhog Day, and so far it has been proving accurate. Snow will arrive here in probably a couple hours and for the next almost two days will be off and on with wintry mix and ice mixed in for good measure. Well, at least the days are getting longer and, overall, the weather is getting better, right?
Still not a whole lot going on around here to write about except the weather, but I can think of a few different things to touch upon...
It's jacket weather today, light jacket. The air becomes crisp though the sun shines. There's a bit of a breeze, but that's supposed to drop off in a couple hours. I'm counting on it as I'm planning on a fire and having a friend over.
Hasn't that wind died down yet?
A few weeks ago my counterpart at work took 3 of 4 weeks off, so I took Thursday and Friday off this week as a little reward for myself and to get me to my full week vacation coming up in September. Only a couple days, but I've been able to get a few things done that I've been wanting to do and now I have several things I'd been wanting to share plus a few new things. So it's time again to start typing and see if I remember it all.
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Here, what appears to be an F-35 turns over the neighborhood to come in to land. Pictures just don't do justice to how close they are in person. |
It's been mostly another slow, winter week around here. We're way below normal snow totals so far, and most days recently have been very cold, but there was one day that got above freezing and I took advantage by taking a good walk during a long work meeting. Aside from the weather (for a change!) there are a few things I'd like to touch upon, so time to start typing again and see what spills onto the page.
I did not get to have a firepit on the solstice like I have the last two years, it was cold and just way too windy to consider a fire, and that day the city picked up the stick pile before I could burn it. Yesterday, however, the temperatures were above freezing and the winds were mild. I started the fire about quarter to four in the afternoon and was out there until about six. Long enough, and with sunset before 4:30 it was getting pretty chilly by then. Last year my last fire was December 28, so we'll see what the weather does, if there's any more. The fire picture was taken right about sunset, and I had to remind myself to take a picture. I'm sure I have thousands of pictures of the firepit by now so I don't always anymore, but every one is unique.
About a half hour after sunset it occurred to me to also get a picture of the tree that was cut down as a follow up to the last post. There was no more activity over there since and the trunk still stands, and stands tall. It's twice as high as their garage and about as tall as their house, it was a very big tree to begin with. You can kind of see the fences that would require the use of a crane parked in front of their garage to get the branches out. But the biggest surprise is how this picture turned out. Again, this was about a half hour after sunset, the first pictures I took were pretty dark so I tried using the 'night sight' feature on my phone camera. Quite the difference, I thought, this fully looks like daytime! But it was not quite completely dark out yet so turned out quite a bit brighter than actual.Another takeaway is though I lament the loss of the tree, the dozen or more in this same picture, both near and in the distance, shows that we are not in any danger of being treeless in the area anytime soon.
Have a great holiday and stay safe, everyone. Go Packers!
We have two different kinds of tiger lilies in the flower bed along the porch. One kind that was here when we moved in, a little larger and later-blooming, pretty much on each end, and another kind along the middle that is earlier-blooming. They've all been done blooming for some time now except for one stalk near the far corner. After all the rest were done this one still showed a few flower pods yet to open, so I've been watching it to see if they all actually would bloom and, somewhat surprisingly, they have.
When there were 3 or 4 pods left on the stalk I started taking pictures of them, anticipating each to be the last. I didn't believe the small ones would grow in the cooler weather. Even now there appears to be a very small flower bud there but I just can't see it being able to grow enough to bloom, so this, I believe, is the last tiger lily of the season for us.
On one of my recent walks I picked a gourd that was growing wild along the bike path, not in one of the community gardens, either, but along the creek. I saw the vine growing all year, and this last time it was roughly cut back and I saw two left that looked ready, so I took one with me. Not sure why or what I was going to do with it, it just seemed like an autumnal thing to do, maybe place it somewhere as a fall decoration. I expected the squirrels to mess with it, but so far they haven't.And the flowers we have left in the stump area are still doing very well. We've had several cool days recently, this weekend being the exception and maybe our last summer-like temperatures. The days are fast getting shorter and leaves are starting to change and fall, though it will still be some time before raking and gutter cleaning is due, thankfully. Stores are all decked out for Halloween, and we have a few houses in the neighborhood that have pretty impressive displays. Maybe later in the month I might try to get some pictures to share here. I do like Halloween, it may be my favorite holiday.
Today, my wife is out and about tending to her dad and his matters, which has taken up more and more of her time recently, so I have been doing chores around the house and checking things off my list. Soon here I think I'll take the bicycle down to the Harmony Bar and Grill for lunch. I've been doing lots more walking than biking this summer, and this may be the last time I get the bike out. Hopefully I keep up with walking even as the weather turns, but I admit it has been more difficult to make myself do since my back has been better. I used to walk to make it feel better, so now I should walk to help it continue to feel better, I think.
The Badgers play later this afternoon, and shortly after they start the Brewers play game 2 of the opening round of the playoffs, and before that's over I hope to be out by the fire. I've not done that in a few weeks due to the weather and also allergies started kicking my butt again, so I'm hoping the wind and weather will be on my side. Whatever your plans, have a great weekend, everyone!
I don't think I have many words to say, but I'm sure I'll think of something. I do have several pictures of our area from this past week that I'd like to share.
For the sake of keeping the home page tidy, see the rest after the break!
We're well into the new year now and other than for a little insurrection review I've not posted in 2021. We are entering the doldrums of winter here, and during a pandemic still, so there's not a whole lot going on for us lately. Despite that, there must be a few things I could say so time to start typing and see what happens.
Barring small mammals and firepits there's not been a lot to write about over here the last several weeks. One day blurs into the next as we work and rest while barely ever leaving the house. But life moves ever forward and I needed a vacation from, well, work. Not working for a few days will be the only difference as I still will barely leave the house. Good times, eh? Well, here I go typing again, so onward we go.