A Quick Note

Lest I lose one of my, oh let’s say ten readers, I thought I should post something up.  Yes, I am supposedly in the midst of a “12 Days of Christmas” series, but I’m also in the midst of the busiest three months of work (possibly about to become four months) I’ve ever had in my life (why is my wallet not correspondingly full?), and although I have been doing some behind the scenes work on this series, you already know that I’ve still only put up the first two installments.  Perhaps I’ll get them done by May, at which time I can start telling you about what I did last summer.  Sound familiar?

Anyway, here’s what I haven’t been doing:

• Posting further installments of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”  Although I swear I am working on them in a piecemeal sort of way…
• Posting recipes like so many of you have requested.  I haven’t forgotten you.
• Riding my motorcycle.  My butt has touched the seat exactly twice so far in 2011.  Once on my 12th Day of Christmas and the other over a month ago.  To add insult to injury, the weather has been, oh, perfect.  This pains me more than I can possibly say.
• Cooking, aside from basic subsistence needs (if that).  This is when  my once fully stocked, but now beginning to dwindle somewhat freezer really shines.  I had prepared for The Rapture.  One exception to subsistence cooking is noted below.
• Spending any time whatsoever getting the spacing between photos of this post to look right.  Deal with it, okay? 
• Taking many photos.  Most of these are archival, and those that aren't were constrained to a 10 minute work break. The archival ones probably were, too, come to think of it.
• Geocaching, hiking or any other stuff I like to do for fun.

Here’s what I have been doing:

• Working and practicing like mad.  10-15 services a week for numerous organizations (that's music talk for "a whole heck of a lot"), plus students (every musician has a least a few), plus meetings for various things (some good, some eye rollingly awful), plus some frequent and recurring appointments.  And that doesn't count actually learning all that music (brand new stacks for each week!), most of which, by pure chance, happens to be new to me.  You do know I’m a flutist by trade, right?  I can’t remember if that’s come up or not.  Work is a good, good thing, I keep reminding myself.  But a little balance (or at least that correspondingly full wallet) would be nice about now.*
• Icing down my overworked chops sampling fancy ice cream at The Hub, the new ice creamery/meatery/boozery that recently opened a short walk from my house.  I efficiently combine this task with walking my dog.   I love this place.  I may move in and sublet out my house.  Open 'til 2am every day. 
• Drinking caffeinated beverages to get me through the day and through insane high speed make it to the next gig on time commutes.  Actually, that’s a lie.  The caffeine part, not the crazy commute part.  I’ve got another one of those tomorrow, and have posted Facebook messages seeking out a helicopter in order to do what even a Ducati can not.  Anyway, I do very much enjoy my morning latte, but that’s typically about it as far as caffeine goes.  I just said that so I could post this photo.
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For the record, this is my morning coffee set up.  It’s a “Brikka” pot, which is basically an old fashioned stove top moka pot (no, I don’t care what anyone says, espresso can not be made stovetop, not even by Jesus), with a funny little pressure valve inside that somewhat approximates the crema of an actual espresso.

• Gazing fondly at my motorcycle stuff, since I don’t actually have time to ride the thing.  Special ride coming up March 21, about which I’ll get around to writing probably some time next fall.

• Making my own thin mints.  That’s the cooking exception I mentioned.  I did this over about four different kitchen sessions (during which I listened to recordings of music I was working on) since I didn’t have the time to make them in one sitting, (or standing, to be more accurate).  Aside from the batch I burnt thanks to my kitchen timer that sporadically stops timing, they came out pretty good. Next time I’ll put a little more mint in them.  And make them a wee bit crunchier.   And not use Ghirardelli chocolate.  I'm not a Ghirardelli fan, but this was an experiment - not something to use the expensive stuff on - and besides, it was on sale.**

• Coming to terms with the fact that, on top of everything else, I have to do my taxes next week (hah!), because of the old wiring in my house (don't ask).

Here's a photo from one of the days I was stocking my freezer for this very moment.  A double batch of ravioli - some pumpkin, the other mushroom.  Now you know what I'm having for dinner tonight.  But you don't know which variety, do you?  A girl has to have some secrets.

Okay, this post took all of ten minutes.  That constitutes my work break for the day.  Back to it.

* I should say I am really, REALLY grateful to have all this work, and am finding it quite rewarding.  Just so you know.
**Incidentally, my nails are rarely (that means never) long, much less red.  It was a colliding set of unusual circumstances that led to this state.  I kept looking at them with a strange sense of fascination, both good and bad.  In any case, I find them so odd, and to be such a gross mis-representation of myself, that I couldn’t post these pictures without mentioning it.  For the record, the nail polish has since been removed.  The nails will likely break before I hit the "publish post" button.