HollyKing's Journal

While hollyqueen and I were off celebrating our marriage I brought my copy of Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I can see why so many people recommend this book. I'm only seventy pages into the book and what I've read so far is going to improve my bread making skills. Somehow I don't think I'll have a shortage of volunteers to help eat my experiments.

Speaking of baking I'm planning at baking some bread, Springerles and other cookies weekend. Yes, I have a fondness for anise flavored cookies. Hmmm... Now to go make a shopping list...

Friday: No power at home so after trying to read with candles I gave up and went to bed really early. I hadn't slept well the night before so I didn't have any trouble going to bed at 8pm. Power returned around 1am so I woke up to a warm house and hot water.

Saturday: We had planned on going down to Tacoma to participate in my first volkssport event. The club there was sponsoring a 10K walk around a neighborhood with lots of holiday lights. However, I received an email early in the morning letting us know they had canceled the walk due to the lack of power and tree damage.

So instead we hung around the house, did some chores and invited folks over who didn't have power. While dianthus said she hated me jw1776 took us up on the offer. So he and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006). Then hollyqueen came down and we were defeated by her twice in one game of Trivial Pursuit and once in a game of Acquire. It was close in Acquire though. She only beat me by $300 and if I had been able to reform Sackson I think I would have won.

Sunday: hollyqueen and I joined intrepid_reason and some other folks for Dim Sum at the Four Seas followed by some cookie baking at amecia's. Dim sum was wonderful. It could easily become my new favorite food because it's really easy to try a little bit of everything. There wasn't one thing that I tried that I didn't like.

After lunch we headed to amecia's. Zero was low on gas so hollyqueen and I searched for a place to fill up. The fourth station was the charm and we finally have a comfortable full tank again. I should remember to never let the tank get below 50% as a precaution but when things have been going well I start to slack off and forget. We also had an adventure trying to find the place I turned the wrong way and ended up at the wrong place. You think after living out here for 8 years I would remember that there are two 10th Avenues. Where I grew up someone telling me that their house was on the corner of 49th and Tracy was an exact location. There is only one 49th and Tracy in the city. After a call to reorient ourselves we arrived.

Cookie making was quite fun. With some help from hollyqueen I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies using the Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Swirled Morsels from Nestle Toll House. Very tasty and interesting cookies. We also watched a few episodes of Coupling including my favorite, Inferno. Sadly, hollyqueen and I had to leave because we had things that needed to be finished tonight. I would be in for another night of cooking and socializing in an instant. I had such a blast.