finally time to type

That is because Sara is sitting quietly in her chair eating oatmeal and watching SpongeBob. I continue to feel bad about using Sponge Bob as a babysitter, but not only does it keep her quiet, it keeps her in the highchair, and the longer she is in there, the more she eats. Yes the same phenomenon that is keeping America obese, is making my kid eat more than one bite of food and then throw it on the floor. So I will take what I can get.

I started typing a big long entry the other night, and then, poof! it was gone, thanks to the stupid touch mouse pad on the laptop. I somehow highlighted all the text and deleted it, and Control-Z did NOT undo it. I was so annoyed. Our desktop crashed the other day, and so we are running on the laptop now, complete with dumb ol' Windows Vista and all. I haven't yet decided to just completely restore the desktop to factory settings. If I did I would lose much music, some videos and some stained glass related paperwork and pictures. Luckily I just put all my pictures (or at least 98% of them) on a USB drive to use on the digital picture frame Iffy gave me for my birthday, so my pictures are safe. I have already spent a couple days trying to see if I can fix it, but no luck so far and I am very ready to just reset it all.

I finished the stained glass piece I was working on. Next on the list: restore my stained glass room to non-disaster mode. How many times have you heard me say that?

Lately I have been on a bread baking kick. One thing that I would enjoy about living closer to civilization would be good bread, and being able to purchase it often. Freezing it is not the same, and the stores in Alpine really don't even sell good bread. So I have been trying to make some good stuff on my own. I have used the bread machine to make a few loaves, but have yet to get the high altitude adjustments correct. The loaves keep coming out looking like Sara sat on them.

My favorite thus far is super easy to make, though it takes overnight dough rest, therefore forethought and planning is required. It comes from the Jan/Feb 2008 Cooks Illustrated issue and is called Almost No-Knead Bread. It is quite scrumptious, though the crust is very crusty.

I have been making the whole wheat version, and in true Big Bend fashion, I had to get creative with substitutions. I am out of honey, so I used molasses instead. (yes, it is weird that I have molasses, but not honey.) Currently I've got a loaf in the oven (and a bun in the oven too!) that had walnuts and raisins in it, the loaf, not the bun. I'm actually making two of these because we are going to someone's house for dinner tonight, so I am bringing one with me.

Tomorrow I will be a full 27 weeks pregnant. Got a week and a half to go before I can officially say that I am better off than last time. My blood pressures continue to behave themselves for the most part, though when I took it this morning it was 126/86. That 86 is the highest it has been in a LONG time. I then laid down and it was 108/58. Crazy. And on the topic of pregnancy, why oh why don't all maternity pants come up OVER the "equator". It is SO ANNOYING pulling pants up all day long. I need suspenders. Probably due to my serious white girl lack of lady humps in the posterior region.

I think it may be naptime around here, for one of us at least. So I am going to go herd her that way. Y'all have a good day.

Here are a few pics.

Close up of the panel

the whole thing

Once Iffy started this game the other night, he was having a hard time stopping.