Weight-lifting Thursday

I’ve been feeling like I’m taking too long between posts so I’m forgetting all my pithy insights on whatever it is I thought I’d write about. I’m also discouraging myself from taking so many pictures of things since I feel like they’re all starting to look like earlier pictures I already took. See Saturday brekkie overleaf.

I think I’m going to set a goal for myself of posting a certain number of illustrated recipes per time period. Once a week’s too much. I think I’m going to start with once a month. I think I’ll get one done in March then April is stupid busy with elections and UW Libraries book sale and WI film fest overlapping. But I expect I can still do one recipe.

And, I’m going to tell you about yesterday, well day-before-yesterday, the weight-lifting Thursday of the title. Trying not to wait so long.

Thursday I started my day at the food pantry. There were lots of extra people because we were getting a big delivery from Second Harvest. I feel like Jim, the lead pantry volunteer, said 50,000 pounds of food, that seems crazy, but maybe … I was mostly putting away frozen, so some lifting there, and also did a few cans and other random donations.

I intended to stay at the pantry until 11:30. At my second volunteer gig at the library we were expecting some donations: 11 boxes at about noon, and then about 75 boxes more at like 2:30. And it was raining. First I got a text from my volunteer bringing the 11 boxes and they had dropped them at the dock a little before 11:00. (they thought the books were in a dry spot, but actually the boxes had started getting wet when I got there to retrieve them at a little before noon) Then I got a text from the Library Friends administrator that the bigger donation was coming at more like noon, rather than 2:30. Which was better for me, but still meant I better get down there. And I was driving which meant finding parking. I figured all the campus lots would be full, and checked the city’s dynamic parking spot website and found that the closest I could get was a 10 minute walk. It’s some high school sport state tournament and, remember, rain.

I made it to the library in time to bring in the 11 boxes. The Friends administrator came in on her remote work day and we started bringing in the 75-box donation, that turned into 90 boxes. I think she and I brought in about 60 boxes, and she got the custodial staff to help with the rest. I took a break and ate lunch then stuck around to select books – not nearly as much lifting. Then made the wet walk back to the car and went home.

And oh yea speaking of the wet walk and the parking ramp, when I got there as I was slinging my backpack over my shoulders my empty water bottle fell out of the bottle holder pocket and rolled under this giant white van (that had probably transported a bunch of high school athletes to Madison from somewheres else in WI) that was parked next to me. First I tried fishing it out with my umbrella on the uphill side, and that didn’t work, so I tried on the downhill side and got it. This required lying on my belly on the cement and jabbing my umbrella under the van. I felt pretty good that I was capable of such a thing, although I didn’t really like having to do it.

It was better for me for the big donation to come early because Mark and I were supposed to go to the credit union to get a document notarized, that I had to sign. At first I thought I’d want to walk because I drove to the pantry & library, but after all the lifting I felt no need of the walk. And, remember, rain.

I’ve been trying a new sourdough recipe where you don’t refrigerate the dough and it has honey in it. It’s fluffy. This is the second time, and it rose like crazy when I left it rising Friday night, maybe because I was running the oven cleaner after the boiled over Pi Day pie, and the kitchen was nice and warm.

The sourdough recipe is supposed to make two bread pan size loaves, but I had one bread pan, plus one big round boule, plus I took out dough for two rolls because I thought the boule would hit the lid of the Dutch oven it was baked in. It did, even with taking the rolls out.

 

Friday we went to Chicago for the symphony. It was a Czech soloist on violin, and a Czech guest conductor, and what I would describe as Also sprach Zarathustra, followed by two sort of difficult pieces. Martinů Violin Concerto No. 1 and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin. All the musicians and especially the conductor seemed to be having a fine time.

Before, we walked up to the Gold Coast and got bagels at the Gotham Bagels by MCA. Mark suggested this lunch destination so we could get in a good walk. Often we only walk about 2 miles when we’re in Chicago for symphony, from the train to a restaurant to Symphony Center, but this was 5 miles. And of course, we like bagels. We can do it again and not get bored as long as the train’s on time, because there’re so many varieties of bagel sandwiches we can get.

I bought a banana at the train station in Harvard because I forgot to pack one for myself. I learned that you should never eat a banana while sitting on the train with an infinity scarf on. I had to wipe banana off the scarf with my hankie. I didn’t grab a napkin either.

Let’s close with cat pictures because we already had Jasper pics.