elkit in wonderland

Undisputed Masterpiece

That is all.

Now if you'd excuse me ... I have to return some videotapes.

Baaaaake!

I was going to write about my father*. But the TV is on, and there is the Great British Baking Show ... Masterclass, where the two judges, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, are doing the baking!!! And they are showing us what their secrets are. Let's see what Mary Berry does with a madeira cake. 

She adds candied lemon peel! I know how to do that. I will have plenty of lemons on the tree soon. 

But Black Forest gateau is on the list for today's episode as well; I will hold out for that.

 

*It's his birthday. He would have been 95 today. 

Blo-Po-ing

Yeah, not participating in NaNoWriMo, because this is the busiest time of year at work. But I can at least blog every day, can't I? Thus, I have signed up for NaBloPoMo and will be blo-po-ing daily this month.

Maybe I'll even wear my fussy shirt.

Save

2015 Sugar-coated reading

Let's run my 2015 reading against the POPSUGAR reading challenge list. My recollection might not be perfect, but let's see how I fared. I am going to move all the no's to the bottom of the list, change the list to be numbered, and viola: 

1. A book based on a fairy tale: The Bloody Chamber
2. A book you haven't read since high school: Goethe's Dr. Faustus
3. A book set in your home state: all of Sue Grafton's alphabet series
4. A book translated to English: how about reading it not in English? Goethe's Dr. Faustus
5. A romance set in the future: "The Alchemy of Stone" by Ekaterina Sedia
6. A book set in Europe: Goethe's Dr. Faustus
7. A book under 150 pages: The Bloody Chamber, at 126 pages
8. A New York Times bestseller: "Modern Romance" by Aziz Anzari
9. A self-improvement book: Better than Before
10. A book you can finish in a day: any of the Sue Grafton alphabet series
11. A book written by a celebrity: "Modern Romance" by Aziz Anzari
12. A book at least 100 years older than you: Goethe's Dr. Faustus
13. A science-fiction novel: Michael Crichton's "Next"
14. A book that is published in 2015: David Millar, "The Racer", published in the UK in October
15. A book that takes place during Summer: David Millar's cyclist memoir "The Racer" is mostly set in the summers, during the racing season
16. A book and its prequel: does the alphabet series count? A is the prequel to B and so on.
17. A murder mystery: Sue Grafton alphabet series, P.D. James "The Lighthouse"
18. A book written by a comedian: "Modern Romance" by Aziz Anzari
19. A book with a blue cover: P.D. James, "The Lighthouse"
20. An autobiography: "My Life from Scratch", an autobiography with recipes, woohoo!
21. A book about a culture you're unfamiliar with: "His Majesty's Dragons", about the navy and aviators in the 18th century. And dragons.
22. A book that's guaranteed to bring you joy: I knew I would love "The Racer"
23. A National Book Award winner: nope
24. A YA bestseller: nope
25. A book that's becoming a movie this year: not that I know
26. A book recommended by someone you just met: don't think so
27. A political memoir: nope
28. A book that's more than 600 pages: not even close
29. A book from Oprah's Book Club: nope
30. A book recommended by a family member: nope
31. A graphic novel: nope
32. A book with a protagonist who has your occupation: nope. This is probably the hardest category.
33. A dystopian novel: I don't think so.
34. A book of poetry: nope
35. The first book you see in a bookstore: possibly
36. A classic from the 20th century: nope
37. A book from the library: nope
38. A book about a road trip: no
39. A satirical book: no
40. A book that takes place on an island: no

Not too bad! Considering that most of my reading was murder mysteries and science fiction, and 14 of the 30 books I read were all from the same detective series with the same setting and characters. And still I met more than half of the categories. With a little planning ahead, these forty bits should be fairly easy to check off. 

Swiftly

Gathering some notes for online Swift classes

• iOS 9 Developer Course from Udemy, using Xcode 7 and Swift 2
• list of 12 Swift bootcamps on Skilledup.com
• 5 Best Online Swift Courses for Developers, on Upwork
• Developing iOS Apps with Swift, a free Stanford course (this is for iOS 8, but if there isn't one for iOS 9, I'm sure there will be soon)
• and there is a course from Apple as well

Things to Do

Things to do and places to go in Cambria:

FUD and drink:

• 10 best restaurants, according to TripAdvisor
• Centrally Grown
• The Sow's Ear, a cottage with a fireplace. They have lobster corn dogs.
• Madeline's. Wine tasting by day and restaurant by night
• Moonstone Beach Bar & Grill, right alongside all the hotels and motels on Moonstone Beach Drive
• Hearst Ranch Winery. The zebras have a winery! Who knew?
• Pacific Coast Wine Trail
• Cambria Coffee Roasting Company

PLACES TO STAY:

• Cambria Inns, several hotels along the coast

Moar sites:

• Visit Cambria 

Roadie

Starting a collection of road trip ideas:

• on the Visit California site
• in Sunset Magazine 
• on Pinterest
• Where to Stop on Highway One
• 30 Things to do in Northern California

More details and ideas for Gold Country:

• again, on the Visit California site
• Wikipedia info about Gold Country, with a list of towns
• about.com has some nice getaway ideas including when to go, which towns to visit, and what to do while there
• a map for Historic Highway 49

Garlands

Note to self:

10 Yoga Poses to Do Every Day (or at least regularly)

also, yoga for the office

and of course 2-Minute Office Chair Yoga

Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht ...

... aber unsere Liebe nicht. It's an old German pop song, from back in the sixties, and it popped up in my brain because I am about to bake a Marmorkuchen, a marbled cake. I have not baked this kind of cake in a long time. I would not be surprised to find out I have never baked it since I moved here. So why now?

We have a staff meeting on the calendar for tomorrow morning, and I asked my manager if there would be cake. At first he responded with a firm NO, but then he added that, you know what, yes, there SHOULD be cake.

I said I would take this as my action item. Hmmm, what to bake? Last time I made lemon pound cake, with the super lemony trick. Breton apple cake sounds good, but I don't have enough apples at home. Oh, right. I have not made Marmorkuchen, marbled cake, in a loooong time, and it's a German specialty. Alright then. Marmorkuchen it is.

And it is later now, after 11:30pm, and the cake is almost done, while far away in France, Joaquim Rodriguez has won the stage up the Plateau des Beilles, soaking wet in the pouring rain.

 

Time Keeps On Ticking, Ticking, Ticking ...

Not enough hours in the day. ESPECIALLY in the evening. Le sigh.

I had a cup of coffee after lunch, took off for my training session at the gym, and arrived yawning. After having coffee, fer Chrissakes!

The trainer asked if I was stressed. And how I'd slept the night before. Nothing out of the ordinary, far as I can tell. But the Tour de France is quite a time commitment, I have to say. Two and a half, or three and a half hours every evening. We're at the halfway point now; they'll race into Paris on Sunday the 26th, and then I'll race into the finish line for Camp NaNoWriMo.

At least that's what I plan.