Author: Jon Moss

Sourdough Saturday Ends With Jumping Jupiter and Magnificent Moon

I woke up five minutes before my five o’clock alarm this morning.  Not unusual, except for it being a Saturday.  But I needed to hit the ground running if I was going to get all the bread baked today.

First thing, I pulled the sourdough crock out of the refrigerator to get it warmed up to room temperature.  Second, I quickly mixed up my favorite Honey Wheat bread recipe.   While waiting for the bread machine to mix, knead and rise that recipe (elapsed time ninety minutes), I started recording to DVD from the DVR the Belgian Grand Prix (since I’m five GPs behind and only three left for the 2010 season) .  I managed to read a few chapters of Cryoburn concurrently.

I shaped the Honey Wheat dough into a loaf and set it to rise for anther forty-five minutes. I took a short break to visit with friends for brunch at Santa Fe Depot.  Probably a good choice since the new IHOP in Lansing was overflowing at ten o’clock.  After a great visit, I rushed to the Leavenworth Post Office to mail off eight mooched books to various states in the lower forty-eight.   I also stopped at the Book Exchange in an attempt to trade some hardcover science fiction novels, but she declined my offerings stating they were currently overstocked with hardcovers.

I returned home, completed my BookMooch and BookCrossing data updates and posted three of the hardcovers to my BookMooch inventory, one of which has already been mooched.

Now the sourdough starter was ready, all bubbly and soury.  I modified my Rustic Sourdough bread recipe to work in a bread machine on the dough cycle.  My modifications included the following:

1 cup “fed” sourdough starter
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast

This reduces the original recipe to a single loaf variation and rather than shaping a traditional round or oval loaf, I used a regular bread pan and scored it like you would a split top loaf.

After I got the Rustic Sourdough into the bread machine, I immediately started the Rosemary Sourdough recipe in the Kitchenaid stand mixer.  This recipe should not be over mixed nor kneaded, so it’s a very sticky mess when you scrape it into a glass bowl (generously coated with cooking spray) and covered with clear plastic wrap.  Let rise for ninety minutes or more until doubled in size.

The Sourdoughs kept me busy all afternoon.  I was able to start another, final loaf before three o’clock, which was one of my family’s favorites: Honey Wheat Black Bread.  I shaped it into a braid and waited for it to rise.

With the last loaf still cooling on the rack, I rushed down to Bonner Springs to slip into the KC Ren Fest just before it closed.  I have a collection of mugs, steins and goblets going back to 1988.  The person at the Will Call window was kind enough to let me into the festival for a few minutes to buy a mug and a goblet.  Pickings were slim (this being the last weekend of the festival), but I found a goblet and a stein I liked and quickly returned home.

I was surprised to see my dad’s car parked in the driveway as I thought I had told him to call me if he was going to stop by to partake in some star gazing this evening.  Apparently, he arrived at the house just minutes after I left for Bonner Springs.

We waited for the sun to set and started setting up the the telescope in the great room in a polar mount orientation.  We moved the equipment out front to the driveway, since Jupiter is not visible from my backyard until around ten o’clock.  We determined the sidereal tracking in polar mount worked well and kept Jupiter and it’s three visible moons centered for an hour or so.  Feeling confident, we attached the Pentax K100D to attempt a better photo shoot of Jupiter, but quickly realized the weight of the camera was too much for the motors of the telescope.  We removed the camera and went back to viewing Jupiter with various eye pieces and barlowes of varying magnifications.

Just before dad was leaving and as we were contemplating putting the equipment back in the great room, the moon (more than half full now) peaked out from behind the pin oak in my side yard (which also shields the driveway from the annoying streetlight planted next to the stop sign in my side yard at the corner of Bambi Court and Fawn Valley.  We reoriented the telescope to the moon and began viewing it with various eye pieces.  We also tried the moon filter, which helped tone down the incredible brightness funneled through the telescope into our eyes.

After a few minutes of moon gazing, we packed up the equipment and returned it to the great room.  We said our good nights and I’m grateful to be off my feet finally.  My knees have had enough today.

Sunday will be easier since I only need to make one more loaf (possibly two) and then figure out how to transport six loaves to work via the vanpool without smushing any of them.

Friday Night at the Empty Nest

I stopped by Dillons on the way home for some fresh rosemary and pizza fixings.  I found the latter, but not the former, so had to buy rosemay in a spice jar.  Sigh.  I still made it home by 5:30 or so.

Terry started working on a pizza and I started working on bread production.  I set the sourdough starter out to warm up to room temperature.  Then I reviewed my White Sandwich Bread recipe, setting out a stick of butter to also warm up to room temperature.   I got all the ingredients into the bread machine (dough cycle) before six o’clock.  Since it takes about three hours from start to finish, I could be done by nine o’clock.

The pizza turned out wonderful and we decided to watch a couple of new episodes of Mythbusters – ‘Hair of the Dog’ and featuring the Stormchasers and surviving tornado-like winds in a vehicle or, if you’re Jamie Hyneman, an aerodynamic tent he engineered, constructed and tested in winds up to 180 mph.  I should check the Patent Office to see if he filed an application on that idea.

During the second episode of Mythbusters, I setup the telescope with the camera attached because the early evening was perfect for viewing the moon – clear and no wind.  I took several photos of the moon using various settings on the camera but I’m not sure the results were noticably different.  Click here to see for yourself.

I removed the camera from the telescpe and tried nearly all the eyepiece lenses in my case, down to a 4 mm one focused on the terminus on the moon.  Outstanding clarity and magnification.  On Jupiter, I got down to a 9 mm, but without putting the telescope in sidereal tracking mode, the image of Jupiter only stayed ‘on screen’ for a couple of seconds.

I completely forgot about my rising bread loaf so I got behind schedule by about 30-45 minutes; even so, the bread came out of the over looking and smelling wonderful.  I brought the telescope back in for the night and headed up to bed.

I woke back up at eleven o’clock because I’d forgotten to start a process at work that I wanted to run over the weekend.  I got that going and then cracked open a newly released book I pre-ordered from Barnes & Noble in late September:  Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (a long awaited installment in the Vorkosigan Saga).  I got to page seven before I fell asleep.   It’s very good, but I was very tired.

 

Revisiting My Purse’s Contents

After meeting a friend for dinner last night at Jazz at the Legends, I rushed home, changed clothes and cars and headed to exciting downtown Leavenworth to Sweetwoods Bar & Grill to listen to various local bands, including WolfGuard, perform during open mic night.   I got there in time to hear Smoking Gun’s version of Dreams (one of my all-time favorite Molly Hatchet songs) with Chuck Ebbe as guest bassist.  Also got to sing along with the great Janis Joplin classic Mercedes Benz.

Terry had just ordered some appetizers when Smoking Gun introduced WolfGuard so he abandoned his boneless hot wings and pepper poppers to setup to perform.

So why did I entitle this post ‘Revisiting My Purse’s Contents’?  Because, Chuck Wiley, WolfGuard’s drummer, wasn’t using his electronic drum set.  Oh, no!  He was using an accoustic drum set.  And, I know it’s hard to believe, that two amplified guitarists and one amplified bassist (all set to 11 on their amps no doubt), playing heavy metal and hard rock, can be completely overwhelmed by an accoustic drum set.  And the one thing NOT in my purse was my ear plugs.

So if I don’t respond quickly to phone calls today, it may be due to the excessive ringing in my ears this morning. But the guys did great, playing some BOC, STP, Rush, Alice in Chains and Def Leppard.  Looking good, and sounding good!

Donating Bread for United Way Auction

Yes, it’s that time of year again.  The United Way fund raising campaign is in full swing where I work.  Last year, one of the events that had good participation, was an auction.  I baked and donated three loaves of bread.  I received ‘the call’ earlier this week, from one of the auction coordinators, asking if I’d repeat my bread baking performance again this year.

So, starting this evening (since the auction is next Tuesday, only four days away), I’ll be baking bread almost non stop over the weekend.  A couple of these loaves I’ll make extras for my dad and husband (otherwise, I’ll get the usual grief).

First up, the basic melt-in-your-mouth white bread recipe I make for my dad, based on King Arthur Flour‘s ‘guaranteed’ White Sandwich Bread recipe.  When I take it out of the over to cool on a rack, I take a stick of butter and rub/melt it to soften the crust. I might be able to get two of these made tonight, one batch of dough in the bread machine and another in the KitchenAid stand mixer.

Saturday morning, I’ll take out from the fridge my crock of sourdough starter (also originating from King Arthur) and feed it.  After a couple of hours, I’ll be able to use the fed starter to make a couple of specialty bread recipes:  Rustic Sourdough and Rosemary Sourdough (that reminds me … need to pick up organic rosemary at Dillons tonight).

Since Sourdough takes longer than ‘normal’ breads, I’ll concurrently make up a batch of Honey Wheat Black Bread, which is fun to make (lots of honey in this recipe) because I get to braid the dough.

The final installment will be baked on Sunday.  My all-time favorite bread recipe and (so far) fool proof: Honey Wheat Toasting Oat (with Craisins).  This bread makes fantastic toast.

Perhaps I should make it an even half dozen loaves and bake one more on Sunday?  I could round out the suite of breads with my old standby honey wheat bread recipe, which we lovingly refer to as my ‘trashy’ wheat bread because it’s not 100% whole wheat (so it’s not like a brick or crumbly and dry) and it’s delicious.

So if you’re a fellow co-worker and you love home-made bread from great ingredients, be sure to stop by the auction on Tuesday and place your bid.

Photos of some of my braided bread:

If Only I Had a Retractable Roof Over My Bedroom

I couldn’t sleep.  Not surprisingly, insomnia occurs more frequently as I age.  Sometimes, an external force interferes with my snoozing, but I refuse to point fingers.

Laying in bed, staring at the vaulted ceiling in my bedroom, I wished I could wave a hand and temporarily retract the roof.  Then I’d be mostly above the treeline and able to setup the telescope for more comfortable viewing.

Sighing, I slipped on my clothes at 3:30 a.m. and retreated downstairs to the vaulted great room, grabbed the telescope I left mounted to the tripod there and took it outside.  I quickly realigned it roughly on Polaris and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.  I surveyed the northern sky, quickly found Cassiopeia and Perseus, but the light pollution from the Lansing Correctional Facility and the tall trees in my northern neighbor’s yard didn’t help find Comet Hartley 2.  I think a field trip to Perry Lake may be in order for this weekend.

Turning to the southeast, I quickly spied Orion directly over my chimney.  I aimed the telescope at Orion’s belt and may have seen a monochromatic glimpse of the Orion Nebula in his sword.  Both Orion’s belt and sword contain many nebulae, but I need a darker sky to view them properly.  I survey Rigel (beta Orion – brightest star in Orion (left foot) and sixth brightest in the night sky); Betelgeuse (alpha Orion – 2nd brightest star in Orion (right shoulder) and 12th brightest in the night sky); and, Bellatrix (aka ‘the Amazon star’  (left shoulder).

If you draw a line through Orion’s belt, it points to two of the brightest stars in the sky:  Sirius (aka ‘the Dog star’ – the brightest star bar none and only 8.6 light years away) and Aldebaran (alpha Taurus and the 13th brightest star).

I turned the telescope to the west, where I found Jupiter peaking through the branches of one of my pine trees.  Yep, it was still there and still had moons, although one of the four I observed earlier was hidden behind Jupiter.

I forgot my sweater so after about thirty minutes I brought the telescope back in and should probably retreat back to my quiet dark bedroom.  Nah … my alarm goes off in two minutes (it’s now 4:58 a.m.)

Good morning!

 

Wolves on the Prowl

Good news for Wolfguard fans this week.  The band shook off the rust tonight at  rehearsal.  Terry will be taking it very easy, as his back, ribs and ankle are still not fully recovered.

Tomorrow night, come out and hear them play a few songs for open mic night at Sweetwoods Bar & Grill in Leavenworth.

China Grove from June 2010

Wolfguard at Sweetwoods back in September 2009

First Attempt at Amateur Astronomical Telescopic Digital Photography

Waxing Moon
Moon Early Evening 13 Oct 2010

My first photographic effort using the Meade ETX90 and the Pentax K100D (on a two second delay shutter in an attempt to prevent blurring and shaking of the telescope) is above.  I chose the moon, because it’s large, bright and easy to focus and doesn’t necessarily need to be tracked.  I did not use the Autostar to track and sync the moon while taking both of these photos.

Waxing Moon (1/4 to 1/3 full)
Early Evening 13 Oct 2010 Moon (better focused)

I like the second moon photo (above) the best of the half dozen or so shots I took.

Jupiter Early Evening 13 October 2010

My efforts attempting to focus and track Jupiter did not bear good fruit.  Of the handful of photos I took, the one above is the best of the bunch.

That’s all the photographic practice I’ll get this evening.  I need to devise a counterweight for the telescope’s tube so the camera doesn’t pull ‘up’ the altitude.

I Can See Clearly Now … Or Not

The commute home provided false hopes for my star gazing this evening.  While light hazy stratus clouds filtered the sunlight sporadically, the skies looked promising as I traveled northward on K-7.

I stepped outside a few minutes ago to catch the moon before it set, but saw only gray clouds underlit with orange glow from the well lit Lansing Correctional Facility a few blocks north of my house.  I stepped out the front door and could still see Jupiter, but only for a few minutes as the clouds overtook even that bright object.  I spied no sliver of moon in the southwest or west.

Besides trying to locate Comet Hartley 2 (again), Earthsky earlier today mentioned Antares proximity to the moon.

Perhaps tomorrow evening will provide better weather and opportunities for gazing up and out and back in time.

9:00 pm update:  Let Apollo back in (I’d forgotten I’d let him out) and noticed a crystal clear sky.  However, Cassiopeia is dim as it hovers over the LCF.  If I can’t sleep or wake up early I’ll try for the comet then.

Life Events for Artistic Offspring

Derek Moss
Derek Moss, Environmental Artist

This December, my son, Derek Moss,  will do what I never did myself (nor that I thought he would do for high school, let alone college).  He will graduate from SMU’s Guildhall!

This last term he is focused on expanding and publishing his portfolio and pursuing career opportunities in the gaming industry.  He recently published his portfolio and resume online here:  Derek Moss, Environmental Artist

I’m excited, thrilled, overwhelmed, anxious … all the things a mother is when her fledgling soars on eagle’s wings.

… And Now For the Rest of the Story

Subtitled: Everything I forgot to mention in the previous post due to time constraints and memory overload.

I did lend a hand, at least temporarily, with reviewing and tweaking the old Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop.  I manually removed over 10,000 files from the temp folder after which my dad showed his brother how to use Window’s built in Disk Cleanup utility.  The laptop has only 512 MB of RAM, but could probably benefit from a memory upgrade to 2 GB if possible.  Both dad and uncle are pricing RAM this week.  The hard drive is anemic at 30 GB (and Office 2007 is fully loaded on it) and is using compression (ugh!).  Without more time and some of my normal utilities, I couldn’t accurately predict if turning off compression would result in a fully utilized hard drive (i.e. no free disk space for Windows to operate ‘normally’).  Granted, the laptop is over seven years old, so I’m not much that gone be done to improve performance without dumping too much money into it.  As with most electronics, it’s sometimes better to cut your losses and jump to new and improved hardware.  I suggested a netbook if 90% of their needs involve internet access (webmail, Googling, weather, news, etc.).

My uncle and I (both avid readers and he’s also an aspiring author) swapped several pounds worth of books.  I’ll do the inventory this evening and start sorting for swapping and trading via BookMooch and my local used book store.  My dad gave us both the evil eye, since I somehow ended up with about twice as many books on the return trip to squeeze into his car, along with the telescope and me.

I spied and watched some local fauna, including a large woodchuck, a small green and gray toad and a pasture of self-shedding sheep and their well trained unsupervised sheepdog.  On the ride down to Winfield, we saw many red tailed hawks in the pre-dawn life puffed up like owls, but later in the morning they were sleek or fast as the glided over the planes in search of breakfast.

And we ruminated squeaky floors and their cures and the consensus became you must pull up your flooring, use screws (not nails) and possible some glue to quiet those squeaks.