Book Review: The Last Unicorn

The Last UnicornThe Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beagle continually surprised me with his unique prose. Descriptions and metaphors in odd juxtapositions that at first make no sense but then you blink and they make complete sense. His dialogue often rang with rhythm and rhyme, nudging me to re-read a snippet just to hear it roll off my tongue.

A quest adventure fairy tale fantasy flipped topsy-turvy. Instead of a child pulled unwillingly along by prophecy, an undying unicorn discovers she is the last of her kind and leaves to learn their fate. Rather than an all powerful wise wizard, she encounters a second-hand failed apprentice masquerading as a carnival magician. Witches, curses, obsessed kings, indifferent prince turned hero, complacent subjects, elemental forces, mystifying happenstance magic confuse and confound her until she nearly loses herself.

A timeless tale of love, beauty, regret and hope.

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Hunter’s Moon Hidden Behind Cloud Cover

And to think I was praising the beautiful fall weather yesterday.  Nothing lasts forever though.

I had hoped to take a few photos of the full Hunter’s Moon tonight via the telescope and digital camera.  But the clouds and a wicked cold have conspired to render me blind and chilled.  Perhaps if I wake up in the middle of the night (when the cold medicine wears off) the clouds would have rolled away to reveal a smiling dazzling moon.

Or not.

Either way, I’ll be back in a cold medicine induced coma within a half hour or so.

Clear Weather Except Behind My Eyes

I did not dodge the virus bullet.  I guess I should have slept in the spare bedroom starting over a week ago.  I did everything like I was supposed to … extra hand washing, avoiding contact with hubby, more veggies and fruits.

The question becomes can I survive one more day at work?  Huddling in my cube, posting bio hazard signs at the entrance so everyone has fair warning.   If I can make it to the weekend, I’ll have three days to knock myself out with cold medicine, since I’m taking Monday off.

Such a shame to waste this phenomenal fall weather these past few weeks.  I can’t remember an autumn that has been so nearly perfect for clear skies, light winds, mild temperatures (day and night).

Here’s praying for a swift recovery for the common cold.

Book Review: CryoBurn

CryoBurn (Vorkosigan Saga, #14)CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really only 3.5 stars, but the last chapter made it 4 stars for me.

If you strip away the space opera and science fiction, this story boils down to a mystery/thriller where the old adage ‘follow the money’ proves axiomatic again.

Miles is on a new (to us) planet, Kibou-daini (settled by people of Japanese heritage). An entire culture mortally afraid of dying (pun intended) to the point where millions, if not billions, of citizens have chosen cryo preservation rather than the more traditional final frontier (i.e. Death). Oddly, since they are not dead, as citizens they still retain their votes in this democracy, albeit by proxy held by ever larger more monopolistic corporations. This sparked quite a few intriguing interpolations both in the characters and my own internal ponderings.

As Emperor Gregor suspected, thanks to his Komarran familial connections, Miles uncovers a plot that could pose an inexorable glacial threat to a third of the Barrayaran Empire and manages, in his usual manic hyperactive style, to expose and diffuse said threat.

Cameos by Ekaterin, Mark and Kareen. Briefer cameos by Ivan and Gregor in the last chapter, but have a box of tissues handy.

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Quiet Sunday Afternoon

I churned out the last three loaves of bread before the middle of the afternoon yesterday.  I also burned The Tenth Inning to two DVDs so my dad could watch it (he missed part of both of them when they aired on PBS a couple of weeks ago).  I read almost half my new book Cryoburn by Bujold.

And I tried Westside Family Church’s Online Church for the first time.  Terry wasn’t up to travelling to the Legends to attend the Speedway campus service.  The Online Church is a live feed from the WFC campus in Lenxa.  The message was good (Click Here for my notes) but the music was not as good as the Speedway campus’ praise band.

And I took the dogs to the relatively new dog park in Leavenworth at the north end of the VA grounds just off Limit Street (east from US 73).  When I arrived, just before three o’clock, there were no other large dogs.  But within ten minutes, and apparently because the Chiefs game was ending or not worth watching, there were ten to twenty dogs in the park.  Apollo and Roxy behaved themselves very well.  Roxy wore herself out in the first five or ten minutes and eventually just laid down near me to catch her breath.  Apollo chased a barky smaller dog (some kind of mottled Shepherd I think) around the park for awhile and then made all sorts of new friends.

My dad met me at the park, as I wanted to give him his fresh baked loaf of White Sandwich Bread and the DVDs I’d burned Sunday.  He took a few photos (I had my hands and eyes full keeping a watch on the dogs … people tend to get nervous about Rottweilers).   He also loaned me a couple of BluRay DVDs he recently purchased (both versions of Robin Hood from 1991 and 2010).  I didn’t think I’d have time or inclination to watch it anytime soon, but when Terry woke up, we started watching it.  Very different version or variation on the origins of Robin Hood.

I didn’t even touch the telescope Sunday, except to move it when I was vacuuming the great room.  All in all, a very rewarding and relaxing weekend at home.

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!