Maybe too many episodes of that British baking show...but I felt like making bread today! I hadn't in a very, very long time, although it's something I really love to do!

It took a bit more time than usual because the particular recipe I used called for 3 rises -- 1 more than usual, presumably because this recipe only had 100% wheat flour, no white flour in it, so it probably needed a bit more time rising.

And so it begins --


After I finished kneading --


Nice 1st rise --


My favorite part is the punch down!


I forgot to take a pic after the 2nd rise, but it looked pretty similar to the 1st rise, just higher. Here it is after the 3rd and final rise in the loaf pans before going into the oven --



Final result, cooling on a rack --

Gawd, I have been busy at work for 2 solid weeks...I can't get what I need to get done and my typical organized work behavior is becoming disorganized. And for pretty much the first time I can ever remember, I came home with tense shoulders last night. That's not where I hold my tension -- it was bizarre.

Part of the problem could be that I need to make a trip to the eye doctor for a new prescription!

But a big part of the problem is that the current gig thinks that all Projects Managers are interchangeable. Need a rocket ship? Pull a Project Manager from the inventory. Need a new defense system? Go grab a Project Manager, would you? Need a new building? Hey, can you go grab a Project Manager from the back room?

I've been assigned to managing a fucking CONSTRUCTION project -- big, new building -- zoning, entitlements, MEP, general contractors, subs, building plans, the works. But my ENTIRE background is in software development project management. I am in no way qualified for this. I'm not in charge of the overall project, of course -- only managing from the perspective of where I am currently working. But adding the additional work of this to my other projects has just resulted in stress for me.

#NotTheBestSituation but Imma take care of myself. Count on it! You can mark that shit down.

Anecdote -- a PM was recently let go. He wasn't the most experienced, and his "EQ" -- Emotional Intelligence Quotient -- was not as strong as mine. Truth. And I really can't say if I liked him or not, although I did buy him lunch before he left. #basicdecency

Someone recently described him as a 'Goldfish in a Barracuda tank' -- and I LAUGHED SO HARD because it is true. The Barracudas just gobbled him up in one bite...no bones left...nothing! Me? Not a Goldfish. But not a Barracuda either. I like to think of myself as a nice, old fish -- maybe a Dolphin? The Barracudas generally leave me alone. But Imma take care of myself. Mark it down!

De-stressing tonight with some old Madonna --


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On a more pleasant topic, I was rather pleased with this photo of a hawk last weekend. I actually missed it, but when another guy saw that I was taking pics of a heron, he pointed out the hawk to me.

The colors are nice. It was in the morning, so the light is nice. I used my longest zoom, and tried to be careful not to disturb the hawk.

I'm still ruminating on the news that the VA Governor had a picture on his medical school yearbook page with 2 guys, 1 dressed in blackface and the other in KKK robes. The picture would have been taken in the early '80s.

And first I read that the Governor admits that he was one of the guys in the picture. Then the next day, I read that he denies it. Changing his story, in itself, is a strange occurrence that gives me pause. And yes, I know how ironic it is that I'm concerned about the state governor's story change when we have that crazy dimwit in the White House who makes up fantasy stories every.single.day.

Blackface

First some of what I'm thinking about Blackface --

I try to think back to the early 80s, and I wonder if I, myself, realized at the time how hurtful blackface had been to black people -- basically, white actors in times past painted their faces with shoe polish and then mocked black people as dumb Sambos or clownish buffoons.

Would I have known about that in the early 80s? Probably not completely. But I am almost positive that I would have known enough not to do that, not even as a 'joke' or a costume.

On balance, I believe that I could 'kind of' move past the black face, and ignore that picture from the 80s.

KKK Robes

But then I see those robes...those robes! The KKK was not a 'joke'...not just mocking, not just words. People died, were beaten, had their houses burned, etc., all by groups of cowards wearing hoods and too afraid to show their face.

I have a real problem moving past those robes -- I don't think I can ignore that image.

What do I think?

My first reaction was that he would not survive this, which led me to looking up how the succession works when the governor resigns. However, now the Governor says he won't resign. Personally, I think he should resign.

The only reservation I have about is that the jackal in the White House is heaping onto the governor. Trump has been the biggest disaster in US presidential history, and anything he does is highly suspect to me. And the news was dug up and released by a conservative political group.

I still think the governor should resign, although I wonder about the conservative involvement in it.

I was pleased with this photo -- it was such a dreary day that I didn't expect to find much to photograph, so it was nice to see this Blue Heron in the one of the canals along the river.



The heron photo was Saturday, and then Sunday night around midnight was a full lunar eclipse.

OMG...it was so cold! So cold! While I was out for the eclipse, it hovered around 29F (-2C). The low last night was supposed to have been 16F (-14C). The temperature made it uncomfortable to be out long, and the moon was directly overhead which meant I had to kneel or crouch uncomfortably to see the camera screen or peer through the viewfinder. Luckily I was at home, so I could go inside sometimes to warm up a bit!

Near the beginning of the eclipse (time 22:35) --


Further along (22:58) --


I was not entirely happy with my full eclipse (23:48) photo. I'm not sure that I was in focus, or maybe I kept the shutter open so long that I got some movement.

With the pending snow and/or ice, I just put on some lentils on to slow cook. No particular recipe -- just dumped lentils, tomatoes, stock, spices and assorted other stuff into the Instapot.


Snow is preferable to ice -- ice often brings power outages. And I've put some water in pitchers in the fridge, and turned up the heat a bit just in case.


The past week was fun -- dinner or drinks with several different friends!

One night, I had dinner with my Portuguese speaking friends -- I had a good time, and for the first time, I understood most of what was said!

Of course, these friends always slow down for me, which helped. But even when they spoke slowly, I often had trouble! But this time, I understood a lot, and they even commented on that! Also, I didn't feel exhausted afterwards. In the past, I often felt exhausted because it was such hard work to follow the conversation. But I did okay this time!

The weather is so early Spring-like that the early daffodils are coming up!


I got the last of the Christmas light decorations down today. And because of the mild weather, I have a bunch of windows and doors open to air out the house!

Family Christmas dinner and gift exchange was very pleasant this year. I'm glad that one sister likes to make dinner and host -- it would be hard each year if we had to decide how to meet! I put in an extra gift card for that sister to thank her for doing Thanksgiving and Christmas every year! I know how much work it is!

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In addition to the holidays, I have been getting rid of stuff -- I like the idea of a 'Death Cleaning' -- not that I'm planning on needing to do that just yet, lol! But it's a good idea. So I have instituted a "1 thing in, 1 thing out" rule -- meaning, when I get gifts, I try to find something that I can donate or pitch out.

Yesterday, I took this load to a local thrift store --


And I also put this stuff in my alley. Many times, things in the alley get picked up, so it makes me feel like they are getting used instead of throwing away.


That toilet has been in the basement since 2005 when I replaced it with a newer one in my downstairs bathroom!

The busiest holiday time for me has finally past! I had a gift exchange this past week, dinner with friends last night and family Christmas is Tuesday. I have a couple more dinners and gift exchanges, but generally I'm chilling out this weekend!

Gawd, I feel fat! I have been eating so much crap -- at home, at work, at friends' houses! I was supposed to visit someone Friday night, but the candy and crap caught up with me!

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Today I did some laundry, then walked around the neighborhood to test out the new lens some more and get a spot of exercise --




Ghost of holidays past in the neighborhood --


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I watched a movie today on Netflix -- Thor Ragnarok, which was actually pretty good! I usually only 'kind of' enjoy that series of movies, but I like this one. There were some very nice action scenes, and calling the large portal the 'Devil's Anus' was a humorous touch. And damned if Chris Hemsworth didn't look nice shirtless!

Watching the movie also made me look up the actual Norse tale of Ragnarok - I had remembered it differently (and I was correct in my memory) that almost all the gods died during Ragnarok -- I mean, it is the Doom of the gods / Twilight of the gods / Fate of the gods . But in the movie, Thor, Loki, etc. were still around at the end. And poor Freyr got a bum rap in the movie!

I'm still listening to the Myths and Legends podcast, where the guy gathers up old stories and re-tells them. And there is a Ragnarok episode, which I may go back and re-listen to. My habit is to listen to podcasts every morning as I make my oatmeal! The first "oatmeal making" series I listened do was the fantastic History of Rome podcast, and I have followed up with Myths and Legends.

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I started my Amaryllis from last year -- I had them out for the summer and then in the basement for several weeks. The bulbs are nicely green at the top so hopefully they'll bloom nicely for me! I would expect blooms by sometime in February.

Bad...but in kind of a good way -- not something I needed, but I splurged and bought a new camera lens! I already had a EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM -- shown to the left below. Today I just received a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM. At this point, my intent is to sell the 70-200.


My primary use cases for a long zoom are moon pictures and macros of insects. Unsurprisingly, butterflies, etc. don't particularly like it when you hover over them with a typical macro lens, so I have been using my 200 for that. And I have reached my limit on how close I can get to the moon with my current equipment.

It was a rainy day, so I just took some shots inside to play around, comparing the new 100-400 with the 70-200. The aperture won't open as wide on the 100-400 as the 200, and since I was also using a 1.4x extender, I wanted to keep the settings the same for all the shots. So I set the settings to ISO 6400 and f/8.

Then I took pics both fully zoomed out and fully zoomed in while sitting on my couch aiming at a particular ornament on the tree.

Here's the 70-200 fully zoomed out (70 mm):


Compared to the 100-400 fully zoomed out (100 mm):


70-200 fully zoomed in (200):


100-400 fully zoomed in (400):


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And here's what each looks like with the 1.4x extender.

70-200 fully zoomed out with 1.4x extender (98 mm):


100-400 fully zoomed out with 1.4x extender (140 mm):



70-200 fully zoomed in with 1.4x extender (280 mm):


100-400 fully zoomed in with 1.4x extender (560):


No surprises, lol -- the 100-400 can zoom further. But I was happy to confirm that the 1.4x extender worked fine with the new lens (although as expected I lose an f/stop using it), and autofocus continued to work with it. One note though is that I only tested the autofocus with a center focus point, so I don't know if other focus points would work.

When I labeled the pics above, I used what Lightroom indicated as the zoom length in the photo metadata, but I believe since I'm using a 7D Mark II (which is a crop sensor) that I am getting additional zoom beyond what the numbers indicate above. The 7D Mark II has a 1.6 factor crop sensor. If I understand correctly, here's how the arithmetic works: 400mm zoom * 1.6 crop factor * 1.4x extender = 896mm. Compare that to the old lens: 200mm zoom * 1.6 crop factor * 1.4x extender = 448mm.

I'm looking forward to trying out this lens when the moon is visible next!

Some friends helped me get my Christmas tree today. It was wrapped up when I bought it -- so it's a guessing game as to how the tree will look once the limbs have relaxed.


The car was COATED in needles!



The previous week has been prep work week, and that will continue this week as well. If you grew up in the South of the US, sweet potato pie is a standard holiday dessert. Sweet, sweet, sweet! And a bit fibrous because, well, sweet potatoes. I made and froze these this past week --


I boil my potatoes -- some folks bake them. You have to cook the potatoes before you can mix them with sugar, butter, evaporated milk and spices for the pie --


Pimento cheese , also now in the freezer -- fresh is better than frozen, but this dish takes to much time to make at the last time. And frozen is not bad --


Yum - fresh tarragon - an ingredient in the pimento cheese!


The 2 weeks before Tree Trimming is actually a bit lonely for me. Because I have so much to do, I turn down most social invitations during this 2 week period. But I do try to plan a few here and there (for example -- last night, wine with friend, tomorrow dinner with another friend...having friends help with the tree...etc) ...

But overall, I feel cooped up in the house cleaning and preparing for the 2 weeks! When the event finally happens, I am totally relieved!