Internet wobbly…me, too

The internet quit working soon after it was turned on yesterday. No way was I going to bug the woman who has a key and lives here…. AGAIN. I put a sticky note on the office door and hoped someone would come along. One of the maintenance men did and re-upped the router this afternoon

The Lake Placid church building is a major culprit in me not feeling well During sacrament meeting I got a wicked bad headache, was wheezing and felt sick. I had not been that dizzy and had that bad double vision in a month! As soon as I left and got outside in the fresh air, I was better. Came home and fell asleep for 5 hours SOLID! I felt as if I had been drugged. Weird dreams.

While I was asleep Heather made brownies. They called for 11 ounces of bitter chocolate and 2 Tbsp. of cocoa powder, RICH!

Ohhhhhhh….now I remember! Before I conked out, I went out in the garden and weeded for awhile. The kale is HUMONGOUS! The only thing that looks bad in the garden is eggplant. We are still having evening temps in the 40’s and days in the 60’s, so they need more warmth and sun. Mints and catnip are growing at quite a clip. Tomatoes look very healthy. Maybe I can get Heather to take pics with her phone so I have something to post.

On my way to church this morning, the sky was a perfect blue, the breeze was refreshing and there was NO rain!!!!!!!!

Here are the brownies Heather made….

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

THE BAKED BROWNIE
Yield: 24 brownies

The Baked brownie is a beautiful thing. It has won the hearts and minds of many people, been featured on the pages of O Magazine as a favorite thing, and won best brownie by the folks at America’s Test Kitchen and the Today Show. Our brownie really owes many kudos to our friend and superstar pastry chef Lesli Heffler-Flick. She created the original ultimate brownie for us. It is dense, chocolatey, and slightly fudgy, and we are forever grateful to her for letting us adapt her recipe.

Baked Note: A great brownie is easy to make, but you have to be aware of several factors. 1. Use a dark cocoa powder, like Valrhona. A pale, light-colored cocoa does not have enough depth. 2. Make sure your eggs are room temperature and do not overbeat them into the batter, and 3. Make sure you check your brownies often while baking. Once the brownies have been overbaked slightly, they have reached the point of no return.

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9×13x2 pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.

Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.

Add three eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mix over the chocolate. Using a spatula (DO NOT USE A WHISK) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour/cocoa mix visible.

Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

Very wet…now cold Saturday

I woke up at 5:30 AM to pouring rain. Took my meds and perused the net…then the router quit working. Seems like it always does on long weekends! Went back to bed and did not get up until after 10 AM. Heather got up then, too. The rain goes from pouring to misty to constant. We saw sun maybe 2 or 3 times for a few minutes each all day.

We decided to be brave and try garage sales. I got a bunch of goodies….many free or for 10 or 25 cents One place we stopped out front to see what was there. Even in the rain I could see it!!!!!! A rolling seeder! That was enough to make me turn in the driveway. I bought it for $20. Had one in Vermont and sold it with the farm. I did not realize just how much easier it made my life until I didn’t have one. Now I am VERY happy

Ugh…it would not stop raining and then the wind started whipping things around. We weren’t even dry in the van. Water snuck in through the weatherstripping and vents. That did it! We came home and pigged out on leftovers for lunch. Had strawberries and blueberries with yogurt for breakfast. Mmmmmmm…..

Freaky Friday

Pic from Adirondack Almanack

Rain, rain and more rain….

We went to town, got books from the library, got meds and went shopping for more fruit. Since it was pouring rain, I gave up the idea of going to the Paul Smiths farmer’s market. Spent the day reading and eating!

For breakfast Heather made fresh blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup. Lunch was Brats with fried red onion and sauerkraut on buns. Dinner was meatloaf, creamed potatoes, maple glazed carrots and coleslaw.

Beth and Luc came to visit as they do each day. When they show up late, Zeke gets antsy and paws at the front door for them to hurry up and come down!

The rain feels never-ending!!!!!!!!

Genetics lesson

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Lazy Thursday

Almost first thing this morning, I went out and weeded and fluffed up the celery bed. I did bits and pieces of other beds. NOW I know why some plants look beat up! It hailed here. Most affected seem to be the sunflower and eggplant leaves…a bit battered and torn. Everything else looks fantastic!

For breakfast I made homefries with onion, red, yellow and orange peppers and omelets. Lunch was strawberries, blueberries and kiwi cut up. Supper was sticky chicken and a HUGE salad of lettuces, sugar snap peas, carrots, green onions, roasted red peppers, home-made croutons, black olives, chick peas.

Sticky chicken is very good and very easy. Most recipes say to rub the spices on the chicken and let sit overnight in the fridge. I went straight from rubbing to roasting. Here is what I used. Rub on chicken. Bake at 250 for 5 hours. Mmmmmmm…….

• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons Celtic pink sea salt
• 1 onion, quartered

Wednesday Wanderings

Oatmeal with apples and raisins for breakfast, Chinese buffet for lunch and a big bowl of fresh strawberries, blueberries and kiwi for supper. We went shopping in Malone. WalMart, Farmer’s Market, Aldi, Dollar Store and Price Chopper. The farmer’s market was great!!!! There was an Amish girl there. She had full sized cabbages and big green onions, red potatoes, beets and the most luscious strawberries you can imagine! At other vendors I got a bag of lettuce, a quart of sugar snap peas and a big rosemary plant.

As far as I can remember, this is the first time for more than a year that I have gone to a Chinese buffet. I LOVE Chinese food Pigged out with two plates full. I took some of most of the stuff they offered. I was crazy hungry for the taste of Chinese!!!!!!! Whoever sat at our table before us must have been messy eaters. Zeke seemed pleased with the offerings under there.

Awfully hot in Malone compared to where I live. Just as we were done shopping, the rain started. On the way home we went through some sections where I could not see and went VERY slow. We went in and out of rain all the way home. Put the groceries away and I crashed. Slept for more than 4 hours.

Heather borrowed a canoe map so maybe we will explore on Thursday….

Snail’s pace….

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Comments

There are some people who live to write negative comments. They are automatically sent to SPAM through Akismet. Then there are the junk comments about pornography and pills….Akismet trashes them. Sometimes people I know and like end up in SPAM for no apparent reason. I found Ingrid there last night with a batch of 87 spammers.

While I am without internet access, the SPAM piles up for this blog. One day I signed on to find something like 800 of the little nasties. I wholesale deleted them without looking. If you are a nice person who has written a pleasant or reasonable comment and it did not show up, please try again if it is important to you. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by volume and do not read the stuff in SPAM, so all  comments get unceremoniously flushed.

Unless I’m sick or ditzy or in a weird mood, I delete all nasty comments. They are almost invariably from anonymous posters. I figure if someone disagrees with my religion or politics, they can write their opinions on their own blog If someone hides their identity to say not nice things, they have no moral backbone or character. My blog is not a free speech soapbox.

99% of people who leave comments are nice folks. I appreciate you. If I accidentally erased your comments, let me know and re-send them….

YES!!!!!!

For the first time since January, I went without extra oxygen at night. I woke up feeling fine…no puffiness or redness or chest pain. YES!!!! I sooooo want to quit needing supplemental oxygen.

Except for the usual arthritis aches and pains and the myasthenia muscle stuff, I feel pretty good My good days would  probably seem like awful days to the average person, but I’m grateful. It’s nice not to be so gosh darn sick.

My stroke/myasthenia/lupus brain leaves a lot to be desired. I think my forgetfulness and ditziness bothers Heather way more than it bothers me. I am blissfully ditzy, often not even noticing my deficits. I DO notice how difficult it is to come up with the right words. I think I just need more practice hanging out with people and using my verbal skills. I have come a very long way from my stroke on January 1st!

With all the windows and the door open, the apartment is full of fresh air. I keep the overhead fan on 24/7. I now know what the tree is across from my bedroom window. It’s a mock orange. I love them! In the two weeks I have been gone, it filled out with lush leaves and is covered in blossoms. I cannot see the whole field any more, but can from my living room window. Now that summer is here, everything is soooooo green and flowers are everywhere.

The garden jumped from transplants to a full scale growing machine in two weeks! It sure is nice to see how well the plants have put down roots and shot up. The peas are so nice and tidy. Geeze…as long as critters stay out and weather remains favorable, that garden should produce a heck of a lot of food. It’s approximately 3000 sq feet.

I sure as heck wish there was a way for Heather to get to her pics! She has hundreds of fantastic pics of the garden and each place we have been. I’m thinking I might be able to get them if I bought a card reader. We will see……

Guess what Heather did? She made pancakes for breakfast with blueberry syrup. What a treat!

What’s Up?!

I wrote this in the morning….

We are back in Gorham, NH after being soaked to our very bones in Maine. Had to stop and do the laundry which seemed to be fermenting from all the wetness in the air. Yuck!

It can’t seem to stop raining in Maine or New Hampshire. The rivers are high and raging….great for whitewater rafting, but not very good for flatwater canoeing. The weather gets better a bit to the west, so we are done with Maine.

Yesterday I went to church at the Yarmouth Maine Ward. What a nice bunch of people!!! They had 4 Ward History scrapbooks by the door. I enjoyed reading them so much that I almost missed the beginning of Sacrament Meeting. A nice woman came and got me to tell me it was almost 9 AM and I should come sit with her.

Last night we camped in the White Mountain NF right on the Maine/New Hampshire border. Technically I think we were in NH, there was a Maine welcome sign across the road. We got there from Fryeburg, but left by going toward Gilead and Gorham. Next…on to find some camping spots with nice, calm lakes for Heather to paddle in.

++++++++++++++++++++

And later…..

The rain was intense and expected to stay that way. A system was stuck over western Maine, making the rivers totally unsuitable for an old aluminum canoe. We decided to go west and get away from the rain. It worked!!!!!! When we got near Burlington, the sky parted. All the way up the Champlain Islands the road was the divider. Nasty gray and black clouds on one side and blue sky on the other. The ferry crossing was gorgeous! Perfect temp and NO rain. Zeke and I stood up front. Nice breeze

Stopped at two of our favorite Vermont Co-Ops….Plainfield and Montpelier. Heather got us yummy sweet cheese bread at one and egg rolls at the other. Mmmmmmmmm…..

Got back to my apartment by 9 PM. My garden is doing fantastically well….hardly any weeds, the plants got HUGE in 2 weeks and there has been plenty of rain to keep it happy and growing. What a relief for US to be out of the rain!

Now to re-stock the van and research local canoeing spots. I have Heather until the 15th, when her husband comes to take her away From now till then we will probably go camping and canoeing in the Adirondacks.

For the 16 nights we have camped, I only used the CPAP 3 times because I only had that much battery power. All the other nights I slept with just 2 liters of o2 and no CPAP. Tonight I plan to use the CPAP, but no extra oxygen and see how that goes. I can tell already that it is this place that makes me sick. I can smell smoke in here from a neighbor and for the first time since we left, my chest hurts The good news is that my building becomes smoke-free as soon as the one smoker here moves out. YIPPPPPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! It seems sooooooooo unfair that his smoking means I need oxygen. Grrrrrrr…….