GEEKERY  
ADVENTURE  
CONTEMPLATION  

20110203

a case of the crazies

It's February.  This means that I'm very anxiously awaiting responses from the graduate programs I applied to end of last year.  I shouldn't hear back until mid-month, but it weighs on me.  That plus cold enough weather that I need to stay indoors most of the time has lead to a major case of the stir-crazies.

Food-wise, I baked eight loaves of french bread earlier this week, made my own chicken stock, concocted Zuni Cafe's Chard and Onion Panade with said bread and stock (and fell in love with Swiss chard--I couldn't recall having it before, can you believe it?), and made a simple but colorful pilaf with barley cooked in the stock, kidney beans, onions and Italian parsley.  The last item was pretty normal, but made for a nice picture (right).

Art-wise, I started a new oil painting and did a one-night watercolor landscape (below) for which we happened to have a fitting frame.  I've been practicing the guitar daily, which is a novelty, and started reading the 50 cent used copy of War and Peace which was re-discovered in a giant stack of books when started filling the new bookcase we bought last weekend.  (Incidentally, it still doesn't get rid of all of the book piles.)  N and I have also started building an igloo outside.

I suppose I'm always up to these same things in varying degrees, but I feel more crazed right now.  Oh!  One more thing: N and I made a pact to not spend more than one hour of goof-off time on the internet per day (I don't count writing blog entries because it's mildly creative in nature, but I do count reading news/blogs) and we both installed the Thyme application, which is helpful in monitoring that commitment.  The reason I mention that pact is because it's yet another contributing factor in my needing to distract myself--one of my defaults is now limited.  At this point, I almost just want to know one way or another.  N says we'll be celebrating either way.  Only a few more weeks to go.

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