“I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes. Full hours can be a little bit intimidating and most activities take about half an hour. Taking a bath: one unit, watching countdown: one unit, web-based research: two units, exercising: three units, having my hair carefully disheveled: four units. It’s amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I’d ever have time for a job; how do people cram them in?” - About A Boy

It’s not that I don’t have enough to do… It is more like my life lacks structure, allowing me to spend hours puttering around the web, reading RSS feeds and generally ambling the wavelengths. Then around 3pm I’m surprised by the time and realize I need to get going on making dinner. Presto, another day gone by with little to show for it.

I’m taking a note from About a Boy. It is all about structuring my time, setting reasonable goals and being realistic about time frames. Today I’ve made a short list of items that I should be able to accomplish in this day. Tomorrow I might take a stab at assigning units of time to my daily list.

Last night I watched bad TV and rifled through my overstuffed folder of random recipes, copying down the ones I loved into an actual recipe book and tossing the rest. In the folder there were little bits of paper, post it notes, cut outs from newspapers and photocopied pages from books.

Many recipes had to do with cookies, cakes, bars and other desserts. When I was in high school and even into college, I loved to bake. I used to say that if/when this whole web thing fell apart, then I’d pursue my true calling in life, to be a pastry chef.

From my local library I had photocopied some of my favorite recipes from Maida Heatter’s pastry books. When I refound her recipe for shortbread I knew I had to make it immediately. One hour later I had a 9″ round of flaky, perfect, oat shortbread. Yum!

I idolized Maida. Her loving descriptions of her creations give me warm fuzzy feelings.

“Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you.” Maida Heatter from Star Chefs.

I think it is time to revisit the budding pastry chef inside…

In mid-August, when we were here, in Atlanta, apartment hunting, we stayed with SB’s cousin. Every afternoon a huge thunderstorm would roll through the city, with high winds and torrential rains. Then it would clear up, the sun coming out and the steam rising.

One afternoon, tired out from the hunt, we were sitting in the dining room, browsing ads in the paper, while the cousin’s chihuahuas vied for a spot on my lap. Both dogs fought for my attention every moment I was there. I’ve never been so popular.

The afternoon thunderstorm brewed outside and the lightening seemed to be getting closer and closer. BAM!!! Stunned I watched as tree started coming right at me, through the window. I jumped up, puppy in arms and started to run for the other room, yelling “Get away from the window!” “Get away!”

SB and his cousin had rushed to the window to see what was happening with the tree. I was convinced it was going to come crashing through the roof and the window, killing us all. The little puppies were shaking with fear, as were we all.

Then there was a moment of silence and the smell of burning, followed by more wrenching, cracking noises as the tree completed it’s fall, landing along the side of the house.

We inspected the house, making sure there was no damage and stared in amazement out the windows at this giant, at least 30 feet, of tree that had almost taken us out.

I took a couple photos of the tree, after some of the branches had been cleaned up.

I’ve posted new photos on Flickr. These were taken in our last weeks in Madison.

Friends at our going away party.


Sailing lessons.

So far this week has been one of mighty mood swings, I’m going from homesick and lost to excited and adventurous. Sad, happy, sad, happy, sad…. happy

Now that SB is going off to work all day that leaves me at home, with plenty to do but never feeling like I have anything to do….. I’m starting to seriously question my ability to be a stay-at-home kinda person.

Everyday it is just me and my new cat. My seven year old cat, Zoe, who heroically and non-dramatically, made the move across country, has become a whole new cat. Maybe it’s the Georgian air or maybe it’s her new senior kitty food, whatever it is, we’ve taken to calling her “Action Cat” as she leaps and bounds around the house, always bright eyed and bushy tailed. She and I just had a play session where I dragged out all her old toys from kittenhood and she ran around acting silly.

Anyway, enough about my cat. Miss Robin told me I haven’t been blogging enough, so to recap highlights from the past five days:

• I rode my motorcycle for the first time in Atlanta. There are so many hills, curvy roads and strange intersections around town. It is terrific riding. My burgandy bike started right up. I buzzed around with a giant grin.
• SB made Orangette’s incredible, to die for, brownies. They are the first brownie I’ve ever had that are almost too rich for me. One square inch of brownie satisfies my chocolate needs for hours. Amazing!
• On a recommendation we browsed the large scale (and large priced) items at the Great Gatsby’s. SB is now convinced he needs an Art Nouveau mahogany bar and I think a set of stone lions would look nice outside our apartment door.
• I also spent a heroic three hours navigating through the Georgia DMV system, only to be foiled at the last step because my paperwork was not quite what they wanted. Argh! The adventure was still interesting, if only for the fact that I had to travel to the south side of the city, into a mostly black neighborhood. It was one of the first times in the US that I’ve been the only white person in a large room of people.
• Yesterday I noticed that the trees outside my window were dropping their leaves, all golden and fall like. Fall? But it is 89 degrees outside! How do they know it is fall when temps never get below 65? First I thought it was because the sun is lower in the sky and the days are shorter. Then I realized that maybe mid to upper 80s is cool for these trees. That thought has put the fear of summer into my little northern heart.