Thursday, February 19, 2015

Happy Year of the Goat!

We bought this necklace through Etsy for the February birthday
of a sweet young friend who is Chinese and lives in California. :-)



12 comments:

  1. So, I drove through the snow squalls to the eye doctor today, then ran five errands on the way home. As I got back into the car after the fifth errand, I glanced at myself in the mirror and burst out laughing! The yellow dye my eye doc used to closely examine my eyes made me look like I had some strange and possibly Gothic health concern; it was all around both eyes and had even dripped down my cheeks! Ha! Either the doc's office should have mentioned it, or I've just got to become a little more vain. :-D

    BTW, my eye doc's office is just upstairs from the office of Dr. Judy Steinberg (and formerly Howard Dean!)!!

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  2. And *how* did the exam turn out?

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    1. Oh right. I wasn't there for a routine eye exam. I was there due to eye irritation that had lasted 9 days and was worsening. Came away with a combo-med of antibiotic and cortisone, in the form of eye drops. It feels so good right after I use the drops, so I am hopeful!

      Thanks for asking! ♥

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    2. Oops! That'd be *yay*!!!!!

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    3. Very good. It doesn't happen with everything, but the times when you know right away it is the right treatment are VERY nice, and memorable. Let us know in a day or two how it is going.

      --Alan

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    4. Alan, I still have irritation this morning, but very little swelling, and no discharge now. Progress!

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  3. That goat in the foreground of the lower picture has to be one of the finest EVER! Tell us about it, listener!

    I see that a new Dr. Seuss book is to be published: "What Pet Should I Get?"


    We got three fruit trees pruned (would have done a cherry too, but there are no leaves or blossoms on it to show which twigs are dead), cleaned up the cuttings and carted ten bags of manure home for the various trees. Also hung out the epiphytic cacti [Click] that we had put in a sheltered place when there was frost.

    Today I tried something that turned out to be a good idea. The mexican chocolate I have been making comes in rather hard discs containing quite a bit of large-grained sugar. One disc makes two cups, so for one it needs to be split. Then the half to be used needs to be cut up into small pieces to melt quickly. I have been using a japanese meat knife to cut it, which has a heavy wedge-shaped blade and does the job better than the thin (albeit stiff) vegetable knife. Still, I could imagine being distracted and cutting myself some day. So I split the disk (on a paper towel), then folded the paper towel over and whacked it several times with a small meat hammer. Did a great job easily and safely.

    --Alan

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    1. Perhaps I should state explicitly that I do the splitting, cutting and whacking on a cutting board…

      --Alan

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    2. The Second Goat is fashioned of metal, made by the same person who made the furniture behind it. It is all for sale at Gardener's Supply in Williston, Vermont. :-) I don't know whether it's a "special buy" or the work of a local artist.

      http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-ShowBasic?cid=retail_dept_outlet-store

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  4. Thanks for adding the latter, Alan. It sounds like a method that could also be useful for hardened brown sugar.

    I use a butter knife and rubber mallet to split old candles so they can be added to the wax I'm heating for candle dipping. Splitting the candles in half is super easy because they are molded in two parts to begin with. I can find the proper angle easily because there is a line of indented wording along the seam. :-) Doing this means I can then easily remove the wick and any charring from previous burn times.

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