Orlando Layoff Week 1

We (the band) woke up super early to fly home.

Three of us (Bill, Josh and I) were flying to Florida, so we shared an Uber XL and got there in plenty of time to get through security and find breakfast. I also grabbed a sandwich to bring on the plane.

It was a full flight and I had a middle seat but I didn't mind because it was near the wings. Less turbulence there supposedly.
Other than being long, it was a rather pleasant flight. I watched Dune using the United app, and ate my sandwich and the Biscoffs I was given, and was generally a lot less stressed than I could have been. Flying so frequently this year has helped reduce my anxiety in that regard, which is wonderful. It's still there, I still get anxious, but it's noticeably lessened.

Once landed and luggage retrieved I had to catch an Uber home because Jameson had SpongeBob rehearsal.
I got home right as he was leaving (that happens a lot!) but gave him a big hug and stared into his adorable brown eyes before he went on his way. Inside I dropped my luggage and did a quick-scan of the cupboard and fridge, then off to the grocery.

I got my regular foods for the week, plus ingredients to make fermented hot honey and potato bread.

Back home I put everything away and wolfed down a chicken salad for dinner, then got to work wiping down the kitchen, washing the bedsheets, and cleaning the master bathroom. I had some pretty noticeable jet lag so that plus unpacking a little was all I was able to do.

Oh, and I opened my mail!

First there was this gorgeous wooden cutting board, handmade by our friend Tim, a former saxophonist with us on Ringling Bros. He is also the guy who gives me all of my stock trading advice, and he also plays baseball semi-professionally in the minor leagues, and also is an excellent woodcrafter. Some people just have ALL the aces in their deck, no?

Some aspect of this board displeased him enough that he wanted to sell it at a reduced price, and when I jumped at the chance he offered to send it just for the cost of shipping.


This is the best cutting board I've ever owned. It'll be a while before I'm brave enough to use it, but when I do I'll think fondly of all the work that Tim put into it, and cherish each cut. Tim's shop, by the way, is called Caught Looking Woodworks, and he makes a heck of a lot more than just cutting boards.

Next there were some jars and a pH reader for the hot honey, and a box of winter things I'd sent ahead of myself, and a gorgeous late birthday present from my sister Raven, this special edition custom-bound copy of Howl's Moving Castle!




What a gorgeous book. Now I'm excited to read it all over again!

If you've never read Howl's Moving Castle, perhaps you've seen the movie by Studio Ghibli?
If not, I very highly recommend it, especially for young ladies. It's a beautiful story and well done in both book and movie format.

The book appealed to me because it's similar to a fairy tale, except instead of the youngest sister passing all the character tests and winning the boons and marrying the prince, it's the oldest sister, who is not remotely interested in adventure, who gets swept indignantly off on a wild journey to find herself and her true love.

The movie appealed to me because A) STUDIO GHIBLI and B) The lifestyle that the main character experiences while living in the Moving Castle was so, so heartachingly similar to how I felt living on the circus train. That silver, curving, creaking metal snake winding between mountains was my Moving Castle. My right place to be.

Anyway. That's all gone now.
But this book is a beautiful memento. I'll write Raven a thank-you.

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Tuesday I woke up because Jameson woke up, at 9:30 which felt like 6:30. And the jet lag continues!

A nice breakfast, then out the door to have a look at my plants!


The little lemon tree is doing quite well! Though a bit ant-swarmed.
There are four little green lemons which are all strongly attached, so I have high hopes that they'll hang on until I get back again in June.

The poor vanilla orchid was not so fortunate.
A huge portion of it died off during several nights of below-30 temps that we had over the winter.
Vanilla is not meant to survive in any climate where frost is possible, so it is not surprising that this happened.

I'd say at least 50% of the plant is dead...but there is a surprising amount of new growth, which is very encouraging!


Out in the pollinator garden, everything is "dead", not really but the colder-than-usual winter did cause more dieback than usual for everyone. Even the milkweed is on the Struggle Bus. Surprisingly, the one plant actually doing well is the pipevine, which has been a slow grower ever since it was planted. Suddenly it's three times larger than when I last saw it, with huge heart-shaped leaves bigger than my hand. Maybe we will even see blooms this year!


The biggest excitement was my java banana trees.
They looked awful the last time I was home (February) leaves all dead and rotting:


But now the largest tree is taller than me by at least a foot, with new leaves, and not only that, it has pups!



The pups are a REALLY good sign. They mean that the plant is comfortable enough to reproduce...which means it should soon start thinking about bearing fruit! I'll have to do more research to see what it needs at this stage, but how exciting!!

Sidenote: there's a low-key banana war going on between me and the neighbors, and at this point I am winning big time. We got our banana trees around the same. His failed to thrive for some reason, so about six months later I saw him standing in the yard talking to his son and gesturing at my tree, which had grown twice as tall as his. A few days later he and his son dug up his tree and replaced it with one that was larger and taller than mine. Since then I have been fertilizing and watering my two whenever I'm home, trimming dead leaves off and such, but otherwise leaving them alone. Now my larger tree is again taller than the neighbor's, and has two pups. Meaning I now have a total of four banana trees and he's still got the one, though neither of us have fruit yet.

Is this a part of becoming a homebody or a curmudgeon, having "whose-plant-is-bigger" wars with your neighbor? Lol!
We are not actually in competition over this! And he's a great neighbor. I'm just proud that my trees are doing well :)

Back inside I got cleaned up before starting on the fermented honey project.

There's no written recipe for this, so I had to watch two "It's Alive!" videos by Brad Leone, one where he makes a fermented garlic honey and the other where he does the pepper honey. The reason I had to watch both is because for the garlic video he gives instructions on how to burp the containers and watch the ph levels to avoid botulism. In the pepper honey video it seems to be assumed that you already know what to do about all that.

I am doing a reduced recipe, so sliced up three habaneros, half a serrano, and half a large jalapeno, removing most of the seeds from all.
Into a clean Ball jar:


Then started spooning the thick raw honey on top.


I did dip the jar in warm water just to loosen the honey up a bit so everything could combine well.
Then I topped the jar with a coffee filter tied on with a rubber band, and stuck it in a cabinet.
For three days I'll leave it mostly alone, maybe stirring it once per day.
Then on the third day I'll put the lid on loosely and start burping the jar and stirring it once or twice a day.
This will go on for about 10 days (you can let it go longer but I want to start using it before I have to go on tour again).

That done, I cleaned up and moved on to making the dough for potato bread.
I used a King Arthur Flour recipe, which was all fine and good except it was for two loaves and I only wanted one.
So I halved it. And OF COURSE I forgot to halve just ONE ingredient which WRECKED my dough.

So, dumped it out and started over. Luckily it's a very easy recipe: flour, potato, potato water, yeast, sugar, salt, egg, butter. Mix in stand mixer with a dough hook. Stuff it in the fridge and bake the next day. The remade dough looks fine, although I think it's too yellow (I added turmeric because that's what Martin's does to their potato bread to make it yellow).

Then lunch and job applications, then Jameson had rehearsal so I did more cleaning while he was gone.
A load of laundry, cleaned the small bathroom, scrubbed the shower (my least favorite chore), put the recycling out, dusted, and vacuumed. I felt awfully tired at this point because my body thinks it's 2am. But soon enough Jameson was back home and it was bed time.

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I woke up at ten. That's so late! Argh. Jet lag sucks.

I got the potato bread dough out and shaped it, then had it rise in the microwave with a mug of hot water.
While that was happening I mostly bookmarked jobs and researched how to apply poly-something sand to the pool deck to help fill the cracks and prevent weeds. It's kinda involved, but I think I can do it before tour starts up again.

When the loaf looked ready I popped it into the oven for 25 minutes, then another 20 or so tented with foil.
It came out looking "ok".


Once it was cooled I pulled out the bamboo slicing guide that Jameson had gotten me.
It was so great! I got nice even slices of bread. Didn't wreck a single one.


The bread was fluffy and very flavorful, and you could not taste the turmeric at all.
I was very pleased with the soft moist texture and the even crumb. Definitely a keeper recipe.


However, looking at the shape of that finished loaf was the straw that finally broke my back.

I have been trying SO HARD not to be a spoiled brat about my loaf pans.
"You already have THREE good pans!" I chide myself internally any time an ad for a Pullman loaf pan crosses my feed.

But you guys, look at the first picture of the loaf. The pan was NOT RIGHT for that bread!
First of all, a traditional loaf pan is a TRAPEZOID.
That means the end pieces are never going to be a straight cut and the loaf is never going to have straight sides.
And secondly, most recipes call for a 9x5 pan when in reality that is TOO BIG for most yeasted breads!
The bread did not even touch the sides of the pan more than halfway up on my loaf, and there are about 2" of tapering at the ends of the loaf because it couldn't reach the sides.

I HATE this. It annoys me so much!!
Normally I cope by using my 8.5"x4" pan instead, but when I do that I STILL get the trapezoid end pieces.

So this was it, looking at my trapezoid loaf I just couldn't take it any more.

I flung open the portal to the domain of "Yaweh-zon" right that minute and offered up a Prayer For Capitalist Appeasement, along with an offering of twenty-eight USD, in the hopes of receiving a Pullman loaf pan.

And Lo, some of "Yaweh-zon's" cold, fiberoptic neurons must have vibrated in preprogrammed empathy with the consternation of its fleshy first-world devotee, because not five hours later there was a Pullman loaf pan sitting on my doorstep.

Wow.

Here is the difference, folks. This is the Pullman 9x4 next to my 8.5x4 pan.


This is going to make a big difference for how my loaves look.
Mainly, the loaves will be taller and will have straight sides.
So they should look more like store-bought sandwich bread, instead of lumpy trapezoids.

We are going to make a rye swirl bread next week in this Pullman. Can't wait.
If this subject fascinates you as much as it does me, here's a great article on the benefits of Pullman pans from King Arthur Flour.

The rest of my day was spent weeding the pool deck, sidewalk, and driveway, then a quick trip to Lowe's to see if I could rent a plate compactor for the poly-whatever sand to seal the pool deck. They didn't have one so I'll have to try Home Depot tomorrow. Jameson left for rehearsal around dinner time, so I had avocado toast and peanut butter banana toast on homemade potato bread for dinner. Very yum.

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Thursday, not much happened. I applied for jobs and rented a plate compactor for Friday through Home Depot.

For dinner I made us a meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans, and it was barely ready in time for Jameson to enjoy it.
It turned out kinda wet, so it probably isn't a keeper recipe.

After he left for rehearsal I went to get the bags of polymeric sand that will fill the cracks in our pool deck to help prevent weeds.
I have no idea how many bags we need, but got six 35-pound bags and if that's too many hopefully I can return the unused ones.
Then I started stressing about how to use the plate compactor, and whether I'd be able to finish the deck before a planned outing Friday night, did I make the reservation too late, I'd only allowed about four hours to get it done, blah blah blah, to the point where Jameson, upon returning from rehearsal, rolled his eyes at me and advised me to wait for a later date.

He's right, of course. There's no sense forcing this to be finished tomorrow, and no reason; I can get it done any time in the next two weeks.
I cancelled the reservation and will try again at a later good-weather date.

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Friday, I set my alarm for 8:30 just to wake up before 10 for once.
Had breakfast and applied for jobs, called around to see if people were hiring.
It was depressing. These are the kinds of jobs I had in high school, and I'm almost 40 years old.

I guess I should have double-majored. Too late now.

I spent several hours on that, then wasn't really sure what to do with myself so swept the pool deck to somewhat prepare it for whenever I seal it. Then I read some of Howl's Moving Castle, dozed off for a little, and before I knew it it was time to drive to St. Pete to see our friend Lea perform Footloose at an outdoor theater!


It was almost a two hour drive, and when we arrived we were starving.
At an Irish pub we found a black-and-bleu burger for Jameson and an ahi tuna wrap for me, surprisingly good for bar food.
Then we found Simon (Lea's husband) who had saved us a spot by spreading a big blanket on the ground.
There were lots of people there and it was shaping up to be a good time...
but then right at 7:59, it started to rain.


Look at this poor sap with a chair over his head! Lol


In the end we got rained out! It started to pour, triggering a mad dash for umbrellas and cars.
We piled into Simon's car, soaking wet, along with his MIL and her friend. Simon first dropped us at Lea's rented place (she doesn't live in St. Pete but is staying there for the duration of this contract) then took the MIL to wherever her ride was waiting. Eventually Lea joined us, exasperated and flustered because the show had been cancelled. We made plans to get dinner and got soaked again getting to the car, but the restaurant we wanted was packed and was no longer taking walk-ins.

At that point Jameson and I decided to head home as it was 9:30 and another two-hour drive awaited us.
Bummer! But it was a funny, Murphy's Law kind of adventure :) And I was happy to see Lea and Simon anyway!

Back home Jameson's PlayStation 4 had been delivered! He's been waiting on it for over a year.
It was too late to play with it now but tomorrow I'm sure he'll put it through it's paces.

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Saturday, I again set my alarm for 8:30.
Wrote an email to my sister, who has finally been able to close on her new house! So happy for her!

Then looked up what to do about my banana pups; the consensus seems to be it's a good idea to let the mother have no more than two pups at a time, and maybe separate the larger pup once it gets over a foot tall, so I "could" separate the taller pup for sure. I haven't decided yet.

The fermented honey isn't bubbling, so I checked the pH just to be safe and it's 2.20-ish, which is good.
It might just need more time. It does look looser. And it smells nice.


Once Jameson was awake I actually started doing things like typing this blog and dusting the bookshelf in the bedroom and getting dressed. Jameson went to get a haircut, and I went to Target for some small items like napkins, Jet Dry, and gelatin for making sponge candy (also, did you know that adding gelatin to whipped cream stabilizes it? Learned that today!)

Back home I put everything away and had lunch.  Soon Jameson was back and he worked while I kind of screwed around.
Then we decided on air fryer wings and pizza for dinner, because this is the only time he'll be home for dinner for the next week, and he loves air fryer wings :) So I went to Whole Paycheck for the wings, and also grabbed my favorite horchata protein shakes and some roasted artichoke for myself.

The wings and pizza were great. I watered my banana plants because it didn't rain.
Jameson set up and played with his new PS4, and I watched; I love watching him play games especially multiplayer, it's so fun and unpredictable. And I updated my to-do list and watched the start of the John Gacy documentary.

Overall, a lovely relaxing day and evening.

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Sunday, my brain is getting closer to waking up at 8:30 on it's own. Yay! Two more nights should do it.

Made myself an egg this morning, and applied for some jobs.

Then I wanted to have a crack at making honeycomb candy.

The version that I am making is the kind that is called "sponge candy" in Buffalo and Canada.
The method for making either is the same: heat sugar and corn syrup and water to a certain temperature, then sift in baking soda which causes a foaming action and a "honeycomb" structure when the mixture has cooled.

The difference with the Buffalo version is you also whisk in some gelatin, which causes the bubbles to be more fine and uniform, like a synthetic sponge. Hence, sponge candy:

(photo from HomeInTheFingerLakes)

As opposed to honeycomb candy:

(photo from numstheword)

We were given some pieces of sponge candy during rehearsals in Buffalo, and it was awesome, which is why I wanted to try that version.
It came together quite easily, easier than caramel. You only have to heat it to 292 degrees, and then the hardest part was just getting it into the tray before it started to harden around the whisk.


I could have let it caramelize a bit more but I was nervous about it deflating/burning.

Then lunch, then more applications, then a walk around the neighborhood.
By that time the sponge had cooled enough for me to attempt to cut it.


It looks pretty but it was soon a sticky mess.
It's really too humid here in FL. The stuff was dissolving as I touched it.
But I managed to get it chopped up after a fashion, then melted some cheap coating chocolate that's been sitting around since Christmas to try and salvage some of this before it melts further.
(Most pieces are fully covered. These look pretty but they'll probably dissolve overnight.)


About the time I was finishing that up Jameson had rehearsal, and it being 4pm I thought there was enough time to do the rye bread.
Made what I thought was a beautiful dough, then let it rise...still looked quite good...

Split it into two equal portions and put one back in the mixer with some cocoa powder to make it a darker color.
Everything was going well.

Now I was supposed to roll the dough into a log, creating a swirl with the light and dark dough.
But once I had my shaped loaf, there seemed to be too much dough for the pan.
Now that I think about it, in the video he was using a 13x4x4, and mine is only a 9x4x4.
I didn't really think that this would matter but apparently it did, because during the second rise we had this happen:


I don't know if that's due to overfilling the pan, or some other issue that was not apparent until now.
Up until the second rise everything seemed just fine. I did not change one thing about the recipe.
I had no idea what happened but baked it anyway...maybe it won't be pretty but it might still be edible?

I did bake it and it looked "ok", though the top was just bizarrely lumpy. No idea what happened there.


Also the bread is quite edible, though dense and overly moist. I got a nice swirl.


Jameson said he'd eat it, so I wrapped half for the freezer and left the other half out where I know he'll eat a sandwich with it tomorrow and then forget about it so it'll end up in the trash anyway.

I was unhappy with it, so whether it's stupid of me or not, I'm making another one tomorrow.
Also after tasting this I want to reduce the onion powder and add pickle juice to replace some of the water.

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Monday. I didn't sleep well because my brain wanted to pick apart The Bread Issues.
It's ok, I can sleep all day if I like (which I won't but the option is there).

I ate breakfast first and was surprised to find an offer for an interview in my inbox!
NOT surprisingly, it was from the ABC liquor store, one of the few actual retail jobs I've applied for.
I have a very strong background in retail, which is unfortunate because NO ONE wants to work in retail.
But, the store is right down the street, so if they pay similar to what CapTel would pay I'm more inclined to save ten hours per week no matter how much I'd rather be captioning. Also since it's a state store I'm assuming it's less like a corner liquor store and more like a Total Wine. I agreed to the interview which will be by phone next week.

Now I'm going to get started on my second attempt at this rye bread.

Tomorrow I ahve a meeting with my bank and supposedly I get to seal the deck with the polymeric sand and plate compactor. Neato!