Sun, Buns....and Snakes
Aug. 14th, 2023 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39A busy day on Monday, starting with me getting up at 7:30am to make the ganache-filled brioche buns for my friend Mike.
Mike is a local trombonist who has gotten me a lot of work over the years.
He has his own band (Groove Slayers, whom I subbed with recently) but also contracts people for local church gigs, shows, etc.
I've gotten at least six well-paid Easter and Christmas gigs through him.
Plus he lent me his trombone harmon mute for the entire two years that I spent with Tootsie.
Figured the least I can do is bake the guy some bread.
The recipe is from Instagram, and was originally for "cheese bombs", brioche buns filled with mozzarella and brushed with garlic butter. However there's an alternative "chocolate bomb" using the same bread recipe, but with a chocolate ganache filling and a simple egg wash. In addition to the chocolate I decided to try my hand at a white chocolate strawberry ganache.
The brioche dough came out beautifully (I do remember this being a very easy recipe.)
The chocolate ganache was fine but the strawberry was a bit runny.
Despite that, only two of the buns leaked, and that has more to do with my shaping than anything else.
Once they had cooled off I wrapped each bun individually and stored them in a gift box in the fridge.
I hate that they have to sit in the fridge overnight--would like to give them to him fresh!--but I also don't want to have to start baking at 4am on Tuesday so they'll be ready at 10am, you know? Also, the reason I baked them on Monday morning was so they'd be done before I had therapy and/or work.
I set aside one of the leaky buns for Jameson and I to enjoy later.
(A Few Hours Later...)
It was pretty good! I was glad to see that they did cook all the way through.
The bread is a really wonderful recipe, it always turns out soft and fluffy, similar texture to Japanese milk bread or a buttery dinner roll that feathers as you pull it apart. For the ganache, I wanted more filling but am unsure if that's possible with this type of bread without making it soggy. It's also worth noting that since we taste-tested a leaky bun, the other intact buns may have more filling. I think if I'd stuck to the original all-chocolate filling it would have turned out better construction-wise. That said, the strawberry flavor was a very good addition that I really liked, and would like to try again. I hope my friend likes them!
Anyway, while all of that was happening I also ate breakfast and squeezed in little 30-minutes chunks of Nursing Home Job whenever the bread dough was rising.
At 1pm I had BetterHelp therapy with my new therapist...oh yes, I did end up switching, because the previous therapist sent me a worksheet mid-week that had nothing to do with the issues I'm trying to address. So rather than continue acting like everything was ok, I just dug up someone that I thought would be a better fit.
On BetterHelp you are supposed to "shop around" and find a therapist who is a good match for you. And after today's session, I'm very glad that I did. The new therapist was attentive, and also instructional, and was very clearly thinking critically about and responding to the information that I was providing. That made me feel listened to, and gave hope that I'll be able to make improvements with someone to guide me a bit. Afterward I felt relieved, and much better than how I'd felt with the other therapist.
This means that I'm going to have to do my part, too. I'll need to spend quality time each day on journaling, or filling out worksheets that the therapist sends, or doing exercises that might help. This is a good week to start; it's my first full week at Nursing Home Job, so now I can try to build a routine and balance between Work, Trombone, Therapy, Exercise, and Cleaning/Cooking :)
The rest of my day was mostly doing Nursing Home Job and picking up Pub Subs for us for dinner.
Jameson had a very rough day at work, a lot of data entry because they got a new course or something.
Neither of us got to stop working until around 8pm.
--------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I was up early again, so I could have quality breakfast time before diving into Nursing Home Job.
Around 10am Mike came to pick up his bread, about an hour later he wrote to say they're delicious. Mission accomplished.
Then Jameson and I both molded our asses to respective chairs and tippity-typed away at our jobs.
His work is better-paid and more important than mine, of course, but mine is at least somewhat interesting and rewarding.
I entered data for probably around eight nursing home resident profiles, each one of them different, little snippets of peoples' lives, their past and their present and how they want to spend the rest of their future. Even after the person dies, their profile can be kept as a memorial for their family. It's kind of nice.
Anyway, I logged six hours and my brain felt like it was melting.
Considering that I used to work 40 hours per week at a desk for CapTel, this "should" feel easier. But it's been a long time since I truly sat and did office work. I felt restless and in need of distraction every 30-45 minutes. Luckily it is easy to take little 5-minute breaks, or longer if needed. No one says I have to work for hours straight in a row. As long as I end up with 30 hours at the end of the week, no one cares. That's kinda nice.
When 4pm rolled around Jameson went out in the brutal heat to run an errand (heat index of around 110°F here today) and I played a little trombone, not much because I realized partway through that I should air-trombone the part first to catch transitions. When Jameson came back he made us HelloFresh hamburger lettuce wraps for dinner.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday it was 7:30am for me again.
A Publix run for raisins, yeast, and dark brown sugar to make the Baking Yesteryear Hot Cross Buns recipe. Baking the buns will set me back with my six-hours-per-day work goal today, but distruptions will certainly happen when one works from home so I need to be adaptable to that.
Yesterday and today, we had heat warnings here in Orlando/Kissimmee.
NPR says these are the first heat advisories ever for this area, and I believe it.
At 8am at Publix it was close to 90°F, and the heat index today is supposed to hit 118°F!
That's insane. Like Arizona, but even worse because it's so humid. Loads of heat records are being broken this week.
Anyway, back home I ate breakfast and then got started on the dough.
Simmering raisins with milk, butter, and brown sugar on the stove, then mixing that with flour, salt, yeast, eggs, and spices.
This was a very sticky dough, but no worse than a brioche really.
The most annoying part was the more I kneaded it and the tigher the dough formed, the more raisins would pop out and try to escape. Kept having to stop kneading to poke those suckers back in. 90 minutes later I had a big glob of aerated, sticky, sweet-smelling dough.
I tried to weigh it into twelve equal balls, but the raisins and the stickiness made it kind of hard to get them all even.
Still, not bad. After the second rise they had puffed up nicely. I decorated each one with a white flour paste cross.
Into the oven and 25 minutes later, pulled them out and brushed them with a sugar glaze.
The house smelled incredible. They turned out fluffy and beautiful, surprisingly light and feathery. Jameson and I each enjoyed one; I would have loved to eat the whole tray!
Being a recipe from the early 1900s, the only spices used were allspice and cinnamon.
No vanilla, no nutmeg, no ginger. All things I'd like to experiment with adding if I do this again :p
But I'd definitely make this recipe again, especially to share or give as a gift.
They were wonderful, delicious, and evoked holidays and family and the GOOD kind of warmth.
I had tried to work while the dough was rising and such, but the cleanup for these was time consuming since the dough was so sticky. I ended up doing only four hours out of the six I need each day to make 30 per week and still have a weekend. But Jameson saved me time by cooking dinner, and instead of being annoyed with myself I went for a walk after dinner when the sun was going down and it was a "balmy" 93°F. I was glad to get some exercise.
Also, I finally got my official My Fair Lady contract, signed it, and sent it off.
It had landed in my spam, the sender was Adobe (because they were using an online Adobe application to host the document), and I had already hit "Delete" before I noticed the name of a company manager in the preview. Had to go to Trash and rescue it.
Always check your spam folder, kids.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday I finally got in a full six hours of Nursing Home Job.
Nothing else to report except that before dinner I decided to take a dip in the pool.
Swam back and forth several times like I normally do, sometimes doing the length entirely under water.
On one of these laps, I popped back up and saw something out of the corner of my eye.
It was a baby water snake. Swimming alongside me. Just about a foot from my shoulder.
What would you have done?
I know lots of folks who would have been out of that pool so fast they'd probably leave their bathing suits behind!
As for me though, I was charmed and started squeeing and cooing over him, and reached out hoping to hold him.
He swam away in a little burst of fear, so instead I moved to the steps and fetched the pool net (ours is flat like a tennis racket) and gently scooped him out, calling Jameson to come look.
He was adorable, with his little head up and flicking his tongue out a lot, looking all around and actually pretty relaxed one he was on something solid. I was able to put my hand directly next to him and he didn't move away or coil up in fear. I was SO tempted to play with him a bit, but it's always better for the animal to leave them alone as much as possible. So after admiring him a bit and fighting the urge to cuddle him I let him go in the yard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, another scalding hot day. Fourth day of heat advisories in a row.
Breakfast and Nursing Home Job.
I finally hit 30 hours, which means I can have tomorrow off! Yay!
Jameson and I both took a dip in the pool in the evening.
We both looked carefully for snakes and didn't see any.
But then...after about 10 minutes of paddling around...
I looked across the water and saw a little brown head bobbing near the deep end!
This time Jameson was there to see it, and he was flabbergasted. We have no idea where it had been hiding, or how it had slipped into the water without us noticing. I scooped it out with the pool net again, but this time I HAD to cuddle him!
Look how CUUUUUUTE
Blep, blep!
What a beautiful texture and pattern he has.
Video (CLICK HERE to watch)
This one was smaller than the one I saw yesterday, and a lot more fearful.
But it was easy to set him down on the tile and distract him with one hand while grabbing him gently behind the head with the other. He was surprisingly strong for such a tiny little noodle! I admired him and although the lighting was not good, I got to look closely at his lovely pattern, and his overlapping scales, and his little blep-blep tongue as he nervously smelled and waited for an opportunity to escape.
He was clearly afraid but never once coiled or opened his mouth, just waited tense and nervous until I let him go in the grass.
We poked around my potted plants, checked the pool filter, and walked around the edge of the lanai screen looking for, I don't know...a hole? Eggs? A nest? But we didn't find anything at all. We concluded that they must be hatching in the undeveloped land behind the house, and their instincts were pulling them to the closest water. But pool water is no good for adorable noodles.
And it doesn't really explain how they just keep MANIFESTING after we've gotten in the water.
I wonder if we'll find another snake tomorrow?
After that we had dinner and relaxed.
I finally cracked open the bottle of Omachi sake I'd bought from Moto-i in Minneapolis.
It was crystal clear and tasted just as good as the day I'd tried it: fruity, sweet, and fresh :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I slept in a little and it was nice to not have to get up for work :)
After breakfast we both wanted to exercise, so Jameson went to the gym while I braved the heat for a neighborhood walk.
It was oppressive. I brought a bottle of water with me and was very glad that I had.
Too hot. Don't think I'll be doing that again.
After lunch Jameson watched a Queen + Bejart BluRay while I braved heat and traffic for a run to Whole Paycheck.
We wanted sous vide salmon for dinner, plus Mezcla has finally released some new protein bar flavors that I really wanted to try!
Bonus, I also found BAWI passion fruit water which I absolutely love.
At the checkout I was excited to see an Amazon One biometric scanner!
Of course I used it right away. Hovered my hand over it, and my groceries were paid.
Because you still have to manually scan each grocery item, biometric checkout alone doesn't make anything go faster.
But it DOES mean that I don't have to bring a purse, or credit cards, or cash, or even my phone, to shop at Whole Paycheck.
I could show up buck naked and still buy groceries! Theoretically ;P
I hope that the next step will be frictionless checkout. PLEASE oh please.
For dinner I made sous vide salmon, blanched asparagus, and mashed potatoes.
The only thing that was fully "good" was the potatoes, because Jameson instructed me using what he'd learned from all those HelloFresh meals. The salmon was fine but then I tried to sear it and kept it in the pan too long...it wasn't overcooked, but was harder than I prefer it. And the asparagus was too soft, I should have pulled it from blanching at least a minute earlier. I was disappointed (that salmon was NOT cheap!) but Jameson said I'm too hard on myself, everything was very good, and when I'm not making meals like this regularly how can I expect things to turn out restaurant-quality?
He's right, of course.
And then I got made because he is so kind and patient with me, but doesn't extend that courtesy to HIMSELF.
The rest of the night, while Jameson waited impatiently for a new Star Wars game to load, I finished writing timestamps into a bootleg copy of My Fair Lady on youtube. For those interested, here is what I mean. There are many bootlegs of popular Broadway shows on youtube but you often have to know where to look (a lot of them are called "slime tutorials", hint hint) When I am learning a new show, the hardest thing to learn is the cut scenes, transitions, and the parts where dialogue happens interspersed with the music. This is why it's pretty useless to use the official soundtrack for practicing purposes.
So instead, you can find one of these bootlegs on YouTube...HERE is the one I'll be using, you can see my timestamps in the comments.
Using my trombone part, I watched and listened to the video (sometimes skipping ahead through dialogue or to get to an ending) and made timestamps for the start of each musical number that I need to practice. This way, when I go to practice I can load up this video and play along with any number or transition that I like, with timing that is as close as possible to what the actors and MD are likely to be doing. There are a few cuts and changes that happen when a show goes on tour, but that's ok; the majority of the show is there for practice.
Thank god for bootleggers!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I got up early to work Nursing Home Job.
I'm doing tedious stuff right now, but am most productive between 8am-noon so was able to hammer out a lot.
Somewhere in there Jameson got up and went to the gym, then after lunch he went to day drink with some friends.
I completed six hours of work, then played trombone just a little bit, and had a 3oz pour of sake.
If I drink 3oz every other day I should finish it before it starts to go bad.
Jameson wasn't home until after dinnertime, so I was starving, but didn't say anything because A) I can always just snack and B) it's rare for him to go out and have fun and lose track of time, frankly he could do with that more often.
It was a chill night.
This coming week I have therapy, an appointment with Warburton to try mouthpieces, an interview with a writer's mill, and some trombone shopping to do.
Mike is a local trombonist who has gotten me a lot of work over the years.
He has his own band (Groove Slayers, whom I subbed with recently) but also contracts people for local church gigs, shows, etc.
I've gotten at least six well-paid Easter and Christmas gigs through him.
Plus he lent me his trombone harmon mute for the entire two years that I spent with Tootsie.
Figured the least I can do is bake the guy some bread.
The recipe is from Instagram, and was originally for "cheese bombs", brioche buns filled with mozzarella and brushed with garlic butter. However there's an alternative "chocolate bomb" using the same bread recipe, but with a chocolate ganache filling and a simple egg wash. In addition to the chocolate I decided to try my hand at a white chocolate strawberry ganache.
The brioche dough came out beautifully (I do remember this being a very easy recipe.)
The chocolate ganache was fine but the strawberry was a bit runny.
Despite that, only two of the buns leaked, and that has more to do with my shaping than anything else.
Once they had cooled off I wrapped each bun individually and stored them in a gift box in the fridge.
I hate that they have to sit in the fridge overnight--would like to give them to him fresh!--but I also don't want to have to start baking at 4am on Tuesday so they'll be ready at 10am, you know? Also, the reason I baked them on Monday morning was so they'd be done before I had therapy and/or work.
I set aside one of the leaky buns for Jameson and I to enjoy later.
(A Few Hours Later...)
It was pretty good! I was glad to see that they did cook all the way through.
The bread is a really wonderful recipe, it always turns out soft and fluffy, similar texture to Japanese milk bread or a buttery dinner roll that feathers as you pull it apart. For the ganache, I wanted more filling but am unsure if that's possible with this type of bread without making it soggy. It's also worth noting that since we taste-tested a leaky bun, the other intact buns may have more filling. I think if I'd stuck to the original all-chocolate filling it would have turned out better construction-wise. That said, the strawberry flavor was a very good addition that I really liked, and would like to try again. I hope my friend likes them!
Anyway, while all of that was happening I also ate breakfast and squeezed in little 30-minutes chunks of Nursing Home Job whenever the bread dough was rising.
At 1pm I had BetterHelp therapy with my new therapist...oh yes, I did end up switching, because the previous therapist sent me a worksheet mid-week that had nothing to do with the issues I'm trying to address. So rather than continue acting like everything was ok, I just dug up someone that I thought would be a better fit.
On BetterHelp you are supposed to "shop around" and find a therapist who is a good match for you. And after today's session, I'm very glad that I did. The new therapist was attentive, and also instructional, and was very clearly thinking critically about and responding to the information that I was providing. That made me feel listened to, and gave hope that I'll be able to make improvements with someone to guide me a bit. Afterward I felt relieved, and much better than how I'd felt with the other therapist.
This means that I'm going to have to do my part, too. I'll need to spend quality time each day on journaling, or filling out worksheets that the therapist sends, or doing exercises that might help. This is a good week to start; it's my first full week at Nursing Home Job, so now I can try to build a routine and balance between Work, Trombone, Therapy, Exercise, and Cleaning/Cooking :)
The rest of my day was mostly doing Nursing Home Job and picking up Pub Subs for us for dinner.
Jameson had a very rough day at work, a lot of data entry because they got a new course or something.
Neither of us got to stop working until around 8pm.
--------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I was up early again, so I could have quality breakfast time before diving into Nursing Home Job.
Around 10am Mike came to pick up his bread, about an hour later he wrote to say they're delicious. Mission accomplished.
Then Jameson and I both molded our asses to respective chairs and tippity-typed away at our jobs.
His work is better-paid and more important than mine, of course, but mine is at least somewhat interesting and rewarding.
I entered data for probably around eight nursing home resident profiles, each one of them different, little snippets of peoples' lives, their past and their present and how they want to spend the rest of their future. Even after the person dies, their profile can be kept as a memorial for their family. It's kind of nice.
Anyway, I logged six hours and my brain felt like it was melting.
Considering that I used to work 40 hours per week at a desk for CapTel, this "should" feel easier. But it's been a long time since I truly sat and did office work. I felt restless and in need of distraction every 30-45 minutes. Luckily it is easy to take little 5-minute breaks, or longer if needed. No one says I have to work for hours straight in a row. As long as I end up with 30 hours at the end of the week, no one cares. That's kinda nice.
When 4pm rolled around Jameson went out in the brutal heat to run an errand (heat index of around 110°F here today) and I played a little trombone, not much because I realized partway through that I should air-trombone the part first to catch transitions. When Jameson came back he made us HelloFresh hamburger lettuce wraps for dinner.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday it was 7:30am for me again.
A Publix run for raisins, yeast, and dark brown sugar to make the Baking Yesteryear Hot Cross Buns recipe. Baking the buns will set me back with my six-hours-per-day work goal today, but distruptions will certainly happen when one works from home so I need to be adaptable to that.
Yesterday and today, we had heat warnings here in Orlando/Kissimmee.
NPR says these are the first heat advisories ever for this area, and I believe it.
At 8am at Publix it was close to 90°F, and the heat index today is supposed to hit 118°F!
That's insane. Like Arizona, but even worse because it's so humid. Loads of heat records are being broken this week.
Anyway, back home I ate breakfast and then got started on the dough.
Simmering raisins with milk, butter, and brown sugar on the stove, then mixing that with flour, salt, yeast, eggs, and spices.
This was a very sticky dough, but no worse than a brioche really.
The most annoying part was the more I kneaded it and the tigher the dough formed, the more raisins would pop out and try to escape. Kept having to stop kneading to poke those suckers back in. 90 minutes later I had a big glob of aerated, sticky, sweet-smelling dough.
I tried to weigh it into twelve equal balls, but the raisins and the stickiness made it kind of hard to get them all even.
Still, not bad. After the second rise they had puffed up nicely. I decorated each one with a white flour paste cross.
Into the oven and 25 minutes later, pulled them out and brushed them with a sugar glaze.
The house smelled incredible. They turned out fluffy and beautiful, surprisingly light and feathery. Jameson and I each enjoyed one; I would have loved to eat the whole tray!
Being a recipe from the early 1900s, the only spices used were allspice and cinnamon.
No vanilla, no nutmeg, no ginger. All things I'd like to experiment with adding if I do this again :p
But I'd definitely make this recipe again, especially to share or give as a gift.
They were wonderful, delicious, and evoked holidays and family and the GOOD kind of warmth.
I had tried to work while the dough was rising and such, but the cleanup for these was time consuming since the dough was so sticky. I ended up doing only four hours out of the six I need each day to make 30 per week and still have a weekend. But Jameson saved me time by cooking dinner, and instead of being annoyed with myself I went for a walk after dinner when the sun was going down and it was a "balmy" 93°F. I was glad to get some exercise.
Also, I finally got my official My Fair Lady contract, signed it, and sent it off.
It had landed in my spam, the sender was Adobe (because they were using an online Adobe application to host the document), and I had already hit "Delete" before I noticed the name of a company manager in the preview. Had to go to Trash and rescue it.
Always check your spam folder, kids.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday I finally got in a full six hours of Nursing Home Job.
Nothing else to report except that before dinner I decided to take a dip in the pool.
Swam back and forth several times like I normally do, sometimes doing the length entirely under water.
On one of these laps, I popped back up and saw something out of the corner of my eye.
It was a baby water snake. Swimming alongside me. Just about a foot from my shoulder.
What would you have done?
I know lots of folks who would have been out of that pool so fast they'd probably leave their bathing suits behind!
As for me though, I was charmed and started squeeing and cooing over him, and reached out hoping to hold him.
He swam away in a little burst of fear, so instead I moved to the steps and fetched the pool net (ours is flat like a tennis racket) and gently scooped him out, calling Jameson to come look.
He was adorable, with his little head up and flicking his tongue out a lot, looking all around and actually pretty relaxed one he was on something solid. I was able to put my hand directly next to him and he didn't move away or coil up in fear. I was SO tempted to play with him a bit, but it's always better for the animal to leave them alone as much as possible. So after admiring him a bit and fighting the urge to cuddle him I let him go in the yard.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, another scalding hot day. Fourth day of heat advisories in a row.
Breakfast and Nursing Home Job.
I finally hit 30 hours, which means I can have tomorrow off! Yay!
Jameson and I both took a dip in the pool in the evening.
We both looked carefully for snakes and didn't see any.
But then...after about 10 minutes of paddling around...
I looked across the water and saw a little brown head bobbing near the deep end!
This time Jameson was there to see it, and he was flabbergasted. We have no idea where it had been hiding, or how it had slipped into the water without us noticing. I scooped it out with the pool net again, but this time I HAD to cuddle him!
Look how CUUUUUUTE
Blep, blep!
What a beautiful texture and pattern he has.
Video (CLICK HERE to watch)
This one was smaller than the one I saw yesterday, and a lot more fearful.
But it was easy to set him down on the tile and distract him with one hand while grabbing him gently behind the head with the other. He was surprisingly strong for such a tiny little noodle! I admired him and although the lighting was not good, I got to look closely at his lovely pattern, and his overlapping scales, and his little blep-blep tongue as he nervously smelled and waited for an opportunity to escape.
He was clearly afraid but never once coiled or opened his mouth, just waited tense and nervous until I let him go in the grass.
We poked around my potted plants, checked the pool filter, and walked around the edge of the lanai screen looking for, I don't know...a hole? Eggs? A nest? But we didn't find anything at all. We concluded that they must be hatching in the undeveloped land behind the house, and their instincts were pulling them to the closest water. But pool water is no good for adorable noodles.
And it doesn't really explain how they just keep MANIFESTING after we've gotten in the water.
I wonder if we'll find another snake tomorrow?
After that we had dinner and relaxed.
I finally cracked open the bottle of Omachi sake I'd bought from Moto-i in Minneapolis.
It was crystal clear and tasted just as good as the day I'd tried it: fruity, sweet, and fresh :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I slept in a little and it was nice to not have to get up for work :)
After breakfast we both wanted to exercise, so Jameson went to the gym while I braved the heat for a neighborhood walk.
It was oppressive. I brought a bottle of water with me and was very glad that I had.
Too hot. Don't think I'll be doing that again.
After lunch Jameson watched a Queen + Bejart BluRay while I braved heat and traffic for a run to Whole Paycheck.
We wanted sous vide salmon for dinner, plus Mezcla has finally released some new protein bar flavors that I really wanted to try!
Bonus, I also found BAWI passion fruit water which I absolutely love.
At the checkout I was excited to see an Amazon One biometric scanner!
Of course I used it right away. Hovered my hand over it, and my groceries were paid.
Because you still have to manually scan each grocery item, biometric checkout alone doesn't make anything go faster.
But it DOES mean that I don't have to bring a purse, or credit cards, or cash, or even my phone, to shop at Whole Paycheck.
I could show up buck naked and still buy groceries! Theoretically ;P
I hope that the next step will be frictionless checkout. PLEASE oh please.
For dinner I made sous vide salmon, blanched asparagus, and mashed potatoes.
The only thing that was fully "good" was the potatoes, because Jameson instructed me using what he'd learned from all those HelloFresh meals. The salmon was fine but then I tried to sear it and kept it in the pan too long...it wasn't overcooked, but was harder than I prefer it. And the asparagus was too soft, I should have pulled it from blanching at least a minute earlier. I was disappointed (that salmon was NOT cheap!) but Jameson said I'm too hard on myself, everything was very good, and when I'm not making meals like this regularly how can I expect things to turn out restaurant-quality?
He's right, of course.
And then I got made because he is so kind and patient with me, but doesn't extend that courtesy to HIMSELF.
The rest of the night, while Jameson waited impatiently for a new Star Wars game to load, I finished writing timestamps into a bootleg copy of My Fair Lady on youtube. For those interested, here is what I mean. There are many bootlegs of popular Broadway shows on youtube but you often have to know where to look (a lot of them are called "slime tutorials", hint hint) When I am learning a new show, the hardest thing to learn is the cut scenes, transitions, and the parts where dialogue happens interspersed with the music. This is why it's pretty useless to use the official soundtrack for practicing purposes.
So instead, you can find one of these bootlegs on YouTube...HERE is the one I'll be using, you can see my timestamps in the comments.
Using my trombone part, I watched and listened to the video (sometimes skipping ahead through dialogue or to get to an ending) and made timestamps for the start of each musical number that I need to practice. This way, when I go to practice I can load up this video and play along with any number or transition that I like, with timing that is as close as possible to what the actors and MD are likely to be doing. There are a few cuts and changes that happen when a show goes on tour, but that's ok; the majority of the show is there for practice.
Thank god for bootleggers!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I got up early to work Nursing Home Job.
I'm doing tedious stuff right now, but am most productive between 8am-noon so was able to hammer out a lot.
Somewhere in there Jameson got up and went to the gym, then after lunch he went to day drink with some friends.
I completed six hours of work, then played trombone just a little bit, and had a 3oz pour of sake.
If I drink 3oz every other day I should finish it before it starts to go bad.
Jameson wasn't home until after dinnertime, so I was starving, but didn't say anything because A) I can always just snack and B) it's rare for him to go out and have fun and lose track of time, frankly he could do with that more often.
It was a chill night.
This coming week I have therapy, an appointment with Warburton to try mouthpieces, an interview with a writer's mill, and some trombone shopping to do.
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Date: 2023-08-16 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-16 12:16 pm (UTC)