Wednesday

I'm thinking about moving my bank accounts (checking and savings) again... from Citi back to Capital One. I have a variety of reasons for doing this, none compelling. I think it's just part of the oldpeople-focused-ontheircash syndrome. I've done it enough to know that it does not hurt anything so NBD. I still have accounts at BECU and I might just move everything there instead. They are a little annoying but I can walk into a branch if I need/want to and while their telephone tree is a bitch to climb, once there, I do get good service so maybe.

I'm having foot problems again on the treadmill. I'm pretty sure it's because of my flat feet. Changing shoes around usually fixes it for a while so that's what I'm doing. I got through a little more than 20 minutes today before I had to quit. The big issue is that the pain is a massive sharp jab across the area where my toes join my foot. It comes on with no notice and I'm afraid it might cause me to fall off the treadmill and break something. I got NO interest in that. It's not as perilous when I'm walking off the treadmill so I guess I'll do my cross parking lot gig today and add a little to make up for the 5 mins I cheated this morning.

I'm kind of low on eggs, flour and kosher salt so I was going to go up to the bakery market that is also near the chinese place and get groceries plus chinese food. But, then I remembered that the chinese place is closed on Wednesday. Oh well. I have enough to try those almond cookies I've been thinking about.

I live in Seattle's historic district. It's never been safe suburbia. When I first moved here, my Seattle friends all told me that buying this condo in this neighborhood was both ridiculous and dangerous. When I first moved in, I could see and hear gun shots in chinatown which is across the football field parking lot. Over the years it's been bad and it's been good. It was the heart of the tech boom of the 90's and the heart of the tech bust of the 2000's. There has been a lot of nice development, additions and improvements in the past few decades.

But, now, it's suffering worse that really I've ever seen. People without permanent addresses have pitched tents and moved into doorways and taken over sidewalks and nearly every park. And they are aggressive. Yesterday morning a guy who lives downstairs was walking his dog over in one of the least sketchy areas and was stabbed in the face. Another neighbor (actually a HOA board member and lawyer) saw the whole thing happen while she was walking to work. (And yet another neighbor who lives down the hall, covered it on TV.)

Our police who, last Summer took a major 'defund' hit, are losing numbers right an left and even more now that they are required to be vaccinated. So when businesses call 911 for help, they get 'we chose not to respond.' The city counsel blames the mayor who is a lame duck and who blames the county, state and feds. It's an ugly mess. Without a lot of encouragement that it's going to get better any time soon.

At least, so far, the stadium parking lot (my now daily walk) is relatively safe. I think I'll get into the shower and then head out.

Fall... as in Autumn

Today is the first day that it's chilly enough for long sleeves. They feel so nice. And I celebrated with a winter lunch. Stuffed baked potato. Delish.

I'm watching the Mariners game on mute without even the radio on. All commentators are annoying me these days. So silence it is. kensmind'a favorite player just tied the game up for us.

Biggie now rejects pillpockets and cheese. But, he's gotten so he hops up onto the counter and waits for me to push the pill down his throat. Easy peasy. And this morning at one point, he came in from bird hunting, went over and got the feather on a stick and brought it to me to pay with. We played fake bird for quite a while and then he went back to real birds. Such a weird cat.

BUT not as weird as this one... From a condo email this morning:

"Ella, from Florentine Unit 222, is a 2-year old white house cat that ventured out on the balcony ledge of Unit 222 to another unit sometime between 10:00PM-12:00 midnight last night, September 14. She has not yet returned to Unit 222."

I did not share that info with Biggie. No sense in giving him ideas.

And the light bulb goes on! The one in the baker...

A few cookie batches ago, meowmensteen shared that in her bakery they roll out the dough between papers (wax or parchment). I tried it once and it made a huge mess and got the dough everywhere.

The recipes I've seen so far say ball up the dough and put it in the fridge to chill before you mess with it. This makes a big old lump of hard dough that requires muscle to roll out and lots of flour.

But, today's recipe said to put it between two sheets of paper and roll it out before the fridge. I first thought they meant make a tube out of the dough but finally, it dawned on me that they were saying "do what meowmensteen said"!!

I took the soft sticky dough, no extra flour, between two sheets of parchment. It rolled out very easily and THEN I put it in the fridge. Bonus... this chills a heck of a lot faster than big old lumps! And it was a breeze to cut out. Not one tiny bit of flour needed.

The first batch is out of the oven. They are quite delicious. They haven't cooled all the way so I'm hoping they get snappier and less cake. I'm holding off on baking the next batch until these are all the way cool. I may try cooking the next batch longer. I may ice these. I may not.

I am absolutely going to redo this recipe - using bakers ammonia instead of baking powder and using orange extract instead of orange zest.

Here's the recipe I used.