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scordatura) wrote2020-04-12 07:09 pm
scordatura) wrote2020-04-12 07:09 pm
Entry tags:
February/March Update
(Boy, what an appropriate icon, huh?)
Hello, everyone! It's... well, it's no longer the end of any month, I'll tell you that much, BUT I did really want to have end-of-month recaps for my goals every month this year, so that was the intent of this post... key word there being was, because then I spend the last half of February both intensely sick and wildly busy, and then the world fucking imploded in March and continues to do so in April. Woof, y'all. Woof.
But I've been trying to revise this post for about a month now, and at a certain point it became clear I was just going to have to subsume February and March updates into one post, since -- well, two terrible months equals one standard month, right?? -- which means I really gotta get my shit together and post it before it becomes THREE terrible months, which I really can't justify, ha. So... let's talk goal updates from February and March, which are for the most part few and far between, but I'm gonna own the little I did accomplish because I'm proud of it, dammit!! So LET'S GO BELOW.
Creative Goals
Writing
Gay Werewolves: 119,872 words, 117 pages into draft #1, near the end of Chapter 12. I've finished this chapter in the meantime, aaaaa!!
CMRN #2: 72,003 words, about halfway into Chapter 11.
Further projects. Not too much progress here, sadly! Absolutely no new words on CMRN #3, and very little on Urbomancers -- though I took some time to talk about it in my writing newsletter, so maybe it'll inspire me to keep going! But I'd really like to start up on a semi-regular writing routine again first, just so that I can already be in the habit before I ~expand my horizons~, so to speak. :") It's definitely still a goal I'd like to carve out time for sometime this year!!
Knitting
Well, my biggest knitting goal for the year is to knit a sweater -- which I haven't done yet (I'd like to try socks first, so hopefully I can aim for May or June on that, once I'm able to get advice from my yarn store again) -- but I do still have a lot of projects I'm working on that I want to update on!
Unfortunately, two of them are gifts for friends and thus have to be kept secret! :") (Though I WILL say that one is 2" along [it was 4.5", but had to mostly be frogged, tragically] and one is 7"!) But I'm at 33" on the casual garter stitch infinity scarf that I'm working on as my Plane Knitting (which I anticipate not making any headway on over the next couple of months, sobbbb), and unfortunately have not many any progress on the equally casual stockinette armwarmers I'm making to use up my spare three skeins of Cascade 128 Superwash (I'm 7" into the first, aiming for about 10" final length). And meanwhile, I've completed several projects, too: a fishtail lace hat (my first hat in the round, and it's SO cute and cozy); my handwarmers that have been the project I most wanted to make from the beginning (I ADORE them, I'm so happy with how they turned out and I want to make ten more tbh); a Baby Yoda (my first time knitting on DPNs, which was a NIGHTMARE at first, but I made my peace with them by the end, and I am so happy with how he turned out!!); and biggest of all, my stitch sampler shawl (which is my MOST SPECIAL PROJECT YET, the biggest one I started and the first one I started without a pattern in mind, and the beginning of my love affair with Malabrigo yarn, and I am just!! so happy with it!! it's gorgeous!!!).
I've started a couple new projects in the meantime, which are currently getting most of my attention: a set of bookmarks as gifts for my yarn store's employees, once I'm able to see them again (I've made two of these already and am almost done with the first of these! I'll also be making some coasters, and will share those once I'm working on them) and a scarf (using this pattern and this yarn, in Shooting Star), intended as a donation to the arm of my company that runs halfway houses and other residential facilities for people leaving prison (I hope I can make a big donation once the collection gets taken up in January!!), which I'm currently 18" deep on!! And all of this should keep me PRETTY occupied over the next month, ha. :")
Cooking/Baking
Cooking: I made TWO new things in February -- my friend Naomi's pasta and Smitten Kitchen's bacon corn hash (which I later found out was the inspiration for said pasta !! GREAT MINDS, MAN). The latter I made pretty much as written (except I used an actual onion instead of scallions, and caramelized those in the bacon fat); the former I made a couple changes to just based on ease and ingredients (frozen rather than fresh corn, no basil, balsamic, or parmesan) but otherwise followed the instructions pretty closely, and both received RAVE results, so so delicious and flavorful and filling (especially the pasta!! I honestly can't recommend it enough, it's SO incredibly delicious, I wish I still had some to be eating for the rest of my life!!).
Meanwhile, I made THREE new things in March, !!!! 1. SK's chicken curry, which was SO fucking delicious, oh my god; I already desperately want to make it again, it was so so flavorful and surprisingly easy to put together and hit the spot in terms of cravings for both me and Boyfriend EXACTLY. I made it almost exactly as written (used canned tomatoes, let the chicken marinade for a few hours before cooking, subbed the cayenne for a half-teaspoon of paprika), and it needed to cook for WAY longer than written, but the result was absolutely, utterly perfect, I can hardly complain. 2. also SK's chicken, leek, and rice soup; I am SO not a soup person, but this just looked so good, and it came together so easily and beautifully, and it was SO filling and satisfying, especially on day 2 when the flavors had more time to sit and the rice got bigger!! I skipped the celery and carrots because we didn't have any, but think the soup would really benefit from some additional veggie flavor; the only thing I garnished it with was cilantro, because we had a bunch, and it was GREAT. Went extra beautifully with some fresh-baked bread (sadly not mine, from our grocery store). 3. this soupy leek rice (which was what I wanted leeks for originally and SK's soup was just a happy coincidence of timing, ha), which, OH MY GODDDD so good!!! I adjusted this one most (didn't include the eggs because I was nervous about the broiling, added some sliced ham as a bonus meat since that's how my meals roll), but !!! !!! It was SO hearty and flavorful and filling, and to compensate for lack of eggs, I plopped a fried egg on top of my portion, and it was PHENOMENAL. Definitely looking forward to making this over and over again, too.
Baking: In February, I made cinnamon sugar scones (also from SK, shocker), and really, really loved them; I actually wished they were a little sweeter (I usually cut the sugar in my baked goods back by a good 25% because it usually doesn't make a difference, but it really did here), and when they were fresh I found them a tad dry (and wished I'd done apple butter or something along the layers, which I might still try at some point), but after a day or two, they softened up nicely, giving a lovely contrast between the crisp edges and the soft, crumbly centers. I made them smaller than Deb's and actually think they could benefit from being even smaller (I made 8 and would aim for 10 next time), to amp up that contrast, and flavorwise they were just perfect, and made the whole apartment smell lovely, vanilla-y and cinnamon-y and sugary. Definitely worth a revisit one of these days!
In March, I did not bake anything new, because I was craving brownies, so I made my standard recipe and melted in some lava cake Hershey's kisses to account for not having quite enough cocoa powder... and they were so fucking delicious, I ended up making ANOTHER batch once those were done since I wanted to keep eating them so much. So that was all the desserts I really wanted to eat in March, ha! But I'm looking forward to experimenting more this month for sure. :")
Yeast-based: Definitely some progress on this one -- in February, I made pretzels for the first time, and they were so good!! So simple, so delicious, so easy to freeze (fully baked) and rebake nice and warm and tasty (and even, dare I say it, a little better upon rebaking due to a little extra crisp??). I also had some leftover sauce from a scaled-down mac and cheese, and OH MY GOD did they taste amazing in that slightly-over-paprika'd cheese sauce, HOLY SHIT. Definitely looking forward to making these again!!
In March, I made challah: not my first one, but my first time using that recipe! It was pretty straightforward and made an exceedingly flavorful dough... but probably due to the low temperature of our apartment did not rise NEARLY as much as it should. Why am I so bad at challah, you guys?? I gotta experiment more for sure, to see if a longer knead or a longer rise time in a warmer place or a little more yeast (or all of the above!) might do the trick. Sigh sigh!
Languages
Duolingo: For the most part, didn't manage to get very far on any of these languages so far this year; my biggest accomplishment has been learning the Russian alphabet, which is still kind of a work in progress, but we're getting there!! Because I got pretty behind on my French and Italian progress, I haven't moved too far forward on German (or Russian, other than the alphabet), but I'm hoping to change this soon!
Serbian: I am unfortunately suspending this goal for now; I'm realizing that given my relatively slow progress on all my other goals, trying to hold myself accountable to another one that's more difficult to pursue casually than any of the others seems like a recipe for disappointment? I would still really, really like to aim for it sometime soon, or as much as possible, and find other, more lowkey ways to practice Serbian in the meantime -- but for now, sadly, taking this off the table! (I wrote most of this paragraph before our isolation started, and BOY DO I REGRET NOT BRINGING A SERBIAN BOOK BACK FROM HOME WITH ME NOW THAT I SUDDENLY DO HAVE ALL THIS EXTRA TIME!! SOB.)
Academic/Professional Goals
No real updates here for now; my mental capacity to deal with my diss has totally been sapped by my illness and busyness and the whole world-exploding thing, though I'm in communication with my advisor about my last! two! hypotheses!! which will hopefully get going real soon, and my work at work is starting to come in full force, so I really need to be focusing entirely on that! But stay tuned for potential further updates in this spot. :")
Personal/Interpersonal Goals
Writing letters to friends: Nothing yet, because life has been so hectic, sob! Hopefully soon!
Personal life newsletter: Definitely putting a pause on this for now, but maybe revisiting it at a far later date!
Doing things that are hard: Some explanation on this one: I decided last month to try, every day, to stop myself when I think "no, this is too hard" about a thing, and try to go back and do it instead. Simple things, for the most part -- things like not brushing my teeth in the morning or not washing a dish right away -- in the hopes that if I train myself to do things right away more often, it'll build a solid habit!
Of course, I did not anticipate when creating this goal that midway through the month EVERY DAY WOULD START TO FEEL IMPOSSIBLY HARD, OH MY GOD. So I'm not going to judge myself for letting this fall by the wayside, but I do want to keep it in my mind as a way to fight my impulses toward laziness and try to keep building healthier habits for myself, as much as possible under these terrible circumstances!!
Hello, everyone! It's... well, it's no longer the end of any month, I'll tell you that much, BUT I did really want to have end-of-month recaps for my goals every month this year, so that was the intent of this post... key word there being was, because then I spend the last half of February both intensely sick and wildly busy, and then the world fucking imploded in March and continues to do so in April. Woof, y'all. Woof.
But I've been trying to revise this post for about a month now, and at a certain point it became clear I was just going to have to subsume February and March updates into one post, since -- well, two terrible months equals one standard month, right?? -- which means I really gotta get my shit together and post it before it becomes THREE terrible months, which I really can't justify, ha. So... let's talk goal updates from February and March, which are for the most part few and far between, but I'm gonna own the little I did accomplish because I'm proud of it, dammit!! So LET'S GO BELOW.
Creative Goals
Writing
Gay Werewolves: 119,872 words, 117 pages into draft #1, near the end of Chapter 12. I've finished this chapter in the meantime, aaaaa!!
CMRN #2: 72,003 words, about halfway into Chapter 11.
Further projects. Not too much progress here, sadly! Absolutely no new words on CMRN #3, and very little on Urbomancers -- though I took some time to talk about it in my writing newsletter, so maybe it'll inspire me to keep going! But I'd really like to start up on a semi-regular writing routine again first, just so that I can already be in the habit before I ~expand my horizons~, so to speak. :") It's definitely still a goal I'd like to carve out time for sometime this year!!
Knitting
Well, my biggest knitting goal for the year is to knit a sweater -- which I haven't done yet (I'd like to try socks first, so hopefully I can aim for May or June on that, once I'm able to get advice from my yarn store again) -- but I do still have a lot of projects I'm working on that I want to update on!
Unfortunately, two of them are gifts for friends and thus have to be kept secret! :") (Though I WILL say that one is 2" along [it was 4.5", but had to mostly be frogged, tragically] and one is 7"!) But I'm at 33" on the casual garter stitch infinity scarf that I'm working on as my Plane Knitting (which I anticipate not making any headway on over the next couple of months, sobbbb), and unfortunately have not many any progress on the equally casual stockinette armwarmers I'm making to use up my spare three skeins of Cascade 128 Superwash (I'm 7" into the first, aiming for about 10" final length). And meanwhile, I've completed several projects, too: a fishtail lace hat (my first hat in the round, and it's SO cute and cozy); my handwarmers that have been the project I most wanted to make from the beginning (I ADORE them, I'm so happy with how they turned out and I want to make ten more tbh); a Baby Yoda (my first time knitting on DPNs, which was a NIGHTMARE at first, but I made my peace with them by the end, and I am so happy with how he turned out!!); and biggest of all, my stitch sampler shawl (which is my MOST SPECIAL PROJECT YET, the biggest one I started and the first one I started without a pattern in mind, and the beginning of my love affair with Malabrigo yarn, and I am just!! so happy with it!! it's gorgeous!!!).
I've started a couple new projects in the meantime, which are currently getting most of my attention: a set of bookmarks as gifts for my yarn store's employees, once I'm able to see them again (I've made two of these already and am almost done with the first of these! I'll also be making some coasters, and will share those once I'm working on them) and a scarf (using this pattern and this yarn, in Shooting Star), intended as a donation to the arm of my company that runs halfway houses and other residential facilities for people leaving prison (I hope I can make a big donation once the collection gets taken up in January!!), which I'm currently 18" deep on!! And all of this should keep me PRETTY occupied over the next month, ha. :")
Cooking/Baking
Cooking: I made TWO new things in February -- my friend Naomi's pasta and Smitten Kitchen's bacon corn hash (which I later found out was the inspiration for said pasta !! GREAT MINDS, MAN). The latter I made pretty much as written (except I used an actual onion instead of scallions, and caramelized those in the bacon fat); the former I made a couple changes to just based on ease and ingredients (frozen rather than fresh corn, no basil, balsamic, or parmesan) but otherwise followed the instructions pretty closely, and both received RAVE results, so so delicious and flavorful and filling (especially the pasta!! I honestly can't recommend it enough, it's SO incredibly delicious, I wish I still had some to be eating for the rest of my life!!).
Meanwhile, I made THREE new things in March, !!!! 1. SK's chicken curry, which was SO fucking delicious, oh my god; I already desperately want to make it again, it was so so flavorful and surprisingly easy to put together and hit the spot in terms of cravings for both me and Boyfriend EXACTLY. I made it almost exactly as written (used canned tomatoes, let the chicken marinade for a few hours before cooking, subbed the cayenne for a half-teaspoon of paprika), and it needed to cook for WAY longer than written, but the result was absolutely, utterly perfect, I can hardly complain. 2. also SK's chicken, leek, and rice soup; I am SO not a soup person, but this just looked so good, and it came together so easily and beautifully, and it was SO filling and satisfying, especially on day 2 when the flavors had more time to sit and the rice got bigger!! I skipped the celery and carrots because we didn't have any, but think the soup would really benefit from some additional veggie flavor; the only thing I garnished it with was cilantro, because we had a bunch, and it was GREAT. Went extra beautifully with some fresh-baked bread (sadly not mine, from our grocery store). 3. this soupy leek rice (which was what I wanted leeks for originally and SK's soup was just a happy coincidence of timing, ha), which, OH MY GODDDD so good!!! I adjusted this one most (didn't include the eggs because I was nervous about the broiling, added some sliced ham as a bonus meat since that's how my meals roll), but !!! !!! It was SO hearty and flavorful and filling, and to compensate for lack of eggs, I plopped a fried egg on top of my portion, and it was PHENOMENAL. Definitely looking forward to making this over and over again, too.
Baking: In February, I made cinnamon sugar scones (also from SK, shocker), and really, really loved them; I actually wished they were a little sweeter (I usually cut the sugar in my baked goods back by a good 25% because it usually doesn't make a difference, but it really did here), and when they were fresh I found them a tad dry (and wished I'd done apple butter or something along the layers, which I might still try at some point), but after a day or two, they softened up nicely, giving a lovely contrast between the crisp edges and the soft, crumbly centers. I made them smaller than Deb's and actually think they could benefit from being even smaller (I made 8 and would aim for 10 next time), to amp up that contrast, and flavorwise they were just perfect, and made the whole apartment smell lovely, vanilla-y and cinnamon-y and sugary. Definitely worth a revisit one of these days!
In March, I did not bake anything new, because I was craving brownies, so I made my standard recipe and melted in some lava cake Hershey's kisses to account for not having quite enough cocoa powder... and they were so fucking delicious, I ended up making ANOTHER batch once those were done since I wanted to keep eating them so much. So that was all the desserts I really wanted to eat in March, ha! But I'm looking forward to experimenting more this month for sure. :")
Yeast-based: Definitely some progress on this one -- in February, I made pretzels for the first time, and they were so good!! So simple, so delicious, so easy to freeze (fully baked) and rebake nice and warm and tasty (and even, dare I say it, a little better upon rebaking due to a little extra crisp??). I also had some leftover sauce from a scaled-down mac and cheese, and OH MY GOD did they taste amazing in that slightly-over-paprika'd cheese sauce, HOLY SHIT. Definitely looking forward to making these again!!
In March, I made challah: not my first one, but my first time using that recipe! It was pretty straightforward and made an exceedingly flavorful dough... but probably due to the low temperature of our apartment did not rise NEARLY as much as it should. Why am I so bad at challah, you guys?? I gotta experiment more for sure, to see if a longer knead or a longer rise time in a warmer place or a little more yeast (or all of the above!) might do the trick. Sigh sigh!
Languages
Duolingo: For the most part, didn't manage to get very far on any of these languages so far this year; my biggest accomplishment has been learning the Russian alphabet, which is still kind of a work in progress, but we're getting there!! Because I got pretty behind on my French and Italian progress, I haven't moved too far forward on German (or Russian, other than the alphabet), but I'm hoping to change this soon!
Serbian: I am unfortunately suspending this goal for now; I'm realizing that given my relatively slow progress on all my other goals, trying to hold myself accountable to another one that's more difficult to pursue casually than any of the others seems like a recipe for disappointment? I would still really, really like to aim for it sometime soon, or as much as possible, and find other, more lowkey ways to practice Serbian in the meantime -- but for now, sadly, taking this off the table! (I wrote most of this paragraph before our isolation started, and BOY DO I REGRET NOT BRINGING A SERBIAN BOOK BACK FROM HOME WITH ME NOW THAT I SUDDENLY DO HAVE ALL THIS EXTRA TIME!! SOB.)
Academic/Professional Goals
No real updates here for now; my mental capacity to deal with my diss has totally been sapped by my illness and busyness and the whole world-exploding thing, though I'm in communication with my advisor about my last! two! hypotheses!! which will hopefully get going real soon, and my work at work is starting to come in full force, so I really need to be focusing entirely on that! But stay tuned for potential further updates in this spot. :")
Personal/Interpersonal Goals
Writing letters to friends: Nothing yet, because life has been so hectic, sob! Hopefully soon!
Personal life newsletter: Definitely putting a pause on this for now, but maybe revisiting it at a far later date!
Doing things that are hard: Some explanation on this one: I decided last month to try, every day, to stop myself when I think "no, this is too hard" about a thing, and try to go back and do it instead. Simple things, for the most part -- things like not brushing my teeth in the morning or not washing a dish right away -- in the hopes that if I train myself to do things right away more often, it'll build a solid habit!
Of course, I did not anticipate when creating this goal that midway through the month EVERY DAY WOULD START TO FEEL IMPOSSIBLY HARD, OH MY GOD. So I'm not going to judge myself for letting this fall by the wayside, but I do want to keep it in my mind as a way to fight my impulses toward laziness and try to keep building healthier habits for myself, as much as possible under these terrible circumstances!!
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