Mustard making

The other day, I was reading up on mustard. We don’t have the kind of time it will take to explain how I got to that point. The end result was that I picked up a container of yellow mustard seed at the farmer’s market, and last night before bed, I set the wheels in motion to have a batch of mustard completed before I went to sleep tonight.

I would suggest you do your own research about mustard to familiarize yourself with the (very few) basic principles behind it. The thing that all sites seem to agree on is that you should never use metal anything when making mustard. It corrodes metal and it will make your mustard ugly to look at, nasty to taste, and possibly hazardous to your heath. The other thing is that mustard does not need to be refrigerated unless you have a large amount of non-acidic additions. The longer you leave mustard out of the fridge, the more it will mellow.

The recipe I followed was this one:right here. I made a few changes, although nothing major. Follow the link for the original.
6 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

High and mighty and pretty self-righteous. But it’s my blog, so I get to be that way.

All week I’ve been watching the commentary on facebook – my friends’ statuses are a pretty good cross-section of general opinion since people from various points in my life have all developed in different directions over time. Ignoring the fact that anyone who uses facebook inherently represents a certain level of privilege, it’s interesting to see what people think about the crisis in Hati and the democratic party loss in MA yesterday.

The thing that struck me the most was the sheer volume of selfish, shortsighted, greedy comments.

Now, I realize I was raised in a virtually socialist household. My mother is English, both of my parents are highly educated, and have spent their lives educating others. They donate to charities, help individuals when they can, and are some of the kindest people you could hope to come across. My biases are pretty plain, and it’s no mystery where my attitudes come from.

That being said, I find it simply unbelievable how many people feel justified in saying things like “Don’t give the Haitians free shit!”, “So sick of handouts to people who don’t contribute to our country!”, etc. I am willing to bet 100% of them would expect some help if a flood washed away their house, if the earth cracked open and sucked their life in, if winds came through and knocked over every solid foundation, if a fire toasted the roof over their heads and the bed they sleep in. It’s easy to sit back and be judgmental when you’ve never encountered any hardship and the worst crisis you face is not being able to afford a vacation this year. The sheer disgusting selfishness of those attitudes makes me sick to my stomach.

I don’t have a solution to the world’s problems and I don’t pretend to know everyone’s circumstances. My expectation is not that people give until they deprive themselves or their families and I think people have a reasonable expectation to enjoy the things and money that they have worked hard for. But for the love of pete, try not to be a complete selfish jackass who can’t think past the gimmie gimmie attitude to understand that not everyone is like you. Not everyone has a choice, and not everyone has the chances you’ve had. Try to muster just the tiniest amount of sympathy for someone other than yourself. Please.

Did I tell you I went skiing?

I did! And I stayed up more than I fell down!

A post that will not have an accompanying picture.

This is where I use my bra as a metaphor for discovering that things aren’t really what you thought they where. That’s right. Close browser now if you don’t want to read about it.

Briefly: due to a professional fitting, I discovered that my rib cage is 4-6 inches smaller than I thought it was. 4-6 inches. That’s a hell of a lot. I’ve been wandering around in ill fitting undergarments for years and years because I assumed certain things. So.. how many other things in my life aren’t what I thought they were? What else am I going to find out if I examine things closely and not assume that the way I have been doing things is the way I should be doing things?

New Year’s Goals

Photos from our NYE party, courtesy Bonnie Heath Photography

I’ve been reading a lot of assorted posts, status updates, and comments about resolutions lately. No big surprise – it’s the new year and time for that sort of thing. The things I have been reading range from pretty specific plans down to the simple but lovely idea that the writer is happy with themselves and is just going to continue on their path. I’m caught somewhere in between – I don’t want to change a lot of things about myself, but there are certainly things I want to work towards. I had a small experience on NYE that reminded me of the person I want to be now and the things I want to have and the kinds of decisions I want to make.

With that in mind, I decided that I need to create a plan that works the way I work. My friend Joe pointed out that tacking “every day” to the end of any resolution is a good way to fail fast. Every day is very difficult, especially for a new habit you want to develop. Not to say that your goals shouldn’t require some work – just that setting yourself up to fail isn’t a good way to achieve anything. As much as the state of my kitchen doesn’t reflect it, I’m a perfectionist and incredibly hard on myself when I fail. This leads to a large amount of not trying – if I don’t try, I certainly won’t fail. However, if I don’t try, I certainly won’t anything. It’s very hard for me to go after what I really want because then I have to reveal things about myself to the outside world, and I have to accept public humiliation if I fail in front of others. However, not trying doesn’t really seem to be working out, so it’s time to try a different tactic. Hence, my public list of goals. Some have dates because I do much better with deadlines.

Deadline items:
1. Have a clean and organized craft room by January 31st.
2. Learn how to work sewing machine by Feb 28th. (know how to turn it on, thread it, stitch in a straight line, etc.)
3. Work on cohesive festival setup to be used in spring and going forward by March 31. (This will have to be done in collaboration with other half of Wanderland) Focus on portable, beautiful, sustainable, easy to set up and break down.
4. Learn how to use new camera (i.e. understand all settings) by April 30.
4. Visit friends in SF by June 30th.
5. Create goals for second half of year by July 15th.

Ongoing items:
1. Put 10% of each paycheck in to savings. Adjust based on personal economy. Always put *something* in every check.
2. Take a picture. (This is where hopeful me would tack “every day” at the end of this, but I’ll just start with one. Take a picture.)
3. Continue to work on bringing the things I like best about myself to the forefront, and work on resolving/understanding/repairing the things I don’t.
4. Do not put off cleaning till tomorrow what will take 10 damn minutes today, for goodness sake.

Check back for progress updates! Writing about things here is the way I am going to hold myself accountable.