So this springtime weather is pretty ridiculous, right? It’s finally started getting cold again, which is somehow always more obnoxious the second time around. I love cold weather, but every year I get more and more excited about spring. I love having all the trees that surround my bedroom, combined with the big old-brick-house windows. I woke up this morning with light coming in through my curtains, dancing around as it filtered through the trees, and it was very satisfying. So you can imagine my confusion when I called time and temperature to hear “local area weather: flurries today, clear this afternoon. high near 58.” Flurries? Who do they let write this stuff?
Something about weather changes always gives me the “new-project” bug. It’s hit hard lately, and I’ve started a million different things I can’t possibly finish. It’s exhausting. Mandy got me a French Patisserie cookbook for Valentine’s Day (what a wonderful sister she is), so of course I had to buy lots of new baking toys and get to work on that. My first attempt was at chocolate eclairs, which I expected to be a complete disaster. It just does not seem logical that one could pump a baked pastry full of soft egg-based creme, but they turned out surprisingly well — it’s rare for me to be so pleased with a new baking attempt, so maybe french pastries are my calling?
Anyone ever heard of the RPM Challenge? The basic premise is that you take the shortest month of the year and use it to write and record an entire album’s worth of songs. Not being a singer or songwriter, and having no recording skills, I somehow decided it was a task I’d be up to. I could not have been more wrong. I came up with half of a waltz, a country murder ballad (bonus track material, if nothing else), and… well, that’s it. Sometimes I still entertain notions of an incredibly productive final week, but admittedly the whole thing just fell to the wayside, due to other hobbies and projects. I ordered a bunch of zinnia seeds and poppy plants in preparation of spring gardening weather, and yesterday my tax refund and I ordered a bike! It’s a Giant FCR bike, and it should hopefully be in by the weekend (they had to order it). I’ve been wanting one for a while, and I’m really hoping the warmer weather will encourage me to ride more — I’m definitely not much of a bike rider, and have trouble stopping, turning, and not-falling-over. But ideally, I’d like to get to the point where I could commute back and forth to work — that would be exciting, I think.
So despite all of these other exciting options, I spent tonight at home, playing with some programming I keep having “good intentions” for getting just right, and searching iTunes for a version of the old folk song “Delia” that matches what keeps playing in my head. So far, I’ve not had much luck. I’ve slowly started edging away from the delights of Visual Basic and more towards distractions — hence a brand new blog.
Hope you’re all well. If any of you have blogs which I am not linking, it probably means I’m not aware of them, and I would love to be. So leave a comment and let me know.
listening to: David Bromberg – Dehlia (this is the one!)