Home sick

I had a low-grade headache almost all of yesterday (yes, including when I took ibuprofen).

I still have it this morning.

So, I stayed in bed a while, then put on my pajamas, drank the tea cattitude had made me [he says I was asleep when he told me it was ready; certainly, I don't recall him doing so, nor the beeping of the "time to take the tea leaves out" timer], and called in sick. Once I've had my yogurt, I may even take some more ibuprofen (taking it on an empty stomach increases the generally low risk of kidney damage).

I'm going to try not to spend most of today staring at a computer.

Addendum: julian_tiger and I had a nice nap after I ate my morning yogurt; I have just finished the second cup of tea, which today gets to be a wake-up cup, like the first. Vanilla this time (Cattitude made my usual Golden Assam in the morning). Having had the nap tells me that I almost cerainly needed the day off, and benefited from going back to bed.

Home sick

I had a low-grade headache almost all of yesterday (yes, including when I took ibuprofen).

I still have it this morning.

So, I stayed in bed a while, then put on my pajamas, drank the tea cattitude had made me [he says I was asleep when he told me it was ready; certainly, I don't recall him doing so, nor the beeping of the "time to take the tea leaves out" timer], and called in sick. Once I've had my yogurt, I may even take some more ibuprofen (taking it on an empty stomach increases the generally low risk of kidney damage).

I'm going to try not to spend most of today staring at a computer.

Addendum: julian_tiger and I had a nice nap after I ate my morning yogurt; I have just finished the second cup of tea, which today gets to be a wake-up cup, like the first. Vanilla this time (Cattitude made my usual Golden Assam in the morning). Having had the nap tells me that I almost cerainly needed the day off, and benefited from going back to bed.

Misc. comments 28

This is another collection of comments I posted elsewhere. Once again, this is partly for my own reference, both because I may forget where I said things and because the person who posts an entry can delete it later, taking all comments with it. (Yes, they may be right to do so--but that doesn't mean I won't want to remember what I said.) Thus, I'm saving thoughts I might forget, and once in a while things where I like the phrasing. ( admirable traits, how we treat animals, what we tell strangers, expectations in relationships )

Misc. comments 28

This is another collection of comments I posted elsewhere. Once again, this is partly for my own reference, both because I may forget where I said things and because the person who posts an entry can delete it later, taking all comments with it. (Yes, they may be right to do so--but that doesn't mean I won't want to remember what I said.) Thus, I'm saving thoughts I might forget, and once in a while things where I like the phrasing. ( admirable traits, how we treat animals, what we tell strangers, expectations in relationships )

Lemon ice cream

My current theory on the ice cream maker is that I want to make flavors that I can't just go to the supermarket and get from Ben and Jerry's or Haagen Daz. That's why my first batch was cinnamon vanilla, not just vanilla.

Today's was lemon. The ice cream maker's recipe booklet only had lemon sorbet, and I wanted ice cream, and cattitude had talked about fond childhood memories of lemon ice cream, so I googled. The recipe I found was remarkably simple, five ingredients, though I took it up to six by adding a little bit of grated lemon rind before folding in the whipped cream.

We like it a lot. So does julian_tiger, who also got a bit of the whipped cream that I scraped off the bowl for him.

For a good batch of chocolate ice cream, we'll need to select our chocolate carefully; Cattitude's theory, which seems plausible, is that there was wax in the Ghirardelli chocolate chips he melted for last weekend's batch, and that this was why the ice cream came out gritty. (He checked closely before we discarded the remainder of that batch, and the small gritty bits were white, not dark brown.) I was blithely thinking "well, the Guittard chips I have for baking ought to be safe," because I read the label, but I don't know whether they're required to mention it on the ingredients list if they use wax in chocolates. The large hunk of chocolate I bought for this purpose at Sahadi and didn't mention to Cattitude is from their shelf of "we cut up huge pieces of dark chocolate," so labeled only with weight, not a list of ingredients or even a manufacturer.

(My theory is "flavors I can't just go out and buy," but I would like a good home-made chocolate as well, and I think Cattitude wants to try again because the first time didn't come out right.)

---

The recipe, in case the link fails:

1 Cup granulated sugar
1 Cup whole milk
1/3 Cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 1/2 lemons)
1 Cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Fresh mint leaves, lemon slices for garnish

Mix sugar, milk and lemon juice. Whip cream until stiff. Fold cream into milk mixture. [added October 2006]

Lemon ice cream

My current theory on the ice cream maker is that I want to make flavors that I can't just go to the supermarket and get from Ben and Jerry's or Haagen Daz. That's why my first batch was cinnamon vanilla, not just vanilla.

Today's was lemon. The ice cream maker's recipe booklet only had lemon sorbet, and I wanted ice cream, and cattitude had talked about fond childhood memories of lemon ice cream, so I googled. The recipe I found was remarkably simple, five ingredients, though I took it up to six by adding a little bit of grated lemon rind before folding in the whipped cream.

We like it a lot. So does julian_tiger, who also got a bit of the whipped cream that I scraped off the bowl for him.

For a good batch of chocolate ice cream, we'll need to select our chocolate carefully; Cattitude's theory, which seems plausible, is that there was wax in the Ghirardelli chocolate chips he melted for last weekend's batch, and that this was why the ice cream came out gritty. (He checked closely before we discarded the remainder of that batch, and the small gritty bits were white, not dark brown.) I was blithely thinking "well, the Guittard chips I have for baking ought to be safe," because I read the label, but I don't know whether they're required to mention it on the ingredients list if they use wax in chocolates. The large hunk of chocolate I bought for this purpose at Sahadi and didn't mention to Cattitude is from their shelf of "we cut up huge pieces of dark chocolate," so labeled only with weight, not a list of ingredients or even a manufacturer.

(My theory is "flavors I can't just go out and buy," but I would like a good home-made chocolate as well, and I think Cattitude wants to try again because the first time didn't come out right.)

---

The recipe, in case the link fails:

1 Cup granulated sugar
1 Cup whole milk
1/3 Cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 1/2 lemons)
1 Cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Fresh mint leaves, lemon slices for garnish

Mix sugar, milk and lemon juice. Whip cream until stiff. Fold cream into milk mixture. [added October 2006]

QOTD

Back by popular demand: geese! Lots of geese! Great soaring flocks of geese honking out freedom, honking out justice, honking love between my brothers and my sisters all over this world. —Jon Carroll, in the bit at the end of a column on Canada geese and Lake Merritt, quoted mostly because I grew up on Pete Seeger, solo and as part of the Weavers

QOTD

Back by popular demand: geese! Lots of geese! Great soaring flocks of geese honking out freedom, honking out justice, honking love between my brothers and my sisters all over this world. —Jon Carroll, in the bit at the end of a column on Canada geese and Lake Merritt, quoted mostly because I grew up on Pete Seeger, solo and as part of the Weavers