The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity.

Nothing much going on here. I thought I'd just come around and post a few things.

No offers on the house yet. That's a boo! I'm hopeful for next week though. *fingers crossed* This should be a link to the listing

Still house hunting here. And we'll start car shopping this weekend. That's exciting but yucky because I don't want another car payment. However Ronette is worried because we only have one car and Seattle doesn't have public transportation the same way that San Francisco does. Really, she's worried. I've driven her to work because I might need the car. It's raining cats and dogs. I'm not going anywhere if I don't have to go.

We've got turkey day plans with our friends John and Carl. Which is nice because I don't have to cook, but a little frightening because there is a good possibility of extremely zesty, I don't know who could eat it, cranberry sauce/relish concoction that tastes like ass. Bad cranberry sauce can ruin Thanksgiving. I'll look forward to the food adventure because knowing Carl he'll have at least two dishes that he "just had to try this year".

We're going to Florida at Christmas to see Ronette's side of the family. Thank goodness we're staying with her dad. Her mom is actually asking for Christmas lists this year. It's a good thing because this means not receiving anything that will go into a Goodwill bag as soon as we get home. The best part this year is that her sister is pregnant with baby #2 and her brother just eloped which means we're out of the spotlight.

UPS delivered the mysterious rifle to our friend Donald and he has gotten some time to research it's history.

What Donald knows so far - It is a true M.1888/90 Mannlicher, not an M.1888 or M.1888 converted to M.1888/90 standards. It was made in 1891 in what is now Steyr, Austria and proofed/accepted into the Austria-Hungarian Imperial Army in Vienna. There were about 350,000 M.1888 variants built, and most of them stayed in Austria-Hungarian service until 1917. Many, but not all, of the smaller countries that succeeded the Empire replaced it with more modern rifles. There are no other European marking visible, and no markings indicating that it was originally made for export. I have an as yet unproven suspicion that it could have come here via South America after WWI. There are no American import markings, so it came into the US before 1968. It has been taken apart and re-assembled at least twice, once by someone who knew what they were doing and had a lot of similar rifles (possibly a government arsenal, but whose government?) and once by someone who had only the one rifle and could not remember exactly how it went together.

So here is the probable life history:
1891 Manufactured
late 1890's Placed in reserve service or storage (replaced by M.1895)
c1914-5 Re-issued, probably reworked and inspected at arsenal
1917 Removed from service. Used as war reparations?
?? Belgian arsenal rework? Sold to South American country?
Left in a dusty European warehouse? Re-issued in desperation in 1945?
<1968 Brought into the US.
?? Disassembled and almost reassembled (some parts are put on backward)
200? Found by You.
2006 Sent to Me


The best part is that we can all be 12 and giggle hysterically whenever he says "Mannlicher". *giggles*

And that's about all I've got. I hope everyone has a great turkey day.

I love making bread by hand. There is something fulfilling about the smell of a hand kneaded loaf of bread baking in the oven. I do own a bread machine, but sometimes the results are lacking and often inconsistent. If anyone out there is a bread machine baking guru and would like to give me tips and tricks, feel free. I use mine at least once a week, but when I want really good bread, I knead.

And I have found one of the best bread recipes that I have tried in a long time. It's quite simple and the quality is consistent every time. I did experiment with a loaf in the bread machine. Let's just say, that it takes less time to knead by hand and let rise.

( Simple White Bread )

It's June, it's not supposed to be raining in the SF Bay area. Yet two days of rain, rain, and more rain have curtailed my outdoor activities. Mother Nature needs to get with the program.

However, in the gloomy gloom of yesterday's overcast, cold wet day I decided to try my hand at making chicken and dumplings a la Grandma M. For the technical people out there, the "dumplings" are more like wide noodles and not pastry dough dumped in lumps into the chicken stock. So if you want to call it chicken and pastry, you have my permission. And let me pat myself on the back while I say "Damn, I'm good." Yummy yummy in my tummy. My mom would be so proud.

Now since this was my first attempt, I did tell RTL that we would be ordering dinner in if the chicken and dumplings tasted like ass.
Which surprised RTL because I never have back-up plans for experimental dinners. Yet, last night I was unsure of my ability to make things taste good and I really didn't want to eat comfort food that wasn't comforting. Needless to say, I surprised myself and was very pleased with the product.

Now for anyone who has eaten chicken and dumplings, you know that salt is a necessary evil in making it taste good. I had ceremoniously salted the water for the chicken stock and added the salt for my pastry dough, but I still didn't have enough salt. And so I did the Grandma thing and used the box of Morton's to "add salt to taste." I was also crossing my fingers that RTL didn't turn around and see what I was doing. Flashback to Thanksgiving 1992; the place is farm country, North Carolina. Now picture RTL dishing a pile of chicken and dumplings on a plate with a gleam in her eye as my mother waves her arms in a "stop, put it down" fashion without attracting Grandma's attention. RTL forks up some pastry and chicken, puts the forkful in her mouth, her eyes widen in shock at the taste and she swallows the bite whole and proceeds to down a glass of tea. My mother leans over and tells RTL that Grandma had literally turned the box of Morton's upside down and swirled the salt in for several long seconds. Needless to say, we didn't eat Grandma's chicken and dumplings again. But you understand why I didn't want RTL to catch me with the box of Morton's.

I pray everyday that my taste buds don't go before their time. It happened to both Grandma's and mom hasn't succumbed yet, so there is still hope.

RTL just called from work to scare the bejeezus out of me. Those of you who have known me since I was knee high to a grasshopper know that I believe that if you put your wants and wishes out into the universe, then the universe will make sure it happens. I also believe that RTL and I lead a very charmed life. However, we've also realized that sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for because sometimes you aren't quite ready to reap the rewards. That's how we got to California and that's probably how we're going to get to Europe.
So what did RTL have to say to scare the bejeezus out of me? Informal discussion with one of the big cheeses who said they are looking for someone to be director of a big client in Europe and all she had to do was "say the word." Now this also comes in with last week's conversation with a client who offered a job in Europe - all she had to do was "say the word." Good yes, but we were thinking more into the future not "just say the word" fast. It's just really freaky since every time we have a "where do you want to go next" discussion we say that we aren't going to pick anywhere because then we'll be moving in 6 months. I'm not ready to move yet, I've still got things to fix on this house. We'll be sitting down to talk about this turn of events so that we can shape the timeline more to our liking, hopefully.

Decisions, decisions.