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I should be sleeping
But I haven't posted in days, and mom, at least, wants to hear what I am up to.
Tonight was the last gymnastics of the year, and so much fun, as always. While I am still miles from my goal (be able to roll slowly into a handstand the same way I do for headstands), I have gotten to the point where if I have my head against something and both hands on the ground in front of it I can hop both feet into the air and pull them up into a headstand. If the "something" is a wall then I can stay in the handstand against the wall. If it is the red half round mat then I can pause ever so briefly before letting my legs fall over and my body roll over the curve of the mat to a standing position.
Tonight I also practiced sitting down on that mat, then arching over it till I am doing a back bend over it, with hands on the ground on one side, feet on the other (the top of the half circle is just below my spine in that position), then I can shift my weight so that much is on my hands, but some is on the mat, lift both legs up and over till they reach the ground on the other side of me, at which point I stand up. This felt easy enough at first try that when I encouraged Ellinor to try it I was surprised to discover that it was hard for her, and I needed to help her lift the legs up and over. But on the other hand, she can do the back flips by jumping and throwing herself back (with a spotter), and I don't dare do those yet.
Had a good skype meeting with my PhD supervisor on Monday, and have revised a minor grant application (a little $500 student stipend, which would still help if I get it) based on her suggestions.
Sunday was a lovely Birthday. I was up late Saturday night preparing, and finally got to the part about starting the bread dough at 23:00. Then I did yoga and tidied up a bit more, and once the dough had doubled I kneaded it again and spread it out flat on a baking pan and set it downstairs, where it is colder, but not as cold as the fridge, to rise slowly while I slept. About five hours later I got up and popped it into the oven and while it baked I made some egg butter, starting with whipping the cream to make the butter (I had boiled the eggs the night before. When the bread came out I went back to bed for an hour or so, and then got up and cut the loaf into three layers and made a smörgåstårta that I was willing to eat:
One layer of home made hummus (starting with grinding sesame seeds in the mortar and pestle to make tahini), one layer artichoke, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower sprouts, roasted garlic, and fresh cheese, and I covered the outside of the loaf with the egg butter and decorated it with slices of carrot, cucumber, tomato, and a little tiny salad green thing I don't recall the Swedish name for (it starts with an M), and never learned the English word.
The result was pretty. I remembered to take a photo, but who knows how long it will be before I remember to get it from the phone onto the computer?
Then I decorated the cake. I had baked it the day before, trying a variation of my favourite pound cake recipe (1 lb each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour). This time I decided to see what happens if one also adds 1lb of milk. I also decided I didn't need a full pound cake, so I did 11 oz of each ingredient instead (that being the whole number on the scale for five eggs, which seemed a reasonable number). I also added some baking powder and baked it in three layer pans. I probably should either have used only two pans, or made a bigger batch of batter, as they were a bit thin. They didn't rise much, but I think That they should probably have gone into a hotter oven. A normal pound cake bakes slowly, but I think this one had enough extra liquid that it should bake hotter and faster. However, it was really yummy, and while dense goes really well with the raspberry-almond blend I spread between two of the layers and the blueberry-almond blend that went between the others. I frosted it with plain whipped cream (of course) and decorated it with frozen berries and segments of Clementine orange.
The cake was ready just before my apprentice Anna and her husband Gunnar arrived at noon. We chatted for a bit and then ate smörgåstårta, and then chatted more and worked on sewing projects till David arrived, at which point we ate cake. More conversation and sewing till I was hungry again around 15:30, so I got out the smörgåstårta again, just as Birger and Siv arrived, so we ate smörgåstårta, followed by more cake, and some cookies (I baked the Finnish style Christmas tarts I posted a recipe for recently, but filled them with more of the raspberry almond blend that went into the cake). Once we had eaten enough Birger, Siv, and David got out their violins and Nyckelharpa and played Swedish folk music while the rest of us enjoyed it and I did more sewing.
Then everyone save David went home around 17:30, and he and I enjoyed a bit more time together, and I did my yoga while he played the piano (I have missed that, it has been a long time since he played the piano). Then he was feeling tired and wanted to play computer games, so he went back to Caroline's apartment and I updated my logs a bit, till Ellinor arrived.
She had been to the concert that our frinds Evelia (my other apprentice) and Cajsa had performed in with their orchestra, and then took the next possible bus to my place, which got her there around 20:30. I fed her smörgåstårta and cake and we chatted till 22:00 and then I drove her home.
Then I returned to my computer to finish updating my logs and noticed that my cousin Karl had sent me a fb message suggesting that I call, so I did, and we chatted for an hour. I hadn't talked with him in ages, so it was nice to hear from him.
That brings me mostly up to date, but now I really must sleep, as I need to meet a PhD student at 07:00 (6 hours from now). We will watch the Lucia performance (first year since moving to Sweden that I haven't been part of the Choir performing, but choir conflicts with gymnastics), and then I will start training her on the laser.
Tonight was the last gymnastics of the year, and so much fun, as always. While I am still miles from my goal (be able to roll slowly into a handstand the same way I do for headstands), I have gotten to the point where if I have my head against something and both hands on the ground in front of it I can hop both feet into the air and pull them up into a headstand. If the "something" is a wall then I can stay in the handstand against the wall. If it is the red half round mat then I can pause ever so briefly before letting my legs fall over and my body roll over the curve of the mat to a standing position.
Tonight I also practiced sitting down on that mat, then arching over it till I am doing a back bend over it, with hands on the ground on one side, feet on the other (the top of the half circle is just below my spine in that position), then I can shift my weight so that much is on my hands, but some is on the mat, lift both legs up and over till they reach the ground on the other side of me, at which point I stand up. This felt easy enough at first try that when I encouraged Ellinor to try it I was surprised to discover that it was hard for her, and I needed to help her lift the legs up and over. But on the other hand, she can do the back flips by jumping and throwing herself back (with a spotter), and I don't dare do those yet.
Had a good skype meeting with my PhD supervisor on Monday, and have revised a minor grant application (a little $500 student stipend, which would still help if I get it) based on her suggestions.
Sunday was a lovely Birthday. I was up late Saturday night preparing, and finally got to the part about starting the bread dough at 23:00. Then I did yoga and tidied up a bit more, and once the dough had doubled I kneaded it again and spread it out flat on a baking pan and set it downstairs, where it is colder, but not as cold as the fridge, to rise slowly while I slept. About five hours later I got up and popped it into the oven and while it baked I made some egg butter, starting with whipping the cream to make the butter (I had boiled the eggs the night before. When the bread came out I went back to bed for an hour or so, and then got up and cut the loaf into three layers and made a smörgåstårta that I was willing to eat:
One layer of home made hummus (starting with grinding sesame seeds in the mortar and pestle to make tahini), one layer artichoke, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower sprouts, roasted garlic, and fresh cheese, and I covered the outside of the loaf with the egg butter and decorated it with slices of carrot, cucumber, tomato, and a little tiny salad green thing I don't recall the Swedish name for (it starts with an M), and never learned the English word.
The result was pretty. I remembered to take a photo, but who knows how long it will be before I remember to get it from the phone onto the computer?
Then I decorated the cake. I had baked it the day before, trying a variation of my favourite pound cake recipe (1 lb each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour). This time I decided to see what happens if one also adds 1lb of milk. I also decided I didn't need a full pound cake, so I did 11 oz of each ingredient instead (that being the whole number on the scale for five eggs, which seemed a reasonable number). I also added some baking powder and baked it in three layer pans. I probably should either have used only two pans, or made a bigger batch of batter, as they were a bit thin. They didn't rise much, but I think That they should probably have gone into a hotter oven. A normal pound cake bakes slowly, but I think this one had enough extra liquid that it should bake hotter and faster. However, it was really yummy, and while dense goes really well with the raspberry-almond blend I spread between two of the layers and the blueberry-almond blend that went between the others. I frosted it with plain whipped cream (of course) and decorated it with frozen berries and segments of Clementine orange.
The cake was ready just before my apprentice Anna and her husband Gunnar arrived at noon. We chatted for a bit and then ate smörgåstårta, and then chatted more and worked on sewing projects till David arrived, at which point we ate cake. More conversation and sewing till I was hungry again around 15:30, so I got out the smörgåstårta again, just as Birger and Siv arrived, so we ate smörgåstårta, followed by more cake, and some cookies (I baked the Finnish style Christmas tarts I posted a recipe for recently, but filled them with more of the raspberry almond blend that went into the cake). Once we had eaten enough Birger, Siv, and David got out their violins and Nyckelharpa and played Swedish folk music while the rest of us enjoyed it and I did more sewing.
Then everyone save David went home around 17:30, and he and I enjoyed a bit more time together, and I did my yoga while he played the piano (I have missed that, it has been a long time since he played the piano). Then he was feeling tired and wanted to play computer games, so he went back to Caroline's apartment and I updated my logs a bit, till Ellinor arrived.
She had been to the concert that our frinds Evelia (my other apprentice) and Cajsa had performed in with their orchestra, and then took the next possible bus to my place, which got her there around 20:30. I fed her smörgåstårta and cake and we chatted till 22:00 and then I drove her home.
Then I returned to my computer to finish updating my logs and noticed that my cousin Karl had sent me a fb message suggesting that I call, so I did, and we chatted for an hour. I hadn't talked with him in ages, so it was nice to hear from him.
That brings me mostly up to date, but now I really must sleep, as I need to meet a PhD student at 07:00 (6 hours from now). We will watch the Lucia performance (first year since moving to Sweden that I haven't been part of the Choir performing, but choir conflicts with gymnastics), and then I will start training her on the laser.
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