Font of Useless Knowledge

I don’t have enough to do, apparently.  I have obsessed and agonized over clothing for Lola WAY too much.  Spent WAY too many hours looking at different options and cross referencing prices with other websites.  I forgot that she’s a DOG and doesn’t really care what she’s wearing.  She just needs something to keep her warm in our sub-zero temperatures and something to protect her against all the snow on the ground.

So, this is Lola’s new Winter Ensemble.  I’m starting from the outside and working my way down.

Lola’s new fleece coat.  I ordered a medium because I needed just a little more room than a small offered so I could layer heavier sweaters underneath it for extra protection.  Mom has kindly offered to hem the excess length.

I like the lighter pink side with the coordinating raspberry stripe down the back.  But – it’s reversible!  This side is solid raspberry.

You can see where I’ve folded the excess up and pinned it into place for the moment.  I do like that the larger size hangs a little lower on her body.  I think it will keep her warmer.

Speaking of adorable (adorable being the theme of this post)- check out those boots!!!  Can you believe how cute they are?  I have to say, I was sorely tempted to go with a pair I found that were pink and edged in faux fur, but these boots got better reviews because their design supports a more “upright”, natural position of the paw.  I needed a sturdy boot for a couple of reasons.  First, she needs the protection because she is too uncomfortable to spend the time needed to relieve herself if she’s not wearing boots.  Secondly, I needed a pair that was easier, faster, and more secure than the slide-on sock type booties.  And, these provide enough traction that she can navigate the carpeted stairs inside the house so our morning routine is more efficient.

Yes, that is a rubber sole, and a zipper and an extra velcro band.  She’s better already about letting me put them on and if I tug pretty hard, I can pull them off quickly when she comes back inside.

Lola also needed a new sweater.  Her current ones are pretty worn out.  I didn’t find a sweater that I liked, but I did find this sweatshirt that I think really captures Lola’s personality.

It’s a really pretty raspberry color and has a hood.  I’m not a big fan of hoods, but this is kind of cute.

I thought the hood might flop around and be a nuisance, but it doesn’t.  It’s just slightly too big however, because it covers her eyes and then Spice takes advantage and begins her attack, and Lola gets pissed and starts barking but can’t actually see Spice to defend herself.  I found it amusing, but that’s just me.

How bad-ass is this though?

Yep, skull, cross-bones, crowns and roses!!  It’s totally Lola.  Bad-ass and totally not intimidating.  Rough, but in pint-size form.  And pink, because it’s time she embraced her girly side.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the selection of Lola’s new wardrobe.  She got a bath and trim today and now is sparkly white (mostly) in her new clothes and ready to go kick some Labrador ass.

The Eskimos have a thousand words to describe snow.  Seattle-ites know what rain with periodic showers actually means.  Here in Minnesota, they have something referred to as a “Mild-up”.
 
A mild-up is a period of time where the temperature increases and the skies are clear and sunny.  When the temperature increases from 1 degree to several days of 24 degrees, it’s still well below freezing so to call it a warm-up would be laughable.  But it is, relatively speaking, milder than the week before, hence the term. 
 
Mild-ups are something that are relayed by the weathermen with the same sense of excitement Seattle weathermen report a sunny day in January – a bit of awe and a whole lot of eager anticipation, as if they are personally responsible for delivering this welcome gift.  Also, there is usually something called a “January Thaw” in Minnesota, where the temperatures will climb all the way to 36 degrees for a couple of days, and combined with the bright winter sun, snow does indeed melt.  Today is one of those days, but I think to be a true thaw, it must consist of several days in a row.  It is possible that we won’t experience a thaw this January.  Many Minnesotans look forward to a mid-winter thaw; it helps them get through the rest of the season.  I assume this is similar to the February week in Seattle where the rain stops, the winds pick up, and the area dries out.  I suppose it’s mother nature’s way of ensuring you don’t succumb to that building mental breakdown.
 
Weather is indeed something that you get used to – in Seattle you become accustomed to months of rain.  You buy the proper clothing, resign yourself to flat hair, and deal with the standing water, gloomy skies, and pervasive dampness.  Here, I can honestly say that in a very short period of time I have become accustomed to the cold.  To be sure, it is physically much, much colder than Seattle.  But the temperature in Seattle is not quite cold enough to actively discourage outdoor activity.  And since there really is no good way to protect yourself from all the wet and damp, the chill is hard to shake and even though you can get outdoors, you’re likely miserable most of the time. 
 
My experience in Minnesota has been different.  When it’s very cold – single digits and below – you just stay indoors.  It’s that simple; you run errands out of necessity but otherwise, you cuddle up with loved ones and the dogs, make fattening crock-pot dinners, and entertain yourself.  But once it’s in the teens, especially when it’s sunny and bright (more than 50% of the time), you can run errands and get outside without having to duck your head and cover the back of your neck to protect your skin from raindrops.  Sure, you don’t want to spend tons of time outdoors, but it’s doable.  Very doable.  And, with all the dry cold, if you do bundle up in snowsuits or Carhartts, non-exposed skin is very toasty.  It’s a cold that you can actually layer up and protect against, and you can warm up from.
 
That’s an important part – being able to warm up from the cold.  I remember in Enumclaw that if I got cold and chilled during morning chores, sometimes you just couldn’t warm up all day long.  Even in the coldest weather I have ever experienced last week, I was able to quickly warm up from the walk from the parking lot to the building.  I even warmed up faster and more completely after that disastrous riding experiment than I expected to.
 
This winter has been described as exceptional cold and harsh – which hasn’t bothered me.  I’d rather experience the worst mother nature can throw my way right up front, and know with certainty that I can survive and even thrive.  I like the snow and the sun – I’ve found a place to eat my lunch in the sun.  It’s the first time I’ve experienced mid-day, mid-winter sun in 15 years.  It’s a real treat. 
 
All that being said – who wants to come visit?  J

I’ve uploaded all the photos taken on my camera over Christmas and they are in the Flickr gallery, located in the right-hand panel. Please let me know if there are any photos that you would like, and whether you want them for print, web, or adjusted in some manner (cropping, color, clarity, etc.).  Use the sequence number on the photo when letting me know which ones you’d like.

You may remember this summer the New York Times posted a long article about the perfect chocolate chip cookie. The article and accompanying recipe made the blog-rounds and got people talking. Here is a link to the article. Basically, the idea is that you need to let the dough rest for 36 hours because the egg is very slow to absorb into the flour. I thought this was a bit of a preposterous idea – chocolate chip cookies are something you make on a whim and eat half the batch while they’re still warm from the oven. Who plans on eating their cookie in 36 hours? Frankly, in my home, after 36 hours, there are only chocolate crumbs left.

But I thought the idea was intriguing – that the cookie can taste different and have different textures depending on how long the dough has been resting. At the 36 hour mark, the cookie is supposed to have a delightfully crispy-crunch outer ring, followed by a chewy middle ring, and a soft center.

Last weekend I made a batch of cookie and I baked a third on Friday night, a third Saturday night and a third on Sunday night. Here are my impressions.

At the 0-hour mark, the cookie was very, very sweet. It was uniformly soft throughout and uniform in color (light brown). The texture was uniform also. Basically, it was the cookie treat we all think of, but it didn’t have much complexity or sophistication. Not that you need those in a cookie, but this experiment is promising more, you know?

On Saturday, at the 24 hour mark, the cookie did crisp up in the center, but there was only one other ring – a chewy middle. It was much less sweet, and less cloying. You could taste a more pronounced butter flavor and the chocolate wasn’t nearly as overwhelming. It also had a more satisfying bite, heft, and golden color.

The Sunday cookie, baked at 48-hours, surprised me the most. It did indeed have three distinct regions; a crispy outer ring, a chewy middle and the very center was extremely soft – almost gooey. Because of the different textures, the flavor did have more nuance depending on where you were biting into. But, I didn’t much care for the gooey center as it was too mushy. I wonder if you would achieve the same result if the cookie was baked 12 hours earlier, but based on this experiment, I conclude that the 24-hour rest period produced a cookie that I liked best.

All that being said, there is no such thing as a bad chocolate chip cookie! If you can wait, or save some dough to bake later, the cookie does take on different properties, but it all depends on your personal preference. I’m still not sure I can wait 24 hours to eat a cookie, but I can at least save some of the dough for later.

Oh, my, word….this video is really funny.  It comes to you from Dooce, so again, I’m not cool enough to find this stuff on my own.  A training video for those of you living in “hands free” states.  Enjoy!

Lola and Spice are so happy I didn’t do this to them:

This is Chuck and Coco from Dooce.com. Poor dogs.

And I guess they should be glad they aren’t part of this family, the Sporh’s. Tom should thank his lucky stars.

ok, and this one is really offensive but totally funny.

Last weekend we had some really lovely weather for Andrea’s visit. I’m sure it was planned just for Andrea. I think Sunday was the hottest day when it was in the upper 80’s, but it was really windy. As usual. When we went to the figure-8 races at the car track, the nighttime weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cool. Then Andrea left and took the warm weather with her.

I woke late yesterday, Tuesday, and headed off to the barn around 8:30. It was really, really muggy and already over 80 degrees. Poor Chaps was already sweating when I took off his fly sheet. It was so humid that it it changed to rain while we were riding and it was refreshing having a slightly cooler breeze move through the arena, in addition to the lower humidity. But then the rain stopped and the humidity crept back up. It rained again when I got home and at this point, around noon, I let the hot dogs back in the house and turned on the a/c.

Watching the local news over dinner, I was flabbergasted to see the local temp at the bottom of the screen said 66. WTF?? I finished eating and went outside. Sure enough, the storm had pushed all the hot muggy air through and it was cold and crisp outside. So I opened up the whole house and in 40 minutes the inside of the house went from 75 degrees to 71. Wow.

Tom of course bitched and moaned that I was leaving windows open when we went to bed – even though I dug out the controls for the electric blanket and plugged in his precious. Which of course was plugged in backwards so in the middle of the night MY side was on fire and he’d tossed off all his blankets. Cold much?? But it was GLORIOUS waking up with the heavier weight of blankets and cold sheets. So what if I need a sweater, I love sleeping in the cold.

But the temperature in the house continues to fall. It was 68 degrees at 8:30 this morning and I just got up for a jacket and it’s 66. Hmm…at some point even I might crack and close some windows. I checked the weather and it’s not going to get over 70 degrees until September 12! Even then only 75! What happened to the hot weather?! I’m not ready for fall, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not! I like warmth. I want it to be 80 during the day and 60 at night. Pouting.

Can’t tell if Lola is cold or not. She’s sunning herself on the comfy patio furniture. But my fingertips are cold and my nose may or may not be a little red.

*UPDATE*  Four hours after posting this, at 2:30 p.m., I was freezing.  Shivering, huddled over my computer with the blanket curled around my face.  I really, really want to turn the heat on – 66 degrees it too cold for a house.  But I can’t figure out how it can be that cold – it’s just not computing.  But since my back is aching from the cold, I must do something.  So I put my blue robe on top of all my other clothes.  That has been helping.  I’m now able to sit up straight.  Now I need to bribe the heat dispensing poodle to sit on my lap.

My hope was that we would see some creative, interesting, and amusing commercials during the Olympics.  Commercials that might move me or ring an emotional note.  So far I’ve been extremely disappointed – there have been very few interesting commercials and one of the best is a Superbowl repeat!

The Visa commercials are ok.  At first I didn’t like the stylized gold tones but it’s grown on me.  I really appreciated that right after Michael Phelps tied/surpassed Mark Spitz’s record win, they played a special commercial just for him.  And I love the one of Nastia Luiken – she looks like a figurine; something designed but in reality she actually can contort her body like that.  And I bet the Visa people were relieved that nothing tragic happened to Morgan Freeman because they would have had to quickly re-voice the commercials.

I love love love the Budweiser Clydesdale commercial, but I loved it when it first debuted at the Superbowl!  Why didn’t Bud create something new and special for the Olympics?  Does the Olympics not reach just as many people, especially as often as they replay the commercial?

Now, one that I just despise – have you seen this new one with a studly guy ironing a dress while making dinner reservations for his six month anniversary?  And then it’s a CAR COMMERCIAL!  When I first saw this, I knew is had to be a play of some sort on female fantasy, but the fact that they went with an automobile just totally lost me.  It should have been something more amusing or female centric.  A fantasy commercial with a studly guy is not going to get me interested in the car.  I’m more likely to remember the cute little VW commercials with the talking Bug.  And then when the commercial cuts to the the guy on his knees scrubbing the toilet, I was like, yeah, I get it, total fantasy, let’s just move on.

They keep playing the Home Depot spot about how they support the Olympians and I really like the music but I just keep thinking “how, exactly to they support the athletes?”  Do they give them flexible time, pay them more for public apperances, or what?  I have a hard time taking a big company’s word that they do good – I want to see proof.

Overall, I’ve been very disappointed.

Just a reminder for those interested – the Dressage Freestyle finals are on Tuesday.  I think they will be on from 5-7 (CST) on Oxygen (check your local listings).  This is my favorite event – it’s where the horses do a dressage routine set to music, so everything is on beat and in sync.  It’s hard to describe, but it’s like a dance and you’ll see the horses do stuff that looks incredibly easy, like flying lead changes with every stride, when in reality that’s impossible.  Impossible for mere mortals.  Can’t even describe how difficult.  To put it in perspective, most horses have a really difficult time doing ONE flying lead change as they are heading into a corner (which helps them shift their balance).  These horses change leads on every stride on a straight line.  It looks like they’re skipping.  Awesome.