Been a really, really long time since I posted anything, and I suppose I'm only posting now because I have something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, homework.

I kind of wish I was more diligent about writing about my life for the last year or so, or however long it's been since I've stopped blogging, because so many awesome things have happened. So many not-so-awesome things have happened, too, but I'll never be able to remember or recount all of them, because I didn't keep a record in the first place. Way to irritate myself.

John is losing his childhood home. The mortgage was simply too much and the bank wouldn't work with us, so they threatened foreclosure. John's dad did a short sale instead, and the next door neighbors bought it. We have to be out by October 31, so John and I have been looking for and apartment for the two of us for a while. I think we've finally found one. We were approved for it just today, and I hope to put a holding deposit on it soon. We set our move-in date for October 22, and I'm looking forward to it with both trepidation and excitement. It'll be nice to just get this over with and get settled there, but I'm not eager to go through the stress of actually moving things. On top of that basic inconvenience of moving, we are moving out of a huge house into a 750 square foot apartment, so there's a ton of stuff that simply won't fit, and we are dividing it among its rightful owners. It's a pain.

On the brighter side, I finally have a standing mixer! It's a 6 qt Kitchenaid bowl-lift mixer, and it is gorgeous. I bought it from a friend of my baking instructor who had never even opened the box, but since it won't be covered by the normal manufacturer's warranty I managed to haggle the price down to half the MSRP, which definitely qualifies as one of the awesome things to have happened. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, since full-time work, full-time school, apartment hunting and preparing to move have taken up about 28 hours of every day, but I've plugged it in and I know it works, and I'm really looking forward to this holiday season. With my new knowledge of baking and confections, I'm going to rock the Xmas treat boxes this year.

Wow, just looked at the last thing I posted. I hadn't realized that I have not posted anything about my summer classes. Time to remedy that. Baking A was AMAZING. Chef Teresa Urkofsky was my instructor, and despite having had a hand in baking since I was old enough to open the oven door, I discovered that I knew absolutely nothing about baking, and I learned so freaking much. It was fast-paced and exhausting, but worth every minute. Baking B was great, too, but not nearly as much fun as A. I had Chef Judy Parks for Baking B, and we focused mostly on European style cakes. My final cake project featured red wine poached pears, and if I'd had time to test my recipes at home, it would have been awesome, but it turned out pretty lackluster. What a shame. When I have more time, I plan on recreating that cake to be delicious. Right now I'm taking Intro to Food Theory and Prep with Chef Ray Salledarre and Advanced Baking with Chef Teresa. I'm having a hard time enjoying Food Theory for several reasons. Mostly it's because I don't have any natural talent for cooking, and the rest of it has to do with the fact that it's a beginner level class that is required for the degree and certificates, so the people in it fall into 3 distinct categories: Those who have never cooked a day in their lives, those who cook all the time/professionally and hate that they have to take the class for the degree, and the rest of us just trying to make it through with our sanity intact. Perhaps it would be better if I hadn't already taken labs in that classroom, then I'd be lost in there, too, and I wouldn't be so bored and frustrated all the time. Don't get me wrong--I'm learning a lot, and I'm grateful for that, but... it's killing me. There are some douchebags in the class, too, who make it rather difficult to suffer through, but there's always one, so I should be used to it.

Advanced Baking is incredible and incredibly trying. We're not really learning many new things--it's all just elaborating and expanding upon the skills and methods we learned in A and B, but there is emphasis on uniformity and presentation. So far it's been a fantastic class, and I've learned a lot, but it's so very hard. Just last week, everything I did failed. Except, perhaps, for making caramel crunch, but really, that's just boiling sugar and cornsyrup, and that's pretty tough to mess up since you're not worried about crystallization. But tempering chocolate? It's a skill I need to learn, for sure, but just the idea of trying it again depresses me. I'll get it eventually. The class has been divided into 4 groups that rotate stations every 3 weeks. Right now my group is doing confections, and next week we'll be at the cake station. I really lucked out with my group--it's full of people I can stand, and *gasp* even like. Competent people. It's nice. I hoped it would be this way, given that Baking C is not required for the degree, so everyone there feels they have an aptitude for baking, or one should hope.

Ludo is coming to Orangevale this weekend, and my mom, John and I are going to go see them. I'm listening to the new album Prepare the Preparations right now, and I'm kind of disappointed with it. I set myself up for that, though, since their first 3 albums were so amazing, and you can't really hold a band to the same standard for their entire careers. Nothing will ever be as incredible and heartbreaking as Broken Bride, and I'm going to have to accept that. The songs "Whipped Cream", "Battle Cry" and "Anything for You" are pretty decent, though.

I did another system restore on this piece of crap laptop last week, because I thought its deterioration had accelerated too much, but it turns out it's my memory at fault. I had been trying to rewatch Disc III of Rome Season One, but everytime I tried to play it, it would slow my computer down so much that I'd have to force a shut down to get anything done. I'd forgotten that I'd discovered this problem when I first got the DVDs... and I only remembered it after I'd formatted everything, reinstalled Windows and my media player, and tried to watch it again. Tsk tsk. Oh well... my computer was probably due for it again anyway, and it really is running fast now. Of course, I still haven't installed everything that had been on it before, but I'm only going to install what I need when I need it. Clearly World of Goo, Starship Titanic, and Rollercoaster Tycoon were just taking up valuable space.

Being in these culinary classes has really forced me to get my shit together like it's never been. Not even at UC Berkeley were my notes and handouts this perfectly organized. Never at UC Berkeley did I actually do all of my reading. Just more proof that I'm finally doing what I've always been meant to do. This organization is catching, too! I feel the need to go through my pile of recipes and paste them into a binder. Perhaps I'll do that this weekend.

I'm hungry and thinking about food, so now I'm going to talk about it. I got some pears at the farmer's market last Sunday, so I made a delicious galette with 'em. Made some great mac and cheese the day before, as well, using Kari's recipe. Made a Death Star cake for John's birthday. Made a nonsensical spice cake for Justin's birthday. The nonsensical bit was the figurines I put on top in fighting stances: a dinosaur and a pirate. Made pizza from scratch for the first time ever now that I'm not intimidated by bread recipes. I'm craving goat cheese right now, on sourdough. Or maybe just sourdough with anything. I've been craving nothing but bread all week.

I felt like I had so much to say, but I've either run out or forgotten. I guess the above can't really be called short, though. Oh well. I think I shall go make some pasta.