what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[bbbamI]

Congratulations & why did you still have a t shirt from 38 years ago ?

Thanks Moe. It's taken me a little over a year, but it's been worth the [-]weight[/-] wait. Especially health wise.

Lord have mercy...I'm not sure why I've kept that tee...guess it always brings back fond memories, just couldn't pitch it. DH still has his Mr Bill tee...

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Enjoyed a nice happy hour with my Dad and had dinner with the friend who's in town for a class.

Retirement is GREAT so far but WOW...I am in awe at how fast the week goes by! Even faster than the weekend did while I was still w+rking! I hope this trend doesn't continue!

Sent from my mobile device so please excuse grammatical errors.

 

[Jackanory]

WSOP Circuit event out at Harrah's. My 2nd ever straight flush wasn't enough to propel me to final table, but I did cash.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

1 Week Bread Course

Last week I attended a 1 week bread and pastry baking class.

Incredible experience! We learned about 35 different recipes including croissants, baguettes, sourdough, brioche, whole wheat, rye, and many permutations on those basics.

Here are a few of my creations:

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Last week I attended a 1 week bread and pastry baking class.

Incredible experience! We learned about 35 different recipes including croissants, baguettes, sourdough, brioche, whole wheat, rye, and many permutations on those basics.

Here are a few of my creations:

That is pretty awesome!

I have often wondered if after retirement what I might use my GI Bill for. I have all the degrees I would ever want/need, so I have thought that I would seek out something that would be useful to ME and MY interests in ER and doing a culinary program does intrigue me...as long as Gordon Ramsey isn't the instructor. I think being FIRE'd would *really* lower my tolerance for any criticism that isn't "constructive"

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

In my early days of ER, I have *really* come to LOVE Mondays. This is such a change from a few weeks ago. Today, I went to the grocery store to pick up the week's goods. Not only is the store neat, clean, orderly and restocked, it looks like this...and I LOVE it!!!

 

[Walt34]

Read almost half of The Four Pillars of Investing. Other than that, not a thing. DW is off babysitting the grandnieces today.

 

[harley]

Qi Gong and then Tai Chi class today. My thighs are a-quivering. Feels good though. But I need to put AnIntentionalRoad on my ignore list if he/she is going to keep posting those pictures. Slow death to an overweight diabetic.

 

[splitwdw]

Last week I attended a 1 week bread and pastry baking class.

Incredible experience! We learned about 35 different recipes including croissants, baguettes, sourdough, brioche, whole wheat, rye, and many permutations on those basics.

Can't remember if you were one of the people that posted on another thread that you made bread. If not, was this the first time you'd made bread or was this just first class. You made some nice looking bread........how'd it taste. I just had a slice of cranberry walnut bread that I made yesterday. I'll probably have some for a chicken sandwich later tonight. Don't laugh at the combination it tastes great. I always think it's funny when friends think bread making is hard to do. You can make just about any kind of bread you want. I love the designs you can make on the loaf before baking with a razor blade. My favorite is a wheat sheaf......or take cookie cutters, roll out some dough, cut out shapes and attach to loaf with a little water before baking.
I've never had California sourdough but have heard it excellent. I think I read that some California bakers have very old starters. Mine's only 5 years old. It's made from wild yeast in the air, flour and milk. I read an old book or article a while ago about how to do it, called "Trapping the Wild Yeast". Kept thinking that I was just going to end up with a cup of sour milk/flour mix or moldy mess. It's so active I have to keep an eye on it. I fed it one time and left on kitchen counter. It bubbled up and out of the container and looked like the movie "The Blob". This sourdough starter makes a nice bread.
Can you tell I like talking/making bread!!

 

[Ronstar]

Spent the day recovering from our weekend trip to Nashville. Finished a flag box. One more to go.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

Hi Splitwdw!

Yes, this was my first bread baking class. I started last year by going through the recipes in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Reinhart. It is a great book and really got me hook. I love the science and procedural nature of it. Each time I do a recipe I take notes on adjustments I am trying--like a science notebook.

The class I took covered about 35 different recipes including croissants, sourdough, brioche, etc. It was a total of 35 hours in the kitchen with a French Master Baker as the instructor. Really it doesn't get any better than that!

Have fun with your baking and post some pics!

Can't remember if you were one of the people that posted on another thread that you made bread. If not, was this the first time you'd made bread or was this just first class. You made some nice looking bread........how'd it taste. I just had a slice of cranberry walnut bread that I made yesterday. I'll probably have some for a chicken sandwich later tonight. Don't laugh at the combination it tastes great. I always think it's funny when friends think bread making is hard to do. You can make just about any kind of bread you want. I love the designs you can make on the loaf before baking with a razor blade. My favorite is a wheat sheaf......or take cookie cutters, roll out some dough, cut out shapes and attach to loaf with a little water before baking.
I've never had California sourdough but have heard it excellent. I think I read that some California bakers have very old starters. Mine's only 5 years old. It's made from wild yeast in the air, flour and milk. I read an old book or article a while ago about how to do it, called "Trapping the Wild Yeast". Kept thinking that I was just going to end up with a cup of sour milk/flour mix or moldy mess. It's so active I have to keep an eye on it. I fed it one time and left on kitchen counter. It bubbled up and out of the container and looked like the movie "The Blob". This sourdough starter makes a nice bread.
Can you tell I like talking/making bread!!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Love the bread pics! Learning to make bread is on my to do list. The last few years I have been collecting cook books and learned how to make my own soup stock, cook up dried beans, make my own salad dressing and a few other things. I keep trying to buy less processed food as I learn how to make more things from scratch.

 

[davemartin88]

Spent the day recovering from our weekend trip to Nashville. Finished a flag box. One more to go.

Looks great, assuming it's a gift and will be highly appreciated!

 

[Ronstar]

Thanks - my uncle passed away a few weeks ago, and I'm making one for my aunt. I built this one as a test run first using my dad's flag to get sizing, etc. It's better than the plastic one that the funeral home gave me 20 some years ago. So I'm keeping my dad's flag in this one and building another for my aunt. The local glass guy donates the glass for veterans flag cases.

 

[freebird5825]

I slept a lot today. I felt tired and the day was gloomy. It was fun to just lay in bed, sleep a little, wake up, do some leg stretches and exercises, and zonk out again. I love my 3 inch pillowtop mattress.

I bought a SAD light therapy fixture to see if it will help elevate my mood. The Mayo Clinic site had some great articles about SAD. I saw some of my symptoms there...feeling undirected, tired, a little impatient, etc etc.

Menopause and the lack of sunlight seem to be conspiring to affect my normally happy mood. So I am looking forward to using the light to offset some of that. I believe light therapy will help me, so that is half the battle.

I will assemble it tonite while Mr B makes homemade sausage and pepperoni pizza. He is napping after studying for most of the day.

I lit a fire to cheer up the living room. Time to go wake him.

PS Jim Cantore is on location in Syracuse, so you know what that means....

 

[travelover]

...........I bought a SAD light therapy fixture to see if it will help elevate my mood. The Mayo Clinic site had some great articles about SAD. I saw some of my symptoms there...feeling undirected, tired, a little impatient, etc etc. ............

I've put in a request for more sunlight. Should kick in around the 21st.

 

[Sea Kayaker]

A real long walk on the beach this morning... probably 5 miles or so.

 

[Chuckanut]

I put up my Christmas decorations. [emoji318][emoji319][emoji320]

 

[freebird5825]

I've put in a request for more sunlight. Should kick in around the 21st.

Well thank you.

We've had a few sunny days, so it hasn't been completely gloomy here.

I get outside every time the sun shines, even if it is just for 15 minutes.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

Love the bread pics! Learning to make bread is on my to do list. The last few years I have been collecting cook books and learned how to make my own soup stock, cook up dried beans, make my own salad dressing and a few other things. I keep trying to buy less processed food as I learn how to make more things from scratch.

Bread is not hard--just need a little patience in the beginning because it is very formulaic. IE if you vary anything in the recipe, you'll get something different that you expected. But, not always something unpleasant.

I bake twice a week (1 sweet and 1 savory) and hope to eventually get my wife to stop buying any store bought baked goods.

 

[HFWR]

I bought a SAD light therapy fixture to see if it will help elevate my mood.

Lighting one up elevates my mood as well...

 

[Accidental Retiree]

I slept a lot today. I felt tired and the day was gloomy. It was fun to just lay in bed, sleep a little, wake up, do some leg stretches and exercises, and zonk out again. I love my 3 inch pillowtop mattress.

I bought a SAD light therapy fixture to see if it will help elevate my mood. The Mayo Clinic site had some great articles about SAD. I saw some of my symptoms there...feeling undirected, tired, a little impatient, etc etc.

Menopause and the lack of sunlight seem to be conspiring to affect my normally happy mood. So I am looking forward to using the light to offset some of that. I believe light therapy will help me, so that is half the battle.
....

I bought a blue box 2-3 years ago and found it helped a lot.

In extended gloomy weather in the Bay Area, I'd sit with the light nearby each morning and bask in the blue for half an hour or so while catching up on this forum.

I don't think I'll need it where I live now, though.

 

[Meadbh]

I slept a lot today. I felt tired and the day was gloomy. It was fun to just lay in bed, sleep a little, wake up, do some leg stretches and exercises, and zonk out again. I love my 3 inch pillowtop mattress.

I bought a SAD light therapy fixture to see if it will help elevate my mood. The Mayo Clinic site had some great articles about SAD. I saw some of my symptoms there...feeling undirected, tired, a little impatient, etc etc.

Menopause and the lack of sunlight seem to be conspiring to affect my normally happy mood. So I am looking forward to using the light to offset some of that. I believe light therapy will help me, so that is half the battle.

I will assemble it tonite while Mr B makes homemade sausage and pepperoni pizza. He is napping after studying for most of the day.

I lit a fire to cheer up the living room. Time to go wake him.

PS Jim Cantore is on location in Syracuse, so you know what that means....

I am on of the 25% of Canadians who has symptoms of SAD (though I did experience it before moving here). When I was living on the Prairies, there was plenty of sunshine in the winter, but I missed it because I was working all day! I have had a light box since 1994 and regularly use it in wintertime. I just sit in front of it while drinking coffee, answering emails or surfing the web for 20 minutes in the morning.

I also find that a trip to a sunny destination works wonders, which is why I am off to Mexico next week!

 

[M Paquette]

Today's to-do list:

1. Re-check emergency caches
2. Check flashlights. Repair or replace batteries as needed.
3. Check broadcast receivers, replace batteries as needed.
3. Fully charge the handheld radio transceivers.
4. Check and test the 12 VDC big battery for the shortwave radio transceiver.
5. Inspect antenna masts and guy lines. Forecast peak winds will be strong enough to hit the burst strength of an unguyed 30' pine or hemlock mast built from 2x4 and 2x3 pieces.

Incoming weather. And people wondered what I'd do with my time in retirement...

 

[Walt34]

Went for about a 45 minute motorcycle ride. Brrrrr! The fuel that is in it has been there since about late spring and because of a bend or something in the fuel filler neck on the tank I can't siphon it out to replace it with fresh (treated) fuel.

So I'm taking in out on non-rainy and more or less warm days (+30°) for 30 to 45 minutes at a time to slowly burn that off so I can replace the fuel and doing it at the time of day when traffic is at the lightest and still in daylight. Then when I can replace the fuel it goes back to sleep for the rest of the winter.