A Loaf of Bread, a Robot and a Crazy Lady

What do all of these have in common? Very little. Nothing in fact. Except that I was involved in all three.

Here is a pic of my successful (finally!) attempt at making homemade bread:



I used the simple bread recipe from the fabulous book, "Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen" by Laurie Colwin. You can get it here. It's not only recipes, but great, short stories on cooking and being in the kitchen. I loved it and want to buy her second book as well. My first attempt at making this bread was a dud owing to the fact that I am "yeast ignorant". I had no idea that you had to add the yeast to very warm (100 degrees or so) water with a tiny bit of sugar and wait 10 minutes before adding to the bread. Last time, there was no rising, but this time, I happily had the opportunity to punch down the dough....Ben liked putting his hand prints in it, too!

Jackie gave me the tip for the water, sugar and waiting. Boy, did it work! Thanks, J!

Not only did the bread come out wonderfully, smell good and taste yummy, but it has such a golden look and crunch to the crust. I changed Laurie's recipe slightly...

-added 3 cups white unbleached bread flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (instead of half and half)
-used 3/4 cup of organic, lowfat milk and 3/4 cup of water/yeast
-let the bread cook for a bit less time at 450 degrees.....22 minutes instead of 30. (I think my stove cooks quickly)

YUMMY!

Now, onto the Robot! I used the Wee Wonderfuls Second Put Together book, "SpaceBoy and Robot" again to make, what Ben calls, DADDY ROBOT!!!

Here he is with Roger....who you can find out more about here:



Again, this Robot was all hand sewn and the fabric picked out by Ben himself. I now have a request for another Robot to be made for Tim. I really love making toys.

I had more fun making Daddy Robot, although I think Roger is cuter. The Robot has less pieces to cut out and sew and, now that I know how to flip the legs and arms around, I didn't make any of the mistakes I'd made last time. I enjoyed making the front panel on the Robot with all his "buttons and knobs"...sounds kinda kinky, doesn't it?....and this panel makes the Robot sparkly and very special. I'm addicted to making these dolls. I want to make the others now, too....I have two more of the Wee Wonderfuls books and also the MakeAlong Dolls, which I'll probably make next. Those are for ME!!

A pic of my little sweetheart, just off the potty (Good job, Benji!) and still quite sleepy...holding his new doll:



Finally, we have the story about the crazy lady at B&N. Huh. Where do I begin? I can barely get over the shock of it. The whole episode happened so fast, so no one had time to take a picture of her, but here is what she may have looked like as a baby:



We were all at B&N knitting at our usual table in the cafe.....talking, laughing, being loud, etc. And, just as Lora was bringing another small table to our group and Amanda was coming back to the table with a cupcake, this late 30ish lady with dark hair (and her mouth full of cupcake...pieces spewing as she talked) came up to our table screaming at us.....

(this is just what I remember...)

"What the f*uck are YOU laughing at??? [looking at Amanda, then Mike] F*ck you! Do you think it's funny, you f*ggot? F*ck you! F*ggot!"

So GiGi says very politely and calmly, "Excuse me, but have we offended you somehow?" and the lady screams at her, "Why don't you shove your hook up your *ss!" And then again, as she is walking away, keeps screaming, "F*ck you! F*ck you!"

We were all looking at each other like, "What the HELL was that????" and saying to each other, "Do you KNOW her?"

After 10 minutes of shock and bewilderment (poor Blogless Amanda missed the whole thing by only a minute or two), we finally came to the conclusion that it was some crazy lady who had mental problems (SERIOUS mental problems) and didn't realize what she was doing or saying. At least, that can be the only explanation. At least she brought some new stuff to talk about the entire night. But, I was a bit spooked...we kept saying, "If only Laurin or Ericka were here!!!!

I guess knitting really IS a dangerous hobby. Who knew??