Busy, busy, busy.
May. 23rd, 2006 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumOne of my favorite books is "The Wind in the Willows." Those of you who have never read it, should.
It opens with a sentiment by Mole, with which I am, of late, in all sweet accord, "Bother Spring cleaning."
We are packing. Slowly, but wit some steadiness. Books disappearing from the shelves, and into boxes, wrapped in plastic, and enclosed in cardboard. The first to keep out the silverfish and bookworms which might attack them while they sit in storage and the last to contain them in the bags.
We've been a tad desultiry about it because tomorrow is Maia's birthday, and she is having a party. She called to tell me the list of exptected persons is not less than 20, nor more than 30 (actually what she said was she would be surprised if less than the former, or more than the latter). For those who might care, her big present is what everyone ought to buy their loved ones, cutlery. She and I have different tastes in kitchen knives. I like to have a bolster, she likes a snick (which is to say, at the back of the knife, nearest one's fingers, I like a thicker piece of steel, and she like the edge to come right to the base of the blade). She uses it to cut out the bad spots in pototoes, abples and the like. I use a twist of the point.
So she is getting a 5" Kai paring knife. Pretty as well as functional. The handle is, as is common in Japanese kitchen knives, not so much for battlefield cutlery) handed, with a rounded triabgular cross section. The blade itself has a pseudo-patterning of grained steel (as was common in all Japanese steel of quality until the 16th century).
So Thursday begins the serious packing. The kitchen, the cookbooks (which are in the public areas of the house) every other book; even the reference works, save my dictionaries and the one's I am presently reading. The shelves will be empty by mid-week next, at the latest.
Quite apart from my desire to have my cookbooks (which are more technique books then recipe books) where I can get at them (it a comfort to see them, even if I rarely reach for them), they are comfort items, of a sort. When the pots, pans, and cookbooks go into boxes, we are moving, so the four linear feet or so of books is a sign of stability.
Once we start moving things get hectic.
10 June: Graduation.
15 June: I might get to demostrate for 5th kyu at the dojo. I'd like to to this. Quite apart from wanting to prove that I've managed to gain some skill at the basics, there's the wish to not have to go to a new dojo and prove myself, ab initio. But the Korea trip screwed things up. Because I was gone (and because I was sick for the week I got back) I wasn't really able to request an exam until the end of April/beginning of May. Which put things in a crunch. I'd pretty much accepted that it wasn't going to happen.
Thursday Mary said it might, and now I'm feeling not only the pressure of the exam/demonstration, but one of time. If I can relax and not focus on it, while staying focused on what I am trying to do (practial applications of mu-shin and men-shin, no mind and no thought) I'll not only be able to pull it off, but I'll actually be,reasonably certain I deserve it.
It means I'll be late to the party tomorrow, since I'll be going to the first class, and then to home. With only 12 training days left I can't really afford to miss any.
Right now I am elbow deep in ciabatta. Two loaves just came out, two more go in an hour, I'll do four more when we get home tonight after training. There's sauce on the stove, reducing a bit, and being seasoned for three lasagnes (one with capers, olives and basil; one with spinach, and one with some of Webb's italian sausage).
16 June: we drive away.
19: June: Maia starts classes at USC.
23 June: I fly to Scotland.
08 July: I get back.
15 July (I think) I leave for Ukraine for two weeks.
I'll get a month at home (to unpack boxes and arrange the kitchen) before I have to go to a school, in the first half of Sep.
Put down on paper like that it seems I get no rest and have no time to think, much less get done any of the things which ought to be done.
Oh, well. In some ways moving may be a blessing. There won't, for example, be the monthly/bi-monthly four hour drives to LA.
It opens with a sentiment by Mole, with which I am, of late, in all sweet accord, "Bother Spring cleaning."
We are packing. Slowly, but wit some steadiness. Books disappearing from the shelves, and into boxes, wrapped in plastic, and enclosed in cardboard. The first to keep out the silverfish and bookworms which might attack them while they sit in storage and the last to contain them in the bags.
We've been a tad desultiry about it because tomorrow is Maia's birthday, and she is having a party. She called to tell me the list of exptected persons is not less than 20, nor more than 30 (actually what she said was she would be surprised if less than the former, or more than the latter). For those who might care, her big present is what everyone ought to buy their loved ones, cutlery. She and I have different tastes in kitchen knives. I like to have a bolster, she likes a snick (which is to say, at the back of the knife, nearest one's fingers, I like a thicker piece of steel, and she like the edge to come right to the base of the blade). She uses it to cut out the bad spots in pototoes, abples and the like. I use a twist of the point.
So she is getting a 5" Kai paring knife. Pretty as well as functional. The handle is, as is common in Japanese kitchen knives, not so much for battlefield cutlery) handed, with a rounded triabgular cross section. The blade itself has a pseudo-patterning of grained steel (as was common in all Japanese steel of quality until the 16th century).
So Thursday begins the serious packing. The kitchen, the cookbooks (which are in the public areas of the house) every other book; even the reference works, save my dictionaries and the one's I am presently reading. The shelves will be empty by mid-week next, at the latest.
Quite apart from my desire to have my cookbooks (which are more technique books then recipe books) where I can get at them (it a comfort to see them, even if I rarely reach for them), they are comfort items, of a sort. When the pots, pans, and cookbooks go into boxes, we are moving, so the four linear feet or so of books is a sign of stability.
Once we start moving things get hectic.
10 June: Graduation.
15 June: I might get to demostrate for 5th kyu at the dojo. I'd like to to this. Quite apart from wanting to prove that I've managed to gain some skill at the basics, there's the wish to not have to go to a new dojo and prove myself, ab initio. But the Korea trip screwed things up. Because I was gone (and because I was sick for the week I got back) I wasn't really able to request an exam until the end of April/beginning of May. Which put things in a crunch. I'd pretty much accepted that it wasn't going to happen.
Thursday Mary said it might, and now I'm feeling not only the pressure of the exam/demonstration, but one of time. If I can relax and not focus on it, while staying focused on what I am trying to do (practial applications of mu-shin and men-shin, no mind and no thought) I'll not only be able to pull it off, but I'll actually be,reasonably certain I deserve it.
It means I'll be late to the party tomorrow, since I'll be going to the first class, and then to home. With only 12 training days left I can't really afford to miss any.
Right now I am elbow deep in ciabatta. Two loaves just came out, two more go in an hour, I'll do four more when we get home tonight after training. There's sauce on the stove, reducing a bit, and being seasoned for three lasagnes (one with capers, olives and basil; one with spinach, and one with some of Webb's italian sausage).
16 June: we drive away.
19: June: Maia starts classes at USC.
23 June: I fly to Scotland.
08 July: I get back.
15 July (I think) I leave for Ukraine for two weeks.
I'll get a month at home (to unpack boxes and arrange the kitchen) before I have to go to a school, in the first half of Sep.
Put down on paper like that it seems I get no rest and have no time to think, much less get done any of the things which ought to be done.
Oh, well. In some ways moving may be a blessing. There won't, for example, be the monthly/bi-monthly four hour drives to LA.
