A Few Quick Notes 255

-Today was an absolutely beautiful day. The sun was out constantly and the skies were clear. Aside from a little wind and sub-zero temperatures it was almost perfect. And on top of the beauty of the day, we managed to score an extra minute of sun at the end of the day.

-Yesterday I baked a few loaves of bread, the first bread that I have baked since returning to Halifax. This time around, unlike with past batches in this oven, I decided to put an empty pan on the rack beneath the bread. This trick seems to have allowed me to avoid having an overly thick bottom crust, which is a problem that I have had with previous batches in this oven.

The other frustrating problem that I am continuing to have is that occasionally some of the bread is sticking to the pan, even though the pans have been greased. The more I think about it the more I am starting to wonder if this is related to the length of time the bread has been rising in a given spot. I seem to recall that the latter batches are sticking more than the earlier batches, though this may just be me making things up.

-Though I have only been back in class for a day it feels as though I am already behind. Part of this may be related to the fact that in one course I have already printed 90 pages of readings for next week, the worst part being that is only half of what I have to read for next class. I am a little worried about what I might encounter in my remaining two classes.

-For Christmas I received a copy of Settlers of Catan: Traders and Barbarians, which is an expansion for Settlers of Catan. Unlike past expansions (Seafarers and Cities and Knights) this one includes multiple scenarios and variants, some of which are more complicated than others. So far we have focused on the Fishermen of Catan and Harbourmaster options, leaving some of the more complicated set-ups to a future date.

Though I have been generally pleased with this expansion, we have found that not all available options are equal in terms of enjoyment or quality of game play. I guess the best thing to do is try a few of the variants and gradually weed out those of a lesser quality (as if you couldn't have figured this out yourself). As a side note, it seems that the 5-6 player expansion of this expansion was just released in December, though I haven't yet seen it.

-Today, to take advantage of the 10% discount at Sobeys Neil and Rebecca prepared a grocery list, and eventually took a trip to the store. As I had class this afternoon I didn't manage to join them on the excursion. Amazingly, by this evening I managed to find enough items that I forgot to include on the list that I was forced to make a return trip. I am particularly glad that I returned this evening as it meant that I was able to take advantage of the 2 for 1 sale on English Ivy plants (because we needed more plants). I also picked a some beans and lentils to cook in the new pressure cooker.

-For those of you with access to TruTV (primarily those of you in the US) you might be interested in checking out tomorrow night's episode of Most Shocking (entitled "Party Pandemonium), it should be quite the show.