Can we knock off the crappy weather already

I guess it's technically not weather. But I am really getting sick of the early darkness. It's not even 5pm and the sun is setting.

I hate you Daylight Savings Time. You suck the life out of me.

Tool users

We have a local gang of crows that hang out in our area. There must be good pickings, because they are around the same areas around the same time of day, every day.

It's pecan season now, and the crows love pecans. I watch them scoot along the phone wires that cross the alley out back with pecans in their beaks. When a car enters the alley, they drop the nut hoping it will be crushed under the wheels for an effortless meal.

I see them carrying pecans all the time, but when they drop them, it's always on the roads. Never the sidewalk, grass, or on rooftops.

I was walking in the alley today and a crow dropped a pecan trying for an SUV hit. It rolled to the side by the fence and was missed completely by the vehicle. While the crow still watched from his perch, I moved the pecan to the middle of the road and smashed it underfoot. He waited until I was out of the alley before he swooped to pick at the nut.

If I do that every time I see them doing the car trick, I wonder if they will learn to drop nuts in front of people as well.

Birthday

Spent a quiet morning cleaning house and getting ready for tonight. I have a bit of shopping to do, then my (at this point, almost traditional) attempt to make an angelfood cake. I've cooked a bazillion things in my life, and I've never been able to make an angelfood cake that came out the way it should.

It's always flat and hard, though it tastes just fine. I love good cake and angelfood always tastes like chemicals (egg stabilizers I'm sure) when storebought. My Nani could make a perfect one. Sure I like chocolate cake, but I get to have chocolate for everyone else's birthday. My choice is lemon, angelfood or coconut. I'm not a frosting maniac, the cake itself must be good. Moist, flavorful, a fine crumb.

Every other year I get the urge to try again. In the hopes that it will make a difference, I'm getting good eggs, washing all the equipment twice, and moving the oven rack.

Tonight is a low key gathering of a few friends, I wanted to do it on my actual birthday ( a weeknight) to keep it small. I'm looking forward to good pizza, cupcakes from one of those local cupcakeries (they are all the rage and I've never had one), and playing Hearts, which I've wanted to do for months.

First of many

First post means introductions. I've been on LJ for a while and since I already have a gmail account, and several people say they like blogger better, it's time for a change.

I'm making my way as an artist, not a writer. There are plenty of fantastically talented amateur writers out there, I'm here only to blog about experiences with my creations of food, art, crafts and related aspects thereof.

Thanks for stopping by.
-Stephanie


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