Menu

Subscribe

Plague Diary

A 1693-post collection

Monday, the Skin of My Teeth

It's payday tomorrow, I had to buy fuel, I have five dollarydoos left in my account and the oven preheating for the baking.

I need coffee, cream, flour, chia [I'm out at last], salt, and sundry other fixings.

I might take Miss Chaos out shopping with me when we can afford such an excursion. It's a long and complicated trip I have queued up to take most of my moneys.

Costco, Golden Circle Factory Outlet, the meat market, Aldi, and finally Woolies for my cream. I'm not getting the Aldi cream any more. It keeps going off on me. Malaney Dairies may be more expensive, but their stuff LASTS long enough.

See the "Boots Theory" of economics care of Sir Terry Pratchett.

I chase bargains where I can, but some bargains aren't worth it.

Chapter count: Working on getting halfway through 370

Today, there shall be fresh bread. Tomorrow, I shall be able to get the stuff to make more. And keep the fam fed in the meantime.

I barely made it this fortnight. Fingers crossed, I shall have a better time of it this pay cycle.

Fingers... very crossed.

Beloved isn't as interested in Book 4 of A Devil's Tale as she once was. She can't nail it down, so I'm just writing what compels me and hoping for the best.

I might actually get to those epilogues.

Time will tell.

Sunday, Bread Again

I have good news identical to the bad news: The bread is so delicious that the family can't stay away from it.

My loaves got a little burned, but that is a timing issue. The second one is just a little doughy on the bottom, and that's another timing issue. The dough's still stiff and hard to manage, so for the final experiment, I am in mid-process of an 80% hydration batch with the chia soaking.

I'm also using some metal tins

Read more »

Saturday, Parkrun and Bread

Finally home, I have acquired a second kitchen scale and dividing the dough was a lot easier than my last efforts.

And just in time! The last quarter of my last loaf has dwindled to a hub end somehow. "Somehow" 9_9 [It was Miss Chaos]

So my PLN is thusly:

  • The first loaf is proofing whilst the oven preheats
  • Inside the bread mould and the incubator
  • I have a small bowl literally chilling in the freezer so I can do the
Read more »

Friday, Refined Schedule, Unfucking, and Nearly Done

I have not reached the final words of A Devil's Tale just yet. I would be doing a lot more buildup of that if I knew I was close.

I am almost done with my maps for Candy Heist.

I just have to furnish the map I started on yesterday and it's all good to go.

...which means I have to unearth the Candy Heist document and make sure I have tokens to put on the map. Quick search and piccrew will

Read more »

Thursday, All New Fuckups

I had PLN'd to get Mayhem to the train station by nine so he could catch the train that would let him get to job training in good time.

Pity for me that waking up to arrive mere minutes to the train's arrival is counterproductive to the thought processes of Mayhem. So he missed the train and I had to drive him down. Again.

We have a PLN in place to not mess up that badly again, tomorrow. Yay, I guess.

As

Read more »

Wednesday, Wordpress and Training

Mayhem's off on job training today. We quickly worked out that he can take the train most of the way home so that's a win. Morning traffic is a grind.

I don't want to get depressed all over my Wordpress, today, but I also have very few ideas as to what I'm doing over there today. I'll probably end up talking about what I'm doing to try to finish my enormous and epic WIP.

My alternative thought for Wordpress is a letter

Read more »

Tuesday, Patreon and Bread

I've measured out everything but my Starter, which is currently incubating in preparation for the autolyse. I have 170g of chia soaking in 800g of water for the duration.

I know the traditional wire tool for bread [Called a "Dough Whisk" I have just now learned] is not good for mixing flour and soaked chia because the sticky goop just gets stuck in the cracks and it's nigh impossible to shift. I shall try "chopping in" the flour and mix with the

Read more »

Monday, Tale Foundry, Meds, and Breads

I need to go forth and get some Ashwagandha today. I'm down to the bottom of the jar.

I'm also almost out of my homemade bread so tomorrow is Bread Day.

This experiment will include:

  • 170g chia (soaked in the water)
  • 830g wholemeal flour
  • 800g water

I will also be weighing the split dough at the end and thereby have plausibly more even loaves.

We shall see.

I'll cut the chia down to half if it remains unmanageably stiff, and start again

Read more »

Sunday, Snuggles and Stuff

I re-ordered my schedule to spend more time with my lovely and...

She woke me up at midnight and kept making enough noise to keep me intermittently awake until I had to get up at 4AM. Thanks, love. I really didn't need that.

Plus, when I purposely gave off from everything else just to spend time with her in the morning... she was asleep. -_-

Ah well. Plenty of snuggle time on a rainy morning.

I'm about to do my daily

Read more »

Saturday, Parkrun and Changes

Beloved has a change of fate, and I shall be receiving wages when it all goes through. It is still pending and in the process of setting up.

I'm already depressed because my first paycheque has to go on tyres and not a celebratory dinner. Needs weigh higher than wants, true, but... eh. I'd much rather have the dinner.

We had our hair did today, so I have very little time to get my offerings on.

I need to hurry up and

Read more »

Friday... It begins!

So.

I have just finished Ch 365 of A Devil's Tale which means I will be publishing the first sentence of each chapter every day until I finish the book or run out of chapters.

Whichever comes first.

I'll be hashtagging them on my socials so that most people will guess what I'm up to. And hopefully, I will also get some curiosity and interest about it.

Maybe get people to go rabbit-holing through all the other nonsense I have going.

It's

Read more »

Thursday, New Bread, and Trying to Relax

I have bread. Look:

[Shown here, two loaves on a black cooling rack on a black cooktop. One is in front of the other. The foremost loaf is golden-brown and smaller than the hindmost loaf, which is slightly burned on top]

Once again, my ability to make even halves of the dough have bitten me on the butt. I have PLNs to do better the next time.

Adjustments this time: Soaked the chia in the water for the dough creation. The result

Read more »

Wednesday, Wordpress, Bread, and Sundry

Woke up close to 3AM, did my stretchies, and prepped for bread.

My starter (Ingrid) looked already fully grown so I gave them a quarter cup of plain flour and a bit of water to pep them up while they're in the incubator.

This time, I weighed the chia [171g makes a cup. I might make it an even 170 next time because the math is simpler] and subtracted that from the 1kg total flour weight. I weighed out 780g of water

Read more »

Tuesday, Patreon and Errands

Mayhem's got an appointment this afternoon. I have stuff to post on Patreon. I have offerings to make for y'all's entertainment.

I've put my nebulous PLNs to make bread today on hold. I'll have way more time for that tomorrow.

We should get paid today, and that will be a breath of fresh air. If I have the funds when Mayhem's in transit, I'll get the supplies on the way home.

Otherwise, I'll have to do all of that on Wednesday. Perhaps

Read more »

Monday, Reads, Pills, and Nonsense

The Foundry is doing backup reads and I need to get more meds. Eeps. So my story will be happening later in the afternoon.

Chapter count: Just finished Chapter 363

Two more chapters until I start publishing my starter sentences on my socials.

Eeps.

On the plus side, I am managing a chapter every couple of days. Which is good production output.

I shall be nicking off from the Foundry at the commencement of the After Party because I need to go

Read more »