The "How was your Day" thread

[Jamari]

I wish people would start using this forum again. Just to share a little piece of ourselves with each other. I'm getting a shot in my back today. It's a scary thing...😁

[trystan]

since it's still morning for me today, my day yesterday was.... soggy, as it was raining all day.  my daughter's car was at the mechanic, getting a valve cover replaced, those things are expensive! it cost a pretty penny ($700) but she'll be paying us back for most of it over time, so there's that.  my kittens did silly things, and i got some crocheting done, and i did NOT fall asleep at my computer last night.

 

so that's how my yesterday was.

[Queen_of_Jesters]

 

From 22:00 to 7:00 we glued the wallpaper, I would never have thought that it would take so much time and effort. The renovation is finally ready and the room is decorated for Christmas.

I don't know why, but I have a mysterious feeling that 2021 will be more successful for all of us, and personally, I have a desire to say goodbye to everything old and complete all my affairs that have been postponed for a long time

[Tiira]

For a moment life is smiling at me despite the pandemic and everything. I got my hair cut last Monday and it's making me so happy. I had waited for this at least two years, since my decision to stop dyeing it with henna! Originally I planned to just let it grow back after getting rid of the red colour but I'm not sure anymore because it feels so perfect now. And this also means I got to see my friend who has her own eco-friendly hair salon. In addition, today I received an email that my last essay of this autumn was very good so it seems I'm done with studying for this year and can have a few weeks of holiday.

 

I still have a lot to do with all the Christmas preparations, though, because I'm the one who cooks and bakes everything for our Christmas family dinner (excluding rosolli, a Finnish Christmas salad, which will be made by my mom, as always). My parents will bring me some ingredients this weekend so I can really get started, so far I've only prepared the traditional Finnish Christmas casseroles (carrot, potato and swede) which can easily be made in advance. I think I'll wrap their presents today already so there will be less things to worry about next week; and make some more piparkakku dough (cookies similar to gingerbread but more spicy) as I should have some flour and sugar left. 🎄 I'm also going to bake bread when the dough has risen enough but that will go to the freezer, to be used after the holidays. I just had to use some of my sourdough because it had grown too much...

[catstaff]

1 hour ago, Varislapsi said:

For a moment life is smiling at me despite the pandemic and everything. I got my hair cut last Monday and it's making me so happy. I had waited for this at least two years, since my decision to stop dyeing it with henna! Originally I planned to just let it grow back after getting rid of the red colour but I'm not sure anymore because it feels so perfect now. And this also means I got to see my friend who has her own eco-friendly hair salon. In addition, today I received an email that my last essay of this autumn was very good so it seems I'm done with studying for this year and can have a few weeks of holiday.

 

I still have a lot to do with all the Christmas preparations, though, because I'm the one who cooks and bakes everything for our Christmas family dinner (excluding rosolli, a Finnish Christmas salad, which will be made by my mom, as always). My parents will bring me some ingredients this weekend so I can really get started, so far I've only prepared the traditional Finnish Christmas casseroles (carrot, potato and swede) which can easily be made in advance. I think I'll wrap their presents today already so there will be less things to worry about next week; and make some more piparkakku dough (cookies similar to gingerbread but more spicy) as I should have some flour and sugar left. 🎄 I'm also going to bake bread when the dough has risen enough but that will go to the freezer, to be used after the holidays. I just had to use some of my sourdough because it had grown too much...

 

Congrats on getting through the studies! Glad your haircut is making you happy. I'm currently in a state of perpetual annoyance with my hair, but that's because I'm growing it out and it's reached that awful in-between stage where it's long enough to make the back of my neck itch and to flop into my eyes, but it's still too short to put it up. The funny thing is, it actually looks pretty good if I just brush it out and leave it alone, but it drives me crazy.

 

Also, recipes, please, when you get a chance?

 

My day has been less than stellar, considering it's not yet noon here. Nightwish announced a pair of virtual concerts come March and I tried to buy tickets, but for whatever reason, my bank doesn't seem to play nicely when I'm trying to buy stuff from European sites. I'm seriously considering getting one of those prepaid Visa cards and seeing if that works any better, because I'm sick and tired of spending a couple hours of my time and tracfone minutes dealing with the bank.

[Queen_of_Jesters]

On the contrary, my haircut today was just disappointment. In the summer it was a pixie, I decided to grow it to a сare, but the hairdresser misunderstood me and cut too much, and now I have a pixie again. Wasted months

[Tiira]

@catstaff Ah, you know, it's hard to write down exact recipes for those traditional Christmas dishes, I guess every family has their own. My recipes for the casseroles change a bit from year to year as I haven't discovered the perfect ones yet so I like to experiment. And of course today many just buy them at the supermarket. Perunalaatikko is definitely the most difficult to prepare because the process includes some chemical reactions which should give the dish its sweet taste. But I've never succeeded in that so far! One can always cheat by adding some syrup, though.

 

But rosolli is actually easy to make. You just cook some carrots, beetroots and optionally potatoes, peel them and cut them into tiny pieces. They are combined with diced onion (red or yellow) and pickled cucumber and you can add some apple, too. Then it's served with a pink dressing made of either whipped cream or some soured cream product (which we have always used, nowadays something oat-based because I'm vegan) and seasoned with salt and white pepper and some water left from cooking the beetroots.

 

The main ingredients of piparkakut, in addition to flour, sugar, butter or margarine and bicarbonate of soda are dark syrup and spices but, again, the amounts are different for each recipe. The ready-to-bake frozen doughs which are really popular seem to be generally less spicy. I like to use black treacle instead of syrup because it has an even more intense flavour. I can write down how I make it, it's very simple but I can only give metric measurements:

 

Spoiler

200 g margarine,

200 g cane sugar,

200 g syrup or treacle,

ground spices: 30 ml cinnamon, 15 ml cardamom, 10 ml ginger, 10 ml cloves, pinch of black pepper

 

Combine the ingredients above in a sauce pan, heat them up so that the margarine melts; only quickly bring them to boil, then remove from heat and let cool.

 

When it has cooled, add the following:

15 g bicarbonate of soda mixed with a spoonful of water or so,

around 500 g white flour (or you can replace some with rye flour)

 

Mix everything together and leave it in the fridge for at least one night. Then you can roll the dough using flour as needed and cut into cookies. Bake in 200 degrees Celsius (about 400 F?) for just 5 to 10 minutes, they need to be watched closely or they will burn.

 

But the Finnish Christmas dinner is quite extensive. Usually there are also meat and fish dishes (we make plant-based alternatives), breads (limppu), maybe Karelian pies, various canned and pickled products... cookies, pastries, fruits, nuts and dried fruits, chocolate and cheeses for dessert. And of course glögi, with or without alcohol, served with almonds and raisins. For the Christmas breakfast we have rice porridge with sekametelisoppa (mixed fruit kisel) or cinnamon and sugar, or both; we hide an almond in the porridge and it's said to bring luck to whoever is fortunate enough to get it on their plate. Actually the porridge is another thing which is my mom's responsibility! She says "Oispa joulu että sais yölläkin syödä." (Wish it was Christmas so one could eat even at night.)

 

(When I was little, we had to skip the almond because I was allergic. We tried using a raisin instead but it broke into pieces!)

 

So there's a lot to do. I also bake some neapolitan Christmas cookies and I've planned to make myself a panforte! Yes, for myself only. That's because I gifted one (and one panpepato) to my friend, the one who is a hairdresser, and the dough was so good that it was difficult to give it away, hahah! There will be enough to eat on our family dinner, anyway, so I guess I can make another and enjoy it by myself.

 

By the way, if you don't hate Christmas carols, did you know that you should be able to listen to the Finnish Christmas radio online? I love Christmas so I've been listening to it a lot, lately. My favourites of the Finnish Christmas carols are Sylvian joululaulu and Varpunen jouluaamuna.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Varislapsi

[catstaff]

54 minutes ago, Varislapsi said:

@catstaff Ah, you know, it's hard to write down exact recipes for those traditional Christmas dishes, I guess every family has their own. My recipes for the casseroles change a bit from year to year as I haven't discovered the perfect ones yet so I like to experiment. And of course today many just buy them at the supermarket. Perunalaatikko is definitely the most difficult to prepare because the process includes some chemical reactions which should give the dish its sweet taste. But I've never succeeded in that so far! One can always cheat by adding some syrup, though.

 

But rosolli is actually easy to make. You just cook some carrots, beetroots and optionally potatoes, peel them and cut them into tiny pieces. They are combined with diced onion (red or yellow) and pickled cucumber and you can add some apple, too. Then it's served with a pink dressing made of either whipped cream or some soured cream product (which we have always used, nowadays something oat-based because I'm vegan) and seasoned with salt and white pepper and some water left from cooking the beetroots.

 

The main ingredients of piparkakut, in addition to flour, sugar, butter or margarine and bicarbonate of soda are dark syrup and spices but, again, the amounts are different for each recipe. The ready-to-bake frozen doughs which are really popular seem to be generally less spicy. I like to use black treacle instead of syrup because it has an even more intense flavour. I can write down how I make it, it's very simple but I can only give metric measurements:

 

(snipped for space)

 

By the way, if you don't hate Christmas carols, did you know that you should be able to listen to the Finnish Christmas radio online? I love Christmas so I've been listening to it a lot, lately. My favourites of the Finnish Christmas carols are Sylvian joululaulu and Varpunen jouluaamuna.

 

Kiitos paljon! I can work with metric measurements; all of my measuring cups are marked in metric as well as US measurements. The spices might be a little harder, but I'll figure it out. 😊

 

I'll definitely check out the Christmas radio! Would you believe I was clicking through videos from previous Raskasta Joulua shows and literally heard Varpunen jouluaamuna for the first time earlier today? Niin kaunis! Marko Hietala plus a choir of schoolchildren sang it, and it had English subtitles so I ended up in tears. I can see why it's a favorite of yours.

[Tiira]

@catstaff Yes, I can imagine! It's so beautiful! And I absolutely love children choirs. Tapiolan kuoro is amazing, last year I fell in love with their Lumiukko (which, despite the name, has nothing to do with the British animated film and Walking in the Air) after hearing it on the Christmas radio and I bought their Christmas album, too. Unfortunately I haven't heard it yet this Christmas and it's not on Youtube or anywhere so I can't even link it. Anyway, on the online Christmas radio there's also the Rouhea joulu channel. I haven't tried it myself, to be honest, but I think it has all the rock and metal covers.

 

Oh, and the measurements for the spices aren't exact either. I guess everyone has to try and create their own perfect mix. I often add a bit less cloves because my mother doesn't like it so much. 15 ml is one tablespoon and 5 ml is one teaspoon if that helps! I'm just uncertain if the measuring spoons we use here are same as yours in the US...

 

It's funny that Christmas might be the only time I actually cook Finnish food. Whoops. It's just that Italy obsession of mine! But I have enjoyed our Christmas dishes ever since I was a child. We eat them many days because you only get them once a year!

[Kegluneq]

I'm staying in my brother's apartment because he's in another city taking care of my newborn nephew, so I'm here taking care of the cats.

 

I stayed up all night last night so I could be ready for tonight. I went to bed around 9:00 a.m. and I can't sleep in silence because if I sleep in complete silence I get bad dreams, I really don't mind the darkness but sometimes if I sleep in complete darkness even though I'm listening to something I get bad dreams anyway... I'm weird I know...

 

So, I went to bed, put auto Youtube on my phone, and when I was dead asleep I hear my mom screaming, yelling, calling out for me. I jumped out of bed and turns out the dogs of the apartment downstairs were in a fight and the neighbors downstairs weren't home. It was a really big scandal because neighbors upstairs noticed about the dogs too and people living in the complex behind this complex noticed too, but nobody was in position to do anything about the dog fight.

 

Thing is I got really scared because when I got out of bed, confused, I didn't see my cats anywhere. That's when mom told me the dogs are fighting so I went to the balcony in the back to take a look, then the other neighbors told me to throw some water to the dogs, so they separate, by that moment my mom gave me a bucket of water to throw at the dogs, when I was about to do so my neighbor upstairs throws water but I got wet, I didn't lose concentration and hit the dogs with water.

 

Now, I know by experience that throwing water doesn't work to stop a dogs fight but really there was nothing else we could do in this case.

 

When the dogs stop fighting I spent a lot of time looking for my cats in the entire apartment, I found the little one (she's about a month old) down the couch, but the big one was nowhere, we checked every room, inside the closets, under the beds, the bathroom, everywhere, even in the kitchen drawers, we were looking for him for like 20 minutes until we found him hiding behind the washing machine, he got really scared with all the noise and movement around here.

 

As I'm typing this on my phone he's laying on top of me, in the back of my neck, I'm a dog person actually, I have 4 dogs at home, but I think I have this cat's trust and love and I love him... and her too (the little one) but I yet to win her over, I still have to learn a lot about cats. Any tips for winning a kitty's love? ^^

 

Now I'm going to get some sleep and be ready for tonight lol, sorry for this long post. 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Kegluneq

[Lagie]

2 hours ago, Kegluneq said:

Any tips for winning a kitty's love? ^^

 

Now I'm going to get some sleep and be ready for tonight lol, sorry for this long post. 

Food. Cuddles. Calmness.

Sounds like a stressful night for all of you. I hope tonight is better.

 

 

Second day of being home sick with a stupid head cold. Thank goodness I have awesome volunteers so my shop is ticking along smoothly without me.

[Jamari]

I am having a good day! I decided that in {almost} any situation it's ok to have a grateful attitude.
 

[Queen_of_Jesters]

Time: 2:49
Me: Finished painting the bathroom coil and pipes.
Seriously, I am in complete trouble with sleep. I fall asleep in the morning, I get up in the afternoon... and I cannot restore my sleep mode. I don’t know what to do. It seems that everything that is possible has been tried.

P.S - The house looks much better after the renovation.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Red_Snake

[Pliskin]

I cooked Christmas Dinner and Breakfast!

 

Christmas (and eve) Dinner: Scalloped potatoes/rutabaga, Balsamic green beans and chicken. It was very yummy ^^

Christmas breakfast: Pancakes! Now, tomorrow we can just toss a couple in the oven, I might make eggs in the morning. We will see.

 

also, I got the powder ingredients mixed up so I can just add eggs and butter tomorrow for Christmas cookies 🎄 and gonna try to make chex mix tomorrow.

 

and I got the garbage out before everyone fills it up over the holiday/weekend, did not get our hair cut, however. Maybe this weekend?

 

Now, we are going to watch Die Hard. Again  🎄💚❤️

[catstaff]

1 hour ago, Pliskin said:

Now, we are going to watch Die Hard. Again  🎄💚❤️

 

Of course, because it's not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off the Nakatomi Plaza!

 

I spent a lot of time hunting the AP today, lol! Even found a couple of eggs useful for lineages I've been building for years. Plus I "decorated" the apartment, by which I mean I pulled out the little lighted ceramic tree I made last year and put all the little decorations in it, so that we have something approximating a Christmas tree this year. With a couple of very mischievous cats, we only bother with a full-size tree if we can put it out on the balcony so they can't wreck it, but with my husband's current medical issues, he can't help me set it up, plus we discovered that half our old light strings have died on us, so we decided not to bother. Not like we'll be having guests or anything, after all. Oh, and I wrapped the last couple of presents that Amazon so graciously managed to deliver after 10 pm (22:00) last night. Now I'm just praying the cats don't decide to "unwrap" anything before we get up tomorrow morning! 🤣

 

@Varislapsi, I made the piparkakut! I'd call them a qualified success, they taste good, but they look horrible. I suspect I screwed up a conversion somewhere so that the proportions of the ingredients were a little off. But for a first try, I think I did okay!

[Tiira]

@catstaff Oh I'm sorry to hear that but it's great that they taste good at least! I hope they'll also look prettier the next time. Yeah, maybe there was too little flour or too much soda (the dough is quite smooth when you put it in the fridge but the next day it should be much harder, just like any other cookie dough!) Or of course it can also be just because sometimes flours act differently or syrup/treacle can be thicker or runnier etc. That has happened to me at least once, I remember I had made two identical doughs but with different batches of flour; I had left them in the fridge for one night and when I took them out the other was good but the other had turned really, really dry, that was so strange! But it might be I just ate it raw, eh, I'm the kind of person who always prefers the dough to baked cookies so perhaps I took advantage of that unfortunate situation... (this is why I always feel a bit nauseous after baking anything!)

 

Anyway, hyvää joulua! 🎄

[catstaff]

1 hour ago, Varislapsi said:

@catstaff Oh I'm sorry to hear that but it's great that they taste good at least! I hope they'll also look prettier the next time. Yeah, maybe there was too little flour or too much soda (the dough is quite smooth when you put it in the fridge but the next day it should be much harder, just like any other cookie dough!) Or of course it can also be just because sometimes flours act differently or syrup/treacle can be thicker or runnier etc. That has happened to me at least once, I remember I had made two identical doughs but with different batches of flour; I had left them in the fridge for one night and when I took them out the other was good but the other had turned really, really dry, that was so strange! But it might be I just ate it raw, eh, I'm the kind of person who always prefers the dough to baked cookies so perhaps I took advantage of that unfortunate situation... (this is why I always feel a bit nauseous after baking anything!)

 

Anyway, hyvää joulua! 🎄

 

I suspect too little flour or else too much syrup, as the dough seemed awfully sticky, plus they kind of spread out a lot more than I expected while in the oven. But like I said, not bad for a first attempt, especially one made without someone who knows what they're doing watching over my shoulder to give hints along the way! 😄

 

Ja hyvää joulua myös sinulle! 🎄

[Tiira]

@catstaff Too much syrup and too little flour... that happened to my susamielli, too, this year (they are Neapolitan Christmas cookies which I make with syrup instead of honey). I actually lost count when I was making the dough and thought there wasn't enough flour, but it seemed quite ok and it was easy to shape the cookies, so... but I put them in a glass jar after baking and after they had they had cooled down, and the next day the jar was only half full because they had turned all flat and chewy. 😹 But they taste very sweet!

[blockEdragon]

I normally avoid talking about personal stuff whenever possible but I just have to tell someone about this dragon I just got!

Settling on the colors was hard but I ended up choosing a silver one with purple eyes.

Spoiler

Even the front talons bend

huge wingspan.

The face has this optical illusion like certain types of theatre masks, it has a different facial expression depending on the angle.

(sorry for bad photo quality, my phone's camera is not that advanced)

 

If anyone is curious it came from an Etsy 3d printing shop called "Jollybuild" they sell other dragons but the one called "seven the dragon" is by far the nicest:

here's a link

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by blockEdragon

[Pliskin]

On 12/24/2020 at 10:35 PM, catstaff said:

 

Of course, because it's not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off the Nakatomi Plaza!

Welcome to the party, pal!

(rip, Hans and Karl)

 

 

we watched Doctor Who Christmas specials all day, then It’s a Wonderful Life. We also “opened” our presents!

 

I did make the chex mix! I decided to add olive brine to it, very yummy! And half of the lemon sugar cookie are baked, those also turned out well! I was surprised ^^

[HeatherMarie]

I really thought the first day of 2021 was going alright.... Then our toilet backed up. And trying to plunge it led to water bubbling up from the bathtub. It is now 3 hours later, and night-time, and there are multiple plumbers/workers outside digging holes in the grass and lots of water spilling into the parking lot.   I'm getting concerned we may not be able to use the toilet at all tonight.... Only good thing is that our bathroom didn't get flooded. 

[Pliskin]

@HeatherMarie that’s awful! I hope it’s getting better. I am so glad your bathroom didn’t flood, that is a nightmare.

 

Today was pretty un-eventful: slept in, did laundry, hung up the new calendar, etc.

And then tried to fix lunch, adding an egg to last night’s dinner (beans and rice), I cracked the first egg and it got me, my shirt, pants, the counter and the floor. What the heck? I finished cracking the second egg put it all in the oven and washed the kitchen and my clothes and decided taking a shower would be best. Good grief  

 

 

For supper we decided to go with something easy, so we had miso soup. Yummy.

and I’m still trying to come with a name for my new phone …

[Sesshomaru]

Pretty crappy. My town is fully of snobby, money-obsessed Californians. I made the mistake of smiling and saying hi to people on the street. Only one returned the greeting. The rest stared at me like trash on the sidewalk. Living someplace so far removed from reality is making me crazy. I can't wait until the semester starts so I can dive back into school and forget this ****ty wasteland and its ****ty people.

 

At least I worked out in spite of the rain.

[Queen_of_Jesters]

 

The beginning of the year is wonderful. I signed up for personal training in powerlifting, now I go to the coach, getting ready for competitions. I have a very

weak back muscles, so every training ends in fatigue and pain, but this will soon pass. I have high expectations for this year and my goal...

[catstaff]

Kind of sad. Found out about 12 hours ago that 2020 had one more kick to deliver to us metalheads before going away. News got released this morning that guitarist and singer Alexi Laiho (Synergy, Children of Bodom) died last week after a battle with unspecified but long-term medical problems. He was only 41.

 

Yet another legend gone too soon. We'll miss you, Wildchild. 🤘🎶💔 Lepää rauhassa, Alexi.