Sunni's blog

I don’t recall how I came upon it, but I have spent far too much time mulling the various messages offered by the essay You Weren’t Meant to Have a Boss. In an effort to move on and get something productive done today, I hereby announce my intention to fob off at least a few of them on to you readers.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about bartering; and it occurred to me the other day that I have been remiss in discussing it in a proper context. That’s what I’m going to attempt to do today.

Happy New Year, everyone! We’ve been having a lot of fun the past several days, which culminated—after a very full day of baking for me yesterday—in a raucous, chaotic, fun New Year’s celebration. Lobo’s cell phone started pinging regularly in the late afternoon our time, with texted New Year’s wishes from friends in Belarus; it continued somewhat as the transition swept this continent, and also bled over into some phone calls. That was a pleasant, fairly sustained addition to the celebratory mood. The snolfs once again had a piñata, filled not with candy but with other treats—coupons from Lobo and me for various goods or services (like taking their turn at dishes), money, and real money (junk-silver quarters)—it resisted the onslaught longer than any of its predecessors, then provided some enormous ersatz party hats once it did succumb to the stick.

So, we had a very nice holiday celebration. Underneath much of it, however, and beginning around Thanksgiving, I’ve felt a current of change beginning within me. Those of you who’ve been around a good while know that I am not in the habit of making new year’s resolutions—my position has always been if change is needed or desired, it should be undertaken then, not left to wait for a “special” turn of some arbitrary time-marker. On the other snakey coil, if one comes up from the bottom of the pool near one of those special dates, delaying changes simply for the sake of avoidance of the date would be just as silly. Thus it is that I’m starting to shed some old, now unhelpful ways today ... consider yourself forewarned: self-indulgent rambling ahead.

When the snow first started falling days ago, Darlin’ Daughter stated, with that absolute certainty that’s characteristic of youth, “We’re going to have a white Christmas!”. I explained to her that even though we had a lot of snow and the temps were cold, there were several days ’til Christmas still, that the weather was atypical, and not likely to last throughout that span. She remained adamant.

The snow didn’t completely melt off, and I awoke today to a few flakes dancing down to earth. That has now escalated to a full-fledged snowfall, with several inches expected to accumulate. She will be thrilled.

Winter is arriving in fine style here, as those of you who read the news and/or follow the weather know. As I mentioned earlier, we got a lot of snow earlier in the week, and yesterday evening, the winds picked up and more snow started flying. It almost feels like I’m back in Wyoming! Except Wyoming doesn’t have the monster evergreens that are everywhere ... nor the green that persists here, even this late in the year.

Well. I must’ve done something right by the weather spirits this year. I have been privately commenting on how much I’ve missed the snow—and as if on cue, the other day we got a decent (for here) accumulation. Amazingly, it’s stayed cold enough for it to mostly hang around. I awoke this morning to cloudy skies and a slightly thicker blanket of snow; and now, the snow is flying thick and fast—enough to compete with any plains or upper midwest snowstorm. The forecast is calling for 3–6 inches today, with a little more possible overnight.

I don’t remember which snolf it was, but one of them started the now common use in our family of a sarcastic “No, Never!” in response to outrageous statements. So, of course, that was the first thing that popped into my head upon reading the headline Are Paulson and Bernanke Lying to Us?. The gist of the article:

A new report from financial consulting firm Celent argues that there is no credit crisis, and that the publicly available data from the Federal Reserve Bank directly contradicts the doom-and-gloom public statements made by its chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. ....

According to Celent, Bernanke and Paulson are either misleading us with their data or they are grossly overstating the credit situation in their quest to solve a specific set of problems within a small subset of the financial industry.

The juicy details of the article come between these opening and near-closing paragraphs, and it’s worth the time to peruse—for those who have the stomach for such subjects, that is.

And of course, the fact that there are only a handful of online media covering this story is pure coincidence. Surely it has no relation whatsoever to the ongoing saga of one Mr. Madoff, does it?

“No, Never!”

I just came across a very interesting story, courtesy of Strike the Root, which relates to a recent anarchist questions post. It’s worth considering because it highlights the justification for regulations before the days of “It’s for the children!” became the rallying cry—and it highlights the danger of relying on tradition or religion as a means of getting some relief from gov’s depredations.

I was introduced to a lot of foods and food tricks while at college ... reconstituted dried eggs (although I’m not sure that really counts as food), the use of ketchup to disguise scrambled eggs made from reconstituted eggs, veal, and several others that escape me at the moment—probably because they were deservedly forgettable. Not so the granola. I’m not sure what their source was, but it was excellent granola: crisp, with a hint of sweetness, and a good ratio of raisins and nuts to the oat base.

Since then, I have looked high and low for good granola; and in the process, I’ve sometimes paid quite dearly for it too. It was our very own Polka who first encouraged my thoughts of making my own—and who, in the process, reminded me that in some parts of the world the stuff goes under the term muesli. After collecting several recipes and experimenting with a few, I really don’t see myself buying the mass-produced product ever again—especially since, as Wendy McElroy points out, it’s easy to dehydrate one’s own produce. Using dried fruit is a boon in another way—the cook can experiment with varying combinations that simply aren’t possible with fruits that ripen at differing times in the season. It isn’t a good candidate for long-term storage [thanks, SRS and Mama, for correcting me on this!], but it’s so easy and good that it’s worth doing.

Brought to you by Peter, whose post Santa the Spy reminded me of yet another Ray Stevens classic:

(direct link to the vid on YouTube)

O’course, Lobo and I never filled the snolfs’ heads with the Santa myth ... and now that they’re old enough, they see the snooping, nannying connection between “Santa” and the state. They don’t care much for either one. :-D

That’s probably the last question y’all would expect from a candy-making snake, and particularly at this time of the year. But it’s for real—I’m thinking about undertaking a fast and would appreciate input from anyone who’s done it before.

I hadn’t intended to offer truffles this early, simply because of how busy this time of year is; I didn’t want to get in over my head. But someone I don’t want to disappoint inquired after four flavors, so I figured I’d toss the idea out here in case others are interested.

Just sat down to enjoy my coffee—a little late this morning after a very pleasant, but long day with family yesterday, but I figure I’ll say more about that at some point, preferably with pictures as well—and made the misnake of perusing the Reuters headlines. So ... I’m gonna vent a little so that the chocolates I’ll be starting in just a few minutes don’t have a bitter taste to them.

For those of you who follow this place via RSS—and therefore wouldn’t’ve noticed when I updated the sidebar—I am offering caramels for sale. Several varieties are available, and others, as well as other treats if one is interested, can be had. If you’re interested in giving caramel gifts for Christmas, the deadline for placing those orders is Sunday, December 14 (primarily so they’ll have plenty of shipping time).

We can start the annual truffle flavor selection conversation at any time, too. :-)

Within the past month or so, I’ve encountered an astonishing assertion in several places. Not only is the assertion astonishing to me, it’s surprising that individuals whom I know to be intelligent and critical thinkers have offered it. This idea is—to perhaps oversimplify it a bit—that “brains are brains”. That is, absent congenital defect or physical trauma that obliterates part of one’s brain, all normal human brains are roughly equivalent in functionality. I’m going to try to refute this idea in two different ways, because each seems important. They may not appear to be so different to others, however.