The daily to-do: Friday July 8

Just finished baking the new batch of bagels, and I must say, these are looking much better. I did a bunch of things differently (smaller, didn’t try to make such big holes, no float test, less handling overall, less time proofing, more time retarding in the refrigerator). If things still don’t go that well (if they still don’t have much taste, or if the texture is weird), I will let the sponge ferment for even less time, and I will let them proof and retard longer (according to the dough man from my link yesterday, the longer the yeast is actively converting the flour to CO2 and..the other thing…the more the flavor develops). I want to work on developing that flavor. I think I will take a picture and upload it here, to document my success (on the bagels not collapsing). *Update below.

On the work front, I spent a long time yesterday on my website concept redesign. I sent it to the one person, and her response….well, it indicates that she still really has no idea that I’m trying to urge them to restructure the web content from the ground up. They just want to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, as the saying goes. Whatever. I give up (for now). (And yeah, I am super annoyed, but at least I tried, right?)

It’s raining again today. >.< sooo annoying. I wanted to mow today…:

The daily to-do: Thursday July 7

Bear got a call at 4am this morning, and he was working on it for around an hour. This was after we went to bed after 1am because he stayed at the office late and didn’t get home until around 10pm. He was super tired this morning, and is working from home today. 🙂 We had discussed the idea that if he got a call last night, he might work from home today, so when the alarm sounded and woke me out of a dead sleep, he explained, “You got your wish.”

Things are heating up, as far as my volunteer work goes. I got in on some good phone calls over the past few days, and things are starting to come together in my mind. Yesterday I was able to lay out (what I think is) a concept for the website content; now I just need to put it in a form that will make sense to others (get it out of my notebook and onto the computer), and I need to convince the others to see things my way…and I need to do it quickly, because while I’m the one dedicating the most time to this project, I am by no means the only one working on it. In my opinion, so far they are sweeping up and hanging pictures on the burned out shell of a building, while I’m constructing a new, better, structure from the ground up. I can tell they don’t see it that way, though. Even the one person who has indicated, through her replies to my comments and through direct communication, that she is “110% in agreement” with my concerns, I see her over there hanging curtains on paneless windows. The only thing, I think, that’s going to really get them to see the wreckage as wreckage is for me to give them something to compare it to. And they know I’m “starting from scratch” with my content, and I have their blessing, but I can tell they still have no idea what that really means in this case. Now I just need to get it in front of them before it’s too late.

In non-work-related news, I’m currently eating a homemade bagel. It’s been quite awhile since I gave bagel-making a shot, and my low expectations have been reconfirmed. The thing is, I never give myself the opportunity to gain a knack for it. While I have tested many recipes, and while the one I used this time (and the last several times) remains the best recipe I have ever found, there is always a need for tweaking. But the process itself is so time-consuming, and the resulting bagels just not-quite-worth-it, that I let much time go by between attempts, and I never actually improve on an attempt. Not so this time. I only made half a batch, and I’m going to record my thoughts for improvements here. I already have another sponge in the making, and it will be time to make the dough in 45 minutes or so. Bagel thoughts (and ultimately my to-do list) below the cut: