My new 320GB hard drive arrived today. $110.00 via amazon (sold through them for Office Depot); I ordered it Monday and it arrived Thursday, but I didn’t go in until today. It works fine so far, and will be a great replacement as a location to store my comics. It’s a slender case (a LaCie “Porsche” model), USB 2.0, though I wish it had firewire. I’ll survive, though.
I transferred my comics over tonight, though a bunch are still on the other drives. Call it insurance for now.
Teaching went well enough, except four students hadn’t read the text (“Schnell gelebt”). Those who had liked it, so it seems, but with a couple other students (Ben, Anne) missing, four not preparing leaves a gap in the conversation, and furthermore Cindy and Stephanie sit in the corner and chat, which is a distraction. Time for micromanagement, I suppose.
I returned Heuristics and biases : the psychology of intuitive judgement(edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, Daniel Kahneman) to the library (BF447 H48 2002); it had been recalled. I also dropped off Jennifer Egan’s The Keep, which I really liked. Regarding the book on heuristics, I’m having a hard time remembering exactly why I checked it out. That is, I know the general reason why such a book would interest me, but looking through both the Contents and the Index I could not find anything that would have piqued my interest regarding that particular volume. So I didn’t bother photocopying parts of it.
Thereafter I was off to Fair Trade. I hadn’t had anything to eat all day so thought of stopping by the Mediterranean Cafe, but it wasn’t yet 2, I think, and it was still packed. So I continued on, and instead splurged a bit and got a fritter to go with my coffee. I sat up front and read Book for forty pages or so, and then transitioned to Cohn’s Transparent Minds; Natallia reminded me of it, so to speak, when she asked about modernism earlier in the week.
On my way out I picked up The Onion and found a 4-Star coupon (2-for-1) so I stopped by and got: Harold and Maude, Being There (both recommended by Angela last week), Fire and Ice (a 1983 Ralph Bakshi animated thing), and Branagh’s Henry V, which, curiously enough, I haven’t yet seen. Then off to the bus and home.
I decided to bake some pumpernickel bread; I hadn’t done so in several years, since some point while living on Gorham. The dough is/was a bit dry, and it’s completing its last rising period now. I’ll put it in the oven around midnight and, half and hour later, have two loaves. If they don’t turn out, no harm done. It will still taste great with butter and honey. If it does turn out, then tuna sandwiches or even peanut butter are hand hand. I also want to try a recipe I found for sandwich bread that uses about 1 1/3 cups whole milk.
I got hungry so put together some cornbread, one of the quickest of the quick breads to bake and mix.
In the afternoon and evening I finished off season 4 of Alias and began season 5. I really should just return to Book and continue with watching Doctor Who, but I get in these phases, where I start something and need to see it through.
Pumpernickel Bread
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
2 tablespoons caraway seed
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
3 packages regular or quick active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup dark molasses
2 tablespoons shortening
2 3/4 to 3 cups rye flour
cornmeal
butter, melted.
1. Mix all-purpose flour, cocoa, caraway seed, salt and yeast in large bowl. Heat water, molasses and shortening in 1-quart saucepan over medium heat until very war (120 to 130F). Add molasses mixture to flour mixture. Beat with electric mixer on low speed one minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough rye flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest 15 minutes. Knead 5 to 10 minutes or until smooth. Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place about 2 hours or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
3. Punch down dough. Cover and let rise about 40 minutes or until double.
4. Grease cookie sheet with shortening; sprinkle with cornmeal.
5. Punch down dough and divide in half. Shape each half into a round, slightly flat loaf. Place loaves in opposite corners of cookie sheet. Cover and let rise in warm place 1 hour.
6. Heat oven to 375F.
7. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Brush with butter; cool.
