What I did (or didn't do) today

Today I got up at 7:30 am, after going to bed a 2:30 am (this does not work as well now as it did twenty or twenty-five years ago I will add). I had to be up so early to be at church at 8:15. After I was done there, I went to Super Target and bought this for less than $20! I was back home by 9:50 (cue picture of a bag of animal cookies and the new HP book).

Then I did this (cue picture of me feeding the dogs), and this (cue picture of me feeding the birds in the back yard), and this (cue picture of me playing on my computer for an hour or so). After that I did this (picture of me knitting a tornado scarf, but it isn't done yet) and this (picture of me putting dogs in and out of the house). Then I did this(a picture of talking to DTE) and this (picture of me eating blueberries and yogurt). Then I did other general stuff around the house, including this (cue picture of me washing dishes), this (a picture of me talking on the phone to DTY--that was fun), and then DTE did this (cue picture of her reading the new HP) and this (cue picture of her baking Key Lime Cheesecake Bars with animal cookies).
See all the things you miss out on when I don't do this (cue picture of me babysitting DTE's camera)? Maybe tomorrow babysitting will happen. If it does, I will try to restrain myself on pictures of dish washing and dog herding. I promise, it just isn't that exciting and you aren't missing much, no matter how cute Miss Sadie is (especially when she parks herself by the stove to watch me wash dishes).
I never made it to the laundry mat yesterday, but the repairman will be here Monday to put in the new motor!
Yesterday, however, I did make a loaf of "Almost No-Knead Bread" for recipe testing I do for a national cooking magazine. Now the instructions say, "...place a 6-8 quart heavy bottom Dutch oven on rack and preheat oven to 500 degrees." All fine and good, except I thought it said "flat-bottomed," which does make sense too. After all, they make these weird ones with ridges in the bottom. That would not be something you want to be baking bread dough on. Well, I can tell you a couple of things about this. One would be that the oil and who knows what on the outside of a cast iron Dutch oven (one that gets used outside with charcoal and camping) smokes a whole lot when it gets heated to 500 in the oven in the house. Two would be that our smoke alarm is very loud and annoying and Sadie does not like it at all. Three would be that legs on a cast iron Dutch oven make it really hard to use on an oven rack. The fourth thing I can say about this is that the bread is really good, but next time I think I am going to use a "heavy FLAT bottom cast aluminum Dutch oven." For what it is worth, DTE had the same thought about ridges inside when I told her about the flat bottom part. I am sure some of you out there are thinking , "Umm, Barbara, they make cast iron Dutch ovens without legs." I know that, I just don't happen to own one and I don't automatically think of my big cast aluminium pans as Dutch ovens, even though I know they are. The Lodge cast iron ones I own are the official pan of the state of Utah after all. (Well one of my two says so on the lid, but I can't show you that because I am not babysitting right now. Maybe tomorrow.) The last thing I can say about that adventure, in case you are wondering, is that Mr. Simon doen't care about smoke alarms and home made bread. He mostly cares about his walk, and if you say the word around him, I might just nominate you to take him at midnight.