Friday, February 17, 2023

Poor but happy, future art exploits, and other news

 I notified my knitting group leader that if the weather, raining, lashing, sloshing, gurgling down all day, eased up, I'd come to the group. If not I'd do my taxes.

It didn't, so I did my taxes and found, as suspected, that my income from all sources, is below the filing threshold. But I had to go through all the numbers to establish that and to complete the Freeze forms for the real estate tax refund. 

To be honest, if I had more money, I'd probably give it away anyway. I live so happily on what I have.   Income continues to exceed outgo overall. 

Result, as Mr Micawber would say, happiness. He had found out the hard way, by being slung into debtor's prison, so he should know.

And I set up future art adventures, using scrap cardboard and papers a la lovely Darrell Wakelam. I ordered his book Art Shaped from an indie bookseller who includes shipping to the US, yay. I've shown you some of his ideas using paper plates, and I think some grandchildren might have been introduced to his designs.  

Consider the decks officially, not cleared, but pre-cluttered 





Darrell's happy. He agrees with me though he teaches children, that it's not the number of years in the child, but the amount of child in the years. 

Meanwhile look at this. New photographic approaches are allowing researchers handling ancient manuscripts and other items to detect for the first time, images and messages added to them by pressing into the surface without marking. 


They're now finding them on medieval manuscripts. And here's another application of the technology, a copper plate, one side used, but look what's on the other side

Waste not want not. Copper's expensive.

I needed something for lunch and I remembered years ago having a wonderful mac and cheese, at the convent where I send the gloves and socks, to be exact. I asked about it at the time, and found the sister cooking that week added a couple of cheeses, not just cheddar.

So I did

I was short of penne, nearest I had to macaroni, so I added in broken #8 spaghetti. And no green vegetables, so it was carrots.







Good for several meals. It needs a touch more salt, so I'll add as I go.

And, smug at having disposed of federal and state tax requirements all at once, I had a celebratory afternoon cup of chocolate with a slice of cinnamon toast. 



Perfect for a cold wet grey February afternoon.

When in doubt, a slice of cinnamon toast will do it.

Happy evening everyone! May all your toast land butter side up.



25 comments:

  1. Nothing is more art shaped, art tasty as cinnamon toast and hot chocolate!

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  2. Oh. I hope you enjoy the coming book! What kind of bread do you like for your toast?

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    1. Usually my own, whole wheat, some white, some oatmeal. But I haven't had access to whole wheat for a while. I think I'll like the book!

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  3. Income/Outgo - love it.
    A mug of chocolate and cinnamon toast is the perfect way to celebrate the completion of any financial task.
    The mac n cheese - not sure, but then it's not a thing here.
    I'd love to see more things discovered on old manuscripts. It makes sense, I guess. How fascinating to be the one doing the work.

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    1. Not a thing?? It's definitely a thing here. Comfort food. Best made from scratch, which takes a while, considering it's a simple meal.

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  4. The "Art Shaped" book looks great -- oh, the wonderful things you will make!

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  5. That is neat about the scratching. I have no idea how they find them.

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  6. That is so interesting about the medieval manuscripts. Is there a website or video that tells more?

    Maybe because we're in the same boat, but I so agree with you about money and happiness. I also agree with the macaroni and cheese!

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    1. The researchers are Archiox, so you can probably Google them to learn more. Based at Oxford University. I think infrared is involved.

      Money and mac and cheese agreement, there's enough connection for a friendship!

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  7. I made mac and cheese last night for the granddaughter. I used three different cheeses because the more the better! It was good. Maggie approved.
    Look at you- getting all your things done! And having a nice reward. I love it.

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    1. I'm definitely up for the multiple cheeses from now on. It's a whole new level of good.

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  8. I have never made mac and cheese from scratch but I did on occasion make welsh rarebit when the kids were little. Might have to resurrect that. Also when the grandkids were little and living next door I had several kid's art projects books and kept in a supply of materials and sometimes I would take them on walks to gather nature stuff for said art projects.

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    1. It's lovely to have children available to work on art. I pretend I'm teaching little K, but really I just want a partner in crime.

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  9. You can't beat mac'n'cheese as it seems to be called now for cwtching in the rain. Last time we went to London we went to a Swedish café and I had banana bread with cinnamon butter. My mouth is watering now thinking of it.

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    1. I wonder if that's a Swedish specialty. Ir does sound good.

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  10. The weather is allowing you to be productive inside. I also really like mac & cheese. More cheese the better. Enjoy the book and I think you should have a cup of cocoa and another slice of cinnamon toast.

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    1. Baking bread today, so it will be home-baked cinnamon toast.

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  11. I have found my needs are simple and wants are few these days compared to my younger years. I have enough…well too much really! I am giving away some of it.

    The Mac and cheese with carrots looks good!

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    1. I've been giving away items for ages, and I'm still going. Often it's about recognizing when something's run its course in my house.

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  12. Kudos for doing the hard thing and getting the taxes out of the way. We're still waiting on the government to fork over the required end-of-year income amounts so we can go ahead with ours.
    Curious about those images and wonder if they were happenstance by the item being beneath something else that was being recorded and the image 'tranferred' by complete accident. Interesting.

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    1. I'm not sure anyone really knows. It seems unlikely that anyone would use a precious book to lean on to write on something else. But we really don't know.

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  13. Our go to dish is polenta and spinach (a little sprinkling of cheese grilled on top). You remind F she needs to attend to both Greek and UK taxes this year and probably needs more comfort food to be able to gird herself for the task.

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    1. Dealing with two countries is a headache. My brother, employed as a foreign correspondent by a UK newspaper, but based for many years as Bureau chief in Washington, went through this annually, both countries wanting the full taxes, which added up to more than his gross! He said it was like a second job at taxtime, trying to get the tax folks in both countries to abide by their own regulations wrt foreign earnings.

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