fruit bread, fish, and freaky things

This was another puttering day at home. I slept in and missed the bus to get to church on time ... perhaps not completely by accident ... so lounged about in my jammies to get caught up on Coronation Street. Do y'all watch Corrie? If you never watch another soap, you should watch Corrie! I've been a die hard fan since the 1960s! This is the sum total of my television viewingk, and since I don't own a television, I watch Corrie online via CBC.After Corrie, I decided to make fruit bread. I wanted something different from the usual "seeds and sticks" whole grain bread I make for myself. I don't make fruit bread very often as I don't always have the necessary ingredients ... I like it with golden raisins, almonds and candied peel. However, I must have been thinking ahead the last time I did a big grocery shop as I opened my pantry doors, and ... voila! ... all the necessary things. As I don't make fruit bread very often, I referred to my favourite fruit bread recipe. All those fruity goodies are expensive, so you don't want to take chances on goof ups. Or so I reasoned.

I don't know what I did wrong, but it DID NOT RISE! I thought maybe my yeast was getting too old, so I got dressed, got bundled up (it's really cold and windy here today), and walked to the grocery store for a fresh jar of yeast. I even checked the date on the jar to make sure I wasn't buying outdated yeast.

Fruit bread batch number two. It didn't look to me like it was rising enough, and sure enough...... it didn't. This pathetic lump should be four times that high. I haven't had a bread disaster in YEARS, and have no idea what I did wrong. Any suggestions to use up this heavy lump of baked sweet dough???


Cleaning the fish tank went much better than baking fruit bread.This particular chore usually DOES involve disaster. "Tackle" is a leaper, and if I don't keep a very close eye on him, he leaps out of the open tank ... or net ... or hand ... or bucket ... and goes carpet diving! I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had to chase him across the carpet, then rush him to the sink to rinse the dog hairs off him before putting him back in the water. For all that, he is still healthy and HUGE.He's spending the night in a big bucket with an aerator ... and a lid on top ... while his tank circulates fresh water for 24 hours. He is not a happy camper. He's so big ... longer than my hand, finger tips to wrist ... that there isn't much room to play in the bucket. He'll be unsociable for a couple of days after I put him back in his clean tank. Who says fish can't pout!


Once I finished cleaning up the muck and mess from cleaning the fish tank ... it's a very messy task, did you know that? ... I flopped in my favourite old chair with a cold drink. And happened to glance at the clock on my bookcase. It's a lovely hand-made wood burl clock. I bought it at a silent auction last summer because I loved the wood. I didn't really need the clock, but I'm a carpenter's daughter, and I appreciate fine wood and skilled wood work and finishing. As soon as I got the darned thing home, however, I regretted spending my money on it because it DIDN'T WORK. I went and bought a fresh set of batteries, and it still didn't work. Dead as dead can be. Not one tick, not one tock. I thought about replacing the clock works, but never got around to going all the ways across town to the Michael's craft store ... a two-bus expedition from home.


When I glanced at the clock this afternoon, IT WAS RUNNING! Not the correct time, but merrily ticking away. I reset the time, and it's been running ever since, and appears to be keeping the correct time just fine. WHAT THE HECK???