“Sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest” ~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Today I made the Nutella cookies! It was a little challenging converting to the metric (yes, I know there is a button for that but I had to remember how many mL are in a dL and so on) and then I was supposed to bake them at 350F which I thought was 665C... I did the math backwards... I am an idiot... so the first batched turned out like this:

Burnt and hard... major nose wrinkle!

But, then I realized that 350F is actually 176C! So the next batch turned out much better!

A sea a lovely chocolaty cookies!

Can you believe they started like this:

4 magic ingredients!

Which were all opened by accidentally jamming my thumb through the outside... egg included

They are super good and I will take the ones I don't eat tonight to school tomorrow :) which may not be very many honestly.  The recipe made exactly 24 like it claimed!  To me it usually seems that the recipes lie and make more then they claim... but not this one!  I made these because tonight I decided not to go riding.  I have been super exhausted for a few days and today is the worst.  I fall asleep pretty much as soon as I sit still and my body is stiff and tight... I kind of feel like I am 80 years old!  But, I realized that it is ok to say "no" to things, even if they are things I like, when I don't feel up to it.  It is not because I am depressed and feel like doing nothing at all, it is more like I should continues to like riding and not feel like it is a chore to do even when I am super tired.  I admit I realize this is all true, but I still feel a bit lame and wimpy.  Sam made me feel better about that and so have the cookies (though Sam did the most) by telling me I am not wimpy, I do a lot and I am a strong person.  I have decided this is just strong in a different way, thats what I keep telling myself.

Today I worked in the hot shop in the morning with Vegard and again we tried to make cylinders.  We started out doing it the slow and steady way that Ake taught us and got a few nice ones then we got ambitious and tried to do it Micke's way and it was REALLY hard! I made maybe 4 but two of them broke in the annealer before the morning was even over, I think I put them in too cold.  Oh well, there should be something for me to look at tomorrow!  Here are the two I made yesterday:  

Big one and lil' one!

I am pleased with how nice and straight they are!

Then I ended up going to the cold shop after lunch.  I had wanted to spend the whole day in the hot shop but I was so tired I couldn't imagine working the whole afternoon alone and tired.  So, I went through my bottles from the other day and threw away the messed up ones:

This one had a crack in it but I really liked the stripes :(

Mushed bottom!

And this one is just ugly I think... so it got thrown too.

Then I fixed up the tops of the ones I liked and those two real big fat round bottles I made a few weeks ago too.  While we were working it started snowing these HUGE flakes! Almost as big as the palm of my hand!  We all had to go outside and enjoy them!  

That whole soccer field was almost melted this morning!

They were so big you could see one coming and aim to catch it in your mouth!  After a while it turned back into sleet and ice... not so fun to be in.  Then I went home and napped and made cookies!!!