Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Re sleep deprivation
I’ve gotten into this rut lately: work, eat, World of Warcraft, sleep. Repeat. My desire to write is nil, and whatever interests I have in that regard are satisfied by reading the latest Game of Thrones installment (1000+ pages is whipping by way too fast . . . and I’m sorry, but I had to skip ahead to find out what had become of Arya).
Ours is a family with a thoroughly messed up sleep cycle. My insomnia arrives whenever it will, often for no identifiable reason. By minimizing caffeine and chocolate consumption and trying to exercise regularly, I’ve improved things to the point that I am off Benadryl — finally! after years! — and am having less trouble, but less trouble does not equal no trouble. It doesn’t help when I get calls at 4 AM for things that I really, really did not need to be called about. My partner and I have the same problem, by the way: when we get these early morning calls, no matter how simple they are to resolve, it takes us an hour or two to get back to sleep. And neither of us is getting any younger, and it’s not like we did well with sleep deprivation back in training. We only told ourselves we were doing okay.
My wife doesn’t do too badly, compared to my son or me. Jake is the real hard case, though. And I think it goes way back to his toddlerhood, when we used to have trouble getting him to bed any time earlier than our bedtime (usually around midnight). I suspect he needs a completely inverted wake/sleep cycle, but that, sadly, is not compatible with attendance at high school. Or college. Perhaps he’ll get a medical degree and become a night-shift ER doc?
In other news, I’m futzing around with a variety of different desserts. I successfully reproduced a dessert we’d had at Black Cat in Cambria, which involved sauteed nectarines, homemade pound cake, and a browned butter sauce; and I made this recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding, which is one of those British puddings that isn’t a pudding (oh, those clever Brits, when will they learn to speak English?) I’m going to try making it again, this time subbing sauteed apples for the dates and adding the usual apple spices. Ultimately, this ceases to be Sticky Toffee Pudding and becomes Apple Muffins with Sticky Toffee Pudding sauce, but I suspect my gang will like it better.
Less than two months before my 50th birthday. Maybe that’s what’s screwing with my muse.
D.
Until I got to the dessert part I thought I was reading the script for the promo vid of Fox TV ‘s new fall medical drama “dr. D”, the long awaited sequel to Doogie Howser. (insert laugh track)
JK!
I think most people dwell on milestone birthdays months (maybe longer) before they occur. That would have a tendancy to screw with your head.
So basically, you’re making apple muffins disguised as cinnamon buns with sauce?
Lucie, I got called “Doogie” waaaay too much during residency. And I don’t even look like him. I certainly don’t have his baby face.
Sis, yeah, exactly. These things must be seven or eight hundred calories per serving. I just made the sauce, which involved 1 cup of cream, 1/2 cup of butter, and 1 3/8 cup brown sugar — all that, and I had cut the recipe in HALF. Seriously.