Soggy, Boggy

It's raining out there. Boy, is it raining out there. From brief torrents of rain to gurgling gushes, it's coming down. And down, and down. Going to be that way off and on all week, too. I told my wife that just about the time the grass dries out enough to mow, it'll be time for another downpour. The grass will be so high, we'll need scythes to get at it. Just looking at it last night, when it was damp, I saw where it really ought to be mown, and this will make it worse. I'm thinking about four hours, easy, to get it all done. I did casually suggest that it'd be a lot easier if we had a riding mower, but my wife played a classic trick on me: she agreed.

I've yet to see an article about Specter's party swap that didn't flat-out say he did it for personal reasons. They say it disparagingly, but why else would someone do that? After all, he's still the same person he was before; he didn't change -- just the people he hangs around with. What did surprise me was the article that said doing this had an effect on his staff, which might translate into people quitting, having to move his operation to a different office, things like that. I guess he can't afford to care about that, though. He 'wasn't ready to be done with the Senate', quite yet. Though if his move results in people who've been Democrats longer being aced out of chairmanships and such, they might be ready to be done with him.

I picked up a book about artisan bakers today. I am somewhat of a sucker for them -- the concept of excellence in baking appeals to me. I suppose I should say 'in a very limited subset of baking', as I tend to blow off articles about 'the perfect cream puff' or something with zabaglione this and crushed hazelnuts that. If there's a phrase that means 'very good in a very focused area', that's the kind of baker that I want to be. It's fun to try new things, but if a tart doesn't work or a souffle droops, it doesn't ruin my day. I told my wife once that while I was sorry that I hadn't been able to go to a baking school (just the one week CIA quickie boot camp, not one of their full-fledged schools), I didn't feel terribly about it, especially when I read that many of the people who go to that sort of thing come home and bake, perhaps, a quarter of the sorts of things that they learned there. Granted, they bake it at a much more proficient level than I do, and that, I would like to be able to do.

Still raining. Gah. I have to go out tonight to attend the 'election school', since I'll be working at the local polls for the primary in about two weeks. I doubt much has changed, but I am looking forward to it -- I hope that I'll understand more, this time, than before. I was really nervous before the last election. This time, I expect to be only moderately so -- and exhausted, as before, at the end of the day. Never did find something to do to 'improve the experience' for the voters. I should think about that.