Routledge Publishing is doing a "Themes in Archaeology" thing, and they have finished setting up their themes now. To celebrate, the articles under these groups are free to read until April 30, 2017 -you can find the theme collection here.

In unrelated news, I'm working on the outline of an experiment we will do at the Forum, about how well dye penetrates a finished fabric. This is all very, very exciting, as whether something was dyed in the piece, in the yarn or in the fleece is quite a big difference regarding workflow and craft procedures - and after our experiment, we might have a tiny bit more knowledge about whether white spots could be expected in a piece-dyed fabric or not.

My typing is a little slower today, though - because the little cat is again hanging out on my desk, and I don't have the heart to set her down... she's having a few tough days, as she hurt one of her legs. As a result, she is to take pills (which she hates), painkiller (which she loves, it seems to taste like heaven) and, worst of it all, she is not allowed to go outside, to keep her from overworking her leg. So here I am, with one sad, bored, unhappy cat who needs a lot of cuddling and attention. Sooooo bored. Poor kitty.

It's Friday, and what better day is there to post a gratuitous cat picture? So here you go:


Madam, snoozing happily, while other folks have to work...

Remember, back in January, when I wrote about my weight issues in a long, rambling post? When I started losing weight back then, I set a goal weight number as the finishing line.

It took a good while to reach that number. I was planning to be finished in summer, and though I broke through the border to normal weight according to BMI charts in mid July, the last few kilos to the goal weight I'd set took much, much longer than expected, due to a number of things (among them two weeks of vacation, where I did not eat at a deficit). Basically, I've been more or less finished, as in "weight and body fat percentage are in a healthy area now", for... a good two months? So I've started to gradually eat more again, to prepare for maintenance mode and figure out how much I actually need now to stay where I am... still very slowly going down, waiting for the magical number to appear.

This morning, I have seen that number. I am now officially done with the weight loss, and entering maintenance mode, so to say. This little fact has not made it to my brain just yet - I've been juuust slightly above the goal number for four weeks now (water retention is nasty!), and it still has to sink in that it is now there.

And now, I guess, it is time for the obligatory before-and-after-pics. So on the left, you see how I looked last winter, before I got going. On the right, you see how I look now, and what I did on Tuesday evening - a friend has infected us with the Boulder Virus a while ago, and we're now going up the walls about once a week. (Yes, I know, they are not proper before-and-after pics, where you have the same posture and the same clothes and stuff. But I guess you will get the gist.)


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So. I did it. It was really simple: count all calories (including every little bit of food and every drink), eat less than you burn, get enough protein, do a bit of sports to keep as much of the muscle mass as possible, and that's it.  Simple doesn't mean easy, though, and it was hard sometimes - but it was worth every little bit of effort! Life is much, much better now that I have lost the excess weight. Also... I have a wardrobe full of new clothes (the old ones didn't fit anymore, apart from a few very old ones that were always tight before).  I have a new hobby (climbing or bouldering are just not as much fun with too much weight to hoist up)... and I even made a new friend in connection with the book that helped me so much - Fettlogik überwinden.

And I'm very, very happy about all this!

 

Garden pics!

First of all, one that didn't really catch what I wanted to catch, but looks really pretty nonetheless:


The peach is still hanging on the tree, and it's getting peachier and peachier each day - but is still really hard and not yet really ripe. I'm patient, though.


There's the first autumn flowers blooming...


... the bumble bees make use of the flowering mint species...


... and this wasp robbed a spider of its prey to munch on it:


I hope you have as nice and sunny a day as I have!

 

It's Friday, the car is half-packed (well, less than half, to be honest, but things are stacked up here ready to be carried outside and set into the car) and I'm dealing with the last bits of things to do before leaving. This time, it's not too far to drive for me, which is nice, and there's opportunity to set up for the fair in the evening, which is also nice, as it means there's plenty of time to figure out what goes where.

If you think I should have a system by now, and a plan of what goes where - yes, theoretically, that is true. However, the setting is always different from fair to fair, sometimes only slightly (differently sized tables, for instance) and sometimes very much so (standing behind vs in front of the table, or having corner tables, or having a room with non-standard fair furniture, like we'll have in the museum this weekend), so there is always a bit of figuring out to be done.

While I'm finishing my packing and printing of things, I have cat pics for you - of the lady hanging out on top of our mailbox pillar, for instance.


And remember my comment that she'd be outside all day long when I was blocking that shawl? Well. Of course she came back before it was all dry.

And of course she helped to dry it faster by taking a nap right on top of it.


Neither shawl nor cat were harmed, though - they both came out of their quality cuddling time together perfectly dry, and perfectly content.

Sometimes you read something on the 'net, and then you follow a link, and then you read something else and there's another link and suddenly you go "oh. Oh. Oh wow" because you have just discovered something weird and/or awesome.

That happened to me when I stumbled across the Pittsburgh Cookie Table. In case you are just as unknowing as I was before, there's a tradition in Pittsburgh (and a few other spots, but mainly there) where you have a table with lots of cookies for special occasions, such as weddings. Wikipedia knows about this, of course - but if you really want to be smacked in the eyes with lots and lots of cookies, a picture search will do nicely.

If you are looking for recipes now, there are a few (together with more pictures) linked to on this page. A few definitely sound intriguing - though I think I'll stay mostly with my old favourites for the Christmas baking...

After yesterday's damson cake, here's more baked goods links for your delectation. Firstly, spectacular archaeology cakes as "Edible Archaeology" at Current Archaeology. Whenever I see cakes like these - basically edible works of art - I get a little sad because mine never look really nice. Which is probably due to the fact that I concentrate on getting them done in a yummy way and don't spend more time decorating and neatening than mixing and baking, and would choose taste over looks any time when picking coverings. But still. Beautiful cakes. I'm slightly jealous.

If you need something chocolaty now, here's a recipe for a giant chocolate cake (and the same recipe on Ruth Reichl's site, explained slightly differently) - Gillian has recently tested the recipe and says it's rich and a really nice cake. She also says they cut way down on the sugar, though. The recipe reminds me of the cake recipes from the 1970s in Germany - if I make one of them today, I cut the sugar by at least half. Sweet years, these were!