The Diarist's Journal #4 is about Travel Journals and is soon to be sent out! This is such a great publication and I very much enjoy reading and re-reading these magazines.

SO's mom gave us a bread maker for Christmas, and I'm really excited about it. I have been thinking about getting a bread maker for the past few months, so the gift is really serendipitous. :)

Last night, I read the directions. And first thing this morning, I washed the parts that needed to be cleaned. And now I'm running the thing empty to burn off the manufacturing oils, yep, it's smokin'. *cough* sheesh.

And next, I get to throw in a cranberry bread mix, also provided by Mom E. How exciting! My very first bread!

I need to learn how to substitute to get vegan bread... rice milk or soy milk? Margarine for butter, of course. But what about the eggs? *going through search pages* hum. not much information out there.

Ah, here we go:

• "Automatic Breadmaking" from the Vegetarian Resource Group (seven recipes).
• "A Good Time For Loafing" an article from The Vegetarian Times (one basic recipe).

and that's about it. humph.

The dead racoon I mentioned in the last entry. We were walking at the bottom of another creek, the racoon was above the ice but frozen to it. Uncle figured it got hit by a car on the road and came down to the water and died.

A few days later, my uncle was talking about it at our family gathering. He was saying I was petting the poor dead racoon.

Well, I wasn't really petting and feeling sorry for the poor dead racoon. After all, the racoon is in a much better place now, tho his/her last few hours on the earth were terrible. But the spirit is gone... the stuff that is left, is just meat, is just a thing.

And I was just doing some "hands on" investigating. After all, what city girl gets to touch a racoon? I touched the fur and felt how stiff his/her body was. His/Her right hind foot was out behind, with the pad up, and I felt that as well... the skin was soft, like a cat's paw pad.

When I come across something that interests me, I make a point to get tactile with it. Engaging the sense of touch is something I used to avoid: people look at you funny when you try to get your hands dirty.

But now, I think it's important. Dirt washes off, who cares what stupid people think, and the regular people just think I'm eccentric. :)