Baking Bread

A friend turned me on to this frozen bread that you can bake in your oven. He claims there cant be as much preservatives, etc in it, as its frozen. So I decided to give it a shot. I bought a package of 5 at the local wal bucket. He said to let it rise in a bread pan for about 6-8 hours and then bake it. Easy as Pie.

1st take, I put it in this semi oval 9 x 13 x 1 inch deep pan and let it sit overnight...Bad choice. It rose out not up and covered the pan. No worries I thought, I'll just fold it over and bake it, and it will rise in the oven. Nope its rising days were over....

Take two...So I got a smaller pan, actually one more like a bread pan. like 9 x 4 x 3 inches deep or so. My downfall here is I let the bread rise too long. It looked like a small atomic cloud when it was done. Ok I've GOT to stop letting it rise over night as my house is too warm. I'd been doing it for like 8 hours over night, cause thats what he said. He didnt mention his house is like 62, and mine is like 72.

Third times a charm right? Uh no....I did this one during the day, put it in the same bread pan, BUT I only let it rise 6 hours, just to the top of the pan. ALL RIGHT! It looks like bread. Throw it in the oven, bake it at 325 for 20 mins....the top is nice golden brown. PERFECT!! Until I cut into it, and the inside is still gooey!! ARRRGGGG!!

I dunno what my infatuation with in baking bread...maybe cause its 70 cents a loaf versus 1.50. But after all that work...I may not bake any more....

Repairing stuff

I like to repair stuff...my wife on the other hand doesn't like for me to repair stuff. My new job has developed some skills to let me repair things I probably couldn't have before. I'm on a bit of a good streak with repairing things. I did a rear drum break job for a guy today. I repaired the dryer a few weeks ago, removing about a plastic bag full of lint from the machine. Dries great now. Tonight I kind of repaired my laptop. In a few weeks I need to order a part for my TV. The USB plug in the back of my laptop wobbles. That wouldnt be too much of a concern cept for the fact I plug my wireless in via USB. It also gives intermittent power to the USB wireless device plugged into it. So I venture to taking apart the lappy, and figurin out whats wrong.

Of course my wife gives me that Oh Great look, and informs me that if I break it I buy her a new one TOMORROW!!

So I take apart 50 little screws, One screen from the main body, one keyboard, some metal thingy that collects dirt, and find the culprit. The USB has become de soldered from the mother board. That's easy, I got a soldering wand around here some where...Where is it...nope not in the drawer, not in the basement...Ah Ha...found it outside on the shelf in the storage closet.

Back inside, plug it in, let it heat up and go to town...Of course I couldn't find any of my other accessories to help solder, like the flux, or the wire...but I don't need no stinkin wire....I'll just heat up the existing solder and re seat it...Nope that don't work...so off to look for the flux and solder. After about 10 mins of good hard searching...I find the flux, in a plastic box, in another storage unit, on the other side of the house, that held a hodge podge of things like break fluid, wd-40, a rag, a plastic cap, and some other fluids for autos in general. Why the flux would be in there, I have no idea. No solder though..bummer

Ok Back inside again, apply flux to both sides, and wallah! I get it to re seat. Now it doesn't wobble, and I make a few more adjustments and we are back in bidness!!!

So far I figure I've saved about 2000.00 bucks from my repairs.

I only had two small screws left over from this job. I have no idea where they came from. Nothing rattles when I shake it and I ain't pullin it apart again to figure out where they came from.

BT