Jam Woes...and some Deep Thinking

I made two batches of jam over the past two days, and neither of them turned out quite the way I wanted. I overcooked one, and wound up with three jars of rock-solid blackberry sludge, and I miscalculated the sugar and undercooked the second, leaving me with seven jars of what will be the most delicious pancake/french toast/sundae sauce. The blackberry sludge appears to be salvageable, with time and patience, and I've already consumed 1/4 of a jar of strawberry sauce.*

As I said to H, I just hate not being instantly good at something. She pointed out that not being instantly good at canning was inherently different from not being instantly good at sky-diving, we all had a good laugh, and then I went back to what I do best - lazing around the house, not putting clean laundry away, and being the indentured servant of the fuzzy mens.

I've been thinking a lot about journeys lately. There's a part of me that wants to take off for a while - head out on the road and see what happens. (That is the part of me that doesn't remember that we just drove to Whitehorse and back on Friday/Saturday and that our legs are still cramping.) I'm afraid if I don't listen to that part of me now, though, that it's going to manifest itself much more loudly in a few months, and I'll do something without planning to do it.***

Anyway, to get back to the original point, I still have a few batches of jam I intend to try - I will keep you updated. Once my fingers have stopped feeling scorched.****


*Seriously, I may be going into a sugar coma. If I'm not at work tomorrow, please send help - preferably in the form of those two guys from Haven**
**Seriously, how have I missed out on that show? It's like my perfect blend of procedural cop show, paranormal show, and Maine (the creepiest of all states).
***See: How I moved to Japan, and also: How I moved to the Yukon.
****Unrelated to anything - some times, the cats will look at me without blinking, with these strange looks on their cat-faces, and I fear that they are plotting the best way to kill and eat me. Just FYI, in case anything happens.