Every few years I attempt a batch of Springerle cookies. I think they came out really well this time, though I'm pretty sure the anise seeds and extract I have are too old, as the flavoring isn't very strong.

Boy, did this take forever!

Bonus pic of the last few Big Jim green chiles roasting on the grill:

My first time making cinnamon rolls. I used this recipe from King Arthur Baking Company.

The recipe was easy enough to follow, but they came out a bit flat in the end, despite getting good height off the second rise. The recipe tells you to bake them on a sheet, but I think that was part of the issue with them spreading out. Next time I'll put them in a pan with walls and cram them all together and hopefully that keeps them more uniform.

My apologies if this post goes against the rules (Mods, please delete if so), but can anyone recommend to me a good free digital art software I can download? So far someone has mentioned Krita, but I was wondering what people here found to be the best? I am familiar with Illustrator, so I have an understanding of how vector graphics editor and design software works, I've just been out of the art game for ages, so I have no idea what's out there.

Thank you!

2 California Wonder Bell Peppers

10 Giuseppe Mild Green Chiles

7 Big Jim Green Chiles

There's many more Bell peppers still on the plants, but I'm hoping they start turning red before the weather forces me to pick them.

Edit: Apparently the tape measure is weird? I dunno, it looks like a normal tape measure to me? I think it might seem weird because it's upside down? Here's the same pic rotated:

I'm gonna have more than I know what to do with, and that's even after losing a dozen or so to end rot.

I feel like this is taking forever. Not sure if I'll get any peppers in the end, but we'll see!

Best: My aunt's wedding. Super quick ceremony. I and my cousins were all in the 6-11 year old age range. She had a piñata for us at the reception. We devoured candy and danced and ran around like maniacs, it was glorious.

Worst: Years later, one of those same cousins mentioned above gets married. In July. In Massachusetts. Outside. The heat and humidity were unbearable. And they KNEW the weather was gonna be shit, because the wedding program they handed out to everyone before the ceremony began was shaped like a fucking fan. THEY KNEW.

The ceremony finally ends and the catering staff makes everyone wait outside the dining hall in the heat for unknown reasons for another full hour. When we're finally let in, the AC is struggling to keep up and it's hot as hell in there, too. When the dinner is served, it is NOT the vegetarian lasagna I chose on the wedding invite, no, it's a portabella mushroom burger. I hate mushrooms, I would have never chosen such a thing. They switched the menu out and didn't tell anyone. Also, no open bar, wtf.

My "Big Jim" hatch chile plant isn't looking very big yet. The Guizeppi Milds and California Wonders are doing a bit better. This was the first day I took them all outside for a few hours to start the hardening off process. I've had them inside with a fan and grow lights up until now.

I expected some flowering at this point, but it's been stupidly cold and rainy here since I planted back in late March (I'm in 6a/6b), so maybe I'm expecting too much too soon? Next week is the first week it will in theory be above 55 degrees F overnight.

I've also been battling gnats (sticky traps and mosquito dunks for the win), which is weird to me because with the fan, the top layer of soil dries out pretty quickly, but I think I have them managed now.

Tried my hand at yeasted sweet bread from the King Arthur Baking School cookbook – one plain, the other is lemon poppyseed.

They came out okay, but I think I screwed myself over by using flour that was too cold because I pulled it straight from the freezer instead of taking it out the night before. The dough got a rise, but not big enough for my liking. Not sure if I also maybe kneaded it too much, as it was really hard to get the long strips for the braids to stay long, they just kept springing back into shorter strips.

Probably won’t make this again, but I think the bread will make for some really good French toast.

(Posted this over on a Baking community as well)

Tried my hand at yeasted sweet bread from the King Arthur Baking School cookbook -- one plain, the other is lemon poppyseed.

They came out okay, but I think I screwed myself over by using flour that was too cold because I pulled it straight from the freezer instead of taking it out the night before. The dough got a rise, but not big enough for my liking. Not sure if I also maybe kneaded it too much, as it was really hard to get the long strips for the braids to stay long, they just kept springing back into shorter strips.

Probably won't make this again, but I think the bread will make for some really good French toast.

They're a bit more leggy than I think is healthy, but hopefully repotting them will help.

Not sure if this is allowed, but there's a Kickstarter for all the original Transformers comics that has 3 days left (although it's been fully funded for quite some time). As a huge Transformers and comic book fan, I think this looks amazing and wanted to share the link in case anyone else was interested.

Screw the rest of us, I guess?

I'm about to take a long flight and am looking to expand my music library.

EDIT: Thanks so much, everyone! I've got 10.5 hours of music on my new playlist thanks to you all!

I'll start by plugging Harvard's free courses catalog as well as Udemy

Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-

Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous "Donut Tutorial" once!

Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!

Made 2 basic white bread loaves for the first time and they came out pretty decent, despite being a tad lopsided.

I'm about to be unemployed, and I'm looking to get some certificates for either Tableau or Power BI to make myself more marketable to prospective employers. I use Tableau in my current workplace and consider myself a "Beginner". I'm not great at it, but not horrible either (I can more make things look pretty than write extensive calculated fields).

I've never used Power BI, but based on a bit of research, it seems like it's more commonly used in companies that are not already focused on data analytics. I've watched a few videos on Power BI, but never used the app myself. It definitely looks more user-friendly than Tableau, though.

Can anyone offer any insight as to which app would be more marketable to have a certificate in when looking for entry-level jobs? Thanks you!

First time trying to grow anything from seed by myself. Fingers crossed it works out!