Yesterday I Essayed Hard Boiled Eggs and More

Good morning.
Of late, I've essayed four things: hard-boiled eggs, Katy Kornettes, Chopin, and Mandarin Chinese.

I have never mastered hard-boiled eggs. Yesterday when I made them for Patricia's salad I got out the cookbook. But even that failed me, and the eggs had a thin green line where the yolk met the white. That was not Fanny Farmer's fault; it was my fault for not paying strict enough attention.

I am still essaying Katy Kornettes. Every time I make them they are different.  Edible, because white cornmeal plus salt cooked in water =super-edible.  But not what I want. I now think I must pay attention to the recipe, which says: Pour them out in circles the size of silver dollars.  Pour.  Not dab.  If they are thick enough to be dabbed they are going to be soft and pliable and I am looking for thin, brown and crispy.

Chopin is another story. I struggled at the piano yesterday with no success. If you are working on your left hand, I suggest the Etude No. 3, which keeps up a steady running bass in the left hand with simple melodic touches in the right.  I am playing it at plodding pace, which doesn't seem to be doing anything for me.  But if I'd do it every day--perhaps. Since I broke my left wrist ten or more years ago, my LH has been going down hill.  It's a miracle I can still play, even ploddingly.

Mandarin Chinese comes to me in a lesson a day from a great program called Transparent Language.  Have I learned anything in 2 weeks? Yes. Wo, pronounced "wuh", is I--and I can recognize the character.  When I get the word of the day I enter it into my day book. First, word in Mandarin, then the pinjin, (the word in English letters,) then its translation.  Let me tell you, copying those characters  is sheer heck at five thirty in the morning while trying to see through cataracts to boot.  Beneath the word is a sentence using the word (more incredible copying)...and then a little horn which if you touch it will say the word "pronounced by a native speaker," then, click on another little horn and you hear the whole sentence "pronounced by a native speaker."  Whoa. What a challenge. I'm lucky I can even recognize "Wo."
Love to all, YAZZYBEL