Making jam

I am making jam.

Right now I am making jam.

Na-now-NOW! I'm making it.

The instructions said let it sit for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. So I set an alarm for 5 minutes. When it goes off I get up and stir and then reset the alarm. When I have gotten up 6 times, the 30 minutes will be over and I can add the sugar.

That's what the instructions say.

Only they didn't say 6 times. I figured that out myself.

That's mathematics, by the way.

I have already gotten up to stir several times.

I think maybe 4 times?

Actually, after the 3rd time I forgot to reset the alarm, and I read two email messages and sent one to my mom before I realized I had no timer.

Do you think reading two messages and writing one to my mom took five minutes? I am thinking it probably did.

Probably.

Which means I'm almost done?

Actually, I have lost count on how many times I've stirred the jam.

What do you think happens if you stir too many times?

And what does a "finely chopped" apricot look like?

I guess I'll figure both of those things out by the end of the night. Or at least over the course of a year when eating jam.

One thing about jam, it doesn't really use that much fruit. You add 3 cups of fruit, but 5.5 cups of sweetener (sugar and corn syrup). So that's nearly 2/3 sugar, 1/3 fruit.

Which means even after tonight, even after making jam, I will still have a tree full of apricots --

'scuze me -- 5 minute alarm.

I'm back. I'm calling this the 6th alarm this next time, so I can finish.

Cousin Lisa came and helped pick three grocery bags of apricots. You can barely tell. So my offer still stands -- come and pick and help yourself to apricots.

My jam-making relatives bailed on me. They were going to come today and pick and then make some jam, but Peggy looked in her freezer and realized she already had more jam than she could use from the same tree, two years ago.

So I'm making my own jam.

Right na-now-NOW!

(Making jam is kind of boring.)