Wednesday, Mar 25th, 2009 Categories: 2009, topten
Sometimes, a man just need clean pans. After spending the last 3 years above a mostly unvented cooktop, my pans were coated with a nice thick layer of grease and grime. They were just plain nasty, and I should be ashamed of myself for letting them get that bad. Over the past week, I scrubbed a pan or two a day with some Bar Keeper’s Friend and now they once again look like new. Never again. Hopefully actually having a hood will help matters.
The Lovely Tess’s favorite new activity is helping me take the dog outside to take care of business. She insists on holding the poop bag, sticking her hand inside, and picking up dirt and leaves with it, while saying “poooooop”. Yes, we train them young around here.
One of these days I’ll need to get a new ice cream maker, and if I happen to have a spare $35k and a ready supply of liquid nitrogen, I’ll get one of these. Holy crap.
Continuing with the kitchen theme this week, we’ve decided to phase out using our non-stick pans and replace them with cast iron pans. There’s been lots of talk about how bad non-stick pans are, from the manufacturing process to the fumes and chemicals that they give off when heated. Not to mention them flaking off from too much abuse, which of course, will end up in your scrambled eggs. I like knowing that the cast iron pans will outlive me and will only get better with use. And as an added bonus, you get a free workout when using them since they weigh about 20 pounds apiece.
We went out for dim sum on Sunday with some friends, which really is one of my favorite ways to eat. A little bit of a lot of things, many in dumpling form, and many containing pork. We ordered something on the menu called “Magical Vegetable Cake” that was neither vegetables nor cake. Turns out it was Kao Fu, or wheat gluten. Whatever it was, the Lovely Tess could not shove it in her face fast enough. We’ll be ordering that one again.
Our friends invited us to the Classic Cartoon Festival on Saturday, where classic Warner Bros. Cartoons are played on a big screen set up in Symphony Hall, interspersed with live musical performances. I’m guessing it’s one of the few days out of the year you can see screaming kids running around symphony hall with their pants falling down. The Cartoons were pretty good too.
I’ve officially made my last pizza in my old oven. We’ve shared some good times, but the time has come to say goodbye. Needless to say, the last year or so has seen some rocky times with us, but I will bid you a not-so-fond farewell. Bring on the new oven!
We finally figured out what “no no ga coco” means. It means “No, no thank you.” It’s what they teach at school when another kid is doing something that you don’t like. We discovered that because when the Lovely Tess says “I love you”, it comes out as “I love coco”. Then again, maybe she just loves cocoa.
I am currently enjoying my last day of vacation for the week. No we didn’t go anywhere, and we really haven’t done much. And that, my friends, is what I love about a vacation. I still have five more vacation days to use before the end of April, and I plan to spend it doing exactly this.
An update on the kitchen: contractor has been found, range hood has been purchased, and as of today, the range has been ordered. Thanks to some great connections, a shiny new BlueStar will soon be gracing our kitchen. This is the last range that I plan on buying for a very long time. I can’t frigging wait.
The other highlight of my week thus far: The other night, I made some Whole Foods Brownie Mix brownies, and the directions said to mix the butter with the eggs and water, and then add in the dry mix. So I whisk the softened butter with the eggs and water for a while, and it’s just all lumpy and I can’t figure out how this is supposed to work. So the Lovely Suse walks over, sees what I’m doing, and she tells me that I’m a big dummy and that I needed to melt the butter first. Ok, she didn’t actually call me a dummy, but she gets such pleasure out of seeing me screw up in the kitchen. But it doesn’t say that you’re supposed to melt the butter! So I did the obvious thing. First, I threw out the butter and eggs and started again and made the brownies with the melted butter. Next, I sent a tweet to @wholefoods asking about the directions, and a little while later, they sent a message back to me telling me that I was indeed NOT a dummy and that the directions were wrong. And they were going to change the package. Complete and total vindication! By the way, the brownies are deeeeelicious. Highly recommended.
The amount of cheerios and crackers and animal crackers that permeated every inch of my car was just out of control. The Lovely Tess dumps cups of them all over the place on purpose, just for fun. I don’t even know how to get into some of the crevices, but I had to spend some serious time with a vacuum to even make a dent in the mess. It’s still a disaster, though.
I spent last weekend working on a eight hour final. Now that is a fun way to spend a Friday and a Saturday. And believe me, I needed all eight hours. Well, that’s one more set of classes down, and I don’t want to think about how many I have to go. I just like knowing that a year from now, I’ll have a whole lot more free time on my hands.
My Roomba and I are having some issues. We’re not completely done, but we’re taking some time apart. The past few weeks have seen me yelling at and in some cases, kicking Rosie as she repeatedly got stuck in the same spots over and over (spots that she never got stuck in before), got stuck on cords, and claimed to be done with rooms after only a few minutes. After some time on her own, maybe she’ll shape up and return to her former glory.
Thanks to Mr. Rob for fixing my salt cellar, which I didn’t even know was broken. Apparently, the cheese guy knows more about magnet polarities than the engineer.
Well, I unexpectedly made a visit to the walk-in clinic on Saturday, and apparently, I have shingles. Shingles! This is what 80 year old men get, right? What the frig? Well, it turns out that anyone who got chicken pox at some point in their lives has the potential to get them. It just stays dormant in your system and can come back at any point, for no good reason. Don’t worry, it’s not contagious. I think.
After 20 years, without fanfare, I’ve given up on watching the Real World. I watched the first episode of the season, and then just sort of forgot about it and haven’t had the time to catch up. Maybe this is a sign that I’m getting too old for it. Maybe the shingles is a better sign that I’m getting old.
We spent the morning yesterday at Ikea, and I’m having to restrain the Lovely Suse from ripping apart our kitchen and replacing every cabinet and counter. The Lovely Tess is perfectly happy with her new tent.
One of these days, I’ll have time to read a book for fun, and I will use the Kindle App for the iPhone to read it.
I took advantage of the sweet weather this past weekend and grilled two days in a row. Oh, how I’ve missed grilling. It really needs a good cleaning though, as it caught on fire from all the grease caked on it. Luckily, there was still snow on the ground, so I used that to put it out.
Ah, the March snowstorm. Just when all of the snow has finished melting and distant thoughts of Spring start popping into your brain, Mother Nature decides to give us a little reminder that we’re not off the hook yet. Happens every year. Luckily, the snow usually melts in a hurry and we move on to warmer weather in a hurry. Hopefully.
I enjoyed a much needed and rare two and a half hour Sunday afternoon nap yesterday. Man, I miss those. It makes the week so much easier to face when you actually feel relatively rested.
Rest is not an option when the Lovely Tess decides to literally pull me out of bed in the morning saying “Brekkie, Dada! Cook!”
What can I say, the girl likes her Brekkie. I think it’s funny that she calls it Brekkie, but I guess every family has their own way of referring to meals. In my house growing up, the nighttime meal was always called “supper”, which would never occur to me to say anymore. It’s “dinner” now. Sounds classier, I guess?
Well, we’re waiting word from the contractor to see how feasible our kitchen plans are. In the meantime, I continue to curse our dying appliances. I guess it’s really not their fault, but who else can I blame? I also realize that the can of worms has been opened. Also on the agenda in the coming year, painting the cabinets and eventually getting new countertops. Oh, and remember those red walls that took almost five coats of paint to cover? Yeah, those will be going bye-bye as well.
I must say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the Adam Corolla Podcast that kicked off last week. He’s still getting paid by CBS after being fired a couple of weeks ago, so he just sits in his house and talks with his friends for 30 or 40 minutes a day and posts it. Seriously, radio is in serious trouble. With more and more people will streaming web access on their phones, does anyone need terrestrial, or dare I say it, even satellite radio anymore?
I must say, I’ve enjoyed using Tweetdeck for the past week. I think I might be sold. Although I wish that its notifications were better.
I think I just ate my lunch too fast. Oof.
I may be becoming slightly addicted to yogurt covered raisins. And I may be passing that on to the Lovely Tess as she shoves as many in her mouth as she can fit and then immediately asks for more. Whoops. Sorry about that.
I found what is perhaps the greatest line of any children’s book ever, taken from Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: “BOOM BOOM BOOM Mr. Brown is a wonder! BOOM BOOM BOOM Mr. Brown makes thunder!” I can say it over and over and over and I think I might take it as my personal motto. It’s just so damn catchy.
Yes, these are the ramblings of a mad man.
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I am officially the crotchety old man who lives downstairs and yells at the teenagers to keep it down. 1 week ago
I guess I have to go back to wearing pants tomorrow. 2 weeks ago
Pretty sure I can solve world hunger armed only with the cukes, zucchini, and tomatoes in my CSA box this week. 25 tomatoes, 15 cukes. 2 weeks ago
Unbelievably, managed to repair my broken Roomba. Only slight burns from the soldering iron. http://bit.ly/90ws0L2 weeks ago
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