Note of the Living Deb

Weekly update - first cold days of the year

2023-11-03T22:02:22Z

Covid led some of my friends to make our monthly craft night into a weekly online craft night. It's only half as fun, but we get to invite people in other states and it happens four times as often, so we don't have to worry so much about if other things happen at the same time because even if we miss a few, there are still a lot more.

One of my friends likes to give us a summary of her week, and I've decided to do that, too, but right here.

We had a cold snap (expected to possibly freeze), so I took the opportunity to snip some basil to propagate, as described here. It should be ready to plant on the 15th. I've tried this before and it worked great right up until I planted it. Next time I'll water my planter ahead of time so the soil is ready.

I've also been re-training myself on how to deal with cold. I at first was forgetting about scarves and hot drinks.

In socializing, I ran into an ex-co-worker on a neighborhood walk. She had left our employer to work for the state which paid much better. Thirteen years later, she's still there. For a while she was counting down the months, days, and seconds until retirement; then covid happened and she got to work from home. Suddenly working was not so bad, and she gets to continue working from home, so she's sticking with it.

Like me, she'd thought that with so many more fun things to do at home it would be harder to motivate herself to do work, but she says that did not turn out to be the case. Interesting!

Also, with the state, she got free parking right across the street (instead of costly parking across campus), but the commute was still awful, often taking 45 minutes to make the 3-mile trip home after work. So that part is better, too. She's also disgusted that although she gets a raise this year as a state worker, the people at our old employer do not--sometimes they are called state workers, and sometimes educators, often depending on which one screws them over the most.

I also made my annual visit to my neighbors who used to live next door, but now live at the end of the block (they'd try to buy the house they were renting, but instead they were forced to move to a nice place when they bought). They always do Trick or Treat on Halloween, so I get to visit. (I see them other times, too, but those are unpredictable.)

But I also failed in a social task. Another friend organized a birthday archery event, and we had to RSVP by a certain time. There was plenty of notice and it was clearly explained and yet I let myself get distracted until I'd missed the deadline. Robin's job has been stressful, so he was counting on me.

I was pretty annoyed with myself. I only get to see my close friends in person every month or two and I blew it. I'd been so proud of myself for getting yucky things done that I had been prioritizing over the last couple of weeks (I researched the election, posted my findings, voted, finished a book for which I am a beta reader, finished various sections of a book on the climate crisis that's emotionally quite difficult to read, and got my car inspected and registered) forgetting that in-person socializing should be prioritized. I'm getting back into using my bullet journal, so that should help me keep from forgetting things, but I also need to organize a few things.

Luckily, my friend was able to add us to his event after all, so we are not punished for my negligence. Yay!

And now a question. Many folks in the Rebel Badge Club are sewing their badges onto a "camp blanket." This is a small blanket that often is turned into a poncho by cutting a hole in the middle for your head. I had never heard of this before. I always sewed my Girl Scout badges on my uniform's sash or vest and my extra patches that wouldn't fit on a lined windbreaker.

I had thought that badge blankets/panchos were a British/European thing. But one Rebel said, 'When I was in Guides, we didn't have camp blankets.' (Europe has Girl Guides rather than Girl Scouts.) So maybe it's a modern thing. Do you know?

And speaking of the Rebel Badge Club, November's monthly badge is Science Fair, where you choose a science project from a provided list, or if you are a scientist, you can make up your own project. One of the items on the list is to make a solar oven. I've always kind of wanted to make one, so maybe now is a good time. One of my friends from craft night even provided a link on how to make a windshield shade solar cooker, which is different from the box ovens I'd seen before, and gets hotter, so it sounds good, but on the first reading, I'm not really parsing it. I'm remembering, no matter how you go, you also need something clear for a greenhouse effect (like a turkey roasting bag or two clear glass bowls (one inverted over the other)) inside which you need a thin black metal pot (to absorb the heat), so I have some thinking to do on how to accomplish those things. Have any of you made or used solar ovens?

This week's craft project is to continue knitting a hand towel. I think I'll actually finish it this week. One thing about crafting virtually ever week is that things actually get finished!

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Physics in Real Life: Egg Salad

2018-03-16T21:30:21Z

The physics

Because I know there are three dimensions, I put my hard-boiled eggs through the egg slicer three times, in positions that made the slices at right angles to the previous cuts. (The first cut makes slices, the second cut turns those into rods, the third cut turns those into cubes.)

Okay, technically I probably learned this from my mom, but I remember it because of physics.

The egg salad

Recently I've been scooping out the yolks first so I could smash them up nice and smooth, mix them with the mayonnaise, mustard, and spices, and then cut up the whites as best I could and mix it all together.

This time I went back to putting the whole egg through the slicer. This was much easier than just trying to cube the egg whites and it came out plenty smooth enough. Today's recipe, which I like, had:

eggs
mayonnaise and yogurt in about a 2:1 ratio
mustard (much less)
garlic powder (some)
onion powder (lots)
paprika on top

Post of the Day - Raptitude's Go Deeper, Not Wider - "I keep imagining a tradition I’d like to invent. After you’re established in your career, and you have some neat stuff in your house, you take a whole year in which you don’t start anything new or acquire any new possessions you don’t need. ... You improve skills rather than learning new ones. You consume media you’ve already stockpiled instead of acquiring more. You read your unread books, or even reread your favorites. You pick up the guitar again and get better at it, instead of taking up the harmonica. You finish the Gordon Ramsey Masterclass you started in April, despite your fascination with the new Annie Leibovitz one, even though it’s on sale." This should be much easier for people like me and my readers who have been collecting activities for a very long time.

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Sugar Cookies

2017-12-20T02:59:13Z

I have promised and will bring chocolate chip cookies to the Christmas party I'm attending. But I also want sugar cookies. I think some Christmas tree ones would be fairly simple and festive. I'll frost them with green frosting and maybe a yellow frosting star and put sprinkles on it for the decorations.

Step One: Get sprinkles. The best price I found was at Dollar Tree, and the ingredients were no worse than those in sprinkles at standard grocery stores.

Step Two: Pick out a recipe. I settled on the vanilla cookie dough from the cookie decorating class I took a while back. I have another "perfect no-refrigeration" recipe, but my notes say that although it tastes good, I'm not sure it's any better than the recipe from the class. The class recipe had a higher flour-to-butter-and-sugar ratio, so I decided it seemed healthier and picked that.

Step Three: Make sure I have the ingredients. I got more flour (it calls for 5 cups) just in case.

Step Four: Make the cookies. I used a lot of shortcuts. Since I don't have to bring them to the party, I don't care too much if they come out, and it's valuable to know if the shortcuts work.

I've made these before, but didn't take any notes, so I don't remember if I took shortcuts then or what. Well, today I ended up with a crumbly mess, added more milk, and was then able to roll out the dough.

My cookie cutter is very small, so two cookie sheets holds a lot of cookies, and they taste kind of boring (without frosting, anyway), so I stopped with that amount.

And the recipe makes way too much dough, so I decided to turn some of it into a pie crust and make a pumpkin pie. I already had the ingredients plus leftover whipped cream (in a can) from last time.

That basically worked, though it turned out a little thicker and harder to cut than my usual pie crust. I still have some dough left, so I'm also going to make an apple pie--I'd already bought the apples.

The remaining steps will be done on another day.

Web Tool of the Day - Maxim Lott's Tax Plan Calculator - It just asks for basic data so does not give the exact taxes you'd owe, but it looks close for me (if I make one calculation for years I take the standard deduction and another for the years I itemize).

Exercise update - Yesterday I took a medium hike (~2 miles) and did not feel strangely light-headed like the day before. But I did feel a bit used up. Grocery shopping that evening I carried a heavier-than-usual basket around the store (gallon of milk, 5-lb bag of flour, etc.). I definitely felt used up and sleepy early that evening. So the exercise break continues. The good news is that my cold or whatever has not gotten worse again like it often does.

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