Science and Food

Whilst cooking our Thanksgiving meal yesterday, I learned a few scientific facts about cooking.

1)  A countertop roaster oven will cook a turkey about 2 hours faster than you think it will.

2)  If you continue to warm the turkey on low for 2 hours while everything else catches up, you will cook all of the cartilage out of the bones of the turkey.

3)  If all of the cartilage cooks into your turkey drippings, and then you attempt to make gravy, you will end up with not-so-great uncooperative gravy.

4) Not-so-great uncooperative gravy doesn't taste very good.

Cats on a bed

Fact: Cats are not very helpful when making a bed.

Fact: Cats enjoy not being very helpful when you are trying to make a bed.

Vice held by a ratchet wrapped up a noose

I have recently been given a lot of responsibility at my new job.

Less than a week in, mistakes are bound to happen, I am after all a human being.

Knowing that I had erred last night at the end of my shift when no one else was present, my sleep was as restful as a vice held by a ratchet wrapped up in a noose.  All that tension building up to when I walk in the door this morning and greet the aftermath.

Depth

There is so much depth and truth to the saying, "If you want something done right (or at all), then do it yourself."

Clovers

We have an unidentified planting hanging from the ceiling above our computer station at home.

Even in death, its old and retired leaves carry a certain beauty with them as they fall upon my typing fingers.

They look like little clovers, brown and wilted to precision.

Raffle

Last night I had a dream where I bought a raffle ticket.

The raffle was for more tickets, if I won I was to get 1000 more tickets.

I won the raffle, and all my new tickets were raffled for even more tickets.

Soon I had millions of tickets generating even more tickets.

I awoke to a confused sense of victory.

Grapes and a Headache

As I dive head-first into the wide and vibrant world of wine, I've encountered a set of constants:

1)  All wine is made from grapes.
2)  All wine when drunk in abundance gives me a headache.

That being said, I'm fairly certain several future blog posts will be related to the myriad of wines I get to take home and try.

Vinegar

I'm discovering that you can clean almost absolutely everything, with vinegar.

It may stink a little bit...

...stink at not getting rid of the stain!

(rimshot)

Grow

Hugs and kisses help a baby to grow,

water and sunshine help a seed to grow.

Darkness and dank help mold to grow,

planning and populace help a city to grow.

What then, does it take for a man to grow?

Right Direction

The fog and the frost cast a blanket of calming uncertainty this morning.

It's hard to tell exactly where I'm headed going into winter, but it feels as if I'm moving in the right direction.

Keys

I'm a firm believer that there is not simply one universal key to happiness in life, but rather multiple keys forming a keychain of sorts.

One of these keys is to always say yes if someone asks you if you want to go to the hot-springs.

Does not usually matter what hot-springs, or what time it is.

Just say yes.

The Price is Wrong

I'm very profficient at some things, and halfway decent at others.  Ever since moving in with my father though, I've discovered that I am absolutely terrible at The Price is Right.

It doesn't matter whether it is a tube of toothpaste or a brand new Honda Civic, I have no idea how much things cost.

Recurring

Last night I had a recurring dream of mine.  Although not a nightmare, it tends to be quite stressful.

I'm under the assumption that I am still enrolled in college at a dreamscape version of my elementary school, Radley Elementary.  Always the same three classes in the same three rooms, my last semester is under way and I scramble to try and gather my extremely heavy books and make it to the rooms on time.  I'm late to all three, months behind in them all, and the teachers scowl at me as I hobble in ten minutes late and attempt to filter through my undecipherable notes.

At my breaking point, ready to just fail all three classes and try again next semester, I uncover my framed degree in my backpack.  A wave of relief rushes over me and I awake with a smile knowing that it was all one big dream misunderstanding, because I have in fact already graduated.

Unit of Measure

Perhaps one my favorite units of measure I frequently hear in my life, that is used by my family almost exclusively, is "from here to Arnold's."

'Here' being my dad's house, and 'Arnold's' being my uncle's house about 150 yards away through the shared back yard.

You'd be surprised at what can be measured in this world using this reference point.