Driving Ms. Daisy

Elder drivers. Big Cars. I understand that they feel safer but are the rest of us?

Enough said.

Convenience Foods

So this weekend I started auditing at the store. In this context, what audit means is that I scan every item in the store and check to make sure that the signage matches the price ringing at the register. Since signage is my job, I then correct any mistakes with new signs. I enjoyed the relative monotony of scanning, beeping, looking, scanning broken only by questions from customers or the occasional error which required a few additional keystrokes. It reminded me of doing inventory when I was a teenager, a job I found both rewarding and interesting.


Like doing inventory, I got to see many more store products than I might have noticed otherwise. That's great, because I got to learn about the existence of pickled asparagus, canned chestnuts and lime curd, but it's also frustrating because I find the whole range of convenience foods an indicator of how lazy and detached from food our culture has become. Now don't get me wrong, my great food love is itself a convenience item, so I'm aware there is a double standard here. However, I think I've identified the category of convenience foods that irritate me: sweets and non-meals.


The aisle I was auditing this weekend included spices, cereals, baking goods, cake mixes, cookie mixes, and canned fruits and vegetables. Nothing too offensive in the canned fruits and veggies, no complaints in among the flours and sugars, and I even smiled as I looked over the array of spices. It was the baking mixes that put me in a foul mood. I grew up on baking mixes, despite my mom's great talent for baking. With three growing kids and a full time job, she probably just didn't have time for scratch baking. Put it that way, many modern people probably don't. I have compassion for my mother in this, but I find it hard to cop to in others. I find myself frustrated by the varieties of baking mixes available to us: plus blueberries, plus marrion berries, with brown sugar on top...

...it's days or weeks later and I just can't finish this rant. It's in my nature to be relativistic and forgiving and once I realized that the convenience foods are just there for people with busy lives, whatever their priorities are (just because someone doesn't have kids doesn't mean they don't want ease in the kitchen), I couldn't stay upset. I guess I was just lamenting because so much food available is just crap - not good for people, animals, children or the environment - and that I wish people knew the joy of cooking.

"Not" Was the Correct Answer

Didn't go on vacation, but E did. She stopped by my place on the way out to the beach and we caught up for several hours. We also took a walk to the LIQ and had dinner together before she headed west. Less than 24 hours later, she was back at my house because the scene was not what we were expecting. While she says it would have been a lot more fun if all the people who had originally planned on attending had come (including me), I'm glad I didn't end up going.

To Vacation or Not To Vacation

I had planned a trip to the beach for next weekend with some friends. I even pre-paid for it.

And I'm probably not going.


I need to get a second job. I need to stay home and earn my usual passive moneys from babysitting Plum. I need to work on my side job. Basically, it's worth losing the money that's already gone to make more real and potential money.

But I feel bad about it.

E is going. She even said she didn't want to be the flake that didn't go (although I paraphrase, because she used a word worse than flake), which I try not to take as a direct hit. So now I wonder if I should somehow go. Even though I'm taking two weeks off next month to go on vacation.

Unstoppable Force

What happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object?

Good Housekeeping

I'm not the greatest of housekeepers. I keep things tidy and like everything to be in its assigned place, but I'm not that good at the actual cleaning part. Luckily for me, E was a great housekeeper. She cleaned the bathrooms and the floor at the Dollhouse, while I kept the kitchen spic and span. Now that I'm living alone, it's a different story. I cleaned the toilet the other day for the first time and realized I haven't cleaned a toilet for months. That was weird. An exercise in remembering what self-sufficiency really means. But I also learned that vacuum cleaners work just as well on tile as they do on carpet. My vacuum has a hose and attachments and I think that cleaned the floor better than any broom would have done.

I also learned a little something new about housekeeping while at a friend's house the other day. On her coffee table was a copy of Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House. I paged through the sections on bedroom decor (sexual art not necessarily best), the use of stimulating beverages (when to serve coffee, tea or alcohol) and liability (when one could reasonably be expected to pay damages for injury), but carried away on this handy advice:
upon rising in the morning, turn down the sheets and open the window to air the bed.

Both A and E are bed makers, so I've grudgingly fallen into the habit of at least pulling the bedding up over the bed so as to have a slightly less rumply bed to come back to in the evening, but no more. I've aired the bed for the past several days and I find my bed so much more appealing now. I actually leave the bed turned all the way down (with the sheets and blankets folded back) until it's time for bed. The sheets are then cool and fresh every time I climb between them. I guess that's a lesson in listening to my own instincts.

Illusion

I used to drink this beverage in Australia all the time.
It was served in a pitcher with a shot glass.
It cost about $10 in 1997.

Midori Illusion
1oz or 30 ml Midori
1oz or 30 ml Malibu Rum
1oz or 30 ml Vodka
1/2 oz or 15 ml Cointreau
1/2 - 1 oz Pineapple Juice

I'm looking forward to having this at my cocktail party (Goal # 97)!