Five what by five what?
Nov. 30th, 2009 03:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Whenever I make mayo, I almost always end up making way more than I need. The homemade variety doesn't keep nearly as well as store bought (1 week vs months if not years), so there's really no sense in making a lot, especially as I don't generally eat a lot of it to begin with. But, the cycle goes like this. I decide that I am going to make mayo the old-fashioned way, with a bowl and a wire whisk. All it takes is patience and a good whisking arm. I'm okay for maybe the first 10 drops of oil. Then my whisking arm starts to get tired. I drizzle more oil into the mixture than I should. The arm holding the measuring cup at a tense angle to control the amount of oil starts to cramp. I think, it should be safe now to add oil in a thin stream instead of drops. I adjust my cramped arms. Rinse and repeat. I end up with a semi-emulsified, not-very-mayo-like substance. That's when I have to drag out the food processor -- which I had wanted to avoid the "work" of washing -- and make a new batch of mayo. The food processor makes it happen practically by magic, with very little effort. Once I have creamy, perfect mayo, I then add in the "mayo" (aka, semi-emulsified crap) that I tried to make by hand. Because if you didn't already know, if you have perfectly emulsified mayo, you can add mayo-gone-wrong to it and it will magically make it good. However, this is why I always end up with more than I need. Sigh.
Quiet Thanksgiving, as planned. When I picked up our Whole Foods meal, it turned out that they didn't have a 6-8lb turkey as we were supposed to get, so they gave us a 10lb one. For 2 people that is simply ridiculous, lol. Also, witness our naivete: WF asked that we specify a time that we would be going to pick up the meal; my cousin chose 11:30am. We both figured that we could have it for lunch AND dinner. Neither of us knew or realized that "fully cooked" doesn't mean "hot." We still ended up having to rub a paste (provided) over the turkey and baking it for over an hour. We also had to heat up the various veggies and accompaniments, so we didn't actually end up eating until much later than we'd originally planned. I mean, still easier than having to cook everything from scratch and less clean up involved, but yeah. Now I know.
I did no Black Friday shopping this year. I was, however, very lame. Just before midnight the night before BF, I readromanticalgirl's LJ entry where she talked about her BF plans. I felt pretty wide awake and had been looking for an excuse to do BF, so I emailed her and asked if I could tag along. She nicely said yes. She planned to start at 2am. We emailed back and forth for a bit and I was still excited. Then, just as I was preparing to leave the house a bit before 1:30am, I felt like I'd been hit by a sledgehammer. A wave of tiredness came over me and I realized that there was no way in hell I would be able to stay awake much longer without becoming Ms. Grouchy Pants and/or wanting to sleep in the car. So I told L. that I was lame and was not going after all. Yes, I felt really, really lame. I generally don't like to cancel plans once I've made them, but I just knew I was going to be terrible company. That'll also teach me to make spontaneous middle-of-the-night decisions about going out. Don't I know yet that those days are long over for me? :P
I ended up sleeping until 12:30pm. When I went to bed I had thought to myself that I would just go BF shopping at a more "normal" hour, say 8 or 9am, and maybe still get a couple of good deals on things. Given the time I woke up, I didn't even bother to go to any stores. Talk about conking out, sheesh. I think I have a low-grade something or other, because the last few days before that my throat was feeling funny/sore in the mornings, and then the major sleepathon happened.
My doctor ran a vitamin D test along w/ my cholesterol test and to no one's surprise, I'm low. It's a problem for basically everyone who lives in this sunshine-forsaken state. I'd been taking 250 IU/day along w/ my calcium supplement, but my doctor wants me to take 1,000 IU/day. I ended up getting what my cousin gets, Carlson Ddrops. It's in liquid form and 1 drop of it provides 1,000 IU. I usually put it on some food or in my coffee. It tastes like nothing. You'd think "a drop of sunshine" would taste like something. So far I've been pretty good about remembering if I've taken it that day, but I'm sure one of these days I'll forget and end up giving myself a whole lotta vitamin D. Luckily that shouldn't do me any harm. I don't think. Also, I'm going to see a physical therapist tomorrow for a consult re: my back soreness from the accident. AND I've decided not to be an ostrich and have scheduled for a consult w/ an endocrinologist. My cousin points out that I've already had 2 abnormal test results, I'm going to have to see one at some point or another, so might as well start the battery of tests now.
The garden has shown very little change. My cousin's gardeners have told her that winter is a verrrrrry slow growing season so I shouldn't be concerned. The cabbage looks leafier and the lettuce has pretty much died, but otherwise everything's about the same. There were a couple of warm ("warm") days a few weeks back, and that apparently made one of the bok choi plants bolt. So I guess they really ARE cold-weather plants, because it was so not warm; the sun just came out, that's all. I removed all the flowers, but I probably should have just let it go to seed. Now it's useless. Sigh.
Last night I beat Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The games/brain teasers are fun, but the conclusion was a bit anti-climactic. I thought Flora was annoying. Only thing left is that there are supposed to be 120 puzzles, but I've only found 115, and of those, I still haven't figured out 4 of them. They are annoying me. A lot.
At the moment I'm making the custard for mint ice cream. It's really way too cold to be making or eating ice cream, but some people simply will not be dissuaded.
Edit: Oh, for those of you who were interested, this was Enterprise's response to my complaint letter:
Dear NAME:
I am in receipt of your email regarding your experience with our Enterprise Locations in Washington. This matter was forwarded to me for special attention.
Let me begin by apologizing for the frustration you experienced, as a result of the issue(s) described in your correspondence. Enterprise Rent a Car is committed to providing the best products and services in the car rental industry. Please be assured that the service you received is not indicative of our usual high standards of excellence. Therefore, your comments have been documented and will be brought to the attention of the General Manager of those locations for immediate review and follow-up with their staff.
In closing, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to offer your invaluable feedback, as we are dedicated to becoming the car rental company of choice.
Sincerely,
Muamera
Customer Care
Enterprise Rent a Car
Yes, that's right. The form response was not surprising at all. What I find funny is that they didn't even bother to replace "NAME" with my actual name.
Quiet Thanksgiving, as planned. When I picked up our Whole Foods meal, it turned out that they didn't have a 6-8lb turkey as we were supposed to get, so they gave us a 10lb one. For 2 people that is simply ridiculous, lol. Also, witness our naivete: WF asked that we specify a time that we would be going to pick up the meal; my cousin chose 11:30am. We both figured that we could have it for lunch AND dinner. Neither of us knew or realized that "fully cooked" doesn't mean "hot." We still ended up having to rub a paste (provided) over the turkey and baking it for over an hour. We also had to heat up the various veggies and accompaniments, so we didn't actually end up eating until much later than we'd originally planned. I mean, still easier than having to cook everything from scratch and less clean up involved, but yeah. Now I know.
I did no Black Friday shopping this year. I was, however, very lame. Just before midnight the night before BF, I read
romanticalgirl's LJ entry where she talked about her BF plans. I felt pretty wide awake and had been looking for an excuse to do BF, so I emailed her and asked if I could tag along. She nicely said yes. She planned to start at 2am. We emailed back and forth for a bit and I was still excited. Then, just as I was preparing to leave the house a bit before 1:30am, I felt like I'd been hit by a sledgehammer. A wave of tiredness came over me and I realized that there was no way in hell I would be able to stay awake much longer without becoming Ms. Grouchy Pants and/or wanting to sleep in the car. So I told L. that I was lame and was not going after all. Yes, I felt really, really lame. I generally don't like to cancel plans once I've made them, but I just knew I was going to be terrible company. That'll also teach me to make spontaneous middle-of-the-night decisions about going out. Don't I know yet that those days are long over for me? :PI ended up sleeping until 12:30pm. When I went to bed I had thought to myself that I would just go BF shopping at a more "normal" hour, say 8 or 9am, and maybe still get a couple of good deals on things. Given the time I woke up, I didn't even bother to go to any stores. Talk about conking out, sheesh. I think I have a low-grade something or other, because the last few days before that my throat was feeling funny/sore in the mornings, and then the major sleepathon happened.
My doctor ran a vitamin D test along w/ my cholesterol test and to no one's surprise, I'm low. It's a problem for basically everyone who lives in this sunshine-forsaken state. I'd been taking 250 IU/day along w/ my calcium supplement, but my doctor wants me to take 1,000 IU/day. I ended up getting what my cousin gets, Carlson Ddrops. It's in liquid form and 1 drop of it provides 1,000 IU. I usually put it on some food or in my coffee. It tastes like nothing. You'd think "a drop of sunshine" would taste like something. So far I've been pretty good about remembering if I've taken it that day, but I'm sure one of these days I'll forget and end up giving myself a whole lotta vitamin D. Luckily that shouldn't do me any harm. I don't think. Also, I'm going to see a physical therapist tomorrow for a consult re: my back soreness from the accident. AND I've decided not to be an ostrich and have scheduled for a consult w/ an endocrinologist. My cousin points out that I've already had 2 abnormal test results, I'm going to have to see one at some point or another, so might as well start the battery of tests now.
The garden has shown very little change. My cousin's gardeners have told her that winter is a verrrrrry slow growing season so I shouldn't be concerned. The cabbage looks leafier and the lettuce has pretty much died, but otherwise everything's about the same. There were a couple of warm ("warm") days a few weeks back, and that apparently made one of the bok choi plants bolt. So I guess they really ARE cold-weather plants, because it was so not warm; the sun just came out, that's all. I removed all the flowers, but I probably should have just let it go to seed. Now it's useless. Sigh.
Last night I beat Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The games/brain teasers are fun, but the conclusion was a bit anti-climactic. I thought Flora was annoying. Only thing left is that there are supposed to be 120 puzzles, but I've only found 115, and of those, I still haven't figured out 4 of them. They are annoying me. A lot.
At the moment I'm making the custard for mint ice cream. It's really way too cold to be making or eating ice cream, but some people simply will not be dissuaded.
Edit: Oh, for those of you who were interested, this was Enterprise's response to my complaint letter:
Dear NAME:
I am in receipt of your email regarding your experience with our Enterprise Locations in Washington. This matter was forwarded to me for special attention.
Let me begin by apologizing for the frustration you experienced, as a result of the issue(s) described in your correspondence. Enterprise Rent a Car is committed to providing the best products and services in the car rental industry. Please be assured that the service you received is not indicative of our usual high standards of excellence. Therefore, your comments have been documented and will be brought to the attention of the General Manager of those locations for immediate review and follow-up with their staff.
In closing, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to offer your invaluable feedback, as we are dedicated to becoming the car rental company of choice.
Sincerely,
Muamera
Customer Care
Enterprise Rent a Car
Yes, that's right. The form response was not surprising at all. What I find funny is that they didn't even bother to replace "NAME" with my actual name.
