Friday, August 01, 2008

Random Friday!

...Cuz I Just Can't Keep the Days Straight Right Now

1) So there was an earthquake in LA on Tuesday. What struck me as super weird/synchronicitous was the fact that it was the same day we received an email from facilities to be aware we'd be having an earthquake drill, here, in Seattle this week.

-Yes, I called my mom. Yes, she and everyone around her were fine. They barely felt it after the initial "jump." As the house is not on a flat/slab foundation like everyone else in the neighborhood, I asked that one of them go down to the basement "area" and check to make sure everything was still as precariously balanced as it was before. I have memories of Victorian houses being torn down in Santa Cruz throughout my time there because the houses had "jumped" their foundations during the Loma Prieta quake. Such a shame.

-Yes, I called my brother. I did. We spoke! He told me he was fine and that everything downtown was fine. There was more "rolling" there, so it was a more "normal" feeling quake.

-About then is when my cell battery died so I'm sorry if I didn't call you to check on you, Richard, Rudy, Maria, and any and all wayward friends who would rather not be mentioned on my blog :). It's not that I don't care, it's that I knew if I didn't call my mom she'd think the earthquake destroyed Seattle or something.


2) Susie-homemaker/M.Stewart I am not. Ask me to help you fix the vacuum cleaner, and I am so there. Ask me to vacuum...yeah right. However, if your housemate/bestfriend/S.O./family member/person you love/etc. et.al/you, maybe, happens to burn their chicken for Chicken Parmesan on an all-clad skillet non-non-stick, stainless steel skillet? Don't cry. Don't go out and spend too much on any cleaner. Here's what you do:

  • Take that box of $.59 baking soda and powder-up the bottom of the pan.
  • Add enough water to make a paste and leave it overnight.
  • In the morning add about an inch or two of water. Put it to boil for a bit...I think I left it rolling for 5 minutes.
  • Take it off the heat. On one site I read that you can take a wooden spoon and scrape off the big chunks at this point. I didn't have the big chunks to try this out with, but I'm sure it would work.
  • Let cool.
  • Dump out the water and I don't know if it's necessary, but I used a drop of dish washing soap and started scrubbing and was sad that nothing was coming off.
  • So in a "it can't hurt" moment, I added a couple tablespoons of baking soda....AND MAGIC HAPPENED. I started to scrub and everything just came off with no elbow grease whatsoever!
I'm going to see if the same magic will happen for the pot we over-cooked some rice in like the day after the all-clad came home.


3) And just how much do you think these will go for?

4) I think my tea-totaling self might be giving up alcohol for good...or maybe just cheap wine and non-sugary drinks.

I had a sip of an old reliable (read as cheap!) wine the night before last and I broke out in burning red hives all over.

It could be anything, the histamines that the yeast produces, the sulphates, the pesticides used on the grapes, the enzyme I seem to lack that apparently breaks down alcohol -- this is the funny tangent-esque connection: So it's called "Asian flush." It's the red-face that Asians get when they have even a sip of alcohol because of that missing enzyme. I already lack those enzymes required to fully digest pork (I didn't mention this?) so it's not surprising that I might have this problem too. Except I don't get the racing heart and until last night I didn't get the heat associated with the flush. But I'm not Asian? Maybe?

No really! There is that theory that my ancestors came from Asia. It's not all that long ago that the Spanish came in to decimate the natives of Mexico, and genetics is a hoot...hi, I glow in the dark, I'm so pale? So why not? The "cure" according to some Asian guys who posted about this somewhere on the internets is to have sugar before or with your alcomohol. Well, hello expensive (better quality grapes and yeast) fru fru drinks for me!

5) Is there a five? I had a five before, but I didn't get around to posting this until today instead of yesterday so my grand news of their being an total eclipse of the sun on August 1st isn't so dramatic as it happened already and pretty much no where I could have seen it. Oh well.

It's aloha Friday! You know I miss that...dressing up in bright happy colored clothes maybe with a big ol' plumeria on something to celebrate aloha Friday? It's probably because these storms and humidity make me feel like I'm back in Hilo.

Hmm, that could have been #6, but that would ruin my OCD-esque need for only 5 things...

2 comments:

Bezzie said...

You're so good. It has to be above a certain number on the richter scale for me to call back home to make sure everyone's OK after a quake. Less people in Alaska--makes it easier to roll with the quakes.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to look into the pork enzyme thing because I haven't been able to eat pork lately. I wondered if there was something like that. I've never heard of Asian flush, either. Have a great weekend!