Random Lunacy

We had some sweet potatoes left from our weekly produce delivery and I decided I wanted to make Sweet Potato Chicken Curry. So, I found a recipe that looked good from some of the ones I've saved over the years, picked up the ingredients I needed for it and then went to make it for dinner the other night, only once I started in on it, I realized the cooking time was over 90 minutes and not the 30 minutes I was expecting. Weird. Okay, so the last stage of the recipe simmers for 30 minutes, so that was probably what I'd been thinking of. Also, it had a few ingredients I'd apparently missed earlier that we actually didn't have on hand (technically, we did have some canned garbanzo beans, but they were all dated as Best By sometime in 2020, so I figured it was best not to use them). It was all very strange and I couldn't figure out how I'd gotten it so wrong.

So, tonight I started in on it again... better supplied with all the ingredients I would need and plenty of time to get it done before dinner. Guys, I was a full hour into making this thing before it finally hit me that there were TWO DIFFERENT RECIPES with basically the same name (one, which is the one I'd actually wanted to do, that I'd apparently saved off 13 years ago(!) and one I had found more recently). The older recipe took 30 minutes to cook, but the one I ended up attempting tonight was a whole lot more involved, had a whole lot more ingredients (which is why they'd been missing the night before) and took a whole lot longer. *facepalm*

So, at this point, I looked over both recipes, dropped a few ingredients that hadn't been added yet from the one I'd been following, tossed in a few from the other recipe that I thought would taste good and just winged it. And wow... was it good! I sat down and wrote out what I did, because I will definitely be making this again.

( Recipe under the cut for anyone who might be interested. )

Reposted from my Livejournal, with a photo over there (I haven't been able to recall how to post them here).

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in ages, but I'm hoping to do better (ha!). And I had a bit of a tale to tell, so I figured this would be a good place to do it. Seriously, though, I've had "Post to Livejournal" as a weekly goal for about a year now and I've been failing at it rather miserably.

Last year, I think, we picked up a stationary recumbent bike for cheap or free (I no longer remember, but if we paid anything it was maybe $20 or so) from a local Buy/Sell/Free group. The folks selling it had lost one of the adjustment knobs for the arm exerciser part of it, had tried to replace it with a regular bolt and it had gotten jammed in without holding the arm piece in place, meaning the arm exerciser was unusable.

We've been using it just for the "bike" part since we got it and really enjoying it, then earlier this year rackham managed to finally get the old bolt out. We've been trying to figure out a solution to attach the arm handle again, figuring we could maybe find a new bolt and use a washer with it or something. Then last week, just as I was drifting off to sleep... epiphany. The sort of thing that makes you feel both clever and stupid at the same time. I sent myself an email so I wouldn't forget and the next morning, we looked up the manufacturer online. Where we were able to order a new adjustment knob for a whopping $8 with shipping...

We also found out the recumbent bike is still being sold and runs around $1300, new. O.o Oh well, the loss for the folks who sold it to us is definitely our gain!

It's certainly coming in handy this year... and is making me feel better about cancelling my gym membership. Between that and the walking pad/treadmill, there are certainly enough options here at the house for days when it's too miserable outside to go walking or hiking.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

We have a Ryukin Goldfish named Doofenshmirtz who lives in a tank in our kitchen/computer room (we've adapted the dining room area to be a space for our computers, since we're on them so much). We got the fish about three or four years ago after the former Doofenshmirtz (it's just too good a name for a goldfish not to use more than once) moved on from this world. He's been lively and interactive (like his predecessor, he enjoys watching us do food prep on the counter near his tank) until the last year or so... when he's started doing weird things like "sleeping" (where he would just float there, right side up, and startle awake if we tapped the tank) or actively swimming upside down. Now, he's always done some creative swimming, but this started to get consistent. And then came the day I walked into the room and he was floating upside down, not moving. I was sure he was dead, but the moment I tapped the tank, he flipped over and started swimming quickly around.

I started trying to clean his tank a little more often, in case there was something going on there (we're on well water so the tank is very prone to algae), and he'd be extra lively for a little bit, but eventually the odd behaviors would start up again.

Yesterday, I cleaned his tank. Like, REALLY cleaned his tank... I took out three buckets of water and refilled things with water I had prepped. I scrubbed down all of his tank furniture and left it out to dry (to hopefully kill off any remaining algae). I vacuumed the crud out of the rocks at the bottom of the tank... and, throughout the day, actually replaced the filter twice in order to make sure things were really clean. And this morning I came out to him floating upside down again. I tapped him and he started swimming, but it got me thinking, so I hit the internet.

I feel like such a cruel idiot for not checking these things sooner. All those quirky behaviors he'd been developing? Were signs of hypoxia. I started delving a little deeper... because when we first set up the tank, everything I read at the time told me our setup was fine for a single goldfish and that our filter would do a perfectly fine job with aerating the water. Apparently, where the tank is wide and tall-ish, this is not necessarily the case. So, today while I was in town, I stopped by Wal-Mart and got an inexpensive pump and aerator, brought it home and hooked it up. Doof has been having a party in the tank ever since... and now I'm feeling both extremely happy that I seemed to have fixed the problem and pretty much devastated that we've been making him live in an oxygen poor environment for so long.

I really am hoping that this fixes the issue, but it'll probably be at least a few days before we know for sure. He's still occasionally "gulping" at the top of the water, but not constantly like he used (one of the symptoms of needing air), and he's doing a LOT more swimming in the rest of the tank than he's done in ages, which I'm hoping is good sign!

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

I know, it's all I'm updating about right now... but at least I'm updating? The final episode is tonight, so I'll have to start coming up with other topics before too long!

Anyway, I figured I'd better do another quick wrap up of last week's thoughts before they're no longer relevant.

( Spoilers up through last week behind the cut. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Earlier this week, the local morning news show that I watch had a segment on the new show "The Masked Singer" and I was... intrigued. So, I went looking online and found the first three episodes. Started watching, but after the first singer took the stage, I stopped, because I realized this was something rackham would probably enjoy as well. And I was right!

It is such a wacky and weird premise... I mean, it's not really a competition, only it sort of is. It's more like a really entertaining puzzle, I guess?

If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it on Fox's website (it looks like they're keeping all the episodes available there, so you can start from the beginning).

( And now, what I really wanted to do, which is talk about some of my guesses. )

So, anyone else hooked on this odd show? What are your thoughts?

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

So, I know it's been... *checks last LJ entry* Eep! Um, almost a year and a half since I last updated... but rather than do the standard "Here's everything I've been up to!" entry, I'm just going to bring you a plain old regular update. With any luck, it will be the first of many more to come.

My office chair has been failing me lately, slowly sinking down no matter how many times I pull it up to the height I like. It's a bit difficult for me to find chairs I like, because of some of the lingering issues from the car accident (so I have certain requirements in back angles and heights), plus the fact that Numfar likes to sleep draped across the back of the chair while I'm on my computer... this means that the chair needs to be cloth and not leather (or it would be covered in tiny punctures very quickly), have a back that's tall enough that she's basically above my head when she's there and also be wide enough at the top that she can can curl up there without falling off (not that there haven't been times when she's rolled over in her sleep and fallen off... which is really funny, I've got to say).

I've just been putting up with constantly sinking, because chair shopping is a HUGE pain and takes forever... and then it occurred to me to try looking up my current chair online to see if it's still for sale. Bingo! They had it on Amazon... not Prime, but free shipping and I could certainly wait a week for it to get here. It's all assembled and I'm sitting on it now (with Numfar curled up on the back, right above my head) and wow, my old chair was much more worn out than I'd realized. It's going to take a bit to get used to having a chair that's this cushy!

The really funny thing though is that despite having an office chair of her own (yes, really... it sits between our two office chairs), Zoë has always had a bit of a thing for my chair. I'll get up to go grab something, come back and she'd be curled up there as if she'd been that way for hours, and would *very* reluctantly move over to her own chair if I insisted, muttering the entire time. So, you can imagine my amusement when I happened to glance down the hall where we had the old chair sitting out of the way to see her curled up asleep there!

( Photo of a very happy cat under the cut. )

It occurred to me then that we could just use that chair out by the computers for her instead of the one we'd been using, since she seemed to like it so much. And oh yeah... she's been a very happy cat all evening! We'll see how long this lasts.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

For those who aren't familiar with it... this is a holiday of sorts, created by the wonderful sdwolfpup about ten years ago (here's her post about it this year). The gist of it is that world could use more joy... and we should make an effort to do something, however small, to bring more joy into the lives of other people.

In the past, I've had a lot of fun with it... doing little things like leaving quarters in random gumball machines or getting a gift card for a local fast food chain, going through the drive-thru to just purchase a drink and then telling them to use the rest of the gift card for the people behind me in line, that sort of thing.

This year, I planned ahead and arranged to have flowers delivered to a few of my friends who live far away but I thought could use a bit of joy... and I'm really glad I did or More Joy Day would have been a complete bust for me this year. I haven't been sleeping well lately and I was just too wiped out to do much... so I didn't get any further from the house than the mailbox. I really did miss getting the chance to go out and do something random to hopefully bring joy to a stranger, so I may have to do something this weekend to make up for it.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

We did the introvert thing and stayed home this year... spending the evening playing computer games, then went down to the theater in the basement to watch the Space Needle go *FOOM* on the big screen at midnight, with accompanying chips, salsa, bean dip and guacamole... and sparkling apple cider. We'd considered getting tickets to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra downtown, but really didn't want to deal with the crowds afterward and it turned out to be a good thing, since we've had snow this evening. Just as nice to stay home in our warm house in our pajamas.

Hope everyone has a fantastic 2017!!

Crossposted from my LiveJournal.

I've finally decided my best way to get back into posting here is just to dive right in and not dither on about how much I should try to get caught up on what's been happening in my life. At some point, if I end up going back and talking about stuff from the last few months, it'll likely be because current life stuff is way too boring and I'm filling the void with older adventures. :-p

This morning we slept in a little, but rackham reminded me early on that we needed to be out the door a bit after 9:00... so I had a quick breakfast and we headed out toward Blaine, WA (up near the border with Canada). Thankfully, I immediately entered in the address for the place we were going into the GPS, because it popped up with a travel time of about 75 minutes. At which point Rackham realized that it wasn't going to take us three hours to get there like he'd been thinking. *facepalm* So, we got to have a little more leisurely morning at the house before we had to leave for real.

It was a bit odd going up to the Canadian border without actually crossing (technically not true, though... after our appointment, we went up to Peace Arch Park and walked around, which meant we crossed the border several times -- and we still considered going across for a few hours since we had our passports, until we saw that the lines at the border were horrible), but we had an appointment for interviews for our NEXUS cards! The whole process is pretty nicely streamlined... we applied online, got the initial approval emailed to us, set up our interview appointment online and then went up to chat with a US Border Agent followed by a Canadian Border Agent... both of whom mostly just verified our identities, asked why it was we wanted the cards (shorter waits at the border!) and got our fingerprints (yes, for the first time in my life, my fingerprints are in the system somewhere). Oh, and answered any questions we might have about the NEXUS program. Turns out, it's even better than we thought... not only do we get to use the fast lane whenever we drive up to Canada (after the cards arrive in a few weeks), but it also gives us TSA Pre-Check and apparently Global Access (quicker time through customs) at airports! Sweet!!!

If we decide we want to do any flying into or around Canada, we can also run up to Vancouver at some point to get an iris scan done... not entirely sure it would be worth doing, since we're not likely to fly there very often. We have been talking about taking trips to Edmonton, Alberta and to Saskatchewan, but then it's just a matter of waiting to go through customs when we arrive. Amusingly, when we mentioned we were thinking of taking a vacation to Saskatchewan, the Canadian Border Agent gave us this look and said "Why?!?!" After we told him we were fans of Corner Gas, he laughed... but yeah, not exactly a hotbed of tourism. To be honest, I'm sort of thinking it would be worth doing the Edmonton trip, renting a car and driving over to Saskatoon or Regina to spend a few days and then driving back. Not happening this year, though. And next year we're really hoping to plan a trip to Guam... I haven't been back since we moved away when I was ten.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Also known as Trying to Figure Out Remedial Adulting.

I decided the time had finally arrived to go through our piles of extra pillows and actually get rid of a few (you know how it is, you get a new pillow but think "This old one is still good! We can keep it for guests!"). So, yeah, I made a huge pile out of them and started comparing them, figuring out which ones could just go away and quit taking up space, when I remembered seeing a HUGE box in storage that was labeled "extra pillows." Thankfully, rackham is working from home today, because it was up on a very high shelf in the closet and he was able to get the box down easily. And then we opened it. Did I mention this box was huge? I mean, like REALLY huge. And it contained a grand total of two pillows. *facepalm*

Now we're sort of wondering about some of the other storage boxes we've got around the house and how many of them are only half full. Time to finally get around to finishing unpacking from our move over two year ago, I guess.

On the plus side, after all the sorting and evaluating of the pillows, we're ditching six of them (which still leaves us with *plenty* of extras for guests). I swear, the pillow thing is almost as bad as old tech... we pretty much have to force ourselves to get rid of that stuff.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.