Random Day-Off Thoughts
I don't usually work Tuesdays, but this is my first one off in a while because I was covering for my lovely colleague to go to Paris for family weddings for a few weeks. I'm headed back to Hamilton this weekend, so I was doing errands and going to the chiropractor and just generally getting my ducks in a row (ducks in a row is kind of like balls in the air, in that two balls is one too many for me and two ducks is probably one more than I ever actually have in a row). These are some thoughts that I thought.
1. A few days ago I was having a day where I was going around the house doing annoying little things I had been noticing needed to be done but kept getting missed. Taking Matt's Christmas socks and underwear from Eve out of the package and washing them and putting them in the drawer, moving stuff that had been sitting on the dining room table for weeks, ironing a couple of things. I was tidying the powder room and the toothpaste tube cap had been caked with toothpaste for weeks and bothering me, and I kept trying to wipe it off and making no headway, so I boiled the kettle, threw the cap in a cup and boiled it. It came clean and I was bizarrely happy. This morning I went to brush my teeth and the cap flew off and rolled behind the toilet, so I threw it in a cup and poured boiling water over it again.
I used to think I might work in the foreign service or live out of a van for a while. I am now a person who has boiled a toothpaste cap more than once.
2. How does one get into the anatomical chart business?
3. I know this might not seem like a problem to most people, but the placement of two structures with very similar-looking slots so near to each other might have the capacity to prove confusing to people low on sleep, new mothers maybe, or, let's say, hypothetically, people in perimenopause dealing with a certain level of brain fog, precipitating an unfortunate incident.
4. When I was putting the garbage cans out last night I was trying to decide which way would be the easiest for the sanitation workers. The handle of the green bin should be facing them so they can grab it, right? Also, I think it has less to do with assigned gender roles and more with me being a germaphobic wimp, but I really hate when Matt is away on garbage day.
5. If you're ordering Indian food for 14 people, how much butter chicken do you need to make sure everyone's covered?
6. Did you know flour could go bad? The answer from people I've asked tends to go two ways: "No", or "Yes, found that out the hard way." I found out the hard way.
7. I then emptied out my flour container. I had not given much thought to the state of the container until Matt, after making bread a few months ago, said "maybe we can get a new flour container?" I've had it as long as I can remember, which means it is frightfully old, which would be one thing if it was still serviceable, but...
Usually I would be all over the opportunity to buy a pretty new kitchen container, but I am finding myself unable to find anything suitable or stuck in infinite deferral, depending on the day. What do you keep your flour in?
8. I went to a birthday party on the weekend where there was a pinata filled with chocolate and also miniature booze bottles. Because it wasn't Christmas, the selection had been limited, so there was a lot of Fireball Whiskey. I threw three bottles in my purse to put in the stuff I'm taking to Eve in Hamilton this weekend. Given what you know of my memory, and the fact that the bottles are very small, I'm sure you can probably guess what happened when I got to work yesterday and opened my purse to get my reading glasses out. Having been lucky enough not to get fired, one would think that I would have come home and immediately removed the Fireball bottles from my purse, and not had another (well, the same) rude surprise when I opened my purse to pay at the chiropractor today. One would, unfortunately, be wrong.
9. I put out two oranges to eat after my yogurt while I was eating my yogurt this morning, then forgot to eat them. I am now going to eat the oranges. Tomorrow I will be back at work and the random thoughts will be somewhat safer from me.
Comments
I keep the flour in its bag, but I use it really fast because I am a compulsive baker.
AMAZING piñata, and I am sad I didn’t stuff one for myself this weekend— love your fireball at work— hahaha!
I keep flour in a square plastic container with a tight lid. I like square ones as they stack better. The bag goes in the freezer because I have had pantry moths once and never ever want to experience that again. (Everything is now in glass jars, or sealed containers or the freezer)
I keep flour in a ceramic canister. I used to have all three canisters sit on my counter, but I only use the flour one and I prefer the counters to be clear . . . which doesn't mean they ARE clear, but it's good to have a goal.
You do need a new canister! I buy flour by the 10 kilo bag, and I always have one in backup. I use a rubbermaid container for the kitchen and just fill it up when needed. I did know flour could go bad but it's never happened. When the boys leave home I will have to be a bit more cautious as I probably won't go through so much.
#6 Yes, I did know flour can go bad because my husband is a food safety nut.
#7 I keep our flours in a serious of containers from The Container Store. Do you have that in Canada? Yes, we have multiple flours because we can't have wheat flour and to make up the perfection that is wheat flour, you need six types of other flours in a weird mix to come even close to the greatness of generic wheat flour. Yes, I'm jealous you can just go buy a bag of flour and use it.
https://www.containerstore.com/s/kitchen/food-storage/Canisters/rosanna-pansino-x-idesign-clear-canister-starter-kit/12qd?productId=11017732
The confusing bins/slots reminds me of another story. We were puzzled by Henry's loss of several school library books he was SURE he'd returned to the school library. The mystery was solved when he said he'd put them in the book drop. Elizabeth said "There is no school library book drop. There is a recycling bin outside the library."
We keep flour in its original bag (we get the 5-pound bags), with a clothespin to keep it closed. When I was growing up, my family kept flour in a ceramic canister marked Flour, alongside its coordinating friends Sugar, Coffee, and Tea. (We did keep sugar in Sugar and teabags in Tea, but I don't remember WHAT we kept in Coffee.) (Not coffee.)
Got a good snort out of this: "I used to think I might work in the foreign service or live out of a van for a while. I am now a person who has boiled a toothpaste cap more than once."
Anatomical charts FASCINATE me. I love the ones in my acupuncturist's office. I also love the ones in the OB/GYN's office.
We keep our flour in a metallic container on the counter. It has a little plastic window, so you can see how much flour is in there, and there are containers of descending height for sugar and... something else. Not sure what is supposed to go in the third and smallest one, but we use it for brown sugar. (We keep the brown sugar in its bag.)
I have 100% done something similar to the fireball thing. I think I brought a bottle of wine to book club in my purse, and that book club had a Very Weird Rule that you left with your bottle if it wasn't drunk during the evening, so I put it back in my purse and then forgot about it.
I did not know flour went bad! We have one of those clear (i think OXO) containers with the pressurized/pop-up cap.
I find the most bizarre, random things in my purse. You are not alone. The only way to avoid this is to use a very small purse, which I do on occasion, but always wish I had my bigger purse with random items in it.