My sister got me this gift, but I told her not to mail it to me because it would be too much trouble for her and I’d just pick it up from her next time I saw her. Then she decided that she wouldn’t tell me what it was, even after my birthday had passed. I should have known to establish the terms of the agreement first. But it turns out that it’s all renegotiable.
I suggested to her that I would get her birthday present now (her birthday is in December) but I’d wait until six months after her birthday to give it to her. So then she agreed to tell me what it was, with photos and I would give my gift to her on time. But she said that it would take a long time for her to do this. This is why, the best powerpoint gift ever (click on the image to see the slideshow):
My other sister is giving an awesome gift too - she’s flying out to see my exit talk. And she’s going to accompany me to the French Laundry! Okay, maybe that one is partly selfish.
A really cute video that I saw posted on Cute Overload. I wouldn’t post a video unless it were really great. So this video must be great. Even the title by itself is great: An Eye for Annai:
By “fix an ant problem,” I mean extermination. By “extermination,” I mean killing.
We’ve had an ant problem in our kitchen for a few weeks now. We set out various poisons (like the POISONOUS TEAT OF TERRO, as Mark calls it) and they may or may not be working. There seem to be fewer ants, but it’s hard to know for sure.
Now this extermination method that I’m talking about, we know for sure that it’s working. Somehow the ants have found a way to climb into our freezer but then they can’t find their way back out again. Then they freeze to death.
Yes, all those dark specks in the photo are frozen dead ants. I don’t know why they do this. It seems pretty stupid to me. But as you can see, a large number of them have done it and the pile keeps getting bigger.
So here’s the way to exterminate ants:
Make sure that there is a tiny crack for ants to climb into the freezer.
If the path that the ants are using isn’t near the freezer already, lead them towards the freezer with crumbs. (I didn’t have to do this)
Clean the freezer with lemon scented Lysol.
Yes, that’s right, lemon scented Lysol. I think that’s the key. For quite a while, we had an ant problem but they weren’t going into the freezer. After I cleaned the freezer, they couldn’t wait to get to the lemony Lysol party.
My sister has had a few stalkers. Or at least, a few people who have behaved in a fairly stalkerish way. She thinks this is normal. I, on the other hand, think this sort of thing is pretty unusual - she is one of two people that I knew who have had stalkers. She thinks that maybe the people I know do have stalkers and they just haven’t told me. So, now I’m asking… has anyone had a stalker?
This exercise will either prove my point or it will bring out entertaining stories that people are hiding away.
Don’t worry, Simona. I’ll eventually get to six. It just takes a long time for me to think of them.
This one is about the stones in my hands. Let’s assume that you believe me. Then you might be wondering, “How did I discover these?”
My sister did this program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa when she was in high school. There, she learned this little trick to check the doneness of meat. If you touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your index finger gently, and then use your other hand to press against the fleshy part at the base of your thumb. That’s what a rare piece of meat feels like when you press against it. Medium rare = thumb to middle finger. Medium well = thumb to ring finger. Well done = thumb to pinky.
It’s a good thing that I don’t cook very much meat! It turns out this doesn’t work with me. If I tried this trick to check my steak, I’d have really overdone steak! My pad of flesh at the base of my thumb feels like there’s a rock in there rather than feeling like a piece of meat, even with the thumb to the index finger. When my sister shared this trick with me, I compared her hands to mine - hers feel like meat. I’ve actually felt the hands of quite a few people and everyone (Except for Vince, my rock hand brother!) seems to have normal steak hands.
Vince and I tried to figure out why we were different and we’re not really sure. We both hold pencils the same way and it seems to be different from most other people. But we have the rocks in both of our hands even though we just write with one. Maybe it’s from playing piano and/or cello and/or doing ceramics and/or kneading lots of bread dough and/or doing foot reflexology for my mother. But I’m sure Vince didn’t do ALL those things.
Hey, LaMancha! They’re talking about LaMancha goats on So you think you can dance! Great show, by the way.
Simona has tagged me and I’m “it” for making a list of six random things. I don’t know if I can come up with a list all at once, so I’ll release them one by one as I think of them.
When I was a kid, I loved to read and I had difficulty putting books down to do other things like my homework and eating and sleeping. My parents would often scold me for reading too much and, in response, I wound up hiding in the bathroom pretending that I was doing #2, but really, I was sitting in there reading. I thought I was pretty clever, but I was probably in there for hours at a time (because of the whole not being able to put a book down thing), so they probably figured out something was up.
I went climbing today. Forearms tired. Can’t type. Can barely brush my teeth. So this will be another post that will please my lazy-ish sister.
This is what my crazy new landlords did to the front of our pale yellow with light brown brick house. It says, “Don’t park here, but have a Merry Christmas!”:
So that’s my submission for the ugliest garage in San Francisco. Maybe in the state or in the country. I hope they don’t paint the rest of the house to match the garage. I start singing Christmas carols every single time I come home. Who knows what would happen if the whole house were bright red and green?
Why is Passover happening in April while Easter was a month ago in March? The events that are commemorated by Easter are intricately linked to Passover and usually, these holidays occur at the same time within one year. A quick Google search didn’t turn up anything useful. Maybe someone out there is better than Google and can tell me?
