Unusual Productivity

I am surprised at how much I did this Sunday.

First, I had to get up early and go to church to set up the Communion juice and crackers. Normally I just distribute the juice into the cups, so I went a lot earlier because I'd have to set out the cups and also crack the matzoh into little pieces. Breaking the crackers took longer than I thought I would and I made a big mess. I mostly cleaned it up. Mostly.

But I still ended an hour before church, so I buzzed off to work and sampled my one reactor quickly. Turns out it was doing fine and didn't need any interventions, which is good. I like the quick weekend visits I've been making lately. I don't even take my purse off--I just wear it under my lab coat. Only fifteen minutes today!

I whipped back to church and got there fifteen minutes before service started, so I went to Payless Shoes around the corner, just to browse. But they had a good pair of peeptoe black pumps, which I've been looking for, so I bought them. Third thing done of the day and it wasn't even 11.

Then church, then my friend Christy came over for Excel lessons. I love Excel so when she asked if I could show it to her I was awkwardly enthusiastic. It's unlikely she'll need to know the heavy-duty mathematic calculations I use Excel for, so I showed her how to input data, how to sort it, and how to make charts.

To make up for it, today I did nothing of note. I guess I made some chocolate scotcheroos from the corn syrup cookbook I randomly own, and diddled around on my keyboard trying to re-learn Pachelbel's Canon, which I used to have memorized.

Mostly this week is focused on Wednesday because that's the start of my sister's and my trip to Disneyland. My sister wanted to go, and I haven't gone since high school (which was with the marching band and is colored with memories of the cool kids sneaking booze in their shampoo bottles and the drum major drinking peppermint schnapps in Coke which even at the time I thought was a weird combination), so we're going this week. We carefully planned it to not coincide with any UC's spring break, and not to be the week before or after Easter in order to avoid elementary school spring breaks. Wednesday I drive out to my parents' for dinner and to see them, then I'll stay with my sister so we can get a ludicrously early start down to LA. Ludicrous because it will break my "no getting up before 6 am" rule. But I'm game. I'd much rather get up that early for Disneyland than for a meeting, which I've also done.

I hope the freesias are blooming at my parents' house. There aren't many around here for me to smell. They're definitely my favorite flower. They smell so good. So far this year I've only gotten a few stealth smells in when I can find some at the edge of someone's front lawn. My mom tends to have a lot so I can get good smells in. Last year she let me take a big bouquet back with me to Oceanside after my one weekend visit, and they perfumed my whole hotel room.

Pretty, see:

Argh. Have to go to bed. I want to try and jog before work tomorrow. I have been lax about it, though I've been running around for experiments at work so much my pants are loose anyway. Probably doesn't count, though.

Cage Fight

Associate director: "They're going to lock us into a room until we make a decision."

Co-worker: "Like jury duty."

Me: "Like a cage fight."

I guess we all have different frames of reference.

Since I'm not involved in the cage fight, work has been going very well lately. I'm less stressed than I have been in a long time. Probably since July or August 2009. Even less stressed than during my whole December off, since that was complicated by my giant burn and it didn't end well. Very nice. I've been wondering if some source of stress up the management chain has been relieved. Sometimes I know what's going on that makes people worry but sometimes I have no idea. Maybe now is a good time for everyone.

Whatever. I hope it sticks for a while.

Not that I haven't been working hard. I've had back-to-back experiments and haven't had a day off since March 6. I kind of did it to myself so I can't be too mad. I accidentally got scheduled for ten reactors instead of six and thought, "Hey, more data!" and ran them all. I'm a sucker for more data. Idiot. But it went okay, and I did get more data. It doesn't tell me much, but it's more data.

I tried a new way to cook chicken tonight. I was making a meal for a woman from church who can't leave her house. I've cooked for her twice before and knows she prefers healthier selections because she's injured and can't work out. So what's healthier than baked chicken? I put a half-breast in the fridge to thaw on Monday and figured I'd bake it with the excellent spice rub "Pappy's Seasoning" that's fantastic on chicken. But then today after I got home from work I suddenly remembered the last time I cooked for her I made her Pappy's chicken! Obviously I had the same great idea twice. (Just like how when my friend Yael comes over here for dinner I've twice had the great idea to make couscous with chickpeas and vegetables since she's kosher-itarian). I have standards about this, so I had to make something else.

So I remembered how my friend Allison does great looking roast chickens, and dotted it with smashed garlic cloves and rosemary leaves instead of the Pappy's. But there was nowhere inconspicuous to take a taste, so I have no idea how it turned out. It looks pretty good but I have no idea. I'll have to try it again at a time when I can eat it.

I'm also going to try something new tomorrow night. We're having a potluck for my church group and I'm not going to have much time to cook anything what with work and making this meal tonight. I've been very intrigued by the recipe in Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook where you layer hominy, frozen corn, roasted chilis, and cheese in a slow cooker.

I have hominy. I have frozen corn. I have green chilis in a can which is close enough - I'm not going to the effort of roasting chilis for a slow cooker recipe. I have cheese especially because there was an extra package of Mexican blend after our last potluck.

But I don't have 4 hours of slow cooker time so I'm going to bake it like a casserole because I don't see why you really have to make it in a slow cooker. And I'm going to add layers of ground beef because I don't have two cans of hominy, and that should make it heartier. So we'll see. It could be horrible. But there will be boys there. They eat anything. One eats hot sauces as entertainment. Yeah, beef in the hominy should go over fine.

I anticipate having to explain what hominy is at least four times over the course of the evening.