Enjablog

While I’m on the subject of clothes…

I bought a closet extender a while back which hangs a secondary rod from the main rod, so space in the lower half of the closet gets utilized. Unfortunately, the hangers that I had took up just enough height that my pants would touch the floor.

This seemed unnecessary though. Why are hangers so tall? There had to be a better solution!

I then spent about a week researching hangers trying to find better designs. There were loads of reviews, closet/space savers, etc. And then I found them.

Now, I’ll grant you that having hangers just for pants when my other hangers can be used for everything seems a bit silly. But I’m only going to hang pants/skirts from the lower rod. And I will always have pants.

Plus, these hangers are fantastic! They take up minimal vertical space, they’re strong/durable, don’t get tangled when jumbled together, and, best of all, allow you to remove pants from the hanger without taking the hanger off the rod. I can also hang pants up without removing the hangers from the rod!

I’ve had these almost a year now and am getting ready to buy more because I’ve maybe been swiping the ones I got for Ian from his side of the closet…

Ian’s been doing some sorting of old clothes recently and we decided it made the most sense to swap up which dresser we each use. As it turns out, my tiny clothes take up less space than his…

This dresser drawer fits 33 of my camis/t-shirts vs. 7-9 of Ian’s t-shirts. So, it might be possible he doesn’t have more clothes than me by articles of clothing. But by volume, he wins by a landslide!

Sonny turned 30 this weekend… and as a birthday challenge to himself, he decided to run a marathon:

And that is to say, he ran 26.2 miles; he wasn’t participating in an organized marathon.

In the original plan, Anna was going to bike behind him for the duration. She ended up having to work though, so she met him at mile 14 to refill his water, etc..

Ian and I had been planning to go out and cheer for him, but hadn’t really worked out the details. We were going to meet up at my parents’ house because that was one of his pit stops, but he passed by early and we missed him. I had also considered running a few miles with him (I figured if he had run 10-20 miles first, I might be able to keep up.), but woke up feeling a cold coming on that morning and figured I better not.

Anna told us what Sonny was wearing and we just drove around until we found him [mile 18]. His water belt was depleted at that point, so Ian and I went in search of a grocery store to get more water. As we got back on the road, Sonny had already caught up to us [mile 20]. I passed a water bottle out the car window to him, while Ian got us turned around to catch up.

We pulled over, swapped another water bottle for the empties on Sonny’s belt, and headed a few blocks ahead to get the filled bottles back to him. Unfortunately, we didn’t know the route, so Sonny took a turn and we missed him [mile 20.5]. When we got back in the car to look for him, he had taken another turn off the main stretch [mile 22], so we didn’t see him.

We finally caught up as he was approaching the intersection with 66, but we couldn’t pull over until almost mile 23. At that point, he didn’t need all the water we had filled up for him, but he took 2 just to be safe.

Ian and I then headed over to the Giant shopping center and had a bagel picnic while we waited. Cheered for Sonny one last time as he circled around the shopping center. We then went into stealth mode and followed him by car along the access road. It was around this time when Anna and a friend of theirs called asking if we had seen Sonny recently. He was running behind schedule (haha! Get it? Running.) and they were getting worried.

He was fine. Just a little tired. After Sonny rounded mile 25, Ian and I headed back for home base. Their friend had just left before we got there and met up with Sonny to join him for the last mile. He was also smart enough to know what kind of snacks to bring — banana and power bar.

So, crazy as his plan was, Sonny successfully completed his marathon (under 5 hours!). Congrats!

Happy birthday to bro#2!! Good luck with your half marathon tomorrow! :)

Happy Mole Day!! :)

Q: Why is it bad to tell mole jokes?
A: It’s mole-itically incorrect

Q: What did Avogadro invent for his wife to use as a night cream?
A: Oil of Molay

Q: What element do moles love to study in chemistry?
A: Molybdenum

And with that… I will go face the day.

So, I got this Chevy HHR for my rental car this week. And despite its attempt to be an uglier version of a PT Cruiser, it is actually worse to drive than it looks.

To illustrate this point, I took a picture of the rearview mirror from my vantage point in the driver’s seat. The mirror is obstructed by 4 headrests, including the driver’s. It also doesn’t help that the rear windshield is tiny.

As you can see in the picture, I have outlined the mirror and the part of the mirror that shows anything behind the car. I have done this in order to form regions in AutoCAD so I could compare the useable area to the total mirror area.

Functional mirror reflection? 36%.

Thirty-six percent. And this is me being nice and giving them a generous round up. Between this and the aft increase in beam, I’d estimate the blind spots on this car to span at least 45%. What a death trap.

Lots going on today, but wanted to make sure I remembered to say happy birthday to my big bro! I hope you guys don’t have swine flu!

I’ve been having these cravings for deviled eggs since last week when I had a craving for corn dogs, but didn’t have access to any and ended up going to the deli in my office building and buying an egg salad sandwich instead. So, I made some yesterday to bring over to my family lunch. But then I found out that the paprika is what makes them “deviled.” And since I didn’t have any paprika, we decided they were angeled. Well, that and the whole miracle thing.

Angeled Eggs
6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut lengthwise
1/4 cup Miracle Whip
1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard

Remove egg yolks and mix with Miracle Whip and mustard. Fill egg whites with mixture.

Yeah, tough recipe, right? This seems easier than egg salad. Especially since I’m not fancy about filling the egg whites. I just use a spoon.

Ian’s company outing was at his coworker’s alpaca farm again. We got to visit with the ducks and chickens which are all grown up since our last visit. The new horse that was surprise pregnant gave birth. They got an adorable new pet pig, Hodgins (yes, after the character in Bones). And there were decorative pumpkins and gourds all over their house that were crazy.

So while we were all hanging around, Hodgins found a nice spot in front of the fire and got so cozy he started to fall asleep… while still standing. The tail and the ears keep moving around until he starts to doze. And then he starts to sway.

Tried out a new cookie recipe today for Ian’s company outing thing. Modified from Brownie Mix Cookies:

Mint Brownie Cookies

1 package Ghirardelli triple chocolate brownie mix
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 Tbsp water
2 eggs
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Mix the brownie mix (dry), flour, oil, water, eggs, and peppermint extract. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees just until set, 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand 2 to 3 minutes before removing from cookie sheet and then cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Note: I would recommend a leavening agent, such as 1 tsp baking soda. You’ll get the same brownie flavor, with a cookier consistency. You might also be able to accomplish this by cutting back on the oil by a tablespoon or two to lower the density of the mixture, but that will make them a little cakier.

The batter was kinda liquidy, but was able to hold its shape long enough to get into the oven. They were pretty fragile after taking them out of the oven and letting them cool closer to 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, but did set after some time on the cooling rack.

In any case, the recipe as-is got rave reviews from Ian’s coworkers. So it’s definitely a keeper for me. And with a base that’s a mix I typically have around anyway, that’ll be a convenient backup.

As much as I hate to say this, I’m giving serious consideration to dropping the one class I’m taking this semester. I’ve never had a class start 2 weeks late, have the lectures inaudible, and an exam that the professor intended to contain material not taught in course materials. “That should be the most challenging problem. You have to figure it out.” Thanks, dude.

Aside from the fact that I’m clearly not learning anything, I find this whole experience frustrating and demoralizing. I have until Monday to decide whether to drop without grade penalty, but I’m not sure what that means for tuition (if it doesn’t get refunded, I will certainly demand my money back for this waste of my life). This also means I will have to potentially wait until 2011 to take this course, further pushing off my roller derby career.

I guess I’ll see how I did on this exam. 1am and I’m not sure if I even understood the questions. I have 10 answers though, which I’m going to take as a good sign. If I understand this material so little that I don’t even know I’m answering the wrong questions, I think it’s definitely time for me to drop.

A friend who moved out of the area a few years ago was back in town for the weekend, so Ian and I met up with him at Rustico for their annual Oktoberfest celebration. It was kind of a madhouse there… and only got crazier as the beer started to run out.

Lots of food and beer, but would recommend getting there early next year of you want to partake. Beer started running out around 4:30 and was pretty much done when we left around 5:30 even though festivities were scheduled to run until 6.

My winner for the day: Southern Tier Brewing’s Pumking

Baked up some strawberry cupcakes yesterday to celebrate my mother’s birthday early (next week). They were a bit sweet, so I didn’t put any frosting on them, but they probably would’ve been good with some unsweetened whipped cream.

I typically use 3-oz boxes of jello when mixing into a recipe, but the only strawberry jello I had was in a 6-oz box. And for some reason, I really wanted these to be strawberry cupcakes. I guess I was baking too early in the morning or something because I was most of the way through the mixing process when I realized that I should’ve just made a double batch and had more cupcakes. Oops…

Strawberry Cupcakes (modified from here)

INGREDIENTS
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 3-oz box, strawberry gelatin
3/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners (makes 18 cupcakes).

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

I keep having these moments when I realize… The future is now. And I adore it.

I was at a friend’s BBQ last weekend when I received an email from one of my classmates on my phone. I opened the email, downloaded the attached document, was able to read/edit the document with changes tracked so I could see the edits my other classmates had made, re-attach and email back. On my phone.

And this is for a class that I’m taking toward a degree that I’m earning completely online. Had I not gone to the same school as an undergrad, I wouldn’t even recognize half my professors if I met them in person.

Then, yesterday, Ian was at the store buying a card for a party we went to last night. He couldn’t decide which card to get, so he snapped a picture of his top 2 picks and emailed them to me. I called him back, we decided, and he was out of there in ~5 mins. And, again, this was on his phone.

Received the first exam for class yesterday. Doesn’t look promising so far… The intro says:

There are ten answers; each is worth ten points

Pretty straightforward, right?

But then I looked the exam over and the problems are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.

Did you catch that? I didn’t the first time.

The problems are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.

That’s 6 problems, numbered incorrectly 1 through 7. I’m very concerned about the 10 answers I need to submit next week…