Of Rice Cookers

Gotta say, these things are the bee's knees. No more burnt-on crap, and no more frickin' Minute Rice. Just gotta work on the timing: it takes about thirty minutes for it to (properly) cook rice, and about twenty for me to whip up a stir-fry. That leaves ten minutes for me to do some kitchen tidying, I guess -- never a shortage of that.

I've got the tabletop, legs, panels, and drawers made for the dresser. All that remains is joining the two parts of the front frame, dowelling the whole works together, and adding drawer guides. And of course *sigh* staining. Might be difficult to get this done by the end of the month, but I should be able to pick up the slack on the next project (which shouldn't be as involved -- whatever I decide it to be).

The weekend was pretty good. Went curling for a work social outing on Friday night. I really enjoyed it, and would probably do it more often if it weren't so costly (thankfully, our social club picked up the tab -- my biweekly contributions paying dividends). Saturday afternoon was spent doing some of the above-mentioned dresser work. And then Saturday night involved watching a frustrating hockey game over some comforting beers, and then finding myself at the Georgetown. The others bolted around midnight, but I lingered until the place shut down, socializing with the (other) locals. Good times...

And yesterday I got outside and enjoyed the rare weekend sunshine (it was friggin snowing a bit on Saturday). It knocked me out, cuz I went to bed around 9 and slept till 7. Musta needed it I guess... and it was nice getting up well-rested on a Monday for a change.

Of getting older (pt. 29)

Last weekend was my b-day celebration, and it went well. I had no grand plans for a pub crawl this year, so I decided to just get everyone over to Christian's and see what happened. We ended up staying there the whole night, which suited me fine. I lost track of the number of pitchers arriving at our table after about the 6th one. So yes, a success. Highlights include:

• A favourable hockey outcome, visible from where I was sitting.
  
• Belly dancers arriving
  
• C&A totally ruling over the jukebox and cranking out tunes
  
• On my way back from the pisser, getting ambushed by said belly dancers and busting a move (putting it charitably) by said jukebox
  
• A stray screech and coke that added flavour to the mix
  
• Faint recollection of a rant about something to someone
  
• Telling a bunch of brutal jokes
  
• Having a deadly time!
  
• NOT having hell to pay for the day after
  

A simple but elegant celebration. I'd do it again. And it just kept coming. Headed out to My Brother's Place for a seafood scoff with mudder on Sunday. I took Monday off, headed out to lunch with my cousin, and then had a belt of scotch with Jon that night (Laphroaig, for future reference, is like drinking a campfire. Fortunately, I like campfires.)

Work has been pretty tame lately; I attribute it to end-of-fiscal-year hangover. I get a sense that something is coming down the pipe, but details have been scarce.

And it looks like it may be warming up! Ten degrees yesterday, and fog and drizzle most every other day. Snow's mortal enemies -- sidewalks are gradually being reclaimed.

As it turns out, it's the 11th of a month again, so time for another resolution recap:

Cooking/lunches Had a few folks over for chicken alfredo fettuccine. And nobody went blind, so I'm guessing it was a success. The sauce ain't too hard to make, and it keeps well, so I think that'll make a regular rotation. There's still room for improvement, but suffice it to say that takeout is only had about twice a week for supper, and twice a week for lunch. Which is much better than before Christmas.

Housework This hasn't gone so well. I'm not in a pig sty, but things could be more orderly more regularly. My office is a state -- methinks I'll need a new desk. This hutch thing is annoying.

Carpentry The dresser is progressing, but not as quickly as I had hoped. I blame taking my entire b-day weekend off. I still have three weeks to finish it off as per resolution schedule. I'm distracted by thinking about stuff I want to make; gotta get my focus back.

Electronics I have another Digikey order percolating. I think I have found a better part for one of my designs (at least, easier to work with). It's hard to do stuff in my workshop when there are parts of dresser everywhere. Might need to make another workbench exclusively for electronics, complete with a dust cover.

Piano This has become so much of a routine now that it's not even requiring concious effort. I've got a piece learned, and another memorized. And I've gotten my "older" pieces back to a regular rotation, so they aren't rusting as badly.