Attacking the grease in my air fryer basket with heavy degreaser and laundry detergent tabs. That got some of it off but there was still a lot of caked grease inside the basket. So I grabbed a sponge and the Barkeeper's Friend and went to town. I missed a spot or two, but overall it looks pretty good.

A bit of a scare from my computer this morning. Windows crashed, so I hit the reset button and was greeted by a series of beeps from the mainboard. Fortunately resetting the power fixed that.

Mulling over coffee matters. They say the hot plate on glass carafe coffee makers ruins your coffee. There are alternatives, but I don't have a very discriminating sense of taste, and I'm not buying the best coffee, so I'm a bit overwhelmed by the choice. I just ordered a pour-over starter set, and I was going to return it, but I had another thought. I purchased a thermal carafe to go with my cheap, glass carafe coffee maker and I was just going to return the pour-over set as just an unneeded expense. A coffee maker with its own thermal carafe would run me an extra $110-140. But if I want to do pour-over, I could get a temperature-controlled gooseneck kettle and dump the coffee in there after brewing. That would keep it at a lower temperature than most hot plates, though the reviews suggest my new machine's hotplate isn't that hot. Anyway, not going to make any sudden decisions. I think spending the extra $100+ is simplest and probably what I'll do. But I'll think about it some first.

Playing around with my new skillet and infrared thermometer. It was taking a while to heat up, so once the pan got to 250 F I tested for the Leidenfrost effect, which was present. I'd been told in a Youtube video that it occurs somewhere over 275 F, so I was a bit surprised. Anyway, I plopped the butter in and promptly scorched a bunch of butter. I'm waiting for the pan to cool down so that I can wash it and start over. It seems everything that I learned on Youtube is wrong.

Gentlemen, Behold! The greatest culinary innovation to hit Skokie, Illinois since the invention of the Bacon Grinder: The Portable French Fry Kit!



If you've ever been annoyed with the fries in your favourite burger joint not being salty enough, or, worse, that they don't have vinegar to top them, this is the thing for you! Just a shaker of salt, a squeezable bottle full of malt vinegar, and a container just big enough to contain them both.

I'm looking forward to trying it out at Trivia night on Wednesday. Dad and I usually get burgers at Oberweis' That Burger Joint on the way to the bar. The burgers are great, but the fries aren't. And, while they usually have salt packets, last week, they didn't.

Afternoon caffeine fix. Colombian today.

Eating dinner, watching Family Feud, and debating whether to put corn in the chili I'm planning for tomorrow or Wednesday.

Checking over my Walmart order before I go to bed. Last call for changes is before I get up, so time to finalize things.

Trying very hard to keep calm and keep my temper (frustration) in check. 

Husband took a lot of time off work in December to burn up PTO.  He seems to forget that I still work though it's from home.

The company he was with for the last five or six years began to deal a lot with Melon Husk so I am going to place some blame on him.  In very late October the company announced they were changing insurance coverage from an okay plan to an absolute shit plan that costs about the same.  We had a matter of days to decide what to do about that.  None of my doctors are covered in the plan and one of husband's is covered.

Here is the plan - you get sick and go to the doctor and then have the office call the insurance company so they can negotiate if they will cover anything.  Swell...just fucking swell.

So husband turned in his resignation and has been home since the first of January.  I have gone from seeing him for a half hour or hour early, early in the morning and maybe three hours in the evening to 24 fucking seven.  

He sits in the chair and scrolls TikTok and reels and memes and interrupts my work multiple times a day to show me something on his phone or read me a lengthy article-even when I am working.  And then there is the vacuuming which has become totally an OCD thing with him...like it wasn't bad before.

Today I had to play IT for him for an online job interview and then he okayed a second interview for mid-morning Thursday when I am ass deep in the midst of payroll.  So, I am juggling my workload and my schedule to make that work as I can be the IT person again.  (Almost forgot I had to do his test for him the other day for another application.)

We won't mention that I had to go get insurance that is costing me money.

My boss said any time I need to get away, I can go to the office and hide.  I may have to take her up on her offer.

If I were still Catholic, I would offer this up and hope some time in purgatory gets shaved off my sentence.

Fuck me runnin'.

(February 3, 2025 at 11:21 pm)Angrboda Wrote: Eating dinner, watching Family Feud, and debating whether to put corn in the chili I'm planning for tomorrow or Wednesday.

Always corn........... are you daft woman?