PSA: In the US, you can get 4 free COVID tests from the USPS. If you ordered some during a previous round prior to September 25, 2023, you are eligible for another set. If you’re eligible for the 2 orders (8 tests total) mentioned at the top of the page, it will say so after you click “check out now” and prompt you to get the second set.
I have a kid who works in retail and thus marinates all day in the crud of the mucus-spewing masses. When she inevitably catches something, it’s useful to be able to determine what kind of drugs and separation are required to minimize household spread.
Currently reading: Experimental Film by Gemma Files, in which a film critic embarks on research about a wealthy woman who vanished under mysterious circumstances a century ago, in an attempt to prove she was Canada’s first female filmmaker.
It’s categorized as horror, but the author kills every bit of tension by straight up telling you the future. “I won’t remember any of the following when I wake up in the hospital, but according to the recordings…” “There’s going to be a tragedy, and it’s my fault.” “Heads up, I’m gonna be blind at the end of the anecdote I’m about to share!” As a result, when events finally do occur, they’re not even mildly surprising, never mind unsettling or scary. I’ve compiled a list of possible reasons this choice might have been made, but none of them alter my opinion of the effects.
Ha ha, I’ll laugh so hard if the most blatant foretelling was “experimental film isn’t about anything, and it’s also the title of this book, sucker.” Maybe it’s performance art in the guise of a novel and the horror lies in the realization that I burned away hours of my finite existence trying to impose meaning where there is a calculated absence thereof.
A perk of rural living is that sometimes a flash mob of turkeys struts through the yard. This is approximately half of them.
I rarely see them puff up to “turkey shape,” so I assume it’s their season for romance.
I finally convinced my mother to dispose of a 3/4 full bottle of baby oil that was so old it didn’t have a UPC code on the label.
UPC codes made their public debut in 1974.
The laws of nature state that now an emergency must arise that can be resolved only via application of baby oil.
I tried the faux-Trinidads again to tweak the filling to make it easier to handle. I cut the amount of cream in half but otherwise followed the same recipe.
Now, I use light and dark corn syrup pretty much interchangeably, except when I’m making something that should be white or has another flavor that doesn’t pair well with molasses, such as mint. (Molasses being what makes dark corn syrup dark.) This fudge recipe already has brown sugar in it, so when I ran out of light corn syrup, I just topped it off with dark.
Anyhoo, this fudge that contained half as much cream absolutely refused to set up in the freezer. I could shape it into balls, but they flattened within a minute when placed back an ice-cold sheet pan.
Internet sleuthing reveals molasses doesn’t freeze.
So next time you hear a phrase like “slower’n molasses in January,” feel free to let the speaker know molasses has antifreeze properties and as such moves more swiftly than one might prefer under chilly conditions. (A lethal 35 miles per hour during the Great Molasses Flood in January 1919, in fact.)
Rather than fight with more floppy disks, I poured what was left in a loaf pan to eat with a spoon.
I shall persevere in my pursuit of confectionery perfection when the proper ingredients are restocked.
I’m only halfway through one interior patch pocket, but since I wore the millstone cardigan out of the house and it functioned as a sweater, I’m calling it “finished.”
There will be a revision update soon-ish. Had to concentrate on survival for a while, but I get a little break next week to work on something that isn’t soul crushing.