- I maximized my leftover removal potential by combining the leftover chili with the leftover taco meat into one giant bowl of awesome.
- I sold something I didn’t need anymore instead of throwing it in the trash. I make money and I don’t generate trash — double win!
- I laid the foundation for a ridiculously epic event next month, which shall be known as “Halbach Baconfest”.
- I mastered the copy machine at work. I took 15 single sided, color pages and turned them into 10 copies of double-sided, color pages, which were already stapled for me.
- I live in a world where copy machines can staple pages. Hello, welcome to the future! Why waste 10 seconds doing a job myself, when I can pay thousands of dollars for an overly elaborate machine to do it! If that’s not a win, I don’t know what is.
Month: March 2011
Things that Annoy me, Part III
Alright, now we’re up to 15 things that annoy me!
- If you are dropping kids off at school and you only pull over half way, you might as well not have pulled over. You’re still blocking everybody on the street. We both know it’s a fake effort, so just save the pretense and stop in the middle of the street.
- If I’m stopped at a stop sign and a pedestrian is crossing the street on the opposite side, then of course the cross traffic is free to go even though it is not their turn. However, if the cross traffic is trying to turn in the same direction I’m going, then they have to wait for the same person crossing as I do. In that case they are NOT allowed to go out of turn and then just sit in the intersection until the person is finished crossing!
- The fact that organic bananas now come wrapped in a plastic bag. The fact that any bananas would be wrapped in something that has to go in the trash is ridiculous. They kind of already come in a pretty handy wrapper. But to wrap specifically the organic bananas in trash is such a slap in the face. Oh, you actually care about your health and the Earth in general? Okay, well here’s some extra trash for the landfill for no reason!
- Concepts which are not internally consistent. This is especially true of movies, politicians, and people in their personal lives. If you give me a framework, I am willing to go with it…but don’t then violate the framework. If you tell me a “giant ray” can make a lizard 20 times its size, I’ll buy it. But then it can’t suddenly fly or ignore missiles smashing into its face. Government should stay out of our business and personal lives, or it shouldn’t. We should be religious or we should be debaucherous. None of it matters one way or the other to me, but pick a story and stick to it! You can’t have it both ways. Of course, if you can come up with some cockamimi story about why everything remains internally consistent, then I’m back on board again. Why didn’t you SAY that the giant-ray messes with the neurons in the lizard’s head giving him telekinetic powers??
- People who don’t like firm plans. In most cases, these people are known as “people who don’t have kids.” The only way I can get through a day is with a schedule. I have to know when I have to be somewhere, so that I can start getting the kids ready roughly 3 hours before that. When you have kids, you have certain milestones you have to hit (meal times, nap times, bed times, etc.) and those are firm deadlines. And when I hear, “Eh, we’ll just be there whenever”, then I know that means it’s not happening.
R.I.P. Backstory Cafe
Well, unfortunately, my favorite coffee shop the Backstory Cafe is out of business.
From their website:
BACKSTORY CAFE IS NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS.
Backstory would like to thank all our valued staff and customers for your support over the years.
Several factors contributed to the decision to close the cafe including a serious financial blow in the spring of 2010. In short, a variety of resources required to run the cafe have been depleted.
While the many people involved over the years were growing a business, we were also engaging in what is best described as a “hopeful human endeavor”. So although the cafe is now closed, hope remains that this quiet corner of Woodlawn will be home to a new initiative when the time is right.
Peace-Backstory Cafe.
I don’t know exactly when they closed, but I think it must have been a while ago. I saw when they took their sign at the corner down, but I thought maybe it was due to the ongoing construction there. I never in a million years would have thought they were going out of business. It always seemed busy in there. I guess the above paragraph sort of implies that there were financial circumstances that weren’t necessarily related to the actual profitability of the cafe itself.
I feel very sad that it is gone, but on the other hand, we never went there. It probably closed months ago, and I didn’t even notice. So in a way, I guess it was kind of my fault that they’re gone, and I can’t really complain. It’s kind of strange but, even though we never went, it was comforting knowing it was there. It was the only thing close to our place, and having a coffee shop in the neighborhood made it seem…more like a real neighborhood somehow. I know we still have Robust, but I liked Backstory better, and it was closer.
Oh well, I guess that’s what happens when you don’t vote with your wallet. Another victim of my cheapness! 😦
Quote Monday Converts
Evie, drawing a picture: “You might think this is Shin, but it’s really a stool.” – I think she meant Hei, one of the other dreydl letters, because it looks like a stool (ה).
Evie: “I was thinking about being a rabbi when I grow up.”
Evie: “I un-cutted it, can you fix it with the stampler?” – This one cracked me up, because she so very precise with her language, but for some reason “stapler” consistently gives her trouble.
Evie: “Mama, is the onion still in my eye, or was that a tear?”
Sara and Evie were having an argument about if the titular character in the song Eddie Walker was a boy or a girl. Finally Evie ended the argument:
Evie: “Mama! Even the fools of Chelm could tell you it’s a girl!”
Cinnamon-Roasted Nuts
The Reason:
I don’t actually remember how we stumbled upon this recipe to begin with. However, I do have a reason for selecting it as this month’s recipe. Originally this was supposed to be last month’s post, because we brought these nuts with us over Christmas, and they were a big hit. At least one person even said they didn’t like nuts, but they liked these. Many people were asking for the recipe, so I wanted to post this one right after Christmas, however, I couldn’t get the pictures due to a combination of a little procrastination and an electrical mishap destroying our oven.
So, without further ado, here’s the recipe. I hope it isn’t too late for anybody who wanted it!
The Journey:
These are actually super easy to make. You just sort of mix everything in a bowl and then bake it. Probably the hardest part is getting an egg white. First you whip the egg white, and then use that to coat the nuts.
After the nuts are coated, you add the rest of the ingredients.
The recipe calls for pecans, which is how Sara likes it best, but I prefer almonds. I don’t think there is a consensus about what’s the best, so I guess it just depends on what you like.
Put everything on a pan and bake it just short of forever, stirring periodically. It doesn’t really start to look like the correct consistency until right at the end, maybe about the last time you stir it.
The Verdict:
Irresistible! If these things are in front of you, you cannot stop eating them. The only way to stop yourself is to not make them in the first place. You’d be amazed at how fast a pound of nuts can disappear!
The Recipe:
The original recipe was from AllRecipes.com.
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 pound pecan halves
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Grease one baking sheet.
- In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg white and water until frothy. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
- Add pecans to egg whites, stir to coat the nuts evenly. Remove the nuts, and toss them in the sugar mixture until coated. Spread the nuts out on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake at 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.
Shane Halbach 