A quick summary of the day.
It started with a giant “FUCK!”
The exclamation, not an enjoyable encounter.
I awoke, went back to sleep, and awoke again later around 10:30. I showered and had to deal with water that was at times too hot, I believe because of the neighbors … perhaps they were running their kitchen tap.
I dressed, went to the kitchen, and sought some hot water.
What? No hot water? A dry tap? But the cold ran … don’t tell me the hot pipe froze! But, alas, indeed.
So around noon I called the management company … something like “Hey, me again, you know, the guy whose pipes you thawed yesterday (and yes, I know that could be interpreted in a dirty way)? My hot is cold and needs some air blown on it, please send out the repair person.”
Around three he arrived, applied the hot air gun to the pipes in my kitchen after noticing that things had frozen *up here* in the 70+ degree apartment, and then went to the basement to thaw things down there. Jyoti called and asked for help in translating Kant’s 1st Critique, and as I translated and rambled about early transcendental philosophy the repairman returned, told me he had done what he could, and that although no water was yet running, it would, probably, by the evening, and if it didn’t, I should call again tomorrow.
Less than half an hour later, I suspect, water began to gush from the faucet, and I turned it down to a trickle.
Problem solved.
Again.
I’ve never had the frozen pipe problem, though I have suffered through many a cold winter, especially back in Idaho and even here in Madison. I had to feed the cows at -30 to -35 (pre-wind-chill), I’ve walked to the bus stop and waited without the cover of trees or constructed shelter for a much delayed school bus to arrive … and so on and so forth. But so far no frozen pipes, until now.
All a matter, really, of living in a 125 year old house, having my pipes against a wall/floor exposed outside to terribly cold winds, and a poorly insulated “basement” where said pipes enter said old house.
Jyoti called back in the evening for more translation help and I expounded for far too long on minutia of translating and interpreting Kant (how to treat “Intution,” for example, or what Kant’s concept of a “Concept” is). Jyoti also had her man-life to update me on, on the German on whom she has given up because he seems to have moved on to a stick-figure-thin blonde thing with whom he can have blond babies that will combust in the sun, on Zeke or Xeke who, however, is not around and who has rejected her once but remains open to friendship and perhaps more, and so on. My own current failure of a love life played a small role in the discussion; I worked to minimalize it. She’s under the mistaken impression that I’m outgoing and popular, and a lot of people tend to feel that way, though I’m clearly not the latter but I understand why some might thing the former if they barely know me. I had to report that, alas, my romantic life hasn’t been doing too well recently, especially since I only attract the “wrong type,” which, among other things, means those who weigh nearly as much as I do but who are a foot or so shorter. I try not to be shallow, but there are limits. Physical attraction matters.
I await Andrew’s return from his sushi take-out, which was less take-out than delivered, I believe. And upon his return I hope to hear the details of what he described earlier in brief as a day of hell, a shitfest, evening, morning, and afternoon, meaning it began with his “date” (or is that “hook-up date?”) with woman #1 last night (after a booty-call trip to see woman #2) and continued through today. He referred to it as “gory” … I hope for blood.
My life is not nearly as interesting.
I won’t keep you posted.
I am in the middle of Fiona Apple; Faith No More is long done. I had a couple albums of Fatboy Slim, and was pleased to hear a remix and cover of “Apache,” the 1960s guitar piece that became — for that one bizarre Danish 70s guy — an exercise it bad ethno-disco, complete with anorexic white girls pretending to be Indian maids.
I missed out on Fiona Apple my senior year at Pomona when she was becoming popular. She came to play at Pomona and Leena got tickets to see her at “Big Bridges.” I’m in the middle of Tidal now so just finished “Shadow Boxer,” am on “Criminal” and have a half dozen songs to go before I move on to Fleedwood Mac … it will be a clash in styles to say the least.
Although I’ve never thought of it this way before, there is a sense in which Fiona is the Bob Dylan of 90s female vocalists. A very limited sense, mind you. Just a certain vocal quality thing.
In the news:
- It’s old, but recall that statue of Britney Spears giving birth? I suppose it’s relevant again given her recent bad-girl partying behavior.
- I read Questionable Content and today the site linked to some fan-art about “Pizza Girl” (long story), and said art was created and hosted by the person who runs Applegeeks … seems to have a webcomic, but I haven’t had time to browse those 300+ strips.
- In similar food-related news (pizza to seafood), there is an article at CNN about A future without fish?: “Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Disney aim to protect the seas. Fortune’s Marc Gunther navigates the choppy waters.” That’s just the extended headline. From the article: “Increasingly, business is grappling with the issue. At a convention last week, Seafood Choices gave an award to Peter Redmond, who is coordinating Wal-Mart’s effort to buy and promote seafood caught from fisheries certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, or MSC. Unilever and the World Wildlife Federation started the MSC to set a global standard for well-managed fisheries. Less than 10 percent of the world’s catch is currently certified as sustainable.”
- In other webcomic news, I recently came across xkcd … more stick-figure-concept-art than anything: “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” As a grad student, though, I can relate.
Finally, I’ll end with a post from another blog, in this case “Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff” and a post on “Crockpot Pot Roast” … because it sounds tasty.
Crockpot Pot Roast
This is so easy anybody can make it. When we dug into it the meat was falling right off – great cooking method for cheaper, tougher cuts of meat!
Ingredients
1 beef pot roast (chuck or round), about 2 lbs
1 CAN cream of celery soup
1/3 CUP chicken broth
1/4 CUP Italian style breadcrumbs
2 CUPS frozen vegetables (I used mixed cauliflower and broccoli)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Half a head of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 TBSP clean tasting oil (like peanut or corn oil, but not olive oil)
1 Egg
2 TBSP flourInstructions
Sprinkle salt and pepper liberally on roast and brown all sides in a pan with some oil.
Set aside. Brown the vegetables in the pan a bit, scraping up the browned bits at the bottom to salvage the flavor left in the pan from the browning beef.In a mixing bowl, combine egg, flour, chicken broth, cream of celery soup and mix well. (I used a whisk to break up the flour bits.) Tranfer vegetables to the crockpot, lay the roast on top, and stuff pieces of garlic into the cracks where the fat separate the meat. Pour the sauce of celery soup on top, making sure that it coats the entire surface of the meat. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on the very top, as evenly as possible.
Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.
