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Listies again
1. There's a long list of everyday stuff that I hate doing, for no good reason but that I do, and in spite of the fact that when it's done the pleasure is out of all proportion to the minor expenditure of energy.
a. Pumping the bicycle tires.
b. Cooking stir fry. (All the dreary chopping, like taping and priming before you're allowed to paint.)
c. Washing dishes. Every day. No *end* to it.
d. Flossing my bridge. Flossing my teeth I've at last turned into a reflex, but the bridge requires more psychic energy than I have.
e. Vacuuming. I put this down to the decrepit state of the vacuum machine; something shiny and new, with attachments that come off easily, might remove the wanhope of the exercise.
I shall note that I did the first three last night, go me.
2. I think I always knew, but only now realize consciously, that studying kanji is a high anxiety pastime. I realize it because now when I study I find myself doing the deep breathing exercises I use to calm my anxiety wibbles.
3. To make a decent stir fry one really only needs good ginger and garlic. Alas, though this time both looked firm and plump from the outside, the inside was woody in the first case and dried out in the second. The resulting fry is passable, but only just. However, now is tangerine season, which means chicken liver season, and a pan of (good) ginger/ scallion/ tangerine liver&chard added to the broccoli/ bok choy/ mushroom/ celery stir fry renders the latter quite wonderful. Also doubly ironic, should I be iron-deficient, which I doubt I am.
4. The leaves finally begin to turn, and burn orangely under the streetlamps, even though many trees are still leafy green. An October that continues into November is almost as satisfying as an October that starts mid-September, like last year. Almost, because the colours last year were amazing but this year are only amazing when the sun shines. On grey dull days the spirit droops within.
5. Every year I scour the dollar stores for neck warmers. The dollar stores no longer have neck warmers, and turning out my winter clothes I found only one of my collection left. I cannot knit, but maybe I could crochet one? Preferable to paying $10 + tax per unit at Mountain Equipiment Coop, surely.
6. As ever, if I'm taking a winter course, do I take Chinese or French? I'm inclining to French, simply because I'm lazy in winter, and after trudging over snow and ice to get to the class with the prospect of getting home to follow, I prefer to be reminded of what I once knew rather than try to master something I don't know at all.
a. Pumping the bicycle tires.
b. Cooking stir fry. (All the dreary chopping, like taping and priming before you're allowed to paint.)
c. Washing dishes. Every day. No *end* to it.
d. Flossing my bridge. Flossing my teeth I've at last turned into a reflex, but the bridge requires more psychic energy than I have.
e. Vacuuming. I put this down to the decrepit state of the vacuum machine; something shiny and new, with attachments that come off easily, might remove the wanhope of the exercise.
I shall note that I did the first three last night, go me.
2. I think I always knew, but only now realize consciously, that studying kanji is a high anxiety pastime. I realize it because now when I study I find myself doing the deep breathing exercises I use to calm my anxiety wibbles.
3. To make a decent stir fry one really only needs good ginger and garlic. Alas, though this time both looked firm and plump from the outside, the inside was woody in the first case and dried out in the second. The resulting fry is passable, but only just. However, now is tangerine season, which means chicken liver season, and a pan of (good) ginger/ scallion/ tangerine liver&chard added to the broccoli/ bok choy/ mushroom/ celery stir fry renders the latter quite wonderful. Also doubly ironic, should I be iron-deficient, which I doubt I am.
4. The leaves finally begin to turn, and burn orangely under the streetlamps, even though many trees are still leafy green. An October that continues into November is almost as satisfying as an October that starts mid-September, like last year. Almost, because the colours last year were amazing but this year are only amazing when the sun shines. On grey dull days the spirit droops within.
5. Every year I scour the dollar stores for neck warmers. The dollar stores no longer have neck warmers, and turning out my winter clothes I found only one of my collection left. I cannot knit, but maybe I could crochet one? Preferable to paying $10 + tax per unit at Mountain Equipiment Coop, surely.
6. As ever, if I'm taking a winter course, do I take Chinese or French? I'm inclining to French, simply because I'm lazy in winter, and after trudging over snow and ice to get to the class with the prospect of getting home to follow, I prefer to be reminded of what I once knew rather than try to master something I don't know at all.
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a) I've stopped biking for the year. XD;
b) I got a big wok that allows me to do several meals' worth of stir fry at once, which helps. Also, I buy these frozen pre-chopped veggie mixes, not even gonna lie.
c) No way around it. Having access to a dishwasher when you're living alone is WORSE, because you have to rinse and then fill it up before you run it and then empty it once it's done running.
d) Urrrrrgh.
e) Definitely buy a new vacuum! The one I had been using in my parents' house is literally 20 years old, which says something for the construction of the thing, but in comparison the $65 model from Wal-Mart I got for the new apartment feels like waking up in the FUTURE.
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c) When I lived with a dishwasher I hated emptying it too. But now I'd bear that burden.
d) You have a bridge? At your age? And I thought my teeth genes were bad.
e) Wal-Mart is the devil, but if Tired Canadian has something comparable price-wise, I will. (Come to that, mine must be pushing 20. It arrived with the tenant when I was in Japan, ca 1994, and might not have been new then.)
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Otherwise our kids are encouraged to wear neck warmers rather than scarves, there being less danger of tripping and falling on loose dangling ends (toddlers) or strangulation from catching scarf on projecting whatevers (pre-school).
You're so right about the hanzi/ kanji thing.
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Liver recipe is quite simple. A large chunk of ginger, diced small; a bunch of green onions, also diced, with some of the green as well; chicken livers, cut up with kitchen scissors; two tangerines, for choice, squeezed and the seeds removed.
Stir fry ginger and green onions, plop in livers, stir fry those till half cooked, add tangerine juice and tangerine flesh, and continue stir-frying till done. One can also add chopped-up broccoli to the initial stir fry, or bits of chard or kale, or some chopped dried apricots once there's gravy, and throw in some cooked rice at the end for a one-bowl meal.
Very very good, unless you're vegetarian and/or chicken makes you throw up. ^_^
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