I grocery shop on Saturdays. Today I’m about to run out but I feel a bit peckish, and you’re not supposed to grocery shop hungry, right? So I think, there’s some leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge— I’ll make a quick chicken sandwich.
But making one sandwich, especially the way I have to make it, I always forget is a surprising amount of work. And I routinely make fairly complicated meals for my family…
Collect all ingredients
Toast 2 slices of bread
Slice up a vine-ripened tomato about to go bad
Cut some thin slices off a red onion- crap, one side is rotten, but I can salvage a bit from the other side.
Slice a pickle
Pull outer leaves off a head of romaine until I get to the good lettuce. Wash exactly 2 leaves of romaine, pat dry with paper towel
Remove toast from toaster. Add mayo to one side, Dijon mustard to other. Arghh, forgot to shake mustard, so I’m spraying vinegar all over the toast. Shake. Repeat.
Cut chicken slices. Put on microwave-safe plate with a slice of provolone; nuke for 30 seconds or so until cheese melts.
Assemble sandwich
Cut in half diagonally (the only proper way to cut a sandwich, of course; any other way and it doesn’t taste as good )
Man, it’s exhausting just typing all that out. Was a tasty sandwich, though.
What things have you guys gone into thinking they would be easy-peasy, yet turned out to be surprisingly difficult? Though mine is about a sandwich, doesn’t have to be food-related, so I’m posting here instead of CS.
Wiping your backside in the dark. 5:00 AM, just one BR excursion (instead of the usual 3+), when the power goes out. How do you know you’re cleansed if you can’t see? Fortunately, I had my phone with me – perusing the Dope – and the light was sufficient.
Full disclosure: it was actually a store bought ‘vine ripened’ tomato that are sold in groups of 4 or 5, still on a piece of vine. I kid myself that they’re marginally better than the half-ripe individually sold store tomatoes, but probably not.
I am this close to knocking over a liquor store and heading to Lowes to purchase a retro-fit kit, based on your recommendation alone (not the liquor store part).
Getting anything out of the bottom kitchen cabinets. I’ve changed an entire meal rather than deal with the hassle.
Seconded, and now…doctor-recommended! Also, easily installed by a homeowner. The only issue can be if you get one that has heating, as you need a nearby outlet. I don’t have such luxury, so it’s cold rinse for us.
“Someone is dropping by in ten minutes! I’ll just run the vacuum real quick…”
Put away all the things people have set in front of the vacuum in the closet where it’s kept
Untangle the power cord, since I apparently just shoved it into the closet without winding it up neatly
Pick up the cat toys, socks, shoes, and other detritus strewn about the floor
Run the vacuum. Realize it’s not working properly
Unplug the machine and turn it upside down to see the brush completely wrapped in hair
Find the utility scissors (they were one of the things that were carelessly tossed into the closet, so they should be hanging on their hook now) and cut the hair off the beater brush
Reassemble the vacuum. Consider that the bag is pretty full. Grab a replacement bag while putting the scissors away. Replace bag
Run the vacuum. Appreciate how much better the house looks and wonder why I don’t do it more often
Go to put the vacuum away, resolving to cut the hair off the brush and wind the cord neatly
Is that the door? Cram the vacuum haphazardly into its closet
I’m fully aware that this doesn’t have to be so hard, but here we are.
Any type of repair job, no matter how simple, takes 2-3 times longer than it should.
In my experience there is always something that happens that moves it out of the quick-and-easy category. Often it is dropping a screw and having it roll out of sight.
Just this morning I was trimming some tall saplings that had grown in the gap between two six-foot privacy fences. Of course, I dropped the shears down into the gap. I had to knock them to a better spot with a rake handle, then dig a small trench under the fence to retrieve them.
My ham slices are ~1/4" thick and once cut to about 110% the size/shape of the bread they become four not two.The cheddar is the usual store-bought 8oz brick, so each slice I pare off is ~1 x 2.5 x 3/16". Which collectively make one layer of cheese between 4 layers of ham. The whole mess is a bit over 1-1/2" tall and 90% ham. There’s only 1 slice of bread to minimize the carbs. And maximize the ham.
I posted my description mostly to demonstrate a sandwich about 50% as fussy as the OP’s.
Doesn’t matter what you’re doing, there’s always one more task later and a more detailed task breakdown you could write.
In my job, sometimes people like to describe individuals as limited to “one- or two-step tasks.” My response is to ask what constitutes a “step”? In our bathrooms at work, the mirrors have stickers describing the 6 steps of washing one’s hands. Or is brain surgery a single step - “Heal the patient!”?
)
to knocking over a liquor store and heading to Lowes to purchase a retro-fit kit, based on your recommendation alone (not the liquor store part).