SurrenderDorothy, please read your messages. Thanks.
Visiting Chicago for my birthday weekend(yay me).Staying at River North. Great place, breakfast included. Now I used to weigh a lot. Didn’t know my body space, or judged wrong and would accidentally bump people. Always apologized. This morning a big guy, not overweight , just big , walked into me twice. 
. No acknowledgement. Jerk.but we’re having fun.
This is work related, but I can’t be bothered to find the work rants thread now.
We’ve got a shit-for-brains customer service rep who is fuckin’ rude to our vendors when they won’t give him the exact shipment date he wants. I’ve busted my ass over the last couple of days to find a suitable replacement for a certain component after learning that the fabricator was just going to “machine it from some stock” (which tells me he hadn’t looked at the drawings very closely, as the component is too complicated to simply machine). There’s a manufacturer that still offers these components, and they were even willing to work with me on customizing it so the fabricator doesn’t have to do much work before installing it. Nice! The lead time is only 4 weeks, too. Even better, right?
Well, according to Shit-for-Brains, THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Nevermind that he didn’t bother to consult with Engineering or Quality regarding realistic fabrication and inspection times before he promised the customer a January delivery date, it IS NOT ACCEPTABLE that a custom part should have such a lead time. He even called the manufacturer to demand that the make the part faster; of course, that’s not happening. Now Shit-for-Brains has to figure out what to tell the customer. (Well, that’s his job, now isn’t it?) I’m fully expecting this guy to show up in my office on Monday morning with a printout of some cut-rate, foreign-made component that he found on Amazon or eBay, demanding that I sign off on its use for this project.
Oh, and the entire customer service department is having a cube-decorating competition. One of the reps has created a paper tree with ‘ornaments’ made from pictures of the office ladies (including me). All of the pictures have some kind of caption under them; the one under my (less than flattering) picture is “that’s so funny tell me another 2010”. The whole thing makes me vaguely uncomfortable.
This is genius, thank you. I’ve never heard of sponge candy before. It looks like the stuff inside Cadbury Crunchie Bars that they call “honeycomb.” And we used to have those orange peels at a restaurant where I worked (we did them in a dehydrator, but it looks like that’s not strictly necessary) and they were great. I think those two, maybe rum balls if I can find a proper vegan replacement for nilla wafers that doesn’t cost $10 (maybe something like animal crackers? Yes, I hear the joke forming in your head and animal crackers are vegan even when you bite the heads off)… and also, I wonder if I can borrow/buy the quantities I need of some of this stuff off other people or maybe split it with someone or trade it for some of the finished product. I can’t be the only one who is unlikely to go through a whole thing of cocoa powder or use up all the vanilla extract before the expiry date and would be frankly relieved to get rid of some of it if I had a whole package.
So… in the light of day and with a little rather more level-headed perspective, this project does indeed look less impossible.
And Wallet- 
¡COÑO GUIRLACHE!
uh, my apologies for the swearing in foreign languages, which I suspect a lot of y’all understood anyway…
Guirlache is a type of nougat that’s typical of the Ebro Valley in Spain (the area around Saragossa). The U is part of a digraph, the pronunciation would be along the lines of geer-LAH-cheh, che as in chocolate (/Giɾ.'la.ʧe/ for those who read IPA).
You know how to make rock candy from sugar and water? Like, just sugar and water? You want to start like you’re making caramel, but instead of trying to keep it liquid you want it to crystalize. I think the only candy most basic than that one is crystallized honey.
Now. Instead of mixing only sugar and water, you want: sugar, water, nuts. It can be any kind of nuts you like: piñones are usually kept whole, but almonds, nuts, hazelnuts… are often chipped or sliced. You want to add the nuts once the candy starts getting thick, and you want to add less of them than you think you need (gotta have enough candy to keep the rest stuck together). You can even begin by making a batch that’s is just the sugar and water: it serves as practice on “how to crystalize caramel on purpose” and it can be eaten by people with nuts allergies (in order to avoid cross contamination, you shouldn’t make the plain candy after the guirlache).
It’s vegan, it’s got very few ingredients and it needs a lot less of a setup than baked recipes.
Ok we are at Navy a Pier , Chicago. We witnessed a mom berate for at least a minute to her so, he was about 8to ten years old, about his attitude etc etc. now this was in public. She went on and on. He was crying , humiliated. His father just stood there. I felt badly for the guy.
On another matter we were in a bar, a guy was unconscious, carried in. NO ONE called 911 until I called.CFD arrived. Hope he’s ok.
We did that at my former workplace, trading xmas tree ornaments. After everyone opened theirs, I was allowed to trade with someone. I really didn’t like any of them except for the one I had brought. So I traded to get my own ornament back. Everyone was pissed with me, and instated a rule against it for the following year. But I got the best ornament!
you know me and mom started making cookies when I was a kid because it was cheaper than presents to give out to people we didn’t know too well but wanted to be nice too
when did it get so expensive to bake ?
gift cards are cheaper these days …
If someone bakes on a regular basis, making cookies isn’t that expensive. Its when you have to go and buy the basic ingredients that things start getting costly. Spices usually cost at least three bucks a bottle. Bakers will usually have baking powder or soda in their pantry, non-bakers would need to buy a full container just to use half a teaspoon.
The above candy recipes sound wonderful. If your friend likes to read, bookmarks never go out of style. Don’t cover them in glitter though, nobody likes glitter in their books.
I am running out of laundry soap and/or fabric softener that I can use. A couple of years ago, I had an allergic reaction over my whole body (I don’t like to sleep in clothes) from freshly washed sheets and changed brands. All went well for about 6 months and then I broke out again from freshly changed sheets which was made even worse because I didn’t think about my underware being washed in the same soap. :smack: When we travel, I sleep in clothes and bring colored pillow cases due to worries about their soap.
I guess I should probably have a discussion with my doctor and have testing done to find out just what it is I’m reacting to, but its just been easier to change brands. Until last night. It took less than 10 minutes for me to be covered in hives, I have small blisters on my hands today and will probably start peeling in a day or so. I’m seriously tired of this and now think it would be easier to talk to my doctor about it. Damned bored immune system, finding things to react to because I don’t give it bad food or infected cuts to deal with.
An so it continues of Eenerms trip to Chicago. 945 pm, no too late. In a mid range hotel, a River North. Young women start screaming at each Other in the hallways.goes on For a few minutes. I call downstairs. Don’t know if there is a beat down going on or what. It gets quiet for a bit. Starts up ,again , yelling slamming doors etc. Call down again . Security shows up. Quiet all night. What’s with people? Oh I know , don’t know how to act in public.:smack:
Can you run the laundry a second time with just water?
I think it’s the kind of thing that is cheap in big batches or if you do it often and have most of the ingredients and tools already there. Kind of like if you’re in a restaurant, the ingredients that go into your meal cost a lot less than your meal, but you can’t usually go to the grocery store and get like… 1/4 of an onion and 2 teaspoons of cumin and 1 egg and so forth. So making loads of cookies might be cheaper than getting a bunch of individual gifts for people.
Plus, most of the cookie ingredients have decently long shelf lives, so if you’re a good adult with a well-stocked kitchen, you probably won’t have to go out and buy flour or sugar or baking powder or ginger or molasses- just maybe some nuts or powdered sugar or extras and maybe some of the perishables.
But I’m a garbage adult and I’ve lived here and alone less than a year, brought very little with me, purposely kept things fairly minimalist until my roommate moved in (and now we have 3-soon-to-be-4 TVs and there’s a stuffed mermaid, a plastic slinky, and a squishy llama on the table next to me and I can literally count 12 toys on the floor in this room alone oh my god) and have had a rough year overall. So my kitchen looks… pretty bachelor-y.
So cookies are probably still a good idea and probably still not overly expensive for most people. Just if you suck at life and also really only want to make one batch of each thing… it makes less sense. The candy is definitely doable, though, and actually, unusual enough that I might just make really large batches and give it to my family as well, knocking them off the shopping list. Pretty jars of sugared orange peel? Trés festive.
Nava is guirlache basically like peanut brittle, but maybe more nut-dense? I’ve never made peanut brittle (I’m not a huge fan of it, but I know lots of people are). Looks doable, especially if I’ve already got sugar and nuts. Would pecans work in it? Actually, pine nuts sound really interesting, though, and when I googled it I saw some suggestions (which I can’t seem to find again) for putting other interesting stuff like fennel seeds and sea salt on the top to make it fancier… I wonder if pine nut guirlache with rosemary on top would be good or just weird.
Yep, she meant end of week. That particular level of bullshit just astounded me, though.
My rant for the day and it ain’t mini:
My daughter is 10. She’s getting very curious about sex, which is uncomfortable, but within the realm of normal. She’s not interested in doing it, but she’s already experiencing some pretty intense emotions and sensations thanks to early-ish puberty, so we’ve started talking in detail about sex, consent and managing feelings.
What I was wholly unprepared for was learning how utterly stupid I am. We have a ridiculously strong firewall at home, and both kids’ browsing history is checked daily, and no devices are allowed in bedrooms. However, the vast majority of my daughter’s 10 year old friends have phones with data plans and zero firewalls. Same for my 13 year old son. As a result, I learned both have viewed some pretty sexually explicit material with their respective friends at various sleepovers they’ve been to.
Over the last week I’ve had discussions with them both separately that have yielded results both terrifying and reassuring. Terrifying: they’ve both seen imagery that no kid should ever, ever see. Reassuring: both were disgusted and uncomfortable and their stories mesh with those times they’ve been at friends’ houses and decided to come home early or call me to pick them up because “oh, I just wasn’t interested in the same things Billy was anymore so I left,” or “I just kind of wanted to sleep in my own bed tonight.”
Even if they’re okay, I’m not, because I’ve spent a week drawing information out of my kids as gently and non-confrontationally as possible and received more than I can handle. The kids seem fine (albeit totally grossed out to be discussing this with their mom), but I need to make sure. Also, we’ve begun having waaaay more detailed discussions about sex that I should’ve had earlier were I not a dumbass.
As the icing on the cake, the conversations I’m going to be having with a few parents about some of the videos my daughter showed me that her friends posted of themselves on social media (again…10 fucking years old, they’re all 10 fucking years old and the fact that they’re on tik tok with no parental supervision blows my goddamn mind) are going to be just absolutely fucking delightful, and also helpfully demonstrate why we’re kind of assholes and put password restrictions on various apps both kids can download.
The moral of the story, kids, is that your children aren’t angels. They’re as curious about sex at 10 as they are at 16 or at 26 or whatever age. But if you treat them like angels and try to shield their virgin ears and eyes from the world, the world will find them and they need to be prepared for the information they consume and the circumstances they fall into, and they need an education early and often. Happy fucking Monday.
Why do people think it’s appropriate to yammer away on their phone when they are in close proximity to others in places of business, such as in line at the register? Nobody wants to hear your drivel. There is one exception: if you are calling home to verify your shopping list in short concise terms ("trash bags, zip ties, duct tape, rope…is nylon rope good enough?).
Bonus points if you yack away while you are at the register, occasionally mumbling a word or two to the cashier, while holding up the line because you can’t stop your important conversation long enough to pay attention to your current purchase.
Once you finish your purchase, why don’t you up your game by plopping your backside down in a nearby booth, putting your phone on speaker, and shouting into the end of it while you balance it on your fingertips–not only will you annoy everyone who is trying to enjoy their food, but your buddy on the phone will be annoyed because the microphone sensitivity is different for speaker and your voice will come through as a distorted shout at the far end.
And cashiers, please don’t use your phone while taking care of customers. It is the peak of rude to have to listen to you having a chat with your BFF with occasional glances toward customers as you ask them for money. Whenever I see that I wonder what kind of business allows such a person to keep their job.
Raised by wolves!
It could work, but that would mean using twice as much gas, electricity and potable water. I’m a tree-hugger, I will find another way.
I have a doctor appointment on Friday. This is more annoying than anything.
I don’t think you are being very fair with yourself. Some people love baking fancy cookies and deserts, so will have all the stuff to just toss a batch of cookies together while watching the news. Some doesn’t equal most.
We have all that stuff because Karen loves to bake, left to my own devices about the only thing we would have would be salt, pepper and hot sauce. Oh, and several varieties of BBQ rub.
Worse than that is when the person in front of me is talking TO the cashier. Blah Blah Blah…shut the f*ck up, pay for your stuff and get out!
Also, there are TWO doors at 7-11, one for IN and one for OUT! If you are leaving, you DO NOT have to wait for people to finish coming in! USE THE OTHER DOOR!
My day-to-day rants include grinchlike ones such as:
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I’m so fucking tired of now having to buy gifts for every damn person I’ve ever met. My kids’ teachers, the trash man, recycling truck dude, postman, my hair stylist, the childcare professionals, my co-workers, my boss, my employees and - oh, yeah! - my family. (Well, I buying for my family; it’s everyone else that pisses me off.)
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If I get another invitation to a cookie exchange, Christmas party, open house, school celebration, strings concert, ugly sweater/potluck party, holiday performance or some other random event I will shit myself. No, really, that’s absolutely lovely that you want to celebrate the season, but can we please fucking do this when we all have TIME to celebrate anything? Also, if I’m asked to bake another batch of cookies, someone is getting stabbed.
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To the scouts…it’s amazing - AMAZING - that you want to do service projects special to the holidays. But scheduling them a day or two in advance when everyone is “required” to be there then being shitheads when yours truly does not show up is…well, shitheaded. All of my family is out of town. The closest person to me is three hours away and my mom is older and I don’t expect her to travel here. So a special fuck you for your snide comments about me not “making the effort” to make sure my son was back the Sunday at 8 a.m. Thanksgiving weekend to hang some fucking greenery. Shockingly, spending time outside in the freezing fucking cold trying not to fall off a ladder ranks a teeny tiny bit lower than relaxing with my family over a holiday weekend.
There ought to be a law against glitter. Yesterday I was doing food shopping, and the entire checkout belt was covered with glitter. The checkout lady said as soon as she wipes it clean more of it appears. I got home and sure enough, I had to wash the glitter off my food. Hope I got it all.
We were robbed (burgled??) overnight, from our holiday accom in Queensland. So all of our handbags with cash, cards, licences, my passport, my phone, a tablet…and as our hire-car keys were in one of the bags, the car has gone too.
Just fuck.
Holy crap, kambuckta!! I’m so sorry. 