urban slang to the rescue

"I don't know many office managers who would take a punch for somebody"

"I don't think he meant to"

"He clocked him"

"He punched him out?"

"No, clocked"

"Whats a clock"

"Maybe lets do a demonstration"

Apparently "clock" is not the same as "punch." Urban Dictionary says "to hit someone."

Unfortunately the demonstration came to nothing. For the record, I was not a participant in this conversation. Of course I have never used clocked in a sentence though. Yet.

for the cause

I signed up to STOP breast cancer before it STARTS. Have you? Join today at www.armyofwomen.org

by dint of the force of the dint

Dint.

I think I have never used this word in a sentence. And yet, I know it. Five years ago I could have told you the definition of several hundred GRE hit list words. I even tried to use them in sentences. But I forgot them all. Mostly. I still remember:

panacea

recidivism

and

pulchritude.

Many of them did leave a mark in my brain though. Often when I hear a vocabulary term I don't know, I remember that I USED to know it. Is knowing I forgot what it meant better than never knowing it at all? Hopefully.

And yet, suddenly I was seized with the notion that I must write about the word "dint" and even felt compelled to use it in the title in some witty way.

My first thought was to title the post, "by dint of reflection." I was then going to lament how I often recall 3 barefoot steps into the kitchen that I am supposed to be wearing shoes. The kitchen, at the moment, is home to many tiny shards of glass that I am ignoring for a while. Vacuuming and sweeping are tasks I avoid as long as possible. While I did sweep and vacuum the morning following the great glass explosion, I'm guessing I will not do it again until we have people over for dinner. A few weeks maybe. That's the only motivator I have to clean. Probably, there is not much glass left.

Yeah. Hence the shoes. The glass shards will be left in peace by dint of my shoes. Maybe I should re-title this blog "the slovenly housewife." Too bad the blog name is already taken. (http://slovenlyhousewife.blogspot.com/) I could give have given techniques for how to avoid dishes.

By dint of reflection I have decided to create a new tag. Slovenly housewife. It so rocks. There must be a dozen posts so far where I comment on my slovenliness. Now I can revel in it too.

my secret life

So I sort of haven't blogged about much lately. Thus my secret life.

I was never a journal blogger. Sorry.

But I will give you a few tidbits:

Tidbit #1: My Birthday. It came and went. I am now 27. Here are pics:

Note the binary number candle arrangement: 11011. Yellow is for 0, Green for 1. DH sort of rocks like that. And that is Rhubarb Crisp bytheway.

My favorite shirt. I wear it a lot.

Tidbit #2: I rode light rail in Seattle during (or rather at the endpoints of) my visit to J the magnificent. We watched the complete first season of Lois and Clark. (it so rocks.) It is on netflix instant play now. Janie still had my engagement photo on her fridge so we did a re-enactment.

J's husband has passed away, hence the visit. We were sad together. Love you Janien.

Tidbit #3: I made pupusas twice. Amazingly, while at the store buying maseca for the dough, I overheard a conversation about a nearby Salvadorean restaurant and how they have great papsies. Pipsies. The woman couldn't quite recall. Good thing I was there to supply the correct name. Pupusas. They rock.

Tidbit #4: My most recent mishap was the complete shattering of a glass shelf from our fridge. What joy is mine. That is now the second part from our fridge that will have been replaced. One of the door shelves broke off last year. Alas.

Tidbit #5: I witnessed the super secret arrival of a VIP to Stanford Campus. A couple years ago GW Bush tried to visit Hoover Institute on Stanford Campus. He didn't quite make it. yeah. A bunch of students caused a near riot with their protests and prevented his visit. He ended up giving his prepared remarks at someone's house--George Schultz.

Last Saturday I was helping DH move cube (poor guy. As a sixth year grad student, he now has LOWEST priority and lost his prime cube spot. He is now the scum of the econ department.) We were just outside the Econ building when at least 6 police cars escorted some Mysterious Visitor to Hoover. There were policemen on the street as well. I haven't discovered who it was yet. Who has a high enough profile to get a 6 car escort? Not many. Probably not Arnold Schwarzenegger. Maybe. And I was one of maybe 5 bystanders who saw it happen. 11 am on a saturday?

Hmm.

n^n

Today is my n=3 birthday.

n^n is a special day.

I will cherish this year of mathematical perfection.

Congratulations to my nephew Alex who is n=2.

Jane Austen's Fight Club

I must admit I am currently reading Fight Club. I've never seen the movie. I did watch the preview on youtube though--a must see if you are going to fully appreciate the "movie" preview I've embedded below. It is definitely a strange read and pretty deranged. It reminds me of Clockwork Orange (the book) in the way that you don't know what's going on half the time and everybody is crazy.

DH found this clip and sent it to me--apparently filmed by a young single adult LDS ward. Ha! Good for a laugh.

the glory of rice pudding

I worship rice pudding. It is true. I don't recall ever eating rice pudding before moving to California (Going on 5 years!). It might have been one of those buffet dessert items at Chuck-A-Rama, but I don't remember trying it (or if I did, it was not worth remembering!) BUT then I started to shop for myself (after leaving home) and there was that one magic day in Safeway when I saw Kozy Shack brand rice pudding next to the sour cream...and I bought it. My life would never be the same.

Then came the many attempts at making rice pudding. There was the baked puddings, the stovetop puddings, the one time disaster of a crockpot pudding, and finally more precise puddings that used a thermometer. Some would curdle*. Some would be fantastic. But nothing could match the consistency of Kozy.

*Curdling is a thing of the past. The blessings of living at sea level combined with the delicate egg yolk conspired against me for too long, but now I have outsmarted them. I just keep the heat down:) (Custards are supposed to stay between 185 and 190 F during cooking time to prevent curdling.)

Then came the time when I bought Kozy pudding and it was awful. Yes. It tasted totally off. Then I was afraid to buy it for a while. Suddenly I wondered if Kozy pudding was really the ultimate.

Now after being in El Barrio going on 2 years, I have discovered Salvadoran rice pudding. There is a couple in our ward who like to make it to serve after baptisms (and sometimes go crazy and give it out after church--like last week!). They use a combination of sweetened condensed milk, regular milk, cinnamon sticks, and a lime--rind and all! No eggs! Fancy that. It is quick to make, none of the hours of reducing milk or anything laborious in that vein. Lucky is the one who chokes on a piece of cinnamon and finds part of a lime in their cup. Eat with caution. Oh, but the delight of rice pudding!

Incomplete LIST of rice pudding recipes attempted:

1. The baked rice pudding recipe I used comes from Betty Crocker Cookbook.

2. Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/rice_pudding/

This one I made notes. They go like this:

Turned out great--much more creamy than baked rice pudding. I kept the heat below boiling like she said, and the egg did not curdle. I think I will try sweetening with honey next time (less than 1/4 cup).
SO good. Try with 1/4 cup arborio next time, it was VERY thick. I put raspberries in it and it was so divine.

(I should point out that I used arborio rice instead of the short grain white the recipe called for. Had I used short grain white, it would not have turned out so thick.)

3) Crockpot: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/03/crockpot-rice-pudding-recipe.html

Notes:

it curdled. Using high heat after putting the egg in was a mistake--it might work on low, but I'm not sure I want to try it again when I have another rice pudding recipe that is great. (simply recipes)

4) Temperature measured: http://www.ehow.com/how_4830558_kozy-shack-rice-pudding.html

I can't exactly recall how this turned out. I think it worked ok, but by this point I had been trying to cut back on rice pudding (since I inhaled it at ludicrous speed) and only made this recipe one time.

5) This one is untested, but highly recommended by some people in a chowhound thread: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Raisin-Rice-Pudding-762

I need to make this one.

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As a final note, I must remark how much I adore puddings and custards of all kinds. DH doesn't care as much about pudding as I do, but we try not to let that be an issue in our marriage. But he can surely attest to the fact that more often than not when I'm feeling like dessert I'll say, "I want a pudding."