Trying to Distract Myself
May. 12th, 2024 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Thursday ho-hum.
Breakfast, work, break, work, lunch, practice trombone, work, break, dinner.
I will not get Saturday off because I've averaged 5 hours per day (remember that I essentially lost all of Tuesday to being at Disney.)
I think the reason it's so hard to get six hours a day is that in a traditional office job, you're not ACTUALLY working for the whole eight hour day. Some of that time includes bathroom breaks, lulls in your workflow, chats with your boss, emailing back and forth, etc.
Whereas with this data entry job, I am TIMED. I start the clock when doing work, and stop the clock when I get up to pee, stretch, chat with Jameson, have a snack, etc. I'm allowed to wait 5 minutes for an email/chat response, but if there's no response I gotta stop my timer or move on to something else.
Looking at it that way, much less activity/time can actually be counted as "work" compared to a traditional desk job where you can dick around for fifteen minutes and still get paid. Yep, I think that's what makes it hard to reach six hours at home.
During lunch break I boiled my last four local farm eggs and mixed up a Korean mayak egg marinade. If you love umami foods and/or soft-boiled eggs I cannot recommend these enough! Guaranteed you have everything you need to make them in your cupboard right now. Soy sauce, sugar or honey, garlic, green or white onion, ginger (optional), sesame seeds, any kind of spicy pepper (I didn't have any so used red pepper flakes + sriracha.)
I use this recipe. Then soft-boil your eggs, cool them in an ice bath, peel and drop them in the marinade for minimum 24 hours and maximum three days (they'll start to get rubbery and weird if you leave them in the marinade any longer than that.) Eat them plain or on top of rice, with ramen or pasta or sliced on toast, they are savory-sweet and wonderful.
After dinner I went for a walk because it was "only" 91°F.
In the setting sun things had high contrast. Despite the heat it was beautiful.
I saw four no-touchees (oleander caterpillars) and of those one was in a big ol' hurry, and another was the smallest I've ever seen!
(Video HERE)
For those who can't see the video:
And on the way back I saw a baby alligator, sleeping in the shallows of the lake!
He was only the size of an iguana, and he had to have been sleeping (with his transparent eyelids on) because he let me get far too close. He was adorable, and little silver fish were swimming all around him :)
(Video HERE)
For those who can't see the video:
The biting flies and mosquitoes, however, were NOT cute, so I couldn't stay long.
Back at the house got cleaned up and hydrated and ate some candy :p
Jameson and I watched Jeopardy Masters, which is not as fun as regular Jeopardy because the questions are HARD for pea-brained normies like us, and the contestants answer so quickly that there's hardly time to voice the answer even if you do know it!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday again breakfast, work, break, work, lunch, trombone, work.
For lunch I had some mayak eggs over veggies. DAMN they are good.
Before cutting:
After cutting (drizzled some sesame oil on them as well):
For dinner I made Half-Baked Harvest's stuffed potato skins, a recipe we both love and have made many times.
We stepped outside to try and see northern lights, but the light pollution is strong here and we saw nothing with our naked eyes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday. I didn't sleep great, but kind of figured that'd be the case this weekend with my first Main Street Philharmonic performance looming ahead on Monday. I am sooooo nervous. Kristen (trumpet sub) had her go on Thursday and it looks like it went well, she got many accolades on facebook. I'm very happy for her! This is just as big a deal for her as it is for me, as a woman and as a musician.
I had gotten up early to do my last several hours of work. On his way out the door to the gym Jameson commented on how nice it was outside (a "cool" 85°F) so although I felt anxious about memorizing Disney music, instead I took myself for a walk.
A few blocks later I realized with a start: "Hey! You could be practicing marching right now, you know!"
So I did, I loaded up my MSP playlist on my phone and marched all around our neighborhood. Played "air trombone" the whole time, too. I must have looked ridiculous and I don't care one whit. It was in the mid-90s by the time I got back so it was good getting used to the intense heat, too.
Feeling satisfied with myself over that, I cleaned up and went to Walmart for ingredients to make Nuka Cola (we have a Fallout cookbook and Jameson requested it) and to get sunglasses for Disney. That took forever because I don't normally wear sunglasses and finding an "ok" fit was difficult. Plus I ended up having to get men's sunglasses because all the women's were colorful, blinged out, wide frames, etc which are not allowed.
Got to be proud of myself once again when I got to the spice section and couldn't find coriander seed OR cardamom (the whole seeds/pods, not the ground spices.) What to do? Not wanting to drive to another store, I took a moment to think. What spice blends might contain whole coriander? The answer was pickling spices! Grabbed that, and as for the cardamom, I remembered that I had an old loose leaf tea containing whole cardamom pods, just languishing for years in a drawer in the kitchen.
Recipe saved! Look at my brain cells holding hands today!
Back home I assembled the ingredients for Nuka Cola.
Step one: sugar, water, lime lemon and orange zest, star anise, coriander, cardamom, and cinnamon in a pot on the stove. Boil it, then simmer it for 10 minutes.
Step two: add lime lemon and orange juices, something called "browning sauce," and vanilla extract. Mix and then strain. The result is this very dark, sticky, fragrant simple syrup. The color is entirely from the "browning sauce." And it smelled VERY much like traditional cola.
That's pretty much it, you just let it come to room temp and then shove it in the fridge. You're not supposed to use it for at least 12 hours, probably so it can thicken(?) so we will try it on Sunday. Can't wait!!
For dinner we got pizza from Anthony's and I made air fryer wings. The wings were great as always and the pizza was very good, but we both agreed that at the price point ($27!!) Marco's Pizza is just as good for half or even a third of that price.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday I allowed myself to sleep until 8:30, but still did some work in the morning.
Jameson suggested a walk since it was below 90°F, and we talked about this and that as we walked.
I'm feeling nervous again about Disney tomorrow, but talking with Jameson helps keep my mind off it.
Back home more work, memorization, packing a lunch for tomorrow, and Jameson watched the Cubs game. Time to try the Nuka Cola! Jameson made some sparkling water with the SodaStream and we mixed 5 Tbsp syrup into each glass.
It tasted JUST like a store-bought cola! Delicious and refreshing. It was too sweet for me using the ratios in the recipe (5-7 Tbsp syrup for 1c seltzer water) but now I know that for next time. We were very impressed with the flavor. It made quite a lot though, so I'll have to give some away or freeze some or something. Now we can use it as a simple syrup for alcoholic drinks, or over ice cream or pancakes! Wheeeee
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Welp...tomorrow is Monday and my first day performing at the Magic Kingdom.
Since I'm only doing two sets out of the five of the day, the other trombonists will be there, which actually makes me (and my inferiority complex) feel better: if for any reason I can't hack it there's still someone there to play.
I can't help but be nervous, but am also very excited and hopeful.
Breakfast, work, break, work, lunch, practice trombone, work, break, dinner.
I will not get Saturday off because I've averaged 5 hours per day (remember that I essentially lost all of Tuesday to being at Disney.)
I think the reason it's so hard to get six hours a day is that in a traditional office job, you're not ACTUALLY working for the whole eight hour day. Some of that time includes bathroom breaks, lulls in your workflow, chats with your boss, emailing back and forth, etc.
Whereas with this data entry job, I am TIMED. I start the clock when doing work, and stop the clock when I get up to pee, stretch, chat with Jameson, have a snack, etc. I'm allowed to wait 5 minutes for an email/chat response, but if there's no response I gotta stop my timer or move on to something else.
Looking at it that way, much less activity/time can actually be counted as "work" compared to a traditional desk job where you can dick around for fifteen minutes and still get paid. Yep, I think that's what makes it hard to reach six hours at home.
During lunch break I boiled my last four local farm eggs and mixed up a Korean mayak egg marinade. If you love umami foods and/or soft-boiled eggs I cannot recommend these enough! Guaranteed you have everything you need to make them in your cupboard right now. Soy sauce, sugar or honey, garlic, green or white onion, ginger (optional), sesame seeds, any kind of spicy pepper (I didn't have any so used red pepper flakes + sriracha.)
I use this recipe. Then soft-boil your eggs, cool them in an ice bath, peel and drop them in the marinade for minimum 24 hours and maximum three days (they'll start to get rubbery and weird if you leave them in the marinade any longer than that.) Eat them plain or on top of rice, with ramen or pasta or sliced on toast, they are savory-sweet and wonderful.
After dinner I went for a walk because it was "only" 91°F.
In the setting sun things had high contrast. Despite the heat it was beautiful.
I saw four no-touchees (oleander caterpillars) and of those one was in a big ol' hurry, and another was the smallest I've ever seen!
(Video HERE)
For those who can't see the video:
And on the way back I saw a baby alligator, sleeping in the shallows of the lake!
He was only the size of an iguana, and he had to have been sleeping (with his transparent eyelids on) because he let me get far too close. He was adorable, and little silver fish were swimming all around him :)
(Video HERE)
For those who can't see the video:
The biting flies and mosquitoes, however, were NOT cute, so I couldn't stay long.
Back at the house got cleaned up and hydrated and ate some candy :p
Jameson and I watched Jeopardy Masters, which is not as fun as regular Jeopardy because the questions are HARD for pea-brained normies like us, and the contestants answer so quickly that there's hardly time to voice the answer even if you do know it!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday again breakfast, work, break, work, lunch, trombone, work.
For lunch I had some mayak eggs over veggies. DAMN they are good.
Before cutting:
After cutting (drizzled some sesame oil on them as well):
For dinner I made Half-Baked Harvest's stuffed potato skins, a recipe we both love and have made many times.
We stepped outside to try and see northern lights, but the light pollution is strong here and we saw nothing with our naked eyes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday. I didn't sleep great, but kind of figured that'd be the case this weekend with my first Main Street Philharmonic performance looming ahead on Monday. I am sooooo nervous. Kristen (trumpet sub) had her go on Thursday and it looks like it went well, she got many accolades on facebook. I'm very happy for her! This is just as big a deal for her as it is for me, as a woman and as a musician.
I had gotten up early to do my last several hours of work. On his way out the door to the gym Jameson commented on how nice it was outside (a "cool" 85°F) so although I felt anxious about memorizing Disney music, instead I took myself for a walk.
A few blocks later I realized with a start: "Hey! You could be practicing marching right now, you know!"
So I did, I loaded up my MSP playlist on my phone and marched all around our neighborhood. Played "air trombone" the whole time, too. I must have looked ridiculous and I don't care one whit. It was in the mid-90s by the time I got back so it was good getting used to the intense heat, too.
Feeling satisfied with myself over that, I cleaned up and went to Walmart for ingredients to make Nuka Cola (we have a Fallout cookbook and Jameson requested it) and to get sunglasses for Disney. That took forever because I don't normally wear sunglasses and finding an "ok" fit was difficult. Plus I ended up having to get men's sunglasses because all the women's were colorful, blinged out, wide frames, etc which are not allowed.
Got to be proud of myself once again when I got to the spice section and couldn't find coriander seed OR cardamom (the whole seeds/pods, not the ground spices.) What to do? Not wanting to drive to another store, I took a moment to think. What spice blends might contain whole coriander? The answer was pickling spices! Grabbed that, and as for the cardamom, I remembered that I had an old loose leaf tea containing whole cardamom pods, just languishing for years in a drawer in the kitchen.
Recipe saved! Look at my brain cells holding hands today!
Back home I assembled the ingredients for Nuka Cola.
Step one: sugar, water, lime lemon and orange zest, star anise, coriander, cardamom, and cinnamon in a pot on the stove. Boil it, then simmer it for 10 minutes.
Step two: add lime lemon and orange juices, something called "browning sauce," and vanilla extract. Mix and then strain. The result is this very dark, sticky, fragrant simple syrup. The color is entirely from the "browning sauce." And it smelled VERY much like traditional cola.
That's pretty much it, you just let it come to room temp and then shove it in the fridge. You're not supposed to use it for at least 12 hours, probably so it can thicken(?) so we will try it on Sunday. Can't wait!!
For dinner we got pizza from Anthony's and I made air fryer wings. The wings were great as always and the pizza was very good, but we both agreed that at the price point ($27!!) Marco's Pizza is just as good for half or even a third of that price.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday I allowed myself to sleep until 8:30, but still did some work in the morning.
Jameson suggested a walk since it was below 90°F, and we talked about this and that as we walked.
I'm feeling nervous again about Disney tomorrow, but talking with Jameson helps keep my mind off it.
Back home more work, memorization, packing a lunch for tomorrow, and Jameson watched the Cubs game. Time to try the Nuka Cola! Jameson made some sparkling water with the SodaStream and we mixed 5 Tbsp syrup into each glass.
It tasted JUST like a store-bought cola! Delicious and refreshing. It was too sweet for me using the ratios in the recipe (5-7 Tbsp syrup for 1c seltzer water) but now I know that for next time. We were very impressed with the flavor. It made quite a lot though, so I'll have to give some away or freeze some or something. Now we can use it as a simple syrup for alcoholic drinks, or over ice cream or pancakes! Wheeeee
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Welp...tomorrow is Monday and my first day performing at the Magic Kingdom.
Since I'm only doing two sets out of the five of the day, the other trombonists will be there, which actually makes me (and my inferiority complex) feel better: if for any reason I can't hack it there's still someone there to play.
I can't help but be nervous, but am also very excited and hopeful.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-12 11:37 pm (UTC)Best of luck with tomorrow!
no subject
Date: 2024-05-13 12:13 pm (UTC)The eggs look delicious
no subject
Date: 2024-05-13 12:25 pm (UTC)These eggs are great. There are so many great options for marinating eggs (pickle brine, beet brine, soy, etc) and I'm always forgetting to take advantage of that!