Hungry Hungry....Hippos?

Ever find little furry, brown larva eating away at your cottons? Or see the aftermath in the form of tiny holes in the most inappropriate places on your favourite T? I've unfortunately found them on my woolens, cottons, and even my papers. I clean! I wash! I vacuum! But these devils refuse to permanently leave. Just when I think they're gone for good, I'll find a new hole somewhere.

There's nothing new in that. However, I thought they only devoured natural fibres including my sheepy moccasins for those cold, wintery floors. I'd never seen them eating any polys of any sort yet today, I found them in the strangest place: on the thin styrofoam sheet that protects a mug of mine inside a box. And indeed, they'd eaten a number of holes in it. Are they mutating? Or is this a new form of styrofoam that includes natural material suitable for recycling? Is nothing safe from these insects?? And why can't I get rid of them?!?!?

Holy Mackerel!

I'm slacking off on my lessons, or maybe I'm not trying hard enough. However, I had a somewhat painful lesson today. Though not mackerel, it was certainly a fishy tale that needs to be told.

Apparently, tinned sardines contain water even when the label says they're packed in oil. Most likely, the water exudes from the cooked flesh of the fish into the oil as they sit about on the grocer's shelf. I discovered this bit of information after draining the fish from their oily casket and threw them into a hot pan with equally hot oil. The oil sputtered, spit and flew all over. Ouch. When I checked the tin, lo and behold, there was a water and oil layer nicely separated as one would expect after that messy ordeal.

So beware the vengeful sardine!! As Monty Python aptly put it: "I'm not dead yet!"

Aba Shelly

Ok, I see a trend in my learning experiences. Food. There's a lot to be learned from food...well there's a lot to be learned from every encounter if you're open to it. New learning experiences can actually be an extension of what you've already learned, like beginner, intermediate and advanced classes.

Anyhow, I've always known that abalone is expensive. The most common form in which I've had eaten it were originally from a can or dried. Not saying I ate a chewy dried abalone or stuck a fork in a can. That's just unpalatable and a waste of a delicacy. I'm open to being shown wrong on that one! Anyhow, as a result, I more or less knew the approximate price range of these buggers in their less than ideal form. Today I discovered just how expensive they are when fresh. I was at a good restaurant with stellar chefs but it's not exactly extravagent. It's affordable...ok, anything is affordable if you budget properly. Let me rephrase. It's affordable enough to be able to frequent fairly often. A new special dish was recently made available but only if they had fresh abalone on hand. Perfectly cooked in a high quality oyster sauce with vegetables, an order of one abalone (some abalone out there has lost its mate) dressed up in such fine gear cost....$45. Though it was a fair size (size of a small fist), it looked like a heavy snack...or perhaps an appetizer. A real eye opener. Now, if I had ordered a whole mess of them in its typical entree form...let's not think about that. At least it tasted like $40 but I'd rather have that abalone fresh and kicking (er...ok, filtering?) than sitting on a plate burning a whole in my wallet. Let him propagate so that there will be many,many more and it'll only cost $20 for one instead. Abalone farming anyone? And so, I've turned an abalone into a lesson of economics. I'm getting scary doing this now, eh? Alright!

Eye Popping Lesson

I always knew that I hated microwave popcorn. I've never come across any I've ever liked. If the smell doesn't kill me first, the taste always does. Well, I was unfortunately given a box of Newman's Own micropop and figured I'd give it a go. He's got pretty good stuff right? Well, the smell was that typical artificial nastiness that permeates entire neighborhoods. Digging in, the taste was no better. If you eat it fast enough, it's just edible. That was the relearning part.

Much to my horror, I discovered that despite the low sodium, no trans-fat exclaimations plastered all over the box, these baggies are packed with calories! I knew the "original" fatty versions of micropop were bad but these lightweights too? Makes me wonder what you're exactly getting at the movie theatres! =O According to the nutritional label, one bag contains three servings which amounts to 10.5 cups of popcorn with 390 calories, 300mg of sodium and 15g of fat (6g are saturated)! Ugh. Just as I always knew, popping my own is better. My only solace were the 6g of protein (I was surprised at that!) and 9g of fibre. I've always heard that popcorn is great for a bout with constipation, but wow! 9g of it? They should call it micro-poop. Granted, most people don't eat 10.5 cups in one sitting. It's amazing those little baggies can be loaded with so much edible air!

Wait a second...I'm not constipated...this lesson might have an extra unwanted assignment or a Pop quiz...

Sleeping in Class

So far, not only have I learned something new and different each day, I have gained the lessons in a different manner. Today, I have learned something about myself. After pulling an all nighter, I decided to test a hypothesis that would leave me feeling more refreshed than feeling like I'd done LSD. Having pulled more all nighters than I would have preferred in my life, I've come to dislike them for the sheer fact that I feel rotten afterwards. I'm left in a state of semi-suspended animation where I'm incredibly tired and want to nap, yet can't as I am still running on adrenaline. My brain will be foggy and my body will take its revenge on me for my stupidity.

In the past, I had usually continued to stay awake until the next night to sleep. Sometimes, I'd try and get some sleep but not until I decided I didn't want to take the misery anymore...around 8 or 9am. That usually resulted in rotten sleep and that just messed with my sleep schedule even more. And if I didn't get into bed before 5am, I wouldn't really want to until 8 or 9am...perhaps a last surge of adrenaline as the sun rose? It also wouldn't be quite an all nighter then now would it?

And so last night (this morning), I decided to try something new. I popped into bed at around 7 or 7:30am so it was post adrenaline-sunrise rush, yet it was before the 8/9am death nap. Not only that, I set the alarm to wake me up by 11am thus giving me a solid 4 hours sleep. Not too much, not too little. I was groggy when I woke up, but I could. I still had a solid day to enjoy. Indeed, throughout the day, I felt lucent and semi-refreshed though I did have a nap attack (hit me from behind) around 4pm which lasted no more than a half hour. At this point, I'm still feeling fine though a wee bit sleepy (probably from dinner)...just perfect for turning in early for a solid night's sleep. I've learned how to conquer my all nighter dilemma!! Yee Haw!

Lesson for the Tongue

I gained a new experience today. Does that count? Hell ya! In general, my family either detests taking me shopping or revels in it. They revel in it when I do the heavy lifting or driving. They detest it because I have the roving eyes and hands of a child needing to touch, see and comment on every strange product or sight. This necessitates allotting extra time for a simple trip to the store. The fine line in between is when I am lauded for finding some great bargains or new treasures as a direct result of my time-consuming behaviour. Back to today's lesson. At the other day's venture in the local asian market, some funny looking green vegetation with the name of 'San Choy' caught my eye. Its thick, flat, broad leaves reminded me of some overgrown spinach in its outward cell structure. Today, it was cooked up with a dash of salted black bean paste. It was a new experience for my tongue in its very "green" taste. Strange, yet I somewhat enjoyed it. Its texture was very slippery which was not surprising considering the leaf structure. The folks weren't too enamoured with it (supposedly it was only known as pig food) but I wouldn't mind having it for variety. Score one for learning! Yipee!

Decaying Boredom

Today, I thought I'd start my quest for knowledge. Or at least try and figure out if my gray matter is shrinking. And so begins the tally! Indeed, I did learn something today. Curious? Then let me enlighten you (ah, if only that were true). I discovered that in our town/county/state, there's a poor soul running around to all the utility poles to check them for decay and other problems. He scribbles stuff down on some paper and punches the info into a little handheld device. I can only presume it's a GPS type device integrated with some form of GIS (or data that's derived from GIS) to let him know what pole he's looking at and match up all the poles to the DB. Sounds kinda boring and he sorta agreed but responded: Eh, it's a living. Well, someone's gotta do this important and necessary job. And so my breadth of knowledge grew ever so slightly by striking up a quickie conversation (from across the street in my car no less!) to satisfy my curiosity as to what the hell he was doing. I passed! Woo hoo!