Shriveled Carrot

Once upon a time, there was a carrot. Maybe it was a carrot that someone brought as a snack to keep them awake during class. Maybe it was part of someone's dinner. Maybe it was a renegade that broke free from the confines of its plastic entrapment. I don't really know. What I do know is that one lonely Wednesday night at the beginning of September, this carrot showed up in the stairwell at work:

Obviously, this picture was not taken that same day.

I did notice the carrot that first day it appeared, and I thought about picking it up. But then I thought, "I wonder if anyone else will notice or pick it up, or if the carrot will just sit there and shrivel away week after week." And so I left it.

The picture above was taken a week-and-a-half ago. Since then, the carrot has remained alone, shriveled, in its little corner of the stairs. It is puny and faded and difficult to see unless you know it is there. I don't think any animals are going to come and finish it off, either, so maybe it's time I threw it away.

It was fun while it lasted.

Does anyone else watch things decompose?

My New Old Bike

My parents recently sent me... a bike. Hooray!

To make a long story short, it used to be my sister's bike, but now I am claiming it. Maybe I should ask her if that's ok. Hm. Anyway, it came in a big old box which just fit in my car:

I brought the box into my house with the intention of either taking it somewhere to have someone put it together, or asking my bishop to help me put it together (as he had invited me to come to him for bike help).

After nearly a week of doing nothing, Olive told me I should at least open the box to make sure it wasn't damaged. I thought that was a good idea.

I don't know what I was expecting to find inside the box, maybe the entire gear system disassembled or something, but it really didn't look that bad:

"Hey," I thought. "I bet I could put this together!"

After all, I am somewhat mechanically inclined, and I like fixing things and putting things back together (I fixed a drinking fountain and a vending machine while in college, just because I could), and I play with Lego sets all the time. Of course I could put this bike back together.

Fifteen minutes later:

Why didn't I try that sooner?

Utah's Emergency Contact List

You can now register emergency contacts with the DMV:
https://secure.utah.gov/emergencycontacts/index.html

This is a great idea. Most people do not put ICE numbers in their phone, so it's not immediately clear which phone contact to call in an emergency. If the authorities are able to look up your ID and find emergency numbers already on file, however, it's much easier to know whom to contact.

The UT system lets each license holder input information for two emergency contacts. I put in my sister and my friend. The whole process took less than a minute.

Try it out!

[MissingSomething]

I made online reservations a few weeks ago for lunch at Gladstones Restaurant in Malibu. The day before I was to go, I received a reminder email, reproduced here word for word:

From: [restaurantname] Reservations

Subject: Your Upcoming Reservation at [restaurantname]

Dear [dinerfirstname],

Just a reminder, you've got a reservation coming up!

[restaurantname] will be ready for your party of [partysize] at [time] on [day], [date]. Confirmation Number: [confirmationnumber]

[offertext]

Dining Points = Free Meals, didn’t you know? Make sure you get your Points for all your future reservations! Create your free account now >

Change or cancel this reservation here.

From the restaurant:
[confirmationmsg] [restdatespecificmsg] [promomsg] [reststaticmsg] [villagevinesfineprint]

[ccsponsorurl]

[parkingurl]

[booklimourl]

[advertisement]

To get there:
[restaurantname]
[restaurantaddress]
Cross Street: [restaurantcrossstreet]
[restaurantphonenumber]


See menus, map & more >


Invite your party >

Thank you for using OpenTable.

Happy Dining!

The OpenTable Team
www.[sitedisplayname]

PS. Making reservations on the go is a snap with OpenTable Mobile.

** Questions about your reservation? You can always contact [restaurantname] at [restaurantphonenumber] with any questions.

Got a question for OpenTable? Visit Support.OpenTable.com to get answers!

[privatedining]

How To Get Stuff Done

Problem: I need to be able to practice the organ during the week so that our hymns will sound good on Sunday.

Solution: I asked for a key to the church building. It is "in the works."

Problem solved, right? Not quite. The plot thickens:

Problem: I need to get into the music library in our church building (which music library is really just a little closet with bins of music stacked on the shelves) in order to see what's in there and figure out what might work well for our choir. Unfortunately, the closet is kept locked all the time, and no one knows which specific key (besides the master key) is needed to open it.

Solution: I offered to catalog and index the music in the music library if I was allowed access to said library. The bishopric member I spoke with agreed, and said if my key which he ordered wasn't able to open the library, they'd order me a new one and make sure it's a master.

I'm not really sure how I'm going to go about indexing the music library--I guess I'll first have to see what's already been done--but I'm pretty excited about it. I hope I get my key soon, because it would be much easier to start on all that music before school resumes in September.

Button (Conclusion)

It went to my pants.

The pants are retired, and don't fit anymore.

But at least I know where that button came from.

The end.

Button

There is a lone button sitting on my kitchen table. I don't remember where it came from, or what it went to. I vaguely remember pulling the button off of something because its threads had gotten loose, so I know at some point it belonged somewhere, had some purpose in this universe, but right now it is sitting on my kitchen table, looking out of place and useless.

The end.

Churros

Is there anything more delightful than a hot crispy churro, coated in cinnamon and sugar, fresh from a Disneyland churro stand? I think not.

I have loved churros for as long as I can remember. In fact, when I was in junior high and happened to visit multiple amusement parks on a frequent basis (for whatever reason), I did a comparison of churros from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Six Flags Magic Mountain. I analyzed texture, flavor, and price. Disneyland won for the texture and flavor, but Knott's Berry Farm came a close second, and was also the cheapest of the three. Magic Mountain was right out.

"Churro" is the first word I ever discovered missing from an English dictionary, and at Disneyland I can smell a churro cart a mile away (or at least before I see it).

Elegyrl knows how much I love churros. One time, she purchased a churro from Disneyland just as she left, drove home, vacuum-sealed the churro, and mailed it to me. I wish I could say it tasted as magically delicious as it would have at the park, but it was pretty hilarious anyway.

Another time, Elegyrl sent me a box churro mix, which I brought with me on one of my visits to Tuffett manor. Queen Tuffett consented to allow me to make the churros in her kitchen, and together we whipped up the mix. The resulting dough was incredibly thick and stiff, but neither of us was sure whether it was supposed to be that way or not, so we left it alone, trusting to the directions.

The churro mix came with a plastic pastry bag and pastry tip so the dough could be squeezed out into its typical churro shape. I had pressed about 4 inches of a churro through the tip when the bag blew a hole. Queen Tuffett and I fixed up the bag and tried again, but it blew another hole. It was just no use--the dough was too thick.

Then I had a brilliant idea. I asked Queen Tuffett if her children had any Play-Doh presses, and she said they did. I chose carefully from the various shapes and settled on a star to start with:

Amazingly, it worked. The hard plastic held up against the force of the dough (though some still squeezed out the sides), and the churro-making commenced in earnest. Hurrah!

Here is a comparison of the original box-mix-pressed churro (on the right) and the Play-Doh-pressed churro (left):

My favorite part--the sugar-coating:

Finished products (I know, they look like French fries):

They didn't taste nearly as good as the churros at Disneyland, but they were still pretty scrumptious. I ate way too many of them, at any rate.

Ah, I need to go to Disneyland again. It has been far too long since my last churro encounter.