5. Avoid all my parents’ friends to prevent further shaming of my family.
4. Attempt to eat a 5 lb block of Limburger cheese and nothing else for an entire week.
3. Reconnect with my seniors mall walking group at Metrotown. Metro-Tee Grey Foxes in da house!
2. Gain hope that being unemployed will finally make me less attractive to women and thus prevent me from being hit on all the time.
1. Lindsay Lohan
A weakness of mine is that when I have nothing to do, I tend to buy things. So far I haven’t gone overboard on the shopping. I did buy a shirt at Banana Republic on the weekend but it was 40% off so you can’t fault me on that. Other than that, I haven’t bought any electronics, video games, movies, or any superfluous items since being laid off. Now you might be thinking that not having a job is a condition that makes it quite easy to not spend money. That is true, but keep in mind I’ll be receiving a severance package and I wasn’t exactly living paycheque to paycheque before either. I’m not saying I’m rich or anything but I’ll be ok for a while (without having to resort to eating instant noodles all day).
So what do I think is ok to splurge on? Well, one is video games. It’s been a life-long vice for me and it’s something I enjoy doing. With all this free time, it’d be almost a crime not to play. I won’t be buying five games a week or anything but it’s certainly the time to catch up on my list of games. Second, I won’t mind buying books. Books are good things. Whether it’s non-fiction or not, I think reading new books is a constructive way to spend my time off. There is a Stephen King novel that I bought almost a year ago that I still haven’t even opened yet.
I’m strong now but I wonder if a month from now I’ll be ordering stuff off the Internet on an hourly basis. Slap chop anyone?
As I mentioned in my last post, last evening I threw together the ingredients for a beef stew into my slow cooker. After attending to it for about the first two hours I then had to go to sleep. I was a bit apprehensive about what I would find when I woke up but I was optimistic. Before I went to bed, the whole thing seemed like it was going right. It smelled great and more importantly, it looked like it was becoming a real and tasty stew. I remember the pot roast I made and two hours in, it looked a goopy mess that was heading towards a slow boil.
Upon waking, I immediately went to check on the stew. Everything was still in good shape. I took a spoon to the stew and stirred it around. The carrots, celery, and onion were soft but not too mushy. I poked the potatoes a bit and discovered they were still a bit too crunchy for my own liking but they were definitely cooked. The beef itself was nearly perfect. It was soft and easily broke into pieces when I prodded it with a spoon. Best of all, my kitchen smelled like a home-made and old-fashioned stew. Because of the potatoes, I decided to leave the stew cooking for another hour or so. After that, it was ready to eat.
Though I’m happy with how things turned out, there are some improvements to be made. My slow cooker is definitely too small for my liking. I had to ease up on the amount of vegetables, especially the potatoes, I added to the slow cooker. This was because there wasn’t a lot of space left after I added the beef. I could have used less meat but I didn’t want to split recipe into two. I’d prefer a little more veggies in the mix but that’s just my preference. I also chopped up my onions a bit too finely as they were mostly lost into the stew itself.
I’m tempted to get a bigger slow cooker now that I’ve successfully cooked one recipe with it. A larger one would allow me to cook easier and a wider variety of items. Perhaps, it’s time to visit Wal-Mart.