This vexes me - #5.

See this? Resealable my...... I can use that word. Ladies don't use words like that. I was almost out of rice so I bought a medium-sized bag last Friday. I keep my rice on the counter in a glass container which can be made airtight. That way, it's easy to access. I find rice easy to cook and I can add so many things to it that it's a great side dish.

First problem. "Pull to Open" doesn't. I don't know how they sealed it, but even with perforations, I couldn't get the top to pull open. So, I took the scissors and cut by the perforations, exposing the part you're supposed to be able to reseal. HA!

Second problem. Opening up the bag along the "Pull to Open" exposes a seal that won't open. Seriously. Even Zip Locs seals open easier than whatever they put in the top of this bag. I remember the commercials for the initial announcement of the "zip loc" technology. People filled those bags with all sorts of stuff from liquid to dry, closed them and turned them upside down. "See? It doesn't leak." While you can still get cheap sandwich bags that have the "tuck in, fold over" technology, imagine if that's all that was available. That's what it used to be like. We take for granted that we can squeeze shut the tops of our plastic bags.

Third problem. I try and try to pull the two halves apart and one small spot gives. It's NOT where the squeeze shut apparatus is located. I've just made a hole in the bag itself. This has now defeated the purpose of a resealable top.

Fine. I get the scissors and cut open the top, pour as much as I need into the container and then, gasp, use an old-fashioned rubber band to secure the top of the bag. I have now implemented my own resealable top.

Not everything needs this kind of technology. I would submit that rice does not. In looking at the bags at the store, the size bigger and smaller than this did not have this resealing feature. If you're going smaller, it must be guessed that you will either secure it yourself or use it right away. If you're going large, you probably have a container into which it goes AND you'll be securing the bag yourself when you're done. It's just this size, roughly 8-10 pounds.

The bag is up on the shelf next to the couscous which is, ironically, in a zip loc bag.

Beverage: Water

Deb

Happy St. Patricks Day - A Lament

I've been a wee bit of a curmudgeon on Facebook today. I've seen a number of my young computer acquaintances post they are going out after work to "get smashed" for St. Patrick's Day because they took tomorrow off. They need a day specifically to get drunk? I must be missing something here.

I remember being cornered by a woman in the company for whom I was working at the time, who admonished me because I was not wearing any green on St. Patrick's Day. I am of Scottish, English, German and Czech extraction. There's no Irish. I have a connection to these other cultures but none, really, to Ireland. I believe, were I able to go back far enough, I would see there is Norse blood running through my veins as well, given that the Vikings made it a habit to attack the eastern side of Scotland. On that St. Patrick's Day in particular, I had been quite tired while getting dressed and had forgotten the date.

It's said that on St. Patrick's Day, everyone is Irish. What a lovely sentiment. But does that mean I have to succumb to overconsumption of beer? And where does tinting the beer green have anything to do with Irish culture?

I guess that's my biggest complaint about this pseudo-holiday. It's not about Irish culture. It's not about a celebration of corned beef and cabbage or Irish music. It's disintegrated into a socially acceptable day to become really, really drunk and be hung over the next day.

I knew a guy who tended bar on weekends when he wasn't working his day job. He hated St. Patrick's Day. The bar where he worked never had specials on March 17th. They discovered they didn't need to have anything "on sale" because the place would be packed regardless of a happy hour. He called the people who flooded the bar "amateurs". The regulars never showed up or came early and went home. People drinking in the bar on March 17th were not the people who would consider doing this for camaraderie. It was simply because getting drunk on St. Patty's Day was what one should be doing.

It does a disservice to the Irish to be so recognized and that's my lament.

Beverage: Huckleberry tea (I can't afford to stop at Caribou and get Irish Breakfast tea and I have none in the house.)

Deb

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Carole will tell you. I recycle. When the City of Wheaton announced that they were going to try recycling in certain neighborhoods, I called and wrote letters to the mayor and my representative asking that my neighborhood be chosen. The idea that I could not recycle my paper or certain plastics to reduce my refuse stream bothered me. There were times when I would recycle something accidentally, like the form to renew license plates which had to have been tucked inside something else. I used to have a stack of all sizes of boxes in the basement. We could ship or wrap just about anything because there was box the right size in the basement.

While I am still fanatical about recycling, indeed, I bring home the paper, plastic, bottles and cans from the office because we don't have recycling in our building, I don't save boxes anymore. We get enough stuff shipped to the office in varying sized boxes that I don't need to save 'elventy-twelve' different sizes. So, as I find them, I'm tossing them in the recycling container.

Except this one.

This is the box which contained the cocoa and peanut M&M's from Daniel in payment of the Orange Bowl bet. This box has been commandeered by the cats. Both of them use it. It is perfectly cat size and both of them love to lie down in it. That brightly colored item in the box is a 'mouse' missing its tail. Rascal loved to toss these things by their tail and that was always the first part to disintegrate. Mija and Pilchard love to chase it around the box.

When I come home or they are in a particularly playful mood, one of them runs and jumps into the box to sit and then lie down.

So, long after the M&M's and the hot cocoa are gone, I will have the box. As I said in an earlier post, it's a good box, a sturdy box. It's going to last for a very long time.

Beverage: Ginger Ale

Deb

It's alright. Mom's here.

We had the first thunderstorm of the year yesterday. There had been a rumble in the morning, a very brief boom that could have been construed as a train hurriedly stopping. Last night, however, a line of very heavy but fast moving storms rumbled through the area dropping lots of water and pea-sized hail.

And scaring my cats.

I am not kidding. It came through about 8:45. I thought I had seen flashes of lightning outside but I was engrossed in getting my WOW guild moving in one direction toward the event we were going to do so I didn't really pay that much attention. Suddenly, there was a flash, crack, boom and the sound of hail hitting the window sills. I know this will mean nothing to some of you, but we had entered the Construct wing of Naxxramas and were working on belchers and blobs. I'm pushing buttons and Pilchard comes running into the office, jumps up on the chair next to me and starts meowing. She's followed by Mija who stands next to me and meows. Pilchard actually tried to force her way into my lap.

It was very noisy, I have to admit. I got up and looked out the windows to see the hail and the sheets of rain. Very large drops where pounding the south side of the house which just upset the girls even more. I went back into the office, pulled Pilchard into my lap and started calming her down. Mija jumped up in the vacated chair so she could get some ear scratching. I told my guild mates I had to attend to the cats because of the storm.

It lasted about 10 minutes. Once it had passed, nerves were adequately soothed and Mija went back to sleeping on the bed while Pilchard curled up on the table in the office as she usually does when I game.

I felt rather important. My other cats either hid or didn't care when a heavy storm like that came through. They never came to me. The times I'd go to the basement because of the tornado sirens, I'd have to call and call and call them downstairs. I don't think that's going to be the case here. I think I'll be able to scoop them up and go to safety or they will follow me. I like that.

Beverage: Scottish Blend tea

Deb