Dull Men's Club

3x25mm, TX10

I was out running last night and I came back after the kid had fallen asleep, so I needed to wait until this morning. It only takes an hour, so I can hang the clothes to dry before going to the office.

Softener dispenser isn't draining. Open the lid after a cycle to find it still full of fluid. I'll admit I have no clue whatsoever how it works; I also don't know how they manufactured it because it doesn't come apart. It's the kind that sits on top of the agitator (top-loading washer), I think it works by centrifugal force, that it's supposed to fling it out of the center chamber to an outer chamber during the spin cycle?

I tried cleaning it not long ago, it doesn't come apart, so I don't know if I just washed some Clinton-era crud into a small port I have no hope of cleaning. Oh well, remarkably for a washing machine of this age these parts are still available, so I think I'll just spend ten bucks on it.

None out of the pairs of socks was missing

The first side took 2 hours. The second side took 1 hour.

I peeled and diced 8 potatoes, 3 onions, a parsnip, 3 cloves of garlic and a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger.
Put all of it in a pot with 3 table spoons of sunflower oil, and let it braise till the veggies browned a bit.
Then I deglazed it with 200g of crème fraîche, 4 tea spoons of vegetable broth powder, and boiling water till it was all covered.

Added copious amounts of freshly-ground black pepper, nutmeg, turmeric, and something a Moroccan street trader sold to my sister-in-law as "lazy wives' spice" ("you won't need anything else to make your husband happy").

When the potatoes were boiled soft, I blended the soup to a creamy consistency and served it with a dash of Sriracha sauce.

They liked it.

Doing this at least once or twice a year is sure to maximize the life expectancy of your refrigeration appliances.

I don't want a new roof. I don't want a loan. I'd rather be doing something fun.

Already failed my first goal for taking today off, by forgetting to turn off my alarm clock.

So my grand plan for using one of my precious days off is (drum roll, please) ….. taking my kid to a routine appointment that for some reason had to be in the middle of the day

I feel that I may be getting too old for this kind of nonsense.

Wound up making 3 bags (36oz) of croutons. Should be enough for the soup.

It didn't set properly, but it's tasty and that's all that matters.

Fellow brits will understand.

When I wake up I'm really dehydrated, so a cup of electrolytes is surprisingly helpful

They also taste good

I'm going to read my book for a bit.

If I don't do it now, I'll have to do it in the evening.

I made it years ago when homebrewing was really popular. Had 3 taps at one point. Even had a 3-way regulator to set different pressures. Never use it anymore. Haven't brewed in ages.

Darn thing sat in my basement unplugged for over a year until this morning I decided enough was enough. Removed the wooden collar and lugged that thing up the stairs by myself. Had to do it when the missus was away so she couldn't warn me against hurting myself.

Loaded it into my hatchback and took it to the same place I take all the extra cardboard when that piles up (wife loves Amazon). Charge is $20 for recycling. I tipped an extra $5 ‐ those guys work hard.

I catch myself admiring the space where it was and patting myself on the back for a job well done.

Used one of those Affresh pods today. It's the second one I've used. Not entirely convinced it's achieving much but it was a nice day to have several gallons of hot water sloshing around in the house.

Last month I noticed just how crud filled the softener dispenser was, and there's no way to take it apart so I just had to sort of reach into the holes and do what I could, fill it with water and such and just shake it around trying to dislodge everything. Figured I should probably start cleaning the tub as well.

The old one was looking kinda sad. I'll keep it around for extra dirty cleaning jobs though.

Been trying to avoid plastic containers when I can. So I'm drinking canned water when I'm not near a tap and glass.

This past week we have acquired a new member to the fleet, a "grand" American miniature Van. Upon driving it home my wife commented that it didn't accelerate well onto the highway. I did test drive it and it felt ok, but I hadn't gone on the highway. Today was the first time I've had to merge at high speed and in fact it did take an incredibly long time to get up to speed. I pondered this for awhile on the drive and decided that maybe the aftermarket floor mats were interfering with the gas pedal. I switched them from driver to passenger and vice versa and voila, that sweet American v6 is free to stretch it's legs now.

Per my usual Saturday routine, I finished a stroll through the farmer's market and walked a couple blocks to a favorite coffee joint for the uzh, a plain cold brew. I might have added a little too much cream, but it's still good.

I suspect some of you are already aware of it but I wasn't.

My grandmother-in-law is taking one of my kids to get a new jacket. I'll have one less kid for an hour and a half.