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Jul. 28th, 2003 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
awhyzipI got the plates from my new insurance company and stuck 'em onto my car this morning. The front licence plate was attached with metal bolts that did not have a slot for a screw driver. Very difficult to get off since I did not have the right tool! The insurance people lent me an adjustable C-wrench, and it just barely did the trick. (Actually, when tightening on the new one with the wrench, it scraped off some of the licence-plate paint. It's just red -- I can find nail polish to go over it I bet.)
When I got to work this morning it was actually afternoon -- about 1pm. That's because I went to the insurance in Arlington plus spent such a long time trying to shift the bolts on my licence plates. Also I took time in the morning to cook because I realized I had no food only ingredients in my house and that was just not OK any longer. I'd been like that for about a week and by Sunday I really consumed the last of the immediately-edible. And this should have been alright except that I forgot I had been supposed to be a subject again for Emily in her words-and-numbers experiment.
(I can't know exactly what they are focusing on until after I am done, but it involves remembering words and doing 3-integer addition problems.) I hate it because I dislike dealing with numbers in my head. Even worse, the math problems are pretty easy, so I feel uncomfortable to take as much time as it does for me to feel confident of my answer. I don't mean to forget to go as a passive-aggressive response to how much I dislike the task, but I am sure that is part of it! I forgot last Monday too, and Emily was not happy with me.
I complained to Colin (who was helping Emily run subjects) that maybe once a distractor-task could consist of something other than a math task, and he told me the old people complain about that significantly, too. I would suggest as a good distractor one of those re-arrangement puzzles, where you have to slide all the pieces back into the correct order. Colin said they are considering making subjects do word-searches instead. I was trying to think of a task that demanded attention, but not linguistic processing.
A main problem with scheduling me for this experiment (beyond the fact that I don't like doing it), is that the testing room is booked by someone else in the afternoons. So she has to schedule me for morning times, and that is exactly what I would try to avoid. You know, once I am there, I will stay anywhere as long as anyone wants me. I'll do whatever, once I am there. But remembering to get so somewhere on time, or planning enough lead-time is NOT my strong-point. I'm getting better, and I am trying to get better, but really I am not yet good. And to think of something when I am not in the same environment is hard -- my memories are triggered so much by the place. In fact, that's how I remembered I missed this appointment: I arrived to the annex, put down my bag, and walked to the main lab to get some water. Then I froze before the door -- shit!
I chickened out, and didn't go in.
So that's what's up right now. I'll be moving really soon. I'm starting to think about how I will implement that. Last I knew, we still hadn't been granted the front door key, but I am sure that'll come soon. This Friday is the first of our lease-term. I'm calming down about the door a bit. (The landlord removed a door during renovations that I think was a really dumb move, as well as being inconvenient for us.) I've now convinced myself that if I saw it, I would see that it is really OK. I can't see it, because he hasn't given us the key yet (and Jill & I forgot to give me the basement key she'd copied for me), but I am amazingly able to pretend like that anyways.
We've signed up for phone (& internet & cable) services. There's a telephone number for the house now -- although I don't have it memorized yet. Good stuff.
And to finish this post, I will record what I made this morning from my food in Alex's place:
Yellow Zephyr Squash, peeled and lightly steamed, cooked with chopped Bok Choi and Garlic Scapes in a pan until they were half-stirfried and half-roasted. The squashes turned a little dark on the sides where I let them roast a bit before adding Portobello Sauce and approximating stir-frying. It's not a wok, but it sure is a good pan. (The Portobello Sauce isn't made from portobellos; it's orange and thick and come in a packet in some brands of the mushrooms. it's pretty good, although I never like it on the mushrooms themselves -- seems like a waste, the sauce is too strong!) So the vegetables were stirfryed with orange Portobello Sauce, and I added a packet of Ramen Noodles, sans their flavoring plus the Sauce. Separately I cubed the Firm Tofu I had and mixed it with clear Rice Vinegar and Lemongrass Marinade. Those I sauteed in the pan separately until the tofu crisped up, which it did really nicely with that Marinade. I mixed all this together and it made a lot of food and tasted good. I'm glad to have finally found a recipe in which that Lemongrass thing tastes good, usually I surprise myself by not liking it.
Yum Yum Yum, and I have some plain steamed squash set aside, too.
Garlic Scapes are big green stalks that are the top of garlic plants. I bought two at the farmer's market Saturday, but I wouldn't do it again. They so smell really nice as you cook them, but the pieces stayed really stiff -- stick-like even -- thru steaming and sauteeing and both.
My favorite part of the dish was how the tofu and the noodles had different flavorings, and all in all I think it was better than 14 word-lists.
When I got to work this morning it was actually afternoon -- about 1pm. That's because I went to the insurance in Arlington plus spent such a long time trying to shift the bolts on my licence plates. Also I took time in the morning to cook because I realized I had no food only ingredients in my house and that was just not OK any longer. I'd been like that for about a week and by Sunday I really consumed the last of the immediately-edible. And this should have been alright except that I forgot I had been supposed to be a subject again for Emily in her words-and-numbers experiment.
(I can't know exactly what they are focusing on until after I am done, but it involves remembering words and doing 3-integer addition problems.) I hate it because I dislike dealing with numbers in my head. Even worse, the math problems are pretty easy, so I feel uncomfortable to take as much time as it does for me to feel confident of my answer. I don't mean to forget to go as a passive-aggressive response to how much I dislike the task, but I am sure that is part of it! I forgot last Monday too, and Emily was not happy with me.
I complained to Colin (who was helping Emily run subjects) that maybe once a distractor-task could consist of something other than a math task, and he told me the old people complain about that significantly, too. I would suggest as a good distractor one of those re-arrangement puzzles, where you have to slide all the pieces back into the correct order. Colin said they are considering making subjects do word-searches instead. I was trying to think of a task that demanded attention, but not linguistic processing.
A main problem with scheduling me for this experiment (beyond the fact that I don't like doing it), is that the testing room is booked by someone else in the afternoons. So she has to schedule me for morning times, and that is exactly what I would try to avoid. You know, once I am there, I will stay anywhere as long as anyone wants me. I'll do whatever, once I am there. But remembering to get so somewhere on time, or planning enough lead-time is NOT my strong-point. I'm getting better, and I am trying to get better, but really I am not yet good. And to think of something when I am not in the same environment is hard -- my memories are triggered so much by the place. In fact, that's how I remembered I missed this appointment: I arrived to the annex, put down my bag, and walked to the main lab to get some water. Then I froze before the door -- shit!
I chickened out, and didn't go in.
So that's what's up right now. I'll be moving really soon. I'm starting to think about how I will implement that. Last I knew, we still hadn't been granted the front door key, but I am sure that'll come soon. This Friday is the first of our lease-term. I'm calming down about the door a bit. (The landlord removed a door during renovations that I think was a really dumb move, as well as being inconvenient for us.) I've now convinced myself that if I saw it, I would see that it is really OK. I can't see it, because he hasn't given us the key yet (and Jill & I forgot to give me the basement key she'd copied for me), but I am amazingly able to pretend like that anyways.
We've signed up for phone (& internet & cable) services. There's a telephone number for the house now -- although I don't have it memorized yet. Good stuff.
And to finish this post, I will record what I made this morning from my food in Alex's place:
Yellow Zephyr Squash, peeled and lightly steamed, cooked with chopped Bok Choi and Garlic Scapes in a pan until they were half-stirfried and half-roasted. The squashes turned a little dark on the sides where I let them roast a bit before adding Portobello Sauce and approximating stir-frying. It's not a wok, but it sure is a good pan. (The Portobello Sauce isn't made from portobellos; it's orange and thick and come in a packet in some brands of the mushrooms. it's pretty good, although I never like it on the mushrooms themselves -- seems like a waste, the sauce is too strong!) So the vegetables were stirfryed with orange Portobello Sauce, and I added a packet of Ramen Noodles, sans their flavoring plus the Sauce. Separately I cubed the Firm Tofu I had and mixed it with clear Rice Vinegar and Lemongrass Marinade. Those I sauteed in the pan separately until the tofu crisped up, which it did really nicely with that Marinade. I mixed all this together and it made a lot of food and tasted good. I'm glad to have finally found a recipe in which that Lemongrass thing tastes good, usually I surprise myself by not liking it.
Yum Yum Yum, and I have some plain steamed squash set aside, too.
Garlic Scapes are big green stalks that are the top of garlic plants. I bought two at the farmer's market Saturday, but I wouldn't do it again. They so smell really nice as you cook them, but the pieces stayed really stiff -- stick-like even -- thru steaming and sauteeing and both.
My favorite part of the dish was how the tofu and the noodles had different flavorings, and all in all I think it was better than 14 word-lists.
