Four Wins

A Friday Hodgepodge

Whenever possible, I list three wins at the end of each day. Here are a few from a recent review of my planner.

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1. Until recently, I was unaware that one could cook barley like pasta, rather than like rice. This is so much easier that it blows my mind that anyone cooks it like rice, at least on the stovetop.

This is good news for my wife, because this makes a favorite family recipe of hers easier enough for me to make that she'll get to enjoy it more often.

(No. I haven't posted that one here, but I might. I finally got this to turn out perfectly and want to rewrite it first.)

2. Helping with a stage of my in-laws' move allowed me to vet a local moving crew, which will come in handy when we move our daughter upstairs into her permanent bedroom. They did good work, and I got a reasonable idea of what the leader will need when we're ready in about a month.

That's one less thing to deal with in the meantime.

3. The light controller for the Christmas tree we bought last year had no off setting, so we replaced it.

Thanks to a brief power outage, I learned that the new controller doesn't really have an off setting, either. As soon as the power came back on, the tree lit up, despite being "off" before.

There are worse ways to learn that something is not fail-safe.

It's back to something I already have and know works. I'm done wasting money on light controllers.

4. Dave Barry might admire how I got myself out of wrapping Christmas gifts this year: I paid my son to do it after I saw what a fine job he did on a gift for his sister.

We both win! he said after he finished and I forked over thirty bucks. I couldn't have put it better, myself.

-- CAV