Okay, so earlier I was thinking I'd post an entry about how I was assembling parts at work (we're trying to get a new line running and we had no operator) and how my hands were getting all roughed up and I was wondering if the operators would have to wear gloves to protect themselves. Then I was wondering if it was less a case of actually requiring personal protection, and more a case of having a flash of "oh! maybe this is just what happens when you do a fair bit of manual labour", and how sad it was that I'm only now having this revelation. :p

Then I started thinking that I should write about routines and schedules and how I haven't had an externally-imposed schedule since the year 2000 and for the last 4 years have done whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and how, not only do I have to be a certain place at certain times, but that I can't get anything else done because I haven't found the groove yet. I haven't figured out this grocery/food thing (like, how much to buy, and how long it'll last, all for one person) or found time to do the cooking thing (like, I'm cooking simple meals but I used to love to cook and now I'm just doing enough of a basic meal to stay full and I want to cook for real - tonight when I told my dad I had a sub for dinner he even said "A sub?! You're the one who cooks!"); I haven't figured out this talking to my sister thing (suddenly, given my working and sleeping hours, the 2 hour difference is HUGE and we've gone from talking anytime of anyday to never being able to catch up; I haven't been to the gym; I haven't even gotten close to sorting out the cleaning thing; I've barely gotten the newspaper and laundry thing down. Then I decided that's rather boring and I'm really too tired to go into it all (all that is the short version - that's really scary. :p)

I really wasn't expecting to be this tired. Of course, this week has had extra long days, but still.

Then I had thought of another topic (that I now forget) that might be almost mildy interesting, but when I logged in, I found a link to this blog! OMG! How perfect! I love the recipe tables! I love the eggplant taste test! I love the orange juice dilemma!!! This is great! This totally made my day! Just that someone would even think up a cooking for engineers blog! It reminds me of this article I read in an Industrial Engineering magazine about using IE concepts in the kitchen (like, two people cutting potatoes because there's no sense having a knife and a person idle). The one thing I always found hilarious was that, despite supposedly being an industrial engineer, one of the things I've always had problems with is making sure the whole dinner is ready at the same time - that sort of job scheduling is supposed to be part of my job - is that what they mean when they refer to the difference between book lurnin' and real life experience?

The next dish I want to make is either a pork roast, or balsamico roast chicken and potatoes (recipe cut out of the paper). And next weekend, when I'm finally home for a weekend, I'm going to get the apartment all organized for real, cook one of the above meals, and try to regain some sort of routine. And pull out my knitting. I have lots of knitting to do.

And I have to give a shoutout (really, I feel like I have to shoot myself for even using that phrase) to K for all the spelling help. Even if I ended up taking out the word "alot" but I don't think you actually answered me on that one anyway.