Don't put metal in the science oven!

Finally getting around to posting the photos of Macau. The lobby of the MGM Grand was just fantastic. It had this whole “Finding Nemo” theme that was utterly calming. I just don’t have that kind of creative vision.

The ruins were really interesting, too. The church had, at some point, burned down, and only the façade remained. Next door to the church was an old fort.

I really liked it and, like I said, I had thought Macau would be a one-and-done trip but I definitely could see going back.

So far, I’ve left “the country” three times since I’ve been here. Hong Kong, since it’s an autonomous region, counts. I left for Macau from Hong Kong so I am only counting that weekend once, but in a couple of weeks I leave town for Bangladesh for a couple of days. In April, I’ve decided to go to the Philippines. I have delusions of learning how to dive, but we’ll see how that pans out. I did buy the plane ticket, though, so I’m at least headed to the beach.

But after that, except for three-day weekends, I will have to cool it. My department has a “no leave” policy from May to September or something like that.

But there are ample three-day weekends. There’s one in April, May, June and July. August doesn’t have one, but September has two. May also has a random day off on a Thursday. We are allowed to take that Friday for a super long weekend off but I’m not going to.

I’ll have to look at nearby China for the three-days. As in, not as far as Beijing. That’s $600 by air or 20 hours by train – neither of those is happening any time soon.

But, as demonstrated last weekend, there is a lot of stuff around here. Next weekend, we have another field trip, this time to a strawberry picking place and some hot springs. It’s three hours north, so I’m going in different directions. But I’m tucked here in the corner of the country, so it’s an effort to get out and see the rest of it. Like the wall. I am not leaving China without seeing the wall.

Meanwhile, I’ve been amusing myself unpacking my boat shipment. It was really quite disappointing to receive. First, I got a box or two that’s clearly marked “long-term,” which was the stuff that was supposed to be socked away until retirement.

Second, I thought I had a lot of pots and pans, at least judging by the labels on the boxes. I didn’t remember having so many, so when I undid the first box and found a whole bunch of bathroom stuff, I was only quasi-surprised.

My packers did a TERRIBLE job labeling boxes. One very, very large box marked “shoes” had several layers of other stuff before unearthing a couple pairs of Chacos at the dead bottom. Another “pots and pans” had a pillow and snow boots.

So live and learn. I was overall pleased with it, especially when the guy had showed me the list of what he said he had downstairs and that list included all the “retirement” boxes, as well as furniture. I had about 15 minutes of freak out until I looked at the weight of the shipment (694 pounds) and realized no way could Mimi’s furniture have been included.

But very little of the stuff is useable here. I had hoped my pots and pans (there really were some) would be operable on my induction oven, but no dice. Actually, out of all those kitchen boxes, I pulled out measuring spoons and cups and my ulu, plus the tagine, rice cooker and crock pot. I haven’t tried to see if the tagine will work – it’s metal. It might not.

I did completely forget I threw in some cans of root beer, which was a nice surprise. I’ve cut back on carbonated beverages, though, and had mine for the weekend on Friday night at the Marine party, so I can’t drink one until Monday.

 

I have been eating a ton of WintOgreen lifesavers, though. I’m actually feeling kind of sick from those.

Speaking of, my supervisor had food poisoning this week. I felt so bad for him. He lost 13 pounds in ONE DAY. That is so very bad. Eighteen in two, although he said he’d gained back .8 pounds on Friday.

Anyway, today is Saturday and I’m supposed to be gathering information for my own “ABC report” (See post Dec. 22.) I haven’t been. I got up with good intentions, hitting the gym by 6:30 so I was done around 8:30. I took a shower, ate breakfast and was back in bed by 9.

My big project today has thus far been going through my DVDs. I don’t have shelf space, though, so all I did was pull out the TV series ones and put them on the one shelf I have and then watch “In & Out,” “As Good As It Gets” and started on the “Star Wars” trilogy. So not really productive.

I have missed having movies available at my beck and call. I really do like movies but, unlike Daddy, have to be doing something else while they’re on. I can’t just sit and veg.

The next trip I make to Hong Kong, I will almost certainly see another movie. I’m 2-for-2 now and absolutely would make a trip over there to just spend a day at the theater.

“American Hustle” was pretty awesome, I must say, but there are a lot of others I’d like to see. I still haven’t seen “Gravity.”

I had my own “science oven” near-catastrophe this week, too. When I cooked on Sunday, I guess I wasn’t as liberal as I thought with the rice and had a couple of small meals this week. To supplement one of them, I heated up kind of a Ramen noodle cup thing.

Well, the lid, for whatever odd reason, had foil on it and even thought I know not to put metal in the science oven, there must have been a little bit that I didn’t peel off.

I put the little cup in there for two minutes and when it was done, I thought it smelled a little burnt. When I opened the microwave door, I figured out why. The lip of the cup on one side had turned to ash.

Don’t put metal in the science oven.