I agree that was the weakest episode of S1. But Beer Bad? Gave us "fire bad, tree pretty" which is a gift that keeps giving

I weighed myself later than usual today, at noon instead of first thing in the a.m. Even with the fact that I did absolutely no exercising in the two weeks I was at Mom's, and I had lots of food that I shouldn't have (a Dove ice cream bar, several Girl Scout cookies, several handfuls of both pretzels and raisins, and other assorted stuff), I still managed to lose over 5.5 pounds! But, I did need the extender belt on the flight back, so the lack of exercise made me flabbier. I'm glad I was in the pool today.

While unpacking my stuff, I finally went through the batch of personal stuff my mom gave me that she'd been saving over the years. She had my christening and first communion outfits, my dress from my first Christmas, all of my Congrats-on-your-new-baby! cards, hair from my first haircut. Also, my first 4H project (a skirt for the sewing category), and programs from several band concerts, high school plays I was in, my organ recital from 4th grade, and some honors nights, as well as my grade report cards from 7th grade. Stuff that I had no idea she'd been keeping!

The National Institute of Standards and Technologies needs help with some mysteries.

I have a mystery. When is my addiction to Nutella going to subside? Also, I realised that I hadn't had any Izze for weeks because I was getting my homemade fizz on, but there's clementine Izze right downstairs from work, and all of a sudden I'm drinking it like a fiend at the office. Like, I swear it makes me thirstier as I drink. It's not sane.

When is my addiction to Nutella going to subside?

When you try speculoos?

I still need to get me some of that.

Maybe this weekend, when I am in Seattle.

But Beer Bad? Gave us "fire bad, tree pretty" which is a gift that keeps giving

That was Graduation Day 2, and the "fire bad" part was originally Frankenstein.

Like, I swear it makes me thirstier as I drink. It's not sane.

It's Slurm.

ION, we have Dinner Win! JZ is vegan on Fridays during Lent so I wanted to make something nice for her. I was inspired by our food truck adventure so I made her crispy tofu and served it over a spinach salad. Salad had some cucumbers and pistachios in it, with a balsamic vinegarette. I cooked the tofu until it was crispy and golden on both sides, with some mushrooms and green onions. After I took it out of the pan I heated up a sauce of soy, honey, garlic and rice vinegar and drizzled it on top of the crispy tofu then served that on top of the salad.

Man, crispy tofu is good. It's a very satisfying texture, lightly crunchy on the outside and creamy in the middle.

oh, i asssociate it with Beer Bad when that was actually a recall joke. d/oh

Unrelated to Buffy episodes or atheists and gender stereotypes, I took my car in for brake work today. Turns out that the rear brakes are at 4 mm -- which is 80% for drum brakes. When I asked the guy at the dealership about it, he said that they actually had a meeting where they were instructed to tell customers the percentage left, not the mm amount, because the amount is confusing for most people.

It was the front brakes, which hadn't been replaced in many a year. Fortunately the dealership was running a special on front brakes. But I also had the oil changed and a fuel intake thing done, so I still gave Toyota a large chunk of money. But at least the car will continue to stop when I ask it to. And for an 11-year-old car, it runs fantastic.

However, apparently my exhaust system is fucked, and Toyota Echos are notorious for needing the entire damn thing, from catalytic converter to the muffler, being replaced. The estimate made me actually gasp. I think I scared the dude. I find it hard to believe an exhaust system can't be fixed in parts, unless the whole thing is falling apart (which it is not). So before I raid the emergency fund for a ginormous repair, I'm taking it to another shop for a second opinion.

(I know nothing of exhaust systems -- seriously, and I shouldn't admit this publically, until today I thought the catalytic converter was in the engine. So it's very possible I need the whole thing replaced. But I'm hoping like hell that's not true.)

I knew catalytic converters weren't in the engine because people crawl under cars and steal them for the platinum. They stole ours from our 12-year-old Toyota 4Runner WHEN IT WAS PARKED RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOUSE. The DH did a blog entry on his SUVs blog about it, and he got hundreds of responses. It turns out that these converter thefts are happening all over the country--apparently, the thieves somehow all know about this, although the car owners and the general public don't.