Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Listen up, brain. I know DST kicked our ass this year, but that should be responsible for ONE hour of lost sleep, not FIVE. Two nights of two hours of broken sleep after a night of four hours sleep is unacceptable. Straighten up and sleep at night or I'll replace you with a sack full of kittens.

No love,
Thistle

I have to stop buying kitchen toys. None of them work out for me and it's just a waste of money.

Soda Stream: Used a few times, bought some flavors, then stopped using it. I should try using up more of the flavors, but nothing I make tastes right (and it's not like it's a complex recipe or something -- carbonate the water and squirt a measure of flavor liquid in). If someone were a fan of knock-off, store brand sodas, I suppose they'd love Soda Stream.

Panini Maker: Okay, the failing with you was totally my fault. I should have realized that the reason "professional" paninis taste so good is that they're dripping with oil, thus they get a really crunchy, fried exterior. Not wanting to make food dripping in oil, you are nothing more than an annoying-to-clean toaster. I take that back, sandwiches I make on toast come out better than sandwiches I make in you. Plus did I mention you're really annoying to clean?

Crock pot: Okay, I like you, this is a request and not a complaint. It makes me nervous leaving things running while I'm off at work. Please don't burn my apartment down. Also, if you'd make my pot roast yummy, I'd appreciate it. The ingredients were expensive ($15, though I have enough white wine vinegar to last me the rest of my life), so I'd like to get a few good meals out of it.

I changed my mind about reading another Michael Grant book next. The thing is, whatever I read after a great series I'll enjoy less, because it's not that great series. I didn't want to unfairly dislike a book that I might otherwise like, so I took something from the bottom of my To Read pile. The third oldest book there, Enclave. A banner on the Amazon page tells me I bought it on July 6, 2011.

I was surprised that I'm actually liking it. Often things sink to the bottom of the pile for a reason, though sometimes not. (The Chaos Walking series was near the bottom, and that turned out to be the best thing I read in 2013.)

I was kind of looking to read something lighter after the darkness that was Gone, but Enclave turns out to not be all light and roses. It's set after the end of the world(?? after another world war?) and people are trying to survive underground.

It's been quite a trial, but finally I have the Sodastream machine, flavors, and a working CO2 cartridge. (I'm not convinced that the sample one that came with the machine wasn't working, see below.)

I stopped by Best Buy on the way home. Exchanging the empty(?) mini-cartridge for a new full sized one was effortless (and about $17). Supposedly you'll get 60 uses out of it, but from my experience thus far and word on the net, one should expect to actually get 40-50 uses out of it.

As soon as I got home, before changing or anything else, I installed it and tried the machine. Nothing. I tried it again and again, but it was dead. Finally out of frustration I pounded the button, and it actually worked. Checking online, I'm not unique in that: You need to "press" the button to the point that it feels like the flimsy plastic housing will break. (Seriously, I had to push it down with all my strength. I wonder if I just didn't press hard enough last night? You need to press to the point that it feels like something will snap.)


(Machine, 1 liter bottle, in the front is the 6 pack of flavors it comes with, to the side is the 12 pack sample flavors I bought. Too much overlap between the two!)

As my first flavor, I tried Diet Cola. I knew it wouldn't taste exactly like Diet Coke, but I thought it might be close enough. (Though even Diet Pepsi makes me unhappy, so I perhaps should have guessed it wouldn't be.) The Diet Cola was bad to the point I couldn't drink it. Really harshly bitter. I drank about half a glass, I kept thinking it couldn't be that bad, then gave up and threw the whole bottle out.

I don't usually drink non-diet sodas, but half the samples were regular, so I tried orange soda next. (I LOVE brand name orange soda.) It's really just not very good at all. It's non-diet, but it doesn't taste sweet at all. I mean zero sweet, just chemical and bitter. (It tastes like really old diet soda, when all the sweetness is gone and you're left with just that chemical bitter taste.)

I wondered if maybe my flavor syrups had expired, but they're good until mid-2014.

Even the non-diet sodas have artificial sweeteners in it, so maybe that's the issue? But I drink lots of Diet Coke and foods with it, and I never experienced this bitterness.

There is a "natural" line of flavors with only real sugar and such in it, I might try those. I have a dozen or so sample flavors that I haven't tried yet, too.

I'm not going to give up on the machine, it'd be silly to after only two flavors, but I am worried. It's somewhat fun to use -- if the flavors were better I'd recommend it.

The replacement machine arrived today. Right on time!

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I now have an iPad, iPhone, and iPod. Does that make me an Apple person? Nah. When I bought my iPad, it was the first and only tablet. I did buy the iPhone because I figured it would be easiest since I have iTunes already set up. The iPod was the most recommended waterproof one on Amazon (plus I figured it would be easiest since I have iTunes already set up...). So I'm more a lazy person than an Apple person!

I cannot believe how small it is. I've never had an iPod before. I suppose I never saw one before. This thing is little bigger than a postage stamp! (Part of me still goes "How in the hell do 2 gigs fit on something so small?!" which is the silliest reaction ever, 2 gigs is tiny nowadays!) I kind of thought iPods were the size of a small TV remote.

I kind of didn't want to buy another toy, since I just got the Sodastream, but this is more of an investment for exercise. I get so bored swimming, I always want to cut my time short. If I'm entertained, it will be easier to stick with it the whole hour. At this point swimming isn't just a fad for me, I've been doing it almost for a year and I have no desire to quit (well, I mean, if I have to exercise, which I do), so I think this is a reasonable purchase.

I have an audio book to listen to (Knife of Never Letting Go, yay!). I'm going to look into podfics once I run out of books.

Grump. The sodastream machine was guaranteed to be delivered today. The package of 12 sample flavors made it, so I went online to track the status of the machine.

Delivered
Delivered on: Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Package was left in or near the front door

Today is Monday the 9th...

The delivery date was guaranteed to be today.
The shipper claims to have left it at my door tomorrow.
At least grumping at Amazon got me another $15 off it. $80 -$25 -$15 (plus free shipping). So basically I'm down to half price, assuming it ever arrives. (Oh wait, it was delivered tomorrow...)

Videos! This is an odd collection of them. Usually when I take them from other sources, I take one from here and one from there. All three of these come from one person/post! Full and total credit goes to adam_0oo for all three of these.

A very cute cat advertisement, it made me smile. "How to take care of your human", a guide for cats.


Want to be sad/tired with the world? This Pantene commercial shows how unfair life can be towards women:


booking.com should get into the horror movie business!