Friday Orts and Blurb

Hey! It's Friday! Which means that today's posts will be a collection with no theme except...nope, no theme.

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I work with the. best. people. in the world. Notice the pauses for emphasis I puncuated into that sentence? That means that there are no better people in the world. During the past two weeks, you may remember from all the whining I've done in this space, I have been essentially non-functioning for 75 percent of my working hours. One week of that was due to The Plague, the remaining half-week was due to The Computer Plague.

Not only did my staff keep the juggled plates in the air for me, they reassured me constantly that things would be fine (even though one of the two busiest weekends of the year was coming up at the end of that two week-stretch), and covered for me while I was being puny and ineffective. Then one of them brought me MomQueenBee flowers (also known as tulips).

They are the bomb.

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If you do not have sons, you may have missed the most important news of the week, which is found here. All of that socially unacceptable behavior is just a sign of healthy gut microbes. Hrmph.

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And speaking of sons, I'm pretty sure Boy#2 will think this is the coolest story ever to hit the internet. It has it all--exploding whales, science, and slow-motion intestines shooting across the video screen.

If you don't care about the science and just want to see the slow-motion intestines, here's the video:

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Source

 Finally, the Blurb of the Week:

Because I have managed to co-parent four Boys through their teenage years without starving them to death, I'm often sometimes occasionally practically never asked for recommendations on the most important piece of kitchen equipment. But since I have Opinions, I'm going to recommend what I would buy with my household-establishing gift card, were I getting married or graduating or in the position of receiving household-establishing gift cards:

Pyrex measuring cups. 

I have them in all available sizes, from the shot-glass-sized to the big two-quart pitcher sized, with multiples of the one-cup and two-cup sizes. They are microwave safe, have enough heft that they don't skid off the counter, and are unetched by acid-y foods such as lemon juice and vinegar.

And what do I use them for? Melting butter, whipping up pancake batter (measure it right in the bowl), making "buttermilk" for my famous sheetcake, beating eggs, emulsifying salad dressing, whatever needs to be done can be done in a Pyrex measuring cup.

They make a rather spectacular crash if dropped, so I try to not do that, but thumbs up for Pyrex measuring cups. They are oldies but goodies.