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Sep. 24th, 2007 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonJust checking in--as you may have noticed, I haven't been around much in a while. Things have been interesting lately (in a Chinese proverb sort of way, while being too basically dull for explication), and I haven't been spending much time at the keyboard.
The Punkin girl is recovering nicely, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vatine has mentioned. She had the jaw frame and feeding tube removed a couple of weeks ago, isn't having to stay in the cage at all now, and is eating chunky wet food with no problem. (We were continuing to give her blended food, but she started just taking Mirrors' food out from under him, so she's gotten her own chunky stuff for a few days now.) She even ate a few kibbles of the dry food yesterday. As vatine's recently-posted video shows, her mouth seems comfortable enough that she doesn't mind chomping on toys (or the twolegs!). Both of her top fangs are broken, I only saw after the frame was off and she started showing them, but she doesn't seem to be having pain from either of them. We've still been keeping Punkin in, but she managed to sneak out onto the patio while I was hanging out clothes earlier. The girl just sniffed around a bit, growled at Charlie, and sauntered back out of the wind to sunbathe right inside the sliding door. Have I mentioned that our babiest girl is a tad spoiled?
Today I'm taking a break from the job hunt, in favor of catching up on some of the work around the house. Not surprisingly, after £3000+ in vets' bills, we've got some credit card balance to pay off. I'm still pretty nervous about getting back to paid work (to the point that I've picked up that persistent eye twitch again--maybe it won't hang around for weeks this time!), but am determined to give it a good try. Approximately 75% of a Virginia Tech German/Chemistry BS and £3 might get you a double latte around here, so I've been proceeding pretty much as I did when I was a student. I don't have any qualifications as such, because nothing equivalent is offered at home (so the "or equivalent" doesn't fly, either--this applies to a number of educational things). Americans may not be right at the top of the list of foreign undesirables who can be excluded from jobs this way, but we are still caught up by this tactic.
Pink collar jobs are out these days, because I just can't handle the uniform, between the sensory issues and the creaky knees. It also irks me the way keeping up the uniform sucks so much time and money, when one is not earning much anyway. I am also not so great at dealing with the office politics and assorted social stuff; in past, I've kept the job but just been the weird girl who keeps to herself and embarrasses everyone else by spending most of the day doing actual work. At least coworkers quickly tend to give up on asking you out drinking. *g* I suspect that none of this would be helped by the fact that I come across as fairly butch here--and these things seem to matter much more--with the generally more rigid gender expectations. Nope, butch American autistics and Essex Pink Collar Hell probably don't fit together so well.
Taking all this into account, I have been thinking that I'm better off concentrating on applying for shop and bar staff positions. I think I can stand that sort of job, and have a better chance of getting hired in the first place. I've put in some applications already, and am planning to distribute some more CVs tomorrow. With any luck, the blanket approach will work. I am also trying to figure out some more decent ways to work around my apparently increasing (probably from stress and some depression) executive function and task-switching problems, so that I can actually consistently show up on time and keep whatever job I wind up snagging. I am just as likely to get caught up in what I'm doing and not leave work on time, but employers are less likely even to notice that!
The advent of Fall has apparently given me uncontrollable urges to preserve food. Last night and this morning, I have made a batch of plum jam, a smallish jar of dill pickled green tomatoes (proper brine pickling), and some kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) I'd been meaning to put together most of last week. I hadn't put the timing together until I double-checked the calendar last night when I was starting to label the jam, and it still strikes me as amusing. Somehow I doubt it's entirely coincidental.
This was my first experiment with plum jam, having been unable to resist a huge bowl of very good quality (bunch of unwilted leaves mixed in) damsons at the market Friday--£1 for at least 2 kg/5 lb. Judging from the skimmed-off foam, it turned out tasty, and gave no trouble setting. I felt a little silly stirring a big vat of fruit after midnight, but it suited my schedule. I almost ran out of suitable jars, so I guess we'll just have to eat up more of the older pickles and preserves! That trip to the market, I also picked up a cauliflower bigger than my head, half of which will probably also turn into brine pickles tonight, with plenty of chili. There were a few sad-looking daikon left, so I passed them up and found some lovely fresh ones at Lidl (thus the further batch of kimchi). This was a slightly experimental batch, with a little sweet smoked paprika thrown in--we'll see in a few days how that worked out. If it's as tasty as anticipated, one of the jars can go to Roger with some jam, since he has been so kind with cat transportation and Freecycle bike procurement.
I need to head across the street and pick up some butter to throw together cornbread for tonight's special, acorn squash with a sagey hot sausage stuffing. (That was on the slate for the weekend, but I was too tired to cook much.) The squash also came from the last market run, 3/£1 for fresh local, thankfully unwaxed, ones. There are actually two acorn squash and a third one I'm assuming is one of the strange natural hybrids, which seemed worth a try. I do wish we could just run across the road and grab Valleydale or Gunnoes--or even Jimmy Dean--bulk sausage, but to get the right seasoning and no gluteny fillers, I've been mixing it up from ground pork when I must have it. We've also got some pinto beans on the side tonight. Yep, it's Hillbilly Night at Chez Chaos again! Ingvar may barely be able to suppress much groaning and wailing at such a concentration of strange foodstuffs, but I just get these cravings. I may even add some sweet corn on the side.
The Punkin girl is recovering nicely, as
vatine has mentioned. She had the jaw frame and feeding tube removed a couple of weeks ago, isn't having to stay in the cage at all now, and is eating chunky wet food with no problem. (We were continuing to give her blended food, but she started just taking Mirrors' food out from under him, so she's gotten her own chunky stuff for a few days now.) She even ate a few kibbles of the dry food yesterday. As vatine's recently-posted video shows, her mouth seems comfortable enough that she doesn't mind chomping on toys (or the twolegs!). Both of her top fangs are broken, I only saw after the frame was off and she started showing them, but she doesn't seem to be having pain from either of them. We've still been keeping Punkin in, but she managed to sneak out onto the patio while I was hanging out clothes earlier. The girl just sniffed around a bit, growled at Charlie, and sauntered back out of the wind to sunbathe right inside the sliding door. Have I mentioned that our babiest girl is a tad spoiled?Today I'm taking a break from the job hunt, in favor of catching up on some of the work around the house. Not surprisingly, after £3000+ in vets' bills, we've got some credit card balance to pay off. I'm still pretty nervous about getting back to paid work (to the point that I've picked up that persistent eye twitch again--maybe it won't hang around for weeks this time!), but am determined to give it a good try. Approximately 75% of a Virginia Tech German/Chemistry BS and £3 might get you a double latte around here, so I've been proceeding pretty much as I did when I was a student. I don't have any qualifications as such, because nothing equivalent is offered at home (so the "or equivalent" doesn't fly, either--this applies to a number of educational things). Americans may not be right at the top of the list of foreign undesirables who can be excluded from jobs this way, but we are still caught up by this tactic.
Pink collar jobs are out these days, because I just can't handle the uniform, between the sensory issues and the creaky knees. It also irks me the way keeping up the uniform sucks so much time and money, when one is not earning much anyway. I am also not so great at dealing with the office politics and assorted social stuff; in past, I've kept the job but just been the weird girl who keeps to herself and embarrasses everyone else by spending most of the day doing actual work. At least coworkers quickly tend to give up on asking you out drinking. *g* I suspect that none of this would be helped by the fact that I come across as fairly butch here--and these things seem to matter much more--with the generally more rigid gender expectations. Nope, butch American autistics and Essex Pink Collar Hell probably don't fit together so well.
Taking all this into account, I have been thinking that I'm better off concentrating on applying for shop and bar staff positions. I think I can stand that sort of job, and have a better chance of getting hired in the first place. I've put in some applications already, and am planning to distribute some more CVs tomorrow. With any luck, the blanket approach will work. I am also trying to figure out some more decent ways to work around my apparently increasing (probably from stress and some depression) executive function and task-switching problems, so that I can actually consistently show up on time and keep whatever job I wind up snagging. I am just as likely to get caught up in what I'm doing and not leave work on time, but employers are less likely even to notice that!
The advent of Fall has apparently given me uncontrollable urges to preserve food. Last night and this morning, I have made a batch of plum jam, a smallish jar of dill pickled green tomatoes (proper brine pickling), and some kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) I'd been meaning to put together most of last week. I hadn't put the timing together until I double-checked the calendar last night when I was starting to label the jam, and it still strikes me as amusing. Somehow I doubt it's entirely coincidental.
This was my first experiment with plum jam, having been unable to resist a huge bowl of very good quality (bunch of unwilted leaves mixed in) damsons at the market Friday--£1 for at least 2 kg/5 lb. Judging from the skimmed-off foam, it turned out tasty, and gave no trouble setting. I felt a little silly stirring a big vat of fruit after midnight, but it suited my schedule. I almost ran out of suitable jars, so I guess we'll just have to eat up more of the older pickles and preserves! That trip to the market, I also picked up a cauliflower bigger than my head, half of which will probably also turn into brine pickles tonight, with plenty of chili. There were a few sad-looking daikon left, so I passed them up and found some lovely fresh ones at Lidl (thus the further batch of kimchi). This was a slightly experimental batch, with a little sweet smoked paprika thrown in--we'll see in a few days how that worked out. If it's as tasty as anticipated, one of the jars can go to Roger with some jam, since he has been so kind with cat transportation and Freecycle bike procurement.
I need to head across the street and pick up some butter to throw together cornbread for tonight's special, acorn squash with a sagey hot sausage stuffing. (That was on the slate for the weekend, but I was too tired to cook much.) The squash also came from the last market run, 3/£1 for fresh local, thankfully unwaxed, ones. There are actually two acorn squash and a third one I'm assuming is one of the strange natural hybrids, which seemed worth a try. I do wish we could just run across the road and grab Valleydale or Gunnoes--or even Jimmy Dean--bulk sausage, but to get the right seasoning and no gluteny fillers, I've been mixing it up from ground pork when I must have it. We've also got some pinto beans on the side tonight. Yep, it's Hillbilly Night at Chez Chaos again! Ingvar may barely be able to suppress much groaning and wailing at such a concentration of strange foodstuffs, but I just get these cravings. I may even add some sweet corn on the side.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 08:11 pm (UTC)CCA
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Date: 2007-09-25 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-26 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-26 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-26 02:38 am (UTC)Yay cooking and preserves. Putting up fruit after midnight is witchily fun, I'd think. Associatively, at least. (I can't cook well; I bet I can't preserve well either.)