6/8/08 Hot handles

(hmm, maybe I should start a trend of finding the most insignificant thought of the day and using it as a subject for each blog post!).

I discovered today why my pans with so-called "stay-cool" metal handles can make that claim: because if it doesn't take so long to cook something, the handle never has time to get hot. I'm absolutely amazed at the difference in scrambling eggs or sauteeing ground beef. I can't even use the highest heat, in fact, it scorches any butter or oil I've put in the pan. Tonight when it came time to boil water for spaghetti, once again I'd forgotten to get it started ahead of time -- no matter, a stockpot full of water was at a furious boil in a matter of minutes. Think how much energy we'll save by being able to boil water when it's needed, instead of preparing it some vague variable time well before then.

And, I was able to actually simmer spaghetti sauce tonight. Truly simmer it! Not cover it so it doesn't boil over even with a simmer ring, as was the case with my old cooktop. I could even turn the burner up to 3 (out of 10) or so and it would calmly bubble far less than my old cooktop did on its lowest setting.

I'm not sold on the flat continuous surface of the electric cooktop though. Cleanup is unmatched, but I find the pans slide around more than I'd like when I'm stirring the contents. And it makes some pretty furious sounds if I set a pan down that isn't completely dry. The smooth surface is misleading too; Julian almost set a toy down on it, not recognizing it as a cooktop.

I love not having to hike around my old island.

I spent a lot of time at the house today ("the" house has come to mean our house, our real house), holding something of an informal open house for friends to check it out when it's empty. Kids love running around an empty house, and when Betsy arrived with her crew, we had six of them shouting their heads off in an echo-y for a while, it was great. After Gabriel arrived with Dave that is, and before Dave took a suddenly-grumpy Katrina home with him for a nap.

I got a lot done tying up things in the house, including packing up my computer and printer (still not set up, hence lack of photos), but not enough to prevent yet another trip back tonight to mark items to keep in the demolition. I used the ubiquitous blue painter's tape, a terrific tool for instant identification, but with a potentially devastating consequence. No one will read anything once they see the blue tape, especially not the guys who work for the demolition subcontractor hired by your contractor. A piece of blue tape in one place means the same thing in every other place, no matter WHAT you write on it. You can't use blue tape to leave notes -- its mere presence conveys meaning, regardless of what's written on it. In the past, I've even made sure not to use any blue tape to force the guy working to actually read a note, because any blue tape anywhere instantly turns off the analytic process.

I took the boys back to the shoe store today to return Katrina's sandals and pick up Julian's. Store credit for her sandals, so I figured I'd look for something to exchange them for as long as I'm there. I ended up with a $55 pair of Eccos for her, cute girl's sandals in light blue. >> $55 !! << I don't think I spent that much on sandals for the first three years of the boys' lives combined! I just don't have the energy for another shoe-shopping trip.

The good news is that she likes them and wore them happily today without a fuss. She's obsessed with shoes these days, which is often cute, but results in her brothers' shoes getting scattered all over the house, and tantrums when a shoe's rightful owner (often me) would like it reunited with their foot. Then she gets all mad when she can't take off her own shoes to put on someone else's, then demands to have her shoes put back on....on and on. So a fuss-free shoe application is a huge relief.

To my surprise, Katrina showed a preference for clothes tonight too, in the form of choosing pajamas. I got an inexpensive set of two pairs of shortie PJs at Target, but I couldn't stand the "I want to be a princess" lettering on the girls' version, so I got her a surf-theme set. One top has cars all over it, and the other has one car in the front, and she completely insisted on the one with the cars all over it. I called it exactly right, I knew she'd like the cars. On the other hand, I wasn't expecting her to care that much at all about PJs at 20 months old, so in that sense I didn't call it at all.

Lots of new territory, it seems.

6/8/08