The Life of Mrs. Miles

SHABBY SCALLOP AND TEMPLATE

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Boy, when I get on a kick to create a certain type of element I just can't stop making things along the same theme. No, I have not forgotten about the zoo animals... I do have some plans to create more of 'em... but I needed to take a break from them for a bit. I've included a template along with this pink element so that you can cut out your own decorative borders from the papers of your choice!

Packing, cleaning, packing, cleaning. Thats what's new with me. So, because my life is not boring to me but is not particularly entertaining for you to read about, I will use some interesting filler for you to brighten up your day. I feel responsible for you all - you often leave me wonderful comments about my blog being a highlight in your day - so I shan't disappoint! :D

So recently I featured a picture of my dearest husband losing his breakfast onto his lap. That was in front of his computer. He should not eat there. He WON'T eat there any more. If he does, he knows more than his eggs will be scrambled. Well, funny but I was grazing the internet today and I found something which would have come in handy (well course he will disobey me and eat cookies over his keyboard!) Someone was certainly thinking when they created the following item - a keyboard which you can wash in the sink. Truly!

SPILLKEY KEYBOARD

Unotron washable keyboards and mice
(courtesy TechDigest)

Keyboards and mice get pretty disgusting. That is, we know they get disgusting, but because they don't look all that bad, we tend to let it slide to the point where they're literally laden with more bacteria than the lavatory seat. Unotron offers an alternative: SpillSeal keyboards and mice that can be washed in normal (or antibacterial) soap and water whenever you like. Available in wired or wireless models, starting at $30.

AHHH... SPRING HAS SPRUNG

(these are my faves - they used to grow on my Gramma's lawn!)

My friend Alison was 'sperimenting around with a new chocolate chip cookie recipe the other day and deemed it unfit for her to waste her time on again... I wonder if she has tried the following recipe I found for engineers to make them?

PRINCIPLE

Chocolate chip cookies are food created by reagents found naturally in the environment. Reagents are combined and then baked, i.e. treated with dry heat, especially in an oven for a prescribed period of time. This procedure is used to create crunchy disks (known as cookies) for human consumption.

MATERIALS

1. 532.35 cm 3 gluten (White Lily ä All Purpose, Knoxville, TN)
2. 4.9 cm 3 NaHCO3 (Arm & Hammer ä , Princeton, NJ)
3. 4.9 cm 3 refined halite (Mortons ä Table, Chicago, IL)
4. 236.6 cm 3 partially hydrogenated tallow triglyceride (Land o’ Lakes, Arden Hill, MN). Store 2-8 ° C
5. 177.45 cm 3 crystalline C12H22O11 (Dixie Crystal â Granulated Extra Fine, Savannah, GA). Can be stored indefinitely if properly handled. It is recommended that sugar be stored in an odor-free environment at 40 - 100°F and less than 60% relative humidity.
6. 177.45 cm 3 unrefined C12H22O11 (Dixie Light Brown â , Savannah, GA). Store in an odor-free environment at 50 - 90° F and more than 60% relative humidity. Can be stored for over one year if stored as recommended.
7. 4.9 cm 3 methyl ether of protocatechuic aldehyde (Penzey’s â , 35% alcohol. Product #92256, Brookfield, WI). Store at room temperature.
8. 2 calcium carbonate-encapsulated avian albumen-coated protein, Gallus sp. Store 2-8 ° C
9. 473.2 cm 3 theobroma cacao (Nestle’s Toll-House Semi-Sweet Morsels, Nestle’s SA)
10. 236.6 cm 3 de-encapsulated legume meats (sieve size #10), optional. See Limitations.

OVEN

Reactor Vessel, 2-L jacketed round, 100 Btu/F-ft2-hr
Reactor Vessel, 2-L with radial flow impeller
316SS sheet (300 x 600 mm)
screw extrude attached to a #4 nodulizer

PROCEDURE

1. To a 2-L jacketed round reactor vessel (reactor #1) with an overall heat transfer coefficient of about 100 Btu/F-ft2-hr, add reagents one, two and three with constant agitation.
2. In a second 2-L reactor vessel with a radial flow impeller operating at 100 rpm, add reagents four, five, six, and seven until the mixture is homogenous.
3. To reactor #2, add reagent eight, followed by three equal volumes of the homogenous mixture in reactor #1.
4. Additionally, add reagent nine and ten slowly, with constant agitation. Care must be taken at this point in the reaction to control any temperature rise that may be the result of an exothermic reaction.
5. Using a screw extrude attached to a #4 nodulizer, place the mixture piece-meal on a 316SS sheet (300 x 600 mm).
6. Heat in a 177 °C oven for a period of time that is in agreement with Frank & Johnston's first order rate expression (see JACOS, 21, 55), or until golden brown (10-12 minutes). Reduce time if cookies are too brown; extend time if cookies are not browned sufficiently to make a crunch when bitten
7. Once the reaction is complete, place the sheet on a 25 ° C heat-transfer table, allowing the product to come to equilibrium.

EXPECTED RESULTS

60 cookies of medium golden-brown color are generated.

QUALITY CONTROL

A technologist should visually examine each batch of cookies produced. If either consistency or degree of browning is insufficient, the mixture should be remixed and/or time of baking adjusted.

LIMITATIONS OF PROCEDURE

2. Care should be taken to mix reagent 9 evenly through the mixture to ensure “chips” are equally distributed in each cookie.
3. For high altitude baking (585 meters): Increase reagent 1 by 25%. Add 2 mL H2O with reagent 1 and reduce both reagents 4 and 5 to 33% each.
If cookies are not sized consistently when placing on sheet, yield may be affected.
Note: Some humans have serious allergic reactions to consumption of some reagents in this product, especially reagents 9 and 10.

REFERENCES

Crocker,Betty et al. 1979. Chocolate Chip Cookies. Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book. Golden Press, New York, p. 108.

This day in History:

• 1797 - Nathaniel Briggs of NH patents a washing machine
• 1941 - Novelist & critic Virginia Woolf dies
• 1943 - Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff dies
• 1969 - Eisenhower the 34th pres dies in Washington at 78
• 1979 - Nuclear accident at 3 Mile Is - Middletown - Pa

courtesy sxc

Psalm 139:13

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I was thinking about this scripture the other day, when my dear friend GINA and I were chatting. Gina has not knit before, and I've promised to teach her sometime in the future. I try to tag scripture in my mind with visual things, and in this case it caused me to want to learn more about what it means to 'knit' something together. Besides the usual way of joining fabrics together with knitting needles there is also a definition which describes 'knit' as to tie or link together or to gather something into small wrinkles or folds. So God took time to create us - He followed a pattern and did not just jumble us together. I wonder how long He thought about exactly we should physically be like - and how He made each of our 'parts' work together seamlessly!

courtesy sxc

BARB'S HANDY TIP #233
Learn to Knit - and some Free Patterns too!

I hope Gina, you wait for me to show you, but it never hurts to do some research ahead of time! The following two sites are terrific resources, and who can't love some free patterns?

LEARN TO KNIT

KNITTY - FREE PATTERNS