trains of thought, passing in the night

Stuff, in no particular order:

1. Things are looking good on the money front. My raise came through as of my most recent paycheck, and while still not very big, is a bit more than I was expecting. So that's nice! I am also continuing to work overtime, probably through mid-July. And I got my semiannual dividend check from Vanguard on Thursday, so there's another smidgen of financial security.

2. I have regretfully dropped out of this year's WIP Big Bang. It turns out that I can write while working a full-time job, and I can write while taking college classes, but the job and the classes together are just too much. This semester is especially bad in that respect because both classes involve more writing and are also compressed (8 or 10 weeks instead of 15 weeks) so each week contains a higher proportion of stuff.

3. I am still trying to write, just... very slowly, in little dribs and drabs. I've managed a few hundred words of my horrifically belated FTH fic, resolved a minor hold-up in the next chapter of "Guardian," and other things of that nature.

4. On my way home from Minnesota, I bought a tube of L'Occitane en Provence rose-scented 20% shea butter hand cream at the Detroit airport, because I was having serious problems with dry skin on my right hand, and goodness, it's wonderful! (I had already been using their little tubs of pure shea butter as lip balm, but I hadn't really tried any of their other products.) It's definitely more expensive than I'd usually go for, but then again, quality and fair trade do cost. *wry* Anyway, I just ordered another two tubes of hand cream in various scents from their online shop, because this stuff is just lovely and my poor hand is so dry it's literally cracking open.

5. Prof C. finally graded some of my English assignments, so I finally have a better idea of what she's looking for. Which of course came too late for me to adjust last week's assignments, but so it goes. This week's essay will now be much more to her taste. :)

6. I think I am going to take my lunch break now...

it's Blue Apron time again!

A tenant who moved out a couple weeks ago forgot to cancel their Blue Apron subscription, so guess who has a new set of recipes to experiment with? That's right, me! :)

They are:

1. Seared pork chops and carrot agrodolce with spinach rice

2. Spiced chicken breasts and mashed potatoes with blue cheese kale salad

3. Korean-style beef with sesame bok choy & marinated carrots

This is also the order in which I'll be cooking them, because fresh spinach leaves go off surprisingly fast, and I'm not willing to bet on the kale keeping much longer. I'm a little ambivalent about the kale salad in general, both because I've heard unfortunate things about kale and because it's topped with halved cherry tomatoes so I'd need to take a Benadryl before eating it. But Blue Apron's choices have worked out all right in the past (aside from the charred lime debacle), so I'll give it a fair shake.

On a cursory glance through the recipes, Blue Apron hopes I have a potato masher, but concedes a fork will do in a pinch. However, a grater is non-negotiable for the marinated carrots, and while I do, on a technicality, own a grater... it's an ancient and slightly rusty flat grater that is too dull to cut me even if I scrape my hand across its holes with all my strength. I therefore foresee a trek to Target to buy some more kitchen equipment, probably on Wednesday afternoon.