My new favorite phrase

WICKEDLY FURIOUS. That's the phrase a friend came up with while trying to tell me how mad she was at her ex. No, she's not from Boston (that would be "wicked furious"). I can't say that I've ever been wickedly furious at anyone; I wonder what it feels like....

See my pretty loaves of French bread that I made yesterday? I think I've finally gotten the hang of it. The bread, I mean. Living in Houston means that I don't use as much flour as is called for in bread recipes, sometimes up to 1 1/2 cups less! We had some really dry, heavy loaves before I figured that out. D-man (and other almost-family) was gracious enough to eat the bread without complaining.

I am almost ready to post pictures of the house -- the only problem is that we've lost my camera's USB cord. D-man took this picture of the bread with his camera, and he was thoughtful enough to get the cookbook picture in the background, so you can see that my bread looked like it was supposed to! Pictures of the house to come soon.

My new favorite place

I have been searching (the web) lately for used bookstores in this area, and I have found a gem. It's 3 1/4 miles from our house, and it's a delightful place to go and browse. I didn't make it all the way through (though it's not very big -- just a converted house), but I already have a list a mile long of things I want to buy from them! They have lots of hardbacks and older editions (including several 1st editions of several Pulitzer novels), and the owner is really friendly.

The Place: Becker's Books (their website is down for maintenance, but I will update if it comes back up soon)
The Inventory: Shelves upon shelves of well-organized books (though I found a John Updike novel on the floor in a stack near the L's -- delightfully disorganized, but not so much as to make you crazy!)
The Locale: Houston, TX

Job search update

I GOT A JOB! I'll be working part-time for my old standby, and I got the offer letter in the mail today. Tomorrow is going to be taken up with sitting in the LabCorp waiting room waiting to pee, and waiting in line at the post office to mail my acceptance to the people up north.

Oh, my word, I am excited!

The Pioneer Woman has a fabulous website with photos, recipes, and anecdotes from life on a cattle ranch in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma. She has recently put together a new site called Tasty Kitchen. The idea for the site came out of one of her giveaways (she does them often) where she asked for readers' favorite recipes. The result is a recipe community. Not necessarily a new idea, but a community of people who definitely have similar senses of humor if they enjoy PW. The site has just gotten up and running, and PW is still working out the kinks. It promises to be a lot of fun, and I'm hoping to make some internet friends.

Check it out!

Job search update #3

I applied for 5 more positions yesterday, and I got a call from company #1 -- one I have worked for before. I have a follow-up interview on Friday with the guy who would be my boss if I get hired! It's part-time, but I'm enticed by the flexibility. And the opportunity to work in many different stores. And the knowledge that the holidays are generally not days I'd have to work.

I am looking forward to the opportunity to work in the pharmacy world again!

More home-improvement

The in-laws are coming in next week, and they're staying with us. It's given me excellent motivation to finish our home-improvement projects by next week. Today's project is painting. I had to put texture on our walls and paint over it. It's almost done, thank goodness! Tomorrow's project may involve sealing our kitchen cabinets -- we stained them without thinking about the fact that the stain is water-based. Not good for a kitchen. Polyurethane is definitely necessary. D-man and his dad will probably take on the project of putting the pulls on the kitchen cabinets and drawers next week -- they are all about precision, and I don't have the patience for it!

It is currently raining for the second time in the last two months, and I am enjoying it immensely. I was going to run this morning, but the rain precluded that. The temperature is finally nice enough for me to open the windows and turn off the A/C. There is a cloud sitting over Houston, and we're set to have scattered showers today -- we've had about 4 since 7:30 this morning!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the day -- 95 degrees is the official high, but I have a feeling it won't get anywhere near that.

Best. Chocolate. Ice cream. Ever.

Since D-man has been on my case to get the ice cream maker out of the shed since we moved it in there, we decided that yesterday would be a perfect day to make ice cream. Both our moms made it when we were growing up, but neither of us had much to do with the process.

I found a recipe for chocolate ice cream in The Joy of Cooking, and though it is fairly complicated for a hot summer day (I had to stand over the hot stove stirring the custard mixture constantly for about 30 minutes), it produced the best, creamiest, chocolatiest chocolate ice cream I've ever had. It tasted like brownie batter. I'm not sure that any attempts on my part will do justice to the yumminess of the ice cream, so all I'll do is recommend it to anyone who's willing to put in the work!

A pharmacist's thoughts

My first thoughts along these lines in awhile....

An FDA advisory committee just recommended that the maximum daily dose of over-the-counter acetaminophen (Tylenol, APAP, paracetamol) be reduced from 4 grams (8 extra-strength tablets) per day because of potential liver damage in doses greater than 4 grams/day. They also voted to limit the maximum single dose to 650 mg (the previous single dose limit was 1000 mg, or 2 extra-strength tablets), or 2 regular-strength tablets.

I must say that I agree with it in principle; I don't really like acetaminophen all that much for pain relief anyway. As a pharmacist, I see patients struggle to make sense of the medications they are using, including trying to combine their OTC drugs with their Rx drugs, making sure nothing overlaps or interacts. THAT'S WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR. There is also a prevailing thought in our society of excess that more is better. NOT TRUE. More isn't better, and it can cause permanent damage. A double dose of Nyquil, for example, though bound to dope you up for much longer than a single dose, is not going to make you feel better faster. Those doses and instructions are on the label for a reason. Follow them, and don't take extra. Period. If the medicine isn't helping, consider that something else might help -- a diet change, a lifestyle change, more (or less) exercise -- anything but more medicine. I know: coming from a pharmacist, that's rich advice. Remember, though, that I went to school and learned about what those meds do to the body. I don't use them (except for occasionally), and I'm going to do my dead-level best to make sure I don't have to ever use them chronically.

In the meantime, the FDA has a handy guide to acetaminophen on their website here. Read it, and if you don't understand something, ask your doctor or pharmacist. They can have a conversation with you. The internet can't.

Update 2: the job search

Interview #1 went reasonably well, I think, and I'm excited about the possibility of a part-time job. Interview #2 has been cancelled, due to the fact that they filled the position before I got to interview. That doesn't mean that company is out of the question, it just means that for now, they don't have anything for me.

I am disappointed, because the cancelled interview would have been for a full-time job, with full benefits. I would love an offer from my interview the other day; I love the flexibility of part-time (I get to make my own schedule!) and experiencing different stores. I know that the Lord knows my heart, and that He has our job opportunities and our finances in His hands. That fact brings my anxiety down to a level I can handle.