Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Things I Learned in November

Well, that whole NaBloPoMo thing ended well, huh? Sheesh. I did not have posts scheduled ahead of time before a trip out of town. I made a conscious decision to go to bed after a long road trip instead of staying up to post something on the 21st, acknowledging that I didn't have to be enslaved to the challenge. And then knowing I'd already missed it diminished my motivation to get something up the last two days. I worked quite a long time on a couple of posts, and I still have plenty more unused material, but I've learned the hard way not to make any ambitious remarks about how soon that stuff will appear here. We'll just hope it's before November 2015. In the meantime, I'll be too busy with online shopping and Christmas-gift-creating to be blogging much this month, I imagine.

In the meantime, here I am to share what I learned last month. Actually I learned a TON of important stuff this month, some of which I've already posted about and more of which can be found in my Twitter favorites. But all that is way too deep and significant to get into for this monthly meme. Instead, I give you some lighthearted fluff and random trivia, inspired by Chatting at the Sky:

1. You'll have just enough pumpkin puree leftover from this baked oatmeal to make pumpkin scones. And the perfect use for the leftover spiced glaze from the pumpkin scones is to put it in your coffee along with the leftover half-and-half. You know, I'm just all about conservation and using up leftovers. You're welcome.

2. Stabilo pens are as much fun to write with as Staedtler pens, but they lack a clip on the cap, which is super annoying. They also, like Staedtlers, lack a satisfying pink color.

3. The easiest way to tell the difference between a leopard and a cheetah is their spots.
A leopard has clusters of black spots with a dark brown spot in the middle; the cheetah's spots are solid black dots. Other notable differences: build (leopard built for strength vs. cheetah built for speed) and sleeping habits (leopards are nocturnal).


4. We've been misquoting that old proverb about eating and having cake.
I've only ever heard it said "have your cake and eat it, too," but it turns out that's backwards. It makes more sense the way it originated, which is more like, "You can't eat your cake and have it, too." I discovered this from Mocha Momma, in the midst of a much deeper post in which I learned far more significant things (in the midst of a binge-read of her 13 Essays About Race, which are highly worthwhile). More background on the proverb here.

5. Frog blood is green.
Or at least the blood of one kind of frog is green (also, its bones are turquoise). This and the next one courtesy of Ranger Rick, Junior (which would make a great Christmas gift for a kid in your life, FYI).

6. Hippo sweat is red.

4. I like bibimbop with pork belly and miso-glazed green beans.
Steve and I tried a new-to-us "Asian Fusion" restaurant last week when we had free babysitting thanks to grandparents. I had to google "bibimbop" after seeing it on the menu as a specialty; apparently it's a signature Korean comfort food, and the word means "mixed rice." I ordered mine with pork belly, which I'd also never tried...oh my goodness. Melt in your mouth goodness reminiscent of bacon. I think the bibimbop would have been bland with any other kind of meat, but with a tiny piece of pork belly in every bite, it was delicious. Steve's entree came with miso-glazed green beans which were also fantastic. Fun to try new stuff. Still boggles my mind how much more adventurous my taste buds are now than 10 years ago :)





What did you learn in November?

2 comments:

Danielle said...

I grew up getting Ranger Rick and National Geographic Kids! I loved them!

faith ann raider said...

Interesting!! I'm pretty sure that I've always said the whole cake/eat thing the wrong way... but understood it the correct way.