Teleidoscope

Wed, Jan 16, 2008

Unexpected Day Off

Posted at 8:39 pm MST to Technology

My work schedule has evaporated. The logistics of escorting me (because I don't have an official badge, after 2 months of working at the site) had gotten annoying enough to the people doing the escorting, that they told me not to come back until I have a badge. At the rate things are going I will be moving on to my next contract (which begins the 28th) before they get themselves organized to provide the badge.

I took advantage of not being scheduled to work in the middle of the day and had lunch with Nanette, at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Then we ran a couple of errands. We visited McGuckin's Hardware, which provided instructions as well as bolts for a project Nanette had been struggling with: besides their promise "If we don't have it you don't need it", McGuckin's also has actual knowledgeable and helpfull people in the various departments. A gentleman in the fasteners department recommended the right bolts for Nanette's project and explained how to use them.

McGuckin's is also the kind of place where you go in looking for a couple of bolts and end up spending $50 on neat stuff. I got an over-the-door robe hook for my bathroom and a good 4 inch paring knife.

The new knife is from Messermeister. I have their 8 inch chef knife and 8 inch deba, and love both of them, and my existing paring knives have uncomfortable, bulky handles.

An embarrassing number of my old knives (especially my travelling knives) are from the company that makes Ginsu knives. The culinary hack-saw known as the Ginsu can be useful for attacking frozen food, and they make wonderful breadknives (I wore out two serrated bread knives from Chicago Cutlery before I switched to the Ginsus). But the other knives are pretty useless, except for one thin tapered knife (possibly meant to be a really oddly shaped boning knife?) that I use for slashing the tops of bread loaves before baking (I have never found any other use for it.) I think the deep serrations on the Ginsu-ish blades are designed for righthanders: normal non-serrated blades are less biased.

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