Once upon a midnight dreary

While I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--

...Several random thoughts and observations occurred to me.

• Bushmills makes a particularly good Irish cream liqueur.
• The wok that wambold gave me, which she never used, has become my favorite wok of the three I own.
• Uncertainty might be a cast-iron bitch, but you can never really be sure.
• Communication is great.  Corollary:  Inability to communicate sucks, whatever the reason.
• Uncertainty might be a cast-iron bitch.  (Oh, did I already mention that?)
• If God is an iron, is there such a thing as a feliciton?  And if so, what's its binding energy?
• Postulate a Really Big Rock with our name on it, big enough, soon enough, that there's not one damned thing we could do about it.  What would be the result of telling the world?  Would you tell the world?
• Q:  Why is testifying before Congress like shoplifting from a liquor store?  ( A: )
• <pandora> Hey, big boy, wanna come upstairs and open my box?
• There is no substitute for a really good knife.
• A three-gallon hard-plastic drinking-water bottle will hold twenty pounds of Basmati rice, and turns out to make a very good container for it.  A Costco one-gallon milk bottle, with the bottom cut off, snaps perfectly into the neck to make a funnel for filling it.
• You've heard of credit where it's due.  Is an AmEx card credit when it's due?

Less existentially, I have an appointment at 0945 tomorrow at the urgent care center at Valley Medical Center to check out my right thumb, which has had some kind of infection for about a week and a half now.  I was hoping it would clear up by itself, but over the past several days it seems to have taken a turn for the worse.  The red swelling is being invaded by a growing yellow-green border next to the nail, which does not bode well.

Valley Med happens to be across the street from Pixel USA.  This is convenient, as I can take whitestar's CPU, RAM and graphics card with me tomorrow and, with luck, talk them into testing them for me.  Then once I know clearly what I need to replace, I'll be able to decide what to replace them with.  So far, all I've decided on for certain is the case, which is independent of everything else.  With luck, the HP15C I'm selling on eBay will pay for whichever parts UPS won't.

OK, just because ....

This is a totally open question to anyone.  It serves no great purpose.  I'm just curious to see the answers, and may or may not comment in return.

What of consequence do you and I have in common?  What are our major differences?

Be honest, think hard, answer seriously, and never be afraid to say "I don't know."

Remember:  "He who knows, and knows that he knows, is a wise man.  He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool.  But he who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a scholar."  (Aristotle, if memory serves.  But at this time of night it probably doesn't.)

Whee, paronychia

aka, a bacterial infection at the edge of the nail.  Yup, Valley Med shot local anaesthetic into my thumb, sliced it open, drained it of all the nice gooshy pus, bandaged it, and sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics and Vicodin.  I won't be needing the Vicodin.  (Vicodin for a half-inch incision in my thumb?  Sheesh.  Get real.  Anyone'd think it hurt or something.)  I'll be going back to Longs in a few minutes to pick up the antibiotics.

They cannot, however, take NC Medicaid.  I just hope I can bet the bills reimbursed later.  I can't even call Medicaid until Monday to find out.

Belated realizations

Here I am, with my right thumb all bandaged, and finding numerous things very awkward.  I've been drinking my tea left-handed because I can't hold the mug properly with my right.  I'd been planning to make a big batch of turkey risotto this weekend -- I bought onions, mushrooms, and bananas specifically so that I could -- but I hadn't planned on having a bandaged right thumb.

So here I was wondering what I could come up with for supper, and not wanting to use prepackaged foods because I want to create leftovers that I can eat for a quick meal on work nights next week.  And in any case, my sinuses and ears are a little plugged (sufficiently so that trying to use The Crystal Method's Legion of Boom to mask the penetrating whine of the remarkably loud vacuum cleaner running a few doors down resulted in distinct physical discomfort from the bass), and I wanted a good hot curry to clear them.

Finally, realization dawned:  "You're all but ambidextrous*, you imbecile.  Cook left-handed."  Bing!  On goes the light....

So now there's chicken Madras curry cooking on the stove.  I'll eat late, but I'll eat, and without getting the dressing on my thumb wet or soiled.  I need to make a point to get at least two regular meals per day for the next two weeks, because for the next two weeks I'm on 300mg of clindamycin twice a day, and I have instructions from the pharmacist to be sure I take it only after food.  (Reduces the likelihood of stomach upset, I infer.)

---

* There are, to my knowledge, two things that I do well with my right hand, and which I do not do well with my left.  One of these is handwriting, though I can do it if strictly necessary and if neatness isn't a requirement.  Shooting is not the other.  Further, deponent saith not.