T Minus 43: Fails

Yesterday at the grocery, I picked up something new to try for breakfast - Michaelinas frozen stuffed biscuits. Today, I gave them a try. Ignoring the "microwave only" instructions, I removed all the packaging and slid them in the toaster oven. When I thought they'd be warn all the way through, I grabbed a fork - no hand eating these because who wants hot sausage gravy running down their hand? They turned out OK, a bit drier than I would like perhaps due to me using a toaster oven instead of a microwave.

After breakfast, I continued my culinary experimentation hoping to make something that tasted like a Bad Ass iced coffee. I pulled out the dried coffee crystals and read the label. I found nothing to indicate what a proper ratio of coffee crystals to water might look like. I also have no measuring spoons in the condo yet, so I suppose it might not have mattered if there were instructions on the coffee packaging.

I did the only thing I could. I eyeballed it...badly, I guess. Iced coffee? No. Iced triple shot espresso? Close. I ended up with a cup of something way too strong. My attempt at creaming it with non-fat dry milk missed in likewise spectacular fashion. Coffee experimentation day one, fail!

I'll try again tomorrow.

I opened my email and found a message from The Hubby. He gave me the go ahead to invest in the gelato paints I want to play with. I love that man! Have I ever mentioned that before? Now, I wait. Were I back on the mainland, in two days I would be opening my package from Amazon thanks to our Amazon Prime membership. Here in Hawaii, Prime still means free shipping but that 2-day guarantee? Not so much. Maybe more like 2 weeks. I'm still waiting on the toilet paper I ordered last week! Shipping, fail.

My busted up middle finger

Pushing the shipping wait out of my mind, I got to work being artsy-fartsy for a while. I remembered that I wanted to go to Longs and see if my rewards coupon covered the cost of a pitcher. I wrapped up my crafting session and headed down to the Pink Cruiser. I remembered to bring my new tire pump since both tires were low. I aired up the tires appropriately and, when pulling the pump off the valve stem, smashed my knuckle into the spokes. It took very little time for my knuckle to swell to twice its normal size. It turned a not-so-pretty color of purple as well. Ouch! Bike maintenance, fail.

As I got to Longs and started shopping, I realized I left home without my coupon. No pitcher for me today. I picked up a back of treats for a friend and headed back out to my bike. Shopping, fail.

I steered the Pink Cruiser to the mauka side of the highway for a visit to Office Max. Thanks to back-to-school sales, I found Sharpies and composition books on sale for prices way below what I've seen them for anywhere else on the island. I stocked up. No fails at Office Max!

I rode home, mostly gripping the handlebar with only one hand due to the swollen nature of my finger on the other hand.

A rainbow of Sharpies!

With time to kill before I needed to be at the gallery, I ate lunch - taquitos in the toaster oven, which turned out better than breakfast - and watched more YouTube painting and collaging videos. Finally, I headed to work. "Work" consisted of a training session teaching me how to close the Lahaina gallery. It turned out to be not very different than closing the Ka'anapali gallery, which I've now done several times. I only worked an hour today, instead of the 9 hours I normally work on Thursdays so that was a tad disappointing. Today's loss of hours leads to better things though, I hope, in that I now get to work in the Lahaina gallery on commission-earning shifts! Work, semi-fail.

I rode the Pink Cruiser home in the dark. I remembered to install the headlight and taillight before leaving the condo, which proved very helpful. It seemed like traffic flowed extra heavy tonight but I chalk that up to me being nervous about riding in the dark. I made it home safely though and with no more busted fingers.

Dinner turned out to be less than appetizing. I used a can of Hormel turkey chili with some cheese sprinkled on top and some veggie tortilla chips from Green Giant to make a sort of Fritos Pie type thing. The veggie chips tasted more like nacho cheese Doritos than anything else. The chili, already cooked, added nothing to the dish. I dumped in some hot sauce - made it spicy but dinner still tasted yucky. Dinner, fail!

I think I should go to bed before something else goes wrong! Back to normal work schedule tomorrow, closing the shop at Ka'anapali tomorrow night.

Aloha!