Category: Family

I’m not a big fan of fried foods. I typically avoid them. However, this past Friday, I saw that the T-fal Deep fryer, Stainless Steel, Easy to Clean Deep Fryer was on sale! The reviews that I’ve seen for this T-fal were excellent, and so I made the purchase. Since I purchased the fryer on Black Friday, I received 40% off the original price. But, looking at it now, it’s back at its actual price. I thought this would be a great device to have when I make the occasional fried side for my daughter or others.

The fryer arrived yesterday, and today, I set it up. What did I make? I made Cauliflower balls! My daughter loved them. Me? Not so much. There wasn’t anything wrong with the taste; I believe I would have preferred them baked. I rarely eat fried foods, so these weren’t appealing to me at all. Does that make sense? I did make enough so that my daughter has at least three meal-sized portions. If I know my daughter, she will most likely eat these as a side dish. While she fills her plate full of vegetables or fruit.

 

This evening I waited three hours after using the unit and drained the oil out of the fryer. What remains are a few bits of the cauliflower batter!

Looking at the above picture, you can see that the oil was drained from the deep fryer basin. Since I’d waited those three hours the cooking oil was warm enough to drain into the plastic reservoir without any issues. Awesome! Once the oil started draining, it took about 15 minutes for this bin to fill.

This basin has a knob on the far left that you can unscrew and drain the oil. Which is exactly what i did.

Where did I place all that oil? I drained the filtered oil into the mason jars, as seen above. As you can see, this drained oil is clean and free of debris. Perfect! Afterwards, I took the basin apart and clean it thoroughly. Of course, I cleaned all the other removable parts also. I then dried all the pieces and and placed the fryer in a cabinet for storage.

What are my initial thoughts about the T-fal Deep fryer, Stainless Steel, Easy to Clean Deep Fryer?

Pros

1. I like its size, and the basket that holds the fryer is similar to the fryers that I see in restaurants.
2. A detachable cord, and it’s magnetic!
3. Oil can be filtered/drained from the base into a reservoir that collects the oil.
4. The base that holds oil can be taken apart and washed.
5. Parts break down so you can wash everything easily.
6. Parts can be placed in the dishwasher.

 

Cons

1. This deep fryer is made of stainless steel, and it’s lightweight. I was surprised by how light this was when I lifted the box.
2. Short cord. I would have preferred a longer cord. You cannot have this too far from an outlet, and perhaps that was done by design. Maybe they were concerned that if the cord was too long, it could cause accidents if the long cord caused the unit to be turned over while frying food. Ouch

Overall I’m happy with my purchase.

In other news

My father is continuing to progress and should be returning to his home tomorrow. I’d already spoken to my boss about working a flex schedule so that I’m able to assist my mother in caring for my father. He will have a home health nurse, speech, and a physical therapist attend to him from his home.

A few weeks ago my mother mentioned that she wanted to powerwash her home. I remembered a while ago that she had bought a joke of a powerwasher for under $40. I told her at the time, that was not going to do what she’d envisioned, and promptly forgot about that. However, recently she brought up power washing again. I guess she realized what I said about her purchase was accurate? My mother was leaning towards an electric power washer, which I shot down almost instantly. I’ve used them in the past, and while they are fine, I much prefer gas-powered power washers, and so that’s where I began my research.

After a few weeks of watching videos and reading numerous reviews, I’ve finally settled on the WestinghouseWPX Max 3400 PSI 2.6 GPM Cold Water Gas Pressure Washer with Soap Tank and 5. The reviews on the 3400 and the 3200 were great.

It should be here on Friday, and it’s forecasted to be a warm weekend. I pray it stays that way because if that’s the case my parent’s home is getting power washed.

 

Video: Winterizing Your Pressure Washer

 

My father is now in a nursing home, we’re planning to bring him home soon, I’ve been stepping into the role of doing a lot of the “manly” things that he used to do. Grass cutting has been taken care of by me, maintaining my mother’s vehicle, adding air to her tire when it was low. She had mentioned calling the local auto mechanic and having them come out to her house. I told her, “No need mom, I got this!” I learned car maintenance and a lot of other “masculine chores” from my father. I decided at a very young age, that my gender should not automatically mean that I was exempt from any of these things since if something needed to be done, I should know how to take care of that. So yeah… you can add power washing the house to the list.

In other news: Testing out WpDiscuz

I’m testing out a new comment system; wpDiscuz 5. Upon activating, it didn’t appear that the person commenting could leave their URL? Hmm, that can make it a bit of a challenge if you or someone visiting your virtual home wants to check out the person commenting on your website, right? However, after a quick search, I discovered that the feature is there, it’s “hidden” however you can “extend” so the name/url automatically displays. Since I’m used to seeing the name/URL automatically displayed when leaving a comment I opted for “extended.”

About three weeks ago, we introduced Bengie, an outdoor stray cat, into our home. After one night, he realized what that square box with pellets was and used the litter box without any issues. Then, my daughter got the idea to add a bit of potting soil into the box, and a light bulb went off, and he was using the box as an expert.

This past Saturday, I knit him a wool ball which I stuffed with sheep’s wool, catnip, and a noisemaker. I’m thrilled to say that Bengie loves the ball and has played with that and a few other toys I purchased for him. I got the idea to create him a knit ball made out of wool because he was drawn to the wool blankets that I’ve made. When I had one near him, he came over to me and started kneading the blanket with his paws. He peered at me through half-slitted amber eyes, and his little motor (purring) increased in volume.

Work is going well. I’m in week nine of training. I have one more week and then will finish training. I received recognition in August for my job performance. It wasn’t expected; however, I do appreciate the recognition. I enjoy my job, and it’s nice to work for a company where management truly values its employees.

In other news

I took an unexpected day off of work today. Funny how that works since I work from home; however, I knew I would not be up for training since I’m not feeling well. I still feel a bit under the weather; however, not as bad as I felt earlier today or the weekend. I’m trying to get as much rest as possible. I think I’ll be out one more day and should feel well enough to return to work on Wednesday. I don’t particularly appreciate missing work; however, I know I would not have accomplished much if I were in training today. There were a few people out a few days last week because they weren’t feeling well. Since I work remotely, I didn’t receive anything from anyone in my class. I suspect it might be that I reacted to something since the symptoms mimic what I experienced several years ago. In that case, as I guess with this one, It just needs to pass entirely out of my system.

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Today, I took unexpected time off of work due to unforeseen circumstances. Since we’re working remotely, I reached out to my facilitator, and boss via Microsoft Teams and filled them in on what was happening. Later today, I discovered that I could pop into work although it was only for 2.5 hours. Flashback to my prior job, there is no way I would have even worked, if I was going to be out of the office. I imagine I would have felt the same way if I was working remotely also. However, the environment, my boss, and my team make it all worthwhile. I had my weekly 1:1 sessions with my manager. I must say that I’m truly appreciating the hands-on approach she has with us during our Onboarding. There is so much to learn, and it’s nice to bounce ideas off of her and get to know her more as a person. Once week 10 hits, I won’t be meeting with her weekly.

There’s still a lot to learn, and I’m doing my best o understand the insurance lingo used when talking about the various coverages that my department works with. I’m working with the Small Commercial side; Workmans Compensation, General Liability, Auto, and all the extras like additions like BPP, COI, Umbrella, fraud, and many other additions that a small business owner can have.

In other news…

Today I was drilling holes in this pot. This terra-cotta pot came with a plant that was planted inside a plastic pot. This lovely container served as the cachepot.

The plant’s leaves were a bit crispy in its feel. This is a plant that I purchased last week. However, giving the plant a long drink of water, and draining well, has brought the leaves (almost) back to normal.

With my potted plants, I like using saucers under my planter pots instead of placing the plant pot inside a larger cache pot.

One of the reasons that I’ve occasionally chosen the latter was because the pot that I might have liked to use with a saucer, did not provide sufficient drainage for the plant even though it had a drainage hole.

Speaking of drainage holes and planter pots, the one challenge I face with them is that there’s one hole at the base of the pot. I’ve always thought it would be smarter to have a few more holes so that the drainage would go by much faster. Unfortunately, I’ve never encountered ceramic planter pots with multiple holes. Well, there’s an easy fix, you can add holes to your ceramic pots. The majority of the planter pots that I use are made from ceramic. Research, several months ago, showed me that I could create additional holes at the base of the planter pots if I used a drill and diamond drill bits.

Initially, I’d thought about using my trusty Dremel; however, after some deliberation, this morning I purchased a WorkPro drill from Amazon.

I also ordered diamond drill bits. I ordered them both today and received it about five hours later.

For my pots, I used the smallest diamond drill bit that was included (6mm) to create the holes. When I started using the drill in the base of the pot, I started drilling at an angle, once I’d created a rivet, I slowly brought the drill to an upright position. I paused several times to spray the indention/drill bit and also suck away the dust with my handheld vacuum. In no time I’d created holes at the base of my planter pots. Hooray, mission accomplished. I must say that I’m pleased with my drill purchase, and I now have planter pots with several holes in the base of the pot.

I just completed week six of my new hire training, and I have more weeks of training. In reality, onboarding continues several months after the official training is completed with my current position, which lasts a little over three months. I have no complaints. I must say, out of the places that I’ve worked, this is definitely the most organized training that I’ve encountered. If more companies put this much time/effort into their new hires, I imagine employee satisfaction/confidence would be much higher for jobs that require an extensive skill set. I’ve worked within the insurance industry before; however, that was health insurance.

I’ve made a career change late in my career, and I must say that I’m happy with my choice. It’s something I’ve thought about for the past few years, and I finally decided to take that leap. Yes, it can be a bit unnerving, adding a new skillset on top of what I’ve already known. However, I’ve always enjoyed a challenge. What’s helpful is being surrounded by a supportive team, having a fabulous boss that I talk with weekly via virtual meetings, and feel appreciated. That goes a long way in making the transition easier since I have to learn the terminology and become familiar with the numerous systems that I must navigate during my workday. The fact that we do have such a supportive team makes the hurdle to learn a new skill set a bit easier.

My daughter’s college schedule begins Spring 2022

In other news, my daughter is preparing for college. She decided to wait until the spring semester to start college. Initially, she was hesitant about telling me her desires; however, I told her that she can always tell me anything. After she shared her thoughts while taking a car ride, she told me she was relieved since it had been on her mind. She’s taking a few courses this fall; however, the bulk of her classes won’t begin until early next year. I told her that I thought it was fabulous that she realized that she needed to take some time to step back, reflect, and focus on the path that she’d like to pursue in college. She met with her guidance counselor towards the end of last week and left the virtual meeting excited and with a much clearer idea of what courses she wants to pursue.

In other news

My nephew was in town last week. Thursday – Saturday. However, I’ll write about that in another post and share a few pictures of some of the places we visited while he was here. Oh, we’re also thinking of visiting family in South Carolina this Thanksgiving. We’ll see! I’ve chatted with my favorite Aunt, and it appears that a lot of them will be “going home” this season. I mentioned before that my mother came from a large family. There were sixteen of them. Fourteen of the siblings are still alive. I imagine one of the reasons for wanting to make sure they go this year, is they are getting older, two have passed away. The last one that died was about eight years ago. However, the oldest is nearing 80, and the youngest are in their late fifties.

Tomorrow is Sunday, my daughter and I have a few errands to do; however, we’ll be taking it easy for the most part.

This morning Xfinity (Comcast Cable is the parent company) came back to our home and installed a residential cable line. In addition to the line, they also installed one video surveillance camera for self-monitoring. We already had Comcast Business; however, I wanted to take advantage of Comcast/Xfinity Home Security.

Initially, I planned to get the residential service Comcast provides for my remote work; however, additional research showed me that might not be a great idea. Comcast, like many residential cable service providers, throttles this service. However, this does not happen with their business clients. Therefore, their internet isn’t throttled. Additionally, since I have a business account, I’m assigned an account representative. If I experience issues with my service, they’ll send out a technician the same day. Since that service isn’t provided to their residential customers, I installed Comcast Business about a month ago.

I wondered if I could take advantage of Xfinity’s 24/7 monitoring even though I was using Comcast Business. After all, Comcast is the parent company. In fact, a few years back, their residential cable was called Comcast also. Xfinity is new and was added to the parent company a few years ago. I want to say they made the separation between the two services offered when they started offering cable to their business clients.

Since I could not find any information on the video monitoring packaging on the Comcast Business website, I suspected that this was not an option; however, I reached out to my Comcast Business representative by email to see if this was an option. He responded within a few hours and told me that was not an option. I think it’s a shame since post-pandemic, you are seeing a lot more people working remotely. It would be a great option for remote workers who choose one of the Business accounts for their internet connections. However, it most likely is more of a headache than they are willing to deal with at the moment. So, whatever. I wanted the service, and it makes sense to have the residential cable.

This fall, my daughter will be starting college locally. Because of that, I told the technician to set up the cable in her room. This way, she now has a dedicated cable line. She now has the option to connect wireless or directly by ethernet. She’s already tested the speed and is thrilled that it’s much faster than the connectivity she received via a Wi-Fi connection to Verizon Wireless. We’ll most likely be canceling Verizon wifi soon. There’s no need for three different internet services! Initially, I had planned on self-monitoring for few months. However, Comcast’s website’s note made me decide to get that done sooner rather than later.

Do you see the above message? It says, “Ability To Purchase Xfinity Home Varies Due To COVID-19: Offers are only available in areas where we can provide professional installation at this time.” I don’t recall that message being there a month ago.  However, that’s what’s appearing on Comcast’s page about home security now.

Although we do live in a sleepy rural community, and nothing seems to happen around here. I think it’s best to be cautious. I chose Xfinity’s Ultimate Home System package. Although I’m here during the weekday, I honestly cannot take time from my workday to meet with the technician like I did this morning.  So next Saturday, Xfinity will be making another visit to our home.