Smashed car mirrors and how to NOT make croissants, because I’m lazy-ish.

So on Sunday morning, Neil discovered that the driver’s side mirror on his ambulance dented Camry (yeah, he hit an ambulance once. That’s a story for another day) was busted. My immediate response,

“Punk kids.”

He was convinced otherwise, as no other vehicles parked on the street appeared to have suffered any damage. I guess it was pretty stormy on Saturday night, so it’s possible that it wasn’t the scum of the North End, but I’m still not so sure. I quickly remind him that driving without a driver’s side mirror is technically illegal. Good thing he drives up to the park & ride and then takes the express bus into downtown Minneapolis. Less chance for the donut monsters cops to discover his crimes.

As I’m making coffee this morning…

Neil: “I think I’m gonna try to fix the mirror myself. I looked online and the part I need is only $20 bucks, but the dealership is gonna charge me $200 plus labor.”

In my head I’m thinking, “Sure. Whatevs.” I was super tired still and the coffee was still brewing.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Neil: “But it’s going to require me to take the trim off the door, and buy a couple of specialized tools.”

OH LORD.

Now, my husband is arguably the smartest person I know… and I’m not saying that because I’m an awesome wife who has no job and doesn’t do shit all day. He’s actually a highly intelligent individual.

But he is not a “handy man.”

I’ll give credit where credit is due. The last time we had a car issue was this past January. I neglected to heed any warnings the meteorologists were preaching, and when the temperature dropped to -23 degrees (no, that’s not a typo, that’s a “negative” sign in front of that number), and my battery was 7+ years old…

Guess what?

My car wouldn’t start.

I had also parked in such a fashion that trying to jump start it wasn’t an option.

So I got a ride to work, bought a new battery, and after work Neil came home to help me swap it out.

Except it gets dark at 5:00pm in the Twin Cities in mid January. And it was about -17 degrees when Neil got home from work at 6:30.

It ultimately took us an hour and a half to complete this task. We’d never done this before, and it was difficult to maneuver little nuts and bolts with heavy gloves on in the middle of winter-pocalypse. Plus, we had to go inside and warm up every 10 minutes or so because it was so unbelievably cold out (I think the wind chill made it feel like -45 that day) my toes were tingling.

I just can’t see this going well. I did express my concerns about him attempting this task,

“Please don’t fuck up your car worse than it already is.”

But I’m still not sure if he’s going to do this himself, or let a professional handle it.

———–

As for yesterday’s croissant debacle….

Do you realize how many steps there are in preparing these? I kept taking pictures as I was making them, but it became frustrating, and the thought of adding all of these photos to a blog post in the morning with descriptions of how to made something that takes a minimum of ten hours…. it just seemed too daunting. So I kinda gave up 3/4 of the way through. They turned out alright, but the room temperature was definitely a factor. I don’t think I’ll be making these again in the summer time. I never did take a photo of the final product, but here’s a couple shots of them being made,

Maybe I’ll eventually post the recipe, but don’t hold your breath.

Living dangerously on a Monday (and I only know it’s Monday because Game of Thrones was on last night).

It is Monday, right? Cause since I’ve been out of work, I only remember which day of the week it is based on what the DVR is recording tonight (which is nothing, since it’s summer and there aren’t new episodes of ANYTHING).

My hair is getting ridiculously long. I don’t think I’ve had it cut since last June.

Shit. It’s June again. Guess it’s time for a haircut.

It’s not because I’m cheap, it’s entirely out of laziness. But the reason I’m thinking about it right now is because I’ve had a couple near misses with my hair and the gas burners on the stove in recent weeks.

Maybe today, but probably not. I just loathe sitting in that chair making idle chit-chat with someone I don’t know. The whole process is a little awkward. Maybe if I were one of those chicks who goes to a fancy Salon and has “Cindy” or “Sharon” cut my hair every time, it wouldn’t be such a thing.

But I’m not about to shell out $30+ for someone to take a pair of scissors to my mop. In the past, I’ve told myself, “I’m not gonna waste an hour on my day off just to get my hair cut.” Well, since EVERY DAY is my day off, this excuse doesn’t seem particularily valid anymore.

I still won’t be getting my hair cut today.

The husband and I are all caught up on Game of Thrones now. I’m not sure what we’re going to do in the evenings going forward as this has occupied a good portion of our time in the last few weeks. Now, instead of two episodes each evening, we’ll be anxiously waiting for Sunday night like all the other addicts out there. At least we have something to fill the void created in the absence of Mad Men. I could spend an inordinate amount of time telling you what I think is going to happen, what I loved/hated about previous episodes, but I don’t want to put any spoilers out there incase any of my readers aren’t caught up.

I bought everything I needed to make croissants again the other day, but haven’t had a chance since it’s been so freaking humid and warm outside. Last night I realized that the whole milk was going to go bad in a few days, so I HAD to make them today. It’s one of those recipes that requires Jupiter, Venus, Haley’s Comet and a slew of other celestial objects to all align perfectly with the Earth OR ELSE! Today I’m living on the edge, because I’m making these sans Venus. I’m not supposed to make these in a room warmer than 72 degrees, and my house is currently hanging out at 74. We’ll see how this affects the final product. If they turn out, you can expect a “How to Make Croissants” post tomorrow. If they don’t, you’ll get a “How to spend 10 hours on what will ultimately be a disaster because you didn’t follow directions,” post.

Well, after letting my dough proof for a half hour, it seems like it’s grown a lot larger than it usually does… leading me to believe the temperature of the room may play a more important role than I realized (or the “highly active” yeast I’m using is really living up to its name). It’s looking more and more like tomorrow’s post could be a disaster…

A recipe for disaster…