The ethernet cable has now been strung--on push pins--down the hall from Mom's room to mine, and this computer is directly connected to the modem; I've unplugged the router. Once Og's done with the crimper and I can get some cable ends, I'm going to run a cable through the attic, but this'll do for the time being.
Anyway, so without the extra step of the router, it seems like the access happens faster. I torrented ep 61 of Yawara! last night, and the download ran at about 500 kB/s, which isn't as fast as my connection is supposed to be but a damn sight faster than it has been running for the past couple of weeks.
Okay, so the old wireless card wasn't the problem, and the new wireless card probably isn't helping, either--screw wireless. I'll connect directly; I'll run a freakin' cable. And if I need the router I can always plug it back in.
...just have to giggle to myself that if anyone has been pilfering WiFi access from me, he just lost his Internet connection. (I don't think anyone has.)
* * *
That ellipsis there includes about a 40-minute period where I decided to A) take the trash out (at least the junk) and B) make yakisoba.
The only thing I had to eat today was a ham sandwich around the time of today's first post. Other than that, nothing. And I didn't have a hypoglycemic episode!
Could it be coincidental that I took a bottle of Pepsi Max to my therapy session instead of the "leaded" stuff? All I know is, I am really glad there's a "zero calorie" Pepsi that actually tastes something like real Pepsi.
And now I'm going to pig out on chicken yakisoba! BECAUSE I CAN!
* * *
So when I stepped out to get the mail this afternoon, before my therapy session, I noted with some small relief that I had made the right call in closing up and turning on the AC this morning. And when I went out for therapy--and then again just now to get some cabbage for my ULTIMATELY AWESOME YAKISOBA--I was again reminded that I'd made the right choice.
The dewpoint suggests that I should be able to open up again and ventilate tonight, but tomorrow and Saturday promise to be hot and sticky and no fun.
But, you know--summer. It's freakin' summer. It gets hot in summer; and when it doesn't get hot in summer it is a very bad thing. Except possibly for literary genres--Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during the Year Without a Summer, which ended up creating the genre of science fiction--but that's small comfort to all the people who starve to death because they couldn't grow any freakin' food in perpetual October.
I think about this kind of thing when I consider what the last ice age must've been like. I think, "Gee, the last time it snowed in the Philippines was...." And I tried to imagine what it must be like to be standing in the snow on June 20th, when the day is 16 hours long and it's still freakin' cold outside.
So enjoy the heat. Welcome the warmth! Shrug at the electric bill--without that warm summer, we'd be taking bets on whether we starved or froze to death first.
* * *
There is only one thing wrong with this yakisoba. Well, two, but the other thing is nitpicky--the peanuts I put in it are stale.
The main thing is, my yakisoba is a social dish. It's meant to be cooked and eaten with friends or family. Everyone helps make it and everyone eats it. Even if it's just two people.
The last time I made it, Mom was still around. Mom loved this dish; Dad claimed to be indifferent to it but when I cooked it, the stuff evaporated even when it was just us three.
The prep work is not particularly onerous; really it's just shredding carrots and cabbage, and cutting up the meat. The rest is just opening cans and draining vegetables, and boiling noodles. But it's easier if it's shared; and of course then everyone can pig out because the way I make it, inevitably the wok is full of food, so full that stuff comes flying out the sides as I make it. "If some doesn't land on the stove, it's not yakisoba!"
The store only had pre-shredded cabbage; I used the whole bag. I use one bundle of noodles because there's so much vegetable in it--a can of mushrooms, a can of bean sprouts, a can of water chestnuts, a can of bamboo shoots, a can of baby corn, plus cabbage and carrots.
It makes a pound of meat go pretty far, let me tell you. And you can use whatever kind of meat you happen to have on hand--beef, pork, chicken, seafood, mice, what-have-you--to make it.
* * *
Technically, the way I make it, it's actually a Japanese-style vegetable stir-fry with noodles. Real yakisoba is primarily noodles with a bit of other stuff thrown in. But no one has ever had a bad thing to say about it and if I make it for a crowd, there are never leftovers. *flex*
* * *
So with the motorcycle ready, I have to get Sailor V's ATV running now. *sigh* We tried starting it yesterday, but it would crank and crank and crank and it'd only run when I sprayed starting fluid in it.
My thinking now is "fuel", because obviously it's got spark (since it would run on ether) and compression. That means A) the fuel line is blocked; B) the fuel filter is plugged up; C) something else.
The last time we had it out (sometime in early May) it ran fine but was hard to start primarily due to the battery being shitty. I've got the old battery and funds for a new one, so at some point (probably tomorrow) I'm heading over to Advance Auto to pick up a new one. Then I need to make the annual pilgrimage before going over to Sailor V's lair and seeing what I can do with his ATV.
Well, the 4th is 5 days away, though I don't have that much time to do all this stuff. I keep consoling myself that it'll be worth it, that we'll have a good time.
We'd better, damn it.