This Week in Pencilhaven

January 28, 2008

I’m still heartily distracted by the fun lumps in my ‘ppendix (CT scan tomorrow, surgery…soonish?), but here are some other things to keep you distracted:

  •  Trying to decide whether the $125 minimum order at Nicky’s game/meats justifies our need for sourcing duck fat for making duck confit.
  •  David bought a brazer. I confess I didn’t even know what brazing was, nor why we need to be able to do it at home. The latter still eludes me. Something to do with creating beer, I guess.
  • I have radioactive milkshakes in my fridge. They will make me extra glowy when I get all scanned.
  • I’m a local tech scene debutante. I have come out (again, for the first time in years). Who knew there were so many professional events to attend? Most with free alcohol, no less.
  • Floordog seems skinnier. Mr. Pencil has been feeding her less. She spends a lot of time licking the floor in the kitchen.
  • David’s car got broken into (smashed window) Saturday night. Damage as per usual less than insurance deductible. Lost: backpack full of climbing gear and shoes.
  • I made sugary cookies with Ibarra, cayenne and chunky sea salt on top. Did I mention I’d been drinking? FAIL.
  • For your amusement.

4 Comments

  1. Alan says:

    Hello Lyza,
    I was a big fan of yours at Intel and I am glad to see you thriving at Cloud. I’m sorry to haer about your health condition, but it reads like you are dealing with it. I’m up in Portland often and think one of these days I will trip into you at Starbucks near the HF campus. It could happen right :) Best wishes, Alan

  2. Preston says:

    The CT contrast in your fridge almost certainly is not radioactive.

    It’s probably barium sulfate, which is given to help contrast abdominal and pelvic organs during the scan. They’ll also probably inject you with an iodine contrast when you get your scan, and that also isn’t radioactive.

    The only part of the CT scan that is radioactive is the radiation from the scanner itself. If memory serves, an abdomen CT scan has the same radiation as 500 chest x-rays, or about the same radiation you would get from 3.3 years in the sun :(

  3. lyza says:

    Preston–Thanks for setting me straight. I hate to further bad information into the Internets. I was basing it on something vague Mr. Pencil said :).

  4. Jim says:

    Hello Lyza, Uwajimaya or New Seasons should be able to satisfy all your duck fat needs.

Related Posts

Scipio the Computer has deemed that these might be similar in content!
Wonderful games with Caslon