Six Flags Hurricane Harbor

Last night, I overheard Swe-cha talking to my sister and telling her that he will be going to Hurricane Harbor in August.

That made me think - is Six Flags open now ? I checked and they're not.

Interestingly, I will mention that I've been purchasing Six Flags seasons tickets for our family every year for the past 4 years but for some reason, I didn't buy them for 2020. No reason. I remember going to their website, checking out the different season's pass levels, picking one and adding them to my cart but I hesitated as I was checking out. Then, naisip ko, I'll just buy day-passes when we decide to go.

Who would've known that Covid-19 would happen and theme parks would not reopen ? Not yet, anyway.

I'm pretty sure Six Flags would do something to honor passes. So far, I've seen that all tickets - even dated ones - will be honored on any operating day till Dec 2020. That is, of course, assuming that they operate within 2020, right ? Season's pass holders will have one free day in the 2021 season and this, I think is lugi.

Sourdough Garlic Knots

My friend, A, is an avid sourdough baker. She shared her sourdough starter with me last Mother's Day and I've been feeding it and just putting it back in the refrigerator.

I'm not ready to make sourdough bread yet as I have yet to decide on which Dutch oven  to get but I wanted to use the sourdough discard in some other recipe. I decided on Bread Experience's sourdough garlic knots.

I took my (still-unnamed*) sourdough starter  out of the refrigerator on thursday morning and fed it. It happily bubbled and doubled.

That night, I ran late and wasn't ready to start the prepwork until around 10p. I decided not to go through with it because this prepwork also involved around 2 hours of fermentation before you can put the dough back into the refrigerator.

I wasn't up to staying up till midnight so I decided to postpone.

The next night, I prepped according to instructions. In retrospect, I should have lessened the water a bit more than I did. The recipe author did caution against adding too much water if your starter is 100% hydrated which mine was. Unfortunately, this was my first time doing this so I had no idea what texture was good.

I divided the dough as needed and tied the knots. They were uneven, some bigger / smaller than the others but they did look like knots.

I put them back in the oven (not lit) to proof and waited for them to rise & double and when they did, I had to split them into two baking trays.

I will mention that by this time, my knots have sort of "melted" into what I could only best describe as blobs. My husband suggested a less-palatable term. Eek!

Despite its questionable looks, the sourdough garlic blobs did turn out okay.

Miele

I finally got someone to come in and take a look at our dishwasher.  I was pleasantly surprised and relieved to see the man put on a mask when he got out of his truck. I did see "contactless appliance repair" in their flyer and website but didn't think to ask what PPEs they have.

Our dishwasher had been out of commission for more than a year, perhaps even 2 years, and I've been having a hard time getting someone to service it. It probably also didn't help that I've been pronouncing it "MEE-LEE" all this time when the correct pronunciation is actually "MEE-LA".

We've been given the verdict. The WPS (Waterproofing system) or the system's water inlet system is needs to be replaced, the cost is $450+tax. If we say yes within 2 weeks, today's service call fee of $64.99 can be deducted from the total cost.

... meanwhile, we are still reeling from the cost to replace.

When we replaced our dishwasher in the condo last time, it cost us ~$320. To give context, this was in December 2012, the cheapest model then was $240 (a Frigidaire) and we got the next higher model because I was trying to prove that I wasn't cheap ;) haha!

We haven't decided yet but I am leaning towards repairing the Miele for the following reasons:

- per the service tech, Miele is the Ferrari of dishwashers. Sayang naman if ours is repairable.

- I checked prices and Miele's start at $1200+.. going upwards of $5k. Ours will be sayang if it's repairable.

- ours already has a front panel that match the rest of the kitchen cabinetry. It might cost us more to look for a model that supports custom front panels. If we choose not to attach the panel, it won't match the rest of the kitchen as all appliances - the refrigerator & the refrigerated drawers - all have the matching cabinet panels.

Project: UV Sterilization Box

My college friends and I were talking the other day and one shared her HomeSoap UV sanitizer - it's basically a box that uses UVC light to sanitize any object that you can fit inside.

I was intrigued but it was out of stock.

... and truth be told, $199.95 + tax + shipping was a bit too steep for me.

So I decided to look into other options. I had the UVCare Portable UVC wand that my brother sent me from the Philippines, but it took effort to slowly wave over our groceries. I wanted something quick and easy. Okay, .. and cheap too.

There were many UV sterilizers available in the market. Most are for smaller objects like baby bottles, small stuffed toys, cellphones,.. I wanted something bigger. I wanted to sterilize bigger objects - something along the lines of groceries and other dry goods.

And then I saw this. It was bigger, compared to the others, and is about 1 cu ft, give or take, I didn't bother looking up the dimensions anymore.

But, I wasn't happy with the price-point (~ $110 + tax + shipping). It was basically just a collapsible fabric box with a reflective layer inside and 2 UVC lamps and I thought to myself, "I can make this."

As it turns out, many people have had the same idea. Googling "DIY UV light box", "DIY nuke box", "DIY mask sterilization box" or any other variations gave lots of ideas.

Here's my UV Light box.

For the light box itself, I used an insulated bag. It turned out to be too soft so I built a cardbox box around it and clipped the sides to the box to lend it more support.

I got a 13w UVC sterilization light and taped it to the lid using vent tape which is both reflective and also heat-resistant.

I got a dollar store cooling rack for the bottom of the box. it was a bit too long but I folded the sides with pliers to make it fit, it also had the added benefit of lifting up the rack so that there'd be space at the bottom for the light to reflect.

I may or may not get a 2nd UV light to put below the rack so there's light coming in from top and the bottom.

Week 9: Rainy Day and Laundry

Laundry has been on my mind the past few days, I keep reminding my self to fold up the clean laundry to free up a basket so I can wash another load.

A few minutes ago, it just stared raining and as I watched big, fat droplets land on my window, my first thought was "Oh, no, paano ako maglalaba ?"

So I resigned myself to not doing laundry today.

Around 10 minutes later, it hit me. What does rain have to do with laundry ? It's not like we hang up our clothes outside to dry them under the sun. Ang labo.

Week 8: Pizza

So at week 8, I'm really really sick of cooking.

Yes, really.

Tonight, I decided that we'll just do delivery.  Spent an hour poring over the menu before deciding what we wanted to order and surprise, surprise, the restaurant has since closed (they used to be open for delivery before).

So it's Domino's to the rescue.

I eat pizza but am not really a fan. I'll eat it if it's free (i.e. office lunches, etc) but if I have to pay for it, I'll get something else and considering that we just had free pizza courtesy of the bosses last week, I shouldn't be looking forward to pizza... not for several more months anyway.

... but tonight ? I'm actually drooling at the thought of pizza.

Guess quarantine brings out a different side of us.

Week 8

Coming up on week 8 of quarantine.

It's not the month of May and the news is filled with stories about stage governors making plans on reopening their states. NJ state parks have been reopened on Saturday May 2, 2020.

Interestingly, it took 8 weeks before we finally really stayed home over a weekend - not one trip out to get supplies. I did plan on going out but when I reviewed my list, there was nothing critical or essential so I didn't go out anymore.

Meanwhile, I am still craving for bread - pandesal or any crusty bread - but with no yeast, there's nothing much to do. One of these days, magkakaroon rin :)

The thread I ordered 2 weeks ago finally came and I finished up the masks for my family in CA (this is batch 2 and also includes masks for my bro and SIL, if/when Mom and dad are able to fly back home).

I think I will make the husband another one since he doesn't have a spare - ang dami kong ginawa and have given everything away so far ;)


A few days ago, I caught Swe-cha praying...

      "Dear God,.. Thank you for our blessings... ... "

and at some point, I saw him cast a sidelong glance at me and say ".. and please don't take away the coronavirus. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Hindi ko na ni-correct. Sincere naman yung prayer nya. i figure, it was similar to when we were young and prayed for Typhoon Signal #2 or 3 para suspended ang classes.

Week 7: More facemasks

Finally wrapped up the batch of face masks I was making to send to my family in CA and they've gotten it and distributed it. I sent a bunch of masks in Small and medium sizes.

BIL got the 2 medium ones. Mom got 2 small ones and everybody else got 1.

Made a few masks for friend R&E and R did pick these up.

I started on another batch of masks for my family, the goal is to have everybody have 2 so they'd have something to alternate while one is being washed. Also making masks for my brother and SIL... but at this point, I ran out of thread. Yep. Thread.