I just put a huge lasagna in the oven. Finally splurged and got myself a non-stick 9×13 Paderno baking pan and a couple of nice heat-proof plastic utensils (cutter and long, shallow-angle spatula) to go with it. This is in addition to the other mini-shopping spree I went on the other day where I got myself: a good garlic press, 2 very sharp paring knives, some solid tongs, two non-stick fry pans (1 8″, 1 10″), and some stainless steel olive picks (martinis).

As someone pointed out recently, $1000 isn’t a lot when you’re talking about computer gear, but it’s an insane amount when talking about kitchen gadgetry. I haven’t spent anywhere near $1000 (more like $100), and it’s just making my daily life that much easier. I have more stuff on my list — two more large plastic cutting boards (I’ve decided I don’t have the patience or discipline to deal with wooden ones), a nice deep pasta pot with drainer insert (that doubles as a vegetable steamer), a knife sharpener (electric…I’m not nearly skilled enough to use a stone), a good all-metal single-cast meat hammer, a cast-iron stove-top grill pan, er…etc. Kitchen stuff, once you get into it, is one of those never-ending addictions.

Anyhow, I just made a huge lasagna — sauce, noodles, sauce, meat sauce, mozzarella, more noodles, more sauce, ricotta-spinach layer, mozzarella, more noodles, more sauce, more meat sauce, more mozarella, more noodles, more sauce, more meat sauce, er…possibly another layer of sauce, meat sauce, and noodles, then topped with a hefty 6 cheese combo. It’s…huge. 9x13x2, mm.

Unlike many purists, I use no-boil noodles. The time saved really makes it worth while, and the end difference is negligible. Also, the noodles really soak up the excess moisture so you get a nice solid slab of noodley tomatoy cheesey goodness. Mm.

Should be ready in about half an hour.

In other news, I’m watching the A-Team (season 1 DVDs) and entering our library (books) into Delicious Library. See, my darling man surprised me with an iSight the other day. Delicious Library uses iSight as a UPC barcode scanner for entering items. It’s hella slick. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to recognize most of our paperbacks so far, but it’s good with hardcovers and such.

Bell update: they still suck. Long story short, after two weeks of having a broken phone, they finally managed to fix it. Yay. Bad news is, they managed to break our DSL in the process, and seem to be far too braindead to figure out how to fix it without (for some f*ing reason) sending a goddamned tech out to our place. See, the fix they made DIDN’T REQUIRE A TECH TO COME HERE, in spite of them telling us so three times and wasting three full days of our time (one of mine, two of Rob’s). They replaced a card at the central office. What they need to do is enable our line for DSL again. It’s not something they need to come to our house for. I swear to god.

Anyhow, Saturday morning, realizing (after chatting with their helpdesk for half an hour) that Bell was just too stupid to fix this, we switched back to Rogers. We just had to go to the store, give them $100 for a modem, then sign up. It was activated and working by the time we got home. So, yay internet. Boo Bell.

Haven’t played much WoW this weekend, but did read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (all of it, it’s a good but short read), and started The Silmarillion (excellent so far). Also put a bunch more books on my “to read” list while cataloguing our library today. Yay reading :)