Torrilin's Profile

My partner and I started out sharing a 450sq ft apartment. We're both computer geeks, so we squeezed two computers onto a long desk. Three years later, in a much bigger apartment, the same trick still works for us. We spend a lot of time together at our desk. And if one person is at the desk, the other one can feel a lot more alone on the sofa or in the bedroom... a big part of small space living is having enough alone time.

We also love books, so the entire study has walls covered in bookcases. Otherwise, we don't keep much "stuff" around. Having a passion is ok, but it's not ok if it takes over your life and makes you feel trapped.

We don't have a car, and I make a point of patronizing local businesses. The easy farmer's markets run Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. The university butcher shop is only open on Fridays. Everything else (the Korean grocery, the Chinese grocery, Trader Joe's and the university dairy) is open every day.

I do most of my grocery shopping on my bike, and it usually works out to 2-3 trips per week. One luxury is cinnamon rolls from a baker at the Saturday market (tho about half the time that's the *only* item on the list for Saturday). Then the other two trips will let me pick up what I need for the week's planned meals. I don't usually run out to grab something I hadn't planned... if I forgot it, I revise the plan to use more pantry staples.

Some weeks will be more than 3 trips. I get rice, beans, flour and sugar in bulk, so if they've run out, I might not be able to carry everything on my bike in one trip.

(I will do emergency runs for coffee or tea... being out of one or the other is a dire fate that leads to much gnashing of teeth, wailing and pouring ashes on the head. Very stressful. And I'm so desperate to get the caffeine that it's all I can think of, so anything else is liable to fall out of my head.)

Uh... The Stokemonkey is not currently available. Hasn't been for over a year, partly due to liability concerns from people trying to cram one on designs it wasn't intended for. There are also issues with keeping the design safe, street legal and reliable.

It might be a good idea to retract this post and save it for when the redesigned unit is (finally!) available.

Tea has a wide range of health benefits. First off, it's a good way to get water into someone. The antioxidants, caffeine, warmth and so on are also good. *Milk* has a wide range of health benefits (presuming you're not lactose intolerant). Calcium, protein, fat... the list goes on and on.

Drinking tea with milk doesn't make it unhealthy, even if the antioxidant benefits are minimized. Even loading up on sugar isn't going to make it really unhealthy. Even for a soda drinker, tea will start to taste unpleasantly sweet long before you get to soda quantities of sugar.

Now from a *flavor* standpoint you won't hear me arguing. Variety is good, and milk can mute some flavors in tea. And if the tea is unpleasant without milk, it might be a good idea to swap to a tea that you like both ways... after all one does run out of milk.

They can be reasonable. Their bulk foods tend to be obscenely expensive ($3/lb for red lentils vs $1/lb anyplace sane... and I'm not even buying the damn organic lentils! granola and rice are even worse). Stuff like store brand salsas and tomato sauce seem decently priced.

Since most of what I buy is bulk foods and produce, they're not very useful to me. About once every 3 months, I make a trip to Whole Foods to buy red lentils. Whole Foods is within walking distance of Penzey's spices and a nice bookstore, so a Whole Foods trip is never just one item (not that it's a *pleasant* walk mind, the whole area around Whole Paycheck is pretty nightmarish on foot)... the other places where I can get lentils, there's nothing else useful nearby.

And honestly, if they're doing more sales, that just makes me less likely to shop there. I don't have the time, mental energy or desire to figure out if Store A or Store B is running a sale on critical staple X. That kind of nonsense is infuriating to deal with, and I try to spend my money with stores that don't make me crazy. Most bulk foods are things I can get from stores that are within walking distance and they don't play the price game. I'd rather give them my money. And most produce comes from the farmer's market... and farmers don't play price games either.

I've had real buttermilk a time or two, but only the fresh version. If you make butter at home, you only get about 1/2 cup of fresh buttermilk from 1 cup of heavy cream... and that doesn't last long enough to ferment!

If the recipe only gives US style volume measurements, that's probably the cause. Most professional bakers only work off of weight, which lets them adjust for humidity (or the lack of it). If I'm trying someone else's bread technique, I don't even bother if the recipe is only given in volume anymore. Too unreliable, and I won't get what the author intends.

I can't think of one that I truly dislike.

If beans bother you, don't do them on the stove. A crock pot works well and doesn't take anywhere near the monitoring the stove does. And if you don't have a crock pot, an oven with an all metal or ceramic pot works wonders - set it at 200 or 250 degrees F and leave it alone.

But bicycles are already portable. Aren't they? Why do they have to fold up?

Amtrack, most intercity bus services, and most in-city mass transit allow folding bikes on board. If you're using a full-sized bike, they won't carry it without it being disassembled and put into a shipping box. A standard size bike is an oversized package to airlines, and normally never flew free... a folding bike can fit in a standard size suitcase and would make weight as your checked bag. (course, now any checked bag costs... but the folding bike still makes the cheap cutoff)

Most of us probably don't have the time or strength to bike home to visit family. And If you've got a 40 mile one way commute, you probably don't have the time to bike the whole way either. But a folding bike can make both sorts of trips possible, without needing a car.

I'd still rather have a Dahon Curve or Bike Friday Tikit than this bike tho... A plastic bike makes me nervous.

Wing chairs are very comfortable. They're a traditional shape (much like your couch), and can look neat with a "modern" style upholstery fabric. Not very mod, but if you've already got a piece you love because it's so comfortable, it's worth checking out. Some types of wing chairs are very "wood heavy", and that would suit this couch.

If the rest of the living room pieces are curvy and wooden, it won't matter if the design is "modern" or "traditional... the combination of good wood and comfortable seating will look good and be an inviting place to stay.