One activity in nearly all caterers is washing and drying raw vegetables. In low volume caterers, the drying is done with a hand operated rotary spin dryer. In most higher volume operations, a motorized spin dryer is used.
In kosher operations more water is used in order to rid the vegetables of very small creepy crawlies.
At one place I work, they use a lot of romaine, a lot of spring mix, a lot of parsley, etc. The spin dryer has a hose at the bottom (see first image) to empty the water.
Up to just recently, a basin was placed under the hose to catch the water. However, since the dryer vibrates the hose frequently detaches and needs to be reattached (takes time and effort).
Also getting the water from the basin to the disposal sink sometimes results in spillage and is, in any case, a time waster.
The executive chef bought hardware and rigged up a conduit that takes the water from the spin dryer directly to a floor drain (image 2).
Both Ann and I have sleeping issues. We both snore. We both sometimes awake panting.
I also sometimes sleep fitfully, toss/turn and get dry mouth at night.
All these are symptoms that sometimes result in diagnosis of apnea or other sort-of-treatable conditions.
On Wednesday 27 July we went to a sleep study and stayed until early morning Thursday.
The technician told me I probably slept for no more than about 15 minutes and it felt that way to me. I had trouble getting to sleep with all the hardware wired up to me.
We will have a follow up e-conference with the sleep physician next week.
I sent away for a collar for Heidi. We kept the one for Katrina and we were going to name the new cat Katrina II but she was so good at hiding that we had to change that plan.
In the 2nd image, you can see the collar information a bit. Unfortunately, the printers spelled Heidi with might be a capital "I" or more likely an 'l' so it reads, "Heldl".
But I figure that is good enough because the phone number is correct. Anyway, the old collar had our land line and we mostly keep the ringer off on that.
First image is obviously from the front of the cat.
I was at the kosher grocery store today. As the checker was ringing up the sale she said to me,
"would you like a free large box of matzoh". They had three types, I chose the Manischewitz.
That is one way to reduce inventory. Much of our matzoh come free when we purchased before Passover at stores that give you a free box if you buy more than a certain amount of groceries.
Matzoh is useful during the year for having two loaves when you've only bought one challah or for the third shabbat meal. Note that matzoh is a gendered female noun which reminds me that 'avot' meaning 'fathers' is also a gendered female noun. While 'nashim' meaning 'women' is a gendered male noun.
This was my first cavity to be filled in many, many years.
One big improvement in this area is that the filling looks just like your teeth were supposed to look like. My previous filling was done with some amalgamate of various metals and polymers.
I told the dentist my idea of using dentistry information to interrogate terrorists.
Step 1 Change the name of the Dept of Homeland Security to the Dept of Domestic Security, DDS for short.
Step 2 Require DDS to provide dental service to suspected terrorists.
Step 3 During the interrogation explain the dental 'benefit' to the suspected terrorist. Tell him that DDS will do a procedure and that some of the pain meds work really well, some not so much. Tell the suspected terrorist to think about cooperating with the DDS while pondering the following two words: Root Canal.
I donated whole blood yesterday.
I came to donate plasma but the machine that separates plasma from whole blood wasn't working.
Metrics:
Pulse = 68
Blood Pressure = 120/82
Hemoglobin = 15.2
Our sump pump was working heavily yesterday (actually beginning the evening of the 8th).
I don't know how much rain we got but it was a lot.
National airport got 4" of rain. Dulles airport got 2.32". BWI had 0.93" but had almost 3" on the 7th of July.
No strong winds fortunately but a persistent NE breeze all day.
George brought these in today.
The top of one of the starburst lily trees.
There are still plenty outside.
Yes, those flowers are big (about 5" across).
I was at the drug store today. I was annoyed at how high the prices were.
However, this store has a fairly easy to use e-coupon program.
I ended up paying only about 30% of the sum of all the listed prices by using various coupons. And since they were all electronic, it wasn't too messy.
Heidi has been with us since early March. She still won't let us hold her so we can't clip her nails or get her to the vet.
She has made progress however.
She sits near me comfortably. In the image she is on the arm rest of my easy chair.
She will briefly enter her carry box to get snacks.
She occasionally uses the cat tree to scratch (instead of, say, the couch).
Soon after I learned to drive I discovered that a lot of people didn't park considerately. They used two parking spaces or almost two.
The other day I was thinking about that and realized that it has been many years since I saw a car improperly parked in a way that took two spaces.
I don't know why that is. Maybe my sample is wrong or maybe I go to places where people are more careful when parking.
Or maybe a combination or maybe something else.
Last night I dreamed I was in an animated episode of Dennis the Menace. Everyone else in the dream was an animated character but me.
This is sort of like the movie "Who Shot Roger Rabbit" but with more animation.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Mitchell were dividing up a set of garden tools that I had brought: rakes, shovels, clippers, etc. I was trying to keep track of who took what and getting behind the count. Then I woke up.
Another view of the lily patch.
The starburst pink and white are in the front.
Behind them are the white trumpet ones.
George's car behind that.
Part of our house behind that.
In kosher operations more water is used in order to rid the vegetables of very small creepy crawlies. 
