Hump day doesn't have as much meaning right now to me. It is still the middle of the metaphorical week, but since my days are not dictate by a work place, what's to say I can't start my week on Tuesday and have them be ten days long? Other than the fact that everyone else is on a seven day week, that is.
Today was clean the kitchen day. This has gone rather smoothly. Clean off the counters, putting tongs away. Move some stuff to another room for possible removal completely. And then cleaning out the drawers and cabinets.
Cabinets are relatively easy. We don't have too much in the way of extra pans or plates or cooking gear. No, the problem lies in those sliding maws of doom known as kitchen drawers. There's a couple of silverware drawers, a battery/screwdriver/tape drawer, and six that are roughly designated as "kitchen related". It is where cookie cutters, ice cream scoops, large spoons, and random bits of stuff go to die and be forgotten.
So now the large space I just cleaned off is now covered with the debris from cleaning the drawers out. Extra oven mitts, spoons, citrus spritzers, straws, chop sticks and a lot of other stuff too numerous to mention is not sitting out there, to be picked over by my wife before going into the give to the thrift store bin.
Today is also spent in some of that stuff I put off because I never had time or was out of town. A physical/wellness health check, a referral to a gastroenterologist for a possible prostate exam and colonoscopy, and physical therapy in the afternoon. I topped it off with a chili dog (ok, two - but I had a free dog on your birthday coupon) at Der Wienerschnitzel.
I also stumbled across an article or two on text categorization using LDA. Now I'm familiar with using Bayesian analysis for single category determination, and the extension of that into multiple categories, but this sounds like it will allow more of a single pass at an individual dataset rather than a pass per category. Coupled with contextual replacement of terms with a common primitive to cut the dictionary size down, and there might be a decent speed improvement. I'll have to look into that after a bit and see how it fits into some of my predictive analytics research.
I missed the music session last night, unfortunately. I didn't want to go out again after the school event at Culver's. I did, however spend some time working with some of the Scarborough music to track down that error. And I couldn't find it. There is a chord that is off, but that invalid note in the bass line is not in the music I have. My guess is that it creeps in yearly without anyone noticing, and rears up during individual parts practice in about three weeks. I'll be ready this time, though. Once we spot it in the wild I'll transfer my notes and observations back to the lab and correct it once and for all.
Also along the music front I have found two flutes and once accordion that will go on the refurbish list. There is one silver flute that just smells musty. This one will probably get aired out and a different case procured for it - I might even have one upstairs. The second flute is a wood flute, maker unknown, that needs a complete pad replacement, some springs, recorking, and some general cleanup. It was wrapped in tape and a bad glue job when I got it. The accordion is probably the easiest. I already did some work on it a year ago to adjust the voicing on the treble side, but I have the internal blocks misaligned so there is some cross breathing on some of the notes. I've got another accordion somewhere that needs more extensive repairs - age and a disastrous plane trip broke a handful of reeds loose and I need to reattach them.
There's probably a few others around the house that will need some repairs. My older Gremlin concertina needs to be tightened up a bit, and a plate put in to keep the buttons aligned. Another flute (my Boosey and Hawkes with an unknown head) needs a new spring on one of the keys. A soprano balalaika needs some neck repair work done, as does my Merchant bass. And the rest of the stuff just needs to be played more.
Tomorrow I finish the first pass at the kitchen, and start on the breakfast nook and pantry. I'm now saying first pass on this stuff - the first gets the stuff broken up, and things starting to settle into new locations, but I'll need to take a second pass to keep the accumulated piles from adhering where they set down and get them out the door. I'd like to get it to the point where if something is put down in the wrong locations it will look and feel out of place, and by that unease make someone put it away properly.
Tonight's cooking expedition involved smoked sausage and buttered egg noodles, lightly spiced with chipotle pepper and salt, with garlic vegetables (from a bag) on the side. Preparation is simple. Take about a pound of smoked sausage, which was already fully cooked, add to about two pounds of egg noodles, which you have just cooked and mostly drained, and add salt and pepper to taste. Add about a quarter stick of butter, sliced into pieces, and finish heating until melted. You could add some other stuff to it, such as garlic or peas, but this was nice and basic. And I've got enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
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