Dearly Beloved

[VelvetElvis]

This isn't a thing, exactly, but I haven't been able to even stand the smell of fried chicken for about a month now. It used to be one of my favorite foods.

...now I'm all suspicious. You know what smell aversions mean.

Ughhh. I know what they mean. And I know that my mother was that 1% of women that hormonal birth control never worked for. So, yeah, I have a little paranoia.



EDIT: ha, EL, one of the things about having worked in heatlhcare for years is that my smell aversions are healthcare specific. For instance, I hate the smell of insulin.

[Eaquae Legit]

Know what you mean. I have an aversion to a specific type of industrial floor-cleaner. It only got worse when my mom was sick, because now I associate that smell with sick mom as well as work.

[Luet]

My friends tell me that I have pregnancy-nose. Seeing that I have an incredibly sensitive sense of smell (and an aversion to many smells) normally, I cannot imagine how bad it would be if I was ever pregnant.

[LilBee91]

My beloved TI-83 silver edition has vanished. The calculator that has seen me through every class with any math since eighth grade. The calculator whose games entertained me through high school chemistry. The calculator that my brother had a poster of in his bedroom. The calculator that same brother bestowed upon me after he graduated high school. The calculator that he got from his crazy ex-girlfriend who broke his. The calculator that has been my comfort and lucky charm for many a test and homework assignment. My dear calculator is gone. Nowhere to be found. Did I leave it in the chemistry building? The lab? The food court? The deep recesses of my couch from whence there is no return? The world may never know.

And now I am stuck borrowing my roommate's TI-89 that, despite being a newer and fancier model, lacks all the beauty and ease of use that made my calculator an extension of my own mind.

Come back to me, O Calculator, wherever thou mayst be. I know I have not used thee as frequently as I have in years past, and for that I am most sorry. It is nothing against thee, for thou art as marvelous as the day thou wast born, and I mourn thy loss.

[Platypi007]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that, the death of a french press is a sad thing, a Boudom doubly so...

Is it super nerdy that I know exactly which product this is? Yes, and I'm comfortable with that. I spent many days eyeing a Chambord from behind my expresso machine at work, I never was able to afford it, though. Now I own the Costa Rica, which my mom picked up at a thrift store. Thrift stores FTW.

[GS]

The calculator that my brother had a poster of in his bedroom.

Whaaa? This seems utterly bizarre to me.

[VelvetElvis]

The calculator that my brother had a poster of in his bedroom.

Whaaa? This seems utterly bizarre to me.

I thought the same thing.

[GS]

I totally pictured a sleek looking TI-83 with a bikini on.

[VelvetElvis]

"Push my buttons and I'll plot your matrix"

[Mich]

I thought I had lost my TI-81, and was similarly saddened. This was two years ago. Then I visited my brother in Texas and discovered he had it. Even had my last name in white-out on it. So keep your chin up! It is somewhere!

[Platypi007]

Ok, I no longer feel nerdy, you people are talking about calculators with bikinis.

[Luet]

I never got into the TI calculators. I was partial to the casio's VPAM entry system. I know that I'm in the minority. My current calculator, which isn't for calculus/graphing purposes, is a Casio fx-115MS. The one I had in high school had my name etched into it.

Also, I love this notebook of mine:

[VelvetElvis]

I did math and did it capably, but I hated it. I don't know how to described how much I dreaded it.

[LilBee91]

His pre-calc teacher gave him the poster as part of his ongoing attempts to foster higher morality in his students. Not that my brother had an issue with that. He did have a poster of a calculator on his wall, after all. Unfortunately, it is not wearing a bikini.

[VelvetElvis]

I never had a poster.

[Young Val]

Shannon, I offer you my deepest sympathies. Truly, that is a devestating loss.

[Noodle]

I had a TI-81 that died so I got a TI-85. I loved that thing and due to my programming skills I was able to write a program that did a lot of my math work for me. It had all the equations and extra calculations that came in handy from high school through college. I was even able to sell the program to several people at our high school. By the end of the year that I wrote it, most of the kids in our school had the program on their calculators.

My wife broke her TI-85 so she has mine now. She managed to spill on it so all Tue keys are very sticky but it works. Somehow, my homework solving program is no longer loaded on it.

[Luet]

My herbal heat wrap (yes, that I was using for cramps) is no more. My husband was trying to be helpful and microwave it for me but he didn't realize that he was supposed to fold it up so it could rotate and instead it was flat out and touching the sides of the microwave. It could not rotate and thus it got so hot in one spot, that it MELTED to the side of the microwave. It has served me well for over five years. Off to etsy to look for a new one...

[VelvetElvis]

Oh no! What a terrible time to lose it.

[Young Val]

Dearly Beloved,

We are gathered here today to say our goodbyes to my most frequently used kitchen utensil: Oxo Good Grips Silicone Flexible Turner.

SFT, I have no words. You were truly the best spatula I've ever owned. Pancakes, quesadillas, stir-fry--you were there for me. Perfectly-flipped over-easy eggs every. damn. time. Your weight, your width, your balance...you were a thing of beauty. Truly the most versatile of all culinary tools, your precision was unparalled.

I am lost.

All the eggs I've made since you passed....disasterous. No other spatula handles the way you did. When I'm cooking now, I reach for you...and you're not there. Your absence is like a dull, rusty knife in my heart. In the four years we spent together I did some of the best cooking of my life. I'm just no good without you, baby.

When you get to Kitchen Heaven, give my love to FP (we still haven't properly replaced him). I hope you can take comfort in one another, but I shall never get over the holes you've left behind.