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i think i've managed to survive the cold i had yesterday. although today i was still sniffling a little bit, i've seem to have borne the worst of it already. i worked on eliza hoover's project for most of the day, the simple html coding taking a little bit longer than i had expected it'd take (hand coding tables is no picnic). i paid some bills, asked the bank about my property task, asked an agent about my life insurance policy, asked a mortgage lender about refinancing my mortgage (i can't get a good rate because i'm currently not employed), and cancelled my land line phone service. that look longer than expected as well. under the hands of a less patient person, the phone call would've probably exploded into some infuriating outburst over why it was taking so long, but having zero human contact for the entire day, i welcomed the conversation, even if it was with an at&t sales representative. for some reason they were adamant about giving me a hard disconnect, which from the way miranda (the woman on the other line) described it, involved some telephone repairman climbing the telephone pole, snipping wires, and pulling out some sort of device. whatever. i never said i understood how at&t conduct their business.

it's weird losing phone service, like losing a security blanket. now all i have is my cell phone, which i might consider upgrading the package to allow more minutes since this will be my only phone. i really couldn't afford two phone lines. my rationalization was that if somebody ever stayed at my house, there would be no way s/he would be able to call anyone. but i can't afford to pay $360/year just so this hypothetical guest can make calls. it's also kind of ironic that my father and i did a lot of phone wiring work in the house, and now i won't have phone service so those lines will go unused. once i get a job and start earning enough money, i'll reconnect myself. reconnection fee is $75 by the way, at&t doesn't do anything for free you know.

after a quick run to the supermarket to buy some groceries, i came back and made thai red curry again, this time using the can of thai curry paste i bought in chinatown last week. it's funny how it's called red curry even though its more like orange with little flakes of red chili pepper. i learned from my past mistakes, this time forgoing any lemon juice. i also made sure the flavor was correct, periodically taste testing, adding a tablespoon of sugar to balance the sour taste of the curry paste. i also added some mint leaves and green pepper slices and half a chopped up habanero pepper. next time i won't add them until the end, they get soggy and lose their flavor when i let it stew in the curry. the instructions also called for cups of water, but i just used a can of coconut milk (i can understand why water would be needed, the pungency was just a tad strong, the water would've diluted it a little bit). i turned my back away from the stove to do the dishes while the pot of curry was simmering, and by the time i turned around, some of the curry had boiled out of the pot. never turn your back on a stove! the final result came out okay, a definite improvement, although the serving i made was for 4 people, so i ended up having a little bit of rice with a whole lot of curry. the beef cubes were a bit tough, they might've been overcooked, or maybe it's just the natural consistency of beef. next time i'll try chicken or pork. i still think the best red curry i made was the time amy came to visit (it was chicken red curry). i think it was just a happy accident.

i'm not sure if i can eat anymore red curry though, i'm sort of all curried out. i wanted to make something from my fire & spice cookbook, but a lot of the ingredients can only be found in asian specialty stores, and i'm nowhere close to any those.