Saturday, August 31, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced whole nectarine; hot water. Attempted to perform a financial operation; failed. Did more accounts hardening. Attempted to take apart an OXO pepper grinder aka pepper mill for cleaning. The only YouTube video I could find for this was "OXO salt and pepper grinder, disassembly & deep clean" by Newton Pens, but the video is backwards. The disassembly is discussed primarily in the last 70 seconds of a 15-minute video, and there is no video of the disassembly—only photos with voiceover instructions. I removed the three screws inside but failed to proceed further because I couldn't pry the bottom off, even with one small and one larger screwdriver. I felt at several moments that I might injure myself while doing so. We decided to abandon this pepper grinder and buy a new, different device. I shopped for a new pepper grinder. The OXO was purchased in 2011, so it has lasted a really long time. It's not broken, but if it can't be cleaned, we will likely part with it. Lunch: one corndog with french fries, all from frozen; hot water. Nap. Walked to dinner at Mini Potstickers (415-742-4681, 2045 Irving St): mini pan fried pork bun ($12.99), braised beef noodles (soup, $14.99), and wagyu dumplings (12 for $10.99); hot tea and water. All food and drink were delicious. My favorite was the braised beef noodles: perfectly tender bite-size beef chunks, noodles with just the right pressure to the bite, flavorful broth not too salty. There is a bit of red coloring in the soup that makes it seem spicy, but it is not spicy at all. Patrick liked all the dishes equally. Service was good. $42.33 after tax and tip. We walked and shopped in the area afterwards but bought nothing. Rode UberX home. We watched Warrior s3:e6 on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. I cleaned the OXO pepper grinder more, this time around the band that enables you to select the fineness of the grind. I found that forcefully pulling the top part apart from the clear hard plastic barrel and then rotating it a few degrees then releasing holds it in a position slightly apart, and in this position more gunk can be removed with dish soap and warm water. I made another unexpected breakthrough after remembering an old physics trick I have used before. I microwaved about 3 ounces of water in a glass for 30 seconds then stood the pepper mill in the hot water. The rubbery bottom part I was trying to remove expanded at a faster rate than the hard clear plastic it was attached to, and it was then not too difficult or risky to remove it using the handle end of a Le Creuset 1 tsp stainless steel measuring spoon which is wider than a screwdriver, so it might provide a tad more leverage, and shorter in length, which might provide more control than a longer screwdriver. I removed more gunk from the newly exposed areas with dish soap and warm water. I achieved another breakthrough in that the stainless steel cuff at the top of the hard clear plastic barrel came loose with pulling even though the entire assembly did not come apart. I then was able to squeeze a stiff toothbrush with dish soap and water under the edge of the cuff to remove more gunk. I decided that it was probably impossible to deconstruct the pepper mill completely. There is water under the cuff, but I'll let it dry overnight sitting on top of our Blue Air 411 air purifier. It's possible that the cuff's tightness might prevent the water from evaporating. We'll see in the morning. Updates for home devices, including Docker 4.32.0 to 4.33.0. Organized and weeded archived emails. Late snack: a banana.