The Rest of Week Two

Wednesday

Wood shop.  Re-measured, marked and cut my official first wood block today.  Hurrah!!   I was able to meet and talk with some new students that had come in to work the hour.  A little busy, but connecting with the students can be just as important as cutting a piece of wood.

Photo description.  My measured wood and miter hand saw in "ready position".  Marking tool & click ruler.

Braille:  Learning about 2-3 new letters tactually, and 5 contractions verbally.  Getting better with the slate and stylus.

Home Ec:  I prepared and cooked another omelette with cheese, so I could get the flip technique down.  It worked this time.  Woot!  I started the prep work for a stir fry by cutting large amount of vegetables.  One thing I learned to do today was grate fresh ginger.  I won't be using bottled (powder, ground, etc..) ginger again!  I have heard that it's important that you "hide" your food in the classroom fridge because it was sometimes disappear from other students looking and using yours.  Crossing my fingers that it will be there tomorrow.

O&M: Walked the perimeter of the building with Brook again.  Took "air" off a curb again in one place.  I will get this down, I will get this down, I will get this down....

Thursday

Braille:  My wood shop teacher was not present today, so I decided to go into the Braille room and practice Braille for 2 hours.  I read for an hour and practiced writing the alphabet and sentences on the slate and stylus.  This is a class I want to show faster improvement and I know will take practice.  I read at home tonight and used the slate & stylus to write the alphabet.  I am trying to find the balance of "doing homework" and keeping work at work.  Little tricky right now.

Home Ec:  Very challenging, but positive "self esteem" day.  Today I finished making a curry stir fry chicken and rice.  My instructor jokes that this recipe is his "secret weapon" when he dates a girl and invites her to his home to cook dinner.  Yummy goodness.

I prepared most of the ingredients prior to heating the wok and putting it all together.  I found an electric wok, plugged it in and added oil.

I first sauteed two sliced chicken breasts and veggies (green pepper, fresh mushrooms, onion, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, green beans) separately in a wok with olive oil.  Removed from wok and put in a large bowl to add later.

Combined a bottle of curry paste, minced garlic (3 cloves) and a golfball size of fresh ginger.   Put in the wok with a small amount of oil and heated for 10 seconds.  

Added a can of coconut milk.  Stirred 10 seconds.

Combined 10 shots of hot sauce, 10 shots of vinegar and equal amounts of soy sauce and added to curry combination.  Stirred for another 10 seconds and then mixed in chicken and veggies.

I let simmer for a about 5-10 minutes and then added the grated rind and juice from a full lemon.  Added sugar to taste and then served with rice.  Since this was a big project, I cleaned up some of my dishes (we clean everything we use), ate a little, and headed to O&M.  *I came back later and finished cleaning and put away dishes before I went home.  Note to self:  Wear apron.  I forgot to put on an apron when working and had small oil splatters all over my brand new shirt.  Waawaaa. 

I cook very basic food for my family, so this was "BIG" for me on many levels.  There was some leftovers, so I was able to bring it home and we had it for dinner.   My family said they liked it overall, but would change some of the veggie choices and not add as much hot sauce.  Will definitely make again.

Picture Description:  Not thrilled with how this picture turned out, because it does not do it justice, but for the record that I did it and did it 100% under sleep shades.  Go me.

O&M: Brook walked to a neighborhood park with another student while I practiced walking up and down the sidewalk on the East side of the building.  I tried to concentrate on eliminating the "death grip", high arc, and feeling for curbs.   I had streams of sweat dripping down my face in the hour week worked.  Good times, good times.

Keyboarding.  Moving along.  Finished lesson 69, so I have about 30 more to go and then some extra short key instruction.

Friday

O&M: My typical instructor (Brook) was absent today, so I worked with another instructor, Mike.  We went around the perimeter of the building again.  Feeling a little more confident, but still tend to hold the cane in a death grip when outside.  I told Mike, "it's not like holding the cane really tight is going to help me out of problem-solving situations.."   I was able to take two turns with success, but did "find air" on one of the corners.  Dang it!!  I learned the value of the position of the sun, being parallel with traffic, the value of "sound" landmarks such as the large air conditioner, and I-215 traffic.  Wearing sleepshades in the hot sun equates to stinky, smelly, sweaty face.  I am a sweaty mess after O&M, but would rather than be sweaty than freezing cold.  Pray that the winter is mild.

Picture Description:  Me using my cane.  Open palm, zero death grip, and in cadence.

Home Ec:  Cut up veggies, prepared whole chicken.  First time using the oven.   Cons:  Forgot to put in the cut veggies I prepared, cooked the chicken upside down in the pan (breast down), and it took me over an hour to prepare when it should have taken me 20 minutes.  Finding and identifying the spices I wanted slowed me way down, plus I move a lot slower versus my home kitchen.   Pros:  Learned alternative methods to work the oven.  Off/On and temperature control buttons.  Learned how to safely put in and take out food from a hot oven.  Learned how to make sure my chicken was not raw.   The two instructors who ate the chicken, gave positive feedback on the taste.

Braille:  Progressing.. slowly.  I am going to set a goal to read at least 30 minutes per night, like I preached to my children every day of their Braille lives.

Woodshop:  Measured and cut the rest of my blocks (6 total) for my Braille blocks.  Next class I will pre-measure the 6 cells  in prep for drilling the holes.  Good times.

Picture Descriptions:  All six wood blocks cut and ready to be measured and drilled.  My instructor (Chase) showed me a drill bit he created that uses a guard/stop so you know how deep your drill goes.  The guard/stop can be moved up/down, depending on what you are drilling.  Genius.