November 11-12

I want to learn Indian cooking. I've already begun to experiment with curry, but I want to expand my knowledge. I'd been thinking about this past week and then on Sunday evening (November 11) a friend of mine from India invited me to dinner. It was fantastic. I want to explore this more. I also met with a few people in the evening to work on planning a Thanksgiving dinner. I'm in charge of green beans and apple pie. I'll also be teaching one of the other people in the group how to make apple pie. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to buy the crust or try to make it. Buying it is less fun, but I don't have a pastry blender, rolling pin, or Crisco, so a pre-made crust might be a bit more practical.
Monday was truly a day of mishaps. It started out while I was preparing my lunch in the morning. I was slicing some cheese and the wire of the cheese slicer snapped. I'm pretty sure that it was not my fault. It was just old and I just happened to be the unlucky one using it when it broke. I bought a new one to replace it though. Then later, while walking downtown, a pigeon flew right up in my face out of nowhere. It was terrifying and I'm sure I looked ridiculous as I flailed around to avoid it. The next mishap happened while I was heading to watch Stargate with a couple friends. I had something to put in the mail. The mailbox is on the corner about 50 meters from the bus stop. I forgot about it as I was passing by, then remembered and turned around to put my mail in the box. As I was walking back to the stop, the bus came and since I was like 10 meters away, and no one was actually waiting AT the stop, it didn't even slow down, it just went right on by, even though I was jogging to get to the stop. If it had stopped, I would have totally been there before it could have even opened the doors. I was a bit annoyed, I'd never had this problem before. The final mishap happened while I was getting ready for bed Monday night. I broke my toothbrush. Seriously. Have you ever heard of such a thing? The handle just snapped! Since there's this rubbery grip on it though, the two pieces are still connected, but it's more difficult to hang on to. What a day!
So, this is going to come as a big shock to all of you I'm sure, but I'm kind of a nerd. After I broke my toothbrush, I got to thinking about the structural and material properties of it. I drew a Free Body Diagram in my head accounting for the points in which I apply force to the toothbrush and the couple resulting from the brush pressing against my teeth. Then I thought about the Young's and shear moduli of the molded plastic polymer that is my toothbrush and I considered the forces required for elastic and plastic deformation as well as critical failure. From all this, I decided that I must grip my toothbrush too forcefully for it's design. I kind of knew this already, because I had a dental hygienist tell me one time that I brush my teeth too hard and should hold my tooth brush differently in order to brush more gently. Since I am cheap, and the bristles of my toothbrush still have life left to them, I'm continuing to use the broken-handled toothbrush. Although it is slightly inconvenient because it is somewhat more difficult to hang onto, this may actually be better for my oral hygiene. Due to the nature of how I must now hold the toothbrush, I'm applying less force to it. Also, the shorter handle creates a shorter moment arm and applying the same force on this shortened moment arm creates less torque and less force being transferred to my gums. As I said before, I'm kind of a nerd.