In more ways than one. The first thing I did when I got to work this morning was check in with my supervisor, and then I gathered up some residents and busted up to roast some pecans. We used the kitchen in the therapy room, and let me tell you, we had that place smelling right! Roasted pecans are so easy to make. Preheat the oven to 350. Throw a stick of butter in a shallow pan and let it melt in the oven as the oven heats. When the butter is melted, toss in two pounds of shelled pecans and stir them real well. You want to get that butter on every nut. Once you’ve done that, salt them to taste. I use a good bit of salt, but that’s the way I like them. Stir them real well again.

The oven should be heated by now, but if it isn’t, wait for it. Put them in for a total of 15-18 minutes. Stir them well every five minutes. You’ll know they are getting close when they start smelling like heaven. Try one to see if they are done enough for you. If not, cook a little longer.

The other thing in the picture is my knuckle. I busted it, too, and it wasn’t nearly as fun. I was taking little cups of nuts around to the residents, and knocking on doors in the normal way. After 18 doors, that got a little tiresome on the knuckles, right? So, I figured I would just knock with the back of my hand. And I did. Twice. I only did it twice because my hand was already in motion when pain blasted me from knock number one and I couldn’t pull back. Yeah, those aren’t normal room doors like you have in your house. Those are institutional fire doors. You don’t just give them a little rap with the back of your knuckle. It’s five and a half hours later and while my knuckle no longer hurts, it is well on its way to a sickening shade of purple.

I checked my phone after I got done with the deliveries, and Wal-Mart had my rim in, so I left to get the second new tire. They were done lickety-split, so I came home and started some data projects. I’m making recovery dvds while I transfer videos from an outgrown external drive to the 1TB external I picked up yesterday. My desk is thrumming under all this spinning hardware.

Did any of you ever think I would outgrow a 750GB hard drive? Me either, but apparently 130,000 music files and 27 seasons of Classic Dr. Who comes out to about 720 GB and a girl has to put her system image somewhere, right?

Oh, let me tell you what else I am enjoying: this 4 port USB hub. It bumped me from 1 1.0 and 1 2.0 to 4 2.0s, It is still going to take over 6 hours to move my video collection, but I can print a document in less than a day now!