When Automation Is Annoying: A Tale of Toilets (and Sinks and Soap)

Here's the thing, I am a fan of modern conveniences, fun new trinkets, and the latest in technology.  I'm currently a little weirded out by the touch pad in my rental car this week, but that's a different post for a different day.  Today I want to talk about the bathroom.

Here's the thing, it's swell they figured out how to automatically flush a toilet.  It's not swell that they always seem to flush when you're still sitting on them, and yet either don't flush at all when you go to exit the stall or they flush too quickly and you're all "EW, this just spewed on the back of my clothes, backpack, purse, etc."

So you vacate the stall and walk to the sink, only to find the soap and water are also automatic.  And they don't work.  Or maybe the soap works at the sink you've approached, but the water won't spit out.  So you're walking around trying to find a sink that will give you water.  While balancing a backpack and a carry on.  And if you're really lucky in order to activate the sensor you have to practically touch the back of the sink to get the water to come.  UGH...not cool, automation people, not cool.

Finally you have clean hands...and now you have to wave them in front of a paper towel dispenser to get something to dry them with. And 99.9% of the time this actually works.  Thank you paper towel companies for being superior to toilet and sink companies.  Oh, and Dyson, your hand dryers are so futuristic and awesome, but I wonder if you aren't blowing dirty, germy, unclean air onto my just cleaned hands.  Please tell me you're using a filter and that it gets cleaned regularly, unlike the air filter in my house or at the laundromat.

Note: Props to O'hare for having automatic toilet seat covers.  I wave my hand, the seat cover spins around and my bum sits on a nice clean piece of plastic.  I hope.  

Friday Funny

Anyone who knows my family knows that my dad is the king of practical jokes, stories, and any such antic involving the above.  He and I have been known to scheme, but we rarely try to pull things over on him.  So this morning, Doodlebug had a friend over, and was playing a joke on her.  My parents recently made some changes to their cable and now have two remotes.  Doodlebug told her friend that if she talked to the TV it would turn on, change channels, etc.  However, there was a remote hidden under a blanket that Doodlebug was using to control everything.  My dad walked in while this practical joke was occurring and started saying channels as well and the TV went where he said.  Later, my mom walks into the living room and my dad is standing there saying "TV on."  And of course nothing happens.  He said "C, did you change anything on the TV?"  And she said "No, what are you doing."  So he replied "The voice commands aren't working now."  So they yell for Doodlebug to come downstairs and he asks her what she did to the TV to make the voice commands stop working.  I promise, if my parents had hidden cameras, I would pay them $50 a viewing to watch my dad standing in front of the TV commanding it to come on followed by Doodlebug explaining how she was playing a trick on her friend (which ended up making the friend mad.)  The best part is, she had no idea she was pulling one over on him too...just an innocent trick against a 10 year old friend ended up getting the best of a 63 year old man.  Made. My. Day.

Friday: A Good Day for a List

1.  I can't stop making (and eating) this dish by How Sweet Eats: Carmalized Chicken with Mushrooms and Onions.  So far my two favorites were with a nice Biltmore Pinot Grigio and a Barefoot Wines Chardonney that would not have made for good drinking, but made a delectable sauce.  I also made it for a family with a new baby and used chicken broth rather than wine, if you don't want to indulge.  Best part: it's done, start to finish in less than 15 minutes.   That includes me getting the ingredients out of the fridge and chopping the onion.

2. Tuesday night I was making the above and didn't feel like dredging the chicken in flour because a) I always feel guilty for wasting the flour and b) I didn't want to have to get a plate out of the china cabinet so I wasn't sure where to put the flour to even dredge the chicken if I wanted to.  So I got a small strainer out (maybe 3 inches wide) and put a bit of flour in and lightly dusted each side of the chicken.  Worked like a charm.  And that saved more flour for..

3. BISCUITS!  One of the top gifts I have ever been given (Thanks S!) was the book Southern Biscuits.  So far I have only made one recipe, but I've made it many times.  Last time I made it my dad said he had thought I used  Grands.  That was a compliment because he prefers my mom use grands as to make biscuits.

4. Wedding Planning.  Thankfully YOJ Events is handling a lot of the big stuff for me (Candice is a dear friend and a kick butt event (not just wedding) planner.)  However, I've done things like book venues, find dresses (eek, I'm in LOVE with mine), work on invitations, etc.

5. Here's the future Mr.  Well, I guess technically he's already a mister, but he's the Mr. half of the future Mr. &  Mrs.   Thankfully my future MIL took this picture because the above Mr., who is the official photographer of the two of us, failed to take any pictures when the actual event occurred.

6. I need to write a post on why I don't do Facebook.  MoreLucy wrote why she doesn't Pinterest which reminded me I need to write why I don't Facebook.

7. I do Pinterest.  It's where I store the link to the recipe for #1.  And where I store all the ideas I see for inspirations.  I think my favorite thing is storing the recipes.  And then having a place where I can store the ones I've tried that are keepers.  If they aren't a keeper, they just get deleted.  All I can say is I accomplish 5% of the crafts on my boards, I'll have a darn cute house for Christmas and a similarly spooky one for Halloween.  Also, my family will eat a nice balance of healthy and not so healthy food.

8. Today marks 99 days left of being a single girl.  I have not been counting down, but was updating a registry yesterday and they told me 100 days so I assume today would be 99.  Don't ask me 3 week from next Thursday how many days because I won't be able to tell you.  I'm excited, but I'm not obsessed.

9. Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!  May all 3 of you who read this have a great weekend full of wonderful Summer memories.