Good products in my life

Sometimes I'm in my kitchen or in my car, and am like "wow, I'm so glad I got [item], it's so great, I want to tell people about it", but then I was like "I don't want to be one of those mommy blogger product reviewers."

But yanno what, this is my DW, these things make my life better, so let's do this

Pikibu Rear-view Mirror
omg this is so great that I got one for my dad, too, even though it's a bit pricey at $30. (I did see an alternate brand for $15 just now.) It clips on to any rear view mirror, and then suddenly not only can you see the standard rear window just fine, you can also see your back seat and the persons sitting there. I think I'm going to keep this even after Miss Rutabaga grows out of the carseat, since it's just so helpful to see and converse with the other people in my car. Sometimes I drive my mom's car and I'm just like "why can't I see the back seat?"

Mini Waffle Iron
So this was a $10 impulse buy, but I now use it at least once a week. I can convert any sort of doughy pancake/bing/muffin recipe to fit, and it's so easy to just toss together some eggs, flour, milk, and whatever else and whip up some waffles. Leftover pumpkin pie filling? Waffle. Old bananas? Waffle. Zuchinni? Waffle. It takes about 5 minutes per waffle, the waffle-maker makes a ticking sound when it's done cooking, and I can do the dishes while I wait.
Caveat: I use chopsticks to handle the hot waffle maker and to pick the cooked waffles out. It works super well, but I can imagine those tasks being a bit difficult if you don't wield chopsticks

Glass boba straws
This is probably a "me" thing, but I love my boba straws. I go get boba a few times a week, and I bring my own reusable cup and straw. I hate the taste of metal, and I don't like reusable straws that I can't see the inside of (what if there's gunk there?), so I love that I can get glass straws. I've been using these for 3+ years at this point.

Moft X phone stand
I resisted being one of those people who only have 3 cards on them at any given time, but then several things happened at around the same time: (1) I got my purse stolen, AGAIN, (2) I upgraded all of my pants to pants with pockets, which fits 2 of 3 things: my phone, my wallet, my keys, and (3) I got the Moft X. It's a slim thing that fits on the back of most smart phones, it can help your phone stand up vertically *and* horizontally, it holds 3 cards (actually it can hold 1 more thin card or cash, although nowadays if I'm going somewhere that needs cash I just put the cash in my pocket and disambiguate the change when I get home). Most importantly, it's also *magnetic* and comes with an adhesive magnetic bar, so I've put the bar in my car, and when I'm driving and need driving directions, I just slap the phone on my car dash area without futzing with awkward clip-on stands.

Impossible Burger
I was so happy when the local grocery store started carrying this, because 4 years ago, Spouse decided to stop eating pork and beef for environmental reasons. I, being Chinese, know a bajillion ways to make pork, but only 1 chicken dish. Slowly, over the last 4 years, I've painstakingly built up my seafood and chicken repertoire, plus have reached some compromises (dim sum is okay, dumplings are okay). But with the Impossible Burger, meat is back on the menu! I can make shepherd's pie again! And bok choy + meatballs! And Spouse can make tacos! I can basically use it like a ground pork/beef hybrid and it tastes much the same. BLESS

TruEarth laundry detergent sheets
These are basically strips of paper that replace laundry detergent. It's like dryer sheets except for the washing machine. Now I don't have to worry about recycling the detergent bottles, plus it takes up so much less shelf space! (I also tried those shampoo soap bars at around the same time, and turns out those are not really effective for people with long-ish hair. Spouse uses them, though!)

some life things

- I just finished my 3rd week of being partially back on campus! Mondays and Wednesdays are hectic, but doable. All the classrooms have windows open and fans on, which means that it's ~40 degrees in the room (lol). We're slowly streamlining the weekly covid test process. Now that I'm not grading / writing narratives nonstop, I'm really enjoying having Tuesdays/Thursdays to really focus on prepping. :)

- Today I had kid conferences. One kid noted that because he's Asian-American and into math, colleges kind of expect him to have As in academics, so all the effort he puts in to achieve said As is just the baseline and will never be appreciated. Which ... yes. And it sucks. And it reminded me of the fact that when my Asian-American students ask me for recs, I want to write about how great they are academically, but then I'm like, "crap, then the rec reader would assume that they're the typical nerdy Asian stererotype", which also SUCKS. There was another kid who was frustrated by some assignments and class changes, and I was like "oh crap, no one ever told you that you can ask for extensions or ask to change your classes" and it reminded me of how hard it is for me to advocate for myself, even when I know I can. Just, that part of me who needs to get permission from an authority figure or from the system itself. It makes me feel doubly glad that I mandate essay meetings with every single one of my students, and that I make signing up for a meeting with me exceedingly simple. Anything to lower these barriers, really. doesn't get to the issue that I teach at a fancy private school

- After my rant last month, Spouse actually got a therapist appointment! and went to it! and started attending a class about anxiety!! And today he was like "wait, what if I don't pre-emptively apologize for something?" I am SO HAPPY for him omgggggg

- Miss Rutabaga watched Lego Batman movie recently, and is now into Batman things. It's absolutely adorable. I've managed to find some children's readers on Batman, so that she's not reading the 1930s Batman stories we have at home. (She can just pick up a book and start reading! It's so amazing!!) She also cycled back to Moana after about 3 months of Spiderverse, and now she's decided that Maui is her favorite character, which makes sense, since she loves being silly. She's going to be 5 in 2 months!!!! :O!!

- Been pecking away at a fic that's currently ~5k words, which is pretty good for me. :) In a couple of weeks it's going to be February Break, and I'll probably have a day or two to do Full Creative Stuff, which would be a good time to properly wrap up The Rutabaga Project, and also draft something about Wong Kim Ark :muscle: