alexist

Since it seemed to rain nearly every day last month, I was curious how much rain we'd had in total. So I popped along to the National Weather Service page for New York and got the summary for May. How much did we have?

3.43".

Average rainfall for May in New York? 4.69"! We were actually below normal!

Thinking about it, it is possible--it seemed to rain a lot, but never in large amounts. The day-by-day record bears this out. (It's missing 31 May, for some reason. There was 0.59" of rain that day, according to the dailies.)

We're supposed to have some sun this week, but guess what, showers again next weekend. :-( Summer better not be a washout!

It was open for some reason and I picked it up. My eye hit on the following landmark:

"Raithes Organic Worm Farm".

I was a little surprised, to say the least. First, there's the fact that there is an organic worm farm (I didn't know there was such a demand). Second was that Nicholson's deemed it worthy of inclusion.

It's right near Jackass Lane as well :)

It's pg201 in this edition (spiral-bound, smallish), west of Keston and south of the A232 (Croydon Road), in case any of you want to see for yourselves. (The map, not necessarily the organic worm farm.)

I was making something to eat earlier and went to get the milk out of the fridge. There were 2 cartons (½ gallon), one half-empty (or half-full, choose your perspective) and the other unopened.

I opened the used one first and my nostrils were immediately assaulted. One look told me more than I wanted to know. It wasn't just sour, it had lumps. I poured it out and looked at the container. Its sell-by date was 23 May. I thought a minute and remembered that I hadn't bought milk this week because there was an unopened carton. Therefore, this milk was the stuff that had been half-used when I went last week. Before you ask "why do you buy such big cartons then?" the answer is that normally we do go through half a gallon (~1.89L, for those of you who can't be bothered to work out our strange American measures) a week. For some reason I haven't had any milk (except some of my secret childhood throwback indulgence, prepared Nesquik) for the past few days.

Anyway, this made me cautious. I looked at the date on the 2nd container: 31 May. (This is the sell-by date, not the use-by.) In theory it could be OK, but since I knew I bought it 10 days ago, I was suspicious. I opened, and had a sniff. It was nowhere near the horror level of the previous carton, but there was a definite sharpness. I'd say that it was probably OK yesterday, and will be definitely sour tomorrow. Down the drain it went.

Luckily I hadn't started the actual cooking yet, so I got to run out for a new carton.

(For those of you noticing my music: Yes, I've been on a Radiohead kick the past few days.)