Spinach revelation

I try to cook with spinach regularly: being vegetarian, iron deficiency is an issue for me, and my body seems to absorb iron from spinach better than any other food. I have for years (my entire grocery shopping career) bought frozen spinach as a block.

At my last grocery shopping trip, the store was out of the frozen spinach blocks. Nothing, not even way back on the shelf where only my husband can reach. Searching through the frozen vegetables section, I find frozen spinach in a bag. A bag of frozen spinach? It struck me as so odd. But I got two.

I can't believe I haven't discovered this before: I can use just half the bag without the assistance of a bread knife. I can stir the pieces of spinach into my dish without having to wait for the entire mass to melt. The pieces melt faster than a block does, too! Why would anyone buy a frozen block when bagged pieces are available?

There must be some advantage to the blocks. But as for me, I am a convert to the way of the bag.

No-touch light switches

Yesterday, I walked into a restaurant bathroom. The lights came on.

Motion sensors. It startled me, but was neat.

I was a summer intern Argonne National Laboratory; they had all their lights on motion sensors, and it worked really well. Except that if you were doing something sitting still (such as reading), you had to wave your hand in the air every ten minutes or so (to turn the lights back on). Fun times.

Amazing IV technology

On Monday, as a nurse removed my IV line, I noticed all she was removing was a plastic tube - no needle. I asked about it, and she raved about the device: the needle has this catheter around it, and after the IV line is placed, the needle is withdrawn and discarded, leaving just the plastic tube in place.

When this woman first started nursing, they had to leave the needles in: this required tying patient's arms to boards to prevent any motion, which would puncture the vein all the way through. Even with the bound arms, they still had many incidents of veins punctured through both sides, with the IV drip going into the arm tissue. I caught on to the nurse's enthusiasm for the catheters very quickly.

On Wednesday I had another line placed, and commented on how neat I thought the catheters were. This nurse was impressed by a different aspect of the devices: their flexibility means they can be pushed further into the vein than needles. Where the needle goes in is a weak spot; the ability to push the IV fluids in further away from that weak spot greatly reduces the risk of blowing the vein.

I'm ambivalent about a lot of plastics; they leach chemicals that we are only now learning contribute to obesity, PCOS and related disorders, and heart disease. But a plastic that offers that much protection to my veins? I'm all for that.

Making small tasks easier

At work, many times a day, I attach a tag to a customer's container. Our shipping department uses the tags, so they need to be readily visible. Many of the containers are perforated, or have bands around them, or nails sticking out, or there is a handy tag-holding device on the container. Sometimes, though, there is no good place to attach a tag.

One of my co-workers has a Leatherman multi-tool. He uses the awl to poke a hole in problematic containers (for threading the tag wire through). When I first with my current company, I would try to imitate this hole creating method with my pens. I kept breaking my writing utensils. I thought about getting my own multi-tool, but it was quite bulky - my coworker has a special holder he wears on his belt. I don't wear a belt to work.

Then I found this:

It's small enough I can carry it around on my keychain:

And now I, too, can easily make holes in our customer's containers!

It is also quite handy for retrieving packing lists, opening boxes, acting as a readily available light screwdriver or pliers, a lever in tight places, and more. The main drawback is that the knife is not locking, which is a safety concern. But for the amount I use it and the small size, this is a fantastic device.

I recently discovered an indispensable home use for this mini multi-tool. Small spice containers have long been a challenge for me to open. "Push here" they say:

If only it were that easy. I've broken the opening into bits (which fall into the container), managed to pop the thing open in one piece (only to have the entire thing fall inside the container), sliced open the entire top of container with a knife... success eluded me.

Until I tried out one of the screwdriver attachments from my mini-tool. It not only popped out the opening bit, but was thin and small enough I could pull out that bit of plastic and not having it floating around with the spices! Oh, the joy of attaining victory over the spice container.

Laminar flow

Since I first saw the advertisements in college, I have been enchanted by (and covetous of) laminar bathroom fixtures. The water that comes out of them doesn't splash: not even when it falls from the ceiling!


I may never have those fixtures in my bathroom. But, thanks to my local grocery store having a major expansion, I now get the next best thing. The filtered water station has a laminar faucet! Every jug I fill, I'm fascinated by the silent and completely splash-free movement of the liquid. And all I have to do is go grocery shopping. I am a lucky woman.