Yay!

So on Wednesday the 11th, I discovered that the only thing holding up my background check/drug test/final hurdle to get a hire date and start the new job was the fact that they couldn't verify my high school graduation (as the job requires a high school diploma or equivalent). Apparently, Danville High School is on autumn break this week. So, I had two choices: wait until Monday for them to get my voicemail requesting a copy of my diploma or a note on letterhead attesting my graduation, or find my diploma.

Now, when I was packing, I remember debating about the diploma. Should I keep it out or pack it up? I ultimately decided to keep my diplomas from my undergraduate (BA) and graduate (MSLS) out, as that might be required by a job, but since my diploma is in a puffy case that I wasn't sure that it would fit into my important papers box, I packed it away with the photo albums. I remember that distinctly. Of course, I also remember labelling the box 'diploma' (more on that below). So I knew the box, but not where it was in the storage unit.

So I went over that evening, after dark, and dug through roughly a third of the storage unit before finding what I thought was the box, but couldn't get that last box off of it easily. Then the lights went out (they're on a timer that only goes up to 30 minutes). Unfortunately, I'd burrowed in with things behind me, so I couldn't back up easily and go back down the hall to set the timer again. So I pulled out my cell phone, taking care not to drop it amongst the boxes, and put it in flashlight mode. Then I was able to read the box (which was not labelled 'diploma'), but nevertheless, had 'photo albums', and opened it to find the dratted diploma. It had taken about an hour since I'd left the house to achieve my goal.

So, this was what I encountered when I opened up the unit (I pulled out things, so I rearranged them, especially the boxes that had leaned against the paintings. My helper on the last day apparently did not realise one should pack heaviest on the bottom and get progressively lighter as you go up.)



Then, Eureka! Success! Or as my cousin wrote on Facebook, 'Behold! Glory!'



Then I put things back as best I could, and streaming sweat and feeling very overheated, made my way back home with the diploma. This is what I looked like. I think I aged 10 years, at least temporarily:



So Thursday I brought my diploma (and, for good measure, my name change court order, as I graduated under my former (birth) name). They made copies of those and now I am official, starting with Wednesday, October 18th as a hire date. Yay!!!

And it's finally all done!

The salmon is very blackberry-purple:



And here's everything together:



The salad is very hearty, and where it's been sitting in the refrigerator, it has quite a bite to it (there is hot sauce and chili powder in the dressing, and chili powder and cumin seasoned the black beans that are in it, too). The dressing also has half an avocado in it, and so it's heavier than a standard dressing.

The only thing I was a bit disappointed in was the size of the bread, which was set on XL and did not at all look like the pictures on the website. I was somewhat dubious about 1 teaspoon of yeast--even my white bread recipes for a large, not extra large loaf, call for two. And I suspect that it would have done better on the long cycle (4 hours) rather than the fast rise, even though that was what was called for in the recipe. I'll try it again, certainly, and even though it was rather small and a little dense, the taste was out of this world. The salmon came out well, although I actually have quite a bit of the glaze left, and I now have a purple wooden spoon. I also set off the smoke alarm while broiling it at the end, so I need to remember to screw it back into the wall before I go to bed (our smoke alarms are hard-wired into the building, so they don't have batteries).

Fortunately I've done dishes as I go, so all there is left to do is put my dishes in the dishwasher, take the salmon and put it into a plastic container, and put the pan in there, too, then run the dishwasher. That's it--everything else is taken care of. I'm happily sleepy now, which is not great, as I have to pick A up at 1 am. It was a good experiment. I can give YKWIA some tomorrow and see what his expert opinion is. I'll still have enough for lunch tomorrow for me as well and lunch Monday, I think. I do need to work on my timeframe--it took about 5 hours to make everything, partly because the glaze had to cool and partly because I'm just slow. But at least everything turned out fine.

Things I would do differently:

• Salad: I used a single cob of corn, but it was in its husk, and when I opened it up it was fairly small and frankly, immature. I may just get some canned or frozen corn next time, or at least a cob that's been husked. I also need to get plain quinoa, not a blend with brown rice, although it tasted fine.
• Bread: I may consider adding some yeast and see what that does, and then if that doesn't work, increase the time to the regular cycle versus the fast rise.
• Salmon: Not much different; it came out like it was supposed to, for which I'm grateful, as it was 2 lbs. of salmon, and that was something like $15. But it'll make four meals, so that's not too bad.

All in all it was a good learning experience, and tasty, too. :)

Update: I figured out what happened with the bread,  and it was user error,  not the recipe,  which calls for 1 TABLESPOON  of yeast,  not teaspoon,  which I misread even though I typed it into my recipe application correctly.  The fact that it did so well despite this is amazing.  I will have to make another loaf and sees how it goes. :) 

Well, persistence has led to me actually running Windows 10 on the desktop

A Microsoft Forum Moderator, Robhit Chettry, suggested for those of us who are having problems getting past the compatibility tool on the GWX ('Get Windows 10') application, to install Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool. So I followed the instructions. I was a little concerned because while I have the product key for Windows 8 when I purchased it from Microsoft, the Windows 8.1 key is often embedded in the BIOS, and while there are tools for that, I didn't want to pay to get the features I needed from one that was suggested on the forums. So I decided to do what I could and wing it, and it installed, and it's not showing a request to activate or anything in the PC settings. So...I think I did it! We'll see if I can do it for the laptop as well. But I'm including the link for those of you who just want to download the files and go ahead and install, rather than waiting. The Media Creation Tool allows you to either run the Windows upgrade, or burn it onto a DVD/download onto a thumb drive for installation onto another PC. I hope this is helpful. It seems to have worked for me. I'm even trying out Microsoft's Edge web browser, which is on first look much better than Internet Explorer, and it allows you to take notes on the pages. Okay, going to go do some exploring and then finish working on some things with the house. Thanks for putting up with the complaints. :)

PS I did get a fun old game I love, Get Medieval, which is a Gauntlet-type game with a fake Arnold Schwarzenegger voice going on about girly spiders, among other things, going even though the same game wouldn't play on Windows 8.1 using compatibility mode because the game is 32-bit and my system is 64-bit. But this at least loaded; I just need to remember how to play. :)

On a side note, Microsoft Edge (the upgraded browser replacing Internet Explorer) just froze when I tried to add the screenshot to this post. We'll see if that continues to be a problem. I just popped back over to Chrome and it works fine. :)

Update: I did some digging as as long as you are upgrading from an activated version of Windows, it doesn't look like it should ask for an activation key. And everything is done like to like, so for example, I had Windows 8.1 Pro on the desktop, so it's Windows 10 Pro. My notebook is standard Windows 8.1, so it'll go to Windows 10 Home, hopefully. Also, if like me you had Windows Media Center, which allowed the playing of DVDs, it is not included in Windows 10 (I had to purchase it separately even for 8), but they're supposed to give you a free DVD-playback application, if not immediately, then soon, like the first update after install. Or you could use something like VLC, which I use on the notebook with Windows 8.1.