Short day. Slept in / woke up late.
11:59 update: Skipped breakfast, decided to pull my sleeves up and make the French onion soup today. Got some beef broth and a small jar of Better than Boullion beef, then swung by Sunright for some tea (lemon jasmine, 25/50 sugar ice, agar boba), then scampered off home. Followed an Instant Pot recipe which took a good hour and a half, preparation and everything. After cooking down the onions under pressure for 17 minutes (recipe calls for 20 but I softened the onions a bit longer on the Saute mode), I took the inner pot right out and placed it on the stove. Onions were a little goopy so I had to reduce and reduce, the color was definitely coming in the right ballpark. Quickly I dumped in the beef broth and went to open the jar of Better than Boullion only to find the most difficult jar I have ever had the displeasure of trying to open in my life. Out came the oyster knife, which would normally pop these lids in 4 or 5 poke-turns, but this one took 15 or 20 gentle stabs. Horrifying! But I got it off. Just a teaspoon of that luscious dark paste. Prepped the bread/cheese topping, a few minutes under the broiler, but I didn't add enough cheese. Finally put it together and it was alright, albeit sweeter than I thought. We seemed to have run out of salt so I was leaning on that extra teaspoon of BtB to help out. If I made it again I would probably make my own beef stock, and use extra bones for extra mouthfeel. I would also use more onions, caramelized over the stove. And a cheese mix. Cleanup was drudgery. No one had cleaned the pots from last night so I had to take 25 or so minutes (I know because I had a loud episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show on) cleaning it all. There weren't too many pots so it was just wrestling with the bigger geometry. After that I had a half-sandwich of turkey and lettuce and headed off to lamp out at the computer and finally slurp down my lemon tea. It seemed a little less sweet than I thought, but I didn't add any extra sugar. Later my mom came by with my younger cousin from work. She made some pork and oyster mushroom porridge, which was very very flavorful and delicious and comforting. As I snapped a few pictures on the SL1 -- a bittersweet experience seeing that I had been eyeing, and most likely will replace it with, the Sony A7ii -- my uncle came by and lent me a flash to try, which worked spectacularly. It even registered the 24mm lens. Though, the ergonomics became a bit more fraught with a bigger flash up top. I am now better understanding photography as, literally, writing with light; and that better low-light performance is an inherently physical challenge with necessary clever solutions (bigger sensors, or HDR/computation).