La Cukarachas

Our weapons of choice (Joy of Cooking and Dexter not meant for cockroaches)

Jennie & Dave 1 vs. Cockroach 0

We've got good news and bad. The good news is we have successfully killed one cockroach, the bad another one has been spotted. But have no fear we went on the offensive and with boric acid in hand Dave bathed the little bug in a thick white coat of snowy acid. I just wonder where we will find the body. The first cockroach was found under the grate in the bathroom, the second one is who knows where, but they are showing up dead. Our tactics appear to be working, our first line of defence is the roach traps. We have set out numerous traps, probably more than necessary and were able to kill the first roach. Then we removed all the cardboard boxes and wrapped the extra paper towels in plastic. With the clean up complete we ventured out and brought boric acid, a chemical with a variety of uses.

 Now that the boat has a light layer of boric acid everywhere (guests might think we have a drug problem), I decided to look into how toxic boric acid is, and this is what I found. 5-20g/kg can cause death in adult humans, however it's the long term exposure that poses the greater risk resulting in kidney damage and eventually kidney failure. The long term exposure risk for Dexter is testicular atrophy, the SPCA helped us dodge a bullet on that one.

Now for the fun facts on boric acid:
medical uses (for adults, not to be used on infants)
antiseptic for minor burns or cuts and is sometimes used in dressings or salves
applied in a very dilute solution as an eye wash
vaginal douche to treat bacterial vaginosis due to excessive alkalinity
anti-bacterial compound
acne treatment
prevention of athlete's foot
ear infection in both humans and animal

Nuclear power
Neutron poison, boric acid will slow down the rate of fission

So many random and wonderful uses for boric acid. The most important in my mind is the elimination of our cockroach problem. I don't think I will be attempting any of the alternative uses, unless Japan needs our help with a nuclear meltdown. Just another example of cruising testing your patience and inginuity.

Boat Meal

When I look for meal ideas, I like to buy local, and cheap. This involves scouring the grocery stores for different items that cost less in the region we are in and build from there. Today my inspiration was chorizo sausage and local cheese,.which turned out to be tofu.... Damn language barriers. While looking through the store I noticed chorizo sausage was cheaper than hot dogs, bonus. So I went with it, and thought I would make a little jumbolaya. We went to the local produce stand and picked up an onion, a green pepper, and a carrot. Before bringing everything onto the boat, it all got bleached.

So I chopped half an onion, and sauted it in a bit of olive oil. The I added the green pepper and diced carrot. After about 5 min I added some garlic and chopped choritzo sausage. I let that cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat, then added half a cup of rice, a small can of tomato paste and a cup of water. I brought this to a boil, then covered and let simmer. Once the rice was cooked I added a bit of tofu (should have been cheese) and voila, a hearty boat meal for under $3.