Sunday, March 30, 2008

Customs


I've never seen anyone do this before.

We had a house guest last week. That was fine and dandy, but look how she scraped butter off the top of the stick every time she used it.

I hack pieces off the end of the stick when i get butter. I was secretly amazed while watching her, but i didn't say anything.

Of course i went and snuck pictures of it so i could show y'all.

I wonder if this is just a different way to use butter, one that i have been ignorant of all these years.

It's amazing how many different ways there are to do things, things i had never thought of there being more than one way to do.

She also took her bath towels and spread them all over the floor of the guest room to dry, rather than hanging them back up on the rack to dry.

How are you odd in ways i hadn't suspected?

46 comments:

flutter said...

spread them on the floor? wtf?

my friend and work eats her candy bars with a fork....

SUEB0B said...

The ways I am odd? Could fill an encyclopedia, so let's not do that, shall we?

But I had an exBF that did that to the butter. In my mind it was rude, because it "ruined" the butter for everyone else - and it was a perfect metaphor for the selfish, inconsiderate way he approached life.

Girlplustwo said...

hmmmm. i knew a girl once who did some really weird things with butter, but that's a whole other story.

Heather said...

I admit, I've scraped at the butter before but only when it is really cold. That way, the scrapings are thinner and thus easier to spread. I'm just weird all over.....you don't wanna know.

Anonymous said...

yeah, we scrape off the top of the "family butter" - like HE Eigler said, it makes for nice thin bits for spreading on bread. It also makes for longer bits. We also get crumbs in the family butter.

I put out a fresh stick for company, though. And when I'm at someone else's house, I always take butter from the end.

And the towels on the floor? THAT's just messed up.

but I have many other quirks...
~Leah
my pink toes

Mona Buonanotte said...

I use tub butter. Soft and scoopable.

Am I just weird? Am I the only one who uses sticks just for cooking?

A quirk? I will eat butter. Just butter. Off a knife tip or off my finger. So do my kids. It's a sickness.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Leah. Top scraper, unless we're visiting. Our butter is inside a rectangular tub, which makes top-scraping easier than digging down in. As for the towels, that's scary. We do use towels more than once at my house; is that wrong?

Anonymous said...

me? odd in unsuspected ways? nah.

just be glad you didn't have corn on the cob. she would surely have rolled it right on top.

Mrs. Chili said...

I'll scrape butter off the top, but ONLY if it's fridge-cold, and for the reason that was already stated here; the slivers are thinner and are easier to spread and quicker to melt.

Let's see; how else am I weird? I bang the top of my flip-cap toothpaste on the bathroom sink to make sure it's closed before I put it back in the drawer. I can't eat Chinese food with anything but cola. Really, it's hard to think up your own weirdness - it's best observed by others...

Anonymous said...

What Suebob said -- except it was my mother in law. She also used to set the table "backwards" with the fork on the right side. Oh, I could go on and on.....

Happily, I never have to see her anymore thanks to her wretched son!

100 Thoughts of Love said...

yep I do the butter thing also, for same reasons as above..but i wouldn't do it to someone elses butter...

Bob said...

I live my life in an immanently sensible way.

just call me prof. henry higgins.

for the real story, contact my wife.

AC said...

Oddnesses, that list would fill a book. I've always wanted to be a writer.

I've done that with butter when I need the softest part and I'd forgotten to set it out of the fridge.

When we have guest (rare, being odd) I'll cut off little slices and put them on butter pat plates at each place setting. If I am feeling festive and really like my guests, I'll put softened butter into a cookie press and squeeze out little rosettes.

mamatulip said...

This reminds me of a friend of my mom's who used to reach over and snag the chicken wings you'd just eaten and discarded in the 'bone yard'. She'd go to town on them, ripping them apart and getting all the meat you'd left on your wing, all the while pointing out how much meat you'd left on the wing.

And spit. Think about how much of your own spit you left on that wing. I mean, when I eat wings, I practically shove the whole thing in my mouth. Can you imagine picking up someone else's discard chicken wing and "finishing it off"?

*shudder*

Dianne said...

We also have the "family butter" and then the butter for people who don't behave like wolves ;)

towels drying on the floor makes no sense to me.

I have more quirks than blogger has memory space but when at someone else's home I practice being "normal" before I get there.

QT said...

I have seen this, but don't do it myself. And as De pointed out, the ONLY way to butter your corn on the cob is to roll it on the top of the stick, then discard any remaining butter.

My own oddities? Hmm...every once in a blue moon, I will save some bacon fat and make popcorn in it. Not healthy, but delish.

furiousBall said...

Hadn't heard of Doomsday, I do love an apocalyptic thriller.

furiousBall said...

you're probably wondering why I mentioned Doomsday...

I had another blog opened and inadvertently commented in the wrong comment thingy... woo.

So perhaps count that as an odd thing about me.

Liv said...

okay, meno, i don't want to scare you, but i have been known to scrape butter off the top of the stick because making long, thin strips of butter for toast when the butter is cold and the toast is hot and the kids are waiting and and and.... yes, a deep dip gets in the stick of butter. ugh. i am so ashamed. fwiw, i would never do it at your house!

meno said...

flutter, that made me laugh. Take a picture sometime?

suebob, i bet i know to whom you are referring. So noted.

jen, you tease.

h.e., i guess when it comes out of the freezer you might have to do that.

leah, family butter vs. company butter. All's fair with the family butter.

mona, yeah you ARE weird! And NO ONE ekse in the world uses tub butter. :)

half-past, really? you are confessing to being a top scraper? Scandalous! We use the towels more than one, twice, three times too.

de, you and i, perfect together!

mrs. chili, i bet you do that because ine time you didn't and you ended up with toothpaste all over the drawer.

big bouquet, i bet she looked down her nose at you when she came to your house and saw the table set "backwards." Did her wretched son have her killed? Or did you dump him?

pat, it's good to know you have SOME restraint!

bob, me too buddy, me too. The world would be such a better place if everyone was as sensible as we are.

ac, my great grandmother used to have servants (really!) who would roll the butter using paddles into little balls. I thought that was so cool.

mamatulip, yes, that's gross. My mom does that with crab legs. Ick.

dianne, heh. I tease my daughter all the time that she was raised by wolves.

qt, but.....that wastes butter. And butter is precious and good. I never tried that with the bacon fat, but you can bet i will, sounds good.

furious, dude! It's a little early to be into the rum. Well, maybe not. I'll be right back.

liv, you ANIMAL!

Anonymous said...

We leave our butter out on the counter, thereby avoiding the cold butter problem.

My children enjoy leaving their bath towels on top of a heap of dirty laundry on their bathroom floor. Sometimes there are several outfits each under there before I notice. Yes, I am a bad mother, and proud of it.

I am never odd. I am incredibly not odd. I should be in the Museum of Not Oddness.

fiwa said...

Was your house guest from another country? I have never heard of anyone spreading their towels on the floor to dry. The towel hitting the floor would be grounds to toss it into the laundry and get a new one out, in my book.

As far as the butter goes - I sometimes scrape it off the top that way, beause it's easier to get a thinner slice of butter. So on toast it melts faster.

fiwa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dick said...

We also use the soft tub "butter." But the scraping does make more sense if it is cold and hard. I don't understand the towel thing though. Did she use them again after that?

Anonymous said...

You wouldn't have time to read my list, it would be endless. I butter I can understand but the towels. Although now that I think about it, maybe that's what my daughter is doing when she leaves her towels laying everywhere.

Gina said...

We are butter scrapers in my house. But mostly, we use the tub stuff.

jaded said...

I notice you used the word, ya'll. Are you geographically confused? Better click those ruby slippers together.

Towels on the floor, maybe she's a teenager.

TTQ said...

NO MIXING OF THE FOOD! Do not put my peas next to my mashed potatoes, that causes peas to roll into the mashed potatoes. If I wanted that combination I would have asked for shepard's pie.

I fling tons of spatter on the bathroom mirror and have to clean it (since it's just honey and me and he could care less)a long time to get the streaks off, I chide myself everytime i brush my teeth not to be so messy..but it's hard work..Oh and I never ever put the cap back on right away

When I still worked I hated when people left shit for me in my chair. I had an inbox and a desk..why the chair, what made that person more significant than the others of the same rank?

TTQ said...

oh and the butter, I was taught to take a small pat of butter and put it on my plate or bread plate and then add it to bread or potatoes or whatever from the pat on my plate.

tt said...

yea, back in the 'day' before we had soft marg. if we forgot to take it out of the fridge soon enough then we scraped it from the top. Old habits die hard maybe?? I've had guest who only use their bath towel one time before it goes into the washing machine. Which is fine by me...I'm just not that anal. I'm a bit quirky with my snickers candy bars. I eat them from the bottom first. I like the top part best by itself. Quirks are fun don't you think?? :)

Marshamlow said...

I have never heard of anyone top scraping butter or leaving towels on the floor to dry, but I am sheltered.

According to my 17 year old daughter who is an expert on my quirks, my most annoying habit is my laugh, it is loud and more often than not lasts a lot longer than what the situation dictates.

luckyzmom said...

Obviously she thought she was in a hotel. You know the ones that have a sign on the bathroom vanity that says, "in order to conserve water ....but if you don't want to conserve water and want clean ones, throw your towels on the floor for the maid", who you were obviously mistaken for.

The butter deal is the lesser of the two inconsiderate acts.

sari said...

Those are both just weird.

I use stick butter for cooking and tub stuff for the rest.

If I found a wet towel on the floor in my house, someone would be in trouble!

Anonymous said...

Guilty of scraping for all the above reasons.

I can't throw my shirt down the laundry shoot at the end of the day unless there is already a pile of laundry at the bottom. Underwear, pants, socks, no problem. But thinking about my shirt lying on the cold hard basement floor all night literally makes my teeth hurt.

meno said...

anne, we usually do too, except in the summer or if we have to get a new stick from the freezer. I'm not odd either!

fiwa, no, she is not, although her parents are.

dick, yes, she did use them again.

deb, the towels were very carefully spread out over the floor. Not just dumped. Otherwise i would have just thought she was being a teenager.

gina, i am a fan of real butter, so no tub here. Maybe i should investigate the tub.

patches, i love the word y'all. It's so useful. And then there's alls y'all.

ttq, maybe you need separate plates as peas tend to roll. I regularily sat on stuff in my chair when people put it there. Surprised me a few times. And that's how i was taught to use the butter too.

tt, quirks are fun. they give us a new way to look at how things are done.

marsha, i would think a lous laught would be a good thing. Unless you snort too. :)

luckyzmom, i did NOT pick them up, that's for damn sure.

sari, if someone on my house got in trouble everytime there was a wet towel, there would be a lot of trouble here. This is why i never go into my daughter's bathroom.

nancy, and you seemed so nice. But now i find out you are a butter scraper. (You'll still send cookies won't you?)

egan said...

Thanks for letting me stay. I know I should hang the towels, but you don't have carpet in your bathroom for some reason.

Tink said...

That's just not normal. Are you sure she wasn't an alien?

Candy said...

OK, I do the same, if the butter is hard. That way I can get a very finely sliced piece that can be spread on bread without breaking holes in it. I'm particular about my bread-n-buttah.

But if it's soft, which it appears to be, then she's just weird.

Candy said...

Oh...I forgot to mention...

When I serve corn on the cob, my husband takes the entire cob and drops it on top of the butter and rolls, so that the stick of butter how is squashed and has silk and pieces of corn all in it.

Making it effectively useless for any other food.

We've talked about this. It hasn't helped.

Anonymous said...

Oh shoot, I meant chute.

I will continue to fill cookie orders. And I won't even use the scraped butter.

Daphne Enns said...

Doesn't anyone use margarine????? It comes in a tub so it gets scraped.

I only use butter for specific recipes or when company is over for dinner. And even then I might scrape from the top if the butter is hard. No one told me to take from the end! Now I feel like an outcast.

Towels on the floor is just icky. Germs and hair....and how about the notion that if the towel is hung up it will dry faster?????

I have a bath mat to step onto when I get out of the shower but even that is hung on the tub after I'm finished in the washroom...

I can't believe you took pictures!

Mother of Invention said...

I use Becel margarine and canola for everything so it isn't an issue but I don't see much wrong with scraping butter.

My weirdest thing is my OCD about having to have the first cup of coffee from a pot made. But I don't demand it in Starbucks or anything!

Antonia Cornwell said...

I brush my teeth with hot water. Ian says I'm a freak.

Last night I went round to the flat of a gay couple - a houseproud gay couple. They were having a bit of a party and the guests were mainly gay, houseproud, clean-kitchen sorts of men.

One of the hosts, Andre, had already told me he preferred the toilet roll to be hung backwards, so, as a mark of respect, when I used his loo and noticed it hanging forwards, I switched it round.

Half an hour later I went to the loo again and one of the other fussy gay guests had changed it back. Ha!

kats said...

I'm very very weird. I love to have house guests (living away from my family and friends, it's always a joy when someone plans on visiting) but I get sooooo annoyed with little things. I would have gone crazy with this butter!

Susanne said...

I know a lot of people who scrape their (or my) butter like that and I find it disgusting. Hacking off the ends is the only way to go. I gave up telling my family that there should only be one hacked end ages ago but then...

Spreading the towels on the floor? Weird.

For my weird habits you'd have to ask my husband.

Allison Horner said...

how funny!

That's how it was done in my house growing up. I guess we all thought it was easier to spread that way??? I dunno.

Now we use spread instead of sticks....much easier to spread! :)