So how many things have you ruined by becoming distracted with Fodors?
 

Decided to make a sticky date pudding for the girls weekend away this weekend. Put dates in pan with water etc to boil, think "Just check on the Fodors site see what's happening". Of course get completely distracted, laughing myself silly over the "Your worst travelling companion" post, go back into kitchen to be met with ghastly smell of burning, dates completely dried out, really $$$$$ pan now ruined with a burnt sugary mess! darn and double darn.

What have other people ruined because of enjoying themselves too much on the Fodors site?

My back. Sitting too long on my office chair has given me a flare-up of sciatica, lol. No joke.

Oh yeah, I once set my kitchen on fire - forgot about a batch of cookies in the over...that is until the smoke alarms went crazy.

Yup, this site is dangerous to ones' health. :D

It has certainly affected my productivity at work. Also I don't watch nearly as much TV as I would if not for this board. But visiting with friends is always more fun than watching TV anyway, so no regrets. :-)

...really should add "almost" set my kitchen on fire!!!

Generally my DH likes to eat the burnt cookies...not these, lol.

Hey, PM, nothing good on TV anyway!!

Try filling the pan with really hot water and toss in a couple of Bounce sheets [any kind of fabric softener sheets] and let it soak overnight. Should help the pan...can't offer solution for dates!
Debi

That's for sure, STW. Now if the Travel Channel ever gets rid of those dumb poker show and goes back to real travel shows, I will have a painful decision to make--travel shows or Fodors.... :-?

You'll notice that I never post when Anthony Bourdain is on. He gets my full attention. ;;)

Well just a week ago I reached for a large glass of orange juice as I had my eye glued to the monitor as I was reading some interesting trip report. I managed to spill 12 ozs of orange juice all over the place. What a mess. But better than ruining an expensive pot.

Timers..always set the timer..it is so easy to have time flit away when one is on Fodor's!!

It's all in the set up. My computer is in my kitchen. And the TV is 3 feet from the computer (I can see it w/o my glasses :) )It brings multi-tasking to another level.

Thanks Debi for the tip about Bounce. However I have never seen fabric softner sheets here in Aus. mind you have never actually looked for them either!!! I have tried the bi carb of soda thing and soaking. So hopefuly by tomorrow things will be better. grrr.

Gomiki, you have the right idea, my computer is in my study upstairs so once involved in Fodors, downstairs tends to get forgotton completely.

I have my morning coffee each day with Fodor's. The problem is that it usually makes me late for work and I don't start til 11:00!

I have learned to set the timer while cooking and fodoring at the same time! The "I'll just read this trip report for a minute while ___ cooks" never works for me.

schnauzer, try putting the powdered soap for a dishwasher in your pan with water and boil it on the stove. The longer you boil it, the more "burn" will come off.

I agree that it's in the setup. I occassionally ended up with the burned pot of rice or overdone chicken breasts due to being in my back office checking in at Fodors on my desktop PC.

However, now that I have a notebook it can just go wherever I go. My kitchen, living and dining is all connected in one big room, so I'm much less likely to get myself into trouble now and can be online, watching TV, and cooking all at the same time. Sometimes I can even pay some attention to DH while mutli-tasking these things. ;)

I will admit that when I'm reading Fodors on the patio while I have something on the stove or in the oven, I can still run into the occassional issue. :)

Batteries! My new Mac has a wireless mouse that absolutely sucks up batteries at warp speed. Low battery icon is flashing as I type this. Note to self: Look for wired mouse on eBay.

Betsy, you may have a defective wireless mouse. I have 2 macs (office and home), each has a wireless mouse but I have yet to change either one (and one's been about a year and the other 7 months).

I would agree with productivity. It's just always better to be reading/advising on other's trip reports if I'm stuck here and not traveling...

My sister once burned something in one of my pans and I thought I would have to throw it away. I found a tip to put baking soda and water in the pan and then put it on a burner and let the water boil. I had to do this twice and it took a while but the burnt stuff did finally release from the bottom of the pan.

Well I have a laptop too. I also have a battery operated timer so when I set the timer it is right next to my laptop, consequently it is rather hard to ignore, although I have a few times, lol.

Elburr, I regularly do the same: baking soda! This tells you about quality of my cooking without Fodor's distraction :))

Usually I use my pc at work, hardly ever at home! But I've been blamed for spilled coffee several times. I wonder why :">

work productivity...

LOL re: the question.
I've almost "ruined" my employment when getting busted for beng on the Fodors' stie. The boss scanned the reading material noting that threads about travel were definitely not work-related.

Thanks maria so. I'll check into the possibility of a defective mouse.