Two week notice

Earlier this week my son's girlfriend dropped him off at work on her way to San Diego. We were just chatting in the front room when she came back from the bathroom and asked Daniel if he had told us the news yet. My first thought was I may never be ready to be Grandpa. He has been offered a position in Tucson at one of the places she works. He has never worked any place but for me and has been here for about 7 years taking on an increasing load. Because business is down right now I won't need to replace him until it picks up. It will be weird not having him around to chat with as we work. I have felt lucky to have him working with me where we can stay in easy contact. At the same time I know he needs to get out on his own in a non family working environment. I think he will do fine, Jen won't let him slack off. :-)

Suns vs Hornets

Well that was the excuse anyway. I was just putting the cake in (more on that later) when Amy called and said Manuel and Steve were off getting stuff for the grill and I should come down for the game. I told her I would be down when the cake came out. Turned out it was game time by the time I got there and most of the chips and dips were history. The hot links were just coming off so I had a couple of those and we sat around drinking, watching the game and just talking sports in general. Manuel cooks brats like I do, cooks them on low for a long time so most of the fat goes away. As usual I was drinking beer, as was Steve, and Manuel was working on rum and cokes. We were all drinking too much for a weeknight but Manuel works 4 10s so he is off today. About halftime Amy comes out from house work and joins us and hands me a rum and coke which I thought would do me in mixing drinks. At least it was an 8oz instead of the 24 ouncers Manuel was mixing. Just before 10 I brought down dessert. The Suns lost but by that time none of us really cared. :-)

ps: I got up on time and no hangover.

Beef, potatos and peas

Can't get more basic than that. This was the first two ground beef patties of the 12 I got in the fresh meat dept at Costco. I was a bit apprehensive because of the low fat content (12%). And I was right in a way, it had less flavor but was a better cut of meat to start with than what they grind fresh at Albertson's. Next time I will grill it on high just like a steak.

For years I used the powdered gravy mix in a big jar from Costco but wanted something with fewer things in it that I couldn't pronounce or identify so I tried a jar of Better than Bullion. I like it just fine except it doesn't give the gravy the dark brown color of the powdered. This time I put the base in with the butter to start with and was much happier than following the directions and mixing it with a bit of boiling water and adding it to the white sauce.

I got lazy and just tossed some minced garlic direct into the mashed potatoes instead of cooking a bit in butter first. A glass of Merlot and my league winning game 4 of the World series and had a near perfect evening.

Pork stir fry

Started with a bottled stir fry sauce, added ground garlic, ginger, honey and Sriracha. One of these days I will learn a little Sriracha goes a long way . Then I took a boneless loin chop and cubed it (this one one of the 1" + chops from Costco). Dry rubbed it with Garam Masala and set the meat and the sauce on the counter to come up to room temperature (65°) and absorb the flavors. After about 40 minutes I wokked the meat in peanut oil. Set the meat aside and switched to butter and did a bag of frozen pepper strips and 2 diced onions. Drained off the liquids, put the meat back in, added the sauce and brought the whole thing up to temp and served over rice. This is one of the few times the veggies got cooked less than mush, I am learning to stop cooking them when they are done and draining off the liquid rather than trying to reduce all the liquid out while cooking. That made two servings so I get one for lunch this coming week.

Cox to the rescue!

Yesterday, 18 days after I made my service request, I got the following back from the tech center:

Thank you for your recent e-mail to Cox Communications.  We apologize
for the delay in our response.  We are sorry to hear that your cable
services were not working properly...

Our records indicate that you have already resolved this issue.

We look forward to having an opportunity to assist you in the future.
Thank you again for contacting us via e-mail.  Please let us know if we
can be of further assistance.


I guess I should give them credit for at least trying but that is hardly timely on their part.  And as noted was a full 14 days after I went in and got new equipment.

Jason's Deli

Jason's Deli is a bit of a drive, near Metrocenter, but it's the closest decent sandwich shop to work. It isn't as good as Greenberg's in NYNY (my favorite) or Miracle Mile (my favorite in the West Valley) but it isn't bad. We had gone once before for lunch and liked it. This time I tried ordering online for pick-up. The ordering menu is simple to use, it leaves out all but the generic options. The order was ready when it was supposed to be and was just as ordered. Speaking about the food, It was not only good it was too much. Maybe they put more stuff on for email orders or maybe they had a new person they were training or whatever but there was so much meat on my sandwich (pastrami, corned beef and cheese on rye) I gave up at around 85% and only had one bite of potato salad to taste it. Gale had the same sandwich and took 1/2 home and saved her dessert and chips for Monday. Daniel had a roast beef,onions and peppers Po'boy and managed to just down the whole thing and get through his Baklava. The potato salad wasn't as good as mine :-) but it wasn't bad. Even being a chain, overall it is a pretty good deli.

And the total bill for three sandwiches and 3 extras was just about what a truck full of aluminum cans was worth. :-)

Aluminum

We (myself, my son, and my driver) Save aluminum cans until there is a truck full and then take them to the recycling place. Saving this many takes around 3-4 months. A few months ago they were worth $.82lb, this time they were only worth $.35lb. Arizona does not have a redemption deposit so the rate is the actual scrap rate. That whole truck full only netted around $25 this time, barely enough for a decent lunch out. More on the lunch in the next post.

Chicken stew

So, what to do with the industrial size bag of mixed vegetables? Stew sounds good!

Cubed 2 chicken breasts and dry rubbed with Garam Masala and left on the counter for about 2 hours as it turned out. At this point in time I had a glass of wine and watched the start of the ball game. After about an hour I went back to work on dinner. Got out a big pot and started warming a container of chicken stock. Also started warming my wok. Diced two medium onions, carmelized them in the wok and added to the stock. Next in the wok was a bit more butter and generous helpings of minced garlic and Italian seasoning just long enough to fill the kitchen with their aromas. Cleaned the wok and added some peanut oil and then the chicken. When the chicken was cooked it went in the pot along with the mixed vegetables and diced tomatos. Brought up to a boil for 10 minutes and then reduced to a simmer for about an hour and a half.

This is an adaptation of a dish I had often growing up. a dozen chicken parts (wings, drumsticks, thighs) that were dreged in flour, salt, pepper and then fried. The veggies were a lb of carrots, a head of celery, 3 or 4 quartered onions, lima beans, corn and stewed tomatos. Served over rice or noodles. I have also made it this way.

Cornbread

Along the lines of I never make anything exactly the same way twice I had a can of sweetened condensed milk sitting around so in it went along with the normal stuff and a can of diced green chilies and a handful of shredded cheese. I prefer to use Masa rather than flour with the cornmeal so I add a bit more oil and a second egg to make it work. The was what I would call corn cake because of the sweet and while I prefer not sweet it is easier to give away some if it is. I never understood why the folks that prefer sweet couldn't just add some honey to theirs. This was cooked at 400° for 20 minutes in a 12" square cast iron griddle.

Chicken what?

I was reading the box of chicken stock (Emeril's) and it had a recipe for chicken soup. It had all the normal ingredients of veggies and pasta and of course some branded seasonings. What it didn't have as an ingredient was chicken. Does anybody else have a problem with chicken soup having only chicken flavor from the stock but no chunks of chicken? Leave me your comment.

Imagine me and you

a movie review

This is a movie I added to my queue based on the trailer seen on another rental. I should point out I am very hetero. However I have relatives that are gay, lesbian or bi-curious so I have been exposed to alternate lifestyles since I was about 8, not that I understood it then. Just like religion and politics, as long as a person doesn't heavily promote their preferences I try not to let the part weigh negatively against the whole.

From the trailer it looked like another romantic comedy. Typical of a romantic comedy it was 90 minutes long and had a common story line of wondering if the correct partner had been chosen because of a chance meeting at a wedding. And of course there were side issues involving some of the lessor characters. Where this differed was the bride became intrigued with the woman florist who catered the wedding. Side issues included the best man chasing after the openly gay florist and the coming out of the bride. It was light, had humorous moments. tastefully done and in general was a fun movie to watch. Some of the dialogue was lost in the heavy British accents, especially the younger sister of the bride.

'Smart' student

This I found randomly searching blogs.

The college professor had just finished explaining an important research project to his class. He emphasized that this paper was an absolute requirement for passing his class, and that there would be only two acceptable excuses for being late.
Those were a medically certifiable illness or a death in the student's immediate family. A 'smart' student in the back of the classroom waved his hand and spoke up. "But what about extreme sexual exhaustion, professor?" As you would expect, the class exploded in laughter. When the students had finally settled down, the professor froze the young man with a glaring look. "Well," he responded, "I guess you'll just have to learn to write with your other hand."

The silence is broken

Back to the Cox box thing. Monday I called Cox and got the Cox greeting followed by the invitation to press 5 to proceed in Spanish and the next message said they were busy and told me to hang up and try some other time. WTF? I didn't even get to follow the menu to get to the correct department. So then I tried emailing a complete description of my problem and what I had done to trouble shoot it. Not surprisingly I got no answer. So Friday rolls around I go to the center in the mall with my box and remote. I got there at 10:10, pulled number 22 (they were already waiting on number 10). I was incorrect in the number of chairs, there are only 10. So I stood around and they were hustling right through folks. I was out of there with a new box and controller in 25 minutes. I ended up stopping by the apt afterwards to kill time before Chipotle Grill opened so I could get a burrito for lunch on the way back to work. The new box and controller are the next generation of HD box and have improved some features from the original. I have been there 4 times in the last two years. Out of 4 service desks I have yet to get drawn by the cute 30 something that likes to show off what can't be touched. :-(

Who are these old folks?

Yesterday I drove over to Santa Barbara for a get together. I have not been back for over 15 years. The occasion was brought about by the passing of one of the people I hung out with in and for a few years after high school. But a party was made of it! :-) I had not seen most of these folks since our kids were the age of the grandkids running around. A few folks I would not have recognized if they were not introduced but most, I hope I was one of them, were just matured versions of 20 some years ago. Except Susie, I am sure she just turned 40 :-). A good time was had by all sharing memories and catching up on where our lives are now. I am very glad I did not miss this.

Foot in mouth

I have a bad habit of engaging mouth before brain. And once again I stuck my foot in it. Just as we were leaving Mel or Susie asked if I was glad Amy talked me into coming. My brain was on the track of I had wanted to come all along and everybody else was on the track that Amy sent me the newspaper clipping to convince me I would be welcome even without a specific invitation. Mel, bless her heart, saw what was coming and popped in with a question that I had the right answer to and diffused the whole thing. I was in like Thousand Oaks before I figured it out.

Up against the wall

This was a long day. I had gotten up at my normal time of 4:30 and driven almost 8 hours, partied for about 3 and headed back across the desert. Just as I expected about 10PM, my normal bedtime, my body was telling me I had had enough and I was starting to feel sleepy. I was only an hour away from home but stopped at a rest stop and walked around and had a cigarette. It was 52° with the wind about 8-10mph and I was wearing shorts. I started shivering before the end of the cigarette but the effect was I was more awake. As I was driving down the last stretch of freeway my mind wandered off to sitting on the living room couch at the Lompoc house and Niki was reading me a book. I am pretty sure this was before she had started going to school and she read the entire book to me. The next thing I knew I was on a stretch of the freeway that didn't look right. I had to first figure out where I was and then get off and double back to get home. somehow I had stayed in my lane at the correct speed for about 6 miles of which I have no recollection of. Yes, it was a very long and very enjoyable day.

Chicken cheese enchiladas

A while back I made some barely edible chicken/bean/onion enchilada things. I followed it up a couple of weeks later with some modifications which made them a whole lot better. One of the things that came out of the first batch was my friend, Dawn, gave me her recipe for chicken cheese enchiladas. I had had the opportunity on two occasions to enjoy them. I rarely cook exactly to a recipe and this was no exception. Right from the start I used two chicken breasts which by volume was considerable more than the 12oz can of chicken in the recipe, I used 10" flour rather than 8" corn tortillas and I had a larger baking dish. So I had to guess in purchasable quantities how much to increase the rest of the ingredients. The result was roughly 95% as good as hers and exactly filled the baking dish. I'll take that. :-) Per her suggestion I froze 3 of them for later.

Potted meat

My son said I should try some because it was cheap. I waited til I got home to read the label (deliberately) or I probably would not have bought it. I really did not care for the smell when I opened it but I made the sandwich anyway as I knew it wouldn't kill me. Did not care for the taste but mixed with mayonnaise and mustard and chilled it wasn't bad. I don't think I will buy it again though :-)

25 signs you are all grown up now

1. Your house plants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.

2. Making love in a twin bed is out of the question.

3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.

4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.

5. You hear your favorite song on an elevator.

6. You watch the Weather Channel.

7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of hook up and break up.

8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.

9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."

10. You're the one calling the police because those **** kids next door won't turn down the stereo.

11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.

12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.

13. Your car insurance goes down and your payments go up.

14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonalds leftovers.

15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.

16. You no longer take naps from noon to 6 PM.

17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.

18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.

19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.

20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."

21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.

22. "I just can't drink the way I used to," replaces, "I'm never going to drink that much again."

23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.

24. You no longer drink at home to save money before going to a bar.

25. You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you

The appliances

As promised here is the saga of the appliances. When I renewed my apartment lease I mentioned the only reason my stove was working was I "borrowed" parts from a vacant apartment and my soap dispenser was still broken in my dishwasher. Last year I mentioned my burners were shot and my soap dispenser was broken and was told we will get around to it. Well that lead to me fixing the stove and I dealt with the dishwasher by opening the door and adding soap after the first cycle. This year the market is different and when I brought it up they said, in writing this time, they would just replace both units. Still they didn't say when.

Jump forward a couple of weeks. I come home form Costco on a Thursday night and I have 6 pounds of fresh ground beef patties and 5 pounds of cheese and a case of Octoberfest and I turn on my light and find a new refrigerator where my dining room table used to be. Thanks for the warning folks. The new stove is plugged in but wobbles and the dishwasher I was expecting is nowhere to be seen. So what do I do with my fresh stuff? I left the beer in the case as I had some already cold. Ran a half load in the dishwasher so I could clear it out. The next morning I took some stuff and put it in the cooler and other stuff I just left out that could go a day and transferred the rest to the new fridge. When the office opened I called and found out they were coming back that day to level the stove and swap the refrigerators. They were not sure when the dishwasher would arrive. As it turns out they had a delayed move in and used that dishwasher for me.





Apparently because they are in the process of complete remodels in vacant units they had a contract for complete sets of appliances which is why I got a new fridge. The new one is 17 cubic as opposed to 15.5 in the old one. But the gain is really larger in the refrigerated section at the cost of freezer space. I tend to buy things in bulk and cook extra portions so I can freeze them. That means I really do utilize a freezer. My first attempt at loading the freezer is on top. Note I have no ice trays or ice storage. and every time I tried to find something I had food on the floor. Walmart to the rescue. I found an expandable rack just the right size for $9.88. It's still really full but I can now have ice and move stuff around to get to it.


The stove has a bit of a learning curve. Med is not what med used to be so I have almost burned a few things. It is level with the surrounding countertops but not really level, I can fix that. I recalibrated the oven knob, it was only off by 15°. The fridge/freezer each turned out to be about 15° warmer than desired so I am glad I checked it.

I really need to get better at picture placement :-(

Silence is not always golden

Thursday night I lost sound from my television. I tried moving cables around and figured out my converter box is bad. Now I get to spend another 2-3 hours round trip with the Cox service center. The drive is only about 20 minutes each way. It's just like the MVD (yes I know Calif. DMV takes appointments ;-) ) where you take a number and wait and wait and wait. Typically they have 4 people on staff and the wait is about an hour. They have seats for about 30 and there is usually twice that many. And a sign that the restrooms are for employees only. It would go much faster if more folks knew why they were there and understood how to be ready for their part of the transaction. Verizon used to be like that and then they figured out that having 2 people to wait on 30 or more was costing them customers. Now there is a cell phone store on every corner.

The irony of this is when I watch tv it is usually sports and I don't care for listening to announcers fill air space so the sound is off and the radio is on. What I do use the sound for is the commercial free digital music which I have wired direct to the home theater box.

Excuse me

So I go to Walmart last night and it's a good thing I have a list. Would be even better if I could read, I get Tums and try to buy a rack like the one in my freezer for the neighbors downstairs (more detail on the freezer adventure to come later) but they were out so I go over to the food section of the store and start collecting the non perishable stuff. By this time I have looked at my list at least 3 times. I finally see "thermo" which is telling me I need to get a refrigerator/freezer thermometer, so back over to the other side I go to get one and then back to the refrigerated section to finish shopping.

I never buy enough stuff that I cannot use the 20 item checkout aisles. A few weeks ago the store manager decided to save money by closing one lane down so there are only 2 or 3 open. To top that off the guy in front of me with a pile of kids gets all checked out and cannot find his debit card. So he says "excuse me" and walks over to the bank in the lobby to get cash, which because he doesn't have a wallet either takes a while, and all of us in line just have to sit and wait. Why can't the cashier just void it out and call a manager to take his cart, with the hot deli meal, away so the rest of us can get on with life?

My first post

I must say this is going in to new territory for me. I maintained my brothers blog (Knitterman) for a couple of weeks while he was without power in Houston and mechanically it didn't seem hard. This will be brief. Not much happened today. I'll take off early and stop at Walmart for groceries then head home and watch most of the Dodger/Cubs game.