Journal

Organized closet

So I have been looking for my camera stands, not that hard, but a bit. so I ended up cleaning the front hall closet. I separated each of our gloves and winter hats in boxes, and there is a box of scarves. A separate box of non winter hats (ball caps that I can’t remember the last time I wore, and other sun protections). I demoted some coats to the back.

2023 - Week 14 Cooking Results

Sausage

Again with the bacon and cheddar, good things.

Sloppy Sammys

It’s been a bit or at least seems that way, since this was at some point on the semi-regular basis. I used mustard powder, tomato sauce, some leftover tomato paste, and some herbs and spices. I topped mine with some jalapeño peppers and cheese. So the cheese I bought on a whim, was a whiskey touched Irish cheddar (not at the place where I buy cheese normally). I don’t remember the exact phrase and it was, muddled. No real whiskey flavor, no real cheddar flavor, just a mess. I was disappointed.

Ham Loaf

Delayed until Sunday.

Kimchi Fried Rice

I planned to make this on Friday, but when the Cheese Bar posted about “Tuna & Anchovy Deviled Eggs” I was like I want those. So this got delayed until Saturday.

I made the rice earlier in the week and was using the rest of some spicy momofuku season, which was just to much (my bad). It made it to spicy for my wife, which was not my intention. I used spam instead of ham, and I prepped the items while the Bryan from Riftworks was working on the stairs. I got everything prepped and so when it was actually time to make dinner it went pretty quickly.

Overall, I liked it, it was a bit more spicy then even I expected. I guess I’ll be having fried rice this week for lunches, cause I got a lot more rice to go through.

Gochujang Chicken and Tortellini

Unlike the Sloppy Sammys, I felt like I had to check to make this again. It is so good, and so easy. I knew Shannon would take the leftovers so I let her take them. Again, so good.

Grilled Ham and Cheese

I used the leftover deli turkey, and some 3 year Shelburne cheddar, which was actually good. I got some ok bread and it worked out.

The stairs.

So a bit ago, coming down the stairs, I had step through the third stair from the bottom. A thing that did make me feel better, was that someone pointed out that it had three nails on one side, and one on the other. After many calls, searching for advice, failure through a popular find help for your home site, A no call no show after scheduling, I got a few people to come in. For Bryan, at Riftworks, it was a quick turn around from the form to scheduling. After an injury delay, he got to work, and completed the stair repair and reinforcement of all the stairs. It barely creaks now, I’m very happy with his work.

I did embarrass myself, as I (cough) messed up the check (number of amount didn’t match written out amount). So He’ll be picking up a real check today.

Between the time that it was broken and by the time it got fixed, I saw my therapist and coincidentally my nurse practitioner and one of the things that I am generally proud of is this is they type of thing that would’ve have sent me into a spiraling depression, meaning I’m in a decent place.

I took Friday off, over a couple of large projects go live dates this week where things were a bit busy and exhausting.

2023 - Week 8 Cooking

While the temperature just waggles about all over the place, with no design or pattern, we’ve had a few issues show up around the house. First, I stepped through the 3rd from the bottom step. It was not built to modern standards, and while the board is thicker then normal, it’s just barely supported on the sides and one side just came off. We are trying to get a general idea of costs, and had a few people think about it, but no bids yet (at least one no show, cause yay!).

Also, about half of the TVs backlight went out…or got dimmer. We debated and chatted and did some research and ended up going with an OLED model, which is quite an upgrade and much crisper then the old one, even though they are both 4k. It was a few hundred dollars off due to a sale, which was convenient.

2023 - Week 6 Cooking Results

It has been a bit of a strange week. After being convinced that the previous week was when the new dishwasher it turned out it was this week. After getting it installed on Tuesday, we noticed that that about half (right side) of the TV was darker, so we started plannong on getting a new TV. However, I then stepped through, yes through, the 3rd to the last step. It appears as if the support, on the right side, had lost its grip. Instead of being built like normal steps, it only had supports on the side, not through the wood or in the center like it should. So the TV replacement is on hold, because it’s annoying but not desperate. I’ve made some calls out, used some apps and etc, but here I am waiting on a quote, had one guy stand me up, and have another person coming in a few days.

Meatloaf and Smoked Gouda and Scallion Mashed potatoes

I really love this meatloaf. While I swapped out the meat with ground beef, ground pork and a bit of bacon ends blitzed together to make a nice meatloaf. If I’m honest, I was looking forward more to the sandwiches I’d have for lunch than the meatloaf itself.

The Scallion Mashed potatoes, a bit under seasoned. Maybe I’m used to more of mine. Anyways, I added more cheese, more butter, and it was eventually pretty good.

Sausage

Hot Dogs, cause that’s what the top of the pile was. I am making good progress on cleaning out that freezer, not so much on the big one. Anyways, All Pork, Crooked Gap, deliciousness.

Buttermilk Pancakes

I didn’t get to give it the full ten minutes to rest as I was delayed a bit by work and needed to get dinner on the table so we could participate in Action Movie Saturday (not actually on Saturday). The pancakes were a bit less fluffy than they should have been, but still quite good.

Chicken Karahi

So I made this as a way to use the Kashmiri chile powder that I bought for the other dish. This came together pretty well. It used quite a bit of spice. I added a bit of extra time as I used diced tomatoes, , so it need a bit more time reducing. The spice added at the end added a bit of a kick of cinnamon. Quite good. I went to get flat bread earlier in the day, when the food coop didn’t receive the delivery from the bakery. Still happy to have it.

Penne alla Vodka

Quick to make, a bit of vodka, a nice meal. I’m pretty sure I’ve made this before, but it’s been a bit.

Burger (veggie)

I think it was an impossible burger. It was fine.

2022 - Week 36 Cooking

While I was dong yard work on Friday, a gentleman from a few blocks away stopped to talk to me. We discussed construction and the impacts and water drainage. He mentioned that the last time he talked with the site supervisor they were hoping to be done by the end of this month, and that the underground work took two months longer then expected (sub-contractor?). I mentioned that I really didn’t want to place any mental limitations on when they would be done, as I don’t really want to get my hopes up. So it may be coming to an end? I’ll believe it when I see it. That being said, I prepped for another water outage on this past Friday, and it failed to show up. Which was perfectly fine.

2022 - Week 32 Cooking Results

This week has been a bit of a challenge. The construction on the stormwater drain pipe, seemed to have increased in activity, often making it very challenge to get in or out. Generally we’d wait until after they stopped for the day or before they starting in the morning. It was planned for this past Friday that they would have 8 hours to change some water main items. Thursday morning I started with a small hole in my yard, and then by the middle of the day, the entire part of our property that touches Franklin, ended up being hole.

At some point around 7 or 8 PM or so, they apparently broke something they were not, and they had to stay very late to to get the water main fixed. I sat outside for a while watching them work in the night, their precision with the construction equipment was kind of amazing. I ended up going to bed and when I got up around 1 AM, the street was quiet and the water was back on.

With that work, we didn’t loose water on the Friday, which was nice.

While sitting outside, I apparently obtained a skin infection (diagnosed Saturday). I await the pleasure of my local grocery chain pharmacy of filling the antibiotics prescription, which, as I write, has been 18 hours since prescribed (nice job). All being said, it feels odd, the skin seems tight on my leg, that segment is clearly warm to the touch, and it’s got a patchy red look to it. It’s mildly uncomfortable when I move it, but as one who has been dealing with bone spurs, it’s not anywhere near that annoying. Hopefully the antibiotics will smack it upside the head and kick it out of my body.

Brats

Once again, jalapeño and cheddar, good things.

Taco Salad

Good as always.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger with Chili Crunch White Sauce

Made the Teriyaki sauce, then he Chili Crunch White sauce. I skipped the cabbage, cause I didn’t feel up to it, and didn’t feel like hearing the smoke alarm, so cooked it at a slower pace. Still came out good tasting with a mildly caramelized crust on the top and bottom. Good dinner.

Skillet Corn with Mexican Chorizo

So this would work better as part of a taco salad, or part of burrito or over rice or something. I ended up using it in the taco salads I was having for lunch.

Kung Pao Shrimp

A lot of bowls, and making rice, but over all pretty easy to make. I had the ingredients I needed or the listed alternatives I used the leftover sauce (Teriyaki) from the chicken burger in place of the hoisin sauce. I had to do some adjustments cause I had two 12 ounce packages of shrimp, so, that all worked out too. Good meal for a Saturday.

2022 - Week 28 Cooking

So unlike last time around when they were playing with poles, at least this time it was MidAmerican directly, rather then a sub or sub-sub contractor. It is still a bit unnerving to see playing with the pole before the pole that provides power to your house. So this is the new challenge of getting out of our street that our driveway is on.

Fun with wires

Of the things that have been going on, the storm water drainage is taking a lot of attention lately. I am amazed at how things are going at times. For example Friday Morning they had tons of giant pipes on the street, and by Friday night, they were all gone. Underground? Moved elsewhere? Probably underground, but still.

As a new element was they are moving some power poles, because the next ingress point will be pretty close to across the street. I thought they were going to start this past Thursday moving wires from the old poles to new poles, so I warned co-workers that I might lose power. They didn’t actually start moving wires until Friday. I have been taking Fridays off, so this would be annoying but less problematic, I guess. It ended up not being a problem until my wife got home and noticed they had dropped some wires in the transfer. They were hanging over the dead end that the driveways of my house and the two others on our dead end.

Come to find out, the wire(s) that were down probably led to the neighbor that lives behind me. She’s in her mid 90s. She gets her land line phone service and DSL from the only game in town. After getting in a phone queue, due to actual wires blocking the street. I got on the web and walked through opening a ticket for her. The first day that they could get her was Tuesday. Mid 90s, no cell phone, Tuesday (4 days later).

I logged into my account to check what else I could do, then about 20 minutes into being on hold, I noticed a different number to call, and called that one (having one on in the background and another on in the foreground) at 35 minutes, once I started talking to a rep, I hung up on the first call, since it was still on hold. I chatted with the rep for a bit expressing that there are wires on the road, neighbor in 90s has no phone service, 3 households perhaps trapped.

So you are thinking, why do I think they are phone wires. Because they look like the phone wires that are going into my house (not that we use them).

I dropped the “how are we supposed to leave with wires across the road, to the farm dinner that we paid a lot of money for” at some point, but Monday was the earliest we could get them out.

After that, My next door neighbor left back to her house, and I went downstairs to try to internet shame them into coming out earlier.

It seems like this went into a slow response time frame, to keep me feeling like there is progress.

So for the phone time, submitting forms, not including internet shaming, 1 hour 15 minutes or so.

I kicked that off, then called MidAmerican. 8 minutes later I was off the phone, I told them I was pretty sure it was phone wire, more then once, That it was a sub contractor associated with the power movement related to the construction of the storm water pipes.

Somewhere between around 7 and around 10:30 (when Shannon went to bed) someone had come (probably MidAmerican) to clean up that wire from hanging down into the street. It’s now piled up to the side of the road.

So my plan is that when / if I get a call Monday, I’ll tell them to work on my 90’s neighbor for the purpose of getting her back with a phone. But Who knows how this is going to work out. I have been honest w/ the rep on Twitter DMs that the wires are cleaned up (ish), but reminded them that my neighbor is without a phone.

Desk Reorganization

So when I was excited to switch to the new laptop and and turn in my, showing it’s age, However when I bought a monitor for it, for the desktop system, the 4k 24” monitor, just wasn’t’ big enough. there’s no way I could justify to myself, let alone Shannon, the PRO XDR, but with the induction of the Studio Display, I was able to see the logic of it, but the problem is that made the Desk really crowded.

The crowded desktop before.

So I thought about it for a bit, and thought I might have a plan, but when I started placing things, that made less sense, and adjusted a bit further. Originally I thought I could get the laptops and the wires boxes in the middle, but the monitors took up a bit to much space, so the wires are in the middle, and teh laptops behind the middle of the monitors.

double desk, wires everywhere with the progress showing of the reorganizaing but still a lot of work needed

Mid-progress

the organization was making progress, and I got the movement of the drawers and printer stand to the top of Shannon’s art supply cabinet. This was about the point where we started watching Top Gun, so my progress slowed a bit, but I was able to get everything eventually done, enough. The Lenovo USB-C wires to connect the monitors are…well…not very flexible. And the display port, mine, cable is just to long, sot the work area could use a bit more work. The ethernet cablles are also a bit long as well. Overall I think it’ll do for now, though I did add some stuff to my cart to think about, to perhaps finish ($80 of cords)

It feels a bit less crowded, and less distracting. I guess we’ll see how the work side is on Monday, though I did test and make sure everything came back up and works as expected.