Journal

Irish Christmas in America - Temple Theater - 12/08/2023

We had dinner for the first time in a long time at Centro. The food was as expected, service was attentive, the big thing that just stuck in my craw was the person reloading the warming pan of bread to deliver to tables brought it out in a large plastic bag and dumped into the warming pan. This happened at least twice while we were dining. This seems like a thing where you would bring it out in the pan and swap the pan. The plastic bag just doesn’t seem to match the quality they are trying to put forward.

So this was time we have seen things. They tour every year apparently. While driving with Nathan yesterday, to Decorah, this came up that it was a bit better with the guy that passed away earlier this year. But even so, we enjoyed it, with the exclusion of the old man that kept playing with his phone, receiving texts and turning on his flashlight on his phone several times for no apparent reason.

The performers were quite good, I look forward to going to this again next year.

An Evening with the Late John Cleese - Vibrant Music Hall, Waukee, Iowa - 11/15/2023

So this was one of the “Oh I’m going, if you want to come that’s great” times for me. We ate out before hand, where when asked who were were going to see, we got to feel old, but in the car after we were “the headless painting guy in Harry Potter” to try to get the person some context. However, lets break this into two parts.

Venue:

So if it’s just the way it’s displayed how they put thing into context, but it seemed clear to start at 6:00 PM. However on further inspection and expanding things, it appears that it was doors open at 6 show starts at 7:30 PM. So showing up early wasn’t exactly desired.

Parking was a bit absurd. We often go to shows or events downtown and it’s $5 for parking for the event. For a city like Des Moines, this does not seem crazy. For the venue it was $15 to park, in a place that is way out in Waukee and surrounded by a corn field. As of Tuesday, it still shows on Google Maps and street view as an under construction field. I don’t have a problem paying for parking, but for the area, it is way above market value, so much so it seem like it is an abuse. They’re not of how to enter the lot was confusing, it being night, and it only being a sign, that the entrance appears to be blocked off, where it is half blocked off. And why, pray tell, as someone that showed up early, should I have to park on the far side of the lot.

Generally, with the exclusion of one of the parking lot attendants, everyone was pleasant, and tried the give good service. Some were pretty slow, but that could’ve been the customers they were serving too.

The men’s bathroom smells like someone took several urinal cakes and ground it into every surface. It was a lot. I know my nose is more sensitive then some, but not near as sensitive to others and it was pushing the edge of painful scent for me.

The chairs were trash. Just trash.

The Show

A bit of comedy from Camilla Cleese, which was funny. Some about the interactions with and just joking on her father.

John Cleese was a mixture of the hits, some opinions, joke telling, the structure of jokes as a whole (tension, release) and stories. As someone who was introduces to the Pythons in my early teens (duplicates of the albums on tape, note: I now own all of them in more then 1 format)), this is certainly something that reminded me of my youth and led to what I like these days, humor wise.

After the intermission, Camilla and John came back and had a bit of a Q&A and story time and a bit of complaining about the Drive not to just make a living but to just make as much profit as possible. He may have mentioned, unknowingly, the owners of the venue that he was in.

I was happy I had gotten to see one of the icons of my humor.

2021 - Week 2 Cooking Results

So, there are a couple of people that I’ve been listening to, and their thoughts on using recipe. Some seem supportive and some very much not so. Saying that you don’t know how to cook if you follow a recipe. Here’s the thing, I think about food, sometimes a lot, but even then I only cook 4-6 times a week. Most of the time it’s what can I make in 30-45 minutes to get dinner on the table. I don’t know all the shortcuts, I don’t know the proper ratios of how something will taste after it cooks. I have a heat level restriction, so if I get too much spice in there, it means there will be nothing for my wife. I do take things from almost every recipe as part of the process of what can be done. There are things that I just make and there are things where I’m like, I can totally use that. But for the most part I don’t have the time to dwell in thinking about how food should be made, that that’s why I use recipes. I tend to use them from sites that I find trustworthy, or books or etc.

When it comes down to it, I can make audibles and they usually work. This week I thought I had smoked paprika, but only had sweet, so I used the sweet and added some chipotle powder for a bit of heat and smokiness (Meatloaf). I also was kind of surprised by the effect of microwaving the dried chilies (Enchilada Soup), then soaking them in the stock to give them that extra aromatic start, and perhaps short cut the process a bit. There is learned to be had from other people’s writings and process.

Vietnamese-Style Baked Chicken

Finally got around to making this. I rushed up between meetings got everything together and started brining the chicken. it had a nice sheen on it after brining, and I put them in to bake. So overall an easy process, except for the time needed to brine the chicken. They baked off pretty quickly and had a nice brown tinge to them from the brine and the cooking. They were pretty nice. I don’t think they kept enough of the flavor from the brine, but it was there. There were leftovers that I used for for my lunch salads.

Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup

I really enjoyed smelling the dried peppers out of the microwave. it had a good smell and went in with the chicken and stock to make for a tasty. I hadn’t read through the whole thing so I wasn’t certain how it would go to creamy. With the grated pepper jack and cream cheese it left it with a nice creamy texture.

Curried Turkey-Peanut Soup

I forgot to add a sweet potato to my grocery list, so I ended up swapping in just potatoes. I didn’t have leftover turkey meat, so while I was making the soup I was cooking off a pound of ground turkey (local-ish). This was easy to put together and had a nice flavor to it. I think the add of peanut butter added a nice flavor profile. Good quick meal on a cold evening.

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard

I picked up some chicken tenderloins, since the chicken at CostCo was less then I wanted (and who wants to buy chicken breasts when you don’t have to). This came together quickly. When I do this again, I’ll have to adjust the temps down a bit, since my burners are clearly hotter than they directed. For the most part it came out pretty good, though some of the coating was a bit overdone. I’ll have to do this again.

Spanish-Style Meatloaf

I had planned for the meatloaf but as stated above, I didn’t have all the spices needed, but made some adaptations. I also used the whole green pepper, rather then half, because what would I do with half a green pepper. I used ground turkey, but probably should have used pork. Overall it came together pretty well, the extra half a green pepper maybe made it a bit more vegetable heavy, but over all didn’t make to much of a problem. While it was in the oven, I took most of the rest of the potatoes in my kitchen and made a simple mashed potatoes. Good Saturday dinner.

Thinking on Social Media

After seeing my general phone usage stats over the last few weeks, I’m becoming more thoughtful about how and why I use it. For the most part, this is what this (website) is. Habit, planning, general expressiveness. It’s for me, if other people read it, that’s fine, but it’s for me. I’ll use it as a reference for what I’ve cooked before, where we’ve gone, as sort of the official history, and to help me remember the timeline.

As it stands, I’ve been reducing my usage. I don’t think I’ll stop, because it can be a useful tool, but how much do I really need to use it?

I think this coming year I’ll try to be more social in person with people that I’ve fell off with due to depression cycles. I’ve also thought of posting things here, instead of Instagram, but that feels like I’m forcing people to come here, rather then putting it where they want to consume it. I don’t know. I’m still thinking about it.

2018 - Week 25 Cooking

This past week I got a chance to catch up with a friend of mine.  And he noticed how much better off I was compared to the last time he saw me.  And it's true.  I am in a much better place.  I have a theory that I can tell how bad off I am by the amount of books I consume.  Perhaps.  I don't think they always correlate, but I am on quite the run this year vs previous years (already consumed more then last year).  Part of me feels like I am cheating a bit, as I am listening to audio books during my morning walk.  But even with that, I am in a better place.  I have played a bit with meditation, but have trouble fitting it in my lackadaisical morning routine.  I suppose if I segmented my morning more it'd work better.

That being said, being able to get my shit together enough to actually make progress in important parts of my life and then being generally rejected is kind of frustrating, but I was still able to roll with getting that bad news.  Knowing that, the next time I receive an advertisement for that type of insurance, I'm going to perhaps have to throw my current insurance company under the bus.  Plus...the world *sigh*.

2017 - Week 17 Cooking - Results

Stressful week, good resolution.  As a Side note, there is a clear need for an upgrade to the underlaying monetary system.  It shouldn't a. cost $40 ($20 to initiate and $20 to receive) to do a same day transfer and b. take so damn long.  that being said, Thanks to my current banking institution for not-recharging me for the cashiers check re-addressing.

Anyways, food.

Italian Sausage and Potato Frittata

After not feeling the desire to do this last week, it was really easy.  And pretty good.

Ham Steak with Rhubarb Sauce

With guests, had to buy more ham steaks, ended up being pretty good with the rhubarb, sugar and pan drippings.

Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs with Parmesan & Red Pepper flakes

Oh oven...it's hard to know how much you miss something until it's easy to use ones again.  I used olive oil, some parmigiano reggiano, and a few red pepper flakes and salt and pepper and tossed, and baked in the oven.  Not bad for the ease of work. 

Bratwursts

s'right.

Chorizo Tacos

With guests, these became taco salad, and because I didn't plan enough for guests, I added rice to expand the amount to make good sized salads.  Good stuffs.

On Friday night, after Shannon and I got back from Who's Live is it Anyway?, My brothers, father and I shared most of a bag of Paqui Haunted Ghost Pepper Chips, it left more then one of us with upset stomachs, though, they were quite good.

Saturday, my brothers made dinner for my father's birthday.  Quite the meal.

Dear Audible

Dear Audible, 

I am generally enjoying a few channels for prime, however it becomes problematic and I don't really want to explore more due to the management of the channels. 

Clearly these are meant to be podcasts to some extent, though a strong desire to go after quality is appreciated, however making the end user manually manage the downloading and deleting of the episodes seems counter to the standards of episodic content.  

if you take a look at several of the popular players (Overcast, Downcast, etc) you see many options to subscribe and manage and automatically download and remove episodes.  Without this management it makes it frustrating to check in with channels that have sporadic updates. 

Please make the updates to allow for the easier consumption by your users.

thanks, 

sam  

Dear Facebook

Dear Facebook, 

Make it stop:

 

No, I will not ever say yes

No, I will not ever say yes

I give you plenty of info about my life, you do not need one more indicator. 

Thanks, 

sam

 

a little bit of health

So in order to take money off my health care costs, I have been corralled to participate in a program that has goals and coaching.

I'm not a particular fan of either.

But in order to keep my interest up, I've started to use Argus and Runkeeper.

Argus, trending steps.

Runkeeper feeds into Argus and the company generalized wellness program (at least it should, I've not seen it take action yet).  I can't really recommend either yet, but so far I like Argus's display and what I'm willing to track (steps, water & coffee consumption).  I've gotten permission to get a scale to track weight, body fat, etc.

Hopefully the statistics and graph of this will keep me interested enough to continue on all this.

On a whole, I have a general problem with how this is working.  I don't like to be coached nor do I like to set goals.  If I, generally, know what I need to do, having someone tell me the same thing I already know is redundant.  I don't need encouragement because that won't particularly motivate me to move forward in the path that they want.  Goals I find pointless, because I have general guidelines, that have to be adjusted along the way.  Example, we had to quickly pay off Shannon's student loans, not because they were the smallest debt, nor were they the highest interest rate (not by a long shot), but it became a burden on the rest of the budget (due to the processor's lack of adjusting the graduated rate of repayment, until the very end).  It adjusted the generalized target over the short term, which, if I had set another financial goal, would've made that goal a failure.  Yes, I am aware that I have posted goals in the past.

To ask me to do these things, is not how to motivate me.  However, I understand that some people do like to have these types of encouragement.  These services, however, are not available to all people, just those of us who are "at risk" of higher medical costs.  I understand why, I really do, but shouldn't it be good to offer these (even at a small cost, vs no cost for us at risk) to everyone who wants to better their lives in this fashion?

On another note, I finally got my CPAP machine replaced.  I've had this one  so long (that the last time I had it in for repair) they said I was lucky, because they're almost out of support for them.  It doesn't record my sleeping habits (other than counting the hours of sleep since it started (near 15k or 16k hours)).  This one has a card that I can take in for reading and give some knowledge to my provider to how I'm doing.  This replaces the one that my mother ungifted from me (it was fair, I never got around to using it anyways).  Luckily this means no more sleep studies, which is good cause the last one I slept for shit (I don't sleep well, in general, and less so in unfamiliar places).  That reminds me I need to report back on a question from my provider (reminder added to calendar).

An Open Letter

Dear Guy in the Ed Hardy T-Shirt

First, I don't claim to know know the situation for all things, but I'm pretty sure that A. Reel Big Fish show doesn't generally lend itself to, what can only be described as "Grinding" B. that amount of perfume needs to be used on probably 15-20 people.

As evidence that A is really not the way to be a circle formed around the table that you were at.  This circle got ever wider while you and the lady you were with grew ever wider, while the other table next door, just had a very narrow space around it.  You left for a bit, and it closed in a bit, and as you came back, the space widened around again.  The show is for all the people, not just for you.  I'm generally ok with PDAs, but at some point a PDA becomes something entirely different and something that should be in an area where this acceptable, as in not in the middle of a musical performance.

For B, I admit I have a sensitive nose, but I was not the only one that had a comment about the amount of offensive scent.

Thanks,

Everyone around you.