We have a rubbermaid green bucket that's been sitting outside for months. It's acted partly as a bit of a rain gauge and partly as a very small "collect rainwater to water plants with" water barrel.

But mostly I've been too lazy to put it away, and it's not hurting anything, so why bother?

Last week it turned cold. The average December temps here range from 36F to 46F; this week it's been in the teens and twenties. Saturday Jesse noticed the bucket had frozen over. He broke the ice, dumped out the water and ice on the yard, and put the bucket away in the garage. The ice was roughly 2 half-circles, a bit less than an inch thick.

They're still in my yard. I don't think they've melted at all. This ain't right.

...hi. How are you this morning?

"It's easy once you know that sauces are made in only a few different ways. One way is to reduce a liquid till it's syrupy and then add the cream. What you get is essentially pineapple-flavored cream, or wine-flavored cream, or beer-flavored cream, or whatever. Hell, you could do it with Coke, but who'd want to." - Spenser on sauces, from Early Autumn

My parents taught me some basic recipes, but I think I learned to actually cook from Robert B Parker's Spenser novels. The pages shortly before the above quote includes a lot of what I learned. Spenser creates dinner out of what's in his client's fridge. (Lesson: Sometimes you make up a dish to match what you have, not matching ingredients to recipes.) He cut the eyes out of the pork chops and throws the rest away. (Lesson: It's okay to trim meat and only use what you want.) He browns meat and adds garlic and pineapple juice, lets that cook down, then adds cream, and some pineapple and orange segments. (Lesson: One way to make a sauce; also, this was a flavor combination I'd never considered before.) He cooks rice in chicken broth with thyme, parsley and a bay leaf. (Lesson: You don't have to cook rice and then mix it with things, you can use broth or what-have-you to flavor the rice while cooking.) Finally he makes a salad out of half a head of lettuce and a dressing of oil, vinegar, mustard, and garlic. (Lesson: You can make salad dressing! Without a mix!)

I was reminded of this tonight as I went to make dinner. My initial "food" thought was spaghetti with clam sauce and mizithra at the Old Spaghetti Factory, but the drive time was prohibitive for me. I do have a couple types of clam spaghetti in my repertoire, but usually if I want a specific dish then a close dish is just going to be more frustrating. I considered mac & cheese. I remembered we have some fresh green beans I should do something with, and considered stir-frying them with garlic and maybe some bacon. Or doing a cheese sauce with bacon. Eventually I made bowtie pasta with a cream sauce that had green beans, some chicken, some bacon, and some mushrooms that were almost gone. And the cream sauce was made by sauteing the mushrooms and garlic, adding a can if chunk chicken (with its broth) and a handful of bacon bits and spices and the green beans, letting that cook down until it was a bit syrupy, and then adding cream ;)

25 years ago I graduated from high school.
19 years ago I graduated college (BS cum laude in computer science).
19 years ago tomorrow I started at Microsoft.

These affected my life in lots of ways.

Where were you 19 or 25 years ago?

Here, and gee, it says tree pollen is "very high" at the moment. Headache, stuffy nose, irritated eyes, drowsiness... not contagious, but not fun either.

I've been wearing my hair shorter for a few months now. When I run into people I haven't seen in a while they often point out that my hair is shorter. Today's cut involved the stylist blowing it straight, which I don't do, and parting on my right, which I haven't done in a while. Went to QFC and a neighbor came over to tell me it looks nice.

So I came home and made with the webcam a bit. ( Read more... )

• 17:22 At Qwest Field for "inaugural" home game of Sounders FC. Xbox green everywhere.
• 17:40 The 3 Lions bartender is 3 rows ahead of us :)
• 17:56 Marching band is playing in the south end zone. I count 6 tubas. We are on the NE side.
• 18:13 State governor: Small boo. MLS commissioner: Polite applause. Drew Carey: Wild cheers.
• 18:16 There are women in choir robes and sounders scarves spread around the stadium.
• 18:24 ...and I realize I forgot my gloves. D'oh.
• 18:44 Bought me some peanuts and crackerjack...oops wrong game :)
• 20:10 Qwest Field, home to surprisingly tasty $5 non-Starbucks peppermint mochas.
• 20:23 Sounders 3, NY 0.

Automatically copied from http://www.twitter.com/jenk3 via LoudTwitter cause it's easy :)

One thing I've had trouble with is describing the kind of TV I'm willing to watch these days, and I finally got a way to wrap my once-a-week (or every-other-week) watching of Jeopardy and Good Eats with the occasional Netflix'd BritCom/Mystery together:

"I want the TV equivalent of reading the comics and doing the crossword."

Not working late today....
Being able to take time out of [normal] time...
Celebrating the good, and letting go of the bad.
Brooke & John and Vixy & Tony & Betsy, for sharing their music.
Spotting the elusive hisfyappah husband.
The sunlight we've had this week.
Allergies abating.
Stretches.
Laughter.
dianthus, jw1776, and skydancer ... for helping me stay sane.

I went to QFC during lunch. At the bottom of the register tape was:

IMPORTANT RECALL NOTICE You may have purchased the product listed below which has now been recalled. You may return the product for a full refund at any of our stores or you may contact the company at: [number]. KEEBLER TOAST/PEANUT BUTTER Cracker Sandwiches, 11 oz [UPC] KEEBLER CHEESE/PEANUT BUTTER Cracker Sandwiches, 10.9 oz [UPC] This product may be contaminated with Salmonella. DO NOT CONSUME.

Not sure if this is due to the customer-purchase "QFC Advantage" tracking system, or if they're just warning everyone who buys anything. In my case I had bought the peanut butter crackers and eaten some. I've tossed the rest.