Last night I browned 1.5lbs of ground beef
chopped 2 onions
sauteed onions in butter and wine
put in crock-pot with 4 cups of beef broth
added the following ingredients:
garlic powder
worcestershire sauce
paprika
salt & pepper
caraway seed
fennel
chili powder
mustard powder
4-5 shots of bourbon
The meal cooked all night in the crockpot and for the entirety of today. It smelled wonderful.
I wanted to thicken it up before putting it over noodles. I took a cup of the stock and stirred in 2 cups of flour. I added this back to the crockpot but it didn't thicken. So, I did the same thing again. In frustration, I dumped the remaining 2 cups of flour into the crockpot and stirred but it never thickened. So, I called my mom to get a recommendation.
She explained that 6 cups was an insanely huge amount for what I was trying to do. She also said that I needed to bring it to a boil for a couple minutes to get it to thicken. So, I strained the stock from the crockpot and let it boil. After about 10 minutes I gave up and called mom again. She gave me some recommendations but I decided to ignore them and just poured the stock back into the crockpot.
I cooked the noodles and added them to the "goulash." Mithrana and I had some but I wasn't much of a fan. It just wasn't what I had expected. When valda got home she felt the same way. I complained to her about the trouble I had had with it and then we started watching a tv show.
About 10 minutes later valda starts lauphing from the kitchen. She found the empty container of powerdered sugar and figured out what my problem had been.
A chef I am not...
Why the difference?
The only thing I can think of is how "forced" the line or event is. Did kirk with the green alien do something for the plot or give new-comers insight into the character? Yes, I think so. That seems to be the difference... Any thoughts?
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rebelowl42 threw down the gauntlet recently with his new Lego project. I have decided to rise to the challenge. Unfortunately, I am anxiously awaiting a few shipments that will allow me to work on this more. The vessel will be a 3 masted ship with 1 complete gun deck. As the Owl pointed out, it should be similar to Jack Aubrey's "Surprise" from the Master and Commander series. Due to a lack of parts I have only been able to build up the stern of the vessel. I have gotten it to the point that I am building out the captain's cabin. The walls and roof of this room are not complete yet, but I wanted to show off what's going on thus far. The family has been very patient and helpful with the project.
The pictures are available here, but I'll show off a few:
Port side of the vessel - two gun ports are visible. I need to get covers for the ports when the cannon aren't rolled out. Also, the rudder hasn't even been built yet.
Here is the captain's floor with desk/drawe
The hold and gun decks of the stern of the new ship - secondary wheel visible in the hold along with the canon tracks on the gun deck
This is the rear of the vessel. The two rear cannon are visible low, along with the windows for the gun d eck. The walls for the captain's cabin are still under constructi
Now the floor is in place - only 4 pips hold the entire 12x12 floor down, so it is easy to break away.
( Read more... )
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Sleeping
Working
Reflecting on life
Watching Babylon 5
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Some of these things deserve to have something said about them; the most important ones in particular.
Sleeping - I certainly don't get enough sleep lately. Perhaps it is an attempt to claim every moment I can as my own before the birth of my son. Perhaps it's because I'm stubborn and lack common sense.
Watching Babylon 5 - I missed this series when it was airing originally. Mainly because I'm a Trekkie and had no interest in this wanna-be. Also partially because I had trouble wading through the deluge of *horrible acting* and cheap sets. However, I've gotten through the muck and am now enjoying the series. 'nuf said.
Working - Eh, I do what I gotta do...
Reflecting on life - There have been a few big things I've been thinking about lately. Partially about the "hermit" like way that I live my life... partially about the lack of social contact that we have as a household... Partially about Polyamory and our society/family... And I find myself being very self-critical lately... At the same time, I'm thinking a lot about life-lessons; things that I have learned and things that I want to pass on. Today's topic: regret... ( regret... )
"Computer..."
Imagine those words coming from Jean-Luc Picard, James T. Kirk, et al. without any response; the familiar beep followed by a female's voice that we all recognize. That's what has happened as of today. The wife of Gene Roddenberry, Majel Roddenberry, has passed away. In addition to notable roles throughout the various incarnations of the Trek 'Verse, she has been the voice of The Computer in every Star Trek series. She has passed away today at the age of 76...
http://io9.com/5113721/the-first-lady-of-s
We went to the mall yesterday. I was *dragged* kicking and screaming by the ladies. By *dragged*, I mean, I agreed because it meant that I got to go to the lego store. Yes, the mecca of nostalgia and overpriced plastic injection molded blocks that have no real purpose other than to sit in a container and await my choosing to directed creative energy at it rather than at a gaming console/computer.
We walked away from the lego store with some more cups of blocks and a very cool lego bank. This lego mechanical "piggy" bank (really, it's a "dragon" bank) is teh awsome! Maybe I'll post a picture of it after we build it tonight. I also got some new shoes and the ladies got some clothing. No, these weren't from the lego store, they were from a department store elsewhere in the mall. That does give me some ideas about another direction that Lego could take it's lineup.... I imagine it would make bras a little easier for nervous geek boys to undo :)
I also got one other thing... a new PS3 title, "Mirror's Edge." I played it for an hour last night and am just floored by the graphics and the sheer intensity of the game play. I am worried that I may not be able to keep up with the intensity, and perhaps won't play it as often as I hope... But I'll cross that bridge when I get there. It's a game that takes place in a near-future dystopian city that has seen the erosion of almost all civil liberties and privacy. A sub-culture of "runner" has developed that move freely above and through the city to deliver messages, items, etc, that the "powers that be" would be interested in. Basically, if you have a message that you don't want to deliver over a controlled medium, you get a runner to handle it. The gameplay itself has an interesting perspective. It looks like a 1st person shooter, without the weapons, and without any sort of HUD. Moving away from the normal FPS taboos, you can see your arms and legs as you move about and interact with your environment. As you move about the environment it becomes apparent (at least to me) that this is more of a physics game-play experiement that has the potential to be enjoyable as a "toy" in the vein of "Katamari Damaci."
With all that said, it is damn intense sliding down the sloped glass exteriors of high-rise buildings, grabbing a zip line, dropping on another building and jumping from ledge to ledge to escape the pursuing officers.
Boy, was this a great weekend. I have neglected to post about it until now, but to celebrate LJ being back up (and giving me something to do while waiting on hold with coworkers) I'll give the rundown. Spur of the moment on Saturday morning we decided to attend the anti-Proposition 8 rally that was being held downtown. We called around and got
maera_danann to join us there after picking up kommie . It was enjoyable. There were a few good speakers, and some rather moving moments. All in all, I'm glad we went and will be happy to show our support again in the future. After the show we went to Best Buy to look around and discovered a whopping pile of 50 Wiis right in the front of the store.
kommie saw this as his chance to finally get one. Unfortunately, that means that he'll get to practice on his own and I won't be able to kick his ass any more at tennis... At least he hasn't bought Mario Kart yet.Saturday evening
wyvernmoon came over to spend the night with a baby Robyn in tow. With her hubby out of town, we invited her over so that she didn't have to be lonely and could have some help from friends keeping an eye on the little one. I kicked ass at getting the baby to fall asleep - I guess I just have a penchant for getting women into a comatose state. The house quickly became filled with friends as we hung out and then sat around watching Gettysburg. kommie and I made it through the whole movie, but most of the others either passed out or bailed out at various times. Kudos in particular go to tashar for making further than most of the others. On Sunday
kommie and I took valda793 's parents their scooter from our garage and disposed of an old recliner so there would be room for it in their living room. I was actually rather disappointed in The Salvation Army because they turned down the donation. The guy working the donation site said the arms are worn, and thus would need reupholstered before they could sell it. I disagree, and think that this was a perfectly fine second-hand chair. Eh, hopefully someone will rescue it from next to the dumpster.Hmm, what else... what else... Oh, I spent some time building an Amazon wishlist. I always feel crappy making something like this, but I'm getting past that. Actually, the past couple days I have added dozens of items to it and really hope I make friends with a millionaire that can afford to buy all the lego sets that are on the list. If you know any millionaires that are lonely, let me know .
Oh oh oh oh oh, I almost forgot. Congrats to
valda793 for her induction into the honor's society on Friday evening. We are very proud of her. it was also fun giving the small digital camera to her father so that he could take pictures at the ceremony. He really was enjoying using it, and it's nice to see him get excited about something.
tashar , soonerfan645 , and maera_danann showed up for the performance and suprised the hell out of me when I was helping to strike the set. We chose not to stay for the second half of the show but instead met valda793 and mithrana at Chili's for some yummy deserts. Valda793 has her induction ceremony tonight into her sorority, and after that our schedule is finally going to slow down a little bit. We've all needed a little break from the sheer insanity that has been the past few
I had a few realizations last night that I'll post more about later. I am beginning to reexamine my reasons for leaving UH and abandoning my Masters program.
It sounds a little odd, and doesn't sound frightening... It's not as if my life was in danger in the dreams. I wasn't physically threatened, but it was more bothersome than that.
The series of dreams, and yes there were 10 or 15 that night, were built upon my not knowing if I was awake or dreaming. I woke up before the ladies and started getting ready for work. I remembered that I needed to bring a receipt in to the office (for reimbursement maybe?) and asked Mithrana about it. She told me it was in the drawers in her closet and that she would get it for me (she doesn't have a set of drawers in there). After getting it to me I felt very relieved that it was in my hands. Then I woke up. I realized that I had been dreaming, and it was annoying that I was now going to have to go find the receipt. I searched everywhere for it. I finally woke Mithrana up and she told me it was in the entryway. I went and checked there and found it. Soon after, I woke up. Increasingly frustrated that I did not have the receipt yet, I searched each of the places that Mithrana had told me about in the previous dreams. Unable to find it, I woke up both Mithrana and Valda. They had no idea where it was, so I searched the rest of the house. At one point, I heard one of the dogs playing loudly in the living room. I went to check and it turns out Phoenix was violently playing (yes, playing) with empty wine bottles. She had one in her mouth and one was smashed on the ground beside her. She was chewing on them and shaking them vigorously.
At that point, I awoke again and was extremely upset. I started checking the bed to ensure the ladies were both there. In my mind, if the ladies were still in the bed, then I was obviously awake and was out of the dreams. I got ready for work and went about my day. That's when I woke again. This happened a few time. It was like "Groundhog Day" where I kept having to relive the same day over and over. At one point it turns out Kamaradski was sleeping in the guest room. He came down when the house was awake and I started to try to explain to him why I was so upset by the dreams. He kept brushing it off and telling me I was silly for being anxious about such a relatively tame dream (or dreams). I couldn't get it across to him just how disturbing it was to not know if you were awake or not. Then I woke up...
Towards the end of the sequence of dreams I remember fighting hard to try to escape the cycle. I remember Valda lying next to me patting my chest and trying to calm me down. I would open my eyes and tell her that the room wasn't right, it wasn't... our room. She kept saying "sssshhhh, it will be okay." She then asked me what it was I was seeing. I told her the walls were black and reflective, that there were cinder blocks underneath the window, that the backyard looked different through the different panes, and that there was a beanbag under the window (where the other dog's bed is supposed to be). She said, "no, that's not real. Open your eyes and you'll see you're safe in the bedroom. The walls are blue, there aren't any cinder blocks under the window, and you can see outside the window that the view of the backyard is the same from pane of glass to pane of glass."
I believed her, but I couldn't fight my way out of the dream. I couldn't force myself to see what she was seeing... I tried so hard, I fought so hard to try to see what was actually there... Then I woke up again. I was lying in the dark bedroom with the ladies beside me and Valda trying to comfort me. I realized what an idiot I had been and that I should have known the previous room that Valda was describing to me in that dream wasn't real either, because when I looked out those windows there was a shed in the backyard... we don't own a shed...
I laid there and berated myself for being so stupid for thinking that I was actually struggling out of the dream into reality when in fact I was struggling out of the dream *into* another dream.
I awoke again... This time I forced myself up from the bed and practically ran from the room. I sat on the couch, not sure if I was in a dream or if this was reality. I sat there for a while just looking around trying to search for clues. I finally was convinced that I was awake, but was frightened of going back to bed because I just knew I would get stuck in the dream sequence again. I opened up my laptop and read a few blogs, checked FARK, checked the news, etc. A while later I decided to go back to sleep, but I didn't want to go back in the bedroom so I slept on the couch for a while. This was reality.
Valda woke me at 6:30 when we normally start getting up and ushered me back to the bedroom to sleep a little more...
The rest of yesterday was a blur, and today I don't feel much better. I'm very confused about this dream, and still feel very anxious whenever I think about it. I can feel my heart racing just typing this.
The concert is in celebration of the 80th birthday of the composer Samuel Adler. One of the other composers represented in the concert is Dan Welcher whose 60th birthday is the same day. Dan Welcher also happens to be one of the pupils of Samuel Adler.
The following 3 works will be performed:
Lux Aeterna (Movements III, IV, and V) – Morten Lauridsen
Leaves of Grass (Movement I – I Celebrate Myself) – Dan Welcher
Transfiguration: An Ecumenical Mass – Samuel Adler
I can't help but feel bad about the fact that I am MISSING THE 3RD BIRTHING CLASS (out of 4) that mithrana, valda and I are attending. It is unfortunately unavoidable though.
Lady Wyvern and the wyvernspawn contacted me this morning to see if I wanted to get together. I waited for valda to get home and headed over to her place. We went and had a pleasant lunch and then went to the book store where I picked up a fun little children's book called "Bats at the Library" and a song book of children's songs. Yeah, it's obvious that I'm getting ready for the little one to be here.
When we got home I spent some time practicing. Practicing what? You dolt, I'm a singer. Of course, we'll ignore the fact that I haven't been singing for almost 3 years. But yes, I spent the afternoon (couple hours at least) singing. I went through pieces from old recitals... then I started thinking about some new pieces to work on. I'm thinking about bribing (with food, booze, and a dog that is infatuated with him) the only pianist I know (marimbanlr) into playing 2 or three pieces for me the next time he is down... I don't want performance quality, but it would be nice to hear the pieces as they are actually written. I really need to meet a pianist in the area...
With that said, I've think I've chosen 3 pieces to work on. I probably won't go for memorization, but just the act of working up the pieces. I've selected them based on difficulty level, differences in genre/technique, and differences in language. It will be the first time I've worked on music without a vocal coach... I'm fealing a little self-concious about it right now.
Handel's "The Lord Worketh Wonders" from Judas Maccabeus
Rossini's "Largo al Factotum" from Barbiere di Siviglia
Schubert's "Gute Nacht" from Die Winterreise
We'll see if I'm being overly ambitious or not...
I've been thinking a little bit about death the past couple days. You see, it we found out yesterday that our roofer has passed away. He was a young man; articulate, intelligent, pleasant, and an entrepreneur. He went to work one day, slipped on a client's roof, and died. I haven't been around much death in my life, which is highlighted by the fact that this has stuck in my mind. Yes, being a roofer is a dangerous job - obviously. However, it's not one that jumps to my mind when I think of "dangerous career choices." When talking about it with Valda and Wyvern today, it was pointed out that in this day & age people really don't encounter death. In times gone by, it was much more common place. Kids were quickly conditioned to it; by the time you were a teenager you undoubtedly knew many people who had died - if not actually related to them. This is why death is such a common theme of nursery rhymes and the like. Death... was just a part of life.
Oh, and I am still stoked about the election results. w00t! I love the fact that Obama has kept a campaign promise. He has already sat down with an unpopular, aggressive world leader without preconditions... I wonder if that meeting with Bush yesterday was uncomfortable ;) (credit goes to FARK for most of that)
Okay, I'm out. I have rambled enough. If you actually took the time to read all of this, let me know. I'm curious who all makes it through this morass.
So, we have started a new community on LJ. Here's the link:
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rebootgod_brew So you can have an idea about what it's about, here's the first post:
So our adventures at the renfest have produced a hobby.
First we bought a hard cider brewing kit from the very nice man at Bristlecone Pine. We (jnasser, kommie, and me) thought that his samples were mighty tasty and that we like to do stuff like this so we bought a kit.
Later in the day we found a mini barrell company....now we own two 2-liter oak barrells for aging the cider / what ever else we make.
So once the dear Rebelowl42 was nearby for us to ask questions Jnasser started gathering supplies.
Our first recipe
4+ cups of white sugar
1 gallon of Central Market organic Apple juice (100% juice)
1 packet of Red Star champagne yeast
The juice is very cloudy and Rebelowl suggested that we add some pectin enzyme to clear up the mix. Otherwise we will have cloudy cider...
First we mixed 1/3 of the juice with the sugar then slowly heated it to body temperature. Next we funneled the sugar/juice into the jar and added the packet of yeast. We warmed up the remaining juice to slightly warmer than body temp.
The owl showed us the proper "Angry Dwarf Shaking Technique"
After noticing that the carboy was too full we drained off water from the tubing till only the two bottom bubbles were full.
Placed the jar on the sill on the south kitchen window.
Now we wait and see if it makes jetfuel or yummyness.
There are already bubbles!
On Sunday we will have our first performance. I didn't know anything about the concert other than our piece until this afternoon. I was listening to "The Front Row" on NPR and they happened to have a long piece about it. This is the 10th anniversary Organ Concert for Kathryn Sparks at the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church. The organs have just been renovated and are supposed to be magnificent. There will be a few pieces of work on the concert, with the Choral Artists joining for the final piece.
We will be singing Lux Aeterna, by Morton Lauridson. The concert begins at 5:00pm and is free to the public. If there is any possibility of your making it, we would love to see you there. I think you may be impressed both by the organ and by us :)
Did that get anyone's attention?
Good, because we need another movie marathon. Can you guess what series we're thinking about doing?
If you are interested in lightsabers, midichloreans, cantinas, and arguing about who fired first, let us know.
We are considering this marathon for a Friday in August - either the 8th or the 15th.
Show up or get thrown in a sarlacc pit.
Can someone, anyone, provide a reason why I don't need this for my child's room?
Yes, I'm a dork. That is all.
