Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. They were truly felt. Moment of silence is now over.
Greetings from Waterloo, Belgium. I made it across the pond and am in my hotel room. I broke down and slept for about 90 minutes this afternoon. I hope can sleep tonight, but I do have a sleeping aid with me. I feel pretty good, given that I only slept about an hour on the plane last night and this 90 minutes this afternoon.
It is cold and very windy today. Just a very dreary day. I have work to do before my meetings start tomorrow.
It was a very good flight. I was supposed to fly through Newark and London, but my flight was delayed out of MPLS, so I was booked onto another airline and got a non-stop to Amsterdam, with a short connecting flight to Brussels.
It has been 15 years since I've been over here. I remember the last time I was in Brussels my hotel room was less than terrific, but this place I'm in today is pretty nice. My room was described as "charming", so I was a little bit leery of that, but it's rather nice, actually.
Dr. Chop and I once stayed at a "delightful" little flat in London. The place was certainly small, but decidedly not delightful.
Getting adjusted is a bit of an art. A 90 minute nap that lets you stay up until bedtime Belgium time and still be ready to sleep should be helpful. But either taking a 4 hour nap during the day where it keeps you from falling asleep or being so tired where you fall asleep so early you wake up at 4 AM isn't so good. Sounds like you picked a happy medium.
I always find the US to Europe change easier to adjust to than the trip back. The flight from Dublin to O'Hare lands an hour after it takes off, but you've spent 7+ hours in the air, so the day is something like 31-32 hours.
Man, it's depressing to see someone as cool as Titus Welliver having to pitch for Comcast of all things. Whenever I first see him, my mind is always conflicted as to whether he's Silas Adams or The Man in Black.
Or doing his awesome Christopher Walken impression
Cc to big mak: I'm headed to the land of entrapment today. By noonish I should be drowning in red chili.
Welcome back! I'm waiting on my green chile breakfast burrito as we speak.
Oh, the chili!
A little artistic beauty making the rounds, to brighten everyone's day.
I made my third batch of (cow's milk) yogurt overnight. This batch is by far the best.
1/2 gallon milk (I used 2 pct, but whole would be better)
crock pot
1/2 cup starter from the last batch
a beach towel
an oven with a working oven light
Heat the milk on low in the crock for at least 2.5 hours. The milk should get to ~140 deg F. Allow to cool for an hour or longer, until the temp is back down to about 120 deg. In a large measuring cup or a medium bowl, temper the starter with some of the warm milk, stirring. Then gently but thoroughly stir into the crock pot of warm milk. Put the lid on, wrap the insert in the beach towel, and put into your oven. Close the door, turn the oven light on, and walk away. Come back in 12 hours or so and taste-test. If the yogurt is setting up nicely, you are a winner. If not sour/tart enough for your taste, re-wrap and put back in the oven for a few more hours. When the yogurt has reached the desired degree of sourness, extract and scoop into an appropriate container to refrigerate. Enjoy.
I like my yogurt plain. You can thicken by straining through a yogurt strainer or one of those "gold foil" coffee filters, or cheese cloth, or even paper towels lining a colander, to make "greek yogurt". The whey is delicious and nutritious in its own right (IMO) -- I usually drink it separately, which freaks the Mrs out (it's yeast pee, after all).
Cost: since I buy my milk for about $3.55 a gallon, or less, a half-gallon of plain yogurt costs $1.78 plus a few pennies for the electricity. YMMV.
This Rocks. I'm trying to one-up it by fermenting soy-sauce., but I'm not there yet. Watch this space...
Ooooh. That does sound challenging.
here's a recipe. My favorite part: "Place the entire wrapped package on the baking sheet. Place it in an inconspicuous area, and leave it until the whole thing is completely saturated in mold. This can take a week or more."
Yumm!!
Sounds...challenging.
Wild Playoff Watch: Familiar Position Edition
Game 5 Tonight in Chicago - 8:15 PM Central, CNBC
Russo's twitter feed informs me that teams that score first are 18-0 in the second round.
The Wild haven't been as dominating possession-wise in this round, but they've certainly held their own against the Blackhawks. Normally, you would look at an underdog beating a favored team and assume some unsustainable results are driving that, but the most variable statistics (shooting % and save %) are favoring the Blackhawks in the series, so it would seem that the Wild have come by their success in a sustainable way. Here's hoping that plays out in tonight's game.
Fixed the door to our back entry. Over time the slats of wood had come loose, shifted, and it was a mess.
Week 1 - took the door down, set it up in the garage on some woodhorses (OK garbage cans). Pounded the slats straight, and used those long vises plus wood glue and some T-angles to ratchet everything down. Door back up in place.
Week 2 - scraped all the loose paint and old crap that had come loose. Replaced it with wood putty (which is 3X stronger than wood, according to the label).
Week 3 - sanded and painted (using this new high-tech paint that is not runny, but somewhat gelatinous). Perhaps another Citizen can describe the technology.
Week 4 - didn't like the uneveness of the wood putty job - I never got apprenticed in this field - (glossy paint shows all manner of sins), so re-sanded off the paint and reapplied more wood putty.
Week 5 - repainted over the new putty job - much better, and started taking out the old glazing. Caused a chip in the glass. By next morning, the minor chip has turned into a complete rift across the window. Applied duct tape to prevent major breakage/injury/law suits. Measured (twice) and picked up a new pane of glass from Pfau's Hardware in West Hartford.
Week 6 (today) - finished removing old glazing, and carefully removed the old glass - this work is not for the faint of heart. That stuff is extremely sharp and in big pieces very dangerous. I did another round of clearing out old glazing with a small hammer and chisel.
How to add the new panel? I put it in place to validate that it would fit, then kinda freaked out as I didn't know how to take it back out. That was somewhat Wallendish. I carefully opened the door and pushed it out at the top and was able to make purchase and remove it again.
I ripped 4 strips of duct tape and taped them to a broom stick so they would be at the ready. Reapplying the window into the opening, I used one hand to hold the window in place whilst applying each of the duct tape strips. Then I used the little metal thingies that hold the glass in place, then when done with that, removed the duct tape and added the final metal ties.
I applied the glazing using a caulking gun - they now have designed them with a square cut top, so the glazing went in pretty well.
Now celebrating the back door project and a Perkin's save with a Widmer Bros. Nelson Imperial IPA.
Completed assembly of Runner daughter's elliptical prior to leaving for the airport. Severe storms in store for Omerha, so I'm not sure I get to my hotel in time for the early GoT, and I'm not sure I can stay up for the later showing.
Hunkered down in the basement right now waiting out the tornado warning.
The mrs got delayed at MSP by the weather, causing her to miss her connection. Won't be home until late tonight.
My man-card points were more mundane. Replaced the sleeve (or whatever you call it) that holds the (left) drawer rail on a drawer in our kitchen island. Pain in the butt, as the back brace thingy board (technical term) was almost too far back for me to reach. Hopefully the other one does not break while we still own the house.
Please tell me more about this. We have this problem.
I will assemble some pics, AMR.
cc to AMR:
this is a picture of the cradle or whatever you call it for the right slider rail. The bottom half of the left one broke off. This one, as you can see, is rectangular, and had a second piece that slid on to the end of the slider rail to fit into the cradle.
I had to pry out the staples on the remains of the left cradle in order to install the new one. Problem: the depth from the front of the opening to the 1X4 cross-bar was almost the length of my arm, and there is a shelf below the drawer, so I couldn't really get inside the cabinet. I just had to reach, which meant working mostly one-handed.
Here's the new cradle, installed. It snaps onto the slider. The front end of the slider screwed into the inside front of the drawer opening, then I wedged the cradle back as snug as I could, eyeballing the level and line (my level is too long, so I could not actually check).
I put the lower right screw in, then put the drawer in to check that the thing would actually slide properly, then removed the drawer and installed the top two screws. As you can see, I didn't get the cradle very snug, and that first screw is a bit akimbo. I was starting to strip it as I tried to unscrew it, so I just left it alone. The drawer doesn't slide that far back anyway (there's a few inches of clearance), so the only issues are whether the rail was square/level enough to slide properly and whether the screws were secure enough to hold the drawer up.
YMMV.
Nice.
Just read that Byron Buxton is back on the seven-day disabled list.
Buxton is? Isn't the seven-day DL for concussions? Hoping you mean Hicks (well, really hoping it's neither, but I'd rather it was a repeat for Hicks instead of Buxton having a new health issue cropping up).
They have a shorter DL for the minors, and a shorter DL for concussion-like syndrome in the majors.
It's Buxton. As AMR says, the standard DL in the minor leagues is seven-days. Buxton re-injured his wrist sliding the other day.
I've assumed that the reason is because there's less incentive in the minors to use a short DL stint to do roster juggling for competitive advantages.
I don't know what the rules are for demoting an AAA player to AA, with options and waivers and DFAs &c, but I assume there's less risk of losing a player to another organization, so there'd be less need to send, say, a starter to the DL for a week just because he's gassed, and effectively just end up pushing his start back 2 days.
Dont know how many of you check out Derek Wetmore's work at 1500ESPN, but most days he has a "5 thoughts...." column about the Twins game check out todays column .
The Wild have looked like they're off to a good start, especially considering it's an away game.
and no silly penalties taken
gah, just as I say that.
HAULA!!!!!! that pucks fluttered in the air forever
After a strong first period, the Hawks dominated the final two. So that was a bit disappointing.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. They were truly felt. Moment of silence is now over.
Greetings from Waterloo, Belgium. I made it across the pond and am in my hotel room. I broke down and slept for about 90 minutes this afternoon. I hope can sleep tonight, but I do have a sleeping aid with me. I feel pretty good, given that I only slept about an hour on the plane last night and this 90 minutes this afternoon.
It is cold and very windy today. Just a very dreary day. I have work to do before my meetings start tomorrow.
It was a very good flight. I was supposed to fly through Newark and London, but my flight was delayed out of MPLS, so I was booked onto another airline and got a non-stop to Amsterdam, with a short connecting flight to Brussels.
It has been 15 years since I've been over here. I remember the last time I was in Brussels my hotel room was less than terrific, but this place I'm in today is pretty nice. My room was described as "charming", so I was a little bit leery of that, but it's rather nice, actually.
Dr. Chop and I once stayed at a "delightful" little flat in London. The place was certainly small, but decidedly not delightful.
Getting adjusted is a bit of an art. A 90 minute nap that lets you stay up until bedtime Belgium time and still be ready to sleep should be helpful. But either taking a 4 hour nap during the day where it keeps you from falling asleep or being so tired where you fall asleep so early you wake up at 4 AM isn't so good. Sounds like you picked a happy medium.
I always find the US to Europe change easier to adjust to than the trip back. The flight from Dublin to O'Hare lands an hour after it takes off, but you've spent 7+ hours in the air, so the day is something like 31-32 hours.
Man, it's depressing to see someone as cool as Titus Welliver having to pitch for Comcast of all things. Whenever I first see him, my mind is always conflicted as to whether he's Silas Adams or The Man in Black.
Or doing his awesome Christopher Walken impression
Cc to big mak: I'm headed to the land of entrapment today. By noonish I should be drowning in red chili.
Welcome back! I'm waiting on my green chile breakfast burrito as we speak.
Oh, the chili!
A little artistic beauty making the rounds, to brighten everyone's day.
Nicholas Cage, murderer?
Normally, I would caution that correlation does not mean causation, but in this instance that clearly does not apply.
the whole website is awesome, and that's a valid inference.
I made my third batch of (cow's milk) yogurt overnight. This batch is by far the best.
1/2 gallon milk (I used 2 pct, but whole would be better)
crock pot
1/2 cup starter from the last batch
a beach towel
an oven with a working oven light
Heat the milk on low in the crock for at least 2.5 hours. The milk should get to ~140 deg F. Allow to cool for an hour or longer, until the temp is back down to about 120 deg. In a large measuring cup or a medium bowl, temper the starter with some of the warm milk, stirring. Then gently but thoroughly stir into the crock pot of warm milk. Put the lid on, wrap the insert in the beach towel, and put into your oven. Close the door, turn the oven light on, and walk away. Come back in 12 hours or so and taste-test. If the yogurt is setting up nicely, you are a winner. If not sour/tart enough for your taste, re-wrap and put back in the oven for a few more hours. When the yogurt has reached the desired degree of sourness, extract and scoop into an appropriate container to refrigerate. Enjoy.
I like my yogurt plain. You can thicken by straining through a yogurt strainer or one of those "gold foil" coffee filters, or cheese cloth, or even paper towels lining a colander, to make "greek yogurt". The whey is delicious and nutritious in its own right (IMO) -- I usually drink it separately, which freaks the Mrs out (it's yeast pee, after all).
Cost: since I buy my milk for about $3.55 a gallon, or less, a half-gallon of plain yogurt costs $1.78 plus a few pennies for the electricity. YMMV.
This Rocks. I'm trying to one-up it by fermenting soy-sauce., but I'm not there yet. Watch this space...
Ooooh. That does sound challenging.
here's a recipe. My favorite part: "Place the entire wrapped package on the baking sheet. Place it in an inconspicuous area, and leave it until the whole thing is completely saturated in mold. This can take a week or more."
Yumm!!
Sounds...challenging.
Wild Playoff Watch: Familiar Position Edition
Game 5 Tonight in Chicago - 8:15 PM Central, CNBC
Russo's twitter feed informs me that teams that score first are 18-0 in the second round.
The Wild haven't been as dominating possession-wise in this round, but they've certainly held their own against the Blackhawks. Normally, you would look at an underdog beating a favored team and assume some unsustainable results are driving that, but the most variable statistics (shooting % and save %) are favoring the Blackhawks in the series, so it would seem that the Wild have come by their success in a sustainable way. Here's hoping that plays out in tonight's game.
Fixed the door to our back entry. Over time the slats of wood had come loose, shifted, and it was a mess.
Week 1 - took the door down, set it up in the garage on some woodhorses (OK garbage cans). Pounded the slats straight, and used those long vises plus wood glue and some T-angles to ratchet everything down. Door back up in place.
Week 2 - scraped all the loose paint and old crap that had come loose. Replaced it with wood putty (which is 3X stronger than wood, according to the label).
Week 3 - sanded and painted (using this new high-tech paint that is not runny, but somewhat gelatinous). Perhaps another Citizen can describe the technology.
Week 4 - didn't like the uneveness of the wood putty job - I never got apprenticed in this field - (glossy paint shows all manner of sins), so re-sanded off the paint and reapplied more wood putty.
Week 5 - repainted over the new putty job - much better, and started taking out the old glazing. Caused a chip in the glass. By next morning, the minor chip has turned into a complete rift across the window. Applied duct tape to prevent major breakage/injury/law suits. Measured (twice) and picked up a new pane of glass from Pfau's Hardware in West Hartford.
Week 6 (today) - finished removing old glazing, and carefully removed the old glass - this work is not for the faint of heart. That stuff is extremely sharp and in big pieces very dangerous. I did another round of clearing out old glazing with a small hammer and chisel.
How to add the new panel? I put it in place to validate that it would fit, then kinda freaked out as I didn't know how to take it back out. That was somewhat Wallendish. I carefully opened the door and pushed it out at the top and was able to make purchase and remove it again.
I ripped 4 strips of duct tape and taped them to a broom stick so they would be at the ready. Reapplying the window into the opening, I used one hand to hold the window in place whilst applying each of the duct tape strips. Then I used the little metal thingies that hold the glass in place, then when done with that, removed the duct tape and added the final metal ties.
I applied the glazing using a caulking gun - they now have designed them with a square cut top, so the glazing went in pretty well.
Now celebrating the back door project and a Perkin's save with a Widmer Bros. Nelson Imperial IPA.
Completed assembly of Runner daughter's elliptical prior to leaving for the airport. Severe storms in store for Omerha, so I'm not sure I get to my hotel in time for the early GoT, and I'm not sure I can stay up for the later showing.
Hunkered down in the basement right now waiting out the tornado warning.
The mrs got delayed at MSP by the weather, causing her to miss her connection. Won't be home until late tonight.
My man-card points were more mundane. Replaced the sleeve (or whatever you call it) that holds the (left) drawer rail on a drawer in our kitchen island. Pain in the butt, as the back brace thingy board (technical term) was almost too far back for me to reach. Hopefully the other one does not break while we still own the house.
Please tell me more about this. We have this problem.
I will assemble some pics, AMR.
cc to AMR:
this is a picture of the cradle or whatever you call it for the right slider rail. The bottom half of the left one broke off. This one, as you can see, is rectangular, and had a second piece that slid on to the end of the slider rail to fit into the cradle.
I had to pry out the staples on the remains of the left cradle in order to install the new one. Problem: the depth from the front of the opening to the 1X4 cross-bar was almost the length of my arm, and there is a shelf below the drawer, so I couldn't really get inside the cabinet. I just had to reach, which meant working mostly one-handed.
Here's the new cradle, installed. It snaps onto the slider. The front end of the slider screwed into the inside front of the drawer opening, then I wedged the cradle back as snug as I could, eyeballing the level and line (my level is too long, so I could not actually check).
I put the lower right screw in, then put the drawer in to check that the thing would actually slide properly, then removed the drawer and installed the top two screws. As you can see, I didn't get the cradle very snug, and that first screw is a bit akimbo. I was starting to strip it as I tried to unscrew it, so I just left it alone. The drawer doesn't slide that far back anyway (there's a few inches of clearance), so the only issues are whether the rail was square/level enough to slide properly and whether the screws were secure enough to hold the drawer up.
YMMV.
Nice.
Just read that Byron Buxton is back on the seven-day disabled list.
Buxton is? Isn't the seven-day DL for concussions? Hoping you mean Hicks (well, really hoping it's neither, but I'd rather it was a repeat for Hicks instead of Buxton having a new health issue cropping up).
They have a shorter DL for the minors, and a shorter DL for concussion-like syndrome in the majors.
It's Buxton. As AMR says, the standard DL in the minor leagues is seven-days. Buxton re-injured his wrist sliding the other day.
I've assumed that the reason is because there's less incentive in the minors to use a short DL stint to do roster juggling for competitive advantages.
I don't know what the rules are for demoting an AAA player to AA, with options and waivers and DFAs &c, but I assume there's less risk of losing a player to another organization, so there'd be less need to send, say, a starter to the DL for a week just because he's gassed, and effectively just end up pushing his start back 2 days.
Dont know how many of you check out Derek Wetmore's work at 1500ESPN, but most days he has a "5 thoughts...." column about the Twins game check out todays column .
The Wild have looked like they're off to a good start, especially considering it's an away game.
and no silly penalties taken
gah, just as I say that.
HAULA!!!!!! that pucks fluttered in the air forever
After a strong first period, the Hawks dominated the final two. So that was a bit disappointing.