March 2005 Archives
Central Market twisted my arm when they sent me coupons. One of the coupons was for $10 off on their selection of prepared foods. So, I bought what they call "Tamal Azteca" and it was good.
Tonight, I decided to get creative and make my version of that dish. I bought: a HEB whole smoked chicken, Timpone's salsa muy rica, Monterey Jack cheese, Carique Crema Mexicana Agria, corn tortillas, poblano peppers, and tomatillos. I shredded the chicken; roasted the peppers and removed the skins; and roasted the tomatillos and mixed them with the salsa. Once every thing was prepared, I assembled the casserole and baked it.
It turned out pretty good. For the next time, I will add some diced garlic, sliced jalapeños, and more cheese. More cheese!
Good job... although it should have been clearcoated back when it was done...
I am working at home today (much like I did over Saturday and Sunday, sadly enough) in order to sign for a package. I ordered 200 Tyvek CD/DVD sleeves from All Things CDR. So, on package deliver attempt #1, I find out that I must sign for it. Ok. Like I care if people steal this package. I sign the piece of paper that UPS left on the door and hope that it will be delivered. The next day, I find out that, for some packages you can sign the paper, but for this package, it must be electronic. Gah! I do not want to drive to south Austin to pick it up, so I work from home. Today is day 3 and I signed for it.
When I open it, I find way too much padding. There is the foam for the empty space. And there are two bubble wrapped packages protecting the paper sleeves from damage.
What a waste!
I have lived here four years, and this is the first time that I have seen a street sweeper here in Round Rock. What a narrow focus of my home town I have...
Life follows quarter-power scaling laws link via
Projections on structures (weiter means next) link via
Katamari Damacy glass beads link via
Martian moons eclipsing the sun link via
How to really confuse your guests link via
Sims-style anti-pregnancy commercial for teen girls link via
I did it, in the parking lot, with the death ray link via
Three years ago, I decided to start a garden. I started out small and each year after that I doubled the length of the garden until it is almost to the edge of the house. Unfortunately, I have a problem. I am pretty good at starting the plants in the garden. But I am not so good at eating all of the fruits of my labor. So, in effect, the garden goes to seed. This is what happens when lettuce plants go to seed and then die off. Now my once bare plot is full of lettuce. This time, I dug them out before they went to seed again.
My next problem was the fact that I planted a peppermint in the ground. Little did I realize what a problem it has become. Left unchecked, it grew like a weed and took over the entire plot. So, at the end of the year, I would dig up the garden and try to eradicate it. Unfortunately, some survived and resumed its goal to take over the world. Now, during year 3, it is starting to escape under my St. Augustine sod.
My current dilema is what to do with the garden. I should have not put it next to the house as I want to spray for ants and termites. So I am thinking about converting it into a bed for other plants. What I really should have done was to not sod in the back yard. I never use it except for watering, fertilizing, and mowing it. It is just a chore. I should have used the entire back yard as one big garden. Perhaps for the next house...
I am now getting spam to a email address that I have never publically released. I suppose that it is conceivable that a spammer randomly put together an email based on a domain name. But they have millions of email ids already. I doubt that they would take each doman and brute force search them for new ids?
Another possibility is that I have sent email to this private id and some SMTP server along that route has been comprimised and is logging email addresses.
Or perhaps, my mail system is forwarding all non-valid ids to this primary id. Sigh. This is another problem to investigate. I wish this thing was install once and forget.
Toilet paper algorithms link via
Real time dungeon map projection link via
144 Megapixel pictures link via
Instead of cubicles, people work in cottages! link via
The evolution of sushi link via
Self-replicating 3-D printers link via
101 Unuseless Japanese inventions link via
A Guide to Taking Home Online-Casino Bonuses link via
97% of people's incomes follow the law of energies of atoms in a gas link via
Japan Seldom Asked Questions link via
How many 5 year-olds could you take on at once? link via
Unicode on two 6'x6' posters link via
I really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact link via
Someone keeps stealing my letters link via
After the cooking class, I was finally able to buy some rendered duck fat at Central Market. This is a cup of the fat and one and a half cups of flour after cooking for about twenty minutes. I would say that looks like it is peanut butter colored. Now, I need to wait until it has cooled down.
Mmmmmm, my house smells like heaven! I need to search for some pantone color samples of the different stages of roux.
Sadly, my beast is getting older. I hate the fact that Austin is so spread out. I wish it was more compact.
I spent the day in the sunshine, taking pictures. It feels good to be out and about. At least Thothhrod can't give me grief about not taking pictures with my expensive toy...
I have noticed one piece of junk car towing another piece of junk car travelling south on IH-35 many, many times. I wonder why I have seen so many of these vehicles during my stay in Round Rock. Some times, there is a small convoy of three or four vehicles. I suspect that Mexicans go buy used cars somewhere up north and then bring them to Mexico to sell at a profit. Any other ideas?
A bunch of people from Russcon got together and played some putt-putt golf. There was a contest where the winner got the prize of designing the next meta-game (weird, huh?). I was not in the running at all. I did get two holes in one. When the first one happened, my blue colored ball matched the blue colored light (that rotates between the 4 possible golf ball colors) that was currently showing. Because of that, I traded my blue ball for a orange ball and a coupon for one dollar off the next game.
All in all, it was a fun time.
Boy, this kite is tempermental! The high wind is not helping my life any... And trying to frame a good picture with my phone in one hand and really bright sunlight and one moody kite was, shall we say, interesting.
In preparation for the Zilker Kite Festival, I unpacked my small stunt kite. As I dusted off the Florida sand and sandburs, I savored the long forgotten memories.
I used to own two kites. My other kite was a bigger, plain Jane version. I am rather embarrased to recount the story of why I no longer own that kite. My friends and I decided to see just how high we could get it to fly. After reeling out the thousand foot string, we were depressed that the wind was dragging it much farther downwind than it was giving it altitude. Rather than reel it back, we decided to cut it loose. I just hope that whose ever house that kite finally landed on did not mind so much, and reused it in a much better and more dignified manner.
P.S.Man, how I hated sandspurs! Those spikes were long and just tough enough to puncture skin but weak enough to occasionally break off when you tried to remove them. And they where everywhere!
Recursive Make Considered Harmful link via
Tsunami pictures recovered from digital camera link via
List of Oscar goodies link via
Baby diapers turn to book drying link via
Dog found by accident and rescued 2 miles out to sea link via
Starbucks within sight of other Starbucks actually increases advertising and therefore customers link via
The customer is always X link via
How to destroy the earth link via
How to tell Japs from the Chinese link via
Interesting occupations exposed on flickr link via
America the bountiful link via
The infamous Playboy Cover Girl Tawny Peaks breast implant link via
Craigslist in Baghdad link via
Reinventing food at Alinea link via
Settlers of Catan cake link and Go cake link via
How to snatch an expiring domain link via
That's not a rifle. THAT'S a rifle. (look for pictures of Big Ernie) link via
Toothpick carvings link1 link2 via
I just watched, in paradise, until finally he [the cat] sat on his haunches with his head still encased in the bag, waiting for fate to deliver him, or kill him—he'd made his peace link via
I believe that more trucks should have jet engines link via
Yep, concrete can float link via
If you can read this, turn me over link via
1 PC, 6 hard drives, 37 OSes link via
How to start a startup link via
Weird shoes link
iDog link
Ahhh, Spring is in the air! The first of the Blue Bonnets have started to bloom. Hopefully, this year will be a good one. I would like to take more pictures of them.
The foil protecting the jar had some small slits punctured in it. These were the words of explination.
Well, this morning, I pulled a Jon. I woke up at 3:00 am when it started raining outside and the dripping water causes the metal gutters to make a racket. Since I was thirsty and my mouth was dry, I drank some water. I have noticed that doing that at night sometimes causes my digestive system to become active ("Hey, I've got water. Let's process something!"). Now I can't get back to sleep, so I decide to go to work instead.
As I drive in to work, I find it pretty convenient that I can dial into the building and turn on my floor's lighting and cooling systems. When I arrive, I can find my office and everything is comfy. What is not so convenient is that you can only badge into the doors on one side of the building and the lights turn back off after a certain time.
