3 Rolls

On a whim, yesterday I had my egg, cheese and bacon sandwich on a bulky roll rather than the usual English muffin. The rolls were really fresh, so I thought it would be good and it was.

I worked from home yesterday and went running on my lunch hour. I only had a couple of minutes therefore to put-together a lunch and all we had that was easy was some left-over pulled pork. Naturally, it would go on a roll. Roll number 2.

It was a broken night: Kids had dance lessons, wife had karate etc. The kids ate early and we ate late, like 9:00 PM. So we wanted quick and easy. We always keep frozen hamburger patties on hand, so that is what we had. The rolls were uncut and so this time I cut mine (#3 for the day) into thirds. The middle piece got toasted on both sides while the top and bottom got only their insides toasted. I went for the Big Mac effect with shredded lettuce, diced onions, dill pickle and thousand island dressing. It wasn't a Big Mac, but was Big Mac like enough that I was well pleased with it.

Baking Pasta

We just finished this box of pasta, having owned it for around 20 years. It is not that we don't eat lots of linguine, spaghetti & so forth--Italians will instantly recognize the name of this blog as being from their country after all.

Here is what happened. My wife & I were students living in Pullman Washington and we must have somehow used-up too much of this box to leave enough for another meal. If it had been spaghetti, there would have been no problem--it would have just been combined with the next box of spaghetti. But we didn't often use linguine and I don't like to combine different shapes because then some of it is either over or under done.

We baked a lot then and ever since, and so the box became our source for done-ness testing probes--you stick a toothpick or spaghetti noodle into a baking cake and see if it comes-out dry.

This box made a meal in Washington and provided probes for baking in two homes in Vermont and one here in Massachusetts. Now it is all gone. The end of an era and probably the only foodstuff we still (until about a week ago)owned from our first year of marriage.

Raptors

Yesterday I noted on Facebook that a hawk swooped down and took a gray squirrel from our next-door neighbor's yard. I've seen hawks flying around from time to time and would have guessed that they dine primarily on squirrel flesh, but it is still shocking to see it actually happen.

The same thing happened today!

Or would have: A hawk had a squirrel pinned down in our yard and the dog got all excited by the four of us jabbering and pointing. Naturally, she wanted out. My wife was afraid for the dog's safety as the hawk was really big and our dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (A breed of small, weak and fairly unintelligent dogs). I let her out anyway and she dashed toward the raptor with either no fear, or more likely--no sense.

The hawk, which had its back to the onrushing dog, was startled and flew away without its lunch. The squirrel was still alive and had wit enough to run up a nearby tree. The dog kept its record of never killing a mammal (she is an insect mass-murderer) though not from lack of trying. As it was, she was very excited and ran around the yard for some time after the incident.

The bird did not go far. It alighted in a tree about 100 feet away and stared at the dog in a menacing way. I am not sure that carnivorous birds can stare in a non-menacing way, so perhaps I shouldn't take too much from this. I imagine though, that the hawk was sizing up our little dog as potential prey.

Running plan

Last year I kept track of my running via a utility on Facebook and the totals came out as follows:

(8:09.45 per mile) 1386.46mi

I really think that I should be doing 8:00 (or less) per mile since most weeks are at least slightly under that. The problem was that November and December of 2009 I was injured and then I really didn't start running again until we got back from India in the middle of January 2010. I had to do long runs, which are always a bit slow, because the Boston Marathon is in April and so distance training cannot be put-off forever. The problem was that on days when I did short runs, I either couldn't go under 8:00 or it would be only slightly under that. By the end of April, I was up around an average of 8:35/mile and so I worked it down to 8:09 over the course of the year.

Boston is again approaching but 1. I am not injured. 2. I am in better shape since I have been running. So my plan is to do a long run, such as today's 14 miler in 8:35/mile and then not do another long run until I have beaten the average back to 8:00 via short fast runs. I may have to abandon this if I am getting too close to marathon time and not getting in enough long runs, but it is the plan--for now.

December (7:50.1 per mile) 92.69mi

November (7:51.26 per mile) 122.88mi

October (8:02.19 per mile) 147.63mi

September (8:07.75 per mile) 115.69mi

August (7:49.95 per mile) 93.73mi

July (7:52.12 per mile) 93.05mi

June (8:00.28 per mile) 121.95mi

May (7:59.09 per mile) 99.17mi

April (8:27.99 per mile) 98.38mi

March (8:26.77 per mile) 173.98mi

February (8:38.14 per mile) 158.76mi

January (8:31.17 per mile) 68.55mi

Two calls: One close, One not.

Two instances today where cars cut me off and there would have been a crash had I not braked.

In the first one, I was going to the middle school to drop-off Dahlia's bass. The visitor parking is toward the end of a circular drive way and on the left--the same side as the school. As I approached the parking spot, I noticed a car parked illegally just before the visitor parking. The lady nonchalantly and without looking, pulled in front of me. I was going slowly, so it was easy to brake and avoid crashing into her. Since I didn't honk my horn, I feel confident that she remains blissfully unaware of the close-call. If we both had our heads in the clouds, then we would have blown the rest of today dealing with towing, insurance and police.

Later, I was driving through a busy part of town and a woman made a left-hand turn to come across oncoming traffic and into my lane just ahead of me. I had to slam-on my brakes and it was still a very close call. It looks like she had pulled into the oncoming lane, thus blocking it, just prior to her stunt. I can only conclude that she is dangerously stupid.

3rd Car

I have participated in the purchase of 6 new cars over my lifetime, but only three of them were primarily for me. Two were essentially cars for my wife and one was an SUV that we both use, but only when we need its special capabilities.

Here are the three:

1983 Toyota Tercel, seen here in the yard of our house in Vermont.

1997BMW 318ti. On a ferry crossing Lake Champlain.

2011 Subaru Impreza at Alewife Station parking garage.

There is a kind of progression here: The first was front wheel drive, the second was rear wheel drive and the latest is all wheel drive. The Tercel had a displacement of 1.5 liters, the BMW 2.0 liters and the Subaru has 2.5 liters. Lots of continuity too: All are blue, four cylinder hatchbacks with manual transmissions.

Holiday Puzzle

It is nice to set-up a puzzle over the Christmas vacation time. There is a lot of idle time and it can't all be spent a'bloggin', so this makes a good diversion.

This particular one is a bit small with only 400 pieces, but since it is a USGS map and all the parts look a lot alike, it was plenty hard. This was a custom novelty item where they make a map of your hometown with your house in the center of the map.

Roast Beef

I like a lot of different foods, but there is something special about really good roast beef. It can go wrong so easily too: Who hasn't had dry, hard roast beef? When it is good though, heaven--juicy, tender and savory!

This year the stars aligned:

I happened upon some USDA Prime grade boneless rib roast at COSTCO late last year. The prime grade is usually hard to find since it makes up only about 3% of American beef.

I dry-aged the whole roast for a couple of weeks. This has the effect of making the meat more tender and concentrating the flavor.

Cooking: I gave the roast a good 2-3 days to fully thaw and let it sit-out on the day of cooking (Christmas)until it was nearly room temperature. I preheat the oven to 500F while the meat is prepared. I rub the surface of the roast with a paste of olive oil, black pepper, kosher salt, fresh rosemary, crushed garlic and brown mustard. Immediatly upon putting the meat in the oven, I reduce the heat to 170F (which is our lowest setting) and then cook until it reaches medium rare(145F). The roast is covered with foil and a kitchen towel (for insulation) and let rest before carving.

Breakfast

Massala dosa and red chutney, Toast with orange marmalade and coffee.

Should have used the flash, too late though since the meal is in my tummy!

I'm in Love with Friedrich Hayek

Surenna's New Plywood Desk

Indian Night

Lamb curry, Basmathi rice, Chole and samosas.

All I Really Wanted to do

Was to fuel-up the snow blower and drive it from the backyard shed to the front of the house, so that I would be ready for the first snowstorm of the year.

Two hours later...I was done.

I started the machine with no problems, but seeing a mouse in the shed was a portent of future, like 5 minutes later, problems.

The drive mechanism was stiff and then after moving about 30 feet, it jammed completely. I inspected the housing and there was some kind of fluff sticking out of a mouse-sized port by the axle. I took off the access plate and found the whole gearbox full of some kind of fibrous material. I pulled out enough to fill a bread-bag and the machine was able to propel itself. The fluff had completely cleaned out all the accumulated grease in the gearbox but a quick spritz of WD-40 restored the unit to silky perfection.

While I was at it, I inflated the tires, which were both flat. I also changed the oil and found a loose wire responsible for the headlight not working.

This is not so bad...

Later squirrels will gnaw-off our faces.

I lost my light

These guys really are not missile scientists

And by "missile scientists" I mean smart.

We are worried about Russian tactical nuclear weapons which are believed to be increasingly deployed close to Eastern European NATO allies. So, the logical conclusion is to give away the store on strategic weapons first and then hope, what? The Russians will return the favor by giving us whatever we want on the tactical front? Maybe our people think the Russians are stupid. In which case our people most assuredly are stupid.

Administration officials say U.S. and Russian negotiators plan to turn their attention to tactical nuclear weapons, as well as larger strategic warheads that aren't actively deployed, as soon as New Start goes into force. "If we don't ratify Start, we're not going to be able to negotiate on tactical nuclear weapons," one said.

From, Russian Missiles Fuel U.S. Worries

Two big dinners in a row.

Both Thursday and Friday we had...how many? Our family of 5, in-laws 2, Brother in law's family 3, cousin and girlfriend 2, aunt's family 4. 16 in total. On Thanksgiving day an additional 4 local friends came over for dessert and drinks, making it 20 for much of the evening.

Thanksgiving was traditional fare, with two turkeys; one done on the charcoal grill and one done in the oven.

For today the theme was Latin American: Chili, pork roast and grilled beef both done in churasca style, Brazilian rice, guacamole etc.

The dishwasher has been running about three loads per day.

BTW: Did you know that if you eat enough beets, it will change the color of your urine? And not in a fun way, in a way that is really frightening if you don't expect it!

I know, tastes change...

Why would anyone take wood that looks like this:

And then stain it to look like this?

We went the other way of course! Several days of belt-sanding and the old dark wainscoting is now natural looking. My finish is only linseed oil and shellac.

It would have been difficult to get into all the parts of the built-in shelving, so I mostly left it alone, but painted some parts to relieve the dark monotony.

Slowing Traffic With Trompe l’Oeil

Picture from Discover.

I just thought of this and so my first thought was to do a web search and see if anyone else had already thought of it. Yes, they have. Well, if nobody else thought of it then I'm pretty confident it would seem stupid to anyone I tried to sell it to.

Day-off chores & errands

--Take the wife's car for inspection. While there, I had them run the numbers on getting a complete overhaul of my car's suspension: Better than two K! Yikes, but still far less than a new car.

--Got a haircut. I have two choices when I go: 1. A new place where there are televisions all over the place, all with sports on. The barbers are mostly (if not all) young single-mom types. 2. An older guy, who is semi-retired and works out of a rundown shop. I go to the second place whenever it is open, which is about half the time. Today we were having the usual banter, "Short enough for you"? "A little tighter, please". Followed by the usual, "Happy to take more off sir, I can't put it back though." I'm not sure why I responded as I did and before I said it, I did think it possible that it would come off as morbid, but I said it anyway and tried to say it with a slight hint at humor. "In Heaven, you will get the power to put hair back on" I said with a smile. I am guessing that he was touched by this since he became subtly more friendly after that. It is good to make a human connection sometimes.

--Put together a powerpoint showing that some Vibram Five Fingers shoes I ordered are counterfeit.

--Went to work. Hey isn't this a day off? Yes, but there was a tech service appreciation lunch and it would seem churlish to skip it.

--Came home and sanded more of the wainscoting in our family room. There was a black walnut stain on the pine and it sucks all the light out of the room.

Did a 7.85 mile run.