Cool but warmer than it has been, and wet. Plenty wet. Steady raining yesterday, although the rain wasn’t steady… Don’t know what the final count was but we had inches. Forecast for today and tomorrow is similar to yesterday. More rain.
I got a few things done. Not what I wanted to or hoped, but some alternatives. Never heard back from my tenant, so didn’t install the washer. Technically I can enter and do the work, but single women living alone are rightly skittish about that, so I will wait for her to get back to me. And there is a small dog that I would prefer was locked into the back bedroom.
I pushed one pickup off for a week. Bad weather affects everyone, and they didn’t want to hang out waiting for me. Unfortunately I missed an appointment to pick up my solar panel because of traffic delays, so I’ll have to wait to get it.
And today’s plan involves more pickups, if the weather isn’t horrible, and if I can get the washer off the back of my truck. One of the things I won was a smaller Portacool evaporative cooler for outdoor use. I won one last week too, which brings my total to three… One is none, and all that. They make working outdoors in Houston much more bearable, and safer too. And if both kids swim this season I’ll be using them at the meets. At least one will head to the BOL with my next load if they check out and don’t need any refurb or repair. Some people worry most about heat when the weather is cold, down here it’s important to worry about cooling when it’s hot. AND we get cold too, but less so, and for a shorter period of time. Any heat generation we need is by definition a short term event. Getting these coolers should top me up for dealing with heat. Or maybe one more big shop fan would be good too……..
I wouldn’t have purchased another Portacool new at full price, but they were practically giving these away. It’s always best to buy AC when it’s cold, and heaters when it’s hot. And a bargain when you see it.
Stack all the things. Infrastructure too, once you have more basic needs taken care of.
nick
Telescope will be delivered on Friday – looking forward to it!
My wife decided to buy an air fryer. She misses having two ovens (when we had our house/business combo, we actually had three), so this will help. I wonder: even normal ovens here have a fan circulating the hot air around the food. Will the air fryer will be noticeably different? Maybe it blows the air around faster?
Finished grading the pending student projects. Some were incredibly good – always a pleasure to see those. Some were…um…minimalistic. One I cannot get to run, and the students can’t help either. Hmmm. Why do I suspect that they paid someone to write the project for them?
Brad, I’m not impressed with air fryers. I suggest getting one of the fancier toaster ovens which can also air fry and do some other things. Multi purpose and only one footprint on the countertop.
Alternatively, what about an instapot? It won’t give you crispy food but it’ll do a lot of other things.
@SteveF: Too late, arrived today…
I have a Toaster/Oven/Convection/Air Fryer. I really don’t know what the difference is supposed to be between the convection oven and the air fryer, but they do seem to cook differently
I dislike “air fryers” on the principle that they are re-defining words to sell you something. Like “solar generator” for a battery, charger, and solar panels.
To fry you must have a medium to fry in, and that medium is fat of some sort.
If it’s just a fancy convection oven, there isn’t any “frying” involved.
Instapot is just a computerized pressure cooker. I see a TON of them (and air fryers) in the goodwill surplus. FWIW, you’re trusting some contract programmer not to kill of maim you with a pressure explosion if there is an error in the firmware…
I view Instapots as the George Foreman grill of the current crop of snowflakes. Some people used the GFG and incorporated it into their cooking (my inlaws did, and use theirs all the time) but most people gave it a try, and put it back in the cabinet.
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Somewhere in the high 60s this morning, and wet. Occasional drizzle, grey sky, and soaked soil.
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bus never showed today so I had to drive D2 to school. ½ hour round trip. No me gusta.
n
I like my Foreman grill, basically because it does one job well – quickly grill – and used properly there is minimal smoke and mess to clean up.
I prefer outdoor grilling, but am too darn lazy most of the time. And the propane hose is leaking again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyqYgCxJ0BM
whether you call it battlespace prep, moving the Overton window, or thinking the unthinkable, they are doing more of it.
n
a lot of catsup
–ha! Knew I’d trigger someone 🙂
That clip is even funnier since it’s been dubbed in german…
n
We have on of those Ninja Foodie grills that also does “air frying” and we really like it.
One of the great uses of the air frying function is to crisp up delivery fried food or left-overs. Onion rings, zucchini fries, etc. end up better than they would have been at the originating restaurant (and it expels some of the excess oil in the process.)
We also use it for cooking small meals when we don’t want to heat the whole kitchen with the oven or wait a long time for the cooking surface to get to temperature.
Oops. Here’s an English version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUV9UWCGFPw 🙂
I’ve been saying this for years. Air Fryers are just Tabletop Convection Ovens. Instapots are just Pressure Cookers. I will admit, the tiny size of an Air Fryer means it heats up quicker. Though, I’d wager a convection toaster oven may be more useful to people than a standard air fryer with its tiny cooking space. As for the Instapot, there is something to be said for adding some automated controls to it so you can press a button and walk away. However, there’s nothing new here. Just another appliance to decorate your countertop and enrage your spouse.
The correct name is Instant Pot, also a brand name.
I have a Nija Foodie Air Fryer that also has a griddle and grill plate. Yup, more of a convection oven than anything else. The kids use the air fryer basket all the time. Great for griddling bacon.
I have a Nija Outdoor Electric smoke grill that makes great pork ribs.
I also have a Dreo Chefmakers air fryer steak maker that I can’t live without.
Oh, year, and an Instant Pot. And a couple of regular pressure cookers. Pinto beans come out fast and delicious from any of those.
I stand corrected. Though, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone enunciate the “nt” in Instant Pot. 🤔
‘Um… Why Is Our Plane’s Wing Missing All Those Screws?’
For once, not Boeing.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12996465/parents-furious-8-year-old-daughter-school-pencil-stabbing.html
Las Vegas schools have a real problem with violence.
n
Unrelated to the violence, but that is one fat 8 year old. Why do parents do that to their kids? Parents control their kids’ diets – there is no excuse for obese small children.
We’ve gotten several more inches of rain today. The pond between us and the east neighbor is now over a foot deep. Still 18 inches below her house and 24 inches below our house so no worries.
Was turning on the shower last night, opened the shower door and the bottom seal fell off with such a clatter. It is a 32 inch wide brass strip that is very nasty with mold. I had no idea that the bottom seal was taped to the shower door frame with double sided paper tape. I am amazed that it lasted this long. Of course, the tape split in half so removing the adhesive residue from the bottom of the door is going to be a chore.
Any heat generation we need is by definition a short term event.
And here is your short term shop heater. I saw a picture on facecrack Log Burner Chat group yesterday that was two beer kegs welded to each other with a six inch vent to the outside and was red hot. Aluminum melts at 1,221 F and I figure it was 1,200 F.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/670865839738021/
I already said that I like them. You don’t have to keep selling it.
Jokes aside, I’m the one who sticks with traditional gear: skillet, couple pots, stock pot, baking dish, cooking sheets, crock pot. I use a microwave for heating things up; don’t think I’ve ever cooked with one. My wife is the one who keeps picking up The New Thing. To be fair, with the senile granny in the house, it makes sense to try to get her to use an instapot [sic] or the countertop electric skittle with timer and overheat sensor, to cut down on the setting off of smoke and CO detectors and the scorching of pots. (My pots and pans. I’d bought good stuff, almost 40 years ago, and they’ve held up to the abuse. The cheap pots that my wife buys have mostly been ruined by now.)
One of the things I won was a smaller Portacool evaporative cooler for outdoor use. I won one last week too, which brings my total to three… One is none, and all that.
Oh, a swamp cooler. Many of my relatives used those back in the 1960s, even south of Houston they still worked.
I can remember being told to stop standing in front of the unit when I was a kid. The outside portion was the size of medium size fridge, and it had a garden house attached to it and poked in through a window. The fan blower was permanently set on hurricane.
Because the US government has, in collusion with the food industry, promoted an industrial food diet on the world which is both addictive and unhealthful. I blame Ancel Keyes, but there’s plenty of blame to go around to the 7th Day Adventists and the big food companies like General Mills. Not to mention the sugar companies.
Because of Ancel Keyes, and regulatory capture of the FDA by food companies, we have spent 50 years neglecting nutrition research because of the “known science” that saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet cause heart disease and early death. Which, as it turns out, is completely untrue. They tried hard, and it’s the most tested hypothesis in science, and could never be proven.
Europeans are falling into the same trap, but they are about 30 years behind.
There is no such thing as a tasty Pinto bean.
We need to get serious about pencil control in this country! Those pencils probably weren’t even registered and were probably bought at some redneck pencil show.
More and more it seems like insulin-resistance is the root of all evil.
I’m married to a Mexican woman. Take that as you might. 😉
Swamp coolers don’t work in Florida, but my mother-in-law keeps one around at her condo in Orlando.
Archer Daniels Midland, sponsored the Sunday talking head shows for decades after expanding their industrial scale corn syrup production in the 70s.
I haven’t watched one of those shows in 20+ years. I don’t know who is the big sponsor now.
The other big sponsor when we still watched the programs was Enron under Kenny Boy leading up to the 2000 election.
Why Ask Why Ask Why Ask …
Rot in hell Kenny Boy.
The children’s hospitals here in Texas were gearing up to do sex change surgeries on minors until the RINOs pushed through a ban as another social issue distraction from their property tax increase scheme last year.
A little “shoe on the other foot” mud into the water on primary day…
https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-slurs-his-way-through-incoherent-chunk-of-speech-biden-team-pounces/
“Infographic: Rounding the Peak on Carbon Emissions”
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/infographic-rounding-the-peak-on-carbon-emissions
“Annual U.S. carbon emissions are down by more than a gigaton since 2007. The next gigaton of cuts may be the hardest.”
My engineering society has sold out to the global warmers big time.
IEEE sold out to the H1B visa interests sometime in the late 90s.
I never joined ACM. The chapter at the school in Vantucky was ACM-W.
The admins claimed that the ‘W’ chapter was easier to get for our branch campus, but I think that was a load of you-know-what.
“Texas will not back down”
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1749861371074744520Go “Wheels”! LOL, a down vote from someone.
Last night’s beef stew turned out “really good”. I need to remember to drain the corn. That stuff is sweet and the stew tasted like I had added a heaping tablespoon of sugar to the pot.
Nothing from the bread machine today, either. Call me lazy.
Pinto beans? Frijoles Refritos. Mexican Mashed Potatoes, sort of.
Lots of recipes out there. Too much work. I just buy the cans at HEB. Add a splash of water or beer and a bit of jalapeño pickle juice or a few hard shakes from the Louisiana Hot Sauce.
Hey, when I was a little kid and we lived in Hawaii, I KNOW Mom could buy poi in cans. One finger, two finger, and three finger. In tin cans. Like refried beans.
When we went about 30 years ago, no such thing. You could buy plastic tubs like HEB sells pico de gallo in but it has to be refrigerated. Everyone said canned poi never existed.
Haters. Calling my five year old self a liar.
We were in Honolulu and for some reason the routine was McD’s for breakfast (Portuguese Sausage!) and the food court at the mall for lunch. I don’t know why. The food court wasn’t all that special. It was big, like the food court at the State Fair of Texas.
While the others were getting burgers and such, there was a Hawaiian food place. Oh, tastes like home! Glass noodles and poi and chicken or pork for the meat. I ate a lot. I’d get my meal and then get a second meal.
The south will rise again!
This is the sort of shite that can get out of control, and then we’ll be the Republic of Texas again…
n
I can understand the down vote. Someone thinks the Fed Gov should be in charge of the border. Well, they are suppose to be. But they ain’t doing their job. For some reason the borders of Ukraine are more important. And for some reason Texas protecting the state border from the invasion is some sort of treason.
Fine and dandy. Think that way.
Keep voting for having the border wide open. You’re gonna LOVE it when your Yankee Sanctuary Cities are flooded with illegal aliens all on welfare and the inner city blacks decide they do not want to habla Spanish. Burn it down I guess.
Probably not, but di you remember which mall? Ala Moana, or Pearl City? I lived in Hawaii for a couple of years, and we frequently went to the Pearl City mall and went to Patty’s Chinese Kitchen. GOOD Chinese (well, Americanized-chinese) food. And McD’s had a spam and rice breakfast dish…..
Ala Moana.
McD’s breakfast with a Portuguese sausage patty or slice of Spam with a scoop of rice along with the scrambled eggs was good food. Much better than what they have here with a greasy tater tot plank.
@paul:
Or worse, Arabic.
We don’t have it quite as bad, here in UK, yet. Our Border Force don’t, as far as I know, wave the incomers through, but they do rescue them from the leaky boats the smugglers use.
Of course, it’s “”catch and release”, and the immigrants (I won’t prepend ‘cr’ to that word, yet) almost never turn up for their immigration hearings.
As far as I’m concerned, humanitarian considerations require the rescue from a leaky boat, but once on UK dry land, they should be prepped for immediate return to point-of-origin, absent official paperwork. And if that leaves them £x,000 out-of-pocket. that’s their problem – they should have made proper application, first.
G.
>> I can understand the down vote. Someone thinks the Fed Gov should be in charge of the border. Well, they are suppose to be. But they ain’t doing their job. For some reason the borders of Ukraine are more important. And for some reason Texas protecting the state border from the invasion is some sort of treason.
“In charge?”… hmm, didn’t Plugs appoint the Kamel to do that? And then there’s that Mayorkas guy … what’s taking so long with his impeachment??
Ahh … time for some primary results …
Sink the ships. Board and scuttle, or torpedo, I don’t care. Rescue the survivors, and return them directly to their point of departure. Along with a bill for services rendered. If an NGO is discovered to be responsible, charge them corporately and individually with crimes, ranging from invasion to treason.
“Tucker Carlson Interviews Catturd, the Man Who Made Adam Kinzinger Cry (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/tucker-carlson-interviews-catturd-man-who-made-adam/
“In a recent episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Tucker Carlson delved into the phenomenon of an internet personality known as ‘Catturd’.”
“The show provided a rare glimpse into the life and thoughts of this mysterious online figure, known for his witty and politically charged commentary.”
“Catturd, or @catturd2, has become a significant presence on social media, attracting a large following for his critiques of “woke liberals” and his takes on current events. His interactions with high-profile figures, including Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, have only amplified his influence.”
“In 2022, Catturd posted this meme on the war in Ukraine, adding, “It’s dumb that I’m laughing way too hard at this.””
He criticized Ukraine ! Oh the shame !
“IEEE sold out to the H1B visa interests sometime in the late 90s.”
ca. 1990 one of the columns in Machine Design was by Irwin Feist (sp?). He would periodically report on the use of the H1B program to depress engineering salaries.
@Nick
“ FWIW, you’re trusting some contract programmer not to kill of maim you with a pressure explosion if there is an error in the firmware…”
Instant Pots have a mechanical pressure relief valve. I see them in Goodwill on occasion, most with food burned on the bottom of the liners. People don’t read the directions, which say to always add some liquid–meats will stick to the bottom before cooking causes the juices to release.
(Heat the liner, deglaze with some plain water, scrape and rinse, soak for a bit with Dawn, and 95% of any burned residue is gone. Get the last 5% with Barkeepers Friend. Really stubborn stuff requires gloves, eye protection and a bit of lye-based oven cleaner)
My countertop has gotten a lot more crowded over the years: toaster, Microwave, Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, Ninja Foodie Air Fryer. The Instant Pots (8 quart and 4 quart, the latter for rice) are put away on a shelf after use. The Ninja Foodie swivels up 90 degrees and is pushed to the back of the counter in front of the cutting board rack, leaving useful space in front.
I used the Ninja this evening to make a pound of frozen seasoned french fries. 18 minutes. preheat was one minutes vs. the conventional convection oven at 8-10. probably one-tenth the electricity used, also, which is a big plus in summer.
Both the Ninja and the IP have a learning curve to operate the controls.
The IP is a pressure cooker, and any recipe will need adjustment based on the local elevation (air pressure). I use an extra ¼ cup water when I make rice and it is consistent every time–stick to 1:1 and it will be too dry and burn. The IP also comes with racks to elevate food off the bottom.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2024/01/23/canadian-federal-court-turns-out-fidelito-is-a-fascist-n606939
And like our own fascists, they will never admit defeat and use the taxpayer bucks to keep the appeals going.
Note the use of one of the most popular power-mad fascist’s tools: Standing
Don’t get too excited. Abbott and the Legislature need every distraction they can find right now.
It isn’t about saving money as much as the workers not pushing back when management goes too far.
“It isn’t about saving money as much as the workers not pushing back when management goes too far.”
When those columns were written it was most certainly the money.
Thirty years later along the road to return to indentured servitude, it is about money and control.
OK, I’m losing my mind. A week or so ago, somebody posted a link to a classical music feed, from Europe, I think. I had meant to bookmark that but got distracted, and now I can’t find it.
If you posted that, can you please post it again? Thanks much!
– so much fail here.
The last time I flipped someone off in LA traffic was the last time I flipped someone off. He was drawing a pistol from under his seat and raising it to point at me when I exited the freeway and put concrete between us.
35 years ago.
George Carlin did a routine about sending mouthwash samples in the mail, and having that push someone over the edge, his point being you don’t know the other guy or what’s going on in his head already. And there is no reason to add to it.
n
Pissing down rain again.
Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same too.
We’re saturated.
n
Trumps declared winner in NH with 54.8%
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/01/23/live-results-the-last-of-the-red-hot-primaries-n606858
that’s despite:
“The majority — 53 percent — were “independent” (45 percent) or Democrat (8 percent). Only 47 percent were Republicans.”
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/23/msnbcs-steve-kornacki-explains-just-how-many-republicans-were-in-republican-primary-n2169134
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) (net worth $80 million, Phillips distilling) is running against Biden and has some observations:
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/23/watch-dem-dean-phillips-talks-about-what-he-found-when-he-visited-trump-rally-my-party-is-delusional-n2169116
apparently the project was very expensive ($200 MILLION) and features an “unlikeable” woman as lead. But she blames it on straight men…
Her latest was Priscilla, which so far has box office of $27M, and some random site had this to say…
so her last project hasn’t made any money yet, and she blames it on “dudes” . Hollywood is a specialized bank. They really don’t like losing money and will tolerate just about anything to make money. But I’m sure her inability to get 10 times her last budgets is because she’s a female…
n
Huh, power blinked.
Still raining.
n
>>Phillips is convinced Biden and the Democrats are riding for a hard fall. One indication already is the mess they have made of the New Hampshire process. Biden is likely to win in the primary, but he may well be embarrassed with the number he gets. And Biden has to get around a lot more in the general, when the Democrats may not be able to manipulate things to save him as they are trying to do in New Hampshire.
Manipulate…like printing boxes of pre-marked FJB ballots and running them through the scanners?
Nah, that’s cheating, sorta like plagerism, and they’re too honest to even think of doing that…right??
(emphasis added by me)
Manipulate…like printing boxes of pre-marked FJB ballots and running them through the scanners?
Nah, that’s cheating, sorta like plagerism, and they’re too honest to even think of doing that…right??
Wow, you have higher expectations than I do.
Yeah, I hear about people throwing away perfectly good pans, because they burned something on. Unless it is totally carbonized, just soaking overnight in soapy water will solve 90% of the problem. There are a lot of clueless dweebs out there. Of course, looking back, I was a clueless dweeb in my 20s, so…
Ya know, if I could choose the people who were then allowed to be Texans, I would be all for that. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work that way. Texas would still have both the noodle-brained Joe Sixpack as well as Karen from California.
Ken, here you go:
https://www.br-klassik.de/
You can stream it by hitting the play button at the bottom of your browser screen. If you have an internet-enabled radio, you’ll find it high in the list of German (Bavarian / Bayern) public radio channels.
Denis said:
Thanks much!