Observation

What does it say when I find an article about exercise that sounds good to me -- and it's on a Senior Living web site?

Late Night

My daughter was lying on her bed with the sheet covering her face. She was overwhelmed by the requirements for a two page paper for her English analysis class. I did what I've done before -- sat down, talked quietly, asked questions. She's writing it now. But before she started she said that this was something I've done many times befoe. What was she going to do when she was in college?

I didn't have an answer for that.

HP

Apparently, HP has laid off some mainframe people again. No reason given. Implicit: Because we can.

My assumption is, they want to get rid of the mainframe business while keeping the customers, and they'll keep cutting staff until the customers vigorously complain. And possibly not even then.

Sausaged

This is the recipe we used for the sausage. We chilled the whole thing over night and then made some 3 ounce patties this morning. We liked it. It does not taste like a regular pork sausage, but it does taste like sausage that we've bought from a butcher. Next time, we might back off on the red pepper a skosh. Also, we'll likely drop down to 2.5 ounces. I like the larger ones, but my wife prefers something a little smaller. And heck, I can always eat two!

Sausages

1 pounds ground turkey breast ................. 1 medium apple, peeled, cored, finely shredded
2 cups cooked brown rice ................. 2 tablespoons shredded onions
2 cloves garlic, minced ................. 1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage
1 teaspoon salt ................. 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper ................. 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice ................. snipped, fresh parsley - optional

1. In a large bowl, stir together turkey, apples, rice, onions, and garlic.
2. In a small bowl, stir together sage, salt, red and black peppers, thyme, and allspice.
3. Sprinkle the spices over the turkey mixture.
4. With your hands, mix until well blended.
5. Shape into 8 patties.
6. Spray unheated large skillet with non-stick spray.
7. Add the patties and cook over medium heat for four minutes.
8. Turn the patties over and cook about four more minutes, or until they are no longer pink.
9. Sprinkle with parsley, if desired.


From Healthy Homestyle Cooking, Evelyn Tribole

Cooking

Hunting for a recipe in one of our cookbooks, I came across one for 'home style sausage', using ground turkey as the basis. The ingredients sound pretty good -- onion, apple, brown rice, spices - so we got the stuff and mixed it up. Tomorrow, we're either going to be staring at each other across the breakfast table in disbelief.... or we're going to be staring at each other across the breakfast table in disbelief.

I'm hoping its the first.

TGV? Non, TMV

I just read an interesting article from the Washington Monthly about high speed rail, and about rail alternatives. It made the point that getting high-speed -- on the order of the TGV -- operational in the United States will be very difficult, perhaps impossible. A major consideration is cost; we're a big country, and even covering one part of it will be challenging. TGV-speed rail needs to be able to build straight rail lines that extend for quite some distance, and that's difficult to find anywhere but out west, where the number of potential clients is small. Connecting, say, Denver and San Francisco, or Salt Lake City, would be good, but where else? And then, of course, there is the cost: not only literal,which would be moon-shot-level, but political: many politicians want to be seen as stern on cost, and its an easy call for them to be against paying for something that won't be of benefit for twenty years, when many of them will be retired or just getting out of jail.

But, the article said, that does not mean that high-speed rail is a lost cost in the US. It's possible to improve the short-haul infrastructure, along the lines of the BosWash corridor. If the train goes faster than what's there now, even if not at TGV speeds, and is more convenient than flying or driving (the classic 'downtown to downtown' linkage that's apparently the norm for trains between European cities), it becomes more viable for inter-city commuting. Even moderately long distances, such as New York to Chicago, become possible. Call it the TMV. Train Moyenne Vitesse. Medium Speed Train. Not as sexy a name, but perhaps more practical. It would still be expensive to create, but the payback would be quicker, and, crossing fewer political boundaries, less likely to be opposed on purely political grounds.

I just wonder if anyone's willing to spend the political capital to get something that won't directly and immediately benefit them. I can think of only one President - in recent times - who's had that kind of guts.

Planning

I showed my daughter an article about senior military colleges (senior? No idea why) such as the one that she wants to attend. The article itself was very brief, listing what the existing ones were, and a short squib about them, but the meat was the comments afterward. About a third were by people who strongly felt for or against the idea; some of them had actually gone to such schools, while the others wouldn't consider it. (And not always for the reasons one might expect). The remaining two thirds made thoughtful and useful comments either in support of going or in support of not going; a couple said what I'd told her - that military colleges aren't at all like the actual military. A couple of them said what she'd said -- that a school like those provides structure, whereas most colleges, whether they're straight-out civilian or partially military, do not. We've known for a while that she does better with structure, which is to say, better when the expectations and standards are clearly stated.

For the first time, she's seriously evaluating whether this is actually what she wants to do, and whether that college is the place to do it. (She's been accepted to a second school, one which also has a Corps of Cadets, but which incorporates the Corps in a much larger civilian student body. The primary college is much smaller, and is almost entirely Corps of Cadets.) I'm glad to see her doing this. Whether she decides to press on with her first choice, try for the other one, or do something else entirely, she will have thought about what she's doing, and why. And that's a good thing.

...and I will again.

Found here.

Design/Build - Yeah,Right

I mentioned awhile back that my idea of doing an upgrade to the house is putting a cardboard box in the hall closet to serve as a receptacle for gloves and the like. Hey, it's got a slat down the middle, whattya want?

Actually, my thoughts about upgrades go much further than that. One of my daydreams is to put a room over the garage and open our existing bedroom into that, moving the bedroom function into the new room and turning the existing bedroom into a combination storage area -- classy storage area -- and elevator point. Thinking ahead to when we're old ( my mother lived with us for years, and towards the end just could not climb the stairs any more). I know that doing all of this will be expensive, and I half-expect that even so, when it's done - if it's done - it won't be as good as I'd want it to be. Classy and sleek. Expensive, yes, but worth it. That's not what you tend to find from builders around here. And the few that can do it are pretty rigid in their thinking, too, and more expensive than I think they're worth. Champagne taste.... well, not quite. But not not, either. I'm probably fortunate that Because We Can works on the other side of the continent.

Oh, and an enclosed pool area would be nice, too.

Captured

A couple of sites that I really like have started using captcha. Don't know how -- perhaps Blogger uses it as a default now. I hate it. I find those things really hard to do. Other sites, I just say the hell with it and go elsewhere. These sites -- well, I'm willing to make the effort, but I don't like it!

Who, Us?

Found at Noise to Signal, here.

Droning

Apparently, it will soon be legal for people to fly their own little drones right over your house, for whatever purpose they desire. Real estate appraisal? You bet. Checking for use of heat lamps to grow pot? No problem. Checking out who likes to sunbathe nude? Loop back there again, Gordo.

How long until DIY surface to air missiles are available?

Ce n'est pas un post

I learned today that this post, ostensibly by a woman who was getting back at a boorish boss, was a prank by the site that displayed it. Apparently, the people who own the site are known for this kind of thing. They derive hilarity from getting people to believe them. Put up something real-looking, then laugh at the rubes who took them seriously?

I used to like that site. And I probably will continue to read it. But now I think:

Assholes.

airChix

I'm not a pilot, but anything that encourages the idea of women's ability is okay by me.

Police

I'm not a great fan of police procedurals, but I really liked this article by a member of London's Metropolitan Police. It's nicely done.

Talented Wood

Waking Up

When I awoke this morning, this phrase was in my mind:

Sherlock Holmes and his two sons, Lincroft and Michaael.

?

Pi

No, dummah, his father replied, Pie R Round -- you're coming home!

Kinected

I know, ads make it look way better than reality can ever deliver. Still.....

Renovation

This is how much we're into home renovation, and why I am so in awe of people like Caroline Anne who, I believe, has entirely rebuilt his house and is now rebuilding the rebuilt.

My daughter is eighteen. Before she was born - years before - we decided that the shelf in the hall closet wasn't working well, because things were getting jumbled together. So, as an interim solution, I took a cardboard box, taped a flap down the middle to create his and hers zones, and stuck in in the middle of the shelf. Gloves and hats inside, scarves and bulky gloves on top. And space on either side for all the other stuff that we have, though we're not exactly sure why.

The box is still there. Someday, we'll upgrade it. But only when it's provably needed. After all --

It still works.