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Sunday, May 25. 2008
Jeremy beat me to the punch on making a post remarking about how hot it had been this past week.
I ran to HEB (grocery store) today and well it felt like it was the hottest it has been so far this season.
I am sure that it was more likely not the hottest day so far, but rather the fact that I was outside around 2pm and in a parking lot (that had been collecting heat all day).
Regardless of whether it was or wasn't the hottest day so far, even the breeze was hot.
Not "sort of warm", not a "mildly refreshing" breeze, but hot, sort of like a hot breath on the back of your neck.
Needless to say I got inside the store quickly and made my purchases.
I have a little bit of a cold. Speaking of which my OJ should be ready, I am going to go and drink a glass of OJ and take a nap (which might turn into tomorrow, but who knows).
Laterz
Sunday, January 20. 2008
I hope that it doesn't happen until I get back from Dallas, but the conditions are getting right.
There is a cold front that has been lingering around Austin, dropping the temperature down to the freezing mark. Just before the cold front came through we had quite a bit of rain.
They are predicting some rain and sleet for the rest to show up later in the week.
I am heading up to Dallas tonight for some customer meetings tomorrow.
I am running about an hour behind schedule, so I definitely need to cut this post short and hit the road.
Entry from Ice Storm 2007.
Laterz
Monday, November 26. 2007
And I appear to have lost my ice scraper.
I have to scrape my car windows this morning. I borrowed the wife's scraper and at the same time scraping her car.
She is on her way to sunny Florida for some customer meetings.
Yup, some place warm. She is none to happy, given that Texas feels a bit like Michigan does at the moment, which makes her very happy.
I told her that I would gladly trade with her. However, I honestly wouldn't even know where to start in doing her job, I have a vague idea.
Well, I got to work early, but not early enough to beat Jeremy into the office.
He and I have had an unofficial competition going to see who can make it into the office before the other.
Jack and Bill are driving down from Dallas for a couple of days of meetings down here in Austin.
I best get cracking.
Back to the grind.
Laterz
Thursday, August 16. 2007
The tropical kind, like the one that built up in the Gulf (of Mexico) and is hitting land near Corpus Christi (TX).
It has brought some needed rain here to central Texas.
Don't get me wrong, we have had plenty of rain this summer. But the problem is that it has been coming all at once. Combining the heat and the soil composition of much of Texas all of that water just runs off. It can't sink deep into the ground as quickly as it has been arriving.
So the occasional shower is what we need, probably at least once a week or maybe twice a week. The whole rest of the time it could be sunny and nice. Or if it just wanted to do that thing where it rains at night. All for that one. The wife loves its and well I am asleep so the gray skies don't bug me.
Anyway, Jeremy is coming into town on Sunday. So it will be interesting if the weather sticks around for his arrival (and afterwards) like it has on previous visits.
Not a lot has been going on, I was in Dallas the last couple of days.
I have a conference call in a little bit, so I just wanted to get a post up since I haven't in a while.
Back to the grind.
Laterz
Sunday, August 12. 2007
My iGoogle homepage says that is 99 out. However, it has to be even hotter out than that.
It is 77 in the kitchen right now, but that is also because Gina was using the oven earlier.
I had to run to the store to get some pasta shells so that Gina could finish making dinner. We also needed some Ice to I hit the 'Ice Shack', I don't know what else to call it. It is this little building, similar in size to those tiny espresso shacks, but without the clerk.
You walk up, insert your $1.75 for a 16 lb bag of ice. You get 20 lbs of ice if you have your own container to put it all in.
Anyway, I know this is Texas. SO not really whining, just reporting that Texas summer has come. I am pretty sure the last two days are the hottest we have had this summer.
Maybe I bitched about the rain just a little too much. I would love if it just poured for an hour right about now.
Laterz.
Friday, June 29. 2007
I park in about the same spot in the garage almost everyday. And a lot of the time, I park next to this blue Honda sedan (I think it is a Honda) that has the license plate "GLOBBY". I have often wondered what "GLOBBY" stood for.
Today, I got my answer.
"'Glow Baby', except Texas only allows six letters."
While I was getting my stuff out of the car, the owner of the blue sedan was getting her stuff out of her trunk. I seized the opportunity to quench the idle curiosity that has been smoldering in the back of my mind for about the last year or so that we have been in this office building.
Mind you I didn't ask what "Glow Baby" stood for. That I guess will smolder in the back of my mind until I run into the owner of the blue sedan again. Which, could be forever, but I'm getting ahead of the story a little bit.
After answering my question about her license plate, the lady asked me "So are you're a Spartan fan, did you go to MSU?"
I told her that I attended MSU for a little bit then came down here to Texas. She informed me that she grew up in Ann Arbor, I told her that I grew up in Lansing. She told me that I didn't have to worry about a University of Michigan rivalry, that she went to Notre Dame. To which, I of course brought out the fact that MSU had trounced Notre Dame for quite a while. We did have a pretty good winning streak there for a bit.
She has been in Texas for 8 years, oddly enough she didn't think she was going to be in the Lone Star state for this long. I remember that I originally thought I was only going to be down here for 6-12 months.
On the way into the building, we briefly chatted about the fact that Michigan has no real software industry and that neither of us have or want anything to do with the car industry.
The reason that I may never know what "Glow Baby" means, apparently whatever firm she works for (I am guessing Convio, as she got off on the 2nd floor), is moving to the Dominion office space, which has just opened up a bunch of offices. She said that they have been growing so fast that they have just filled up the office space here in the building.
It was an interesting chance meeting that satisfied some idle curiosity and at the same tame further reinforced that Michigan's greatest export is People.
Back to the grind.
Laterz
Sunday, April 1. 2007
Yard work is done. The backyard could use another go around with the weed whacker.
We had some branches and stuff on the side of the house that had been there since last year I think.
I bundled those up and put them on the curb.
Oh yeah, I think my backyard is being invaded. By a non-indigenous (to Cedar Park) vine weed.
In all the years that I have lived here, this is the first time that I have seen it.
Now, over the last six months or so we have had a massive influx of birds. The vines were at their thickest underneath the trees. I am thinking that these new bird brought along with them the invader.
It kind of reminds me of 'Duck Weed' except it has little burr like balls on it (the seeds I am sure). At least they aren't prickly, hate the prickly ones (prickers).
I will see if I can figure out what they are, might have to tap the family horticulturist (my pops) to find out.
So rather than mulch those up and make even more weeds, I pulled them. I would rather have a backyard full of dandelions than have this stuff all over the place. Notably it was covering at least 50% of the yard. I got a lot of it up by hand, but then I had to pull out the rake when I realized how much more of it there was left to get.
I filled three 30-gallon contractor bags (probably about 25-gallons full) with those weeds and this other weed that reminds me of what as a kid I called "Wild Carrots" it has a slight carrot smell to it. However, it too produces burrs, not prickers, just burrs.
Anyway, I am going to find a bottle of Advil and crawl into it.
Laterz
Sunday, April 1. 2007
Spring arrived in Texas about three weeks ago I think.
Our winter was fairly mild, a couple of days and nights where the temperature made me think I was back in Michigan.
But about three weeks ago or so the rain really started.
During the winter we get the sporadic shower. But for the last three weeks we have had what I would call a fairly regular dousing. Rain that would mist, then drop a bunch of rain, then mist again.
Alternate a couple of days of rain with a full day of the Tejas sun and the plants decide it is time to start growing.
Over the course of the winter the front lawn was mowed possibly three times. The backyard, maybe once.
Now, I have had to mow the front yard twice in three weeks (about to go out and do it a third time). The backyard is starting to become the safari height that Curly loves. (Mind you safari height for Curly might be just below calf height of your average human).
We just got back from the new Super-HEB that is up near 2243 and 183 in Leander.
Very cool place, just like Meijers, minus a few things here and there. But very close to being Meijers. Gina loved it because they had a vast selection of beef organs. (For the dogs.)
In case you didn't know this. We feed our dogs raw meat (sometimes there are bones in there that they eat too). And since you don't want them developing allergies by feeding them a single protein source. Emma for instance has developed a food allergy to Chicken and Turkey. We have been feeding the dogs chicken necks for quite a while. And I like to feed them the ground turkey, because it is easy and you can get it for a decent price, plus if I want a turkey burger there is usually enough left over after feeding them for me to have one.
So, Gina bought some Beef kidney, a beef heart, some sliced beef liver, chicken hearts (not for emma) and some beef finger tip ribs.
Yesterday we stopped by one of Gina's favorite places in Texas, Tail Waggins . It is up in Georgetown, TX not too far from the Georgetown Animal Control (where Gina worked before NetworkIP.)
They had called Gina to let her know that the "Duck Necks" had arrived. Duck necks, from Long Island, NY. A 40 lb box of duck necks, vs the usual 40 lb box of chicken necks she would get (duck instead of chicken, for Emma).
In case any of you are worried none of our dogs eat the wet pet food that has been recalled recently. The nice folks at Tail Waggins have printouts of all the recalled foods, so that anyone wanting more information while there in the store can find out if their animal is at risk.
However, Tail Waggins DOESN'T sell any of the recalled food. They only sell the high-end premium lines like Innova, Wellness, Nature's Variety. And with that, they try to educate pet owners on feeding raw food, rather than a prepared kibble or canned food.
We did get some samples of a couple of different foods for Peanut as she has refused thus far to eat anything except the Eukanuba Small-Breed Puppy food. It isn't on the list of foods that have been recalled, but everyone close to the animal world believes that the ball isn't finished bouncing on the recalls yet.
Needless to say Tail Waggins is having a good month, given that everything they sell is high-end and made almost entirely from meat (couple of them include oats and rice, but I believe most of them are wheat free, given that many animals have wheat allergies).
Anyway, it looks like my PC is finished transferring the music to my Rio. Time to go and mow the lawn.
Laterz
Sunday, July 16. 2006
I brought with me a small bag of Mesquite chips with me on vacation. This meant just one thing, smoking bbq.
The plan was to use my father-in-law's big charcoal grill, build the fire to one side and put the meat on the other, add mesquite once in a while for flavor and serve it all with some Rudy's BBQ sauce.
The plan went pretty well, all except for the brisket. Before we left I had thought about buying a brisket and putting it on some dry ice for the drive up. However, we didn't have the space. Well, the only brisket cut I could find @ Meijer was a corned beef brisket. I should have just left it there, it tasted like smoked corn beef. But we threw a little Rudy's on it and it was edible.
I started the fire about 7:30, originally I had planned for 6:30am. The menu consisted of the following.
Corned Beef Brisket
I put together a rub made from salt, black pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin. I put the rub on it and let it sit overnight. Smoked it for about 4.5 hours then wrapped it in tin foil. Total cooking time was around 11 hours.
Pulled Pork (Pork Shoulder aka Boston Butt)
I brined it overnight, which means it marinated in a salt water mixture with some additional spices. I then smoked it for about 2.5 hours, at which point I wrapped it in tin foil and set it to the side to finish cooking. Total cooking time was about 5.5 hours.
Beer Can Chicken sans the Can
I normally marinate my chicken in Pabst Blue Ribbon, but this time around it was Michelob Lite. We had thighs and chicken breasts, I marinated them overnight as well. They smoked for about an hour, and then I wrapped them in tin foil. Total cooking time was about 4 hours.
Spare & Baby Back Ribs
I brined these in a similar mixture to the pork shoulder. I then applied a rub that was made of salt, garlic powder, sugar, and black pepper. They smoked for about 1.5 hours then into the tin foil. Total cooking time was about 3 hours.
Sausage
I wasn't able to find any sausage that could hold a flame to Meyer's so I did some bratworst. They cooked for about 45 minutes.
My thoughts on how it all turned out... (Scale 1 - 10)
Brisket: 4
Chicken: 9 (PBR has better flavor)
Suasage: 8
Ribs: 8.5 (little salty)
Pulled Pork: 9.5 (best one yet)
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I made some coleslaw. A few years back I had bought a book on bbq for Gina's dad. It had a recipe for coleslaw in it, the coleslaw is basically the same as the one @ Salt Lick. The first batch was good, but I used a little too much olive oil. The second batch was excellent, used about 1/2 the oil. Oh yeah, the coleslaw doesn't use mayo, just olive oil and white vinegar with spices.
Here are some pictures from the BBQ.
  
Friday, July 14. 2006
So we took off this morning in a bit of a rush, course it was about 11am eastern when we left.
I think I left my sunglasses (that clip onto my regular glasses) @ Gina's parents. Guess I will have to get them @ X-mas.
So this is what we drove this morning. We made reservations @ LaQuinta in Springfield, Mo. My original calculations had us rolling into Springfield around midnight. However, I hadn't adjusted for the time change, the avg speed, correcting for wind, etc, etc.
We rolled into the LaQuinta around like 10:15 central, ie 11:15 eastern, so I was only about 45 minutes off.
So this is the route we took this morning...
This is what the route this morning will look like...
Gina is sleeping right now. I think I should probably get ready for bed myself, have to try to get an early start.
Approx 619 miles left to go. Figure we can try to keep 65mph avg, that means 9.5 hours, round up to 10 hours for gas stops and stuff.
So if we can be on the road by like 9am that would put us into austin around 7, 8am means 6, 10am means 8pm, etc, etc, and so on.
The car has been running good, I will post the story behind this later on. Freaking grease monkeys @ Fast Eddies, all I can say for now.
Also, I managed to finish the Synthetic Worlds & Warcraft book. I haven't picked up The World is Flat, nor have I written my first chapter. So only 3/5 vacation tasks completed...
1. Read Synthetic Worlds
2. Read Wacraft Book, Cycle of Hatred
3. Got drunk and relaxed on the beach or end of dock.
I still have some time on Saturday & Sunday to write the first chapter.
Course that will fall behind the mowing of the lawn. I might have to hire a guide to help me tame the backyard, I didn't get a chance to mow it before we left.
ok, i'm really going to sleep now.
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