I just got done sending the picture I just posted of Sheri to the Wal-Mart website. I will be able to pick up a 4" x 6" print at our local store in a day or two for only $0.20. I will let you know how the quality is.

They also offer:

5 x 7 for $0.96
8 x 10 for $2.76

I think I can also send prints to more than one store, so you might get an e-mail from me one day telling you to go to your local Wal-Mart to pick up a print!

I took this picture tonight while we were at a friend's house tonight for dinner. She cooked us a really good butternut squash soup and we watched "The Incredibles". A nice evening.

[click for larger image]

Thanksgiving in Grand Rapids, MI at Tim and Lisa's.

I have been to 11 countries.

I have been to 21 states!

We are going to go to Wal-Mart tonight to buy A Christmas Story and then go to dinner at Golden Corral. I can do pretty good there, diabetic-control-wise, if I stick to just the salad bar side of the restaurant.

On Sunday I made 3.5 pounds of bread dough, let it rise twice, and then formed them into a dozen 4.6 ounce rolls (quarter pounders!), and stuck them in the freezer.

On Thanksgiving Day all I will have to do is remove them from the freezer and place on a cookie sheet to thaw and rise. I think that should only take about two hours, and then bake them for 15 minutes or so, and voila, my famous fresh bread.

I normally don't add sugar to my bread, but since my little yeasticles will be cold during their final rise, I added two tablespoons to give them a little life.

I had about three ounces of dough left over, so I made a roll and baked it in our toaster oven. Turned out great. I haven't made my hard rolls since I became diabetic. I haven't lost my touch if I do say so myself. Even in the toaster oven it was very good. Crunchy crust. Chewy center. Of course I used King Arthur flour. My favorite.

I don't really use a recipe. I put three cups of COLD water in my Kitchen Aid mixer, 1 tablespoon of yeast, and 1.5 tablespoons of kosher salt. I then turn on the mixer with the mixing paddle and start adding flour until it gets too stiff to mix. This takes about 6 cups worth.

I then take out the paddle and insert the dough hook. I start it up and keep adding flour until it looks right and the dough "walks" around the bowl. That's it! I will let it rise a couple of times and then form it into loaves, rolls, pizza dough, etc.

Using cold-water means it takes much longer to rise, but the taste, texture, and crust is much much better. Very similar to sour dough but without the sourness.

How cool! I want one in my neighborhood.

I like burning real cord wood in our fireplace, but for whatever reason I have not had any delivered since we have moved to Chicago. We normally just keep some artificial logs on hand for when we want a fire. They are very convenient. On a cold night we can have a fire going on a moments notice.

For the Ohio State vs. Michigan game today I wanted a fire but we are out of artificial logs, so while I was running a couple pre-game errands I stopped by Menard’s to pick up a case.

The 6 pound logs are about $2 a piece, which makes a 48 pound case of 8 logs $16.

Right next to the artificial logs they had the wood pellets for the wood pellet burning stoves. A 40 pound bag of pellets was only $3.50!

All the way home I was thinking about this price discrepancy. I got to thinking about burning the pellets in a regular fireplace and how to do it. After a while I did some Google searches and found an insert designed to let you burn pellets in a regular fireplace. No modifications or installation was needed either. The only problem is that it costs $250!

I was doing some more thinking and decided I could make the same thing. At half time I ran back to the store and bought that bag of wood pellets and a 3' x 5' roll of 23 gauge ¼” steel mesh.

I cut a square piece of mesh about three feet on each side, and then folded it in half. I formed it into a flat bottomed trough and then set it right on the fireplace grate.

I dumped two coffee cans worth of pellets into the trough and it is burning great!

I will let you know if it is a viable option to artificial logs, but so far it seems like a winner.

I have to get back to the game. There are 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter and Ohio State is ahead 34 to 21! The Buckeyes were 5 point under dogs going into the game.

I was looking over our financial and tax records this morning, and just for fun I plotted both of our annual incomes since 1991. Over this 12 year period Sheri has averaged about a 20% raise per year, and I have averaged about a 15% raise per year.

What the?

Everything was going just fine until picture number four.

I was taken out to lunch today to a place called La Zaza Trattoria. It was recommended that I have the whitefish that came in a light lemon sauce with capers, and a side of fire roasted spinach.

Both were excellent, but I was especially impressed with the fire roasted spinach. It has a slight smoky taste and I could see a few charred spots here and there. Each individual leaf still had texture, but it was definitely not crunchy. It was flavored with garlic, salt, and olive oil and/or butter from what I could tell.

I was so impressed I asked the waiter how they prepare it. They must get asked a lot because he said it was a Zaza's secret. I asked him again later and he still wouldn't say.

OK, not a big deal. I will just do a Google search and find 1,000 recipes. The search "fire roasted spinach" returns exactly two results, and both from the same web site; and they are not recipes.

I think I will buy some fresh spinach and give it a try.

I think if I just put fresh dry spinach on the grill it would dry up and burn.

I think I will try soaking the leaves in ice water for a while and then tossing them on a hot grill. I think I will also try tossing the leaves in olive oil first and then grilling.

I will add garlic, salt, and seasoning, etc. after I remove it from the grill.

If anyone nearby wants to try it and see if they can come up with a recipe, the address is:

La Zaza Trattoria
5 South First Street
St Charles, IL 60174

The first right answer gets an antique reproduction postcard!

Chicago gets 90% of its precipitation from what body of water?

Greta came in late yesterday afternoon for a visit. Her and Sheri went and picked up a Lou Malnati's mushroom and pepperoni pizza and the movie The Stepford Wives. We ate pizza, watched the movie, and went to bed. The movie was decent. Clever, but not the best movie of the year. Overall I would say go ahead and rent it.

The two of them just took off a little bit ago for shopping, shopping, and maybe a little more shopping.

My list for the day is:

• Go to the store to buy milk to make yogurt
• Make yogurt
• Clean the aquarium
• Update router software (just did that)
• Storm window on front door
• Engage built-in storm windows on upstairs windows
• Pay some bills and go through mail

Yesterday I applied the fifth and final application of lawn fertilizer for the year. I got the fertilizer at Menard's, and I was reading the information on the back of the bag and it sounds like this company only supplies fertilizer to Menard's and to commercial operations like golf courses and parks. I don't know if that is a selling point or not, but I guess I will see how things look in the spring.

The first step in getting my contract approved at the county will be this Friday (11/19) at the Transportation Committee meeting. If that goes well it will be presented at the County Board meeting in early December. Everything looks like a go, but keep your fingers crossed just in case.

Latest flu activity map. Keep washing those hands!

Do you think when Claudia Schiffer was growing up other kids called her "Schiffer brains"?

i crack myself up sometimes

These pictures suck; I could draw pictures much better.

I am better than your kids.

This is a direct result of the huge fines the FCC imposed on the Janet Jackson Super Bowl hubbub. I am sure the cable industry is licking their chops in this dumbing down of American broadcast television.

Many ABC affiliates around the country have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission. [full story]

Cool! 100 pictures that define this hour. 10 x 10

Another recognition award for Sheri at work!

You have been recognized as a Leader. If your manager was not copied on this e-mail, please forward to him/her.

Recognition Date: 11/09/2004

Recognized By: Janet Xxxxxx

Improved a customer/client/associate experience by:
Sheri consistently provides excellent service. She has responded to a number of my Unix problems from rebooting servers to investigating network problems. It is a true comfort when I hear that Sheri will be handling my issue because I know I'll be getting:

- a technical expert
- extremely responsive service
- and very courteous follow-up.

She's a true asset to the Bank and a living example of Higher Standards.

I think I am going to give this a try this weekend.

I actually wrote this to post Sunday, but the blogger website was having problems.

I made an awesome batch of homemade yogurt Friday night. I let it incubate for about 11 hours, so it has a nice strong sour taste. Sheri is going to use some of it tonight to make her famous spinach pies. Mmmm…..

They say if you are lactose intolerant or eat yogurt because of the active yogurt culture, it is better to eat homemade yogurt rather than store-bought. Store-bought is probably only incubated about four hours, so the culture does not have as much time to convert the lactose. Directly related to this, the longer you let it incubate, the more culture the yogurt will contain.

I did a lot of yard work today. Raked leaves to the curb. Cut the grass. Emptied the potting soil from the disposable hanging pots that had annuals and through them away. Wound up hoses, took in sprinklers, nozzles, stuff like that. I also topped off the tire pressure on both of the cars.

Sheri went to get her haircut while I was doing that. She brought back a skewer of lamb kabob from a middle eastern place near her stylists. Mmmm…. I think I like lamb better than beef. Her hair looks cute. She got it cut short to give her hair more fullness.

After I clean up we are going to watch one of the movies that we have in (The Hunting Of The President, or Johnson Family Vacation) and then later in the evening watch the new episode of The Simpsons.

I thought I would have a fun little contest to see who loves me the most! The first one to buy me this camera wins!

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission [over New Jersey] strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds of ammunition... [full story]

insert joke here about new passionate conservatism

"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." – George W. Bush

I think he just spent about half of it making a hubris-filled statement like that.

Listening to Situation by Yaz brings back incredibly good memories of drinking cold cheap beer from a 2.5 gallon bucket with friends in a loud, dark, smoky college bar.

This is how our biggest allies, the Brits, feel about things.

I can't wait for these to be released next year!

I have the Rush Limbaugh Show on my radio at work, and he is playing Kerry's concession speech. Instead of just letting Kerry have his final 10 minutes with a little dignity, Rush is inserting little jabs and making fun of him throughout the speech. Classy.

I kind of half feel like making witty comments about how Bush is going to continue screwing with our civil rights, economy, etc., but the other half of me is just plain weary of the chase. Besides, if over half the population thinks he is the best thing for the country, maybe I am just missing something. I will get behind him, but at the same time continue to keep an ever vigilant eye on everything his administration does.

God bless America.

If it's any consolation, just remember that wise old cowboy saying: "You should not change horses mid-apocalypse."

I'm going to bed.

It looks weird, but I wish the networks would have used a proportional map based on electoral votes when displaying which state each candidate won. If I had been on the ball I would have made one myself and updated it through out the night. This map is just a hypothetical one done by someone before the election. I couldn't find one with current results.

First Batch of Exit Polls!

	AZ	CO	LA	MI	WI	PA	OH	FL	MI	NM	MN	WI	IA	NH
Kerry	45	48	42	51	52	60	52	51	51	50	58	52	49	57
Bush	55	51	57	48	48	40	48	48	47	48	40	43	49	41
				3	4	20	4	3	4	2	18	9		16

If Kerry is ahead, the last row is how many points ahead he is for a state.

Update on the Philedelphia voting machines:

It seems the machines have counters in the back of them that don't count the number of votes but how many times the voting machines have been used in an election. So there is no voter fraud in Philadelphia.

I think the previous Philadelphia story was a false alarm.

Arggggg!!!!!

Before voting even began in Philadelphia -- poll watchers found nearly 2000 votes already planted on machines scattered throughout the city.

One incident occurred at the SALVATION ARMY, 2601 N. 11th St., Philadelphia, Pa: Ward 37, division 8... pollwatchers uncovered 4 machines with planted votes; one with over 200 and one with nearly 500.

A second location, 1901 W. Girard Ave., Berean Institute, Philadelphia, Pa, had 300+ votes already on 2 machines at start of day.

INCIDENT: 292 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 7/7: ADDRESS: 122 W. Erie Ave., Roberto Clemente School, Philadelphia, PA

INCIDENT: 456 votes on machine at start of day; WARD/DIVISION: 12/3; ADDRESS: 5657 Chew Ave., storefront, Philadelphia, PA.

A gun was purposely made visible to scare poll watchers at Ward 30, division 11, at 905 S. 20th St., Grand Court. Police were called and surrounded the location.

In Chicago the rule is "Vote early. Vote often."